Story: Predictable in the way that a good human story is predictable. Unfortunately, this was an alien story, so you kind of wanted things to be a little more…alien. The humanoids were odd, but still more human than not. Hard to believe the sentiments of characters like the manager Selfridge, who thought of them as blue monkeys, especially in what is ostensibly a “future of humankind” setting.

Acting: Outstanding. Thanks to the effects, the acting came through on the avatars, allowing for much more effective emoting than in past effects movies. It was understated in many of the supporting characters, but it was very compelling in the main characters. Giovanni Ribisi’s character Selfridge and many of the military characters were totally one-dimensional, but that suited the tone of the movie well enough to fit the story, rather than to distract from it.

Casting: I’m still not convinced that Worthington is A-list material, but the cast was good, and the characters seemed realistic. In particular, I liked the characterization of Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch. The man had obviously had some of his soul ripped away by the harshness of Pandora, and it left him mean. MEAN. It made him an excellent villain to counterpoint an otherwise understated protagonist in Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully.

Direction/Art/Effects: Incredible, but enough to call a movie revolutionary? No. Nor were they in my opinion ground-breaking. The effects of the Avatars were the only really compelling new effects, in that they simply overlaid alien appearances over the actors’ live performances, instead of trying to mimic them with animation. The 3-D aspect of the movie was, in my opinion, completely over-hyped. I would have enjoyed this movie much more, without the distraction of 3-D glasses, occasional out-of-focus effects that wore on my otherwise perfect vision, and dust motes behind which the story was actually happening. Perhaps I will re-watch it in the theater in standard 2D, just to compare. I believe my suspicions will be upheld.

Cameron has delivered a solid action picture with a contrived romantic undertone, and a strongly delivered dislike for corporation-driven exploitation and colonialism. I for one would have found it much more realistic if Jake had fallen in love with the planet but had ultimately been rejected by it and by Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri, as he was an obvious outsider, even when in a pseudo-na’vi body.

The story was, as I said at the beginning, predictable, in the way that good human behavior is predictable. However, the overt corporate exploitation seems out of place in a future where, one would assume, such things have been governed away. Perhaps that is just my own naiveté regarding the progress of humanity. I also was continually distracted by behavior from the na’vi that was all too human. They should have been more inscrutable, and their goals, desires, and motivations more obscure. I suppose that would have added an extra hour while dimwit Jake fumbled through his learning of na’vi ways, though.

Okay, final word: great movie. It kept me in a grin the way that Jurassic Park did when it first showed us what realistic dinosaurs might look like, just before they ate you. It was a wonder land that kept me smiling for hours. Cameron’s vision was my dreamscape, and I reveled in it. Star Wars-ian? Perhaps. Do I want five more blurry 3-D movies about the na’vi? Probably not. Overall, I have to say that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is still more of a cinematic achievement, even without an original story.

Edit: UPDATE: Cameron is all set to deliver sequels to this movie…I better save those 3D glasses. I paid five bucks for ‘em!

This booth is made from readily available materials. You should be able to buy the metal corner pieces and bungees at a local swap meet. The rest should be available at any local hardware and lumber store.

THE EQUIPMENT

• 4 closet poles 7 foot long, for uprights
  (Standard closet pole is 1½ inch diameter. I do not recommend using anything smaller.)
• 3 closet poles 9′ 9″ or 11’9″ (for 12′ width) for cross-beams
• 4 closet poles 5′ 5″ or 6′ 5″ (for 12′ depth) for arches
  
• 4 metal corner pieces
• 2 metal roof arch pieces
  
• 1 blue tarp (preferrably heavy duty type with a silver coat on interior and reinforced corners) 10′x10′ or 12′x12′ (alternately, you can get a rectangle with an additional 5-10′ of length, to make a water-shedding back wall, but you will definitely need to buy an additional 10′x10′ or 10′x12′ tarp to hide it from the public.
• 1 canvas drop cloth, no grommets required. 8 or 10 oz. canvas minimum. You can treat yourself with UV/water sealant, if you like. Try to get one at least the same size as your blue tarp. Preferrably get one that is one foot larger on both dimensions.
  
• 50′ sisal rope
  
• ball of twine
• 4-8 ten inch landscaping spikes (shown here with a standard tent spike, for size reference)
• 4-8 1½ inch washers with ½ inch inside diameter, for landscaping spikes
  
• A BUNCH of ball-capture bungees (like, 30 or more).
  

THE PROCEDURE

1. Taper ends of all closet poles, using sandpaper, wood plane, belt sander, palm sander…whatever you have and can use. Only one end of the 7′ poles needs to be tapered. The other end will rest on the ground, and should be left unaltered.
   When done, you want the ends to look something like this:
   
2. Connect the roof frame together. Be sure to make the three long parallel poles from the 9’9″ (11’9″) poles, and the four arch beams from the 5’5″ (6’5″). The four remaining 7′ poles are your uprights, or legs. Be sure to screw in the wing screws nice and tight (most come with eye screws now, which make nice places to hang things from…). When you’re done, it should be resting on the ground, and look something like this:
   
3. Attach the tarp. If you got a good heavy duty type, put the silver side down (if both sides are silver, then do what pleases you). You can attach them like this:
   
   …or wrap the poles double to make it tighter (pays off when it rains).If you have a rectangle, be sure to dangle the excess off of the side you will make into your back wall. When you’re done, it should look like this:
   
4. Cover the tarp with canvas drop cloth. Let a bit hang from front and rear — and sides, if possible. Using 3-4 foot lengths of sisal rope, securely wrap and tie the corners of the tarp to the metal corner pieces, wrapping any excess rope downward along bottom part of metal corner. Use twine to secure ends of sisal rope by whipping. To see whipping procedure, click here. If you’re just not handy with twine, you can tape the rope (any tape) about an inch from the end, dip your rope ends into Elmer’s glue or melted hot glue, and let them dry overnight…I’d do this before you hit the festival grounds, though, or you’ll be working all day around gooey glue covered rope ends. Remove the tape when your glue is dry. Viola!
   
5. At this point, you need to raise the roof on one side, and insert two legs into that side (remember, the upright poles need to be tapered too, but only at one end).
6. Then raise the other side, and insert the last two legs. Your roof will be upright, but somewhat unstable as-is, and should look something like this:
   
7. At this point, you can easily stabilize this shape, by running about 9′ of rope from each upright corner down to the ground about 18-24 inches from the corner pole’s foot. Drive a landscaping spike into the ground like a big tent stake and tie that baby off. If you don’t know how to tie a non-slip knot, buy a Bluejacket’s Manual at an Army-Navy Surplus. Every knot you’ll ever need is in there, plus a few you’ll never need. It’d be a good idea to put up a back wall, too, especially if your roof tarp was really long, to hide it and provide a stash spot behind the wall for things like coolers. Your finished booth should look something like this:
   

You should be able to figure out how to hang walls, etc. on your own from here. I’d recommend buying enough tarps to make four walls, just for security’s sake, but this should still be very close to my $200 mark. Most of all: enjoy!

If you don’t mind spending a bit more, I found a kit online that has the corners, bungees, and a tarp. You only have to buy canvas, poles, and tie-down hardware after that. They have a bunch of sizes and start at 10′x10′ for about $55 plus S/H. Click on the kit below to be whisked away to their website:

I’m not really known for being a very sentimental guy. If anything, I probably come off as a bit remote, to most people. Opening up about how I feel about something isnt’ really my cup of tea.

The news of the passing of Gary Gygax hit me HARD. It took some time for me to sort out these feelings. I couldn’t figure out why the hell the death of some old gaming dude was bothering me so much. I mean, he’s only half of the duo responsible for Dungeons and Dragons, anyways, right?

That may be true, but he was certainly the only half that anyone ever heard about. Without reading the news articles today, I doubt most gamers, even hardcore long-term gamers like myself, could name the other half (it’s Dave Arneson, in case you wondered).

And after some careful consideration over my perplexing emotional state, this is what I have concluded:

1. I am a ninny.
2. My earliest and fondest memories are of playing D&D, and role-playing games, most notably D&D, have been a fundamental element of my life.

I care more about this silly game than I do almost anything else (except the wife and kids…). Even when I was at my deepest depressions, or my sickest mania, I have always had time and patience for gaming.

I started playing D&D almost as it was being marketed for the first time (as D&D…I never played Chainmail). Hell, I played from the very first editions, and have played every version in between, and have bought the core books so many times over I can’t count them all. Even the ones that sucked (read: Skills and Powers).

Through it all, I have never lost sight of the fact that the root of all current popular role-playing gaming can be distilled down to the work of one E. Gary Gygax (and that other guy). Sure, there were a lot of table-top war games that contributed to the RPG industry. None have ever had or continue to have the powerful impact and immense following that D&D have, though. And nobody has been considered more the voice of gaming than one Ernest Gary Gygax. None of you (damn) kids would ever be playing Warcraft, or even Doom, for that matter, had it not been for the explosive popularity of role playing games like D&D (and you kids keep off my lawn).

But I never met him. Never shook his hand, or got to thank him personally. Never even got an autograph. So why is his death so directly affecting me? Because it’s the death of a symbol. In my life, there have been precious few symbols that stand the test of time. My parents gave me nothing to hang from, in that regard, except perhaps a disregard for parent-child relationships. My time served in the United States Navy gave me many things, but nothing with the lasting power of a symbol. Aren’t I a true patriot? Certainly, but not a flag-waving zealot, to be sure. My current life is wonderful, too, and filled with pleasures that only my own hard work and perserverance have afforded me. I’m blessed to be able to share it with a wonderful woman, and look forward to passing on my good fortune to my children. But I see nothing in any of these things that carries the power of a symbol, not this symbol. Not for me, at least.

This. This…stupid, silly book:

That, to me, is a SYMBOL. A symbol with the subtitle, “by Gary Gygax.”

It’s a symbol of the eternality of the child that lives behind these eyes. It’s a symbol of the joy of having a hobby that lets me make friends anywhere, at any time. It is, above all, a symbol of happiness. It gives me the breath to laugh in the face of death, and the temerity to dive headlong over precipice of oblivion, and after all that, I can have a glass of soda, eat a few cookies, and relax with a few good friends. How is that not powerful? How is that not a symbol?

There is one thing that I have done more than any other thing in my life, and that is play D&D. More than doing schoolwork, degrees notwithstanding. Certainly more than any job or career I have had. It has been more compelling to me at times than my own life (and there are those who would call this unhealthy, but look at me now, Jack Chick, and suck it). Frankly, there were times when I was so poor, that playing D&D was the only release I could afford (it helps if you have the books already…this was before WotC started revising the goddamn game every 18 months and fishing in your pockets). In all of my nearly thirty nine years on this planet, only eight of them were not haunted by those lovely little funny-looking dice, and those murderously heavy books.

Losing Gary Gygax weakens my perception of the immortality of this game. It puts my faith in its perpetuity at risk. It challenges my own mortality, too, of course. If Gygax can die, then what of my beloved game? Where in this fluid world will I be able to cast my childhood anchor? But the logical side of my brain takes over just in time, reminding me that the game is in other hands now, for better or worse, and is in no danger of slipping away (as long as WotC doesn’t screw the pooch). Frankly, as long as the old books are still available in used book shelves, the game is always just a store run away.

So, it’s with a heavy weight on my soul, that I say a final farewell to an idol of my childhood. My heart goes out to his family and friends, for they have lost a truly great man, faults and all. By comparison, all that I have lost is an icon of my youth, but that still makes me very sad, as silly as it may sound to you. Rest in peace, Gary. May all your hit rolls come up natural 20.

WHY EBOOK READERS?

I’m fascinated by emerging technology. Ebook readers aren’t exactly new, or even newsworthy, but I had an opportunity recently to paw at some of the best offerings available to mankind at the moment, and thought I’d share my thoughts on the whole experience. They offer a lot of convenience (carry an entire library of books in one book’s space), and a lot of new qualities (e-ink, which looks almost exactly like printed words on paper, and requires power only when refreshing/changing the page), but it remains to be seen, a) which is better, and b) why I would bother with either one.

HARDWARE

Over all, I preferred the look and feel of the Sony. I enjoyed the “smug factor” of waving a Kindle under the noses of friends and family and watching them salivate and “Oooh” at it, though…at least until I explained it was on loan and wasn’t really mine.

Kindle 1

Kindle 1′s greatest criticisms stem from its hardware. Its page buttons are enormous, and sit right at the device edges, where any stray thumb, finger, or stray bump in your sweater will cause a page turn (heh, heh…”The Sweater Bumps” is the name of my new band). This quickly became a nuisance that wasn’t soon forgiven or forgotten. The keyboard is larger than I expected to need on an ebook reader…it’s not a text machine or an email device, so why the huge keyboard, Amazon? Typing on the keyboard still isn’t very comfortable, in spite of the largeness (too big for thumbing like a smart phone, too small to use like a laptop), so surfing for book titles or looking things up wasn’t really all that much fun. The scroll-wheel and “magic” chrome LCD sidebar are cute, but ultimately not very compelling.

The styling has been described many ways (most amusing was that it was being called the “snow-speeder” after the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back vehicle of the same name). It’s a bit goofy-looking, and feels cheap and chunky. As it turns out, my initial opinion of the hardware turned out to be dead right. Not only did I manage to break the screen by dropping the device (and the “book cover” was no help at all, since it doesn’t lock properly to the device), but Amazon has just released a complete redesign of the hardware. By the way, that drop was totally accidental.

Sony PRS 500

Although I preferred this device’s look and feel over the Kindle’s, it had its faults as well. Again with the large, clunky keyboard. This device had several options for page turning, none of which interfered with reading in any way, or caused any inadvertent page turning. I know it sounds like I’m harping on this, but 1) page turning is what drains the batteries on these devices, and 2) it’s a nuisance to keep finding yourself on a page you’ve either already read, or have no idea how you got there. Its “book cover” was locked solidly to the device’s rear cover, and required an alarming amount of force to remove (I was concerned I would break it before it gave and released normally). Mog smash.

The styling was sleek, and understated, as you’d expect from an experienced gadget company like Sony. It feels slightly heavy for its size (like every piece of fruit or vegetable you were ever told was ready to eat), which projects a sense of quality and resilience. Although this device was dropped, too (not by me, thankfully), I managed to break it a different way, so read on. Also, the white case on the Kindle makes the displayseem to be brighter than the Sony. It’s a total illusion, as it turns out, because both use identical e-ink displays, right down to their dimensions.

SOFTWARE

Kindle 1

The Kindle has a few advantages here, and they are big ones. First, the Kindle has a greater range of font sizes than the PRS 500.  Next, the Kindle’s biggest advantage: no leash. Wireless access not only to obtain more books, but for a number of web-based products like wikis, RSS feeds, and even subscription-based newspaper and magazine websites. Its use of Sprint’s Data Network (Amazon calls this “WhisperNet”) gives its users a dramatic range of freedom.

You can also manually load files to the device via USB-to-MicroUSB connection from any computer (no software required), but file type is a serious restriction here. Only its proprietary format and technically one other (.prc/.mobi, but only unprotected ones) can be read by the device, although I was able to find third party software that could make conversions from most other document formats. This is ironic, considering how web-friendly it is otherwise. No .html or .txt books? On the plus side, you can send documents to Amazon, who will (experimentally) reformat them and send them to your Kindle for a modest fee.

Sony PRS 500

Unlike the Kindle, you have to plan ahead with this device, and load everything you think you might want to read before you walk away from a computer. It’s got plenty of storage space, and like the Kindle 1, it has an SD card slot for expanding memory. Unlike the Kindle, and to my pleasant surprise, it reads a startling number of formats, including .pdf and .txt files. This makes dumping your own material on the device quite easy. Be warned with pdfs, though, if they are not resized to a smaller page size, reading them will require a lot of extra manipulation. If you have Acrobat Pro, this isn’t a problem, but not everyone can or will do this. The fact that it accepts a much wider range of formats (.lrf, .pdf, .txt, .rtf, ePub) makes it a good fit for people seeking to carry/convert their own works. Book purchases must be done via USB-to-MicroUSB, however, and software must be installed on the host computer before any transactions can be done (think iTunes and iPod).

So how did I break the Sony, you ask? I know you’re paying attention, so here goes: I just ran it dead. My loaner didn’t come with a wall-mounted charger, nor did it come with a warning like “Don’t drain it dead or it’ll never work for you again, dumb ass.” Sadly, that’s exactly what I did. Once it went back to its owner, who had the charger, it was easily enough recovered, but if I had been using that thing on travel without its charger, I’d have been one sad sack!

FOR PIRATES ONLY

I was able to quickly and quietly find a rather large supply of books to read via my friendly neighborhood bit-torrent website. It goes without saying that this was a) illegal, and b) fun as all hell. I took my ill-gotten gains (mostly in pdf and/or rtf formats), and downloaded some free software to convert them for both devices. Although the Sony takes .pdf and .rtf, I found I disliked the look/feel of those documents in the Sony, unless I converted them. Needless to say, none of the stuff I downloaded contained DRM, so there were no problems installing anything I downloaded.

As an additional experiment, I obtained a DRM-encrypted book from an associate (we’ll call her “Unwitting Accomplice” to preserve her anonymity). That content was formatted for Kindle, and was copied into the Kindle via manual cable connection, and played just as well as paid-for content and my DRM-free pirated content, so the pundits who cry foul at not being able to pass along books, once read, can bite me. Not true, simply put.

CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the day, I’m still not convinced I need any kind of eBook reader. It is novelty alone that would compel me to buy one at all, and at a nominal price of $200 for the Sony PRS 500, even it isn’t in my disposable income range. That means the Kindle, with it’s massive $360 price tag, is right the hell out. When you add to that cost the fact that books for either device still cost in the $10 average range (which is still more than an average paperback novel), it’s not a very convincing sales pitch.

I believe where this technology will find its niche is in replacing horrifically expensive printed textbooks and other educational materials, but only when the devices are capable of rendering higher resolution graphics (black and white is totally acceptable, but grainy charts and formulas are not!).

As of this writing, Kindle is in its second hardware iteration, having overcome a lot of its initial releases hardware shortcomings (no word yet on how easily Kindle 2 is destroyed, when dropped. If I get my hands on one, I’ll let you know). It looks slick, is reportedly much thinner and lighter, and probably makes the person holding one feel even more smug, when waving it under a peer’s nose. Cost is the same as Kindle 1, for those keeping score.

Sony hasn’t been idle, either. They released a PRS 505 with a few minor tweaks (slightly faster pagination, more memory, batteries that don’t stay dead when you run them dead, even if you don’t have a wall charger from your friend who forgot to mention, “Oh, by the way, don’t run it dead.”), and a sweet PRS 700 model that includes, among other improvements, annotation (apparently Kindle already had this…like I cared/noticed?), touch screen (sweet!) with gesture-based page turning, and a battery-draining backlight for reading in the dark (also sweet!). These features come with a hefty $399 price tag, though. I hear the downside of the touch screen is that the screen is now more glare-sensitive than standard e-ink screens. Watch for the tech guys to find a way to overcome that hurdle, or else say bye-bye to the touch screen yet again. I think most buyers will decide glare is more annoying than the touch screen is attractive.

Incidentally, I have a pocket eBook reader installed in my smart phone (freeware, duh), and guess what? I don’t read books on that thing, either! Surprise! ::sigh:: I guess I’m not the bibliophile everyone thinks I am.