Monday Morning Rambling...

Well, it's another Monday morning, and I, your intrepid hero/blogger have survived another weekend with my kids.

Actually, the little buggers aren't that bad, and I'm inordinately proud of them. Especially, the eldest, as he has now taken to running around the apartment complex with a gaggle of kids at or near his own age. It's grand fun to watch, as they'll take down his toy lightsabers and go at each other. In fact last night, he came to me, and handed me the red-bladed one and said, "Daddy, I'm Luke Skywalker and you're Darth Vader. You have to say," at this point, he put a hand over his mouth and nose. "Ha-PSH! Ha-PSH!"

So, I took the saber, and held it out, made the appropriate noises and held out my hand and said, "Nathan! I am your father!"

He giggled and told me that Darth Vader didn't say that (hey, he's not watched ESB yet as he prefers ANH and RoTJ). I quickly told him that Darth Vader did indeed say that, at which point he switched lightsabers with me and took off to another point in the room.

He slowly advanced, making appropriate noises and stopped a few paces from me, a cheesy grin on his face, as he said, "Daddy! I am your father!"

Glorious! I love my little sci-fi geek.

But of course the whole running around thing is great to me as well. I myself, have an almost pathological aversion to people (calling me shy would probably be an understatement), and I was fearful that my son had inherited that. Previously, when he was in preschool on a daily basis, he would have never done that. In fact, at one point, he was to scared to go across the hall of the foyer (we're talking 5 feet max here) to knock on the neighbor's door back when there was a boy a year or so older than him there.

Sure, I know as a lover of science-fiction I should be one of those who looks towards the future for solutions to problems, but frankly, in the case of my family, I have to look backwards to how things were done in the past. Traditional family values and all that jazz.

Of course the wife being home with the kids, and us on a single income, means that I have less money to buy books and things that interest me, but my boys are worth it. Besides, that's what public libraries are for.

Speaking of libraries, I currently have Doctorow's Some Come to Town, Some Leave Town checked out and am about half-way through with it. If you've never read anything by Doctorow, I highly suggest it. Running a quick search for him, you'll be able to find downloads of his novels as he gives away free e-copies (under a CC license) in the hope that you'll buy a real copy of his book. I like this model, as I want an e-copy of every novel I own for various and sundry reasons. But I digress.

Anyways, I've got the Doctorow book in the works for a review, and I have a review of Stardust (the book not the movie) that'll be up later in the week. Finally, I should have a copy of one of the Hal Spacejock novels to read & review soon.

On the anime front, I think Dennou Coil is about half down, and IdolM@ster Xenoglossia is nearing completion as well. Those are the two most sci-fi specific anime's that I'm currently watching.

Tonight on Ani-Monday, we're getting a movie. The great and glorious, Ghost in the Shell. It should be interesting to see how they've changed this for broadcast television (well, it's cable, but you get the idea) as I've only ever seen it on VHS/DVD.

Finally, on the conversion of cartoons to live-action movies, there's the recent hoopla about Tobey Maguire and Robotech, which I must say: Don't get Micheal Bay for this. Go for Bryan Singer or (with a tight reign) the Wachowsky's. More depressing news though, is that G.I. Joe is coming to a live-action format near you, but at the cost of being "A Real American Hero." They're making the team a coed task force, international in scope.

Why you ask?

Because the producers don't feel that "a heroic U.S. soldier won't fly."

... (<- Again, that's me banging my head against a hard surface that's close by. In this case, my desktop.)

It boggles the mind. I can understand "re-imagining" an existing concept, but to change the fundamental principal upon which a series or character is formed is insane. Especially, when it's done for the sake of politics and appeasing those who hate the United States anyways. As if releasing this movie like this will make them love us or something. It would be like Star Wars without the lightsabers or spaceships. No, scratch that, you could put most of Star Wars in the naval era with cutlasses and clipper ships and it would still work as a concept and a story.

Oh well, all I know is that if it gets released this way, I won't go see it in the theater, and probably will never rent it either. I'd rather go re-watch Navy SEALS.

So, what have we learned today? My eldest kid is doing great and making friends. More book reviews are coming down the line. We all need to watch Ghost in the Shell. And finally, I hate the idea of a "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity" concept for G.I. Joe.