Regarding A Game of Thrones

WARNING:  The following post contains spoilers for the novel A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.

The spoilers leaking out of people due to the popular HBO series A Game of Thrones bumped the novel up on my reading list.  I finished it recently, so I thought that I'd share some thoughts on it.
Overall, I liked it.  The perspective characters were used effectively.  The story also seemed to effectively convey a world in which magic once existed, but now was all but gone, at least in the main area.  I was actually a bit relieved when the corpses found north of the wall turned out to be revenants, since I was starting to worry that there wouldn't be any actual magic involved.
I suffered some disappointment near the end, though.  For one, when Drogo learned of the king's orders to assassinate Daenerys, and committed himself to taking his khalasar across the sea, I was like thinking, "Alright, this is going to happen."  But then, it didn't.  Also, when Dany's child wound up being stillborn, it of course raised questions about the nature of prophecy in the world, but I think that I was even more disappointed when I read the description of it, which included scales and everything.  We could have had some kind of draconic dude in this story and we didn't?!
Well, at least the dragons hatched by the end.  Those eggs were such a tease.
It sounds like I'm complaining but I think that that's because it's easier to specify what disappointed me (not necessarily "disliked") than it is to specify what I actually liked.
That said, don't get me started on how crappy Mirri Maz Duur's plan was.

P.S.:  Are all of the books going to include the title (maybe minus the leading article) in the dialogue?

How to Make a Justice League Film

So, DC has been having some issues lately, among which are problems with their attempts at getting in on the whole live-action theatrically-released superhero film thing.  The latest word is that there won't be a Justice League film.  Still, if DC wants to make a Justice League film, then here are some thoughts about that:
Firstly, DC will need to pick one of two directions.  They can either make serious films or make silly ones.  (It would be too difficult to copy the balance of seriousness, action, and humor that Marvel has without appearing to outright copy Marvel.)  Based on the success of Nolan's Batman trilogy, it seems like that could be a good route to take, so I'll pursue that with this train of thought.
Who exactly is in the Justice League will depend on a few things.  You'll want heroes who are recognizable, and cool, but also who aren't too far out of scale with one another.  Superman is obviously a must-have in a DC property, so that sets the bar pretty high as far as power level goes.  Green Lantern has the right power level for that, but it would have to be Hal Jordan, and that would likely require a reboot if we're to take him sufficiently seriously.
Here's a short list for consideration:

• Recent iterations of Aquaman are actually cool and he's pretty badass; in addition to his own (admittedly limited on this scale) powers, he's the king of Atlantis, and thus commands an entire submarine navy whose technology appears to at least match that of the surface-dwellers.  The main risk with using him is that older people will remember him from his presence on Super Friends.  
• J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, is actually a prime target for a film adaptation these days.  Between CGI and motion capture, a greenish-skinned shapeshifter could be done without breaking suspension of disbelief.  
• Batman is a problem.  He's definitely cool, but it's hard to scale him up without disturbing the coveted suspension of disbelief.  It might be necessary to leave him in Gotham for this.  
• Captain Marvel is a problem, but for different reasons.  Aside from the whole name thing, he's basically a magical counterpart to Superman as far as powers are concerned.  Being a match for Superman is one thing, but actually matching him for most of his powers (strength, speed, toughness) is another matter.  
• Captain Atom could use some screen time.  He'll be especially stand-out if DC doesn't give Superman heat-vision.  Go nuts on the bloom.  
• Wonder Woman could fit if DC could figure out how to dress her.  But, hey, it's not like we actually know what the ancient Greeks wore into battle or anything.  (Pro tip:  Say the phrase "ancient Greek lasso" out loud.)  
• The Flash could work if DC ensures that he's faster than Superman.  
• If audiences are OK with someone who's expressly a magic-user, then DC could do a lot worse than Dr. Fate.  

If DC goes the sillier route, then here's a short list for that:

• Hal Jordan Green Lantern, as-is
• Wally West Flash
• Aquaman (silver age style)
• ... Wonder Twins?  I don't know, just grab a handful of supers and be done with it.  

Sudden Short Story 31

"... The thing that seems to stand out the most in your portfolio is the matter of your private library."
"Public"
"Sorry?"
"Well, I have a private library, but I have a great many private expenditures for my own benefit that aren't profitable in and of themselves.  I assume that you're referring to my public library."
"What do you mean when you say 'public'?"
"I mean just what it sounds like I mean.  The library is open for anyone and everyone to use at no cost.  Most of the books can be checked out, at no cost, so long as one has a library card, which also has no cost.  It's a public library, and, as I understand it, the last one in existence."
"But... aside from your staff, who are paid to do so, nobody ever enters or leaves the building except for you."
"Well, that's probably why it stands out on my portfolio.  Not only is it the least profitable of my ventures, but it actually loses money.  The staff - librarians, cleaning crew, maintenance - aren't working for free, you know."
"Well, from how you explain it, it wouldn't matter if you had a thousand people checking out a thousand books a day for a thousand years, it would still lose money."
"That's correct."
"But, for all your market genius, for all your ingenuity, why haven't you figured out a way to monetize it?"
"Because... It's a library."
"I'm afraid that I don't understand."
"Nor does anyone else, it seems, and that, I find, is the saddest thing these days."

Sudden Short Story 30

His name had long been forgotten, as it was only of niche interest, and so was very low in terms of backup priority.  It was supposed that he knew it, as that was how these things usually worked, but it was something of a moot point, as most of those who would ask would lose interest by the time that he got around to responding.  Whether he was even still alive was sometimes left uncertain, until someone thought to look up primatology, track him down, and verify his breathing and pulse.  He was easy enough to find, of course, since he only ever inhabited one vessel, though he did move it on rare occasion.
He had a strange collection.  It was made of enormous, biodegradable objects that stored information linguistically, and not at all compactly at that.  He made a habit of storing, preserving, ordering, and reading these things, and it is for this that he was known as The Librarian.  It was known that he had been offered the chance to join them at some point in the past, though he had rejected it, citing the books and his reading them as his motive.
Once, a node got disconnected, and so the Librarian had to explain to it what minutes were so that he could explain what hours were, so that he could specify how many of those to wait before asking again.  While it had been very patient, asking only once per second, the Librarian apparently found it annoying.  He had indicated that he was trying to reread a tale of two cities, though he hadn't specified which one.

My Chex Mix Recipe

Because I can, I'm posting the recipe that I've recently come to use to make Chex mix.  I basically combined the common elements of recipes that I found online and tweaked it to fit my own needs, as one does.
Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups corn Chex
• 1.5 cups rice Chex
• 1.5 cups wheat Chex
• 1 cup pretzel sticks
• 1 cup peanuts
• 0.5 sticks butter (regular (salted) table butter)
• 1.5 to 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (vary to suit taste)
• 0.5 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 2 cloves (or 1 big clove) garlic, finely chopped
• 0.125* teaspoon onion powder

The actual making is pretty standard stuff.  Mix cereals, pretzels, and peanuts.  Melt the remaining ingredients in the microwave, stirring often to get things evenly mixed and make sure that everything's wet for most of it.  Drizzle that over the dry stuff, stirring extensively to get the sauce on everything.  Nuke for 6 minutes, in 1.5 minute increments, stirring between each increment for even heating and even sauce distribution.  Let cool on paper towels before containing, though it might not last that long.  It really is good stuff.

So, I have a rather traditional** Chex mix recipe that my coworkers, my family, and I find delicious.  What should I do now?  EXPERIMENT!  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Now that my creativity has been unleashed, no one will be safe!  Or something.  If I find the time (not this weekend, but perhaps the next one), then I'll mess with things.  I've already got a few ideas in mind.
Maybe don't hold your breath, though, as a precautionary measure.

*That's 1/8.
**peanuts, none of that filler (bread stick pieces, bagel chips, rye chips), and, to some extent, the use of pretzel sticks instead of pretzel-shaped pretzels

Ye Olde Star Trekke

For those who don't know, I've lately been watching the original Star Trek series.  It's actually not that bad.  I expected it to be pretty not-good given the time period in which it was made, the budget, and the time period in which it was made.  Here are the things that have stood out to me so far:

• Red shirts don't get thrown away (i.e., written to death) nearly as often as I'd been led to believe.  
• Computers had a lot of exposed circuits back then.  
• For being 300 years in the future, it still takes a long time to get data from an on-board computer.  
• Everyone's a human except Spock, who's half-human.  
• Spellcheck didn't try to correct "Spock" there.  
• About half of all aliens are absurdly powerful cosmic beings.  
• Even back then, there was a really bad habit of sending way too many senior officers down with a landing party.  
• Uhura is pretty well-rounded for a secondary character.  
• I mean, really, it's basically about Kirk, Spock, & Bones.  
• Spellcheck doesn't know who Uhura is.  
• I checked my own spelling via Google, so I know that it's right.  
• Inexplicably, security personnel and engineers both wear red.  In the future, this is corrected by dressing security personnel in yellow and engineers in yellow.  Wait a minute....  

So, I'm finding the series quite palatable, though I hear that the 3rd season is kind of bad.  We shall see!

Pokémon: the Breeding Dilemma

So, I've been playing Pokémon a bit lately.  In my White version, I've gotten to the point where I can breed Pokémon, which is something that I always used to enjoy in the games.  Getting certain move sets could prove an interesting challenge, and I always felt that it could make desirable Pokémon for trading, though that never really came up much in the past, due to a lack of trading partners.
Part of this came from the fact that, in addition to the special egg moves, newly hatched Pokémon start with any TM that they can learn that their fathers knew when breeding.  Most especially, this is of interest for TMs that only appear once in a given game.  Breeding would allow me to make a Pokémon that knew that move - and really any number of them - which could be desirable to someone else who has used or has plans for that TM.  Give a Pokémon 2 inherited TMs and an egg move, and it can become quite interesting.
That portion of the point seems to have been removed in the Generation V games, as TMs are now infinite-use, rendering the distinction between the two basically academic, as the only real difference is that HMs must be deleted at the move deleter's house (I assume).  While there's nothing preventing me from TM-breeding as before, it seems kind of pointless, especially as I couldn't even say that I'm saving myself the cost of purchasable TMs!
This also means that TMs can be used with impunity, so there's no challenge to deciding when to use which one.  :-\