Category: Geeky Fanboy

Posted on

“I, Malcolm.”

Nathan Fillion, on being Malcolm Reynolds

Somebody once asked me what it was like to be Malcolm Reynolds. Usually I get, “Why was Firefly cancelled?” and “Is there going to be another season/sequel?” But what was it like? Specifically, to be Mal? I wasn’t quite ready for it. I mean, sure, it was great. Boots. Coat. Gun. Ride horses. Shoot guns. Shoot guns at horses. Stinks like awesome. But what was it like? It was so long ago it pieces together like childhood memories, complete with those moments of clarity that suddenly strike you with, “Oh, yeah! I remember that!” and a lot more moments of, “Really? We did that? Was I drunk?” But like those childhood memories there are images and feelings that are indelible.

Posted on

That high pitched squeel you’re hearing?

That’s all the Whedon fan-chilluns, freaking out, as Joss Whedon announces a new television series.

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

Better still is the interview that follows the announcement.

Eliza had her deal with Fox, and we went to lunch, as we sometimes do, to talk about her career and what her next step should be. Like, do I know writers, and what was the best way to protect herself, and what type of show. Eliza and I do this sometimes, because she’s a friend and a great talent, and that’s easily misused. She was trying to protect herself, and I was trying to get a free lunch. In the middle of lunch, I came up with the idea of this show and the title by accident.

Posted on

Blog Action Day, Hobbits, Earthships… more geeky interests per post than the law allows!

On this, Blog Action Day, the topic is the Environment. Of course, we’re supposed to talk about the real life environment, but there are some lessons that we take from fiction.
Namely, hobbits.
I’ve been playing a lot of Lord of the Rings Online, and during that time I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in the area of the game built to represent the Shire. This has been a kind of geeky paradise for me, because I love love love Tolkien’s work and seeing it realized more fully in a virtual setting is just tons of fun.
But while I’m geeking out, I’m looking at the hobbit-houses in the game and thinking “man… wouldn’t it be great if you could live in a house like that? Forget about how awesome it would be… just think of the savings on heating and cooling… look at the profile of the thing… it’s just such an excellent DESIGN.”
So… half geek and half responsible eco-parent. Okay. Fine.
Now, we can’t bulldoze all the houses and buildings that are out there, of course, but how excellent would it be if someone out there was at least trying to provide a solution like this for NEW housing. If you can’t get the government to do a damned thing about Global Warming, make changes on a personal level, right?
Personally, I want a real, beautiful hobbit hold, but if not that, maybe Earthship?
(Thanks to the WoW Insider poster that linked to this earlier.)