Can’t win…
Posted by samsynn on Dec 21, 2007
The past 2 days I’ve been outbid in 3 separate auctions for the LG Superblu player (one of the only combo players for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. The last one was frustrating as my snipe was above the winning bid, but not by the necessary increment - grrr.
Just read though that the new Samsung BD-UP5000 player is coming out any day at a lower price point (I’d still like to find it a little cheaper than what I can pre-order it for).
I personally don’t care which format wins out, and it’s going to be at least another year and a half until the deal HD-DVD has with Universal and Dreamworks expires. I really want to move up to a next-gen player but don’t want to be stuck with a BetaMax situation. It’s almost cheaper to get a Blu-Ray player AND an HD-DVD player, but that’s just a pain in the ass too.
Holiday presents for Fantasy Geeks…
Posted by samsynn on Dec 18, 2007
So in addition to the announcement that Brandon Sanderson* will be finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, today New Line announced that they have made up with Peter Jackson and that he will be the Executive Producer for 2 Hobbit movies (It’s been a while since I’ve read The Hobbit to even guess where they’re going to break it up). Plans are to film the two movies together in 2009 - as they filmed the three Lord of the Rings movies - with releases in 2010 and 2011. No word on if Jackson is directing or not. Hopefully they can recapture the magic.
* I picked up Sanderson’s first book and while I’m not even 100 pages in yet, I’m already enthralled.
A Memory of Light…
Posted by samsynn on Dec 14, 2007
I, like many other fans of Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series have been anxiously awaiting the final book in the series. The series started in 1989 or 1990 (I’ve been reading since 1995) and is going to end up as a 12 book run, much longer than the original “trilogy” intended.
Earlier this year, Robert Jordan passed away after a long battle with the rare blood disease, amyloidosis. I have to admit that at the same time that I was saddened by his passing, many of my thoughts ran towards “Will we ever see the last book?” Fortunately, Mr. Jordan knew the end was coming and with the help of his wife and others put together his notes and what he had written so far so that the story could be continued/finished.
Now Tor books has announced that Brandon Sanderson, author of Elantris, Mistborn, and The Well of Ascension will be co-authoring The Memory of Light, book 12 in The Wheel of Time. They even have an expected publishing date of Fall 2009. Good luck to Mr. Sanderson stepping into RJ’s shoes for this. I guess I’ll have to pick up at least one of his books to see how the writing style is (although looking on Amazon.com, his books seem to get good reviews).
It’s weird to think of this series ending. I guess it’s similar to reading the last Harry Potter novel and knowing there isn’t another chapter coming. At least with Harry Potter there were movies made (and still to come), but while there have been talks about movies or mini-series for The Wheel of Time I’m not sure how well they could be done (12 books - each at about 600+ pages, or each about the length of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and how much momentum there would be now that Mr. Jordan has passed away. If they couldn’t be done well, I’m not sure they should be done at all (just look at Frank Herbert’s Dune for a good example).
Now - if only there was any movement on a publishing date for A Dance with Dragons from George RR Martin all would be good. (By the way - James - do you still have my copy of A Feast for Crows?)
Doing a little bit better…
Posted by samsynn on Dec 13, 2007
So I ended up taking yesterday off of work. This let me get off of the cycle of energy drinks and I’ve been getting to sleep much better the past 2 nights. It also helped me to get a lot of cleaning done around the house. By the end of the year we’ll actually have the place to a point where we could have people over again without hiding our heads in shame.
On the PMP front, I just took a practice test (50 questions rather than a full 200 since I’m at work and don’t have that kind of time). Out of 50, I got 45 correct. That’s well above the 61% I need to pass the test (which is scheduled for the afternoon of January 
so I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’ll probably try to take another 50 question test each day - maybe some longer ones if work or time allows - until it’s all drilled into my brain.
Speaking of early January, that should be a busy time with both the test and my 15 22 minutes of fame on Jeopardy! (airing January 9th). If you’re in South Florida, you should start seeing me on commercials early next year! If you’re not, I’ll try to find the link to the page on the Jeopardy site where you can see my commercial as we get closer and it is posted on there. I have to remember to remind everyone who doesn’t read this blog when that will be (people from class, friends from out of town, family, etc.) - I figure I’ll be sending out a few massive emails that week.
This is your brain on…
Posted by samsynn on Dec 10, 2007
no, not drugs - just completely fried from the past week.
Vegas was pretty cool - only down a bit from blackjack (darn that Armenian dealer) and 3-card poker (which I don’t even know why I tried again) - well within my “allowance”. Spent part of a day at the “Star Trek Experience” at the Las Vegas Hilton (picture of me in Captain Picard’s chair on the bridge coming soon!) and geeked out pretty hard. We stayed at the Luxor - which wasn’t bad other than the crappy Internet connection and the fact you have to walk about a mile to get to a monorail station for the conference. My feet hurt so bad by the end of the first day, thanks to a lot of walking since Ryan didn’t pack anything warm (great job former weatherman!)
By the time I had finally adjusted to the time zone change it was back on the plane to SoFla. My body still hasn’t adjusted to where I can fall asleep before 2 am, although that may have to do with the energy drinks I’ve been pounding (Jolt Blue Raspberry FTW) to get through the past few days.
Speaking of the last few days - I’m just about ready to take the PMP exam, although I’ll be taking it in early January so that I have an extra year in which to earn PDUs for recertification. The cram session was very helpful - and I’m glad I was in the weekend class this semester instead of the Tuesday/Thursday class - I think we had the better instructor and group. Fortunately I didn’t get audited on my application so I can schedule it this week.
Friday night at the Mai Kai was ok - not crazy about their wine selection and we didn’t stay for the show since I had to get up early on Saturday. Saturday was exciting as Superman Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy (not to mention the latkes and other yummy food at Rob & Erika’s). Finally - last night was Chanukah dinner at mom-in-law’s).
Now that I’ve caught up at work (after being out for all of last week) - can I take a nap? Please?
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