Ravenweb Blog

Ravenweb visitors know that I have been a fan of U.S. tennis pro Serena Williams for years. With all of her past accomplishments, though, it was nice to see her rise up from the unseeded ranks this year to beat Sharapova to win the Australian Open . This -- an eighth Grand Slam tennis title -- after she recently announced that she is planning to make a movie about the life of trailblazing black tennis player Althea Gibson . Very cool. Congratulations to Serena Williams.

Big props to Scrubs for going with a musical episode ( "My Musical" ) last night. The episode was hilarious and provided an irreverent pastiche of Broadway musicals while staying within the familiar tone of the show. "Guy Love" and "Everything Comes Down to Poo" were the best songs, with the latter number going to show that fart and crap jokes are always funny if done right. Let's hope this musical episode is a sign of better things to come for Scrubs this year. Season six prior to this episode has been a disappointment with too much focus on the baby story lines and not enough crazy stuff like this. See also: Scrubs' takes a turn for the better with musical by Matthew Gilbert (The Boston Globe) Why You Must "Tune" In to the Scrubs Musical! by Matt Mitovich (TV Guide)

Ted Chiang is one of those writers who's so good and whose stories are so well-crafted and compelling that you find trying yourself to prolong and savor the reading experience. As a speculative fiction writer, Chiang is particularly effective at melding accessible and cogent scientific extrapolation with seamless prose. But you don't need to be an SF fan to enjoy Chiang's fiction. Anyone who enjoys good writing and thoughtful stories should find something in Chiang's fiction to satisfy. All of the stories in Chiang's collection Stories of Your Life and Others are good, and some are great. I especially enjoyed "Hell Is the Absence of God", a fantasy novella about a world where angels and God exist and intervene in the mortal world; "Understand", a fun SF story about heightened intelligence in the tradition of Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon"; "Story of Your Life", a poignant story about a linguist trying to learn an al...

Well, actually (and fortunately), no -- but I have finally gotten around to playing Oblivion , after having received it as a Christmas gift from my wife. For those of you who don't play computer games, Oblivion is a popular fantasy-themed role playing game that was developed last year by Bethesda Softworks . It is the fourth installment in Bethesda's continuing Elder Scrolls series of games, and its predecessors include Daggerfall and Morrowind . Before I detail my observations of Oblivion, I should point out that of the previous Elder Scrolls games, I've only played Morrowind, which I loaded up shortly after it was released in May 2002. I remember being initially thrilled and very impressed with Morrowind for many days and weeks, perhaps too many of both as it turned out. I was struck by the spectacular visuals and the then state of the art character facial animations, draw distance, and water rendering. I also liked the game's first person view that was reminiscent ...

Adverbs is a series of interconnected short stories or vignettes all of which are titled after an adverb. It becomes pretty clear soon after beginning the novel that love is intended to be the overarching theme. The problems here are the prose and plot devices the author uses to keep his notion of love in the subtext. For example, many of the stories feature characters with similar names, but it's not often apparent whether these characters are supposed to be the same people or different people with the same names. Similarly, though intentionally done I'm sure, the character dialogue is purposely exaggerated and full of strange connections and phrasing, and hard to follow at times. The use of adverbs themselves is tightly controlled and reserved for specific instances of important characters development. Now, Adverbs as a complete text may work well for some readers who will enjoy that the characters, pieces, and themes introduced in the novel never come together, paralleling...

The Android's Dream is a light and fun SF novel by John Scalzi. A departure from the serious military SF in Scalzi's Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades , this book is more in the vein of SF satire, and, in this fashion, is reminiscent at different points of early Neil Stephenson ( Snow Crash ) and Douglas Adams. As an example, the novel begins with an extended fart joke that runs through the entire first chapter. That's the kind of book this is. Though not a perfect or substantive SF novel -- see Ranting Nerd's nice review of the book for a flushing out of some of the parts of the novel that may grate some readers -- it is a funny and entertaining novel and, in this sense, definitely succeeds.

The Brief History of the Dead is a highly original novel that alternates between chapters about a female wildlife specialist in Antarctica who may be the last person alive on the planet following a viral pandemic and chapters featuring a city where the dead continue to live as long as someone on Earth remembers them. The book's author Kevin Brockmeier is a very gifted writer and his skill is evident throughout the narrative. The conceit of the necropolis, though, doesn't hold up through the length of the text, and as the link between the two storylines becomes clear, the plot drags toward its inevitable terminus. I also struggled a bit with the book's apocalyptic setup of a virus that kills everyone on the planet. Even assuming the most virulent strain of a mutagenic virus, it seems incredibly unlikely that a virus would kill off an entire host population. Perhaps if Brockmeier had offered up explanations as to why the virus didn't mutate into less virulent forms or wh...

As 2006 is closing down, I thought I would highlight some of the major Ravenweb posts from the past year. 2006 was really the first full year I maintained a blog, so I'm pleased (and a little surprised) I posted regularly throughout the entire year. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the past twelve months of Ravenweb, and I look forward to posting more in 2007. Ravenweb 2006 Year in Review I was introduced to the fabulous SF of Iain M. Banks and read Consider Phlebas , The Player of Games , and Use of Weapons . Author James Frey admits that he fabricated and falsified information in his memoir A Million Little Pieces . Nick Hornby's new novel A Long Way Down comes out. Cecily and I visited Santa Fe, New Mexico. The visit inspired a slideshow and a column . I discovered rising SF star John Scalzi and his breakout novels Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades , as well as his long-running blog, Whatever . I reread Elie Wiesel's Night . I started using Ebay to sell some ...

Rubyfruit Jungle is Rita Mae Brown's milestone novel about growing up lesbian in America. I first read this over fifteen years ago and remember feeling a strong connection with the Molly Bolt character, who never apologized for who she was and refused to buckle to the world's sexism and judgements. Reading the text again so many years later, I was pleased to discover just how well the book held up and that my initial impression was unchanged. I found that Molly was still a great, feisty character, and that the novel was fairly timeless. This is because, ultimately, Rubyfruit Jungle is a simple and honest story about self-acceptance and coming to terms with one's sexuality that's just as true now as it was twenty or thirty years ago.

I'm thrilled to report that we now have a new 2007 Volkswagen GTI ! We picked it up a few weeks ago, and it has proven to be a wonderfully designed, feisty vehicle. The GTI is equipped with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine featuring direct injection and a single turbocharger. This translates to 197 horsepower at 5100 rpm and 207 pound-feet of torque at just 1800. So we can now get to 60 mph in about seven seconds. The only problem with the new ride is that both Cecily and I want to drive it all the time!

I'm not sure how old this is or how it hit the net, but here's a link to a great YouTube video featuring the cast of Scrubs voicing and re-imagining the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas". According to some blogs, the cast made this video for a Christmas party and it has since found it’s way onto the net. Lucky for us!

Don't Get Too Comfortable is a funny and sharp collection of essays that skewer current bourgeoisie cultural excess. The essays include inventories of Hooters Air and a cryogenics storage facility, critiques of Paris couture and Beverly Hills "re-facing" salons, the author's observations while working as a cabana boy at a plush South Beach hotel, and more.

Stumbling on Happiness is an insightful and accessible book that attempts to explain why people do such a poor job at predicting what will make them happy. Armed with both scientific research and funny anecdotes, author Daniel Gilbert shows that when people try to imagine the futures they would like, they often make some basic and consistent mistakes, similar to the errors of omission that occur in memory. This book won't necessarily arm you with the tools to make yourself happy, but it will help explain why some of the decisions we make in the present don't always turn out as we expect or want in the future.

If any of you have not yet read John Scalzi's "Being Poor" post , this is a good a time of the year to reset it.

The Bad Place is an SF horror novel about an amnesiac man who teleports when he falls asleep and a married detective team that tries to help him. I don't read that much horror, so I can't comment on how this novel compares to other texts in the genre, but I found The Bad Place entertaining, and a fast-paced, light read. The conceit was a little too outrageous for me to suspend disbelief, but the pacing and supernatural imagery were effective and fun.

First, the definition: Main Entry: tryp·to·phan Pronunciation: 'trip-t&-"fan Variant(s): also tryp·to·phane /-"fAn/ Function: noun Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary tryptic + -o- + -phane : a crystalline essential amino acid C11H12N2O2 that is widely distributed in proteins Source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Tryptophan and turkey: This snippet from a Wikipedia entry on tryptophan offers some evidence that tryptophan in turkey is not likely the soporific that it's commonly believed to be. According to popular belief, tryptophan in turkey meat causes drowsiness. Turkey does contain tryptophan, which does have a documented sleep-inducing effect as it is readily converted into serotonin by the body. However, tryptophan is effective only when taken on its own as a free amino acid. Tryptophan in turkey is found as part of a protein, and, in small enough amounts, this mechanism seems unlikely. A more-likely hypothesis is that the ingestion of large q...

My friend Gary — who is now living in Japan with his wife — has recently started a blog chronicling his adventures in Japan. His posts are very readable, with a distinctive style. He's also uploaded many pictures that illustrate the places and events described in his posts. Gary's Blog is at http://kimmelhurt.blogspot.com/ .

I went to see Casino Royale last night and very much enjoyed the idea and most of the execution in bringing the Bond franchise back to its roots, with an origin story and a young and untested Bond. Daniel Craig was great as the young Bond and deftly plays the character as an intense and strapping agent, clearly skilled but learning his way and prone to arrogance and errors in judgment. The film was a bit long and could have used some additional editing, but it was certainly the most enjoyable Bond film in recent memory and infuses the franchise with some desperately needed originality and charisma.

F.E.A.R. Extraction Point is an expansion to the original F.E.A.R., and provides many of the same creepy visuals and breathless gun battles that were prominent in the original game. The continuation starts right after the original game ends, amid the wreckage of the Black Hawk helicopter that was ferrying you to safety. Your point in the expansion is straightforward: to battle through an army of replicants and other foes and reach an extraction point and helicopter to fly you out of the immediate danger zone. As PC shooter expansions go, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point delivers and provides about 6 hours of memorable firefights, advanced artificial intelligence, and effective horror atmosphere. The game also includes a few new weapons, including a bullet-spitting chaingun and deployable gun sentries. New environments introduced in Extraction Point include a subway level and some new office interiors. The plot doesn't really go anyway and at best can be described as an extended epilogue ...

For those of you who haven't heard, Scrubs will be back on NBC this season. The latest news from NBC is that the show will begin airing on November 30 and then thereafter every Thursday night, in the 9:00 - 9:30 (EST) time slot. If you haven't watched Scrubs in a while and need to get back in the mood of the show, you can catch it now on Comedy Central , where it airs Monday through Saturday, two or four episodes per day, depending on the day. If you need more Scrubs , check out this expansive Scrubs fan portal , where you will find everything from news and faqs about the show, a listing of songs that aired in the episodes, and links to other Scrubs websites. While you're there, be sure and take the Scrubs Personality Test to see which Scrubs character you most resemble.