The Secret Lair

120x365x2009: 35mm movie-camera by domi-san, on Flickr

A long time ago, in a Twitter far, far away,¹ I commented that sometime I needed to write a list of things that really annoy me but that no one else seems to notice. Someone responded with, “That’s called a blog.”²

Well, since it appears that this is, in fact, a blog, I decided today to subject you to share with you the first entry on this list. And it is… (feel free to insert a drumroll here) the Mockumentary style in TV and movies!

Wait, no, put down your pitchforks! Where the heck did you even get pitchforks on such short notice in this day and age? Is there a pitchfork wholesaler that I don’t know about? Anyway, pitchforks aside (please?), I should clarify what I mean. It’s not the mockumentary format itself that I have a problem with; it’s that when that style is used partially or at times when it doesn’t fit, it completely breaks my sense of immersion. When I’m watching a TV show or movie, I want to be able to believe it’s real for a little while without having to stop and think about how it’s  being made or being jarred by reactions that don’t make sense.

For me, this seems to happen most often with something that should be invisible:³ the camera. Here are two examples.

1) District 9, or the “Sometimes-It-Is-Sometimes-It-Isn’t” Syndrome.

Now, don’t get me wrong, District 9 was a great movie, and one that did a lot of things right. But it was inconsistent. It starts out in a documentary style, and that’s great. I really enjoyed that element of it, and I feel it added a lot to the realism of the film.

The problem, though, was that it stopped about halfway through. Just when I was starting to get really invested in the format (and the film), it breaks type and starts showing me scenes that couldn’t possibly be part of a documentary. Huh? I think to myself, how am I seeing this scene? Is this part of the documentary? Who’s filming it? Where’s the cameraman standing?

And the moment I’m thinking about the film as a film, I’m no longer really watching it. Instead of being drawn into the film, I’m pushed out of it; I’m no longer immersed.

Worse, when it does go back to the documentary-style segments, I’m jarred again into noticing the trick. This constant in-and-out shift keeps reminding me that I’m watching a fiction that someone has created, instead of letting me get wrapped up in the story. The TV show Modern Family, despite being an otherwise hilarious and well-written show, is also particularly bad on this point.⁴

2) Battlestar Galactica, or the “Who’s Holding the Shakycam” Complex.

Hang on a second, I have to put on my asbestos suit for this one. It’s one of the new models from our test labs: 20% less itchy, and this one hardly even smells like burnt minion at all!

Okay, now. When Battlestar Galactica got its reboot, one of the most prominent visual elements of the new series was its use of handheld or “documentary style” camera technique. Or, as it is affectionately⁵ known, the shakycam.

I know what you’re thinking. “But Jason,” you say, “I thought this was about things that annoy only you.” Well yes, that’s true, so let me– “But lots of people hate the shakycam!” I know that, but here’s– “I mean, you can’t throw a hand grenade in movie circles without blowing up someone who’s complaining about shakycam making them feel sick.” I get that, but… wait, a hand grenade? “I’m trying to keep with the movie theme here.” Ah, fair enough. But my problem isn’t with shakycam-induced motion sickness, it’s with shakycam breaking immersion.

The sad thing is, this is an example of trying so hard to keep immersion that you throw it out the window. According to TVTropes, “The use of Jitter Cam in Battlestar Galactica … was actually called for by writer/producer Ronald D. Moore… The idea was that … in conventional film-making it is important never to draw attention to the camera in order to avoid breaking Suspension of Disbelief… The CGI shots in Battlestar Galactica were therefore shot using only camera placements and techniques that theoretically could have been used if the show were, in fact a documentary.”

The problem is, seeing something like that immediately makes me wonder who the frak is holding the camera? When you show me a space battle full of camera wobble and snap zoom, it puts the camera right in my face. Far from not drawing attention to it, it makes it extremely visible. Who’s floating out in space and taking this video? Why are they out there? Are they getting shot at? Are they going to be left behind? Oh look, I’m thinking about the show instead of watching it again.

It’s not just limited to the space shots, either. When we get sudden pans and zooms on the characters, I wonder why they’re not looking at the camera. When you give the camera a personality, I want to know who that person is and what they’re doing there. Why a camera crew on the bridge of the Galactica during a Cylon attack? Why is no one reacting to the fact that someone is pointing a camera at them?

By contrast, a lot of people⁶ criticized the movie The Blair Witch Project for its use of shakycam. While I occasionally thought it may have been a bit over the top, I found that the shakycam in that film actually increased my immersion rather than breaking it. The reason was simple: I always knew who was holding the camera. It made sense for it to be shaky, because the people holding the cameras were visible characters in the film, and when they were running scared they weren’t paying attention to the cinematography. Galactica, by contrast, never gave me a reason for the shakycam, except for the filmmakers getting in the way and saying LOOK AT ME I AM BEING EDGY.

You may think I’m being nitpicky here, but at times I found this so distracting that I couldn’t even watch the show. My preferred method was to treat it like an audio drama, listening to it and occasionally glancing at the screen.

Am I the only one who has these immersion problems? Do these things bother you? What other things break your immersion?

1. Actually, it wasn’t really that far away, but it sounded good at the time. [↩]
2. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who it was, and I can’t seem to find the tweet. Maybe it was the voices in my head? Or was it YOU? [↩]
3. Or at least nearly so. [↩]
4. “Now I’m a documentary! Look, I’m interviewing the characters! Now I’m showing you things a camera couldn’t possibly get to! Now the characters are looking at the camera again! Wheeeeeee!” [↩]
5. For very small values of “affectionately.” [↩]
6. Back, as the kids say, in the day. [↩]

Image by Dunechaser via Flickr

Greetings, minions! As your new Governor of Purposeful Obfuscation and Lateral Linguistics, I look forward to crushing each and every one of your souls and disposing of your lifeless husks like the happy little redshirts you are. For our non-minion readers, won’t you consider joining our minion recruitment program? We have an (*zzzzaaapppSCREAM*) ever-growing number of positions available and can virtually guarantee you’ll be gainfully employed for the rest of your life.

The other denizens of the Lair have been really wonderful in welcoming me aboard, and I’m extremely happy to be joining them in their various schemes, stratagems, and soirees.¹ The orientation packet leaves something to be desired in the way of navigating and avoiding a fall into the giant squid tank,² but all in all it’s been an easy transition.

Overlord Miller invited me to join the Lair when we were having a conversation recently on the subject of blogging. I had left a comment on his personal blog (which is an excellent read, by the way) that ended up going on… let’s just say “at some length.” I laughingly commented to him that I seem to have a habit of leaving comments longer than the posts to which they’re appended. I mentioned that I’d like to blog more, since I obviously seem to have things to say, and keep getting the urge to express them. He graciously invited me to mangle some minions here in the Lair, and the rest is history.³

That got me thinking, though, about that urge to express and share thoughts. It’s been noted before that science fiction fandom (and, to extend, geekery at large) has an unusually high percentage of fans who are also authors, aspiring authors, or other content creators. There are, of course, many theories as to why this is; many of them revolve around the early history of SF as a genre and the interactive nature of the pulps and their letter columns, while others point to the fact that many noted authors in the field began as fans before taking their first literary steps. I suspect that these are all certainly contributing factors, but they fail to explain something I’ve noticed⁴⁵ in my long association with SF fans and geeks of all stripes.

Geeks are creative in all sorts of ways.

Sure, there are lots of authors, aspiring and otherwise, in geek circles. Heck, my Twitter stream is full of ‘em!⁶ But it’s also full of knitters, musicians, podcasters, homebrewers, craftspeople of all stripes, cooks, coders, artists, photographers, and game designers. I could go on and on, but one central theme seems to be the drive either to make new, cool things that didn’t exist before, or else to tinker with and improve on old things and make them even better. Now, you may argue that this is a bit of observational bias on my part, seeing as how almost all my friends are proud geeks. And you may even be right, maybe this creative impulse is just an extension of, say, a procreative one. But I don’t think that’s the case.

By some definitions, the quintessential trait of the geek is a devotion to some subject area or body of knowledge. We love to learn about cool stuff, though the value of “cool stuff” may vary from geek to geek. We love to share (and sometimes argue over) what we know and, I think, we love to add to the fields we treasure as well. Wil Wheaton likes to say that we should get excited and make things, but I think making things is exactly what gets us excited. In the end, there’s a thing there that wasn’t there before, and I for one think that’s really awesome.

What do you think? Is the drive to create higher among geeks? What do you do when you’re feeling creative?

1. The soirees are decidedly more common here than one would expect in your average lair-like environment. [↩]
2. It does, however, provide copious guidance on the use of footnotes. [↩]
3. Or, um, will be at any rate, seeing as this is my first column. [↩]
4. Remember, kids, the plural of “anecdote” is “data!” [↩]
5. No, not really. [↩]
6. And if yours isn’t, you’re missing out! [↩]

Image via Wikipedia

So recently, the 27th of September, I had a… significant, yes, that’s a good word. I had a significant birthday. It prompted me to write the new shiny once the shine has worn off article, and got me thinking on other things as well. Like what I am about to talk to you about.

As you might have guessed, this article is on getting things done. Why this article? Well, I have always been self motivating, to a point. It’s that point that has been the sticking point. At that point, I either get distracted, get bored, or any number of other things that causes me to put what I am working on aside, and focus my attentions on other things.

I know many people who are like this. When the going gets tough, or boring, or something new and shiny is over there, they leave what they are doing, tools on the workbench, wood clamped in the vise, and go do something else. Sometimes they come back to finish, but often they don’t.

So, knowing that I am like this, and that others are, I thought it would be good to talk about how to actually get your stuff done.

Nothing here is amazing. It’s all common sense. Perhaps though, something here will stick with you, that you can use as a tool to get you moving again on the project you are on so that you can *finish it*. Whatever it may be.

1. Cut out distractions.

Overlord Miller in a past podcast (the one talking about Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man 2), said that he found out during his latest move that he was most productive when everything from his desk was packed away in boxes. He couldn’t touch anything, be distracted by books or toys, that it was just bare desk to look at when he wasn’t looking at the screen and writing.

Distractions are something that kills projects. It gets you thinking about things that *aren’t the project*. That is death to a project, or at least slows it down.

I know I am guilty of this, which is why I am writing this in a room with very very few distractions.

2. When the going gets boring… find something interesting in the project to work on.

This is of course, is a killer. If you are bored with your work, even the length of your fingernails and cutting them becomes a distraction. So things on your desk or in your life, are easy ways to get pulled off of your project.

So, in addition to #1, try and find something that interests you about the project you are doing. Perhaps something that used to interest you but you haven’t worked on that part in a while. Take another look at the project and try to find some aspect of it that you want to work on and polish. Don’t get too bogged in the details or distracted by the shiny (See #3). If you can interest yourself again, it’s a good bet that you will continue to work on it.

It’s also good to intersperse the boring things with the fun things. This isn’t always possible, but try to minimize the length of time you spend on boring, getting them done quickly, so you can get back to kicking ass and doing fun stuff.

3. Don’t distract yourself.

What does this mean? This is the part where your attention wavers, and you invent things that take you off task. If you’re a writer, it’s looking at the cool new laptops, tablets, or writing tools. Perhaps perusing a forum on writing or Twitter with your writing group. If you code, it’s looking at new IDEs, or new version control methods, figuring out how to install the latest OS on your rooted phone.

When you are working on something, ask yourself. “Is this thing going to help me accomplish what I want to do? Does Scrivener for Windows help me get things done, or should I stay with yWriter and text editors to edit my novel. (Personal answer: Nope, just a way for me to avoid editing.) Is that portable Bluetooth keyboard going to help me write or code more? (Personal answer: Yes, I am writing on it and my Xoom tablet right now.)

If you can make yourself stop, just for a moment, and analyze if the thing you are doing is helping you get to your goal, then that is usually enough to put you back on track.

4. Put your butt in the chair and do it!

The inevitable. Your own willpower. You need to grow it, nurture it, and above all just do the damn thing you want to get done. Writing doesn’t magically appear if you are just reading self help writing books. Code doesn’t write itself into a cool app if you are looking at new coding tools and not actually using them.

Putting the butt in the chair, cutting out distractions, focusing on your project, and not falling into a niche that doesn’t help the project are the things you need to keep in mind so you actually get your project done.

If you’ve made it this far, kudos to you! Also, shut this distraction down and go do that thing you were supposed to be doing! We love you here, but we want you making things, producing things, being our minions.

If this helped at all, and you actually get things done, take a picture of it and send it to us. At least just post about it in the comments.

For me, it’s back to editing, because that’s what I want to get done.

Now where’s my coffee?

Tablets, smartphones, gewgaws!

They’re the new shiny, the must have, the new toy. I get caught up with the new technology, just like many of us out there. In fact, I am writing this post on a Motorola Xoom tablet. Many of my friends and colleagues have the new shiny, tablets, a smartphone, etc. Laptops and net books are replaced by the newer and the smaller.

Why do most of the people who have these not want them anymore?

I work as a mobile and rich internet application developer. I work with the new shiny all the time. It’s a fun job, filled with changes. At the same time, the people who I have worked with, and friends in related industries, want to get out of it. They want to stop coding. They want to disconnect from the net. They want to have less technology.

Why is that?

For some it’s burnout. They’ve been pushed to code to hard and too long. For others, I don’t know. I’ve even felt the siren’s call of a quiet house, a place in the country or at least away from technology for a while.

Is it about the distractions? Is it about the insistent and instant way people can interrupt when they want to communicate with you? Is it the need for a physical presence of other people, which is lacking when talking on the ‘net?

Is it age, or is it just me?

Don’t get me wrong. I love the technology. Living in the proto Star Trek age with Picard’s tablet in my hands. I love that the tech is promoting change in politics around the world. (Hopefully for the better of all.) I look forward to the future.

Things just seem out of balance. Perhaps science is just beyond where we can fully grasp it’s implications. Maybe the Singularity is here, but we can’t quite see it.

Not everyone has this same malaise that many around me seem to have. It’s possible it’s a combination of age and who I hang out with. I’d like to know though, what is it?

Why does the new shiny not seem as shiny to me anymore?

Image via Wikipedia

Last Sunday was Father’s day, and being a father myself for more than a handful of years now I was the recipient of what for most is a day of relaxation and barbecue.

This year was different. A week before my wife, Erin, asked me if I wanted to relax at home and generally be left to lounge around and not be required to do anything, or if I wanted to do something.

Then she said, “How about doing something on Father’s Day that you won’t forget?”

That made me think. I’d had several Father’s Days where I’ve just lounged and generally had a quiet Sunday. They were nice, but really, not very memorable. I have a hard time remembering those particular non-events, even though I was very relaxed at the end of it.

Besides, I thought, this is a day about being a Father. I have two girls, and I always say that I don’t spend nearly enough time with them. So I said, yes, let’s do something.

That’s when she told me we were going rafting.

It had been years, probably close to ten, since the last time we had been rafting. It was great trip, and one that both of us remember fondly. I knew she was on to something.

So the day came, with a little trepidation as it was overcast and rain was a definite possibility. We all packed in the car and headed out. Things went smoother than normal for us, and we got away about an hour before we really needed to.

Turns out things going smoothly was going to be the order of the day, except for one part. That part happened just as we were getting in to the Starved Rock area. Our phones¹ that we were using the Google Maps directions for, stopped working.

A combination of the latest map update, which caused them to freeze and force quite, combined with a lack of any data signal at all, made them fairly useless.

So we stopped at Starved Rock, and while Erin took the kids to the lodge, I searched for a signal to get our maps back. It was about twenty minutes of searching and waiting, but I won’t bore you with that here.

The lesson learned from it though, as I got back to the car and Erin had found a paper map was, “You don’t need to always have electronics to know where you are.” I knew that lesson, should have remembered it, but it’s hard when you’re always tethered to the ‘net to remember that stuff outside the ‘net exists still.

We arrived at the Vermillion River rafting drop off, still a little early.  As we waited to be dropped up the river, my youngest helped my oldest pick and eat mulberries from the trees.

Being disconnected earlier was just a lead in to the rafting, of course. While on the river I was tempted several times to check our position on my phone, I resisted. Mainly, because we had left all the phones in the car. It was a good thing though, since checking progress on it would have ruined one of better parts of the trip.

That part? Being there.

By not having anything to distract me, I was able to pay more attention. More attention to my girls, Erin, everything on the trip. The river was an easy one, perfect for taking two young kids out on and not pulling my hair out with worry over them.

The girls swam next to the raft several times. We taught them how to paddle the boat. My oldest learned how to steer it.²

The trip was over four hours long, and while I could get a good sense of the time by the sun, it was nice to not know what time it actually was. To not even have the option to do other things.

After we passed under the last bridge and got ashore, I wanted to actually go right back in.

On the way home we stopped for dinner at the Starved Rock lodge. Something we wouldn’t have thought to do if we hadn’t lost our signal to the maps in the first place. Looking around the table, I saw that we were all tired. I also saw the girl’s excited faces as they ate and talked about the trip.

I owe a great thanks to my wife, who indeed delivered on her promise to make Father’s Day 2011 a day to remember. I recommend it to everyone.

1. G2s, we love them. [↩]
2. She’s 8. [↩]

Image by abiodork via Flickr

To say that work has been stressful of late would be something of an understatement, and I have vowed to work harder at keeping a good mindset and being a still point in the chaos around me. I do this because I think it is important: it not only helps focus my mind, but it does not add to the already-heightened sense of drama that is suffusing my meetings. I value reason and consensus, and a poor mindset in stressful situations can make that nearly impossible.

I started the day by doing part of my Triathlon training, working to get into a good headspace to tackle work and the other commitments I knew would be waiting for me. Fitness has been something I’ve come to value quite a lot in the past nine months, ever since I started working toward my goal of losing 160 pounds. I am 65 pounds down now, and if I do not work out, I feel it both mentally an physically. I slip back into bad patterns of eating and over-caffeinating when stressed, and that’s not good for me, my family, or anyone I need to interactive with. So, I work out to make my world better place.

We cause ripples. Our actions affect others.

I was reminded of this in two powerful ways today. The first was Thomas Gideon’s excellent essay, “Presence.” In it, he discusses the idea of “polishing the mirror.” Polishing the Mirror refers to the prized brass mirror of Japan, where the only way to get the metal to the proper sheen was to use small deliberate strokes for a long time until the mirror was perfect. He talks about self-improvement being much the same thing, and then by extension, by embodying the principles we value, we cause positive change. He cites this as an alternative zealotry: causing radical change by radical means over a short period. Gideon’s point, that the strongest force is the subtle force, inspired me today, and reminded me that the I have a choice in the way I spend my moments. That being there can be the most powerful thing of all.

The second thing: I found out today that I have been nominated for a Health & Wellness award at work. When I read the nomination text, I was deeply moved:

“Over the past year Chris has changed his lifestyle from an unhealthy one to a healthy one. He has lost over 60 pounds, and is preparing to compete in the Cleveland Triathlon in August. More notably, in doing so he has inspired SEVERAL of his coworkers to take their own health seriously as well and to get motivated. I am one of those people. Since January 1st I have lost 45 pounds, and will be competing in the Cleveland Triathlon with Chris in August as well. My life is healthier and happier because of Chris Miller.”

I am deeply humbled by those words, and I am honored that my actions for myself have affected others in a positive way. This reinforces my commitment to myself, to live the values I hold dear: the value of good friends and community, the value of physical fitness as a path to greater peace of mind, and the value of creative work: to give things to the world rather than simply consume.

Live the courage of your convictions. Polish The Mirror. Be There.

Like many of us, I have a tally of geek sins on my soul. These are, typically, sins of omission: a seminal movie unwatched, a classic game never played, a canonical tome not read. Some of them are out of blatant disinterest or avoidance,¹ but I do admit that many require penance on my part.² I have just redeemed myself of one of these sins, however… I have finally played The Orange Box.

Despite being a first-person shooter junkie from the moment I started tinkering with PC hardware,³ I just never got around to playing Half-Life 2. The game came out in 2004 during my medical residency, when I had no PC capable of running it, and by the time I rectified that, there were newer and shinier things crying out for my attention.⁴ Subsequently, the Half-Life 2 sequels Episode 1 and Episode 2 emerged, along with this other little game called Portal, but the obsessive-compulsive side of me⁵ refused to touch them until playing the first game, and so I remained roundly mocked by my gamer friends and blissfully unaware of what I was missing out on.

Then, a few weeks back, I heard tell of Portal 2 coming out. My wife Laura then presented the following Chain of Logical Reasoning: 1. Portal, we hear, is quite the fun game. 2. We should find it and play it, especially since the sequel is almost here, and man would that ever net us some geek cred, baby!⁶ 3. I bet, somewhere between the PS3 and our Macs, we have the technology to run it.⁷ And so, we found ourselves picking up The Orange Box for the PS3 in order to snag Portal, and as such I found myself in possession of Half-Life 2 as well.

At this point, here’s what I remembered about these games. Half-Life 2 – a stupid number of game of the year/decade/all time awards, great shooter gameplay, a badass gravity gun and physics system, and cool scripted sequences. Portal – interesting physics-based puzzles, something about cake and lies, and Jonathan Coulton wrote the end credits song that’s pretty damn catchy. Then, I finally played the games 7 and 4 years late respectively, and absolved my geek sin in this regard.

Here is what I learned:⁸

• Portal really is all that and a bag of chips. For some reason, I had been led to believe that Portal was mainly about using the first person shooter perspective to create interesting and challenging physics puzzles, with a bit of a story slapped on top of it. Much to my delight, the story is at turns engaging and hilarious, is extensively fleshed out for an experience that has ony about two hours of gameplay, and is integrated fully into the Half-Life universe. One of my favorite in-game moments was coming across an office where a Powerpoint presentation is playing, detailing Aperture Science’s⁹ strategy for competing with Black Mesa¹⁰ for United States Department of Defense contracts. I must say that the character of GLaDOS as the controlling intelligence of the Aperture Science facility is brilliantly conceived and executed. And Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton now makes quite a bit more sense…
• That noted, what really wins the day is the game design. Portal strikes a nigh-perfect balance of leading the player to intuitively figure things out on a level by level basis, allowing previously learned skills to build on each other as the game progresses, and giving just enough freedom to fail spectacularly to make the ultimate completion of each puzzle that much more satisfying. On that subject, if you’ve never played Portal with the developer’s commentary on, I highly recommend it. Not only are Ellen McLain’s anecdotes about voicing GLaDOS delightful, but the programmers’ notes on how they had to modify the game’s physics engine to make the portal mechanics work are intriguing, and the developers’ insights into how aspects of certain levels were changed based on the behavior of game playtesters gives some fascinating insight into game theory.
• Half-Life 2 also happens to be all that and a bag of chips. The core shooter gameplay is damn fun, and the roster of weapons is satisfying.¹¹ The level design is focused on an excellent mix of scripted sequences that never leave you feeling like you are wandering from area to area, killing random enemies. Instead, you have a sense of urgency moving you along – such as being hunted by superior forces across broken city rooftops, or racing against time to complete an objective – which results in you being propelled through the game organically, with opponents appearing in natural ways as the action calls for it. There are also a healthy number of puzzles to break things up, all of which are intuitive and make sense in the context of the situations they arise in.
• There are key elements in gameplay between Portal and Half-Life 2 that elevate them as superior gaming experiences. Especially after playing Portal first and hearing the developers’ insights, it’s obvious how attentive the game designers were in terms of balancing challenges and rewards in level construction, especially with feedback from playtesters.¹² Beyond any other first-person shooters I’ve played in recent memory, these two succeed because they’ve been tweaked to hit all the right notes – the combat is a blast, the puzzles are inventive and not difficult to the point of frustration, the atmosphere from the art and sound direction is engrossing, and the writing and voice acting are top notch.

My sin is expunged! My soul feels lighter already. Now, if only Half-Life 2: Episode 3 would see the light of day sometime soon… Meanwhile, there’s this little plastic box labeled Portal 2 that’s sitting next to the television as I type this. Perhaps I need to take that for a spin, lest my soul fall further into perdition.

1. I don’t care how much a part of geek (or, arguably, mainstream) culture World of Warcraft has become, I haven’t played it and never will. Mainly because if I start it, I may find myself playing at the expense of important things, like employment and food consumption. [↩]
2. Two easy examples that some find particularly egregious: I have never watched any version of Blade Runner. I have never read A Game of Thrones. [↩]
3. I cracked the case on my first PC, a 386, to install a video card so I could better run Wolfenstein 3D. [↩]
4. Doom 3 for one, which is a gorgeous and visceral game, but no Half-Life 2. In hindsight, my priorities were way off. [↩]
5. All doctors, no matter what personality type, are required to have a bit of OCD in their makeup or else they won’t survive the training process. [↩]
6. It’s possible she didn’t actually say that last bit. [↩]
7. We do have an Xbox 360, but my extensive history with PC’s means that when at all possible, I must slather hate and scorn upon Microsoft at every turn, up to and including supporting their platform as little as possible. [↩]
8. You, very likely, already know these things. Just give me a chance to catch up here… [↩]
9. The company that owns the facility depicted in Portal, if you somehow didn’t know that. [↩]
10. The research facility in Half-Life – again, if you somehow didn’t know that. [↩]
11. Gravity gun! YES. [↩]
12. One truism mentioned was that in the midst of an action sequence or time pressure, it’s surprisingly difficult to get gamers to look up at the ceiling/sky in the game world, so specific design decisions were made to make people do just that. [↩]

• 1970: Liquid crystal watches go on market
• 1971: CAT scan
• 1972: Pocket calculator
• 1973: Car airbags
• 1974: Barcodes on supermarket products
• 1975: Birth of the home computer (various now-extinct manufacturers)
• 1976: VHS and Betamax
• 1977: First complete genetic structure of an organism found (Great Britain)
• 1977: First flight of the Space Shuttle
• 1977: First commercial flight of supersonic Concorde between New York, Paris, London
• 1977: USA admits testing Neutron Bomb
• 1977: Trans-Alaska Pipeline starts oil flowing Prudhoe Bay to Valdez
• 1978: Louise Brown born (first In Vitro Fertilization “Test Tube” baby)
• 1979: Graphical User Interface developed at XEROX PARC (led to Macintosh, Windows)

At the Drive-In:

• 1970: Colossus, the Forbin Project
• 1971: A Clockwork Orange
• 1972: Silent Running
• 1973: Soylent Green, West World
• 1974: Young Frnakenstein, Zardoz
• 1975: A Boy and His Dog, Rollberball, The Stepford Wives
• 1976: Logan’s Run, King Kong
• 1977: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Wizards
• 1978: Superman: The Movie, The Lord of the Rings
• 1979: Alien, Mad Max, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Time After Time

On Television:

• 1970: Jon Pertwee becomes the Fourth Third Doctor
• 1971: All in the Family and The Electric Company debut
• 1972: Sanford and Son, Emergency!, M*A*S*H*, and Are You Being Served? debut
• 1973: The Six Million Dollar Man debuts
• 1974: Happy Days, Shazam!, Little House on the Prarie, Chico and the Man, and Nova debut
• 1975: Barney Miller, Welcome Back Kotter, Space: 1999, Fawlty Towers, Wonder Woman, and Saturday Night Live debut
• 1976: The Olympics draw one billion viewers
• 1977: Eight is Enough, The Amazing Spider Man, Soap, CHiPs, and The Love Boat debut
• 1978: Blake’s 7, The Incredible Hulk, Dallas, Battle of the Planets, Taxi, WKRP, Mork & Mindy, and Battlestar Galactica debut
• 1979: The Dukes of Hazzard, You Can’t Do That On Television, The Facts of Life, Benson, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Scooby and Scrappy Doo, Spider-Woman, and This Old House debut

Nebula Award Novels for the 1970s:

• 1970: Ringworld by Larry Niven
• 1971: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
• 1972: The Gods Themselves by Issac Asimov
• 1973: Rendezvous with Rama by Arther C. Clarke
• 1974: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
• 1975: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• 1976: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl
• 1977: Gateway by Frederick Pohl
• 1978: Dreamsnake by Vonda K. McIntrye
• 1979: The Foundations of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

1. The type of perspective made infamous by the Total Perspective Vortex [↩]

What a sad world we live in when spaceflight has become blasé.

Discovery has flown her last mission and unless the private sector continues to pursue it, America has given up her place as a pioneer in manned spaceflight. All things must end, but when I reflect on the fact that cellphone footage of a rebellion in Libya that had been going on for a week drowned out the final flight of what was once America’s dream, I feel more than a little sad.

We forget the wonder. We have more stories to distract us, endless amounts of “science fiction-ish” entertainment with CGI aliens so real-look you’d swear you could bump into one at Starbucks. As a society, we’re more absorbed with Angry Birds than with exploring the stars. How banal, how shallow, how very, very sad.

Did you know NASA has just completed their first successful orbit of the planet Mercury?  Haven’t heard of the MESSENGER project on your FOX, CNN, HLN, or NPR?  Neither have I. I found out thanks to reading Charles Stross’s blog. I had to read a Scottish science fiction author’s blog to realize that NASA was doing something amazing.

That’s just so very wrong.

We geeks love our science fiction entertainment. How many novels have you read that involved spaceflight? How about computer technology developed in-part because of the space program? How about stories about extra-planetary colonization? Aliens and offworlders?

And then…think about the last time you reading about NASA in the news when it wasn’t a tragedy. THe “everyday” work of exploring the vast reaches beyond our atmosphere.  The chick that sang the Friday, Friday song is getting more press than NASA is right now. What does that say about us a culture?

I’m as culpable as anyone. Worse, in many ways. My father worked for NASA. In my parents’ attic are boxes of memorabilia that I kept: posters of the Saturn V rocket, promotional material for the Space Shuttle while it was in construction, stack after stack of educational pamphlets and other Really Cool Things. I should be paying better attention. I remember how amazing sending men into space felt, what it triggered in my imagination. I remember both the wonder fo watching the Space Shuttle take off and the horrying sense of grief and loss that came from the Challenger tragedy. Yet, I’m as oblivious as anyone else these days.

We need a little more cool science in our lives. We need to be reminded that there are wonders beyond HD TV and Netflix. That the universe is full of Neat Shit, and we aren’t nearly as smart as we think we are.

Take some time this week and consider the amazing time in which we live. Go find out why something works. Spend some time reading up on what’s going on in space exploration. Remind yourself that there are more wonders out there than in your Star Trek Fanfic or your Harry Potter trivia book.