Trinity’s World

This is for those people who love Science Fiction. I’m not talking about people who are into niche SciFi like StarTrek, or StarWars, but people who love it all. If you enjoy SciFi as a genre, you have to visit File770.com

Mike Glyer has been writing about SciFi since I was…well I wasn’t even born yet. Back in a day, before the WebErnet brought us thing like blogs (and their predecessors: the webzine), people used to use this stuff called paper (you make it out trees) and distributed news letters and home produced magazines. Back in a day, Mike was a fan of all that is SciFi. He has chaired a few Conventions that have been hosted here in the LA area, and is well known in the Fan area as one of the people how know the history of the Genre very well.

If you know who Orson Scott Card is, or Philip K. Dick, or even if you don’t but know of projects that resulted from their work (movies like Minority Report, or books like Ender’s Game), then you will feel right at home at file 770.com.

So go there, and link to him like a good blogger.

OK so I’ve only had time to post one quick thing this month about a WordPress issue I’m having at work. I’ve been busy! Busy doing what?

Come see me and the Belles of Bedlam at the 50th annual Southern California Ren Fair. Order your tickets online and save!

Our group is doing four shows on Sat. and Sunday, each weekend, till the fair closes on May 18th. Come see our Family friendly stuff in the morning, but don’t bring the kids to our NC-17 shows on the Rouge’s Reef stage in the afternoon. This year the fair is under new ownership, so things are a bit different. Come on down to Irwindale and see what fun you can have. Just plug “15501 E. Arrow Highway, Irwindale, Ca 91706″ into Google Maps and to get directions.

Mark your calendars, I have another shamless plug!

The Belles will be performing at Brits in Pasadena on St. Patrick’s Day!

We’ll even have an opening act, Sportive Tricks, which features some folk you may find familiar. It’s gonna be a HUGE party… You won’t want to miss it!

Show starts at 8!

So, to recap:

1. 8pm
2. Monday, March 17th
3. Brits Pub in Passadena (1770 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena, CA 91106)
4. Click here for Directions

I had a new experience today. My wife showed me a dollar bill that she received as change while in North Carolina. It had a stamp on it that said “Track me at www.wheresgeorge.com.” Apparently someone put together a tracking system where you can enter a dollar bill’s serial number, and the zip code that you spent/received it in, and it will show you a report of that bill’s journey through out it’s life. I guess someone had a lot of time on their hands and wanted to do something with it. So I went, and did not find an extensive history for my dollar bill. Yet I did find out that it was at one time in New Jersey before my Wife picked it up in North Carolina. Now it’s here in California. Wonder where it will go next? Find out here. FYI, you don’t have to log in to see a bill’s history, just put the serial number of the bill in to the box, and your Zip code.

I am going to Shamelessly plug my own band. That’s right! It’s my blog and I’ll be self serving if I want to be :-).

The Bells of Bedlam will be appearing , both weekends, for the Big Bear City Renaissance Fair. Come and see us do what we do best, as we do all kinds of different shows these two weekends. We will be doing NC-17 shows, Kids shows (not at the same time), and family friendly music sets, on three different stages (again, not at the same time). All Proceeds from the fair go to benefit schools in Big Bear, and their fine arts programs. So come on out. Men, put your Kilts on. Women, strap on a sword. Kids, bring your pet dragons and fairies, and we will see you in Big Bear on August 11 & 12, and 18 & 19, (Saturdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sundays 10 a.m to 6 p.m).

Talk about a lot of pressure. When J.K. Rowling finished writing book three of the Harry Potter series, did she know how big the last of the 7 book series would be? Did she know that there would literally millions of fans that would be waiting to see how it all ended, who would die, who would live, and why things go the way they were? That is a lot of weight to bear when you sit down to write the seventh, and final, installment of a story that you have pored your heart and soul into for so long. In my opinion she pulled it off well.

I promise not to spoil anything, so let me just stick to the basics. When you pick this book up you had better have a lot of time to dedicate to it. From about page 5 till about three quarters of the way through the book you are hit with non-stop movement. If it’s not action, your hit with an important revelation about something that has gone unanswered for the last few books. If not a new bit of information, you are hit by an emotional mile stone for some character that you never realized was so important to the story until now. Rowling grabs you by the ears and holds you hostage, because you never know what is going to happen around the corner.

Talk about the crap hitting the fan! And when it does that fan is on high, because if you think Harry Potter has suffered enough in the first six books then you are going to go through a lot tissues by the time this one ends. But with each new stab of loss or difficulty, there is usually an accompanying triumph that is equal to if not better than that sorrow. But no one is safe, and anyone can die at a moments notice, especially characters you never knew you loved until they were gone (at least in my case).

Did I like the ending? Well…as a fan I received satisfaction. As a fan I’m always going to want to know more, to have a few more question answered about obscure things. But by and large I am happy with the way the story ends up, and with how Rowling leaves it wrapped up. All important questions about Harry, and the night his parents died, are answered, and so are a few others that have been driving people nuts for a few years now.

As a writer I understand why she ended things the way she did, but I may have done it differently. But who am I to stand in judgment on that issue? I was hoping for something to happen that did not, but in the end the way Rowling works it out is better than I would have (hence why she is a multi million copy best seller, and I am not).

Get your copy and read it. Then go back and read the others again to see just how well she set up everything. And then read the book again. I guarantee you will enjoy it even if you know the ending. And, just one little personal thing: NEVILE LONGBOTTOM ROCKS!!!!!!!!

My Friend Lynn sent me a link and said I had to read at least a few of the posts for this comic strip she found. The site is called Twenty Sided. I will admit that I played a little bit of Dungeons and Dragons in college (I was a single male with geek friends and it kept us out of trouble), and for that time of my life it was so much fun to play. The guy who writes this comic strip has played for years and has a lot of time as a DM. For those not familiar with the game, the Dungeon Master and writes scripts and campaigns for the game, and people spend weeks getting through the game the DM has created. This comic combines all the frustrations of being a DM, with all the random geek culture stuff that non D&D people will find funny to, and uses the Lord of the Rings as a back drop for it’s comedic wit.

My friend pointed out to me that the Lord of the Rings universe was one of the original realms that the first D&D players turned to model their worlds. It was a rich, enchanted, magical place, and they built their characters off of Tolken’s world. Well the game is a far cry from those days, so much so that going on an epic quest could be really boring. This comic walks through a modern scenario of what would happen if a DM tried to walk some guys through the Lord of the Rings story, as a campaign. I know it sound stupid, but I found myself laughing really hard a lot of the time.

Take a look. Start with the first one, and it just gets better after that.

If I can just take a second to be completely self-indulgent and say I’M GOING TO BE ON TV THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!

For those of you who have Dish Network (Like my parents) here are the times that you can catch Split Ends on the Style network. The same episode will be re-aired a few times if you can’t catch any then you must not have cable (like me).

June 23: 3:00AM, 3:00PM

June 24: 11:00AM, 7:00PM, 10:00PM

Come see me play guitar, and my wife sing, with the Belles of Bedlam. The girl we met was Heather Mills, and she was really cool. She worked at a place called Curl Up and Die, a salon in Las Vegas that mainly has a biker chick clientele. She swapped places with a stylist from Beverly Hills. Reality TV at it’s finest.