Sci Fi Jungle

Shapeshifting Giant? Loki!

One of my daily "tending my garden" tasks that I do for my blog is to check the Trendite website. Tredite lists the 100 hottest web searches from Google Trends, and also gives a list of the Yahoo top movers and Yahoo Leaders for the day.  I scan these list of top searches for things that pertain to Science Fiction, and if something catches my interest I blog about it.

In this manner I try to keep the blog up to date and write about terms that people may be searching for.

So today I noticed that one of the top searches was "shapeshifting giant" which lead me to the question of "Why?"  It turns out that this is one of today's New York Times Crossword puzzle clues!  Wow - you can really learn alot about what people are doing with their mornings by looking at Trendite!

So anyway - for those who might want to know, Loki is the shapeshifting giant they are talking about.  Also, I found a CHEAT website that has all the answers to all the NYT Crossword Puzzles: The New York Times Crossword In Gothic  Kind of takes the fun out of it though...

2008 Summer Blockbusters

Let's talk about some upcoming summer movies to get all of us Sci Fi heads in an anticipatory lather.

I got some great info from Rob's "My Observations." blog

Wall-E Coming June 27th.- My kids (3 1/2 and almost 5) are already so excited about this movie its not even funny. Pixar and Disney have teamed up again to bring us a kid magnet of a film set in 2700, about a robot, WALLE (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class) who meets a search robot EVE and discover that he is more than a trash collector.  Everyone all together now "WALL-E!!!"

Journey to the Center of the Earth: 3D Coming July 11th. I am personally going to avoid this one like the plague due to motion sickness, but I do love me some Brendan Frasier. Based on the classic story by Jules Verne. A geologist (Brandon Frasier), his nephew and mountain guide discovery a new “world” as they search for his missing brother. Their adventure takes them to “center of the Earth,” which is shot in 3D.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army coming July 11th - Man this is looking all Pan's Labrynth and Shiznit.  I dunno - I really liked Hellboy, the first movie so I will give it a shot.  In the sequel to the 2003 movie Hellboy, Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic character, Hellboy (Ron Peralman) must battle a ruthless leader who is marching an army of fantasy creatures towards the destruction of humankind.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe Coming July 25. Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) are back! This time instead of taking on the establishment and aliens, Scully and Mulder now deal with the supernatural in a stand alone story that pays homage to some of the classic episodes from early in the series.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor August 1st. - Oh yeah - bring on the sexy Brendan Frasier with a side of some sexy Jet Li.  Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) is back battling mummies and the undead in a new adventure. This time Rick, his son Alex, his wife Evelyn (now played by Mario Bello), and his brother-in-law Jonathan are in China as they combat the ancient Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) who is resurrected with only two goals on his mind to raise his 10,000 warriors who are suspended in animation and to take over the world. This adventure takes the O’Connells from the catacombs of the Forgotten Palace to the tops of the snowy Himalayas.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars August 15th - This animated movie picks up after the “Attack of Clones” as Anakin and Obi-Wan fight the evil Count Dooku and General Grievous as they try to save the Republic. This all-new animated movie tells the exploits and trails the Jedi Knights as they face The Cone Wars that engulf the Republic.  I guess there are those that will line up for this type of punishment.  Me - I'd prolly rather poke my eye with a knitting needle instead.  I am still pretty pissed off about those three really bad prequels.

Create Video Game Mashups with MUGEN

I've learned about an interesting software tool (of somehwat dubious copyright) called MUGEN.  It is a 2D Fighting Game Engine written by a now defunct company called Elecbyte.

Kids have taken this platform and use it to create fighting game mashups using their own characters, characters from other video games, as well as the ones that came with the engine.  Its a great example of the ingenuity of youth and their seeming endless well of energy when it comes to creating games.

Here is more information from Wikipedia on M.U.G.E.N or MUGEN.  Here is a video that shows how to install MUGEN and get it up and running. And here is a video of a game on the platform.

Amazon.com 50% Off Blu Ray Titles

Amazon.com is having a tasty sale on some Blu Ray titles - so if you are getting Dad a Blu Ray player for Father's Day consider these deals with a sci fi bent.


Blu Ray Discs on Sale

Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]
The Fifth Element (Remastered) [Blu-ray]
Hellboy (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]
Underworld (Unrated) [Blu-ray]
Independence Day [Blu-ray]
The Day After Tomorrow [Blu-ray]
Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer [Blu-ray]
Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within [Blu-ray]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Director David Fincher and Paramount Pictures will be releasing a movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  The movie will star Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchettm and Tilda Swinton, and is slated for release on December 19, 2008.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (from the book Tales of the Jazz Age) is about a man who is born as an old man and ages backward before ceasing to exist as a newborn baby.  Although perhaps not technically Science Fiction, it has elements of the fantastical and therefore I will cover it here.

Before seeing the movie in December perhaps you would like to read, re-read, or listen to the story.

• Here is a free online version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 
• Here is a free audio version of the story: “Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 
• As well here is the Free mp3 audio download from ThoughtAudio.com.

The wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze me!

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Serenity, is coming out with a new TV show called Dollhouse. 

i09 has the trailer for Dollhouse here and here is a Q & A Interview with Joss Whedon from the LA Times website.

According to the LA Times:

"Eliza Dushku will play Echo in the new show "Dollhouse." When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab, with no memory of their assignments -- or of much else."

Honestly, I can't imagine how this could be a good premise for a show, unless she breaks out of there.  Maybe that's what we get to watch.  I don't know.   It sounds very "yuck" to me.

Do .edu Links Provide Better SEO than .com Links?

In my spare time I have been reading about Search Engine Optimization.  Webmasters spend a lot of time and effort making sure that their sites get good placement in the search engine results and like to try to reverse engineer and try to figure out what types of "backlinks" Grandma Google might weigh more heavily than others.  Then there is the subtle dance that goes around with link exchanges, which have a spectrum all the way from simple you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours to good ole' commercial enterprises which have sprung up around this fertile ground.  Wherever you have a "commodity" with a value, a marketplace will follow.  Did you know you can even buy links!

One company, EduTextLink even  specializes in .edu domain link building. According to their marketing information they are "Edu domain experts" and  "have figured out how to redirect the power of edu domains and push this authority directly to your clients’ web sites."

Now, one important thing to remember is that Google, and the other search engines are not going to publish what criteria they use to weigh the importance and quality of links.  Their algorythms are their "special sauce" and they are not telling us the recipe. 

So while I have read a lot about the magical tips of SEO, I read them with a big old grain of salt.  I can only believe that the best way to get traffic to a site must be to keep on writing quality content that is interesting to your target readership.  This little website doesn't get a huge amount of traffic yet, but I have had some success with some posts, most notably my Top 10 Sci Fi Comedies list.  I am going to keep plugging away at it, with my "tending the garden" mentality, until either I "take over the world" or else get tired of it.

5 Wonderfully Bizzare Sci Fi Inspired Crafts

Here are 5 fantastic Sci Fi inspired craft projects.  It is amazing to me what people come up with when combining their hobbies and interests.   All the  photos are the  property of their  respective web site owners.  Please visit their sites for more information, patterns, and bigger pictures.

Alien Knitted Dishcloth by Random Nicole.

How to Crochet or Knit a Dalek from Boing Boing (Extermaknit!)

Sci Fi Book quote Cross Stitch by Qamar

Star Gate SG1 Afghan Crochet pattern by Lee Ann Hamm

Hobbit Foot Baby Booties from Entropy House

Novel Quiz: Famous Opening Lines

Go take this Quiz of Memorable First Lines from novels, from the Encarta web site.  I got 11 out of 13 correct, which I think is pretty decent considering I did have to guess on a few of them.  I am pretty well read however, if I do say do myself.

Strangely, one of the ones I got wrong was from a book I have read.  But it was a long time ago, so cut me some slack!

Got another coffee break to waste time?  Here's another quiz from the same site about World Mythology.

Alien Peace Sign

By the way - the cafepress store (see link upper right hand corner of blog) got some good search results from a search for Alien Peace Sign.  I still remain hopeful that we can make a buck from these gorgeous high quality t-shirts with original art.  Zeb the alien throwing the peace sign --- what could be more cool than that?