Remember

Today's blog has only one thing to say:

(from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-obrien/911-virtual-career-fair-f_b_3780175.html)

A Nerd Journey, Part 2: I Get "Con"ed

After I stopped going to StarFest, I had little to do with my fellow nerds except for a rare trip.  One was the old style conference where a few nerds and geeks would gather in a meeting room at some hotel.  There, they might discuss their favorite episodes or what they were reading and to see one celebrity up close and hear him or her talk.  And that was exactly what happened.  With no other sponsors, Starland invited for a nominal fee their clients to a meeting for the old style convention.  The guest was George Takei. I took my son and together we listened for nearly four hours as Takai answered all questions, posed for photos and signed autographs.  He still did them for free at that point.

We also went to a small comic book con that took up a large meeting room where artists, who I did not know, were doing drawings or loose sketches and talking to fans, while Mile High Comics and a few smaller venders sold comic books and trading cards.  Graphic novels were non-existent.  I knew little about comics any more, but my son had become a fan, and so we went.  I must admit, it was his desire to get comics that rekindled my comic book like, and I started collecting a few here and there.  In all, at this comic book convention, there were maybe 45 or 50 people including vendors and artists in the room at any given time.

I also still had my connections.  Students had become more and more nerdish and would talk to me about comic book movies and the book I was reading.  There were also fellow nerd teachers.  One, an avid comic book collector and the other a fellow English teacher who loved the same science fiction and fantasy books I loved. I also had my connection to a middle school theatre teacher who I mentored and has over the years become one of my closest friends.  His knowledge of all things comic book has guided me through many a new read and into the world of more alternative comics like Alan Moore, James O'Barr and Neil Gaiman.  I was reading Sandman, Crow, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Watchmen long before Hollywood discovered them as properties they could mess with.  He became my mentor in this nerd world, and now he wants me to learn role play card gaming.  I think I may have missed that boat.

But as nerds became cool, so did the conventions.  Little did I know that a Con was about to enter my life and send me back to the time when I did models and painted miniatures in the late 80's and early 90's.  In 2012, a comic book convention took place in Denver.  Nobody I knew actually knew about it until it was too late to go.  It was a huge deal, because it was the first of its kind in Denver, and it was attempting to be the next San Diego Comic Con.  There are a few of these all over the world, but no one realized that anything that huge could hit the Mile High City.  And hit it did.  It would be the first Con to dedicate itself to raising money for children's literacy.  In short, it was the only one or size that was going to be a charity driven event.  I decided, after hearing from friends that it was really cool, I would go for the second year of the event.

I had retired the year of the inaugural event so getting the time for the 2nd annual was not a problem.  What surprised me was that my wife who is as far from a nerd as I am from a Renaissance sculptor, said she wanted to go to.  I bought tickets, and so we wouldn't have to get up early every morning we also got a room less than a block away. We tried to go to a few of the panels but what truly was amazing was the people.  In 2012, 27,700 people had attended the event.  The event organizers had hoped for around 12,000. In its second year, Denver Comic Con had nearly 61,000 people show up for the event.  The organizers had expected 47,000.  They were in no way prepared for what was in its second year about to become one of the five largest Cons in the US and Canada.  Next year, they will hopefully take lessons from cons like San Diego and let you in once  you have your badge.  There are still lines even at the older Cons but waiting to get in if you already have a badge isn't one of them.

At the Denver Comic Con,  I was at home in a manner of speaking.  It was nerd heaven.  Sure, I was appalled at the Celebs hawking their signature for money from the nerds, but it was a place that I knew.  I understood.  I could talk to the people there.  I could admire the cosplay.  I was with my species.  I went to a few of the panels, missed a few that I wanted to see because of being forced to stand in line to get in, took a pictures of the cosplayers, bought a fez, and spent time with my wife who lovingly let me go where I wanted and see all that I could.  My close friend - my graphic novel guide-stumbled past a few times with his daughters in tow.  Despite the frustration of trying to get in, I will go back.  I am so excited to return to my people.

Still...there came the Big Daddy (all the nerds who read this will get the reference) of all cons.  I also went to Nerd Prom in San Diego.

A Nerd Journey

I promised myself that I would write something about the International Comic Convention in San Diego, called by those in nerdom SDCC.  I didn't know quite honestly what to write.  It is the Mecca for nerds and geeks.  So I thought that at first I would offer to you my journey into the world of nerds.

I watched Star Trek when it first appeared and was there when the first write in campaign ever done saved a show from cancelation.  I watched the Green Hornet and saw a young actor name Bruce Lee.  I watched Johnny Quest, the first night time cartoon for older kids.  I watched Kung Fu, the role that was originally suppose to be Bruce Lee's.  I watched even the horrible Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward and the over the top Wild, Wild West. I even vaguely remember watching the short lived Space 1999. I short, as a kid, I watched all things nerdish that I could and there wasn't much.  The only thing I didn't watch was Lost in Space.  I just didn't like it.  Too much Swiss Family Robinson and not enough science fiction. Because I was relegated to the bedroom TV, since my dad didn't like all things nerd, I didn't get to see these shows until they were in rerun mode in color.  There was even the short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series. Still I loved them.  They were mine.

Then the few books that were scifi sat on my shelf. I also had a few books by Robert E. Howard and of course the gold standard of fantasy and science fiction, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I had a subscription to the first glossy science fiction magazine, Omni.  I bought each of the James Blish books which adapted Star Trek episodes into short stories and read them as if they may be the last books I would ever read.  I spent my allowance and lawn mowing money on comic books.  I loved Magnus, Robot Fighter and the Savage Sword of Conan and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire --- and of course the Gold Key issues of Star Trek and Wild Wild West.  I even found a set of cheap necklaces all based on Star Trek.  I still have one although I have never found it listed in any memorabilia lists for the show.


Despite what you've heard, nerd and geek are pretty much interchangeable just as Trek, Trekker and Trekkie are.  I am a proud scifi nerd. Even when being a nerd was uncool and people made fun of us in documentaries and television, I was more or less unabashed about my love for the genre.  Even William Shatner was telling us "to get a life," and Leonard Nimoy was reminding us that I am not Spock. Years later though they would remember that they had become cultural icons.  Nimoy even wrote his second autobiography and called it I Am Spock. In 1975 or 76, I even tried to crash a speech that Leonard Nimoy was giving at Moby Gym in Fort Collins.  I got lost on the way there and by the time I arrived, I was informed it was for CSU students only.  I dejectedly turned around and made my way back to UNC, Greeley.  A year later, we at UNC got our revenge when we got to see James "Sotty" Doohan present his favorite Star Trek episode, "The Doomsday Machine." I got his autograph.  I am sorry to say that I lost it somewhere along the route to today.

I was among that group that gathered everyday, when classes allowed, in the dormitory student lounge to watch the first syndicated series in history to become bigger than its original airings. Star Trek also did something that no other series in reruns did at the time; it was syndicated without making it to the magical 5th season.  It was widely believed that for a series to be put into permanent reruns, it had to have at least five seasons of episodes.   It was history.

I'd seen Star Wars five time just because I wanted to share this amazing movie with friends. I went to the Star Trek:The Motion Picture and forgave them for it.   I even drove from UNC to Denver's best theatre at the time just so I could see Ralph Bakshi's animated fiasco adaptation of Lord of the Rings.  I didn't forgive him for it.  No one did.  To top it all off, I hit the edge of a parking curb on the way out of the lot an blew a tire, the perfect addition to the gawdawful movie. By the early 80's there were plenty of great scifi movies, even if special effects were still in their infancy, and fantasy books.  I'd discovered Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson and Raymon Feist.

When I was getting my masters degree, I went to see Wrath of Khan for the first time by myself.  To this day I remember walking out of the best of any of the Star Trek films and seeing a very large biker standing in the middle of the lobby with tears streaming down his face.  Spock was dead.  I was depressed for a week.  In those days, we didn't know that noone ever really died in Star Trek.  We believed they did.  "Spock Lives" became the mantra for many, because we knew the coffin on the newly created Genesis planet had to mean something.  At least, we hoped it did. We were right.

It was in the early 80's I began my Star Trek Collection. It was the Hamilton Plates.  Little did I know that I would eventually have an entire room dedicated to my obsession.  It was also in the mid to late 80's that I sold off my comic book collection.  We needed the money, but since I'd read most of them over and over, the collection wasn't worth much. I let go of my Star Trek, Magnus and Conan and other comic books.  I would like to tell you that I regretted the decision, but that would be untrue.  I didn't.  A few had even been damaged by moisture and mold.  It was time for them to be enjoyed by others.

Then we moved to Elizabeth, and I discovered the convention.  Don't get me wrong.  I knew there were conventions, I had just never lived close enough to where there was one that I could go to. My first convention was StarFest.  Starland, a science fiction store dedicated to memorabilia, had sponsored them for years.  They were the first place where nerds could gather.  There were even a few who went to point at the nerds and geeks.  I openly admitted that I was far from being able to discuss Star Trek by things like episode number. I wasn't the nerdiest of nerds. I still am not.  Comic book conventions didn't fill much more than a conference room at a hotel, but Star Con's were huge.  We, nerds had some place to belong. Sure a few dressed up but not nearly like they do now and we still called them costumes. There was no cosplay. Steadily, throughout the late 80's and 90's science fiction began to dominate.  Blockbuster movies from Terminator to Alien and E.T. to Close Encounters ruled.   Then came the return of Star Trek in the form of  The Next Generation, and it all seemed to come together.  With the growing strength of CGI effects in movies and the discovery that not just nerds would watch and read this stuff, popularity grew and grew.

As it became popular, I also quit going to StarFest.  It had become more and more about the merchandise and how much money could be made from nerds and less and less about the fans and the genre.  Actors began to charge their fans for making them famous.  Cons also became more expensive, and I had children to feed, house payments to make...a luxury, and so I quit going. But StarFest had given me something, it was a way to introduce my passion to my son.  My daughter was too young at the time.  Still, I managed to turn both of my kids into nerds.

Suddenly though,  a funny thing happened. Nerds became cool.

Next up...I return to the scene of the crime...Denver's Comic Con.

Killer Fluoride?

I'd honestly thought the fluoride in your water is a poison went away with the idea that at one point it was a Communist plot, and then this meme found its way to my timeline (I honestly don't know how this Facebook page keeps finding its way onto my timeline, but I have other memes from the same group). 

So I Googled "dangers of fluoride in drinking water." 

Of the many sites that popped up, most were far from scientific.  There were actually two concerns that did show up.  Over-fluoridation can cause fluorosis or slight tooth and other bone discoloration.  A problem that I suffer from having started life on less than well controlled cistern water. I had a dentist that not only identified it, but could tell me what part of Colorado I was raised in.  The other concern is one that has been going on for about 50 years.  Fluoride was also once used to treat a hyperthyroid.  The opponents to the use in water are concerned it may suppress the thyroid  gland.  Most studies have found no link to the problem.  A hand full have said otherwise.  And therein lies the problem.  Point only to the studies over the last 50 years that support this meme or point to the preponderance of science that says you are living in fear and should be wearing a tin foil hat.

Don't worry, we will all be killed by GMO's or red dye #12 long before the fluoride discolors our bones and kills us.

Serious Syria

I want to do this without politics. This is not a Democrat vs. Republican.  That said the politics on the extreme sides have already started.  On the extreme right, Glenn Beck has trotted out the cannibal rebel video  (caution graphic) which was used a while back.  As usual he fails to report that the main rebel Free Syrian Army, The Syrian Coalition, and the Supreme Council have all ordered the arrest and trial of this disgusting human being. I know it, in the video, Beck makes it seem like no one reported this atrocity, but the Blaze.  It was covered by a number of mainstream sites as well.  In all honesty, the video was actually posted by someone other than Beck on September 1st as if it were new.  Still it is being used for less than pure and noble reasons.

On the extreme left we have progressive pundit Ed Shultz who is absolutely positive that we are once again being lead down the path to war and that Syria and Iraq are synonymous with each other.  He implies, using parallel video clips, that we are being fed and misled as he feels we were when Bush and Cheney took us into the longest running war in US history, Iraq.

There is also a few of the nuts who I honestly don't think knows whats going on even on their best day.  Representative Joe "You Lie" Wilson is trying to imply that this is a diversion for the scandals which don't exist and the looming debt battle.  In other words,we are looking at Syria now to distract us from the non-existent Lybia and IRS scandals from several months ago and for a vote that isn't coming for another month. I don't understand the logic either.

Then there are the rest of us.  We are scared that it may be another Iraq or Vietnam.  We are appalled and supported the ban of chemical weapons as did most of the world.  We take one look at those little bodies lined up following the last attacks by the Syrian monster, Assad, on his own people.  Yet we did nothing years back when Saddam did the same thing to the Kurds.  We don't want to be the only ones to enforce the treaty, but the truth is we maybe the only nation that can. We are, the last super power.  It is a civil war there. Should we be involving our military in it? On the other side, if we do not, what message do we send to the lunatics like Iran and North Korea both of who have not only chemical weapons, but both have or want to have nuclear capability? Then there is the issue of who do we support.  Some groups are extreme, and other moderate and others we just don't know about.  We do know, however, that Syria has been secular in the past, and it is unlikely that they would embrace any extremist group.  Then there is Hezbollah and Iran who support the current Syrian dictator.  If we fail to act, are we okaying their long desired attack on our ally, Israel?

This is just a few of the complexities we face, and I mean just a few.  We must tread carefully.  I am pleased the President Obama asked for Congressional approval.  I would like it if he would come out and say if Congess says "no" then he will seek a non-military solution and will stand by the decision. At the same time, I am also wondering why both sides of the aisle don't approach our own domestic problems with the same sense of earnest work that they do this topic?

The discussion cannot be poisoned by our fears of Iraq, but on the other hand, we must be mindful of the old adage "those who do not study history are destined to repeat it."  I keep going back to those bodies (I will let you Google the pictures yourself or you can take my word the pictures are horrific). The horror of a weapon once used in the first World War.  A treaty which banned chemical use dating back to the first Geneva Convention because of that World War. Do we just pay lip service to the banning of these weapons and turn our back again as we did with the Kurds? And yet, we are perhaps alone if we go forward.  Why?

France will only go if we go.  England, our closest ally, is out.  The Arab league wants action but they will not offer troop support.  They are already trying to arm the rebels. There are also the allies of Israel, Turkey and Jordan listed as helping in the plan.  They appear in the request to Congress.  In fact, other than that, I can find only statements that there are many nations that will support us, but who these nations are is not listed.  We know that Russia  may not be opposed if it can be proved absolutely that Damascus ordered the attack on their own people.  In short, before this happens, the United Nations must act.  The odds for that is not good.  The Senate Committee of  Foreign Affairs has passed a resolution that sets the limits of the attack to no soldiers on the ground, and the attack is not to exceed 60 days with an option for the President to request a 30 day extension.  My concern is that there is no requirement to put this request through the UN which admittedly is slightly more dysfunctional of the Congress.

I am torn.  We need to protect ourselves and our allies.  We signed treaties and agreed to steps about the use of these weapons and yet, we seem to be almost alone.  It is not our war.  We have been mislead before and it left us in a costly war looking for WMDs and links to Al-Qaeda that did not exist.  The vote on the committee was 11 to 7 with one Senator voting "present." The vote was not split down party lines.  We most certainly will see Assad use these weapons again if no one acts, but we have not been given any of the "many options" that have been discussed.  I must wonder how many of those options do not include military.  Assad is a monster, a mad man, to expect him to react in a rational manner is not likely, and yet, he should be stopped.

 I am like that Senator who voted present, I am not seeing the answers I need.

Gatsby...is okay.

I didn't see The Great Gatsby in the movie houses.  I waited for the DVD which came out last week.  I will point out that my wife did go see it, and she told me that on the big screen it was visually stunning.  I will also point out that I've never made it through any version of the Fitzgerald novel adapted for the screen.  I know the 1974 version with Robert Redford was highly praised.  I walked out on it.  I found it incredibly boring. Thinking it was because I was probably too young for the movie I've tried to watch it several times.  I was not too young.  It is boring.  So I approached the new Gatsby with some trepidation.

The novel, which is in no way a favorite either, is a complex story so adapting it to the screen in some sort of straight plotline movie also a hard task.  For Baz "Romeo and Juliet/Moulin Rouge" Luhrmann to bring his over-the-top style to the movie made it at least interesting to look at.  I have to admit though by the end of the first party, I'd grown a bit weary of how many Art Deco grand spectacles was included.  Clearly the staging was done with 3D in mind.  At least, I wasn't bored.

His attempt to include the ever dominant eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleberg was both visually impressive and thematically a failure.  The eyes are not as the movie seems to indicate the "eyes of God" but are supposed to be the loss of spiritual values in favor of the American Dream becoming more about making money than becoming simply better.   So it becomes a bit oversimplified but I admit, it is a difficult symbol that every adaptation has struggled with.  The eyes over the valley of ashes push the idea that the Dream has become a lie.

The movie does better with the "green light" at the end of Daisy's dock which Gatsby watches from his house and reaches for.  The green light in both movie an book becomes Gatsby's dream, but it is far, unobtainable, in the distance.  While the movie puts forth the idea that when Gatsby and Daisy cannot see the light, he has lost something among many things he sees as magic, it tends to downplay the idea that Gatsby has but one dream and that he has done all for Daisy, and like the green light, she is an unobtainable dream.

The final words of the film are straight from the novel, but it felt as if something were missing to me.  It dawned on me that the last part of the film had simplified the end of what was a complex ending in the novel. The other element that I found getting in the way were the transferring the words written by the narrator, Nick Carraway, played by Toby Maguire. I also do not understand why we need to have Nick telling the story to anyone but the audience.  The entire sanitarium sequence is useless and an unnecessary device so we can have words floating all over the screen.  While I am at it, Gatsby does not need to start or end every sentence with the words "old sport." The entire point is that Gatsby is good at looking like new rich and fitting in.  The constant addition of "old sport" makes it appear that he isn't.

The older he gets and the more experienced, Leonardo DiCaprio becomes a stronger and cleaner actor.  He does capture the mystery of Jay Gatsby better than those who have played the role before him.  Maguire as the chronicler of the events also turns in his usual solid slightly overacted performance.  The antagonist of Tom Buchanan, played by Joel Edgerton, was  a bit too evil rich.  One has to wonder that if Carraway (Maguire) and Buchanan (Edgerton) were once school friends, what did Carraway ever see in this pompous fool or why Daisy would ever marry him. Daisy, the lost love, is played by Carey Mulligan, does okay, but she doesn't really stun as The Woman who has impacted so many lives, especially becoming the obsession of the mysterious Gatsby.

I am not one to ever expect movies and books to be equals.  Still, the movie lacked depth.  It was a surface level.  Like Moulin Rouge, it is visual and mostly well acted but lacks depth that it needs to become truly great film. The Great Gatsby is worth the watch, but is merely okay.

Welcome to the Other Colorado

When it first was proposed many thought it was something of a joke.  It was the proposal of Weld County and few other counties along with apparently a county or two in Nebraska that they would secede from the respective states and become the 51st state of Northern Colorado.  The argument was that rural counties in Colorado were no longer receiving any support by the Front Range controlled government of Colorado.  The argument works if we ignore the counties that are not even in Colorado that initially wanted to join.  To a certain degree it is true that rural counties do not receive as much as the Front Range Cities.  For a long time, when roads needed fixed, the money first went to Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder and maybe Fort Collins.  For many a year, where I grew up, we referred to Denver's other mayor, the Governor.  But I hadn't really thought about that since Roy Romer or Governor Doom, Richard Lamb.

What is the complaint? Well it seems to have to do with regulating petroleum, guns, and in general the fact that the largely Republican rural counties lost legislative control to the larger Democrat cities.  In other words, they were getting out voted.  We will ignore if such a separation did occur if such a state is even viable and if folks would be thrilled with the idea that the bulk of votes would now rest in another city, the college town of Greeley.  If it succeeded it would become one of the least populated states in the US and the reddest.   If a separation did occur there would be a list of problems to overcome. There would  be the issue of water rights, oil rights, the University of Northern Colorado, infrastructure, what to do with Moffat county (I will get to that in a moment), the countless connections that every county has to other counties and the state government, and do we still cheer for CU, CSU, the Broncos, the Avalanche, Rockies and the Nuggets.  Of course there is one advantage if this happens.  If I ever decided to go back to teaching, I could establish retirement in two states without moving, but it would really mess with the retirement of those who currently have money set up with Colorado's retirement program.

For awhile, the secession talk subsided because the idea developed of perhaps changing the structure of the state government so that every county would have the same number of representatives regardless of the population of the county.  In other words, representative would be based on land and not people. That would in all probability go down to defeat, so once again the session talk continues.  Several of these counties will put it on their ballot to see if they should go the state and request approval from the state legislature for secession. If approved in Colorado, then it must be approved by the dysfunctional congress in Washington D. C.

It amounts to a hissyfit because these counties aren't getting their way.  It seems every time someone on the extreme left or extreme right or just the extreme doesn't have the vote to go their way, they decide it is time to take their ball and go home. Don't like the president; Rick Perry thinks Texas should secede.  Don't like the rules in one state; then that county should secede to another state.  Don't like the rules in Colorado; make your own state.  And so it goes.  It is actually more than that though.  Governor Hickenlooper has stated that he needs and the state legislature needs to pay better attention to its rural areas.  Probably true. Just as true, it is the nature of representative democracy that occasionally one group or another loses control.

And then it happened.

The county commissioners of my county decided to join the movement.  Did they publicize that they were considering this? No.  Did they have it on their agenda? No.  They just did it.  They voted 3-0 to add Elbert County to  the 51st state initiative.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  I told my wife that I saw this on the news, and she looked at me and said that it was just embarrassing.  I understand that living in Colorado where the larger area of the state is rural, but the population is mostly urban, it is tough not to feel left out.  That said, I really don't feel very well represented by the sneakiness of my county commissioners.  They did, in fact, exactly what they are accusing the Colorado State Legislature of doing: passed something without request for public input.  They went only on the idea that the vocal few is representing everyone.  I do not know if I am in the minority or not, but I do know that there was no public discourse of this decision.

So right now there are ten counties in the movement. They are Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson, Logan, Moffat, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld, and Yuma.  There are some obvious problems.  Moffat is far from the other counties (Routt, Jackson, and Larimer sort of get in the way).  Morgan also would effect the shape as would Lincoln as it seems to be in the way of Elbert joining.  I also saw in one report that the town of Erie would end up in two states. I don't know what counties from other states are still involved if any now.  What I do know is that it is unlikely that the 51st state will occur.  Still, it would be nice if the representatives doing this bothered to have a public discussion before putting it on a ballot.