Also, the hints need help. One question was, what’s 900 times 70. My daughter used the hint button which simply told her the shortcut way of how to do the problem. Ignore the zeros and then add them at the end of whatever 9 times 7 is. Not cool. My daughter had no idea why this short cut worked. I did a math exercise with her to help her see the pattern in order for her to understand why it worked. Other Leapster mathematical games gave visual representations along with the hints, and did not do short cuts. For a company that advertises learning games, they need to step up and follow current studies which show that students need to understand the fundamentals, and the long way of doing math, before they can understand the short cuts of math, with the use of as many visual aids and hands on activities as possible.

Hence I am rather disappointed with this game.
The only reason why it did not get a lower than a three out of five is that my daughter is still having fun with the game.

This is going to be a bit of a stub review so as not to spoil anything for new readers.

Beddor has an interesting take on the Wonderland universe. Redd is Alyss’s Aunt, who attempted to usurp Alyss’s rightful place as Queen of all Wonderland. Alyss is currently Queen, and is of the Spades deck. But, she has a problem. The Clubs and Hearts decks are working against her, and not only that, but the powers of Imagination have been taken away by a unique weapon of war. Alyss’s Imagination is the source of her power, but fortunately she also has a good head on her shoulders and is able to think things through, ah, but isn’t that a part of imagination? To be able to find ways to solve a problem. Imagination is indeed slowly returning, but very slowly. In the mean time the Clubs decks are rounding up all the Imaginationists, painters, poets, etc, who are unable to create works of art due to the loss of the Power of Imagination.

The prologue starts with Alyss trying to find out if there are any clues on how to help Wonderland on Earth. In so doing she becomes stuck on Earth, unable to return to a Wonderland that requires her attention. That in itself is a symptom of something being very very wrong in Wonderland. This causes the reader to wonder, what made Alyss desperate enough to return to earth, and how is she going to get back to Wonderland before everything goes all to hell? The prologue essentially acts as a hook to make the reader interested in reading on. It worked.

There are also many World War 2 parallels, such as the rounding up of Imaginationists into relocation camps (not everyone has an imagination), propaganda speeches, hypocrisy, etc. There is also a clear distinction between the good guys and the bad guys, and I must say Redd is, of course, the ostentatious obnoxious kind. She is working with Arch the Head of the Clubs, who is better at being evil than she is. The Oracles, who are the caterpillars (which I found amusing), are giving prophecies to both sides of the conflict, declaring loyalty to an Everqueen, protecting her and the Heart Crystal. But no one has a clue who this Everqueen is. It is one more thing that Alyss has to deal with to try to figure out how to heal Wonderland.

Beddor has given the Alice in Wonderland story more breadth and depth. It helps to be familiar with the original Through the Looking Glass story, or to have seen or read some rendition of it (Movies, Disney, etc.), but not entirely necessary. In fact, there is enough information in this novel that I was able to understand and glean what had occurred in the previous novels without having read them (which I haven’t). Though, I’m sure I missed out on some subtlety. I like Dodge, the fellow in love with Alyss, and I like Hatter. Hatter is cool. I was amused to see a weapon’s diagram of the AD-52 (Automatic Dealer). The entire world is WEIRD. Of course! This is a Through the Looking Glass story. It’s Wonderland. Of COURSE it’s going to be weird! It’s in the nature of the beast.

The novel is classified as Young Adult Fiction, ages 12 and up. I have no arguments there. So, if you’re looking for something bizarre and interesting to read, this is it.

1: Heath Ledger IS the Joker.
2: Aaron Eckhart IS Harvey Dent
3: Maggie Gyllenhaal IS Rachel Dawes (she should have been in the first one)
4: Gary Oldman IS Gordon
5: Christian Bale IS the Dark Knight, of course.
6: Morgan Freeman and Michael Cain were still AWESOME as Lucius Fox and Alfred.
7: The plot is not quite what you think it is.
8: The dialog was engaging.
9: The overall effects supported the themes and plot of the movie.

With all that said, this movie is NOT for kids. Seriously. Do NOT take your child to this movie. The Joker IS CREEPY and SCARY. This is no run of the mill Joker. He makes you laugh and yet you feel AWFUL for laughing. It’s full of violence (duh) but the type is not just explosions, though there are plenty of those, but it’s psychological as well. There are also some disturbing scenes. There’s very little sexual innuendo and not much profanity though.

*SPOILER ALERT!* If you do not want spoilers then do not read this section! Skip to the end. You have been WARNED.

My favorite scenes are following:

The Joker’s pencil trick. That was horrifyingly awesome.

The Joker sitting down next to Harvey Dent dressed up as a nurse.

The Joker attempting to blow up the hospital but his remote didn’t work immediately. He smacks it a few times and then jumps when it finally works.

Bruce Wayne absconding with the entire ballet cast as a cover for a mission.

The black inmate tossing the trigger to the bomb out the window.

Gordon faking his own death to protect his family from the Joker.

Harvey Dent’s change from the White Knight of Gotham to the Two Face. It was utterly believable and well done, and unexpected. I figured they were setting us up for the next movie, but nope.

Batman’s personal sacrifice to save the face of Gotham’s hope. He was the one who murdered the cops, and Harvey Dent was simply murdered by the Joker after the hospital incident. Dent was the hero Gotham needed while Batman is the hero Gotham deserved.

Other awesome things, the Joker’s broken speech and his lip licking tick. His motivation is to have fun. He’s intelligent, and plays mind games. He tells Batman that they need each other. . .

I love how you never find out how the Joker got his scars. It’s a different story each time he explains them.

*END* of spoilers. You may now read without concern!

Seriously, if you love Batman, see this movie. If you only moderately like Batman see this movie. If you want to see why this movie has been in the number one slot all month, see this movie. I want to see it again, in theatres, because it deserves that kind of love and attention. This movie will become a part of our DVD collection, which is saying something since we are rather picky about what movies we choose to pay up money for.

First, the non-spoilers.

Basically it’s two movies. Tony Stark being a  massive self centered uncaring jerk, and then Iron Man kicking butt. All roles were well played. A red headed Gwyneth Paltrow played a great Pepper Potts.  There was a plot, and my suspension of disbelief was not taken out and shot.

This leads to them playing it straight. There was no winking at the camera, no commentary imbedded in the movie like there was in X-men (what would you rather wear yellow spandex?). It was completely straight. This is the world and how life is and here is what happened in this world. That is what made this movie so awesome.

The Iron Man suit was not all CG.  Some of it was actually created thus making the world feel real and made certain scenes even better.

If you are a comic book geek you must see this movie. If you are a Robert Downey Jr. fan you must see this movie, if you’re open minded about comic genre movies you must see this movie. It is in my opinion the BEST comic movie I have ever seen. Yes, really.

Here is the Official Iron Man Trailer on YouTube

I will relate to you some of my favorite scenes, so if you have yet to see this fine movie, cease to read now (unless you don’t mind it being spoiled for you).

*Warning! Entering the Spoiler Arena!*

Pepper Potts enters Starks lab with the glass doors and walls shattered.  She is looking at the floor shocked, and then when she looks up she is even more dumbfounded as she sees Starks robotic helpers taking off his new Iron Man suit. Potts says, “what’s going on here?” to which Stark replies, “Let’s face it this is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing”

Stark arguing with his robot helper was hillarious.

Stark saying to Potts, “you know you’re thinking about that night on the balcony.” To which Potts replies after describing the balcony scene, “. . . and you just left me there? . . . That night?” Stark, actually feeling guilt and a bit wide eyed says, “Mm hm.” Only Pepper Potts can make Tony Stark feel guilty.

We are now LEAVING the spoiler arena. It is safe to read this part.

I think I’m done now anyway.

However, bizarrely enough, what did NOT get lost, and was rediscovered today while I was unpacking and dealing with the remaining boxes of stuff after my fairly recent move, was my green spiral bound notebook labeled “Music Bu.” You can imagine my surprise when I saw this. Inside contains how and what I was going to do for the bureau. Somehow this notebook has stayed with me when I left the nest and got married, moving to Vegas, then moving to Gimp City (my “pet” name for Yuba City), and then returning to San Jose where I am now.

I wanted to do an AudioZine! Now, there’s a nifty idea that’s probably more plausible now, but it wasn’t just gonna be people talking. This was gonna be 1-2 90 minute tapes long. The zine notes, which were to be on paper, would contain the group or artist name, the writer, the copyright and words (if applicable), album name, what movie (if applicable) and other such things. This could contain any and all types of music including original music by the members as long as nothing was risque or vulgar. Of course the focus was SFF. I reserved the right not to accept submissions (that’s probably not something I would have thought to include, so I’m sure the big sister fan was influencial in the way I wrote this stuff, though I must note, that I am not actually quoting myself entirely word for word).

Now, my youth at the time shows because I also had an idea for an Audio RR, which was very similar to the Audio Zine. The difference was a 60 minute tape, with only ten minutes per RR member, and we were going to be talking to each other and have some music from SFF as well, so we apparently were going to be discussing the music we’re sharing with one another. It was also not directly controlled by me either. So it would have been more cut loose than the Audio Zine would have been.

I also had an idea for a general newsletter with the following column ideas, Latest music/the 90′s, Artist’s: Dead or Alive, Elementary Music Theory? (complete with question mark), Musical Info, Sheet Music, What Grooves and What Doesn’t, and Music in SF/F (the crux of the whole idea).

I also got my mother involved with the idea of allowing people to play or sing their songs on tape and have it notated with the first melody being for free. My mother is a musician and is real good at ear dictation, one of my uh, not so strong suits. I have to have a piano with me in order to do that stuff with any sort of accuracy.

And last but not least I had this whole “tell me about yourself” form to help me assess the interests of those wanting to get involved so I could better serve them. Unfortunately, I seem to recall that the tape recorder broke down, well, the record button stopped working, along with family and schools issues that this whole idea fell by the way side. . . I still think it’s a valid topic, and maybe I’ll stick a Music in SF/F in the N3F Forums that just started back up again. Afterall, the music is what broke the series Andromeda for me. I couldn’t watch it because the music was that bad. . . On the other hand, it was the music that turned me on to Babylon 5, and it was the music that got me to play the sci fi MMORPG Anarchy Online, my first MMO experience. . .

Now the ideas and thoughts of my youth are returning to me, and you know they’re not half bad. I dunno if *I’d* wanna be the one to handle an online audio zine, that could be tricky, but it is definitely a neat idea, and I still believe that music plays an important part in the SF/F genres we love to watch so much.

They have three categories to rate a movie, each category having a 0 to 10 scale, 10 being the worst (or the most) and 0 being the safest (or the least). The categories are Sex/Nudity, Violence/Gore,  and Profanity. The categories are always listed in that order. There is also a detailed listing of why the movies receive the ratings they do in each category.  In addition to that they include a section on instances of Substance Use, Discussion Topics, and the Message of the movie. What is a big plus for lots of folk is that this site is NOT affiliated with any sort of religious group and nor does it knock down movies with higher ratings. It simply gives you the facts. More details on how they do this is listed here: www.kids-in-mind.com/help/ratings.htm

Hancock received the following ratings:  Sex & Nudity 2, Violence & Gore 6, Profanity 5  (2.6.5 – I will now simply list the numbers in each rating category as I assume you are paying attention.)

The Incredible Hulk received  2.6.4

The Dark Knight received 2.7.3

Iron Man received  4.7.4   I shall note that all three of these movies have a PG-13 rating. Yet the levels of sex violence and profanity are rather different.

WALL-E received 1.2.1 (rated G). The fantasy story of Kung Fu Panda is close at a 1.3.1 (which is rated PG) and non-SFF Kit Kitteridge: An American Girl at a 1.3.1 (which is rated G).

Hm, those last two movies have the same kids-in-mind ratings but according to the MPAA rating system one is rated PG, and the other G.  What’s the difference?  Why the different MPAA ratings? I personally do not know, however, these differences and inconsistencies between content and ratings further explains why I personally do not bother with ratings anymore but the content. This is why I find kids-in-mind.com to be a useful tool in gaging what sort of movies I want to see and especially what movies I want my five year old daughter to see.

Happy Movie Hunting!

So, Kenlon is a fabulous Game Master, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my husband. I’ve been in games where the GM, well, those games weren’t so fun. This Exalted game has been running for two and a half years. He started the game soon after our separation every other weekend but when I started visiting him it changed to every weekend by popular demand from his players. Before I joined the game I helped with the concept of one of the non player characters, a Lunar Exalted (there are different types of exalted) who are bonded to the Solar Exalted.

After helping him refine her character concept and finding a name for her I was asked to draw a portrait of Gentle Claw. She was a fighter (as all Lunars are) but she was compassionate and kind as well. Then, things did not go so well when she came into contact with the Solars, especially with the Solar she is bonded to. It ended with her running away. Then the Solars forgot about her. They didn’t look for her or do anything to help her return to them. And now, she has changed (and if I tell you what I do know about this change the GM will “kill” me as the group doesn’t know what I know. Kenlon only told me because I was not in the game and no plans were being made for me to be in the game at the time.). I was asked to draw her portrait again but with the changes in place. So I did.

First is Gentle Claw as she should be. The second is Gentle Claw as she now is. Click on each image to see the full sized image.

Before and After

I have a small light table. I used it to trace the basic features of Gentle Claw and then started to make subtle line changes. She is gaunt looking, much thinner, so her whole face is drawn in, her eyes hollower, hence the dark circles. Her small smile is gone – lips turned down instead, her eyes are narrowed instead of more open, her eyebrows are lowered, no longer up, changing her expression from an open warm one to harsh and cold. Of course she now has boy short hair, and new dark tattoos (all Lunars have tattoos but they’re silver not dark and hers didn’t come up on her shoulders and face, so these are different).

After making all these changes I was still able to see Gentle Claw as she is supposed to be. When I turned off the light table I gasped in shock. I couldn’t believe it. The difference was astonishing. All I had done was change a few lines by mere millimeters and now she looks horrifyingly different.

When I showed the final version to my husband he said, “That’s horrifying.” Which, he confirmed, meant that I did my job right. I felt so bad. This will hopefully help the group to visualize the difference and lead them to question their current assumptions.

Art is an amazing thing isn’t it? Just a few subtle line changes can so drastically change the look of a face. Let alone changing the hair and adding tattoos. A face so nice and kind looking can so easily be changed to something so cold and hard, all because of the placement of the lines were subtly altered. I have never experienced this sort of thing before as an amateur artist. I suddenly feel I have a greater appreciation for the work artists put in to achieve a particular feeling or mood in their work.

Curious about this I looked up Origa. Apparently she is a Japanese woman of Russian descent. She has worked with Yokko Kanno in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Gundam (both of which are sci fi anime).

I have 3.9 hours worth of Origa in my iTunes, how did I not know this? I suppose it was something my husband purchased at some point and never got around to telling me about it. It’s all labelled as pop, but it’s not like american annoying pop. This is subtle.

Here is a wikipedia article on her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>Origa She has a nice voice. Her music is not overly complex but is rich in its simplicity.

On youtube you can listen to “Rise” from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bOhI-P6de4

However, after listening to a few songs, thus far Aurora is my favorite, and if you are a Final Fantasy X (a sci fi/fantasy mix RPG for the PS2) fan, you’ll like the video as well. It was suprisingly good. Spot on. I want a hi-rez version of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi_5JH49gsg

The song, “Yoru no Melody”, the one that caught my attention in the first place, is not on youtube or on playlist.com though a few of her other songs are, including the two mentioned above. This is too bad because “Yoru no Melody” really does have a nice melody. It caught my attention while I was in the middle of doing some cleaning and I’ve listened to quite a few times already. Though, admittedly not nearly as much as I have with “Aurora.”