Lately, I’ve been thinking about adding videos to my blog. I haven’t had the time or energy to write the posts that are swirling around in my nerdy brain. The opportunity to learn how to shot and edit video fell into my lap and it got me thinking. Is it time to drop the veil of anonymity and really put myself out there? One the benefits of using a non de plume is that it liberates you to express any and all thoughts. I fear that putting myself on video will lead to self censorship. A second benefit would be to apply and refine the knowledge that I’m learning in the video production institute. I have three more classes to go so we will see if and when I’m ready to take the next step.

I love young adult books. If I want to read some fun and mindless, I’ll grab a YA book to read over the weekend. I read the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and enjoyed the tale of teenage angst, southern gothic settings and fantastical characters. The movie was unrecognizable from the source novel. The names remain the same but the personalities of the characters were left behind.

The trouble with adapting literary works is that tough choices have to be made in editing the plot to fit a two hour movie. The choices the screenwriters made left a muddled incoherent tale that bored the hell out of me. Main characters from the book were either eliminate or reduced to insignificant support characters. All of the complex relationships between Amma, Ethan and Marion and between Ethan and Link were flatten into nothing. There is no character development so the viewer isn’t invested in the outcome of Lena and Ethan. If one hasn’t read the books, the more plot makes absolutely no sense. The magic, the mystical and the fantastic that form the core of the book were absent from the movie.

The only bright spot in the movie is Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan. He is charming and engaging but given little to work with. So many wonderful actors such as Voila Davis, Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons are given absolutely nothing to do with the flimsy material.

What’s the point of adapting books if you leave out of the movies what made those books special in the first place.

Next up Moral Instruments City of Bones.

Sometimes the mundane trappings of this world, really distract you from the little things that give you pleasure: Seeing Bjork in concert – A true artist combining stunning visuals with an other worldly voice; Watching Star Trek Into Darkness for the Nth time to get a thrill seeing the Enterprise jump into warp drive; Learning Bollywood/Bhangra moves with your fellow citizens the warm evening. That’s what this life is about. Not stressing out about made up deadlines or worrying that your archiving project is two days behind. Sometimes you just have to remember your priorities.

Vancouver has always been on my list of must see cities. I’ve heard wonderful things about the city for years. Now, that I am finally here, all I want to do is camp out in my hotel room, read magazines and watch television.

When I arrived the weather the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I walked along the sea wall in English Bay.

I have stumbled across random and fabulous blogs, factoids and pictures that keep me engaged and interested while I sit in a cubicle all day.

Recent discoveries:

Spelman’s Octavia Butler Celebration – an day of appreciation for an underrated American author

Mission Log Podcast – a discussion of every episode of every Star Trek series!

#Scifichat – a weekly online discussion of science fiction

@Earth_Pics – breathtaking images of our beautiful planet and all its inhabitants.

News from around the world to broaden my horizons

All the ratchet comments that make me giggle

I can’t wait for the next find…

As I sit there another day at Big Firm, Douglass Rushkoff’s blog post from September 2011 comes to mind.  Wherein Rushkoff’s ask the question, are jobs obsolete?  Are Jobs Obsolete?

This passage jumped out at me:

“We’re living in an economy where productivity is no longer the goal, employment is. That’s because, on a very fundamental level, we have pretty much everything we need. America is productive enough that it could probably shelter, feed, educate, and even provide health care for its entire population with just a fraction of us actually working.”

Societies first evolved where families worked and hunted for the provisions required to feed and shelter their families.   As technology progressed, people turned to trade and factory work to produce essential items that society needed.  Instead of making or growing items oneself, people earned a wage and purchased these items. With each technological jump, few workers were need to produce the same level of products.

Could society actually evolve where a few dedicated workers work to provide the basic items that we need while the other members of society pursue other avenues in science and arts?

In Star Trek, we hear about the ideals of the Federation that provides the basic essentials for society and everyone is able to pursue loftier ideas.

“We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity” (ST: DS9 In the Cards)

What has to happen to get this change to come about?  The shift in philosophy that wealth is not the goal of our energy but the expansion of our creative selves for the betterment of humanity.  We are living in a time period that the accumulation of wealth is the more important than any other pursuits. Corporate profits are at their highest as unemployment rates remain high. “But the record profits come at the same time that workers’ wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.” (Isidore, C. Corporate profits hit record as wage get squeeze http://www.cnn.com 2012)

Will this take generations to make a shift away from the pursuit of wealth.  How will society decides who produce the basic needs while others pursue their creative dreams.

“We start by accepting that food and shelter are basic human rights. The work we do — the value we create — is for the rest of what we want: the stuff that makes life fun, meaningful, and purposeful…

This sort of work isn’t so much employment as it is creative activity” (Rushoff D. Are Jobs Obsolete? http://www.cnn.com 2011)

We seen now that the Millennial generation have a vastly different agenda than the Baby Boom generation.   “…77 percent of workers believed the millennial generation has a different attitude toward workplace responsibility than those in other age groups.” (Porillo, E. New poll shows many think millennials aren’t hard workers www.chicagotribune.com 2011)  Younger generations are taught that their needs are extremely important and consequently their goals are to fulfill their self defined needs.

The things I think about when work is slow…

My poor neglected blog. There are so many things that I want to say but I haven’t the time or energy to write about it. People also take about a work-life balance but how does one achieve it? During the day there are so many ideas twirling around on my head but at night I’m to mentally and physically drained to write in a coherent fashion.

Upcoming posts: Top Women in Sci Fi No 6; Movie Trailer Review; The future of jobs; my thoughts on the end of Fringe; update on my Sci Fi reading challenge.