Books are better than Movies!

Okay, I previously put together a list of Movies that I enjoyed watching more than reading the Books. I promised I would put together a list of Books that I found better than the movies as well. This is that list. 

1) The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers: I loved Tom Bombadil in the first book and was very disappointed he was removed from the film. Yes it doesn't really contribute much to the mission they are on, but it adds a lot of flavor. While the first book is Hobbit heavy (the reason I disliked the third book) there is enough of the two fun hobbits (Merry and Pippin) that its still a better book than movie. 

2) World War Z: Three words, No Fast Zombies!

3) Harry Potter Series: Okay, I won't break down each book or give specifics events. The biggest thing is all the little flavor lore in the books that is missing from the movies, there is a TON of it. Probably next, which is common in books to movie adaptions is the characters thoughts. Reading the ideas and thoughts of the characters is important.

4) The Hobbit: This may not be fair as all three movies aren't out yet, but I am worried that the movies will become too drawn out. I loved The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins was awesome in it as were the dwarves. 

5) Chronicles of Narnia Series: Okay, again this may not be fair, there have been multiple attempts to adapt the series for movies and thus far no one has been able to complete it. While I have enjoyed the films that have been released, the books that are skipped over or missing just expand on the lore of Narnia too much.

6) Interview with the Vampire: I love the Vampire books by Anne Rice. When she "found god" and stopped writing them I was very disappointed. These were mature books about vampires who did vampire things rather than a love story. I found Interview to be very different from the others. While I was first reading it I can recall asking my mother who were favorite character in it was and was shocked to hear her say Lestat. I hated Lestat, and continued to hate him throughout the book. When the movie came around I didn't feel that same loathing for the character that I had when reading the book.

7) Queen of the Damned: What is wrong with this movie? Its okay and has some decent music but the real problem comes from the fact that it is a VERY BAD ADAPTION of not only one, but two books. This movie completely changes the back story for the main character of Lestat (who I will say is my favorite character in the series, Yes from loathed to my favorite) and then only spends about 10 minutes going over events from the Title namesake. The rest of the movie is a bad adaption of the preceding book 'The Vampire Lestat'. I will say that this movie is easily the worst film adaption I have ever seen.

8) The Shining: Okay this book is just plain scary. The movie is good, but this is the only book I have ever read to actually give me nightmares. I can recall reading it in winter during a snow storm and the way King describes the wind outside the hotel and my window just gave me goosebumps.

9) Bridge to Terabithia: It may be an age thing, but when I first read this book it reminded me a lot of 'On My Honor' a book I had read earlier (though this book was published first) and at the time it was only the second book to make me cry. I hated when Leslie died and Jesse loses his friend. The movie is good, but it didn't have the same effect on me as reading the book did.

So there you have my list. Its incomplete and probably won't ever be completed considering how much I read and watch movies. I know its not a very good mix of Genres, I mean the whole list is made up of either Horror or Fantasy. I apologize for that but it seems that a lot of Sci-Fi books that I have read haven't actually been turned into film. Nor have many of the historical fiction novels.

Its quite a shame really because I think that there would be some really good movies to be made from them.

My conversion to Rugby League

Back when I was in Maryland, I would watch both Rugby League and Rugby Union. After moving to New Zealand and watching more of both I noticed that the officials in Rugby League were terrible. Not only were they inconsistent in making calls, but even when they did make calls they were usually incorrect.

Not only this but if a call was reviewed by the TMO (television match official) the on-field official wouldn't make a call leaving it up to the TMO. This would be fine if not for the fact that "benefit-of-doubt" always went to the attacking team. So if the TMO wasn't sure what happened the attacking team would automatically get the call. I hated this.

These things led me to watch more Rugby Union, where the refs were more consistent.

In the past two years however Rugby Union officials have got much worse, often completely ignoring rules such as forward pass, hands-in-the-ruck, players leaving feet, incorrect entry, high tackles, and knock ons. Officials will also now go to the TMO and either make the call themselves without waiting for the TMOs decision, or in some cases, overrule the TMO and go with their own decision.

Rugby League meanwhile has rid itself of the "benefit-of-doubt" rule, requiring on-field officials to make a call which can then be confirmed, overruled, or upheld for lack of evidence. Officials now rule on knock-ons, forward passes, and illegal tackles much more often than in the past.

Considering I don't support any specific team in either form, I find i easy to flip from one to the other based on which i enjoy most at the moment, and the only I enjoy most will be the one with the most consistent officiating.

Of course Aussie Rules (AFL) is better than either.

List of Movies I enjoyed more than the book

I saw a list on Huffington Post of Movies that were just as good or better than their book counterpart. There were only a few on there that I had seen AND read but it got me thinking of my own list. So here it goes...

1) Return of the King: Why don't I like this book. It has some great moments in it, and the writing is fine. Its on par with the other two books in the Lord of the Rings series. No, the reason I don't like this book as much as its movie is because it focuses so much on Frodo and Sam. It gets to the point in Frodo's corruption that I just want to wring his neck myself and I was actively hoping that gollum would kill him.

2) Jurassic Park: SEE BELOW

3) The Lost World: Michael Crichton is just a little too long winded for me. I liked both books, but nowhere near as much as the movies.

4) The Bourne Series (Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum): The Movies don't follow the books and are completely different stories. The books are great, I just like the movies a bit more. I would not call this series an adaption of the books but rather borrowing the character and title.

This is in no way a complete list of Movies that are equal to their book, only movies that I enjoyed as much or more so. There are books like the Godfather which I should read...

Stay tuned for a list of books that are better than their movie.

Why I don't play DayZ

I find it weird to say but I love zombie entertainment. There are a few books I really like, movies, tv shows, games, and even radio dramas. I also enjoy survival games, and really, zombies and survival are perfect bedfellows. Recently I have been playing a lot of Project Zomboid and State of Decay.

So why don't I play DayZ? Well when it first came out I found it hard to install. Also whenever I tried to join a server I would get timed out for having a high ping. Now its easy to say, "Just join a server with a lower ping." and you would be right that for most part that is an easy solution. However that leads me to the next reason I didn't play... Different versions of the game. I'm not talking about different mods, I'm talking about different base game versions.

Every New Zealand server that had low ping also ran a different version of the game. There were some aussie servers that were alright, but they weren't very well populated. Now I'm sure these problems have been fixed with integrated Steam install, but have no idea. Why don't you host your own server? This brings me to the number 1 reason why I don't play DayZ. Players are unable to host their own servers.

This is true for both Standalone and the mod. Now I am okay with Multiplayer only games, but not when the user is unable to host the said game.

EDIT- April 1st, 2014: It has come to my attention that servers for the multiplayer only game RUST is also available only through sponsored hosts. You are unable to host your own private server for it. As the game is in early access this may change in the future. However there has been no word on whether or not that will occur.

As far as DayZ, I have also learned that you are unable to reserve player slots for servers, that means if the server you pay for is full, you can not join it until someone leaves. You are given no priority or special access to the server even if you are the one paying.

What is a chip?

I've lived in New Zealand now for close to four years and in that time I've come to accept that besides having no real cuisine of its own, it doesn't seem to have a common definition for what a chip is.

Since arriving in New Zealand I have seen many things called chips, so I am going to try to enlighten the country for what they should be calling the various fried potato sides you eat.

FRENCH FRIES (aka. SHOESTRINGS, FRIES)

These are the fried potatoes that you get at most fast food shops. They are long and thin, often cooked to the point that they are crunchy throughout. They can be curled around in a spring-like pattern to become curly fries.

CHIPS

These are the typical kind of fried potatoes that you will get in most New Zealand fish and chip places. They are slightly thicker than french fries and aren't as crisp. They have a much more potato taste as compared to fries. Americans will call these fries and often won't distinguish between them and french fries.

STEAK FRIES

These are fried potatoes cut slightly thicker than what New Zealanders call chips. Some may argue that they are the same as chips, however I have noticed that steak fries tend to be slightly larger and to contain more potato than chips.

POTATO WEDGES

The are a fried potato side that is cooked with the skin on. They tend to be roughly the same size as steak fries but to contain slightly more potato. They often have a crisp outer layer with a much softer inside.

POTATO CHIPS (aka. CRISPS)

Potato chips are potatoes that are cut extra thin and then fried.  They are completely crunchy and don't have any interior potato past that which has been exposed.

So whats all this tell us about the different Potato sides? Well for one thing theres too many of them. I have not seen any Steak Fries in New Zealand. Wedges are popular to make at home, Fries are only really common at fast food places, Chips are common at most take away restaurants, and Potato Chips are a very common snack food.

I personally don't care for most crisps or steak fries. There are crisps that are home made that are thicker cut which I like, but for the most part I avoid them. Steak fries don't have enough taste for me, I like wedges and chips though.

Space Question

I know that there are Binary star systems where two stars orbit a common center of gravity (often outside either star) and have a stable orbit.

Recently I have been taking part in Galaxy Zoo helping to classify images. I have seen a lot of merging pictures and it got me thinking. Can there actually be a Binary Galaxy. The real question here is can two Supermassive black holes (herein refereed to as SMBH) reach a stable orbit around each other without one of them becoming too dominant and sucking the other into it.

Everything we know suggests its not possible. It would require two black holes which have the same mass merging, and then it would require that each other those black holes grows at the same rate (so it doesnt grow too large and suck the other into it). Even if there is a very slight difference, over the course of billions of years it will lead to one of them cannibalizing the other.

Since it is believed that at the center of every galaxy is a SMBH that would mean there can never be a binary galaxy.

UPDATE 3/23/2014: After contacting 2 astronomers and 2 physicists, the results were somewhat surprising.

Both astronomers told me there are no observable binary galaxies in the universe that are in a stable orbit around each other. They also informed me that our own Milkyway galaxy is in a binary system with the Andromeda galaxy. We are not however in a stable orbit and are expected to merge within the life span of our own sun. What this tells me is that all binary galaxies are in the process of merging.

The physicists however disagreed and told me that it was entirely possible that somewhere out there a binary galaxy with two black holes at its core can exist. They did not comment on the possibility of multiple galaxies being in a stable orbit around each other.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

I've been semi-following the story of MA-370. I found it interesting that flights could still just disappear as this one has. Various news sites began to report on the store just hours after the scheduled arrival time for the flight.

I first read about it about 2 hours after the scheduled arrival time on CNN. There was very little information, basically read as if a flight had got lost and they were trying to reestablish contact. When I first read it I figured that the flight had made an unscheduled landing somewhere and the airline forgot to inform the media. At this point its seeming unlikely this was the case.

Since then they have discovered a couple passengers were flying on stolen passports (which CNN was very quick to link to terrorism) but little else. Vietnam is cutting back on search efforts, and since hearing that Malasia Airlines is claiming that the flight may have gone west (closer to Vietnam) then what was originally thought.

What prompted this blog post though was a report on CNN, "Could meteor have hit Flight 370?" I love space, I love space games, I love sci-fi, I love images of space. I have been meaning to buy a telescope since I was 12. However looking for an extra terrestrial reason for what happened to this plane is completely insane.

Yes a meteor could have burned through the earth's atmosphere and struck the plane causing a sudden and violent decompression that tore the plane apart, but the chances of that are so astronomical that its almost just as likely that they were abducted by aliens. Actually statistically speaking it's far more likely that they WERE abducted by aliens than were killed by a meteorite. In-fact there has never been a human fatality that was caused by a meteorite.

I want to give my condolences to the families and friends of those who were on flight 370. I also want to remind people to keep it REAL. Thats a statement I never thought I'd make, but it seems like people have to be told every once in awhile. I mean come on CNN... A FUCKING METEORITE!? Thats something I expect on the tabloids.

UPDATE 3/23/2014: I thought CNN had reached rock bottom with this story and a potential meteorite. I was wrong. CNN has now suggested it got swallowed up by a small black hole "as occurs in the Bermuda triangle". Shoot me now, even Hitler's propaganda had more truth in it than the shit that is coming out of CNN these days.

Let me enlighten you CNN. There is no black hole in the Bermuda triangle. The reason ships get lost in the Bermuda triangle more than other places is because of a magnetic anomaly that screws with navigation systems. Back when ships were actually sailed by people who navigated by the stars, this area was not known as anything special. Infact it was a major trade lane between europe and the 'west indies'.

No Black hole can occur as you suggest. Not only would a black hole tear apart earth, it would tear apart our entire solar system and most likely the entire solar neighborhood. It is suggested that there are 'rogue' black holes that are not at the galactic center, but we honestly aren't entirely sure about that.