A Clash of Kings -- The Mayhem Continues

A Clash of Kings, the second book of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, a series also affectionately known as "Game of Thrones," picks up where the first book leaves off. Throughout some 700-800 pages, it introduces new characters, kills off many, and forwards the story.

By the end of the first book, the Stark family had been spread out among different parts of the land, and similarly, the second book primarily follows what happens to each of them. Of course, this opens the door wide for plenty of side stories along the way. Plus we learn more about the almost entirely separate story of Daenerys Targaryen, stuck in the eastern continent of Essos -- you know - that land mass that doesn't get a map in the first two books? Though separate, we learn more about how she is tied in with what's happening in Westeros, where most of everything else happens.

I had earlier complained that the first book was about 5% fantasy and 95% politics and war -- so much so that one might doubt if it could be considered "fantasy," but A Clash of Kings increases the fantasy elements to roughly 20%. Now there are dragons, magic witches, more info on the White Walkers or whatever you call those zombie creatures, and so on. Still nowhere the amount of fantasy in a Robert Jordan book, but getting there.

And as you may suspect, that other 80% that is politics and war continues to engage. It becomes so addictive!

Yet, reading the actual words is still a chore. Martin loves to take pages to describe the simplest of things, which provides a rich and immersive environment, but sometimes I just wanted the story to move on. One of my favorite examples of this was when Theon Greyjoy meets this girl at the beach, convinces her to come home with him, and tries to seduce her along the way. This goes on for about 20 pages. It was worth the payout, but man ... that author can just go on and on.

Around page 400, the run-on sentences seemed to become more frequent, slowing me down even more. It took a while, but eventually I finished reading the book to its end, bringing various endings to each individual Stark story, and making me want to read more ... once I get up enough energy to continue, that is.

I have yet to see the TV show, but I'm still enjoying reading these books. If you have a lot of time on your hands, give it a try.

2019 Checkpoint #5

I know, I know. There haven't been many posts by me here recently. I've been very busy--doing other things. Business is really picking up with Melkim Publishing, requiring more time, but in the long run it will be worth it. There are so many "good" things in life that I can do, and there's just not enough time to do it all.

And yes ... I still have all these stories that want to be told, and it's so easy to come up with even other newer ideas. As my teachers in school told me often -- I definitely have ideas.

As long as I'm pushing forward and making progress, I'm doing something right. So, I'm not going to beat myself up, and just let it all happen. Right now, writing fiction is just less of a priority, but I'm going to come back to it sometime soon, lest I go insane!

One Second After: It Fried and Then Died [Spoilers]

Have you ever read a book and realized it was the worst you've read in over a decade? How about two decades? I only finished One Second After because I wanted to give an honest review. Or was it because I hoped it would finally redeem itself? Or was it the train wreck syndrome?

In a nutshell, the writing was boring, the plot was convoluted and predictable, the science was iffy, and the behavior of civilization was entirely unbelievable. After I deliver one more paragraph of a brief intro, I will be dropping spoilers throughout the rest of the review, so if you plan on reading this book, you may want to stop now and run for the hills.

John Matherson is a resident of Black Mountain, NC. While talking to his military friend on the phone, and right after said friend says, "Wait. Something big is happening," the power goes out -- everything stops working, including things not plugged in, such as most cars, phones, and other handheld devices. The entire US had become the victim of an ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP). John must work with others to help the residents of Black Mountain survive without electricity.

This actually sounds exciting, and I must admit that I was grabbed at first. This book was recommended by people at work, and I love a post-apocalyptic scenario. I also enjoyed the book's coverage of the Black Mountain and Asheville area -- an area I've visited a few times.

Okay ... got the "good" things out of the way. So, what didn't work?

I already mentioned the boring writing. It was flat and relied mostly on dialogue. Yeah, most of the book read like meeting notes as people stood around arguing about what to do next. Even when the book attempted to build to a big battle of baddies coming into town, it ... (I can't believe I'm writing this about a professionally produced book) ... it skipped the whole battle and went right back to people standing around talking about what had just happened. Noooooo!

The science is based loosely on fact. If one were to explode a sufficiently strong nuclear weapon above our atmosphere, the resulting radiation burst would interact with our atmosphere and magnetic field to create a large EMP current, which can damage equipment (anything in the line of sight from the explosion). This happens through something called the Compton Effect.

Though the Compton Effect is real, William Forstchen, the book's author, overestimates the damage that can be caused. You can check out the wiki on nuclear electromagnetic pulse for more detail.

Summarized here:

Small electronic devices (like phones) are likely to survive because there is probably not enough circuitry to resonate with the pulse. This would also be true of pacemakers, most cars, watches, and so on. (Though, the phones would have no service.)

Planes flying at high altitudes would probably survive, as the main effects of an EMP is at the lower altitudes.

Things that are not plugged in at the time are believed to be more likely to survive an attack.

A couple of tests were conducted in 1962. One over Hawaii, which burned out some street lights (but not all), and set off burglar alarms; and one over Russia, which probably caused more damage.

The higher the weapon is detonated, the weaker the effects are due to the inverse power law. But higher explosions can reach further (line of sight).

The stronger the weapon, the stronger the effects.

Could terrorists pull off such an attack? As per One Second After, the enemies attack with the intention of killing off all the inhabitants while preserving the land and infrastructure. But there are problems with carrying out such an attack. The bomb has to get to an ideal altitude, which is difficult and expensive. It also has to be strong enough do a lot of damage, also difficult and expensive.

In fact, it would be so expensive that many experts believe that it would be much easier for terrorists to just nuke the people outright.

Also, should someone launch such a weapon, its signature would be picked up, and we would know where it came from. The retaliation would quickly destroy the parties that launched it.

In other words, there just wouldn't be enough incentive for anyone to pull off such an attack.

Would the US civilization fall apart as rapidly as it did in One Second After? I doubt it. We humans are pretty resilient and can remain good-natured even in the most dire situations. When we're all in the same boat, we tend to come together and work things out. Look at when New York City had an extended blackout a few years ago. On the most part, the people evacuated the city in an orderly manner, shooting the breeze with perfect strangers while crossing the bridges leading out of the city.

Early on in the book, we read that a Black Mountain old folk's home is utterly abandoned. Seriously? People are going to be that selfish and not go out to check on the elderly and sick? Look at hurricanes that recently devastated parts of the southeast, and look at how many volunteers stepped up to help with the cleanup. Something that not even one person thought of in Black Mountain?

I get the part about how sick people (who need electricity to survive) would die quickly. Not much could be done about that. I get that there would be challenges, such as how to keep everything sanitary, but there exist people who know how to handle those types of situations. We'd figure things out.

Not only that, I think we'd get our power generators back up and running much faster than how it does in the book. Our lives would be wrecked big time, but we'd quickly rebuild. It's not like we smart people would lose the knowledge we had before the blast.

And get this ... near the end of the book, John learns that due to his awesome leadership and know-how, his little town of Black Mountain is the only city within thousands of miles to have any kind of survival success. John is just that smart while everyone else in the world is selfish, or idiotic, or just simply unknowledgeable. And believe it or not, this wasn't the most arrogant thing I read in the book.

In real life, Forstchen really is trying to prepare us and encourage us to EMP-proof all of our electronics. I don't think this is too difficult to do to any one piece of hardware, but overall it could be expensive across the US, and in many cases unnecessary. Forstchen has many dealings with Congress, trying to get them to pass legislature. He wrote this book as an example of what WILL happen if we ignore him. Yes, I really mean "WILL" and not "COULD." If you read his book, you'll see what I mean.

Since Forstchen is the author, you'd never guess, but everything proceeds EXACTLY as Forstchen predicts events would proceed in real life. Thus, at the very end when John's daughter dies from diabetes when they run out of insulin, we're supposed to be flowing tears and saying, "Screw us all for not listening to Forstchen. Our ignorance killed this daughter! Wait -- we're not really dead yet. We still have time. We can still fix this."

But instead, I ended up thinking: "Screw you, Forstchen, for creating such a convoluted story that ended up killing this perfectly good daughter, whom I never really got to know throughout the book, since the writing was so bad."

Here are some actual quotes from the book where Forstchen has his self-fulfilling told-you-so moments:

"The crime, the real crime, was those who truly knew the level of threat doing nothing to prepare or prevent it. Bitterly he wondered if they were suffering as the rest of the nation now suffered or were they safely hidden away, the special bunkers for Congress, the administration, where food, water, and medicine for years were waiting for them ... and their families?"

"Remember Jonestown. ... nearly a thousand of them committed suicide on account of some d*** nutcase who told them to drink Kool-Aid laced with poison because God had ordered them to. Look, you get people scared, then you knock out every prop that we've taken for granted. ... [there] will still be hundreds of thousands of barbarians on the march and the rest of us running, scared ... D*** our enemies who did this to us, they knew us well... They knew human nature too well, and just how fragile civilization is, and how tough it is to defend it. Something we forgot."

The sad part is that if you go read reviews on this book, you're going to see a whole slew of 5-star reviews. What this book does well is to give a semblance of teaching something "no one else knows," but needs to know. Readers talk about how this book completely changed the way they look at life, and I'm like ... really? Is it really that simple to believe what one man writes and not do any quick independent research on the web? And not to mention ... is no one else phased by the terrible prose and contrived plot and the terrible way that civilization reacts to the attack? And if I write my own book where people just stand around talking to each other, it'd sell well?

Perhaps I should just give up now. Go read this best-selling book.

2019 Checkpoint #4

It's time for the bimonthly check in. I wish there was good news to report, but the last two months have been abysmal when it comes to me writing the written word. As reported in one of my newsletters, I've had my family together for the first time in years, so I took at least a whole month off just relaxing and enjoying family.

Now they've gone back to school, it's time to get back to the grindstone. My work friend was ribbing me a couple of days ago, saying, "My new boss has published a sci-fi novel. It'll be nice to work with an actual published author." Yeah, yeah ... I need to finish polishing my own novels and get them out there. Maybe I'll punish my friend and have him be a critiquer/reviewer. Bwe-ha-ha-ha!

However, to help me get back into a good rhythm, I'm going to start with my long list of blog entries to write -- catch that up and then get back to short story/novel writing in a couple of months. So much stuff in my head that wants to come out on paper!

Detective Pikachu: Easter-Egg-Filled Fun

When you don't go in expecting much, some movies can pleasantly surprise. Pokémon Detective Pikachu did this and more, providing good laughs, fun action, a few feels, and tons of easter eggs. My kids and I all had a lot of fun watching. (Yeah ... I'm doing a little catch up here -- believe it or not, this is still the last movie I've seen in the theater -- something I need to rectify shortly.)

Tim Goodman is a young good man (get it?), who is at first reluctant to take on a Poké-buddy to train. But one day while investigating his father's disappearance, he runs into a talking Pikachu -- though he's the only one who can understand him. Weird--Right? Who knew that Pokémon could all speak with each other?

I thought I could guess what came next, but a series of twists and adventures proved me wrong ... mostly.

Though fun to watch, the plot is very light. It was just enough to keep us awake and entertained. The CGI was pretty good and true to the original material (unlike some other movie trailers that shall not be named).

And of course, this is one of those movies where if you think too much, it starts to not make sense. There's one scene in particular in which something large happens and then goes back to normal as if nothing ever happened. That was when all of us looked at each other as if to say, "What just happened?"

I also don't understand the concept of everyone having their one and only Poké-pet. It reminded me too much of the Golden Compass stories, and not Pokémon. I mean, the original show was never: "I gotta catch that one!" Or maybe I missed something.

Other than that -- it's good clean and light fun. I'd probably watch it again if I ever caught it on TV.

2019 Checkpoint #3

My progress always seems to go in spurts. Since my last checkpoint, I started out strong the beginning of May, but then it all petered out when I switched to working on hymns full time preparing for the July 1st deadline.

Oh yeah ... I actually wrote hymn lyrics for the first time ever.

These two hymns are: "He Died So I May Live" and "Father, Be Near Me."

They took a while to write and modify, and modify again.

Now, ever since July 1st, I've been slowly starting up the machine again. Look for more blog posts in the near future.

Enjoy life and continue writing!

Endgame: Straightening Out The Timelines

I just got back from watching Endgame a second time ... this time in IMAX. Now are you ready to dive into the time travel and straighten it all out? MAJOR SPOILERS if you haven't already seen the movie.

First off, make sure to read my general rules of time travel in a Many-Worlds model ... here. Or you can just accept the synopsis here: you can only travel forward in time along your own timeline (can't go to other branches); you can only travel backwards along your timeline (backward along the branches); when you go back, it automatically creates a new timeline (a new branch); and tethers are the only way you can return to an original timeline.

Okay, we will begin with a simple timeline. This is the line on which all of the first 21 movies occur, and it looks like this:

Looks exciting? We'll call this Timeline Zero.

In 2023, the first time travel trip has Hawkeye going back to visit his family farm. He doesn't stay long, and he doesn't really change anything. Technically, he does create a new timeline (branch), but it would look very close to Timeline Zero. So, we'll just ignore that trip.

Once they know time travel works, the Avengers and friends split up into three different teams that go back to three different times. We'll handle the easiest one first ... Thor and Rocket going back to Asgard.

Arriving in 2013, Rocket steals the Ether from Jane and gets chased by folks while Thor talks it up with Mom. Thor then summons Mjölnir. The fact that things happen differently is evidence that the Many-Worlds model is in effect. In other words, we have a new branch. We'll call this Timeline Thor-2013.

Thor and Rocket then return to 2023 Timeline Zero thanks to the "GPS" tether platform combination that Tony Stark created. Without the tether, Thor and Rocket would have been stuck in Timeline Thor-2013.

This is what our time map looks like now:

The red dot and arrow represent the trip back to Timeline Zero.

Now a slightly more involved trip ... another team goes to 2014 to visit Morag and Vormir. Rhodes takes the power stone and returns. Nebula is captured by Thanos. Black Widow sacrifices herself so that Hawkeye can return with the Soul Stone. Thanos at a slightly later time figures out how to use the Pym Particles to arrive in Timeline Zero to stop the Avengers. We'll call this branch Timeline Thanos-2014.

The updated map:

The green dot and line represent the return of our Avengers (minus Black Widow) to 2023, and the purple dot and line represent Thanos' trip to Timeline Zero. We have no idea how long Thanos took to prepare for the trip ... a year? a week? But we do know that his ship arrived later that day in 2023.

Now the confusing one: A team goes back to New York in 2012, and whoa Nellie! Captain America secures the mind stone after fighting with himself -- definite evidence that we're dealing with a Many-Worlds model. Professor Hulk secures the time stone after listening to the Ancient One's nonsense about time travel. He also promises to return all the stones to their original places. Ant-man and Stark try to get the Tesseract, but fail miserably. Loki escapes amid all the commotion. Uh oh! We'll call this Timeline New-York-2012.

Stark and the Cap decide to go back to Indiana to get the Tesseract and more Pym juice. They end up in 1970. Stark grabs the Tesseract, runs into his father, while the Cap gets the Pym juice and sees his old girlfriend Carter through the window. We'll call this Timeline Indiana-1970.

Then Stark and the Cap return back to Timeline Zero.

Here's the new map:

The red dot from 2012 represents the Avengers who went straight back to 2023, while the brown dots and lines represent Stark and Cap's trip to 1970 and back to 2023.

Okay ... so far so good? Right now we have five total timelines. With everyone from all timelines returned back to 2023 in Timeline Zero, the big battle ensues. Thanos dies. Stark dies. Everyone cries.

At the end of the movie, the Cap volunteers to go back and return all the stones. However, there's one small problem. If the rules say that you can only travel backwards along the current timeline you're in now, how could the Cap ever return to those other 4 branch-off timelines? This is where I've seen many articles say that the Captain time travel bit broke everything.

But not so fast!

My work friend came up with the perfect answer. The Infinity Stones, themselves, want to return back to their respective timelines. So, as the Cap enters the quantum world, the stones would tether him back to the correct timelines.

As the Cap explains, he delivers the Time Stones first. Each jump requires a Pym juice bottle, but now with Mr. Pym back, we can assume that the Cap has sufficient vials for all the trips. He can deliver the Stones in any order he wishes, but for the sake of my picture, I'm going to say he travels to these in reverse order.

He hits Timeline Thanos-2014 to return the Soul Stone (wonder how that goes?), and the Power Stone. Then he goes to Timeline Thor-2013 to return the Ether (does he have it injected back into Jane?) and most likely also returns Mjölnir. Next comes Timeline New-York-2012 to return the Mind Stone (minus staff? -- he didn't bring that back) and the Time Stone. And finally, Timeline Indiana-1970 to return the Tesseract (how does he get it back to cubie form?).

From there, he can travel backward in time, following Timeline Indiana-1970 to the end of its branch and continuing on down Timeline Zero until he hits 1940's, starting a new timeline. We'll call this Timeline Carter-1940's.

After living a full life with his girlfriend, he decides to go back and give his shield to the Falcon. Since he's stuck in Timeline Carter-1940's, he can't naturally show up in Timeline Zero. He must do one more time jump. I think he could have used the earlier big platform as a tether to return -- perhaps in the few seconds before the original team comes back. And then he could have waited around to show up at the right moment to surprise everyone. As long as he stayed out of the way until then, it might not create another branch.

The Russo brothers give a possibly cleaner explanation: the Cap does return a few seconds after he left, but the Hulk's mess-ups cause him to show up over at the bench. I like that this avoids problems with possibly causing another branch, but I don't like that the Cap misses the platform. But perhaps overall, the Russo brothers' explanation is cleaner.

Either way, here's the final map, showing the Cap's travels in blue ...

Wowzers! Clear as mud?

We end up with six distinct timelines. Now that we've mapped everything out, we can finish with a closer look at each of the timeline to get a better understanding of what happens overall.

Timeline Zero: All the movies happen as the stories were told. The original Gamora is dead, but the new one remains in her place. Stark is dead. Black Widow is dead. Captain America is in retirement.

Timeline Carter-1940's: As long as the Cap stays out of the way, this timeline is going to resemble Timeline Zero closely. Perhaps the Cap is Carter's secret husband. In 2012, the frozen Cap will be unthawed, and events would unfold as expected ... except ... Zero Timeline Cap has stolen the shield and given it to the Falcon, leaving no shield for Frozen Cap later on. Though my son suggests that the Cap could have had a 2nd one created for Frozen Cap. Minor detail?

Timeline Indiana-1970's: Not much happened to change things, so events would probably play out the same as Timeline Zero. (Even possibly creating more copies of the time map above. Timelineception!!)

Timeline New-York-2012: This is the most interesting "messed-up" timeline. Loki has escaped. The Hydra folks are alerted to the fact that others know who they are. These loose threads were not closed. With Loki on the loose, it's impossible to predict how this timeline will differ from Timeline Zero. Rumors are that the announced Loki TV show may happen in this new universe. If so, we'll have to wait till then to get more answers.

Timeline Thor-2013: Not much changed here, either. Younger Thor probably wondered where Mjölnir went for a few minutes, and his mother probably died a little happier. Perhaps the whole Jane/Ether fiasco would cause some further scrutiny into the Reality Stone, which could cause things to play out differently. But on the most part, things should return to resembling Timeline Zero.

Timeline Thanos-2014: This timeline is definitely changed, most likely for the better. Thanos left this universe and died. No Thanos means no Infinity Wars, so whatever happens next in this universe, we might as well call it the Happy Path timeline. In fact, that timeline's Black Widow is still alive on Earth, and will never have to go back to sacrifice herself.

But it does raise the question: why did Thanos think it was worth going to the Zero Timeline where he had already won and fulfilled destiny? Without a tether, he could never return to his own timeline, and that universe would miss out on his destiny. A smarter Thanos would stay. A more hot-headed Thanos would do the stupid thing of going to another universe only to die in the process.

And before we end, here's one more bonus thing to think about. Remember when Doctor Strange found 14,000,605 possible futures? In the Many-Worlds model, all of these possible futures would have to exist in each of their own branches. But in seeing the One where they won, he saw it was necessary to give up the Time Stone. In doing so, he changed the probability distribution of winning among all the possible futures from that point. Those 14,000,605 universes would still exist, but with much less density, while the One future's probability increased. That's still a lot of universes that are going to be sad, and their stories will never be told.

And there you have it. Now that your mind's blown, and the timelines have been explained, you can now impress your friends with your grasp of all the timelines.

Multiple Worlds Theory and Time Travel

The quantum realm can be weird, so today we will dive in a little closer, consider some real science, and ponder on possible time travel implications.

The problem with things being so small is that we can't ever see them clearly. Or, if we try to see them, the photons themselves corrupt what we're seeing. This is known as the Uncertainty Principle. It introduces randomness, and the best we can do is is derive probability distributions to describe what's happening.

In scientific experiments, we can always look back and see what happened, but there's no way to predict beforehand what will happen. One could ask, "But how does nature decide what actually happens?"

One answer is the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI). It says that at any given time, ALL possibilities happen, but in different parallel universes. Or in other words, every fraction of a second, a very large number of parallel universes branch off, something like this:

This picture shows just one universe at the beginning, and then after two branching events, a whole bunch of similar but different universes arise. As time progresses forward, we could end up living any of these lines while copies of ourselves follow other lines. We have no idea that other universes exist, and we can never visit them, so to us our timeline looks simple ... like this (just like the one-world model):

Okay, you ready for this? What if you get in a time machine and jump ahead in time? In the middle while you're gone, the universe is going to continue branching out in its own millions of timelines, and when you return, you could end up on any of those timelines ... like this:

At the same time, copies of you will end up in all the other timelines. Isn't this crazy? Remember, it's just a theory.

Also, remember, from your POV, your time travel trip is going to look like this (the simple version -- again, it looks like the one-world model):

What happens when you go back in time? This is when things start getting weird.

In the one-world model, a trip backwards looks like this:

Looks simple enough? There's just one problem with this. In the one-world model, you can't change the past, as the past is already set in stone. For example, you can't kill your own grandpa, else you'll cease to be born, creating a paradox. And if you've never met yourself in the past, you can never meet yourself when you go back in time. It's not just that you would break the universe or anything -- you'd just simply be unable to change what has already occurred, no matter how hard you try, and so it goes. Example: the movie 12 Monkeys, and the book Slaughterhouse-Five.

But in MWI theory, going backwards in time does something interesting. You can see this easily by reversing our earlier forward jump, like so:

Going backwards is easy--just follow the timeline backwards--all the way back to the original timeline. But then as you move forward naturally in time, you're going to be subject to random fluctuations again. You could end up where that red dot is. In fact, the chances of returning back to your original timeline is practically zero.

In short, going back in time creates a new timeline for you. The simplified picture looks like this:

In this picture, everything to the left of the branch represents the history of what happened leading up to that point in time. Then at the point where you arrive from your time travel trip, the two universes diverge. The top branch represents your original timeline, and the bottom branch is your new timeline after you traveled back.

And get this: a copy of your original self also moves along that bottom branch. Since this copy is in a different universe, he can do entirely different things. That is, you could meet yourself, and you could even kill that copy without causing any paradoxes. As the original You still lives his life exactly as you remembered along the upper original branch.

But then what happens if you travel forward in time from the red dot? You can only end up in universes that branch off from that dot. In other words, you can never return to the original timeline. Doing so would break casualty rules. A universe's branch can never ever return to another earlier-created branch.

Perhaps in an attempt to return to that original timeline, you try going backwards in time to an earlier part of that branch. Alas, random fluctuations would ensure that you just create another (third) timeline from that point, and you just make matters worse!

The one exception to this "can't return" rule is the concept of a "tether," which is an entirely made-up sci-fi concept that I don't think is supported by science, but it still sounds feasible. Before you leave your timeline and embark on a trip, you can mark your point so that you can return exactly where you left from. Several shows use this tactic.

Now that you are armed with the basics of Multiple Worlds Time Travel, which is mostly supported by real scientific theories, I'll demonstrate tomorrow how time travel can be explained as presented in Avengers: Endgame.

Endgame: Cool

After 10 years and 20 movies, it comes down to this, an epic movie to bring it all together. So much so that it almost feels like a conclusion, though, we know so many more movies are planned to come out in the near future.

Here you can see my kids and me going to the "midnight" open viewing of this show...

We had a very participatory crowd, cheering and sniffing and saying, "I knew it!" when their favorite fan theories came true. It was all a testament to the fact that the movie delivered. Very few were disappointed.

After Thanos' big win, the Avengers decide to come together and save the day. The plan: grab Thanos' gauntlet and use it to reverse the damage, but wouldn't you know it? Things do not go as smoothly as they had hoped.

It ends up being three hours of build to an epic conclusion.

Sure, there were slow parts, and as usual there are a lot of plot holes. There was only one 30-second gosh-awful-did-they-really-go-there-and-it-doesn't-even-fit-the-story scene they could have easily left out -- by far the most eye-rolling scene ever placed into a Marvel movie. But other than that, the movie was so enjoyable and the payout was so great that all of these weaknesses pale in comparison.

As you may have guessed, the Avengers revert to time travel. And why not? Time travel was used in Doctor Strange, and even a little in Infinity Wars, so why not in this last movie? Some complain that the time travel mechanics don't make sense. But after my work friend and I talked it out over a few days, we were able to put together a consistent map that explains it all. I'll detail this in not one, but two blog entries later this week. It still leaves some glaring plot holes, but so it goes.

I recommend catching this in the theater, if perchance you haven't seen it yet already. If you missed IMAX because of it being sold out, check out your local theater and see if they've extended showings another week, like mine has. There still appear to be several good seats left.

Slaughterhouse-Five: So It Goes

Here it goes: the first of four posts this week touching on the subject of time travel in some shape or fashion. Yeah, I know. You don't believe I can get out four posts in one week, but I've seen the future and it has already happened.

I begin with a spoiler-filled review of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, as I know most of you have already read it in high school. Somehow I had missed the pleasure, but got caught up when all my kids were getting the assignment. If you haven't read it, this is your last chance to stop, read the book, and then come back.

Anyway, this book is about Billy Pilgrim, an American POW who witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden. Vonnegut spends most of the time detailing the terrible conditions Americans had to survive behind German lines, leading to what could arguably be the most atrocious act committed by the British and Americans against innocent civilians: burning an entire city with liquid fire -- a city once known for its art, architecture, and high society. Tens of thousands of people died, and Vonnegut, himself, witnessed it firsthand.

Thus, war is just terrible all around. There are terrible acts committed by all players -- sometimes justified, and sometimes not.

The book is written by some unknown Author, who was with Billy Pilgrim during the war, leading one to wonder how much of the book really happened, and how much was made up to fill in the fiction. It's all about how the Author's been working so hard to put together his Dresden book.

Well after the war, Billy is abducted by aliens who teach him how to see along the fourth dimension. He then becomes unstuck in time and can travel back and forth within his own consciousness. He immediately sees how he dies: an assassination by laser gun in the year 1976. In fact, all of the aliens can see their own death and the ultimate death of their planet. When Billy asks why they don't do anything to stop these deaths, the aliens explain that the timeline can't be changed. It is what it is. Things die, and so it goes.

Thus, throughout the book, whenever someone dies, or even when a concept dies, the Author writes, "so it goes." Sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's sad. There are even moments when the Author comes out and tells you this guy over there is going to die in a couple of weeks, and when it actually happens, it's still sad -- though I found myself still hoping he'd avoid it somehow.

At times, I could only read a few pages at a time. Sometimes I had to take a few days off from reading. It just got depressing to read, even with the black humor throughout.

But get this: just like in The Wizard of Oz (the movie), Vonnegut has created a story that could either have happened exactly as he had written, or it was all in the head of a damaged veteran with PTSD. Whichever it is, there is no way to determine what really happened, and the reader can almost decide for himself what he would like to happen.

You, too, can be unstuck in time, once you realize that time is just another dimension that you can travel. Just close your eyes, and remember your favorite memories. If you do it long enough, you can almost imagine yourself being back there, looking ahead to the future events that are yet to come. And then you jump ahead and imagine new futures that can not yet be verified or contradicted. Now, doesn't death by laser gun sound like a plausible death on Earth? It does if you can't prove that it hasn't happened ... yet.

And get this: it's easy to get depressed about death and all that until you realize, there really is no death when you're unstuck in time. You can go back and forth along your entire lifeline ad infinitum, as that is when you're actually alive. You ... just ... exist, and nothing can change it. Something may mark the beginning and end of your existence, but nothing can take you away from your existence during the entire middle.

Stephen Hawking once explained a similar concept when talking about our universe as a big 4-dimensional sphere, where one end could be the Big Bang, and the opposite end could be the Big Crunch. And then the universe would have no beginning or end of time, as it just exists as a 4-D object. It ... just ... exists.

And so it goes. I can't remember how the book ends, but as a whole it can mess with your head. It remains a highly recommend book to read if you haven't read it -- even after reading this spoiler-filled review. But then again, can anything really be spoiled when you can already see the future?

Oh and when you're done reading that, I hear that Billy has a brother who's really good at video games ...

2019 Checkpoint #2

One-third of the way done with the year. The time is flying fast. And what have I done?

My writing success has been off and on. The one-hour-a-day approach has been helpful in helping me push forward. I completed the one short story "The Immortal Actuary," and I've gone back to working on "Descendant History." That last one needs more research and world building, and then I need to throw out everything and try again.

Evidently, the one-hour-a-day approach also takes up a lot of time, taking away from my music ventures. It's almost as if I need to find a balance between all the things I wish to accomplish. Weird!

Stresses from the day job still sucks up much energy leaving little for after-work activities. But I'm doing whatever I can. Sometimes it feels like I'm just going from one thing to the next until I crash at night. It can be both fun and tiring at the same time.

Looking ahead, the next two months are for bringing together all the hymns and songs I've been writing for my church's call for additions to the hymnal and primary songbook. Part of this includes having to write lyrics for two of my hymns -- first time I've tried to do this. July 1st is the deadline, and then time should free up for other activities.

I also need to think about starting up the story submissions machine again. Maybe this time I'll have a hit. And then when I get enough energy, I'll finally get back to finishing my first book, "Justice" so it can be published. After reviewing it a couple of months ago, I see several opportunities for improvement.

So many ideas and so little time!

I hope you all are doing well.

Into the Spider-Verse: in Pseudo 3-D

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is possibly the most comic-book-looking animated film I've ever seen. And it was able to pull together nearly all past versions of Spider-man into one movie.

Somehow, each Spider-man who has ever existed, or been dreamt up, exists in his or her own universe. (Sorry -- I just can't misuse the word "dimension" as most shows do. The proper word is "universe.") After Kingpin opens a portal to these other universes, they all clash together.

In one sense, this is yet another movie like TRON, where the overall idea is ludicrous, but when put together in an enjoyable way--a good plot, good humor, and good action--no one seems to notice the ludicrousness. You want to see how good writers can effectively fit in a looney-tunes talking spider pig? Then watch this film.

The animation is awesome. It seemed like it was constantly switching between different styles, and I couldn't find any patterns, but it all seemed to work. Sometimes the animation was an intentional low bit rate, helping to create a jerky comic-book action feel. Sometimes there was an out-of-focus double vision to emulate 3-D without the glasses -- sometimes with red-blue borders, and sometimes more like today's polarized 3-D look. (In fact, during the viewing, I thought the theater had accidentally shown us the 3-D version without the glasses. I only found out later through research that the pseudo 3-D effect was intentional, even in the 2-D version.)

Sometimes the animation looked like the old 4-color dot matrix comics. Other times it was a newer more modern type of animation with computer-aided 3-D shading and the like. And often we got to see word bubbles with some humorous variations.

Overall, it was fun for the whole family. I saw it in the theater, but it's out now on disc and streaming. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I'll probably be watching it again sometime soon to catch what I missed the first time.

Shazam: A Marvel of a Movie

SHAZAM! helps to bring DC out of the dust in the movie sphere. Using a good balance of humor and action, this movie keeps attention from start to finish.

Billy Batson, foster teenager in search of a good home, is chosen to be the champion to help protect the world. All he has to do is say, "Shazam!" and he turns into an adult-sized superhero with several superpowers.

This movie brings back several memories from similar movies and TV shows in the past. Just like in The Greatest American Hero, Billy doesn't receive an instruction manual and needs to discovers the powers on his own. Of course he has a friend to help him along, and the results are hilarious.

Just like in Big, Billy must learn how to deal with an adult body while having only the experience of a child. As one might expect, Zachary Levi pulls this off remarkably well. Then again, he's always been great in acting as a child.

It appears that the writers give intentional nods to these works that came before it. And before anyone accuse the current writers of being unoriginal, just remember that SHAZAM (Captain Marvel) did it first in the comics in the 1940s, well before these other shows.

This movie, as well as providing tons of good laughs, also provides good action scenes. Dr. Sivana is a good evil villain. He obtains his powers through impure means and provides Shazam a formidable foe. A warning though: at least one scene is likely to scare younger children. Warner Brothers still allows its foes to go a little further than we've yet to see in the Marvel universe. I actually enjoy the darker feel in these movies.

When you go see this movie, be prepared to relax and enjoy the show. If you think too hard, it should be easy to find plot holes (such as: "Where are Superman and Batman, et al?"), but this movie is too much fun to care about those.

Random trivia: SHAZAM is a acronym of Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strength), Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage), and Mercury (speed). Also, I doubt there has been any superhero character that has been sued more than SHAZAM (Captain Marvel). You should look it up and enjoy the whole story.

Take your family (teenage kids and older) to catch this in the theater. It's not an Adam Sandler movie as some previews would have you believe. Rather, just a good humorous action-filled fun movie.

First Contact: Rocking in Space

I'm not one to pick up a book featuring a rock star in space, but Kelly Brewer makes it work in First Contact. I was asked to provide this review, and occasionally I love to read works from new and uprising authors.

Earth has reached the edge of its solar system and is slowly branching out further, an effort known as the Deepening. While things are bad on Earth, Kyle Supplantis, lead singer of the Cosmic Mechanix, embarks on a rock-and-roll tour throughout the solar system in an attempt to bring hope to mankind and to inspire further exploration.

Along the way, nefarious parties try to sabotage and otherwise destroy the tour. Even those close to Kyle have hidden motives. And evidently unseen aliens are watching as well.

As one may expect from a rock-and-roll book, there is music, crazed fans, dangerous drugs that kill, band member issues, backstabbing, some strong language, and a little bit of sex. Though, Kyle is noble and pure, almost to a fault. He needs to be clean if he's going to try and save the world.

The writing style is new and interesting, incorporating what might be called Millennial speak. Several words contain periods or emoticons, like one might see in code or on the Internets. The people of the strange Coexist religion seem to have their own language heavy with the letter Z.

The concepts in the book are highly imaginative: robots that are half human / half machine, long distance jumps in space involving the switching of matter, built-in communication devices, new kinds of drugs, and so on.

Overall, the plot is satisfying, though it leaves much open to sequels. This book seems more about building the world and stage setting for these future books.

If you love rock-and-roll and you also love space operas, then give this book a try. It's good light entertainment.

Captain Marvel: Another Hero

Here we are ... the movie what proceeds Endgame. That means you have to watch it, right?

Then again, is an excuse needed? Captain Marvel is a fun ride all the way through. Again proof that Marvel still knows how to put together an enjoyable movie. This is yet another standalone origin story -- and get this -- possibly the best noninvasive incorporation of Avengers mythology out of all of the other post-Avengers (1) origin stories. (Maybe?)

Vers (as the future Captain Marvel is called in this movie) has joined her fellow Kree in their war against the Skrull. When things go wrong, she finds herself on the planet Earth. Cool for us! The Skrull, who are able to shape-shift and imitate anyone, start infiltrating and trying to stop her. Along the way, she joins forces with none other than younger 1995 versions of Nick Fury and Agent Coulson.

The action was fun. The music by Pinar Toprak was good and different. The plot was decent. The acting was believable. Special effects awesome -- especially in a theater, with an amazing young-ification of Nick Fury's face, though Agent Coulson's face had a little uncanny valley going on.

Some people have accused this movie of pushing a feminist agenda, but honestly, I must have missed it all. There were little "you go girl" moments here and there, such as one lady saying, "Who are you calling a little lady?" For a movie with a so-called agenda, it certainly had a lot of men helping her along the way!

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I look forward to see how it all comes together in the upcoming Endgame. Take the family, and catch this before it leaves theaters.

2019 Checkpoint #1

Two months of 2019 are now passed, and now I report in on my progress.

The year started off great. During January, I successfully built up my writing habit (the goal of one hour a day), and I was able to put together my first new short story in two years. You can read it here:

The Immortal Actuary

By the end of this month, I should learn if I won anything in that contest.

And then on January 31st, I got sick. Not one, but TWO stupid flus. The first was short, but the second one (which may have been a resurgence of the first) lasted for two weeks. And I'm still recovering. It wiped out all of my productivity.

I'm happy with what I accomplished so far, but I am also frustrated knowing it could have been more. Now I must build up the writing habit again. So much to write!

I hope you're doing well with your writing goals. Ever onward and keep pushing forward!

Mary Poppins Returns: Worth Watching

Every now and then, Disney pulls off the unthinkable ... making a decent sequel to a perfect movie. Despite a couple of distractions, I was blown away with how much of the original magic made it into this release, and how well it was made to relate to a newer generation.

Just like the first movie, this one seems to remind each of us what we can learn from children and how to reach our inner child.

Michael and Jane are now older. Michael, who still lives in the Banks household, has lost his wife, and now his sister is staying with them to help. Having accrued too much debt, Michael is about to lose the home to the bank -- all making for a perfect time for Mary Poppins to return.

My two youngest children, who don't remember the original, seemed to love this movie. It spoke to them.

For me, it was more of revisiting what I had already seen, as many of my emotional responses were from remembering scenes from the original. The sequel relies heavily on the original form and plot. In fact, almost everything from the original seems to be mapped to something in the sequel. In some respects, the sequel did better, and in others it came only close.

My only disappointment was that the writers decided to introduce a nefarious element. Since the original movie had already demonstrated how a writer can build so much tension without there being any "truly bad guys," I was disappointed to see bad guys in the sequel. It didn't faze my children, though, who are more than used to that Hollywood formula. It just felt out of place for a Mary Poppins movie. Plus, the plot would have been nearly the same with the nefarious elements removed.

The music was great, though slightly inferior to the original. If I were to give the first score a 10, I'd give this one a 9. The songs were good and intelligent, but just slightly less memorable than the original songs. Plus, I heard more parallel 5ths in the newer film, which usually distracts me. The "music box" scene was quite effective until right before the box was closed when the music played just one non-music-box note that took me out of the moment. My 13-year-old daughter also independently pointed out that "wrong" note.

One of the songs, which was cleverly worded and performed, seemed a little too "burlesque" for a Mary Poppins movie. I enjoyed it, but it felt out of place.

And one more thing about the music I must compliment before wrapping up ... something that really needs to be said: if there was any auto-tuning going on, it was very well done and nonintrusive. I perhaps heard some minor auto-tuning for Jack in the very last song, but other than that, it sounded like real human beings singing. Disney in particular has been very bad and lazy with auto-tuning in their recent movies, and this was a pleasant surprise.

If you haven't yet seen this movie, I would recommend it for a great family outing. Go ahead and bring out that inner child and perhaps leave feeling better about the world around you.

Goals for 2019

Looking back on 2018, I actually accomplished quite a bit, but not in the area of writing. The good news is that I've restarted the writing machine, so I anticipate that the upcoming year will be productive.

As I mentioned somewhere earlier, I'm going to do away with the stats. I'm such a numbers guy, but I realize numbers are usually boring to us writing types.

Last year I introduced my annual movie lists back to 2010, which is both fun and yet annoying, as I'll have to keep updating these as I watch more movies.

Here's my favorite post from last year:

• Why I'm Slow to Submit: How I've come to realize why I'm tired of submitting to the 'zines.

Looking ahead, here are my goals for 2019:

• Novel writing:
• Revise "Justice" and prepare for publication.
• Work on either "Space Cadets" or "Time Sleuths."
• Short stories:
• "The Immortal Actuary" (a new idea that recently came up)
• "The Jesse Flag" (flash fiction)
• "The Rainbow Flush" (flash fiction)
• "Godspring"
• "Descendent History"
• Short story submissions: restart

I hope 2019 turns out good for you!