Dante's Inferno - The Video Game (What The!?)

I'm not a big video game player, other than the occasional game of Star Wars Lego (that is just FUN) so I was surprised when I saw an announcement for a new video game--Dante's Inferno.

Now I'm pretty sure it's NOT like the book... playing Dante and just following Virgil around for nine levels of peaking in on the Las Vegas party-style that is Hell and ending up with the "I went to Hell and all I got was this t-shirt" t-shirt.

I have no details on what's actually in the game, but I'd be more inclined to play it, if everyone's favorite Middle Ages poet strapped on a pair (of guns) and laid waste to the hellish wasteland that is... well, Hell.

But this got me thinking about what other novels could be turned into video games...

The Lord of the Flies: Play as Ralph, Jack, or Piggy. Defeat the other kids on the island, grab the pig head for extra power and take on the the Beast with a laser gun made from Piggy's glasses.

Hamlet: Why suffer the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" when you can make others suffer? Start off by driving your girlfriend to suicide, and then eliminate everyone in your Friends and Family calling circle. In the final boss level, take on Fortinbras and his army in classic first person shooter style.

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Wander around the streets of London as Edward Hyde beating up Bobbies and Harlots and stealing nearby carriages for transportation, all the while earning money and Hyde potions, until you can take on Queen Elizabeth herself in a Mortal-Combat style fight (I just wonder what the Queen's finishing move would be?)

Apparently great literature is for more than just reading, you can also play it!

P.S. If you get to the final level of Inferno, remember your thermal jammies.

GodTube?

Seems the Vatican is getting a channel on the popular video sharing site YouTube. Details are sparse on what content the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church has in mind, but a quick look around YouTube should give him a few ideas...

* A video blog... wouldn't you like seeing the Pope hunched over in a chair, trying to stay in the frame of the web camera on his laptop lamenting about everything from the last movie he saw (probably Slumdog Millionaire, seems like everyone's seen that one but me) or just something that happened at work that day... I know I would be glued to the screen.

* Mashups... mix some pope videos with popular, but lyrically empty pop songs and watch the view counts soar... and I can't imagine ANY record company sending a cease and desist order against the Holy See. But be prepared for the unauthorized mashup of the Pope and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl".

* Clips and Trailers... "This Week in Church..." a quick cut video (but without those goofy 80s style tilted angles) of some snippets of a reading, part of the sermon, and the happy faces of all those who just received communion...

Just a few ideas, and I'm sure the Vatican has even farther reaching plans, like a church in Second Life, or a Twitter account...

My 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Ok, you should all know the premise by now, if not, check the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon page on Wikipedia.

I hadn't thought about my own degree number, till a friend of my on Facebook talked about hers. So that got me thinking and I was surprised to find it was easier to figure out than I thought. See a few years ago I was taking theater classes at the local community college. While there...

• I performed in The Crucible with John Esteban
• Who appeared (as an extra) in The New World with Colin Farrell
• Who appeared in Minority Report with Tom Cruise
• Who appeared in A Few Good Men with... Kevin Bacon

so that put me at 4 degrees from Keven Bacon... who knew.

Speaking of Bacon (Kevin, not the pork food), the Oracle of Bacon is a great site for finding the shortest distance between two actors (it defaults to Kevin Bacon as one of the two, but you can substitute any two names). What's really impressive is putting in silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin or Fatty Arbuckle and finding out they are both within 3 degrees of Kevin.

When Real Life and Second Life Collide

Seems in the new techno-world of the 21st century, fidelity isn't just limited to the real world...

Case in point, a British couple are divorcing after 3 years of marriage when the wife repeatedly caught her husband's Second Life avatar having sex with various women (including prostitutes).

My question... in the divorce settlement, who gets the computer?

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AD39U20081114?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology&sp=true

(Reposted from my other blog, One Viewpoint)

Me And Murry

I recently went on a trip, involving several long flights. As I've done over the past few years, I brought along a book, an old collection of even older sci-fi stories (from the "golden age of the pulps") by Murray Leinster.

I first "met" Murray when I was in college. I was working on a paper and needed to use one of the computers in the 24 hour lab (this was before the days of affordable laptops). Since it was around Finals, I wasn't the only one in need of word processing and a printer; there was a line out the door of other people in the same predicament as me (and which further reinforced my theory that we ALL wait to the last minute to get things done).

To pass the time, I borrowed one of my roommate's books ("The Best of Murray Leinster" edited by J J Pierce), which just so happened to be a collection of his short stories. I enjoy sci-fi, but I wouldn't call myself a big fan; I haven't read any of the great authors like Card, Asimov, or Heinlein, and other than a few cyberpunk books by William Gibson, most of my exposure has been through TV and movies.

Anyway, I enjoyed the stories, even if some of the writing felt a little dated; his stories are populated with spaceships and computers using vacuum tube technology. But details aside, the plots are engaging, the themes still relevant, and the science well-rooted in some basis of fact.

Years later I was looking though a used book store and found a copy of the book I had been reading in college. I picked it up and let in sit on a bookshelf...

Later still, I was getting ready for my first trip to New Orleans, to meet up with some friends for a bachelor party. Looking for something to fill the time at the terminal and on the plane (and since I'm a dreadfully slow reader), I picked up this book again.

Over the years as I've gone on trips to San Francisco, San Diego, and even London, Murray has always been along for the ride. This year, Murry came along again (all the way out to Hawaii), but on the return flight home, I finished the last story of the book. Now it sits on the shelf as another finished novel, which I may glance at from time to time, but unlikely to read again; in spite of, or maybe because of the fact that I'm such a slow reader, my "to read" pile grows faster than I can read them.

So now as this old book takes a place on the shelf, I'm on the search for a new collection of his work... since I have no planned trips coming up, so I have a little time.

If you're interested in checking out some of his work, here are a couple of places to look:
* Free ebooks from Project Gutenberg.
* Books available on Amazon.
* Books available from eBay.