grga's blog

Finding legal videos online

grga — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:07:43 -0800

Probably everybody has heard about sites distributing pirated music and movies. You may not know where to look, but you've heard that it's going on. On the other hand, there are a number of science fiction films which are going out of copyright. So where do you find the films which you can download legally?

On restaurant review sites, Yelp, and fan-friendly businesses

grga — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:39:42 -0700

For some time now, I've been frustrated trying to find the web sites of the various venues (usually restaurants) that different fan groups use as meeting places. With BIFF, I like to link to the Eighties Restaurant, where we meet, so people can check out the menu, prices and so on, and decide whether the items on the menu look interesting, affordable, and safe enough for them to come out.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

grga — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:45:01 -0700

Well, I went to see it with a friend last night. The good bits: visually, the movies are still working. The effects are still believable, the sets are still lush, and, oddly enough, you still buy the cast as 17-year-olds.

Sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover

grga — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I first discovered Piper's work when I picked up a reissue copy of Little Fuzzy (because of the cover, which shows a group of small, furry aliens flanking a human being armed with a ray gun) at the airport in Halifax a few years ago, and was quite entranced. Little Fuzzy is a "first contact" novel, but without the usual posing, atmospheric music, and deus ex machina of the cheesier recent reiterations of the formula, and with a nice twist which actually takes three novels to work itself out.

Star Trek: The Final Betrayal

grga — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:43:01 -0700

I saw Star Trek when it was first broadcast in the mid-60s. I can't say that I watched it religiously (in fact, after all these years, I still can't swear that I have seen every single episode), but Star Trek, The Time Tunnel, my older brother's Tom Swift books, and the space race all combined in my young, impressionable mind, and have turned me into a space geek for life.

I'm waiting for...

grga — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It's dangerous walking into a department store, if you have a functioning nose. Salesgirls who follow the Tammy Faye school of makeup application are just waiting to blast you with samples of chemical warfare agents with appealing names like toilet water. I understand that the goal is to take control of your mind, and convince you that the best way to show your undying affection for your wife/fiancee/girlfriend is to buy said chemical warfare agents and give them as gifts.

Obviously, I went to the wrong school

grga — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I am a total space geek. (Do I wish I were going along for the ride on the Hubble Servicing Mission? You know I do!) If I can't be there in person, then photos are the next best thing.

Three of these things belong together...

grga — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:06:38 -0700

"Okay," he asked, "what science fiction TV show would you like to see recreated like Battlestar Galactica was?"

Hmmm... that made me think. In truth, I couldn't trim my list down to one show. Instead, I offered three:

We live in a sci-fi world

grga — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:32:18 -0800

You can tell who's a fan and who's a mundane by whether (or how) they use the term "sci-fi." To a mundane, anything involving space travel or the future is "sci-fi." To a fan, "sci-fi" is an insult, applied to those lame stories in which the characters are surrounded by all kinds of absurd and unrealistic technologies.

Bits of myself

grga — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

When I was in Hong Kong, I was working with a bunch of Australians, who were proud to show off Australian films, like The Dish. The star of the show is basically the dish itself: the giant radio telescope in Parkes, Australia. The year is 1969, Apollo 11 is about to take off to make the first manned mission to the Moon, and the world has basically gone completely looney. The film examines the impact of a small town suddenly thrust into the international scene, and the cast is absolutely brilliant in portraying the joys, limitations, and quirks of small town society.