When it happens, this is what happens: I shoot myself.

Not, you know, my self self. My future self. He steps out of a time machine, introduces himself as Charles Yu. What else am I supposed to do? I kill him. I kill my own future.

Hoo boy. I can't say this is a great book but, hm, why am I talking about it immediately after finishing it. Maybe because I just grabbed it off the shelf four hours ago.

I got How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe from Barnes and Noble last month or so, then promptly forgot about it. Tonight, without much to do, I grabbed it (was actually looking for Verily, A New Hope but this dropped into my hand first), made a note of the 9:20 time, shrugged, and figured I'd give it a go. I read the last page (for the second time, but just that page) at 12:40 and immedioately felt the need to get out of my head what was bouncing around in there.

I don't like the writing style. For a chapter or two, the meandering and loose sentence structure is fine. Towards the end of the book, this got longer, more twisted. Single sentences would run for two thirds of a page; a parenthetical started on one and ended a third of the way down the next, and I had to flip back to figure out where we'd left off. Now, this isn't amateur; I'm sure you could give English profs a headache but they'd confirm that they're perfectly grammatically sound, but still, a long sentence is something you start to gloss over while reading anyway. A specific passage towards the end makes me thing that it's intentional, actually.

I do like the structure of the story. Similar to the sentences, it meanders. It's quite a while before we get a grasp of who the protagonist is (again, intentional; in a science fictional world, he's someone who works in the background as protagonists and heroes play out their stories*). It's not until more than a third into the book that the storyline is actually set into motion - where Charles becomes the protagonist of his own story, just then starting.

What I wasn't expecting was how personal a story it would be. From what little I'd sampled, including the quote above (the first prose you see, before chapter 1, and also [somewhat modified] what sets Charles' story into motion), the back-of-the-book synopsis (humorous, inaccurate, even humorously inaccurate) and even the title made me think of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but that really wasn't the case at all.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is a good book, I'll say. I don't know that I'll be re-reading it, but considering I tore through it all at once, I did enjoy my time with it (though keeping in mind I skimmed some titanic passages towards the climax). I recommend grabbing it off the shelf and reading a short chapter or two and seeing what you think; if you can deal with meandering sentences (of which I've had a few in this review, I realize, though certainly not on the same scale), it's definitely one that I recommend reading. Just don't go into it, as I did, expecting Douglas Adams. It's a different kind of book, and hopefully one you'll enjoy.

*Minor Universe 31 gets explained to some detail; how it is set apart from others, or even to reality as we know it (as opposed to the Reality level inside MU-31) is never expounded upon and eventually you just shake your head and take things at face value. It took me a frustratingly long time to "really just relax" and go with it.

Edit Hm, that came out longer than intended. Hope it's fine here but if you'd rather I re-posted as a Reviews thread I could do that too.

That's fair. You may be the first person to correct me on this though; in many places, including around here it seems, a trilby would be considered a subset of fedora.

Either way I need a new one, my cheap Wal-Mart one isn't cutting it compared to the nicer once my boss has

The only reason my signature looks adult is repetition, and it's pretty abstract. You'd never know that I'm making the same motions through the whole thing even though I changed my name last year. Aside from my (former) name I couldn't write cursive to save my life.

That being said, a pen such as this might get me trying again.

The only documentary I come back to now and again is 9/11. Two French brothers thought they were making a documentary on a New York City firehouse. They ended up being the guys on the ground as the World Trade Center attacks unfolded.

It's been a couple years since I've watched it, been meaning to go back and do so again. Also a good - nay, textbook -  example of the story being completely different than what you set out to create in the first place.

This started out as a quick idea but quickly turned into a pitch. It's rough, but if anyone thinks it's worth pursuing it can be sanded down a bit.

One reason that big monsters aren't that scary to me is that everybody works together to fight them. Some people might be terrible at it, and people in suits removed from the situation will make bad decisions that screw the guys on the ground, but they're all still trying.

An idea to explore might be a monster that somehow divides and conquers. Last decade, "terrorism" was a shortcut to what could really scare people. I don't know that that can do so as strongly anymore but something more underhanded would be a better approach. Godzilla's huge and various videos show that he'd need a lot of energy to survive; some sort of brainwashing that turns man against man to soften us up for him would be a good approach.

Let's start with a Bermuda Triangle approach.  (Doesn't have to be this exact place; might be a bit cheesy. But the same basic idea.) A ship arrives in port exactly one year late; the crew doesn't realize that the extra time has passed. They're psychologically poked and prodded, but eventually are cleared.

Over the next stretch of time - long enough so conspiracy theories don't start flying immediately - each crew member is involved in some sort of act that weakens the infrastructure and solidarity of civilization. Sabotage of power grids, bombings, something halfway plausible for each person's position but a stretch. Maybe even an engineer that wasn't on the crew but was digging through the ship for clues and found some sort of terrible otherworldly writing. After the acts they commit, they're re-evaluated and show signs of psychological trauma, and visions of Lovecraftian horrors rising from the deep.

(Crap, I might be making more of a Cthulhu move than Godzilla. Whatever, let's see where this goes.)

Each of the acts committed, in addition to weakening something, are also politically divisive. Because of who did it, a school shooting forces federal-level limitations on firearms, so that people are less prepared when, um, Chris finally rises. Damage done to the power grid backup systems allows Chris to destroy the entire power grid in one go. Other such things. When all of his minions have performed their assigned task, Chris rises to feast. Who stops him? No idea. Military responds but it's uncoordinated. Citizens can't protect their homes on their own.

In short, it's desperate. I think that the best solution is to do something to Chris that mirrors what he did to us but I don't know how you'd turn a single, solitary monster upon itself. Could be as simple as gathering up the original crew, sending them back to the exact spot they had disappeared, and they vanish... and does Chris with a roar of terror/frustration/"I left the gas on". (This is after the studio-mandated boss fight, which we lose because of the aforementioned damage.)

The movie ends with the non-crew engineer, still among humanity, back out and working with her colleagues. She idly doodles the writing she saw... BOOM SEQUEL TEASE

Definitely love the Greens, and Mental Floss in particular, thanks for the reminder to sub that one. Two other science channels I subscribe to:

Smarter Every Day: I originally saw this from some slow-motion videos, but even then he does a great job analyzing the footage and explaining why something happens. He got a decent publicity boost lately from a video where he tied a helium balloon to the floor of his minivan and it leaned toward the direction of acceleration instead of away from it, but the first video of his I saw was his one on the Prince Rupert's Drop.

It's Okay To Be Smart: Sponsored by PBS, and entertaining. I just started following it but I enjoy what I've seen so far and plan on sitting down and watching a bunch in a row here pretty soon.

On a slightly different tack, I follow a camera review channel:

The Camera Store TV: Great camera reviews. Entertaining and funny, while still focusing on the matter at hand.

(I also considered adding lines for Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens but while I really enjoy their stuff, and they're certainly not dumb YouTube, I don't know that they're what you're aiming for with this thread.)

Wow. That is amazing and I love it but did nobody involved with that know that that music is used in Viagra commercials? Or was it intentional? Meh, watching five times anyway.

A friend sat me down last night to watch this. The movie it starts out as is not the sort of movie I enjoy watching. I laughed at some gags but my attention wandered. At some points, to other things entirely, but at others to scrutinizing the cinematography, which I loved. Simple and restrained, and I enjoyed it. (At one point I was about to speak up and note that a scene had gone for minutes with a simple and pleasing shot-reverse, then we got a wide dolly shot that broke it up.)

About midway through it started to edge into a genre that I enjoy more and I sat up and watched more intently. I don't think it's a movie that I'll ever watch again but as the coming of age story transitioned into a bit more of a thriller (to try to avoid a few spoilers, and to do a bad job of genre pigeonholing), it became a movie that I am nonetheless glad I watched.

Awesome! That had to be really cool for him

Oh that's right, I had intended to say something about her covers. With how samey Shatter Me is, it becomes especially disappointing that she won't/can't (not sure which) release an album of her covers. She's done a bunch, and with some great guest artists (she got me hooked on Peter Hollens as well), and sells them as individual songs on iTunes; an album would be awesome.

I started playing Valkyria Chronicles again over the weekend, with the intent to finish it. I love this game so much... great story, great characters (if you don't mind some anime archetypes), and really unique gameplay. Closest to a World War II game I'll ever play.