by GothNinja | Mar 22, 2012 | TV Shows, Geek
Born:William Alan Shatner; March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
William Shatner Star of Star Trek, TJ Hooker, Shit my Dad Says, Tek War, Boston Legal (& The Practice), And way too many other things to list here turns 81 today. Yes that’s right Kirk is 81, and I wish I look as young/good when I hit 81.
So we here at the Ninja Temple want to wish one of the big names in the Geek world a Very Happy 81st Birthday, and we look forward to seeing you on our TV’s for many more years.
by GothNinja | Jan 11, 2012 | Mind Power, Geek
I had an interesting dream last night, one that may give an interesting peak into my subconscious, or possibly suggest I should be kept under observation for safety reasons. Personally I think it simply backs up that age old quote for the Bible “The Geek shall inherent the Earth“.
I should point out, the start of the dream could have been inspired by the fact I recently watched the whole 1st Season of “Game of Thrones“, And am working my way through the “Wheel of Time” series of Books.
So the dream started with me in a typical fantasy world, of Swords, Knights, horses, normal Medieval technology level. I was in a small land that was being attacked by a bigger neighbor, I have no idea why, the politics of the conflict did not interest me, as much as offering my services as an “adviser”, which helped turn the tide and allow the smaller land to win.
On a side note, its amazing the weapons and traps you can make with just basic technology and modern knowledge. Also charging cavalry get really confused when they come across my medieval version of landmines. Hey it was some fantasy world, there probably wasn’t even a Geneva let alone a Geneva Convention.
Well on the high from our small victory, we went on the offensive to claim damages from the aggressors and increase the size of the country. Alas that’s when bad fortune hit our plucky country, our beloved King died while examining my rudimentary gunpowder grenades. Luckily I had just left the room moments before the accident which also had the misfortune to take out the direct line of airs to the throne. Since we were at war, and needed strong leadership to keep us safe I volunteered my own services as military leader while the lords of the land worked out who should become the new king.
Now I think on it, they never did come up with who should rule the country. I guess they were too busy on the front lines as part of the forced military conscription that we needed to help fight the wars on all fronts. By the time I woke up I had unified three quarters of the land, and given an extra half hour of sleep I’m sure my steam cannons would have made short work of the mountain fortresses of the free people.
I think this dream shows two points.
- Knowledge is Power
- I should not be allowed to rule any country, no matter how small.
by GothNinja | Nov 11, 2011 | Holiday, Geek
Happy Binary Day.
Its the 11th second of the 11th minute of the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of this century.
Its special people!!!
by GothNinja | Oct 7, 2011 | Hacks, Holiday, Geek
Today is “Ada Lovelace Day“.
It is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.
Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do.
I decided to take part in helping to promote the achievements of women in fields they do not normally get the credit the deserve in. Deciding to take part was easy, its the actual doing something about it that’s hard. I have spent the last four hours trying to decide who to write about.
Its easy to say “I was not influenced or inspired by particular woman to the point I can post about it“, Yet the more I consider it, the more stupid that statement is. Part of my job entails writing Programs, Scripts, etc. And The first computer Programmer was a lady, and a Lady lady at that. Lady Ada Lovelace (Who today’s named after.)
So who to pick? I then considered maybe using a Character from TV/Film that’s a role model showing you can be cool, feminine, and geeky. Only I could not decide on one of them, either. I have decided to face the fact that I’m useless.
So Instead I will just Raise a pint, and tip my hat to a lost community. “Female Hackers”
Raven Alder, a network administrator at Maryland-based company Intermedia, was utterly boggled by an unexpected question at a hacker convention where she’d just presented a paper. “A reporter asked me how it felt to be the world’s first female hacker,” she recalled. “What the hell?” she spluttered in response. She knew of many other women hackers at the conference, and she was certainly not the first. But the reporter’s question revealed the dilemma facing most women hackers today.
EvilGrrl, a member of the notorious GhettoHackers crew (who won Capture the Flag three years running at Defcon), has noticed this “not existing” problem too. “At conferences, lots of people assume I’m somebody’s girlfriend,” she said, laughing. “I usually just reply that I’m a GhettoHacker and no, I’m not a girlfriend.”
So lets all the Men take a step back, and take today to acknowledge our Female counterparts.
Any in the North Wales area let me know, I’ll get you a pint (or drink of choice)
NOTE: The Title of the Post is a quote from the Character “Acid Burn” from the film Hackers. I’ve never really considered it before, But she really is a poor example of Women in Technology. Looking back on the film, she was the only female in the hacking community shown. I believe in the clips at the end, where the worlds hackers unite, there’s possibly a female hacker shown. Amongst the main group and extended community she is the only one, The other female characters are mothers, or Bimbos. So I appologise, its just that I like the Character, Like the Quote, and Like the Young Angelina Jolie.
by GothNinja | Jun 24, 2011 | Films, Geek
Before I review the Green Lantern film, I should point out my history with the Character. I personally think this is an important fact that should be supplied before people review comic inspired movies. Since Your prior experience will affect your personal views on the film. So for fairness, I shall start off with the following statement:
I never read any of the comic’s, Graphic Novels, or anything like that. My whole understanding of the character is from the two animated films “Green Lantern: First Flight” and “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights“. So I started the film with just the basic understanding of the origin of the Green Lantern.
The film starts with an ancient evil escaping from his prison, and heading out for revenge (As ancient evil’s tend to do). Which invariably leads to the death of some Green Lanterns, the destruction of several planets, and a short fight with the “Apparently” Greatest living Lantern, injuring him beyond repair and forcing him to crash on earth to find a successor to the ring. Enter “Hal Jordan” a cocky, young, risk taking, unreliable test pilot. As you can guess, the ring picks Hal since it can sense something in him that he doesn not realise is there.
I shall stop here and say that Ryan Reynolds plays the part well, But then does he ever fail at a role?
So Hal gets given a ring and the instructions that he should hold it to the lantern and say the oath. You know the oath “In brightest day, in blackest night,: No evil shall escape my sight: Let those who worship evil’s might,: Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!” Only the alien dies before he can tell Hal the actual oath, which leads to several attempts like the “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America“, “To infinity and beyond?“, “By the power of Grayskull!” Eventually I think the ring gets bored and plants the correct oath into his mind.
So our Hero ends up being transported through space to the home of the Lanterns, where he finds out what’s going on, starts his training which he fails miserably, is told he is a waste, and an insult to the memory of his rings previous owner. Disheartened but believing he is not worthy, Hal returns to earth. Unfortunately a scientist who examined the body of the x-lantern has become infected with the ancient evil, and things start to go wrong on earth. “how wrong?” oh, the ancient evil decided he would eat earth to gain more power before going to get his revenge.
“Don’t worry right? The Green Lantern Core, the Universes defenders will help us?” No. sorry, they are gathering their forces to defend their base and have one last fight, it’s not all bad they said they would be upset at the loss of earth, but its not like its a decent planet or anything. If only earth had a defender!
Yes, you guessed it, Hal man’s up. He finally realises that even hero’s know fear and its OK. so he single-handedly takes on the ancient evil. WOO HOO.
So all in all this is your typical movie, Guy is a unreliable person whose going nowhere in his life, something happens, he learns an important life lesson and saves the day. Only all that with super powers, aliens, and space 🙂
There is a nice setup to a second film in the series, with a end clip of a lantern switching from Green to Yellow. Yes I know if you are a comic book fan you spotted a lot of “other” possibilities like the Sapphire core logo, sapphire herself, and other things, I did not since I have never read the series, although in looking things up after watching this movie, I am tempted.
So I enjoyed this film, it had action, excitement, good effects, and an actual plot. The acting was good, it had Ryan Reynolds, just the right underline of comedy and slight throwaway geeky references. I know you can enjoy this film if you are not already a fan of the franchise, and I would think if you were a fan it sticks close enough to the cannon that you will not be disappointed. Hey you can also go see it with a newbie (Such as myself) and help point out the Easter eggs.
Let me end by saying this movie has inspired me to consider reading a few of the graphic novels.
by GothNinja | Jun 14, 2011 | Geek, Events, Wales, Media
Sunday 5th June 2011, I arrived at the campus of NEWI*1 GlynDwr University for Wales Comic Con. This was my first visit to this event since I missed out last year due to Vampiric Eye Disease causing me to be unable to leave the house during the daylight hours.
Upon arriving at the campus I immediately encountered a slight Problem. In an attempt to prevent others for making the same mistake, I tweeted “Note to self: when going to a con, check location before leaving house. #walescomiccon.” Yes, I knew it was on the Campus, but there were dozens of buildings/complexes that could be housing it. Luckily as I was pulling my car into a car-park, I spotted a couple of StormTroopers*2 standing guard at the door to the sports centre. And when a marine walked out of the building followed by an Alien with a dog collar, I KNEW where it was. (more…)
