Odds and Sods

Feeling crafty? Check out some outstanding science fiction papercraft sites that come courtesy of this blog. If you get too addicted to building these, you'll be sure to run out of ink cartridges for your printer before long, but don't worry, you can save up some of those carts to make even more science fiction crafts, like this artist did.

Not good with your hands? How about a bit of Photoshop trickery? This tutorial will help you create your own pulp-inspired poster. That seems like something I need to promote teotu.com.

Want to do something that won't use up paper and ink? How about hosting a science fiction-themed dinner party? Check out this example for some inspiration. A friend of mine did something similar ages ago and hosted a pot-luck dinner where each guest had to bring up some sort of dish that was disguised to look other-worldly. Most of it was edible, but some of it was too weird to digest, but all the dishes were original.

I've collected my share of autographs at science fiction conventions, but usually they are of authors I appreciate or want to support. I've never been interested in the bit players from famous movies or TV shows, who often charge a fee for the privilege of collecting their, most likely, worthless signature since they sign whenever and wherever they can to make a buck.

This article looks at the fascinating industry of the fan convention designed to bring fans and "stars" together to facilitate the autograph transaction.

More interesting is a recent Star Wtars convention that featured speed dating for con-goers. I guess a mutual love for Wookies is a good way to start a relationship.

For other con news more local to me, Ottawa's Science Fiction Society is hoping to bring a convention back to that city this weekend and Toronto, already blessed with several conventions, has a new one this November called SFContario.

Closer to home, Montreal's Con*Cept has been signing on guests and it looks to be a good time, as usual, although the Montreal Comic-Con is also looking interesting this year. A number of those autograph-for-hire B-list actors will be there.

In case you needed reminding on the importance of Star Wars to popular culture, The Christian Science Monitor has come up with a list of how widespread its influence has become.

This cute photo gallery of kids dressed up in Star Wars costumes is a tiny example of how persvasive its reach has become. I must admit I have pictures of my own kids in Star Wars garb, one a cute Yoda, the other a not-so-imposing Darth Vader.

If you've ever wondered what sparks such devotion by Star Wars fans, this article explores the psychology of "fanboyism." It's actually about video-game fans, but I think it applies to fans of just about anything.

I've never been to a Comic-Con in my life, but judging by the way things are going, what was once considered geek nirvana seems to be turning into an exercise in Hollywood PR.

As this writer points out, the annual San Diego convention has strayed far from its comic-book roots and it won't be long before the "cool" kids outnumber the fanboys. Can the convention survive the shift?

It's not just Hollywood movies which are getting pumped up at Comic-Con, but genre TV shows as well and sorts of other SF & F products.

Call it the revenge of the nerds, but the studio suits are flogging their wares at the convention in order for the fans to generate plenty of free word-of-mouth publicity for them. Of course, the flip-side of generating postive buzz is that it's just as possible to have the fans turn on you and start bad-mouthing your product before it goes public.

As this blogger points out, some fans are enjoying their new-found powers and have become self-important critics that use the internet to bash what they dislike and fawn over what they do like.

If you ask me, the best thing about the convention are the costumes, especially those sported by the female fans.

If you'll pardon the pun, steampunk seems to be gathering some steam.

Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, is a Hugo-nominated novel which is one example of a growing number of books and other works in this interesting sub-genre of science fiction which fuses modern knowledge with Victorian technology.

It's been around for a while, but the internet seems to have helped incubate this movement to the point where it is almost mainstream. Mainstream for other science fiction fans, I should clarify. I don't think it's even close to being mainstream for the mainstream.

I mention the topic, because I was engrossed by this excellent overview of the elevated profile of steampunk these days.

I can say that I am somewhat partial to the genre, partially because I have always enjoyed the original Victorian fantastic fiction upon which steampunk is ultimately based. I am referring to authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and their ilk. Modern steampunk feels like modernized versions of those old books which, in effect, they are.

Here is an interesting website that fully embodies the steampunk spirit. It is only one such site. I'm sure you can find a whole lot more using your trusty search engine. Heck, even the term search engine sounds Victorian.

I am a great fan of science fiction art and I can appreciate the different styles from the genre's various eras, but I think I am most fond of this sort of stuff from the 70s, perhaps because that is when I was first starting to devour sci-fi in earnest around then.

If I grew up in Japan, this is probably the sort of far-out stuff I would have been geeking out to at the time.

It's interesting to see how sci-fi art has evolved since then. These examples of futuristic cities are good examples of the sort of digital art that is in fashion today. More examples of modern science fiction art can be found in this collection of DeviantArt wallpapers and if that doesn't satisfy you, browse CoolVibe's archive of Sci-fi Wallpaper of the Week entries.

What's your favourite era for science fiction art?

Have you been to a science fiction convention lately? There has been much talk among long-time convention goers that your typical science fiction convention isn't doing a very good job at attracting new blood. As you sit in the audience of your average con, you see a lot more white-haired (and no haired) heads than you used to.

Some think that science fiction cons need to do a better job of attracting young people, which is fine, but how do you explain that competing cons aimed at anime fans are packed with young people? Maybe it's not the convention content, but the material that people are there to celebrate. Perhaps young people aren't going to science fiction cons because they aren't reading as much science fiction.

There are other theories for decling attendance. This place called the internet is one of them. Why travel far and wide to meet with other science fiction fans when you can do it every single day online? I think there's something to be said for that argument. All of those fascinating panels that you sit in on at your average con are topics which are debated 24/7 online and the stuff in the dealer's room is pretty much available with the click of a mouse on eBay.

The real reason we go to cons, though, is to meet with real people in the flesh. No amount of virtual conventioneering can replace that. Author Ben Bova explains what a science fiction convention is for those who have never been to one and makes the case as to why they are worth attending.

Terry Pratchett is another author who is a fan of conventions. Here he is explaining how attending them as a fan inspired him to become a writer.

Thank God for cons! Imagine a world without Discworld books!

The trend for baby names these days seems to be to give your child as unique a name as possible. I suppose it's so that they can stand out in this ultracompetitive world of ours. If the parents don't blatantly invent a name, they'll saddle their offspring with a common name with an unsual spelling so that they will have to spend the rest of their life explaining that their name is Stephen, but spelled with a C, three E's and two F's. You know, Cteeffen. It's Welsh, or something.

I must confess that I am not immune from the trend and my wife and I were going to give our second child an Elvish middle name from Lord of the Rings if it was a girl. Geeky, yes, but our child was lucky to be born a boy so we never got to find out how Tinuviel would be accepted in the schoolyard.

So if you are in the baby name sweepstakes, have you ever considered naming your baby with a name from science fiction? This article offers some interesting sci-fi name suggestions. Some of them are not bad, but I can't see anyone surviving to adulthood with the name Anakin.

Once you've dubbed your progeny with their nerdish moniker, your next task will be to get to work on a Star Wars-themed bed. Need inspiration? How about this Imperial Walker triple bunk bed.

And to help you with your parenting duties, consider Geek Dad's guide to parenting using science fiction clichés.

One of these days someone is going to create a computer program that can write science fiction stories without human intervention. Hey, that sounds like a good story idea.

We're not quite there yet, but if you want to write a story, but don't  have a very good imagination, you could use the Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre Fiction Generator 2000 to come up with some ideas. Here's the plot summary I came up with: "In a post-apocalyptic Victorian Britain, a young collector of oddities stumbles across an alien artifact which spurs him into conflict with a government conspiracy with the help of a cherubic girl with pigtails and spunk and her cleavage culminating in the land restored to health."

The generator offers some title suggestions but I prefer to use The Random Pulp Science Fiction Title Generator to come up with a name for my masterwork. It will be called The Silence of Mankind's Death Ray.

Now all I have to do is write it. Or maybe I'll wait until someone comes up with that computer program to write it for me.

It was a little late for yesterday, which was Star Wars Day, but today's news that TomTom will be offering Star Wars voices for their GPS devices was the best thing I heard all day.

With these voices in your GPS, you can be guided by Darth Vader, Han Solo, C3P0 and Yoda. (Turn left, you must!) It just so happens that I have a TomTom and have programmed mine with the default British woman's voice, which I have nicknamed Miss Moneypenny.

Check this video to see what it was like to have Darth Vader record his snippets:

So how long until we get Hal 9000's voice from 2001: A Space Odyssey or Majel Barett's computer voice from Star Trek? The possibilities are infinite.