In my nerdy Internet, the forces of Facebook, Google+, Twitter and George Takei act like a powerful tractor beam to suck up geeky stuff and spit it my way. A lot of junk ends up in the trash compactor on my detention level. But some cool stuff floats to the surface. Here are five examples of recent flotsam and jetsam I’ve collected which doesn’t quite warrant individual posts. Stand back! And be amazed.
1) “Inadequate Marksmanship Training Has Not Been Addressed”
Yes, a writer over at Foreign Policy magazine has a sense of humor. In a mock report called “What a Piece of Junk!: Imperial investigators report weaknesses in Death Star management, performance,” a writer has fun with possible problems over at the Empire’s fully operational battle station. Findings include “Frequent Turnover in Senior Personnel Hampers Continuity” and “Inadequate Reactor Shielding Has Not Been Mitigated.”
2) “Bb” Stands for “Barliman Butterbur”
Over at the LOTR Project, they’ve combined the organizational power of chemistry with the legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien to produce The Periodic Table of Middle-Earth. With their Tolkienite accelerators, the lab rats have determined the “atomic number” of each Hobbit and Rings character, given each a symbol (“F” is Frodo, “Sm” is Smaug), as well as a birth and death date, and they’ve organized the folks by race. They also note “Wearers of the One Ring,” which “refers to characters who actually physically wore the One Ring.” And “Gothmog refers to the Lieutenant of Minas Morgul and not the Balrog.”
3) Classic D&D Dungeons as Cartoons
Some of your favorite dungeons were recently reprinted in a collection called Dungeons of Dread. Our pals at Wizards of the Coast have also been celebrating the re-release of this “S series” with a series of clever and detailed “walkthrough” exploded-view cartoons of dungeons, from artist Jason Thompson, creator of the graphic novel series King of RPGs. The cartoon recaps include Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and my personal fave, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (which was actually a spaceship crash landed into … sorry. Spoiler.)
4) The Adoration of Princess Leia
I’m not sure where it came from. Maybe it’s offensive. But I like it. Star Wars has always been my religion, my source of holy scripture, Check out the two suns in the background, and the little projected Virgin Mary “Leia” blasting out from the miracle that is R2-D2.
5) Nerds (or Crazy People) Can Be Poor, Too!
Finally, a photo I took myself, on the street, in my fair city of Boston. Is this evidence of a possibly homeless frustrated creative writer? Or a crazy, science fictional solution for that age-old question, Can you spare some change? Or some illegal alien from space just dying to return to its homeland? In any case, I hope this wandering galactic soul find its home.
