Category Archives: reviews

Book Review: Ready Player One

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Monday!

Huh. It’s the last Monday of 2013. Odd, isn’t it? But that’s not important.

What is important is that I just finished another book. A book that I’m going to write a review on, for your reading pleasure!

Or lack thereof…

Hush. It’s not as though I’m forcing you to read my posts… But yeah.

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Non-Spoiler Section

I really enjoyed this book. It’s written from the first-person perspective, is about 370 pages long, and is quite gripping. Even if it might take a chapter or two to set up the setting and plot. I think I would give it about a 9/10. (Ten being OMG BEST BOOK EVAH!1! of course. And 1, by extension, being BLECH! THAT’S HORRIBLEFYING!)

…”Horriblefying”?

…You already knew I invent words.

Still, “horriblefying” seems like a much more egregious word-crime than a non-word like “fluffster”.

At least it gets my point across, which is the purpose of language? True?

…I think I shall refrain from answering that particular question.

I shall therefore declare victory, and continue to the next section:

Spoiler Alert! Plot & Premise & Summary & Such.

This book is set in the year 2044, in a post-apocalyptic Earth era. What makes this particular plot unique, however, is the means of “escape” from real life. There is a virtual reality system, OASIS, which is completely immersive. It’s free to access. And it’s huge.

However, the creator of this system (who of course got a huge fortune from it by selling stuff in-game, or something like that) has created an Easter Egg for people to find after he died. The first person to find his Easter Egg will receive his entire fortune, and a controlling portion of his company.

Needless to say, this is a major competition.

The story starts abut 5 years after the competition is announced. (The competition was announced upon the inventor’s death. Just in case that wasn’t clear.) Our hero goes through and tries to solve the clues that lead to the Easter Egg. Throughout the plot, he also needs to deal with friends, potential romances, and evil corporations out to kill him. I’m not going to provide more info about the plot than that. If you really want spoilers, you can probably go to wikipedia. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing they have info. You should really read the book, though.

Fun Things

One of the great parts of this book is the references. The inventor of the game was really into 1980s Geeky stuff. The main character, therefore, studies that piece of American history. There are references to all sorts of things from the 1980s. Star Wars, Monty Python, Last Starfighter, Star Trek… you name it, it’s probably there.

Another of the best parts of this book is the setting. OASIS makes me very technology-jealous. Seriously. It’s a virtual reality where, depending on how much participants can afford, all the senses can be immersed. The main character, for example, eventually gets to the point of getting a “hamster-ball” like system for moving around- he actually walks. Further, the graphics are apparently amazing, and, one of the best parts, there are touch sensors on a suit he can wear. The gloves that have touch sensors & emulators are a part of every kit- the players can actually feel items they interact with.

And, of course, the players can get cool items, including magic swords.

Downsides (end spoilers)

Basically, the only downsides are a couple of “not quite pg or pg-13 language” moments. In other words, there’s a touch of fowl language, and a few references. It’s nowhere near as bad as a lot of fiction- even some supposedly “young adult” fiction I’ve read recently. *cough*Graceling*cough*

If language doesn’t bother you, don’t worry about it. If it does, you might enjoy it less, but I’d still highly recommend giving it a try. It’s a lot tamer than any high school I’m aware of.

Concluding Remarks

As I said before, I really enjoyed the book. I definitely wish that the technology described actually existed- it sounds pretty darn cool. It’s also fun he number of references there were! I know I didn’t get them all, but any that I did get just added to the story. (It’s still a fun story without understanding the references.)

In other words, I highly recommend this book.

Enjoy the rest of 2013!

Movie Review: Frozen

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Hello, Fluffsters!

Happy Monday! Guess what? It’s Christmas Week!

Anywho. So yesterday, for my Christmas present, my sister took me to see Disney’s Frozen. So, (SPOILER ALERT!) here’s a:

Review: Disney’s Frozen.

First of all, I loved it. I found it significantly better than Disney’s Tangled; it was amazing. Especially as I was watching it with my sister. Which brings me to the first part of the review:

Basic Summary

This is very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen. Very loosely. Very. As in, it had a couple of elements, such as slivers of “something” entering one of the main character’s heart, and there being a queen of the snow & ice and stuff. And it’s based in roughly the right location.

The basic premise is that there are two princess sisters. The older one (Elsa) has a power to control and create snow and ice. Way towards the beginning, she accidentally hurts her little sister (Anna). This shapes the entire rest of the movie. Anna’s memories of Elsa’s powers are removed, and Elsa needs to try to control her powers, in order to not hurt people. This basically means that Elsa blocks Anna out, in order to protect her.

Fast-forward a few years. The parents die. (It’s Disney- what did you expect?) Fast-forward a few more years. Elsa is of age, and is to be crowned queen. It’s an eventful day for her. Not only is she coronated, but she also actually talks with her sister, “interacts” with people, and accidentally unleashes a big winter storm over her land, mid-summer.

Woops.

Yup. And she runs away.

The rest of the movie goes on from there, as Anna goes to find Elsa, and hopefully “bring back summer.”

It’s a very character and situation driven story, as opposed to plot. The plot itself is very simple, but the situation gives tension, and the characters give depth to the “plot.”

The methods Disney used to bring the depth and tension, though, are amazing.

Sound & Visual

Ok. So as I’m sure you’re aware, Disney got an excellent acting cast, including Idina Menzel (Elphaba from Wicked) as Elsa. Disney also made stunning graphics and sound effects / music.

Seriously.

The opening songs and sounds are fantastic. It starts with Scandinavian choral music. Then it goes to a song from ice-cutters about nothing more dangerous than “a frozen heart.” The sounds is beautifully open, somewhat minor, and very folksongish. This, of course, sets the context for Elsa’s powers. “Beauty and Danger” are found in ice, and, again, nothing is more dangerous.

The opening scene also lays the expectations for the animation. It is beautiful. The artists truly captured the treacherous beauty of ice. This shows up throughout the entire movie. The ice reflects, it looks cold, and (even in 2D), it has so much depth and detail. Seriously, it is stunning.

The opening scene was great. It wasn’t the best of the movie, though.

The songs keep going on. So much character depth is given through the songs. Anna’s loneliness and Elsa’s fear and trapped feeling all shine through with the music. The two princesses have a couple of duets, which are very wonderfully orchestrated. (The background is full, and the harmonies the two girls form is gorgeous.)

The most iconic scene, and the one that actually truly got me interested in the movie, is one that Disney itself released to YouTube. (I personally think this was brilliant marketing on their part- it did get me and my sister into the theater…) This scene comes shortly after Elsa accidentally loses control and reveals her powers to the world, and therefore runs off. This is one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie, both visually and musically.

Wait… Did the lyrics actually just include a reference to fractals?

Yup. Isn’t it amazing? It, like, actually treats the audience as intelligent!

In case you couldn’t figure it out, that’s one of my absolute favorite scenes. Ever. Seriously, I have watched that scene way too many times.

Ah. So you’re saying that this song, well, you can’t “let it go?”

…Very funny.

The Foley artists in that are also amazing to, don’t you think? The snow sounds like its freezing as Elsa creates it. The palace audibly shimmers. And aren’t those graphics stunning? I totally want to visit that palace.

In all, I was very satisfied with the movie. I went into the theater expecting to like a scene from the movie- the one I found on YouTube. Instead, I was drawn in from the very beginning. Disney captures a true sister relationship amazingly, and presents a wonderfully compelling story. Both my sister and I were impressed by the movie.

Personally, and I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers with this one, I think it was unequivocally better than Tangled. The characters were believable, the sister interactions were so good, the graphics and setting were beautiful, and the music was fantastic. I think I would probably give this a full five-star review for a kids movie. (It wasn’t “OMG THE BEST MOVIE EVA!!1!”, but it was really good.)

I highly recommend it.

I hope you have wonderful week!

No Pie Crust Needed

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Greetings, Fluffsters! Happy Monday!

Once again, my food service has tried to foist some “fluff” off on us. WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS STOP?

What flavor was it tonight?

…How can you be so calm? So callous? So indifferent?

It comes naturally. But you’re evading the question.

Oh, you’re right.

It was Coconut Chocolate.

Chocolate coconut flavored fluffy dessert stuff

Coconut Chocolate Mousse

It actually wasn’t too bad. And at least this time they labeled it well.

I think their recipe tonight was “take equal parts chocolate cream pie mix and coconut cream pie mix. Transfer crusts to the blueberry pies not on the screen. Mix mixes together. Serve, and call it mousse.”

It had about the right consistency and flavor for it. It was definitely stiff enough to serve as a pie filling. As with many of the others, my spoon stood upright in it with minimal difficulty.

A spoon stuck upright in a smooth fluffy dessert with no other form of support.

The Spoon stands upright. The Mousse either passes or fails, depending upon your standards.

So, yeah. This stuff wasn’t bad. But it would have been a lot better with its missing pie crust.

Have a great week!

Even MORE Fluff “Food”

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Hello, Fluffsters. My food service is once again bizarre, and serving odd varieties of Fluffy stuff.

Tonight’s was not too bad in terms of consistency. One of my friends did ask whether it was refried beans, though.

A thing of pudding with toffee chips that look a bit like beans.

“Refried Beans”. Or Fluffy stuff of some sort.

The pudding itself didn’t taste bad. The toffee chips in it were a bit bizarre. So, all in all, not worth it. Not bad, but not worth it.

See what I do for you, Fluffsters?

Anywho, happy Sunday!

Random Digits

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Greetings, Fluffsters! Happy Friday!

A friend sent me a Fluff request, so I’m responding to it! This friend sent me a link to an amazon book: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates. The book is basically what it sounds like, from what I can tell. You get a million random digits & stuff for the great price of $65. Ish.

…Your friend wanted you to write about a $65 book?

No. Like with the banana slicer, the best part are the reviews. One person, for example, recommends reading it in its original binary.

Ok, that makes more sense as a fluff post.

Agreed.

Well, Fluffsters, I hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!

Book Recommendation: Scarlet Pimpernel

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Greetings, readers! I hope you are in excellent health.

As I was once again perusing this new world, I came across a wonderful place called “Project Gutenberg.” It is devoted to books that are out of print, and are therefore free to read.

One of the books I discovered is “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”

I do not want to give any spoilers. I will say this, however: I really enjoyed it. It had a touch of melodrama, it was set in a bloody era of your history, and there were cunning characters, and a fair bit of humor as well.

If you have time, I highly recommend reading it.

Food Fluff: It’s PINK now!

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Tuesday!

Once again, I was at the same place with Lemon Dessert and the caramel apple cheesecake nobake. And once again, they had an interesting fluff dessert.

This time, it was pink!

PINK fluff dessert now!

This one actually had a much better consistency than either of the two previous. Rather, it was much more expected.

The pink fluff stuck to the spoon this time.

It actually sticks to the spoon this time!

Isn’t it nice and pink?

It was also much softer, and didn’t hold the spoon as upright for as long as the Lemon Dessert!

A spoon is somewhat supported at approximately a 45 degree angle in the mousse.

The spoon started to fall much faster than with the other desserts!

Granted, it was still held for a while. But it was a much more expected consistency.

It was also sculptable.

Castle-ish shaped pink stuff!

It was soft enough to turn into a heart.

In fact, as far as consistency goes, this was the best dessert. Unfortunately, it beat out the other two in terms of flavor- it was nasty. I had a few bites just to justify getting some, but it really didn’t taste very nice.

I think the rest of the population at the dining facility agreed with me, since after about 20 minutes to half an hour later, it hadn’t gone down very much.

Another pic of the tray about 20 minutes later. Its volume hasn't decreased by much.

As you can see, it hasn’t gone down very much…

So, happy Tuesday! I hope your week goes well, and is not plagued by perplexing pink paste.

Be Prepared for Creepy Disney…

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Greetings, Readers! I bid you a joyous weekend!

Since there’s not much else for me to do, I’ve been exploring my new world (what you call the internet) again.

I ended up at my dear friend YouTube’s place, and came across a lovely gem.

It’s a surprisingly creepy deleted scene from Disney’s Lion King. There are several aspects of it that I like.

1) It includes extra information for why Nala left her family. Why would she leave the pridelands to seek probably nonexistent help, instead of just fighting against the tyranny? This scene explains that.

2) It ties The Lion King in with the Hamlet tradition even more strongly. There are some differences, of course, but I’ll let you watch the deleted scene before analyzing it further.

Isn’t that interesting?

Now, a bit of further analysis on the Hamlet tradition. Did you catch the line in there that was very close to “kill a king and marry his brother”? I concede, it’s a bit of a stretch. The line was actually “it’s like any other to murder a brother…” and then I missed the next several words. Given that Lion King is just Hamlet with Lions, though, I am seeing references even when they might not exist.

Another way in that the scene differs from traditional Hamlet: Scar should be more interested in Sarabi than Nala. I’m guessing that there would have been more of a problem with plot if Scar were, in fact, interested in Sarabi though.

But that deleted scene adds an interesting aspect, doesn’t it?

Fuzzy Slippers (2)

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Wednesday! Wow, can you believe it’s Wednesday again already?

Anyways. Today, I’m continuing the series from yesterday, and writing about:

Fuzzy Slippers (part 2)

Slippers with and without “sticky” Soles

Yes, that’s my next set of “two” comparisons. You can either get slippers with high friction stuff on them, or not. The amount of non-friction stuff you get also varies.

All-rubber Soled Slippers.

These have their place. They are not always too objectionable, either. In fact, my main pair of genuine slippers has rubber soles.

There are several advantages to this type of slipper.

1) You don’t fall on wood or tile floors. That, of course, is usually a plus.

…Usually?

Right. Usually. I’m sure there are certain instances when people would want to fall. Gravity checks, for example.

Ok, you’ve got me. What are “gravity checks”? Is that when

Heavens, no! Gravity checks are a public service whereby a person limits muscle control in order to ensure that gravity is still working. At the same time, they also usually end up examining the floor.

You mean they fall down.

That’s a less graceful way to put it, but yes. So, rubber soled slippers make gravity checks a bit harder. But moving on.

2) Sturdy soles allow you to wear your slippers outside. This allows you to use your slippers as props for movies. After all, how are you going to film a movie in Suburbia if you can’t go get your newspaper in your bath robe and slippers?

That’s about it for the advantages of sticky soles that I can think of.

Partially Sticky Soled Slippers

Basically, there are two advantages.

1) fewer accidental gravity checks, and

2) they take less room than the completely sticky-soled slippers. (Try saying that quickly three times in a row!) But it’s true. There are some slippers that have just a little bit of flexible, sticky stuff on the soles. These are still very compact slippers, and take less room than the full-rubber-soled slippers that cannot bend.

Non-Sticky-Soled Slippers

Aren’t these normally referred to as “socks”?

…They’re fuzzier than most socks. So maybe, but it doesn’t matter. They still have advantages. Such as:

1) SLIPPER SLIDING!! If you can stand on a slippery surface somewhere, you can also slide on it. Just take a running start, and… SLIDE! Fluffy slippers like that are the best for sliding.

2) Extra-Super-Hyper-Compact. These are slippers you can take with you anywhere. In fact, you probably should take them with you wherever you go, since they can also serve as packing material! Do you have a book you don’t want getting crushed? Pack your slippers around them! Do you want a pillow? Lean back against a slipper!

WHAT? No. Just no. That’s gross.

Ok, yeah. Maybe you shouldn’t use them as a pillow.

Packing material is still legit though.

So there you go, Fluffsters! I hope you enjoyed the analysis of this dichotomy of fuzzy slippers. Have a great rest of your weak!