The great thing about science fiction

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a big science fiction fan. And while I have nothing against it, I’ve never really had an appreciation for the “fantasy” side of things. Oh sure, there’ve been a few that I really enjoyed; Lord of the Rings is probably the highest on that list. I’ve just always been more in to aliens and spaceships than wizards and elves.

Often, fantasy and sci-fi are lumped together—probably because they’re that way in the major book chains. And while they aren’t necessarily siblings, sci-fi and comics are definitely in the same family. Cousins? Maybe even step-siblings. Thing is, they all draw the same sorts of readers. The stereotypical comic/sci-fi/fantasy reader is one that is a bit reclusive but well-read. And while there are a lot of readers of that sort, I think thanks to Star Trek and Star Wars, the genre has probably come a little more into the mainstream (even though I think comics are doing a reversal—but that’s another blog for another day) and is more widely accepted.

I may be a bit reclusive, but I don’t think anyone who knows me would put me in the “shy” category.

But I’ve just finished reading a collection of sci-fi short stories. I have a particular love for sci-fi of olden days. Sci-Fi today—for the most part—just doesn’t seem to have the stuff. Old sci-fi tended to be on the cutting edge of THINKING. These stories didn’t rely on Harlequin sex scenes or Richard Pryor style swearing…they put forth interesting ideas and neat reflections on society.

For instance, in 50 Short Science Fiction Tales, originally published in 1963, Isaac Asimov foresees homeschooling as is done today. His story, “The Fun They Had,” was written in 1951. Set in the future (the future of 1951, of course), two kids find an old book—one made of paper. The kids then discuss the stories grandpa told them about meeting in a classroom full of other students and lead by a human teacher. They then return to their “teacher,” which is essentially, a computer. While I don’t know it is this way exclusively, most homeschoolers I’ve talked to have their regular lessons from a cd or dvd in their computer.

There are certainly other examples of science fiction anticipating the future. I don’t want to say predicting, because I don’t think that’s the right term. Instead, I really think they imagined cool things—not just things that seemed impossible, but things that could happen. Everyone knows of the cool gadgets from The Jetsons cartoons, but I think one of the coolest has to be the video-phone. We can do that now via Skype.com—for free even!

But, the granddaddy idea of them all must be the cellphone. I say granddaddy because it seems everyone is using them today. But it all started with Captain Kirk!

Evolving for global warming

A sudden realization came to me while driving late one night last week. Now, because of that revelation, I’m confused as all get-out about the global warming alarmists. To wit:

To hang with me on this, you’re gonna have to agree that the majority of those screaming loudly about global warming are also believers in the Theory of Evolution—it IS still a theory folks, even if they conveniently leave out the “theory of” in most of our textbooks now. Plus, it’s never been proven…so that still makes it a theory. To continue to chase that rabbit, I once heard a guy describe it as a religion. His explanation was that the evolutionists laugh off creationists because they say it can’t be proved…yet at the same time they believe in something equally unprovable. So, now we have the religion of evolutionism. Soon there will be one on every corner!

For the record, I happen to be one of the millions who believe in the young earth idea; that the earth was created in six days of twenty-four hours each and those six days were only roughly 10,000 years ago. We’ve got recorded history for most of that time and the scientific explanations are just as plausible to me as thinking Clinton’s ancestors were apes. Mine weren’t—his might have been.

But, here’s my predicament: if the evolutionists/global warming screamers really believe in evolution and aren’t just wanting to contradict folks who believe a religion’s theory (and yes, I do believe there are some out that like that), what are they worried about and why are they screaming so loudly about it? If evolution and global warming is true, and the ice melts and the waters rise and the temperature rises as they claim, won’t we just evolve with it? I mean, what, won’t we grow gills or something? If we came out of a puddle of muck, and have survived meteor crashes and dinosaurs and multiple ice ages…surely we can survive the thermostat a little.

But you know, I don’t discount the idea the earth is warming completely. But I think we’d got a very big case of Chicken Little going on. Whether the earth is 10,000 years or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years, man has only been tracking temperatures for a little over 100 years. That’s hardly enough record to prove one way or the other.

The funny thing is that I seem to remember only about 25-30 years ago when everyone was talking about the quickly oncoming ice age. Yes, they were talking about how the glaciers were coming our way and we’d be covered in ice. I honestly don’t think they were prognosticating the animated movie that came out a few years back. Therefore, I guess in the last 25 years we had our ice age and are now moving into the global warming phase. I guess Macy’s will have a sale on summer wear!

Sang and signed

What an incredibly busy week last week was…non-stop all the way through Sunday p.m. I know that you all want a report on Brittany’s competition. I do have video, but I haven’t had the chance to download or put it on youtube yet…the quality of the video isn’t that great, though.

Brittany, however, did fantastic. Her performances just keep getting better and better. While the competition didn’t seem to be as good this year as last, there were still some very talented kids performing. It also never fails that I hear some song for the first time during the process of the Mid-South Talent Fair…and then within the next day or so, hear it on the radio.

No sooner did we get back from Brittany’s competition than I had to turn around and head to Jackson for the autograph signing at Van’s Comics. I went earlier Friday than I really had to, but I was able to meet my long-time friend Steven Butler in Jackson for lunch. We spent the next 5 hours hanging out in Shoney’s and catching up. Man, but it doesn’t feel like we were roommates 20 years ago! Steven and I stayed with my other very good friend, Ashley Koostra. Ashley (pictured at right) is also a former roommate of mine. In fact, for 12 whole months in 1989, the three of us were roommates, along with David Rogers. With the exception of having no hair now, Ashley looks no different than he did back then. Steven and I have both added a few pounds since then…but just a few.

After dinner, the three of us sat up at Ashley’s reminiscing about so many things that we lost track of time. He had to work the next morning and Steven and I were slated to be at Van’s at 9:30. I shan’t say at what time we finally hit the sack, but it was later than it should have been!

The next day Steven and I set up at Van’s. I’d never been to Van’s and really didn’t know what to expect of the day. The day was really spearheaded by Andy Childress, a comic creator out of Louisville, MS. Andy’s got a fire lit to promote Mississippi comic talent. His driven energy reminds me much of the old Silverline gang and the reasons it was formed to begin with. Way back then, Steven and I also thought that Mississippi (and surrounding areas) had an incredible wealth of untapped talent. Thus Silverline was born.

Sales-wise/customer-wise, the day was very sad (I often wondered where . It was a beautiful day, but the store had very little foot traffic and therefore we had very few folks to come by and talk to us. The comic creators, however, had a grand time, talking uninhibited about all things comic and geek! It also gave me the opportunity to meet some Mississippi creative talent I’d not met before. I had the chance to snap a few photos during the day, too. Pictured are: Steven Butler (seated) and standing L-R: Andy Childress, Chuck Jett, Shane Sullivan, Kevin Hayman.

Afterwards, bemoaning our lack of sales for the day, we headed next door and grabbed a sandwich and continued to geek out. All in all, a good time was had by all.

I returned home late that night in order to get up the next morning and take Brittany to her first practice for Southern Sounds. They’ll be performing in Jackson soon…more on that in a future blog!