Context truly is everything. (Spoilers, should you explore this any further.)
Joffrey, the Out-of-Context Motivational Speaker
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Category Archives: Geek Stuff
Westerosi Geology (or, Someone Else Is a Bigger Game of Thrones Geek Than You)
![Gabridelca [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Meteore.jpg "Gabridelca [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons")
This isn’t really the Vale of Arryn, but it plays it on TV.
A group of (mostly) Stanford geologists, however, have been wondering about that, and their ideas are collecting in the form of a geological history of Westeros at their blog, Generation Anthropocene.
I have been out-geeked, and I yield.
Photo credit: Gabridelca [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
LEGO Ambitions of Youth
As a kid, I aspired to build my own LEGO Star Destroyer. The goal was to build an Executor-class ship. It’s been done, but I wanted to build one at minifigure scale—meaning that it would include all of the ship’s interior details (bridge, launch and landing bays, crew quarters, commissary, canteen, latrine, etc.) Still, I would’ve settled for an Imperial-class ship. (Such a thing has been attempted, although it was a Corellian Corvette instead of a Start Destroyer.)
Between all the Town and Space LEGOLAND sets that I had as a kid, I probably still never came close to having enough pieces for such an ambitious project—and certainly not enough gray pieces. The thing probably would’ve been about fifteen feet long, at least. Besides that, I never really had the attention span for the project.
It was therefore with a mixture of admiration and mild jealousy-fueled disdain that I learned of Bonsol Colony, an expansive LEGO project by Flickr user wobnam (h/t Kevin).
Flickr won’t allow embedding because of frames, so here’s a screen shot instead. Go check out the whole set. Continue reading
Test Your Geography Knowledge!
This one’s a doozy. No multiple choice or “find X on a map.” You just type in the name of every country you can think of in twelve minutes (h/t Kerry).
I got all but three, although not many people get those countries right on the test: Antigua and Barbuda (12%), São Tomé and Príncipe (7%), and Fiji (29%). I can’t believe I forgot Fiji! My brain must have frozen or something.
Spelling can be an issue, too. I got lucky on Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines (one “l”), but kept misspelling Guatemala.
(I should note that I’m kind of a showoff about this sort of thing. None of my friends will play Trivial Pursuit with me anymore.)
How “How I Met Your Mother” Did a Multi-Season Story Arc Better than Most Shows
It took me a little while to figure out why people were so pissed about the finale of How I Met Your Mother, but I think I get it now, and I agree. Major spoilers ahead.
The entire nine-year run of the show, as it turns out, was misdirection. I rather like misdirection in a story up to a point, as do (I think) most people. I don’t know exactly where that point is, but it is more than safe to say that the point beyond which misdirection stops being enjoyable occurs well before the nine-year mark.
(If you are still reading, I will assume you are okay with spoilers, so here goes.) Continue reading
A History of Westeros in Pictures
Imgur user thrillfight put together this history of Westeros (from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s series Game of Thrones, in case you live beyond the Wall or something) from the days of the Children of the Forest to Aegon’s Conquest, with the possibility of more to follow (h/t Nick):
See also this history of Aegon’s Conquest.
Less than two weeks until season 4.
It’s a Trap!
Gallery
This gallery contains 12 photos.
I was doing a Google Image search the other day for Rebel Alliance leader Admiral Ackbar, because that is how I roll. The internet is simply bursting with tributes to the, uh, squid-man who knows how to spot a trap. … Continue reading
Lest We Forget a Great Performance
I haven’t seen Frozen, but I am intrigued by the Frozen/Watchmen-comic mashup (h/t Marc) that notes the similarities between the character of Elsa in Frozen and Dr. Manhattan.
Click to embiggen.
Some people have wondered aloud whether Elsa’s “Let It Go” scene was a direct homage to Dr. Manhattan’s trip to Mars. Others are quite convinced that it is not. I’ll reserve judgment, possibly forever because meh.
While this analysis, not to mention the various memes poking fun at John Travovo’s now-classic mispronouncement, are fun and all, it also offers a chance to remind the world that Idina Menzel turned in a freaking awesome performance of that song:
What I’m Reading, March 20, 2014
A Brief History of Mold-A-Rama, Rob Lammie, Mental Floss, March 18, 2014
Long before 3D printing was a thing, kids of all ages were plunking quarters into Mold-A-Rama vending machines to get plastic sculptures made right before their eyes. Let’s take a look back at the history of these mid-century manufacturing marvels.
GOP Plutocrat Ken Langone And New Dem Wall Street Shill Jim Himes Are Waging Class War Against American Families, Down With Tyranny!, March 18, 2014
Langone’s siren song, while extreme and filled with the class warfare hatred the entitled rich feel towards working families, isn’t just a Republican song. When it comes to serving the interests of great wealth, conservative Democrats– particularly Blue Dogs and New Dems– are no better than garden variety Republicans.
Two Reasons That Explain Why We’re All Obsessed with Game of Thrones, Charlie Jane Anders, io9, March 18, 2014
Why is Game of Thrones such a huge cultural phenomenon, among all other fantasy series? It comes down to two huge cultural trends, that are rooted in our widespread anxieties about life in the 21st century.
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Game of Thrones captures the real anxiety at the root of our apocalyptic fascination — the sense that disaster is coming closer at an almost imperceptible rate, and we can never really know when it will arrive. We all sense that our unsustainable economic system will collapse, and/or our biosphere will no longer support so many humans, but we don’t know if the crunch will come next week or in 50 years.
And the endless wars and scheming show how short-sighted people can overlook a looming disaster, due to political infighting and stupidity. You wonder why they don’t look over their shoulder and see the ice zombies creeping closer — until you realize that their denial is nothing compared to our own.
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When we’re not consuming futuristic dystopias and world-breaking disasters, we’re obsessing about a somewhat idealized past in which men were men and women were women, and everybody Knew Their Place. Often, these visions of the past include a soupcon of social change, a hint that the Times They Were a-Changin’, and the seeds of today’s world were already in place.
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Game of Thrones is like the perfect idealized-but-awful past. Especially in the television version, everybody looks beautiful and has perfect teeth, but almost everybody takes a turn of being that peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail who shouts, “I’m being oppressed!”
Vindicated by Grumpy Cat, Sort Of
I have long been a fan of Grumpy Cat (née Tardar Sauce), and while she may be wearing thin as a meme, she can still draw a crowd.
My online petition asking HBO to cast Grumpy Cat in the role of Lady Whiskers in season 4 of Game of Thrones was a bust. Since last August, it has only gained three supporters (and that might include me). Besides that, season 4 starts in a few weeks.
Still, I feel vindicated, as a moment of glorious brand synergy occurred last week during SXSW, when Grumpy Cat sat upon the Iron Throne and, to quote one reporter, “obviously hated it.”
She even got her own dragons, meaning she’s ahead of Daenerys Targaryen, Iron-Throne-sitting-wise: Continue reading