A Fowl Hitchhiker Convergence

After finding out that the library is offering free downloads of certain audiobooks, checkout-style, I've been devouring them. One series I hit upon was the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. I've quite enjoyed them. But while waiting for the last few to be "returned" by other users, I started listening to the tertiary through quintessential phases of the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Having only read Mostly Harmless once (compared to several million for the other books in the series), hearing the radio play based on it made me look up what it was so... depressing (reason: Adams had a terrible year).

However, I spotted in Wikipedia that Colfer has been given permission to write a new Hitchhiker's novel (whether it's based on Salmon of a Doubt as Adams' was considering, I know not) which will be out later this year. I respect Colfer's writing abilities; he's less prone to some weaknesses that I've come to be frustrated with in other fiction (usually character stupidity). So I'm hoping that And Another Thing... turns out reasonably well. As long as it's better than Mostly Harmless, though, I think I'll be satisfied.

Unexpected Convergence in Researching Game History

Last night, I was continuing my quest for more information about Stephen Sondheim's Halloween Hunt from 1968. A certain Los Angeles Times article quoted in one of his biographies was my goal. At the same time in a separate window, I was reading Larry's entry on a death during a Russian urban hunt. He linked to Pervasive Games as a source. In the original window, I typed in the keywords I was looking for. The first link to come up was, disappointingly, my own blog. But the second link was from Pervasive Games!

Funny coincidence, right? Okay, sure, but the link I pull up is about how The Last of Sheila inspired Don Luskin's Games which inspired Midnight Madness. Hmmmmm...sounds vaguely familiar, almost like I wrote it myself. But it turns out that the people at Pervasive Games wrote a book and had been doing the same research I had at pretty much the same time, getting the Los Angeles Times newspaper clippings from Luskin close to when I got them from Patrick Carlyle. Talk about coincidence.


An idle thought in the back of my mind has been that beyond satisfying my own curiosity, perhaps I could put what research I uncovered into book form. But it looks like the folks at Pervasive Games have already done that, saving me a lot of time, travel, and tests of my limited interviewing abilities.

Bye-bye Ender's Game film

A few days ago, in order to refresh my memory after reading Ender in Exile, I started to read the classic Ender's Game. At the same time, the long-in-development-hell screen version of the book was reported scrapped. Coincidence? I think not!

Isn't it ironi... er, coincidental, doncha think?

What amazingly funny timing! It's probably the preferably place for pontificating on puzzles though.

http://www.puzzlehunters.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=18

It's a damn cool idea and about time. :)