Jason’s Random Thoughts

Here’s a quick little checklist: 

• Are you over the age of 16 and love Harry Potter?
• Do your friends and family mock you for reading anything by J.K. Rowling?
• Are you looking for a way to disguise the new book so that nobody will know you’re reading it?
• Is the “Adult Edition” cover still not manly enough for you?

If you answered yes to any of these, I have some great news for you.  The people over at PointlessWasteOfTime have compiled a pretty good collection of alternate hardcover sleeves.  Many of these had me laughing pretty hard, and I’m almost tempted to print a few of these off just to see what kind of reactions I might see while taking transit.

Of course, the one cover that I would want to add to this list would be Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure.

As an aside, if a Tek Jansen comic has been released and it’s not quite as silly as some might have expected.  You can read more about it (including a preview) here.

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With less than 300 days remaining before Reiko and I are married, it’s hard not to look at something and say “Hey, that would be pretty cool for the wedding!”

One item I have been looking for has been a place to produce some high quality photo books of both the days immediately leading up to and including the big day.  I’ve had some pictures printed into a book from Future Shop’s photo department, and while it’s alright for some things, it’s not really what I’m looking for when it comes to something as big as bringing two families together.

Reiko and I have already worked out several plans for the big day, and I’ve been sworn to secrecy for most of them (which is why I haven’t really said much about the specifics on here … yet), but one of the items that I wanted to make available for all the guests was a high quality photo book that would be around 100 pages with a nice library binding, a custom dust jacket and a linen hardcover case.  Of course, these standards wouldn’t be complete without also saying that I expect to use 80# gloss paper with colour fade protection.

After working at an international print company for five years and spending most of my childhood with my nose buried in a book, I tend to know what I like to see in printed material.

So imagine my surprise when I happened upon a startup called Blurb.  This company has been around since 2004 and makes it possible for anyone to create, publish, share and market printed books.  The books, which can be printed in full-colour in either hard or soft-cover formats, are of professional quality and a heck of a lot better than I’ve seen elsewhere for similar prices.

Making a book with Blurb involves downloading some free software from the site that looks similar to the web-based book making sites like you would find at Future Shop or Best Buy, which gives us a great degree of creative control over how we lay out the content.  What I find absolutely amazing is that this software has the ability to connect to your blog and download all the content, effectively turning your site into a printed word format book.  I had never considered doing such a thing with this site (for good reason), but there are plenty of quality blogs out there that post content worthy of the printed medium.  This software will also allow users to adapt their business plans, recipies, photos, email, Flickr sets, iPhoto albums, wikis, or any other printable digital content into a bookstore quality book.

All of this is possible thanks to the emerging Print-on-Demand technologies that have swept through the printing industry.  If you’re interested in buying only one book, then buy only one book.  If you want 10+, that’s good for a discount
Reiko and I will have a professional photographer at our wedding, and we’ll also be taking tons of photos together in the weeks and months leading up to the big day.  It’s my goal to take a few hundred of the best photos and put them in a high quality book showing not only our pictures, but with texts discussing the scenarios within.  From there, I’ll send one to each guest at our wedding with a hand-written message inside.  This will be sent along with a DVD (region-free, of course) of the ceremony.

If you have some pictures you’d love to wrap into a book, check out Blurb.com.  They might just have what you’re looking for.  Oh, and if you’re interested in a book, let mr know
Who says guys don’t get excited about weddings?

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It’s a little known fact, and I’m sometimes afraid to admit it, but I’ve read every Star Trek book ever published.  Some more than thrice, no less.  This doesn’t include the countless magazine articles, “technical manuals”, map books, and slew of fan-fic stories that have been released since I could first read and get my hands on the reams of printed paper.

Over the years as my command of the English language progressed and matured I have enjoyed a slew of authors from this enjoyable escape of reality.  Peter David and Keith R.A. DeCandido are among my favourite authors, and after reading his latest trilogy in tribute to 40 Years of Trek, David R. George III is in this list as well.

The first book I read from this author was from the Deep Space 9:Mission Gama series entitled “Twilight”.  What I liked most about this book was the way the story played on the characters.  We were still becoming accustomed to the new players in the DS9 field and learned quite a bit about them as the story progressed.  Unlike 95% of all other Trek books, this one focused more on the people than action.  I’ll admit that every book needs a little action, either with massive star ships trading paint, or some sort of away mission happenstance, but David George managed to bring the characters to life and giving the story that much more perspective.

One of the sorry habits I’ve noticed with many Trek authors (especially with TNG) is that either too much is left to the reader’s imagination or things happen due to sheer dumb luck.  This creates for a very dull book, or a story where you’re left scratching your head saying “WTF?” so often that you consider asking for some money back.  You won’t find that with these books.

The next book was part of “The Lost Era” saga.  Book two (Serpents Among the Ruins) takes us on some of the missions carried out by Captain Harriman on the Enterprise-B.  This was a book that just couldn’t be put down.  From the slight glimpse of Captain Harriman that we see in Generations, I was expecting a sub-par performance from the centre seat.  Instead we are introduced to a strong leader and a dynamic crew.  The action was well sequenced and the character growth was superb.  I’ve read this series twice, and in both cases, this was my favourite book of the series (not just because of the Romulan involvement).

Then, of course, comes this author’s latest (and I think best) work so far.  The Crucible trilogy.

During the course of reading these three books, I had actually considered calling in sick at work so that I could keep reading.  Each book focused on a different character in the Original Series of Star Trek.  We were able to learn an incredible amount about McCoy, some of the missing pieces in Spock’s life, as well as why Kirk ended the way he did.  All three stories have a central pivotal moment and everything goes from there.  There were several times while reading McCoy’s story that I was quite upset with how things turned out (I won’t get into spoilers, but anyone who’s read every book will see a few alterations of the Trek history … again), but after everything was said and done, the story unfolds beautifully and things manage to smooth out for most of the other works … aside from J.M. Dillard’s “The Lost Years”.

Of course, David R. George III has done quite a bit of work elsewhere in the Star Trek universe and this little entry really doesn’t do his work justice, but I would strongly recommend to any Trek fan that has not yet read any of his books to get on it.  The story lines are rich and intelligent, the characters are three dimensional and believable, and dammit, they’re just plain fun to read.

Enjoy,

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