Der Nerdery

I was thinking about all you poor people out there who refuse to read the Harry Potter books, yet will sit down and watch the movies. You miss so much that way that I thought I should let you know what you are missing. This post will be on the first book and movie of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. I will be telling you the Differences form the book point of view to the movie as the Book is the original. OK here I go…

First off Professor MC. Gonagall has black Hair not salt and pepper like in the movie, and wears very square glasses not round. MC. Gonagall, Hagred and Dumador talk for some length before leaving Harry with the Derslys, not just dumping him off like luggage. At duddlys Birthday harry had to cook bacon for his Birthday not ham and they could not eat at the table, that is where they put all the gifts. In the movie they had them on the counter and they ate at the table.

Harry’s eyes are green in the book and brown in the movie. Harry was supposed to be left at a babysitters not go to the Zoo a last minute change and Harry had to go also.

Dudly has a friend “Piers,” he also goes to the Zoo with them.
Now to the famous snake scene. Yes, Harry talks to the snake. however Dudlly and Piers fall into the tank when the glass dissipates. The snake says Thanksss, amigo not just thanksss and the glass never reappears trapping them in there.

The letter that came from Hogwarts was addressed in emerald green ink and Harry had it out of the envelope when it was taken away he just had not had time to unfold it and read it yet. It was after they received that first letter addressed to the cupboard under the stair that they decided to move harry to dudlys spare bedroom. The next letters were addressed to The Smallest Room. The third day Uncle Vernin slept on the doorstep to make sure Harry did not get to the letters before he did. Saturday they found twenty-four letters rolled inside of the eggs that were delivered that day. Sunday they went to a hotel where more letters were delivered. Monday was the day that Hagred showed up. When Hagred came knocking at the door he only knocked twice before the door fell in, not three times. Harry never hides from Hagred he findes him right away he never mistook Dudly for Harry. The gun that Vernin had, Hagred took it away, tied it in a knot and tossed it into the corner of the room, not just bending it up and the gun was never fired. The cake that Hagred brought for Harrys birthday was not misspelled. When Hagred lit the fire in the fire place he had his back to them they did not see him light it. After Hagred lights the fire he pulls sausages from his pocket and proceeds to cook them on the fire. Hagred’s umbrella is pink, and a bright pink at that. Dudlly gets the pigs tail when Vernin insults Dumbledore not when he eats the cake. Dudley never touches the cake.

Qurril shakes Harry’s hand at the leaky cauldron, he does not avoid it like it shows in the movie. To get to Diagon Ally, Hagred taps one brick three times not multipule bricks once. Gringotts is a snowey white building with burnished bronze doors. Vault door 713 dissapers completely not unlocking when the goblin touches it. Harry went into the Owl shop with Hagrid to get Hedwig. Harry tried many wands before finding one that worked. The wands that were not right did not explode anything they did nothing. When Harry had the right wand it shot red sparks out of it. Harry first met Malfoy at the robe shop in Diagon Ally.

When Hagred and Harry where done shoping they went back to the Dersily’s for another month before going to Hogwarts. Harry meats Ron like the movie says but Ron allready has Scabers. They did eat chocolate frogs on the train but none jumped away in fact no jumping was ever mentioned. Harry again meets Draco on the train, in the movie it was not till later that he meets him. Professer McGonicle does not put the sorting hat on the kids they do that themselves. A student named Hannah Abbot was the first to put the hat on not Hermonie. Dumbalore’s welcoming speech goes as follows “nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweek.” Dumbadore gave the speach, they had him say it first in the movie before supper not after. Then they sing the School song pg.128 if you are interested in looking it up. It’s too long to put on here.

You also get to meet Peeves the Poltrigist, who is never mentioned in the movie at all.
The fat lady in the portrait is wearing a pink dress in the book. The class History of Magic is taught by a ghost. Nevil gives himself boils in potions class. Harry reads the news about the break-in at Gringots in the News paper at Hagreds hut, not at mail call.

The rememberal is the size of a large marble not a tennis ball like it was shown in the movie. Nevil did break his wrist when he fell off his broom in flying class.  He actually broke his wrist when he was 20ft in the air, he did not do any crazy stunts or get caught by anything on the way down. Malfoy said that he would leave the remembral up a tree not on the roof. When Harry caught the remembral he was about a foot from hitting the ground, not right in front of a window. Malfoy challenged Harry to a duel but he never shows, instead he sent Filtch after him trying to get Harry into trouble. It is while running from Flilch that they discover the forbidden corridor (not a room). They desover Fluffy in the corridore.

Six owls had to carry in Harry’s Nimbus 2000 not just Hedwig. On Halloween they had live bats flying in the great hall. Harry and Ron acually locate the Troll in the girls bathroom, not realizing that is the one Hermonie is in they lock it. They hear Hermoni screaming and they go in to help her. Harry was hanging onto the Trolls neck the whole time and he was never dangling by one leg.

During the first Quiditch match no one was knocked out. The Weasly twins did try to help Harry onto their brooms, when his started to go crazy, but they could not get close enough to him. Hermoni knocked over Querril trying to get to Snape. She set Snape’s robes on fire with a blue fire. Hermoni then put the blue fire into a jar then her pocket when everyone started to freak out. Harry was the only Seeker after the snitch when he caught it in his mouth.

Wizards chess pieces talk to the players. The Invisibility cloak is silvery gray. When Harry looks into the Mirror of Ersied he sees his entire family not just his Mom and Dad (Aunts, Uncles and Cousins ). Harry took Ron to see the mirror the next night not the same night. The Invisibility cloak also has a hood like a proper cloak should.

Malfoy stuck Nevels legs together with a leg locker curse, he torments Nevel a lot in the book. Harry found Nickolas Famels name on the back of a chocolate frog card, and that reminded Hermonie that she had the book. Harry heard Snape and Querril arguing in the forest not in the caste. Hagred put his Dragon egg directly into the fire not in a kettle above the fire. It took days for the dragon egg to hatch after the kids found out about it. Hagred ended up having Norbert for weeks after he hatched. Harry and Hermonie and Ron convinced Hagred to send Norbert to Charlie in Romania. Harry, Hermonie and Nevel were caught out after sending Norbert to Romania. Ron was not there and did not receive detention.

The party going into the forbidden forest was Hagred, Hermoni and Harry.
The other party was Malfoy, Nevel and Fang. They switched Harry and Nevil halfway through, becuse Malfoy would not stop scaring Nevil. Firenze a palomino cenatar rescued Harry from the cloaked figure. Harry was allowed to ride him back to Hagred.

When they went back to the forbidden corridor Fluffy was already awake. There was a harp there in the corridor but it was not playing. Harry played a flute that Hagrad had gave him. When they hit the devils snare Hermonie was not caught and she used a spell to get them both out, there was no relaxing to get out.

In the key room all the kids went after the keys, no keys chased them. The keys had colorful wings like birds not clear wings like bugs. The key they needed had blue wings. The chess pieces did not have faces. Ron got to choose what pieces they where going to play as. When they won, the white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry. The next room had a troll in it and the troll was already knocked out. The next room had potions on a table Hermoni helped Harry pick one and then went back to get help for Ron. Quirril tied Harry up with rope. Quirril could not touch Harry’s skin or it burned not just when Harry touched him. Voldemort never passed through Harry.

Again, these are just my observations I want in no way to put down the movies. I think that the movies were very well done and I realize that they only had so much time to work with. This is for those out there who refuse to read the books. I am hoping that this will show you the differences enough that you will want to go read them yourselves. I have left some of the minor differences out, feel free to post your comments below when you find them.

You’ve missed the last comic con in Seattle, and you had really planned on going to it, too. But don’t despair, not only are there other comic cons on the horizon, both near and far, but, in the interim, why not get yourself to a nice, intergalactic UFO con?

You Are Not Alone

2011 MUFON (Mutual Unidentified Flying Object Network) of Ohio Summer Conference is a con on the very near horizon, right behind that round saucer-looking thingy in the sky. With a conference title of “50 Years of Abduction Experience – Setting the Record Straight,” people are stampeding to get their plane tickets. It’s a one day conference, July 16, in Ashland, Ohio. This is the con that bills itself “REAL UFOs – the latest UFO videos and news,” featuring Travis Walton, “author of the famous abduction account ‘Fire in the Sky’ made into a blockbuster movie,” and Kathleen Marden, niece of Betty Hill, and author of the bestseller, “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.”

Or if that’s too soon, plan to go to the McMinnville UFO Festival next May, noted as “the second largest UFO Celebration in the Country,” held in an out-of-this-world venue, McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon. Here’s an event that offers the best of both worlds – or of many worlds. It starts off with an Alien UFO Costume Parade, followed by the Alien Pet Costume Contest. Getting those alien creatures to look like earth dogs is no easy task, but the festival participants are pretty successful at it.

The other bonus is that the McMinnville UFO celebration is held in the heart of Oregon’s wine country, so you can tour the many excellent wineries as well. No wonder the aliens landed here.

I-Con, Con You?

But if the UFO scene is too “spacy” for you, how about I-Con (aka: Island Convention) held in March at Stony Brook, New York, on the State University of New York campus. This is an eclectic convention including science fiction authors, Anime and other animation devotees, furry folks, gaming, SCA medieval participants, with various and sundry performances.

The first I-Con was held in 1982 with Gene Roddenberry as a GoH (guest of honor). How do you top that?

Finding Our Furry Friends

And now, for something completely different, how about a furry con? The attendees at a furry con focus on fictional anthropomorphic characters. The first furry convention, ConFurence, was held in California in 1990.

Many attendees at a furry con wear elaborate animal or animal-like costumes, usually of their own construction. Costumers play a major role at a furry con. Like most cons, attendees will find an art show, a masquerade – distinguished from walking through the halls by having a raised stage – discussions of the literature, movies, print and online fare of anthropomorphic stories and characters.

Boo!

And if all of the foregoing is not scary enough for you, why not go to a World Horror Convention? The next one will be held March 29 through April 1, 2012 in Salt Lake City, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Salt flats for miles, now that’s scary! Here attendees rub elbows with famed horror writers and watch horror films, as well visit the dealer’s room, go to presentations and panels, as is usual for all cons. But horror Con-goers have the added advantage of getting to run about the halls in terrifying zombie, oozing, blood-dripping costuming. Fun will be had by all.

I Want My Comic-Con

But if you’re still pining for a full-on comic con, don’t despair. THE comic con of comic cons, the San Diego Comic-Con International, will be held July 21-24 at the San Diego Convention Center, Petco Park. With an attendance of 130,000 in 2010, it is billed as the fourth largest convention in the world. It’s still but a pale follower of Comiket, held in Tokyo, Japan twice a year in December and August, with an attendance of 520,000 in December 2010.

The San Diego Comic-com was originally all about comic books, but has expanded to include, somewhat logically, animation, anime, manga, horror, webcomics, fantasy novels, the burgeoning popularity of the illustrated novel, as well as the other pop culture components of video games, toys and collectible card games.

Probably the most intriguing aspect of the wealth of cons is that people from all walks of life, with greatly varying belief systems, political stances, cultural underpinnings and gender persuasions come together and play well together. Earthlings, take a clue!

Matthew Warren is a sci-fi fan, wanna-be astronomer and a programmer when not working on Gump Tees and Things Nerds Like.

No matter how awesome a show is, there’s always a character or two that bring out a collective groan whenever they (dis)grace the screen. Whether it’s saccharine kiddies or one-note Mary Sues, here are the ten characters of Star Trek viewers love to hate.

10) Neelix from Voyager.

Just so we’re clear, Neelix is the head chef on a star ship equipped with food replicators, and his creations are gag-worthy. He is nauseatingly cheerful and a buffoon. When he does manage to be serious, his smarmy recollections of family reek of insincerity. Half of what comes out of his mouth revolves around putrid leola root, the Great Forest, or jealous rage over Kes. The rest consists of shop-worn diatribes about grief, love, and perseverance.

9) T’Pol from Enterprise.

Look at Spock, Tuvok, Sarek, and Vorik. Tall. Angular. Lean. Giving off the impression of that impressive Vulcan strength. And then look at tiny little Jolene Blalock. No matter how high her heels or how exact her posture, nothing changes the fact that she looks incapable of delivering the Vulcan nerve pinch with any authority. Add in T’Pol’s incessant arguing for the first two seasons and her addiction to Trellium-D (Star Trek’s code word for crack) and you have one highly improbable and unbelievable ‘Vulcan’.

8.) Reg ‘Broccoli’ Barclay on Next Generation and Voyager.

Nervous, stammering, fearful, and reclusive. We’re supposed to believe this guy didn’t wash out at the Academy? While it is true that one, or perhaps even two, of these qualities would be tolerated in a promising student, but all four of them? I don’t buy it. Reg is a bungler who frequently embarrasses himself. While Dwight Schultz does the best he can with the role, it’s exhausting to watch him simper and cower.

7) Nurse Chapel from the original series.

Christine Chapel is a beautiful, educated woman who could have just about any single man on the Enterprise. So she sets her sights on… Spock? Yes. She longs for some Vulcan love, despite the fact they intentionally repress such emotions. Chapel even goes so far as to drug him with love potion crystals. Stalker or pathetic? You be the judge. Either way, ick.

6) Captain Archer on Enterprise.

Two words: Quantum Leap. If that isn’t bad enough, Scott Bacula also portrayed the gay neighbor of Lester Burnham in American Beauty. Anyone over the age of 25 is already going to have a hard time with the choice of actor. Add in characterization that makes the captain of the ship either a total tool or a moron, and you’re left with the worst leader to ever command any incarnation of the Enterprise.

5) Doctor Pulaski from Next Generation.

What you get when you put Bones in drag? Doctor Pulaski, the character designed to fill the shoes of Doctor Crusher due to the egress of Gate McFadden. Argumentative and dry as the Sahara, there wasn’t much the actress, Diana Muldaur, could do with the role. Fans were delighted when McFadden returned after suffering through an entire season of Pulaski.

4) Benjamin Sisko from DS9.

In a nutshell, Sisko is the Bajoran version of Jesus, but with a baseball fetish. While this may sound hilarious, it is the entertainment equivalent of watching paint dry. The dream sequences and ‘visions’ go on and on, boring the viewer. Faith is a touchy subject. Sci-fi should never be religion-fi, and the line is crossed far too often with Sisko.

3) Chakotay from Voyager.

Robert Beltran hated this character so much, he tried unsuccessfully to have himself written out on at least one occasion. The character is a mix-and-match of different American Indian cultures, and is embarrassed repeatedly by his ex-lover Seska. Once the Maquis settle down into life on Voyager, Chakotay is reduced to being Janeway’s yes-man. Beltran broods very well, and you can tell he despises the role. It just doesn’t work for him.

2) Pavel Chekov from the original series.

With his inaccurate Russian accent, Chekov was added to the series primarily because he resembled then-heartthrob Davy Jones of The Monkees. Unfortunately, the writers chose to leave Walter Koenig omnipresent but largely useless on the bridge every episode.

1) Wesley Crusher on Next Generation.

Poor Wil Wheaton. What did he ever do to deserve this? Wesley Crusher, boy genius, is socially backwards with his peers but is ingratiating and charming to all the adults- even the ones who profess to hate children. Wesley is just so ‘spesh-ul’, no one but the viewers can resist him! Fans found him nauseating and there is even a Facebook group entitled “Wesley Crusher Must Die!”.

Matthew Warren is a sci-fi fan, wanna-be astronomer and a programmer by day. While not working on Gump Tees and Things Nerds Like he spends time with his two beautiful daughters.

At 2:17 pm on December 6th, 1992, a new type of bomb exploded over the metropolitan area of Japan…”

If you know what this is from, you know what the new type of bomb was. Afterwards,  World War 3 ensued and Neo-Tokyo had to rebuild itself on a man-made island in the Tokyo Bay.

What I love about Akira is how Katsuhiro Otomo basically pioneered the use of unusual angles and incredibly detailed cityscapes and backgrounds in his manga. Yeah, dude. This was the guy that STARTED that.

In Akira, he constructs a world where political corruption and government inadequacy play a role in the destruction of Tokyo. He also creates a world where children are easily used as pawns in government schemes, no matter the cost. The counter to this threat in the manga is the revolutionary force represented by a girl named Kei and her brother. Their motivations during Volume 1 of the manga are. as of yet, unclear.

Bosozoku gang members Tetsuo Shuma & Shotaro Kaneda get tangled up in Neo-Tokyo’s political corruption when Tetsuo is injured in a motorcycle crash from almost hitting a child that looks like an old man– who also seems to have psychic abilities. This accident somehow awakens psychic abilities in Tetsuo, also, and this peaks the interests of a government organization that is involved somehow with the old-looking child, Takashi.

Compared to the manga, the film was also peak at it’s time of release in 1988. It’s definitely visually stunning. At least, to me! But I live on that hand-drawn, hand-animated stuff. In fact, some have said that Akira was what put anime on the modern-art map, if you will. Otomo used incredibly detailed scenes and unique angles that no one had ever used before in manga or anime.

I thought I was close to the end of the story when reading volume 1 since it follows the movie so well.. but much to my surprise, I found out there actually are FIVE MORE VOLUMES of Akira to go. The movie is DEFINITELY a shortened version of the manga. I can’t imagine what’s in store, and can’t wait to pick up volume 2.. whenever I happen to find it!

I was sitting flipping through channels and landed on Cartoon Network, in which the network was playing movies all day.  So when the next program came on I thought it was another DC comic animated movie.

Let start off by stating, I not a huge fan of DC comics or shows, but have some knowledge ans seen some of the shows.  It wasn’t a movie, but the first episode of “Young Justice”, a new DC comic series that will be on airing in 2011 on Cartoon Network.

The episode starts out with Batman and Robin, Green Arrow and Red Arrow(Speedy), Flash and Kid Flash, and Aquaman and a new hero Aqua Lad heading to the Justice League Headquarter where Robin, Red Arrow, Kid Flash, and Aqua Lad will take the first step to become members of the Justice League.

However Red Arrow becomes quite upset when all they get is membership passes to the Justice League Library and Gym.  He blurts out that he knows about the Justice League Satellite Station and that the Justice League HQ on earth is just for show to the public.  He storms out.  I have a feeling he is going to be a major villian later in the series.

Meanwhile Batman is hailed by Superman and someone else, two different emergencies at the same time, one is a small fire at Project Cadmus that can be handled by the local authorities and the other is more important, so everyone but Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqua Lad leave telling those three to stay put.

The three realize that Red Arrow was partially right and a little upset they were left behind that they decide to go help with the fire.  At the building they see someone go into an elevator which is not suppose to be working in a fire.  They also become aware that the elevator is a specialized high speed elevator in a two story building.

After dropping several stories into a secret xenobiology laboratory(known by the Justice League), they come to find a pod containing a young clone of Superman that was being educated to take down the Justice League.  After freeing the clone, they convince him to join them.  They eventually find the bad guy go to the surface when they have a final show down and get the building to collapse on him.

Afterward the Justice League shows up quite mad, where Aqua Lad, de facto leader of this new team says “accept us or don’t stand in our way”.  Superman comes face to face and his clone (who takes the hero name Superboy) doesn’t know how to handle the situation and flies off.

The four new members are taken to a cave at Mount Justice that were the original headquarters of the Justice League and told they would be trained and take covert missions for the Justice League and the cave was their new headquarters.  Also they met their new team member Miss Martian.

That is where the first episode ended, and from what I saw it was a pretty good story and can’t wait for more episodes in 2011.  They still haven’t introduced the last member of the team Artemis.

I picked my top 5 favorite Bleach shinigami men mainly due to how hot they are.  I also love the way these 5 guys fight and what they fight for.

Renji Abarai is the lieutenant of the 6th Division in the 13 court guard squads under captain Byakuya Kuchiki.  He is very cocky and always willing to fight for what he believes in.  I love his long red hair and tribal tattoos.  One of my favorite Renji fights is episode 52, Renji vs. Captain Kuchiki.

Byakuya Kuchiki is the captain of the 6th Division in the 13 court guard squads.  It is hard for me to choose a favorite episode featuring Byakuya Kuchiki, I like most of his fights.  Probably my favorite is episode 197 & 198. In these episodes Byakuya saves his sister Rukia once again by fighting Zommari Rureaux, the 7th Espada.  I also love his heart to heart with Rukia in episode 62.

Ichigo Kurosaki is a human who becomes the substitute soul reaper of Karakura Town.  He is very short-tempered, strong-willed and impulsive.  I love that he always fights for what he believes to be right and the people he cares about. Some of my favorite episodes are # 59 Ichigo vs. Captain Kuchiki and 272 Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra.

Shuhei Hisagi is the lieutenant of the 9th Division in the 13 court guard squads under former captain Kaname Tosen.  He is a very mature and calm person.  I like that when he fights he is calm, quiet, and focused.  I love his face and his stare.  Even though he despises his zanpaktuo, Kazeshini, I think it is really cool and he is very good at using it.  My favorite episode is 219 when he fights and defeats Findor, one of the 2nd Espada’s fraccion. I also like episode  260, in which he battles against his zanpaktuo, Kazeshini for control over his materialized form.

Toshiro Hitsugaya is the captain of the 10th Division in the 13 court guard squads.  He is the youngest captain ever. He is usually very serious and mature. One of my favorite episodes is #274-275 Captain Hitsugaya vs. Harribel, 3rd Espada.