Thank you, Netflix.

Now I know that The Last Airbender movie is just as bad as everyone always said.

In a 100-minute movie, there were about ten minutes of genuine quality.  All but about sixty seconds were lifted directly from the show.

Weirdly, the other ninety minutes of move bore very little resemblance to the show.  Hmmmm.

Two links.

A brief reaction to the ending of Prometheus.

A profound thought on applause.

Busch Gardens.

So, by popular demand -- some thoughts on Busch Gardens.

Due to time constraints, I was only at Busch gardens for four to five hours.  The park was beautiful, but it was very spread out and the lines were huge, which strictly limited the number of things I could do.

To begin with, I was disappointed by the lack of Tilt-a-Whirls, but that's a strictly personal prejudice.  I was saddened further when no-one attending the park with me had any idea what the Hell a Tilt-a-Whirl was.  Whither civilization?

Anyway, though it was hot out, the trees and the novelty of the surroundings -- the well-done but cheesy theme where each section of the park was modeled after a different country -- made even walking and waiting amusing.

The first ride I went on was "Le Scoot," which is a log flume with two drops.  Nothing fancy, but I love log flumes, so I had a lot of fun.  After that, we went to the 3-D Ride Curse of the Darkastle, where a sleigh takes you through a werewolf-haunted gothic castle.  It was a blast, delightfully cheesy but with a very Ravenloft ambience.  My lack of depth perception meant the 3-D effects didn't work for me, which was actually nice, as I got the impression that ghosts swinging weapons or throwing knives at me and werewolves trying to bite my head off may have been more frightening if I had foud them a credible threat.

After that, we had lunch at the canadian smokehouse.  Brisket, spare ribs, chicken, waffle fries, a biscuit, mozzarella sticks, and a drink.  Well-cooked, they didn't skimp on portions, and the price was not hellacious.  Would nom again.  Afterwards, Megan and I briefly romped through the kids' playground at Dragon Country, which was amusing and made me wish for more playgrounds scaled for adults, especially with climbing platforms, rope bridges, and big slides.  Alas, this playscape was clearly not meant for us -- the rope net bridge sunk almost a foot under our combined weight.  I'm sure it was safe, but it was a trifle alarming.

Finally, Megan and I took a very brief boat tour of Pompeii.  There was a lot of fire, things almost fell on us, and then of course there was a slide that felt very much like free fall and which, for some reason, I enjoyed.  Good deal, although it was disappointingly short.  For the length of the lines, I would really hope for longer rides.

Alas, we were almost through the line for the Roman Rapids ride when our time was up and we had to flee forthwith to the car to go spend time with family (which was also a lot of fun, but I was looking forward to the Rapids).

All in all, much better than my last theme park experience, in which I repeatedly went on a ferris wheel I hated because I had a huge crush on the girl who was running it that day.

ETA: Oh, plus we saw ponies!  They had some gorgeous Clydesdales, including a baby foal.  Having just seen Brave, it was all the nicer to be able to appreciate the details of all that shaggy equine adorableness the movie got right.

If Megan posts her reactions, I'll link to 'em so people can get a broader perspective than my ramblings.

Only Zelazny was Zelazny, and only Herbert was Herbert.

So.  Book tracking.  While on vacation, I read A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix, which was... an enjoyable disappointment?  It was a fun read, about a nigh-immortal genetically engineered noble boy in a vast interstellar empire, in which a mystic priesthood grooms thousands upon thousands of candidates for their mastery of mechanical, biotechnological, and psionic tools, seeing who is fit to be chosen as Emperor.  Of course, the Princes scheme and try to kill one another constantly, because a new Emperor ascends once every twenty years.

So, our hero, a budding sociopath raised to great power and startling ignorance, must learn about his world in order to survive, face intrigue, betrayal, and military action, and at some point learn to be a human being.

It felt very much like Frank Roger Herbert Zelazny's Nine Princes of AmberDune.  And that's... not a good thing, especially not in a book this short.  The worldbuilding was imaginative if derivative, but it was very rushed, as was the episodic plot, because they had to cram this epic universe and bildungsroman into far too brief a space to support it.  Nix's preoccupation with the brilliant Roger Zelazny is very plain here, as it was in the end of his Keys to the Kingdom series, and it's just as mismatched to a YA audience.  Seeing the influences at work in the story, I was able to predict all the plot twists in the second half based on two details revealed in the first.

The book was fun, and I was interested, but I couldn't get invested, and I desperately wanted to give the world more legroom -- at least a trilogy, to handle the proportions of the story.