Movie Review: Alexander (2004)

On By Norbert HauptIn History, Movies, Two StarsLeave a comment

Alexander is a historical epic that chronicles the life of Alexander the Great, one of history’s most famous conquerors. The story is told by Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins) when he was an old man, recalling his time as a youth, serving Alexander as a general. He later went on to become the king of Egypt after Alexander’s death. He founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years.

The story starts when Alexander is a child in Macedonia. His mother is Olympias (Angelina Jolie) and his father is King Philip II of Macedonia (Val Kilmer). His overpowering and brutal father, and his cunning and manipulative mother, shape Alexander’s childhood and youth. After his father’s assassination, Alexander (Colin Farrell) ascends to the throne and starts to fulfil his dream of conquering the world.

He is a brilliant warlord and conquers one nation after the other. His troops follow him with admiration and devotion. But eventually, being away from their country and families for years and years, they become weary and question the endless campaign.

In Babylon he starts having health problems and eventually he dies young under mysterious circumstances.

I enjoyed the film, as it shows life in ancient Macedonia, including with appearances of Aristotle. There are endless, brutal and graphic battle scenes that made me wonder how anyone could ever survive one of those battles.

As old as the ages, humans have found ways to slaughter one another, and we are still doing it today – for seemingly no reason at all.

Book Review: Stranded – by A. K. DuBoff

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, One and a Half Stars, Science FictionLeave a comment

Stranded is Book 1 of five books in the Starship of the Ancients series.

In the distant future, humanity has spread to many different planets in many different star systems, and it continues to spread out by sending colony ships with thousands of people to new stars and planets. Those journeys are hugely expensive  and are undertaken by massive corporations. Humanity is controlled by an elected government, headed by a chancellor.

When the ship arrives at its destinations, an accident occurs, the ship explodes, with most settlers getting killed. Only a few dozen manage to escape in landing pods. They find themselves on an alien planet, full of dangerous predators.

Evan is a former soldier who was assigned to an undercover investigation of a criminal cartel. When his cover was broken, he was sent away in this ship on short notice in a witness-protection situation. When he lands on the planet, he meets Anya, a xenobiologist who was involved in the planning of the mission. The two now work together to solve the puzzle of what happened to the ship, and to try to create a stronghold where the few dozen survivors can eek out a living on an alien world without any supply line.

They quickly discover that the accident may not have been an accident at all, and somebody tried to kill them all. There seems to be a criminal conspiracy that permeates the government and all of humanity.

Stranded is well written and I found myself turning the pages. It’s obviously a space opera, with a lot of politics. There is a government covering many planets over many star systems, obviously many light years apart. The ships can travel between the stars through gates instantaneously. And somehow they can also communicate over those distances, presumably through relays through the gates, instantaneously. There is no time-dilation. There seem to be no fuel or resource problems for that kind of travel. The story  plays in a world “in the stars” but it’s no different than countries on earth, now that we have instantaneous communication methods. It’s not really science fiction, it’s political fiction.

The characters, even the protagonists, are pretty shallow and superficial. There is a lot of exposition and not much dialog. Often the interactions and emotions are inconsistent. At one point they make a decision they have to go on an overland expedition to find the wreckage of a ship so they can obtain its communications gear, and then later they express that they wish they had never left. This kind of behavior keeps happening and makes the story unrealistic.

Of course, from the subtitle “starship of the ancients” we know that there is some alien technology involved. The main plot is about the race to find an ancient alien starship with technology that all humanity wants. This is kind of trite and has been done many times over, with the Starship in the Stone just being the most recent one I have come across.

Now What? – New Appreciation for Handicapped People

On By Norbert HauptIn Feelings, Wisdom2 Comments

Here I am in a wheelchair in Flores, Guatemala, looking at a daunting set of stairs.

I injured my knee severely during a vacation trip in a remote city in northern Guatemala. The trip home was daunting. Airline staff wheeled me to the plane. Now I had to make it up those stairs with only one good leg and a set of rickety crutches.

Within 24 hours of the accident, I had to travel by helicopter, boat, car and airline and enter a hotel room in the jungle accessible only by stairs up and down. Then the trip home to the United States, with a layover in Dallas, getting through customs at the DFW airport, with its endlessly long hallways, luggage areas, immigration queues and security lines, let alone the train between terminals, gave me a new appreciation of the challenges handicapped people have to deal with just to get around.

I destroyed my knee, but I gained invaluable insight into the hardships less able-bodied people than I have to face every day of their lives.

Of course, to get me home, it took a whole pit crew. My wife pushing the wheelchair and propping me up when navigating stairs on crutches. Our Guatemalan friends making appointments for emergency room visits and MRI scans. My Spanish is nowhere near good enough to make medical appointments or fill out patient information sheets. Our travel buddies propping me up under both shoulders getting me out of the boat hopping on one leg. Here is part of my pit crew in the lobby of the emergency room:

I don’t know what I would have done had I been alone. Friends are everything.

Every Man Dies Alone – Jeder Stirbt für Sich Allein

On By Norbert HauptIn WisdomLeave a comment

In 2011 I reviewed the book by Hans Fallada – Jeder Stirbt für Sich Allein. Here is the review.

Below are two paragraphs from my review:

If you have ever wondered how an entire country of 60 million plus people could have turned evil, attacked all its neighbors, killed 6 million Jews, devastated all of Europe, you should read this book. It all becomes understandable and obvious. A criminal and nefarious leadership started instituting totalitarian practices, slowly at first, and deliberately and systematically as it went. Children were brainwashed to spy on their parents. Over time, every bad apple enlisted with the dark side, where brutality, sadism, corruption and murder were completely accepted, as long as they benefited the ruling elite. Every thug got a uniform, and that uniform, without any checks and balances, authorized him to brutalize the citizenry as he saw fit. The acts were done by the military,  who controlled everything, including the police, the court system, the business establishment and the social system.

Those that didn’t agree with what was going on could not only not publish their opinion, they could not even speak it to anyone, since they never knew who was a snitch. Your own family and “friends” could have been undercover spies. Fear permeated all of society. Pretty soon, half  the country was busy arresting and locking up, and often executing, the other half.

Oh, my. Did I know what was coming to the United States in 2011? These words ring more important than ever now.

Book Review: The Last Stop Video Shop – by Keith A. Pearson

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Kevin Kershaw is a divorced man around 50 years old with a son from whom he drifted away and an ex-wife who needed to get away from him. He works joylessly in an insurance company office, accepting,  rejecting and challenging insurance claims by their policy holders. He does not have any real friends and he has lost his spunk to the point where he is considering ending it all.

One day, by pure coincidence, he finds a video shop in an out of  the way alley. Yes, in 2025, when we all stream Netflix, there is a shop full of VHS tapes. Kevin walks inside and gets to know the shopkeeper, an old and mysterious gentleman named Marty. He pulls out a VHS tape with Kevin’s name on it and gives it to him. There is a viewing room in the back of the shop with a small TV and an aging VHS player.

To his surprise, the short video is about Kevin himself when he was a child, showing him in scenes with his late mother. The shots were taken about his life where nobody was there to tape them at the time. It’s impossible, magical, but there it was. He soon finds out that there may be more tapes in future days, if he bothers to come back. And of course, he does.

The Last Stop Video Shop is a very slow moving story about a very boring life. For a while I found it hard to read, but it picked up the pace as it went along. There were eventually some uplifting experiences, as Kevin took the lessons from the videos seriously and made incremental improvements, which not only shaped his life, but those around him that the cared for.

 

 

2.5 stars

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two Stars1 Comment

Project Hail Mary is a perfect example of a movie made after a book where the movie does not even come close to do the story justice. I read the book about five years ago. Here is my book review. I gave the book a 4-star review and called it “one of the best and most satisfying science fiction stories I have ever read.”  I still stand by that.

The movie Project Hail Mary got great reviews from the critics and they are already talking about Oscars. I really don’t think so. It’s a fun movie, Ryan Gosling did a good job as the lead (and mostly only) actor, but most audiences will not be able to follow the story.

I think it is a solid 2-star movie. As a matter of fact, if you didn’t read the book, I don’t recommend watching the movie. It’s 2 hours and 36 minutes long, and my wife was fidgeting in her chair next to me. I knew she didn’t know what was going on. Many of plot twists didn’t really sink in. The environment of the Eridanis was just glossed over, and viewers probably didn’t even understand the last few minutes of the movie. There is a lot of science applied here, and that too did not take hold.

If you did read the book, and science fiction is your thing, you will enjoy the movie for what it is. It will put some images into your head that weren’t there before.

And you will enjoy the soundtrack. It might get some awards for that.

 

Book Review: Time Risk – by Elyse Douglas

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Three Stars, Time TravelLeave a comment

Time Risk is a suspenseful time travel novel.

Andrew Whitlock’s father died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was one of the few pilots who made it off the ground, but he was shot down nonetheless. Andrew was an infant. His mother died soon after, and Andrew grew up in an orphanage. Despite his unfortunate early childhood, Andrew grew up to be a technology billionaire. He spent his life and career building a time travel machine.

Rachel Hunt is a former police homicide detective who is looking for work when Andrew’s men come knocking. They recruit her to travel back in time to Honolulu, arriving days before the Japanese attack. Her mission is to save Andrew’s father by keeping him from flying that morning.

When she arrives in Oahu, things immediately do not go according to plan, and soon Navel Intelligence and the local police are looking for her. She is hunted by the authorities as well as local thugs who are trying to make a few bucks. Things escalate quickly, and Rachel has to decide whether she is going to stick with her mission and save Andrew’s father, or whether she should just try to prevent the attack on Pearl Harbor altogether, and in the process change the history of the world.

The author’s name “Elyse Douglas” is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. They specialize in time travel romance, women’s fiction and mystery. This is the first book of Elyse Douglas I have read.

Time Risk is a fast paced action thriller and a clever time travel story. I was ambivalent about it in the beginning, but it grew on me as it progressed, to the point where I am now considering reading some of the other books in the series, all time travel assignments of Rachel Hunt.

Hiking the Atalaya Mountain Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico

On By Norbert HauptIn HikesLeave a comment

On March 11 I hiked the Atalaya Mountain Trail outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Actually, I started on the St. John’s College Trail, which later merged with the Atalaya Mountain trail. The trailhead is literally in the parking lot of St. John’s College.

St. John’s is the third oldest college in the United States. It was founded in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1696 as King William’s School and chartered in 1784 as St. John’s College. The Santa Fe campus opened in 1964. The buildings are in the typical Santa Fe adobe architecture and fit very nicely into the landscape. Here are a few of the dorms visible from the trail.

Below is the map of the trail I took. I went counterclockwise in the loop. I had only planned to go up and down to the peak on the same trail, but once at the peak, I decided to take an alternate route back, so I’d see different sections on the area.

The trail starts at about 7,400 feet of elevation and the peak is at about 9,150 feet. It is listed as a moderate to strenuous hike. I would not call it strenuous. My loop was 7.5 miles long, it took me 3 hours and 45 minutes, including all stops for water, snacks and pictures, and the total elevation change, going up and down was 1,991 feet. This would normally be a moderate hike, but given its elevation, I can see how it can be challenging for some flatlanders. Here is a typical trail picture:

Here is a shot from the peak down to Santa Fe:

And finally, the obligatory selfie with Santa Fe in the background.

On the way down, I crossed over into the “Dale Ball Trails,” a network of trails of almost 25 miles. I saw a lot more people there than on the way up on the Atalaya Trail.

Dale Ball was instrumental in the conception, design and construction of the trails, mostly natural-surface trails for hikers and bicyclists in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

What I found most helpful and interesting was the navigation system used by the trails. On every junction, there is a overview map which also identifies the location where you are:

On the map above, I can see that I am at junction 42. Then I have several options or directions to go to. When I turn around, I can see the markers and the directions to go to next.

I can’t tell you how often I have been in areas of trail junctions, map in hand, without a clue of which way to go. Mostly I use my on-screen GPS and trail map and walk in one direction and another to see which way I should be heading. This system is genius. I think I’ll recommend it to my local Daley Ranch system, which probably has more miles and just as many junctions as the Dale Ball Trails.

I thoroughly enjoyed my little hike in Santa Fe.

Proud to be a Californian

On By Norbert HauptIn EconomyLeave a comment

Here is a world map showing in blue all countries with a GDP lower than that of the State of California:

 

To state it simply: California just surpassed Japan in 2025. There are only three countries with a larger economy than California. Those are the United States without California, China and Germany. And we only have to gain $500 billion to catch up with Germany. It won’t take us long.

New Mexico State Capitol

On By Norbert HauptIn State Capitol Buildings, Travels2 Comments

If you have been reading my blog, you may have noticed that I collect pictures of visits to state capitol buildings. Go to the Categories selection box and select “State Capitol Buildings” and you get quite a list over the last few years you can browse through. Not all of them have me in the picture, since often I was there alone and I didn’t have a convenient passer-by help me take my picture.

But today I had some colleagues with me.

Here I am in front of the building. I don’t have a picture of the whole building. This one is different from most capitol buildings I have seen. It does not have a dome, and it’s built in the typical Santa Fee “adobe style” architecture. If they hadn’t pointed the building out to me, I would not even have noticed it – from the outside.

However, I was inside, and I got a great tour of all four levels, with the senate offices, the house offices, the chambers, and the governor’s office.

I must say, of all the capitol buildings I have visited and toured, this is absolutely the most beautiful one. Aligned with the art history of Santa Fe and its hundreds of galleries, the capitol building is an art museum all in itself. Every hallway, every staircase, every office is adorned with world-class art. I could have taken hundreds of pictures, and I am not exaggerating here.

I regret now that I was not smiling on this picture. The buffalo head is made entirely of recycled materials, rags, chains, bottle caps, cans, plastic spoons, newspaper, I could go on. It is a very striking work of art.

Here is another example of modern art, this one right outside of the governor’s office.

Here I am at the door to the governor’s office. No, I didn’t get to meet the governor. However, we walked right in, and the receptionist at the desk welcomed us in and invited us to walk around and check out the artwork.

Visiting the New Mexico capitol building I had the distinct feeling that it was “the people’s house” and it was open to the people. After we went through a security checkpoint, we were free to walk around, all the way into to lobby of the governor’s office.

 

Book Review: The End Of The World As We Know It – edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Three StarsLeave a comment

Stephen King’s book The Stand is one of my all-time favorite novels. It first came out almost 50 years ago and I have read it several times. The book tells the story of a pandemic that wipes out over 99.9% of mankind. The world of The Stand plays in the aftermath of that pandemic. There are people who read this book once a year just for good measure. I believe it’s King’s grand opus and it’s 1,200 pages long.

I don’t usually like short stories or anthologies. When I came across The End Of The World As We Know It, I was skeptical. But once I started reading, I realized that the 34 stories by 34 different authors all play in the universe of The Stand. Some of them at the same time, as the disease ravages the world, others years later, and others yet decades and several generations later. They don’t all play in the United States either. Some are in other countries and continents. The anthology is over 800 pages long and it took me a while to read it – like about one story per session.

Stephen King has fully authorized this work about the harrowing world of The Stand. The stories are presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene.

It features an introduction by Stephen King himself, followed by a foreword by Christopher Golden, and an afterword by Brian Keene. Contributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S. A. Cosby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White, and Rio Youers.

I will go and find some of the works by these authors after reading their stories here.

Warning: If you have NOT yet read The Stand, this will not make sense to you. Read The Stand first, then this book. I highly recommend both.

 

Lunch at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center

On By Norbert HauptIn TravelsLeave a comment

During a meeting today in New York City, our hosts took us for lunch to the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center.

The Rainbow Room is a private event space on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York.  It opened in 1934 and was always a focal point for the city’s elite, as well as one of the United States’ highest restaurants above ground.

Here is a photograph of the building that I took in November, when they were just putting up the Christmas tree on the plaza. The building is iconic and a city landmark.

The first time I was there for lunch I was too embarrassed to take a photograph. I didn’t want to look like a tourist or country bumpkin. Today, however, I decided I didn’t care. I took a few pictures out the window. All of New York is visible in almost all directions. Here is a view south, showing the Empire State Building and in the distance to the right of it the World Trade Center tower.

Lunch was  excellent.

Who is James Talarico?

On By Norbert HauptIn PoliticalLeave a comment

I had no idea who James Talarico was. I don’t even watch TV. But when I heard today that Colbert was blocked by his network from airing an interview with him on his show, I searched for the segment on YouTube and watched it in its entirety.

I am not a Christian, but I’d vote for Talarico in a heartbeat.

When Trump and his goon in the FCC, Brendan Carr, tried to censor Colbert and “hide” Talarico, who is out to turn Texas blue, they miscalculated. Rather than hiding Talarico, they gave him a megaphone, so much so that I, a person wholly uninformed about Texas politics, now watched him and would be willing to support him.

I just read that election forecaster Logan Phillips pointed to Google Trends data showing Texans suddenly searching Talarico’s name at a “very high rate” just as early voting approaches. That’s not coincidence — that’s momentum.

Way to go Brendan Carr.

Here is the YouTube:

Good luck James Talarico.

Be Wary of Paramilitaries

On By Norbert HauptIn Are We Great Yet?, Atrocities, GunsLeave a comment

Be Wary of Paramilitaries

When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.

— from Chapter 6, On Tyranny – by Timothy Snyder (2017)

Are We Great Yet?

Countries with the Best Reputations in 2025

On By Norbert HauptIn Are We Great Yet?Leave a comment

I stumbled upon this chart showing the relative reputations by countries. Reputation Lab visualized a survey that ranks the world’s 60 leading economies by their reputations. Countries with stronger reputations may attract more foreign investment, tourists, or respect in international institutions.

You can go to my source link below to access the details.

Source: Ranked: Countries With the Best Reputations in 2025

My observations:

United States – The US dropped from position 30 to 48 in just one year. That must be the largest drop of any country in history. The reputation of the US in the world is now below that of Kuwait, Algeria, India and Turkey. It’s just a couple of notches above Colombia.

Russia – Solid in place 60, right there below Iran, Iraq and China.

Switzerland – Solid in place 1.

Canada – Now in place 2.

And with all this, and our collective common sense, our leaders have the gall to tell us that we are finally respected in the world. My question is: How deep can we fall? Are we going to the territory of Russia and China?

Are we great yet?