... in which the Fool talks about Dune, movies, and math

I've been preoccupied with reading the latest in the Dune Trilogy that's been out (the Butlerian Jihad, the Machine Crusade, and the Battle of Corrin). I'm only something like 200+ pages in, and I must say, the book reads something like the biggest pack of coincidence in the world...

Let me elaborate. In the beginning, Man had already conqured a lot of space, setting up colonies in many of the more habitable planets through the use of superior technology. Eventually, humanity loses all drive because of the technology that's in use and become fat useless pigs. Humans rely too much on their machines that they lose their imagination (imagine that...) and become so engrossed in their self-importance.

One day, one human who has tried to awaken humanity through rousing speeches and other forms of demonstrations gets sick and tired of the fat useless pigs, that he plans a coup de tat against the Empire, seeking to hold power himself.

Long story short, he gets allies and friends to succeed in his plans and wrests control of much of the Empire, calling themselves the Titans. One of his friends programs machines to have a form of AI patterned after many of humanity's drives (ambition, curiosity, passion...) in order to help them attain control over much of the Empire. Eventually, this new form of machine takes over the empire from the Titans, and makes them serve it.

Fast forward 1000++ years in the future and they show these people that will become the most influential people in ridding the universe of the machine threat (hence the titles of the books). Now granted, anyone reading the Dune novels have probably heard of these events, and know how the battle ended (the humans won and regained control of their planets, banning the use of "thinking machines" forever).

What really irritates me the most is the sheer coincidence of all these people meeting each other and getting related to each other all in the course of one book (except for the Fremen of Dune/Arrakis, who I've never really digged). There's just something wrong that all these influential people suddenly meet together and after a little bit of friction, and they all become good guys. Er... Something's wrong there.

Each book is something like 700 pages long and in the course of that, the Harkonnens are shown as these brave people (there's so far, only one of them), the Atreides are really part of the Machine Empire (again, there's only one of them), and to top it all off, the reason that these two people know each other? They happen to love the same woman...

Really, I think that kind of story's been done oh so many times before... Plus the fact that the novels read a bit like Star Wars (maybe because one of the co-writers is a Star Wars novelist himself) and I get this feeling that I'm only reading a rehash...

Bah, no wonder my brother felt sleepy everytime he saw those books. And here I thought (a few years back) that the novels were really good, and that my brother just didn't appreciate good writing...

Compared to the trilogy before it (frequently called the Prequels to Dune), House Atreides was an engaging read. It was fresh, despite feeling like some kind of cosmic space opera. This first book is... drab. A little hurried and a little too forced sometimes. But again, I'm only 200+ pages in (out of 2100++ pages) so my opinion might still waver. I have the Preludes to Dune books though, if anyone wants to borrow it, just tell me.

I've watched The Island last Monday, and Charlie's Chocolate Factory the Friday before and I must say, I find Charlie to have a bit more content (despite being a kiddy movie) over The Island. I swear, I didn't even need to watch the Island to guess where the plot was heading (whoever made the trailer to the movie ought to be shot, there was no suspense whatsoever in the story, no point that made the viewer doubt his ideas of where the movie was going). In fact, it just felt so... linear. Far more linear than watching The Minority Report (you knew Tom Cruise would win, but how?), in The Island, you knew exactly how Ewan McGregor would free all his other friends, down to the plan he would make to do it...

In Charlie though, I didn't expect that Wonka would build a house for them inside the factory itself. Not to mention the many silly Oompa-Loompa song and dance numbers, and the ways that Charlie's other companions would be treated. Some were creative, while others were simply obvious. I liked the ending though, and how it said that some things are just plain, irreversible.

I'm planning to watch another movie soon: Sky High and maybe the Skeleton Key, but only when I get the time.

I've always prided myself in being able to understand Math. Granted, I'm not that well-versed in it, but I can say that I can "read and write" math, "speak" math, and even "teach" math. A bit. Its like saying I'm a native when it comes to the mathematical language, although making "grandiose poems and prose" (read, advanced math) may be beyond me. I can understand and appreciate, but I can't make any new theorems or what not.

Except for one particular "dialect". I've always been bad with money. I mean, its really simple right? You have this particular amount of money, lending it out, withdrawing it, depositing it, making it develop interest, they all seem pretty easy right? In fact, it should be nothing more than basic arithmetic and algebra.

For the life of me though, "money" has always been something like a different "dialect" to me. Whenever I see a problem that involves money in school, I tend to ignore it, despite it being simply Principal * Interest * Time. I just tend to avoid money like the plague, makes me wonder how I'm supposed to earn it later on...

I just, I don't know, allergic I guess, to equations involving money. And I don't know why. I mean, give me differential equations, give me matrices, or even Laplace equations, but don't expect me to solve simple economics problems in less than 2 minutes... Its just impossible for me... Very strange indeed...

Did you know that sometimes, I find it hard to find just how much change I'm supposed to receive? Especially when all my friends start pulling out large bills and saying "You owe me this much instead, because I'm paying our bill" and stuff like that. Really, if you want to earn money from me, try that trick, and you'll see a very stupefied look from me.