Geek Things for May 15th

 

  • Burlington Go Club, 7–9PM, Uncommon Grounds, Burlington. Free; bring a set if you have one. (Gaming)
  • Downloadable E-books & Audiobooks Drop-in Day, 9AM–5PM, Ilsley Public Library, Middlebury. Free. (eBooks)
  • Tech Help, 10:30–11:30AM, Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier. Free. (Tech)
  • ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Auditions, 6:30–9PM, Holley Hall, Bristol. Free. (Theater)
  • Burlington Writers Workshop Meeting. Participants must join the group to have their work reviewed. 6:30–7:30PM, Halflounge, Burlington. Free; preregister at meetup.com. (Writing)
  • ‘Dan Brown: An Evening of Codes, Symbols & Secrets’ Webcast, 7PM, Phoenix Books Burlington, Burlington. Free. (Authors)
  • Magic: The Gathering – Draft – $12 Entry Fee, 6:30pm – 11:00pm, Quarterstaff Games, Burlington. (Gaming)
  • Pathfinder Society, 6:30pm – 11:00pm, Game Lounge, Quarterstaff Games, Burlington. (Gaming)
  • NOOK Kids APPtivity Time, 11:30 AM, Barnes and Noble, South Burlington. (Tech)
  • Dan Brown Webcast, 7:30 pm, Village Square Books, Bellows Falls. (Authors)
  • Wednesday Night Board gaming at Triple Play, 6:00pm – 10:30pm, Triple Play, Lebanon, New Hampshire. (Gaming)
  • L5R Night at Triple Play, 6:30pm – 10:00pm, Triple Play, Lebanon, NH. (Gaming)
  • Rutland Free Library Board Meeting, 5:15PM-6:30PM, Fox Room, Rutland Free Library, Rutland. (Libraries)
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Geek Things for May 14th

  • Green Drinks, 6–8PM, Lobby, City Center, Montpelier. Free. (Environmentalism)
  • Science & Stories: Rocks Rock, 11AM, ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center/Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington. Free with admission, $9.50-12.50. (Rocks)
  • Basic Introduction to Camera Use, 10–11:30AM, Channel 17 Studios, Burlington. Free. (Cameras)
  • ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Auditions, 6:30–9PM, Holley Hall, Bristol. Free. (Theater)
  • Cady/Potter Writers Circle, 10AM–12PM, Ilsley Public Library, Middlebury. Free. (Writing)
  • Board Game Night, 5pm – 11pm, Quarterstaff Games, Burlington. (Gaming)
  • NOOK Apptivity (for Adults): Survival Night, 6:00 PM, Barnes and Noble, South Burlington. (Tech) 
  • Used Book Sale, 9:00 AM, Barnes and Noble, South Burlington. (Books)
  • Naruto CCG, 4:30pm – 8:00pm, The Gamers Grotto, Bennington. (Gaming)
  • Basic Internet Search, 9:30AM-11:00AM, Computer Commons, Rutland Free Library, Rutland. (Tech)
  • Invasive Species Workshop. 6pm, North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier. Info: 229-6206. (Environment)
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Interview with Nate Herzog

Recently, I’ve come across a neat serialized story that Nate Herzog has been running out on his website, Caperchase titled Muckruckers. There’s a smallish segment published every week. He’s described the story as “people trying to deal with technology and technology trying to deal with people”, and it’s an interesting, almost William Gibsonian style of near-future science fiction. Most interestingly, it takes place here in Vermont. We recently had a couple of minutes to chat with Nate about his story.

Geek Mountain State: Tell me a little bit about yourself: how did you get interested in science fiction / near future fiction and writing?

Nate Herzog: I’ve always been a genre fiction fan. I read anything I find interesting, but the writers I really collect tend to be genre fiction writers. Some of my favorite writers started breaking away from traditional sci-fi and started writing a lot more near fiction and historical fiction. Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Charles Stross are three of my favorite writers that are doing this. Their work is exciting because not only is it very well written and thoughtful, but the foreign techo-societies they describe aren’t that far away from today. It’s technology that we could have, given a little extra time and if events line up just so. It’s fun to line up that kind of speculation against the narrative that is the present and start dreaming of what might happen in my lifetime.

I studied creative writing in college but then I had a chance to get a job at the 1996 Olympic games if I took some media studies courses (yep, that dates me), so I pulled a double minor in Art (Photography) and Media Communications. When I returned back home to Minnesota after being in Atlanta, there weren’t a lot of opportunities in media at the time. Instead I fell into computer support and accidentally got into a career in IT. Writing has always been part of my life, but until recently was kinda dormant while the career took up so much time.

Continue reading

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Terms of Enlistment

Terms of Enlistment book cover, provided by author Markos Kloos.

We don’t just cover Vermont news – we’ll stray over our borders into the surrounding states if we find something or someone who is in the area. That’s the case for one author we came across recently was Marko Kloos, who’s written the military SF novel titled Terms of Enlistment. He’s out of Enfield, NH, right across the Connecticut River.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon.com:

The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you’re restricted to 2,000 calories of badly flavored soy every day:
You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service.

With the colony lottery a pipe-dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price…and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

The debut novel from Marko Kloos, Terms of Enlistment is a new addition to the great military sci-fi tradition of Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, and John Scalzi.

The book’s gotten some pretty good reviews since its release. Color us interested!

You can buy a copy of the book here.

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Star Trek Into Darkness Early Screenings!

The release for Star Trek Into Darkness is almost upon us! It used to be that Thursday at  midnight was the earliest you could see an early screening of the film, but that has been shifting back every so slightly over the last couple of years. There’s a number of theaters around the state that are doing some early screenings of the film before the official May 17th release date. Interestingly, it’s only Barre’s tiny Paramount Theater that’s showing off both films as a packaged deal.

Can’t wait to see it early? Here’s the theaters that are doing early screenings.

Wednesday, May 15th

  • Essex Cinemas, Essex Junction: 9pm 
  • Paramount Theater, Barre: Double Feature: Star Trek/Into Darkness, 9:15pm
  • Bijou Cineplex 4, Morrisville: 12am

Thursday, May 16th

  • Majestic 10, Williston: 2D: 1:10pm, 4:10pm, 7:10pm & 10:00pm. 3D: 12:40pm, 3:40pm, 6:40pm & 9:30pm
  • Capitol Theater, Montpelier: 6:15pm, 9:20pm
  • Palace 9, South Burlington. (Unknown times)*
  • Cinema 7, Bennington: 1:30pm, 6:50pm, 9:20pm
  • Waterfront Cinemas, Newport: (Unknown Times)*
  • Playhouse Movie Theatre, Randolph: 7:30pm
  • Springfield Cinemas 3, Springfield: 4:00pm, 6:45pm
  • Stowe Cinema 3 Plex: 7:00pm

This seems to be the start to a really fantastic summer of science fiction movies. We’ll keep on top of what’s to come.

* These theaters have listed that they’re screening the film on the 16th, but haven’t updated times yet.

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Geek Things for May 13th

 

  • Casual Card Games, 5:30pm – 11:00pm, Quarterstaff Games, Burlington. (Gaming)
  • L5R Constructed, 7pm – 11pm, Quarterstaff Games, Burlington. (Gaming)
  • Biology-Neuroscience-ESBI Thesis Presentations, 12:30 – 1:20pm, McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220, Middlebury College, Middlebury. (Biology)
  • Used Book Sal, Barnes and Noble, South Burlington. (Books)
  • Monday Night Magic, 6pm – 9pm, Village Pizza, Montpelier. (Gaming)
  • Passport to Learning, 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne. (Kids)
  • Basic Computer Skills, 12:30–2:30PM, Tracy Hall, Norwich. Free. (Tech)
  • Rob Velella – “Edgar Allan Poe: Master of the Macabre.” 7PM, Fox Room, Rutland Free Library, Rutland. Free. (Poe)
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New England Role Players Association’s Saga Continues

Star Wars logo.It’s Friday afternoon, gamers. Make it through the rest of your afternoon before sweet, sweet release with the second episode of New England Role Players Association’s mini-series Halfway to Han.

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