Photo by One Laptop Per Child

I was thinking about introducing people to new things.  I can think of at least seven people who have subscribed to World of Warcraft because of me.  I’ve introduced a number of people to books they might not have read otherwise.  I have no idea how many games I’ve helped people try out for the first time.  And yet, I have no idea how to convince people to try new things.

My usual procedure for introducing people to new things is “Here’s something I think you’ll like, why not give it a try?”  More or less I drop it in their hands and leave them to enjoy or not on their own.   Even with WoW, I didn’t do a whole lot of mentoring – I’d answer the occasional question, point to good sources of information, and say “Have fun!”

I’ve watched my brother and my dad introduce people to new things.  Even when they’re off the job, you can tell they’re salesmen: they know how to play up the shiny aspects and are brimming with enthusiasm for  activity X or product Y or location Z.  It’s exciting!  It’s thrilling!  It’s the best ever!  Do it now and you’ll never regret it!

Even with my favorite things, I lack that evangelistic fervor.  “For people who like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing they like” is much more my speed.  As Montaigne put it “If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could not otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.”

I can’t tell you why I love the things I love.  I can’t tell even tell you why I like the things I like.  I can pick out some features and say “I like this” or “I love that” but either  it resonates with me or it doesn’t and that’s that.

I recently read Chris Evans’ A Darkness Forged In Fire.  As the first book of a series I’m reserving judgment, but I’m enjoying it so far.

A Darkness Forged In Fire is a fairly conventional fantasy story in many ways.  Ancient evil.  Powerful lost artifact.  Throw in some convention military elements.  Commander with shady past pulled out of retirement.  Incompetent political fop as chief commander.  New recruit paired up with savy noncom.  Interesting ideas but the plot failed to engage me.

The biggest deviation is that this is a fantasy story with guns.  The second big difference is that rather than taking place in a pseudo-medieval setting it takes place in a pseudo-colonial setting – something around the 1600s to 1800s in our timeline.

It’s the characters that I found compelling in this story.  The elf yelling “I hate trees!”  The dwarf’s advice to his squadmate.  The drunken messenger pelican.  I don’t care if they beat the great evil, as long as they keep on being this much fun!

I’ve been watching Stargate Universe for the last few weeks and it’s really not grabbing me.

The premise of the show is that a race known as the Ancients scattered technology across the universe.  One of the technologies is the stargate which allows for instantaneous transport between two stargates.  At the start of Stargate Universe a researcher is trying a new code for dialing stargates, an accident happens, and a group gets stranded on an Ancient ship on the far side of the universe. This group tries to survive and find their way back to Earth.

So far the characters don’t interest me.  I can’t really put my finger on it, but I don’t care about any of their stories so far.  The ship is the character that interests me the most.   They are supposed to be in a life-and-death situation, but I don’t feel the tension.   The exploration so far hasn’t had a sense of wonder or of discovery to it.

I plan to keep watching this show when I remember to, but I don’t have high hopes for it.  I’m not much of a TV connoisseur so take my opinions with a bucket of salt.

Lifehacker has a lot of good information, but their search function stinks.  Looking for old posts is as likely to pull up something from 2004 as last week’s entry.   This post is really helpful: The Best Way to Search for an Old Post on Lifehacker – Search Operators.