Flash Forward: 2009. I’m not as broke as I was back in 2003 and I have a job that basically pays me to read for a large portion of my day. It’s not unusual that I’ll be able to read a book every week. I’ve managed to read entire text books in less than a month, all on the company’s dime. This kind of freedom does come with some responsibility. For school and personal endeavors, I work with a lot of technical equipment, software, and programming languages. Many of the books I read at work usually pertain to a piece of knowledge I need to know in order to stay up-to-date. Every once in awhile though, I’ll get a chance to read a book purely for fun. It’s thanks to this job that I’ve finally been able to read books like Slaughterhouse-Five, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1984, Brave New World, On the Road, and many other enjoyable reads.

I bought this book more than a year before I actually got the chance to read it. I bought it because I needed books to read and I had to order it online since I couldn’t find it at any of the nearby bookstores. I must have been in a thrifty state of mind because I decided to order a used copy, hoping for maybe a slightly beat-up book. What I got was a book from a library that hacked apart the cover to add stickers and laminate. It was from the Okanagan library in Canada and had only been checked out twice. I didn’t have time to readit as soon as I got the book, so I left it on my bookshelves, wondering when I was going to finally find out what a Star Dragon actually was. All I knew about the novel was that a team of scientists set out on a mission across the galaxy to investigate a mysterious video depicting a dragon flying through a nebula. If that doesn’t strike you as the adventure novel of a lifetime, then maybe you should go back to reading See Spot Run.

It is now October 2010, and I have finished this book. It took me roughly four 8-hour shifts to read all 352 pages, and it is safe to say that this is a very enjoyable book. Mike Brotherton does a good job of creating a believable, though sometimes quirky future. Like the main character in the novel, you become more and more obsessed with finding out everything you can about the elusive Star Dragon. You spend about 2/3 of the novel just getting to the damn nebula (Which takes 250 years earth time just to get to). The build-up is part of what reminded me of King Kong. In that movie, they spend a long time on the boat just to reach Kong Island. It helps build not only the characters, but the suspense as well.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, so I hope you do read the book. Like I’ve mentioned before, I have a thing for Giant Monsters, and Star Dragon is one of the more creative monsters I remember hearing about in recent years. Sure Biollante was cool, but something about a dragon that survives in a nebula is very intriguing. If you’re as curious as I was, get the book. You’ll probably have to buy it online.

I recently was one of the few people who saw Clash of the Titans in 3D. The Kraken was much larger in this remake than in the original. It may have have been one if the largest beasts to have ever appeared in a movie. On a scale of 1 – 10, I give the 3D Kraken a 7. I had to dock it a few points due to the mediocre movie it starred in. To give a frame of reference, the Original King Kong scores a 9.7. There has yet to be a perfect giant monster in a movie.

My old Mr. Coffee still worked great after years of heavy use. It brewed coffee fast and I knew exactly how much coffee grounds and water to use to make a perfect cup. When I landed my first freelance job, the first thing I did was buy a new bag of coffee to get me through the next several nights. Mr. Coffee was up to the challenge.

The new machine isn’t quite as simple to use as my old one, but I do enjoy being able to set a timer for when to make coffee. It also looks cool. The next appliance I hope to replace is my can opener. It would always makes a mess with whatever was inside the can.