Category: Ramblings

[This article includes spoilers for movies and TV programs you may have already seen.]

I’m not a huge Marvel fan, but I think I’ve seen all the movies except Ant-Man.  Before going to Avengers: Infinity War, I saw a headline for an article speculating on what major character would die in the film.  I didn’t read the article, but when Loki died at the beginning of the film, I thought, “Oh, so it was him.  Again.”

Mid-way into the film, I changed my mind.  “Oh, so it was her!”  But then, at the very end of the film, I thought, “Are they crazy?”  You’ve seen the film, so you know what I mean.

Flash back to 1982, when I was 15 years old.  Back in these days, science fiction and fantasy didn’t fare so well.  I grew up on Star Trek reruns and there wasn’t much else in the way of science fiction on TV.  Enter Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan.  Rumor had it that Spock would die in the film.

We were not happy.

Our nickname for the first film was, Star Trek: the Motionless Picture, because parts of it were so incredibly boring.  I’m not sure what my expectations were for the second film, but I remember the thrill that came with the opening credit music and that moving starfield in the background.  The movie was phenomenal.

And, yes, Spock died.

But it was one of the best deaths I’ve seen in a science fiction movie.  The entire movie was geared for it.  Spock’s death was foreshadowed from the beginning and reinforced with a theme of beating the no-win scenario.

Then rumor claimed Spock would be brought back to life in the third film.

I’ve alway thought this was a mistake.  Even though I didn’t want Spock to die in the first place, his glorious death was undone by a so-so sequel.  Sure, it was fun have Spock around in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but sometimes I wonder how much better Star Trek II would have been if they’d let his death stand.

So what happens if some insane movie makers decide to kill off half the characters in a huge superhero movie mashup (including characters who have new films slated for release in the next year or so)?  After the initial shock wore off, I thought to myself, “Alternate timeline.”  Doctor Strange saw only one timeline where they won.  Well, this wasn’t it.

How many times have we seen seen the Master die in Doctor Who?  Or Davros?  Sometimes these “dead” characters are brought back to life with no explanation at all.  Even the other characters in the series are unsurprised by their return.

And if Marvel doesn’t bring half their characters back to life in the next Avengers movie, all they have to do is reboot.  Spiderman was rebooted twice in a nine year period.  They didn’t even let the second Spiderman trilogy finish before they rebooted for the third.

Death is a temporary state in fiction.

I’ve never really liked my first name.

Grant.

verb (used with object)
to bestow or confer, especially by a formal act:
to grant a charter.

noun
something granted, as a privilege or right, a sum of money, or a tract of land:
Several major foundations made large grants to fund the research project.

A long time ago I complained to my mother about my name.  When she asked what I’d rather be called, I suggested Kirk and Scotty.  (I watched a lot of Star Trek reruns in those days.)  I definitely would not want either of those names now.  Maybe I’d go with William, which is my middle name.  At least it’s not in the dictionary.

“Grant”, as a name, supposedly means “great” and began as a nickname for “a large or tall person.”  That still doesn’t convince me to like it.

A year or so ago I registered a domain name to possibly use in promoting my writing.  I’m terrible at self-promotion.  I prefer to be as invisible as possible.  And so I never really built any content for my website.

The domain name was grantwsmith.com. That’s remarkably fitting, considering my name is Grant William Smith.  The e-mail address just seemed all wrong: grant@grantwsmith.com.  That’s redundant.  I considered me@grantwsmith.com, but that’s not much better.  The domain name is just too “me” – literally.  It’s my first name, middle initial, and last name.

So I started searching for domain names, again.

The idea in finding a personal domain name is to look for something short and unique.  A common phrase or quote is preferred.  And it has to be somehow related to you or your interests.

The first phrase that came to mind was, “for granted.”  Yeah, it’s taken.  I could have gone with for-granted.com or forgranted.io, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are a dozen similarly named websites out there.

I needed a more obscure phrase.

grantnoquarter.com – Available, but too long.  Also it sounds like I’m a commanding sort of person, which I’m definitely not.

I considered grantthis.com.  Not only is it a phrase, but “this” is “Smith” backwards, without the “M”.  However, it looks too much like “grant his”.

“faster than Grant through Richmond” is an expression – although I’ve never heard it before.  fasterthangrantthroughrichmond.com is available, and probably will be for a very long time.

tnarg.com – Taken!  Can you believe it?  Someone is more desperate than me.

Also on the chopping block: grantthat.com, grantsquarter.com, takegrant.com, granttaken.com, etc, etc.

Then I happened to think of a partial phrase: “granted that.”

grantedthat.com

It’s perfect.  It’s not the main subject, and I always prefer not to be.  Those two words serve on the sidelines, deflecting attention to something more important.  That’s totally me.