30 New Curses
I’m a little behind the news, I guess, but it looks like they discovered 30 sarcophagi near Luxor—not the casino—back in October. They were untouched, perfectly preserved, and, just like a bunch of predictable B-Movie archeologists, they opened ‘em right up. So, I...
Even a mushroom cloud has a silver lining
12 Quick Book Reviews
In the past couple of days, I’ve hiked several miles and been to the gym twice. In that time I’ve also listened to 12 books on this Blinkist thing. That is non-fiction books condensed to 15 -20 audiobooks. I’m really enjoying it. Even when I hit a bad book, it’s not...
Mad Science and Booze
I've never read any of Henry Kuttner's work before. I didn't even know about him until recently. His stuff is available as ebooks so he's hardly one lost to history. But reading what other sci-fi legends have to say about him—I am Legend is dedicated to him with...
The Man in the Arena
In my experience, not only has the critic done little to enter the arena, the critic hasn't even read the book. I'm sure you've seen this before, but for anyone that dares do anything in front of others, it's worth rereading from time to time. It is not the critic who...
My favorite acronym
“And why not?” Hiro raised his voice to match the team's leader. “Bulk’s got nipple missiles.” Val slammed a fist into the table. “That’s not what we call them and you know it! Those are the Nimbus Intercept Plasma Pulse Laser Explosive Systems!” “That...
This nap brought to you by the Shaw Brothers
One thing I've missed since cutting the cable was crappy Sunday afternoon movies. Netflix and the other streaming services are full of crappy movies, sure, but not high quality crappy that rises to the standard of UHF broadcast filled with carpet cleaning offers and...
The park of the future (ca. 1979)
Crichton did it first. As far as I can tell, Westworld was the original fantasy theme park gone awry story. He cemented his claim to the genre 17 years later with Jurassic Park. But Dream Park by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes seems to be the first book where there’s...
Deeds, not words.
Deeds, not words. As we look forward to a new year I’m reminded of these words printed across the page of a hundred comic books from my youth. Beneath them, a well-coifed Ace Hunter, leader of the crack military team Megaforce, directed a finger at all of us, daring...
I was a teenage Jedi
Okay, maybe not teenaged. But pretty close. I just finished Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order where you play as Cal Kestis. He was a young padawan when Order 66 occurred. He has been hiding from the Empire’s Purge Troops for five years by keeping the same weird shaggy hair...
Of Course You Realize…
I can’t reread books. Even my favorites. I just never been able to do it. But I start each year with a quick reread of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Like anything, writing has its up and downs. And when you hit the down periods, it seems pretty pathetic to...
It’s time to get back on the turtle
I only discovered the Discworld novels a couple of years ago and I’ve got some catching up to do. That’s why I’ll be reading Sourcery by Sir Terry Pratchett this week. It’s one of the four books in this Rincewind the Wizard collection. I don’t think it’s...
How To Shave A Gremlin
I’m really enjoying The Mandalorian. It’s Star Wars meets Sergio Leone right down to the soundtrack and he’s already met his Tuco. Whether you’ve been able to catch the show or not, I’m sure you’ve been unable to avoid the onslaught of memes, posts and articles about...
I don’t understand it. But I accept it.
I don’t understand it. But I accept it. I find myself saying this more and more lately. It’s like a mid-life mantra. It was in my head when I was digging into Twitch and trying to understand why so many people like watching other people play video games when simple...
Trolley Was a Punk
Scale models are cool. If you don’t believe me, just look for sci-fi models on Pinterest and see how deep that rabbit hole goes. They’re cool. And that’s why Trolley was such a punk. On Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood there were two ways into the land of Make-Believe. He...
The New Batman
The news has been out there for some time now, I just needed time to process it. Robert Pattinson is going to be the new Batman. The sparkly vampire from the most millennial movie of all time is the Dark Knight. Many people have come to his defense saying...
Write with the door closed…
Stephen King said “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” But he did an awful lot of coke and while blow and closed doors may have been fantastic for his productivity, writing with an audience has been good for mine. For the last couple of weeks I’ve...
Those Damn Bears and Their Fancy Math
I know I'm getting screwed. Every time I have to get toilet paper, I know I’m being taken for a ride and the whole time those damn bears are just smiling at me. Much like the rest of the world, I was delighted when Charmin embraced the fact that bears do indeed shit...
An Unfortunate Accident
We went to a couple of open houses this weekend. It’s been years since I’ve done that and I was surprised how quickly I became comfortable with walking into a stranger’s home and rooting around, judging them for their taste and questioning their design choices. While...
How To Be A Great Boss
I’ve been my own boss for a while now and I thought I was pretty good at it. But I found myself back in a corporate environment a few times over the last few months and it reminded me exactly what makes a great leader: Halving things, animal metaphors and having hard...
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