Tag Archives: life

general posts about my life

eBook reader purchased

So, to celebrate my first national sale — even though it was just to a semipro market — I placed an order today for an eBook reader.
I purchased the EZReader Pro.
It has a smaller screen than most readers, jus 5″ vs the usual 6″, but it has a faster process, comes with a crush-proof case, and like an Hanlin derived device reads a large number of formats.
It’s supportive of open-sourced material and it’s not tied to any one supplier for book formatting.

They are supposed to ship at the end of the month and I am looking forward to getting mine.

Baen free eBooks here I come!

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Pending sale

Well, I have a sale pending.
I’ve signed the contract and will be sending it back to the editor tomorrow.
Once everything is final and I know the dates the short story will be published in the Magazine site I will let you know.

It is semipro, but my words will getting out to infect people.

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The Intersection of Watchmen and The Lord Of The Rings

This past Saturday I picked up the Blu-ray of Watchmen. That evening I watched the film with a friend of mine who had seen it in the theater, but had missed a bit sue to bladder pressures.
This version was the directors cut, nearly half an hour longer and I have to say superior to the theatrical cut.
While we discussed the film I became aware of the thematic intersection between Watchmen and The Lord Of The Rings. Specifically in the characters of Saruman and Adrian Veidt.
Spoiler Alerts….
Continue reading →

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Thoughts on today’s historical significance.

July 20, 1944.

Today a conspiracy of plotters sought to assassinate Adolph Hitler and overthrow the NAZI dictatorship with a coup. The coup was generated from with Hitler’s own military and nearly succeeded. It is only by chance and a string of unlikely events that Hitler survived this attempt. (I understand there were something like 15 different attempts on Hitler’s life. He had the devils own luck in avoiding these attempts.)

A film which does a very good job of being both entertainment and capturing the events — with some alterations one should always be wary of film as history — is last year’s Valkyrie . This film is tense and dramatic with a top notch cast that give a power performance.

July 20, 1969.

Mankind landed on the moon. Forty years have passed and age has dulled my memory but I do remember lying on a narrow bed (I was nine) with a father in a trailer on one of his worksites and watching the astronauts descend to the lunar surface.
I have always been a space bug. As a child I drew Gemini and Apollo and Mercury capsules. I was six and I would watch and try to understand Star Trek. (I remember asking my sister how the Enterprise could launch, thinking at the time that everything had to go straight up from the ground like an Atlas. She explained how ships may be built in orbit and my horizons were expanded a bit. (At least until JJ Abrams got his hand on the future.)
I loved the space program and I still believe that man’s destiny lies off-planet. It may not be America’s destiny but it is mans.

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Going Electronic

I’ve decided I really want to go electronic for my pleasure reading. There are a number of reasons why I think eBooks are the way to go for me. Firstly I like the idea of less clutter and few physical objects to keep track of. I also know it will make magazine subscription much better for me. I like having magazines to read but I dislike throwing them out when they start to pile up as much as I dislike having them pile up to begin with. The obvious answer is to get these magazine as eBooks and keep them stored on a disc where I can access them if I like but where they won’t start taking over the condo. Continue reading →

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The race to the bottom

No, this is not another political posting, this is a movie posting. It seems to me that there is a race going on. A race to who makes the least intelligent movies from Hollywood. We should ignore the low-budget direct to video stuff being made. That’s not what I am talking about. I’m talking about the A-list directors with tons and tons of money making films that would embarrass a comatose squirrel.
The two leading contenders for this prize are, Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich.
Michael Bay certainly has consistency on his side. In 2007 people referred to Transformers as the ‘Least Stupid’ Michael bay film. For consistently insulting his viewer’s intelligence Michael Bay is unequaled.
However, what Roland Emmerich lacks in consistency he makes up for in truly stupid scripts, ideas, and execution. Wether it is the archeology in 10,000 BC or the climate and weather science in The Day After Tomorrow his films set new standards for ignoring and destroying scientific thought.
In an effort to win the race and settle the question once and for all time, Roland Emmerich has apparently topped himself in stupidity. This summer we get the film 2012. Go watch the preview, I did at this past weekend’s San Diego Vintage SF meeting. (I’ll post about that soon.) We hooted and jeered at the spectacularly awful filme being hawked at us. Then Gerry, the host had a treat for us and one I am going to share with you.
The trailer for 2012 as it should have been cut.

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Sunday Night Movie: Goldfinger

goldfinger_l You need three films to establish a franchise and for James Bond the frnachise was established with a bang with the release of Goldfinger.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ian Flemming Goldfinger saw James Bond, agent 007, matching wits against international criminals Auric Goldfinger, Odd Job, and Pussy Galore and her all girl team of flying thieves. Suprisingly some of the more outraheous aspects of the book were deleted from the film version. (Quite the opposite of the Hollywood normally practice.)
This is the film that established many of the cliches that became a part of the Bond Franchise. The walk through Q-Section with gadgets and death all around, the realtionship between Bond and Q, the verbal sparing match with the lead villain were all established in this film.
Yes I am aware that Bond traded quips with Dr No in the film of the same name, but that occured in the final act of the film. In Goldfinger Bond encounters Godlfinger in Miami, againt on teh Glaf Course and of course in Switzerland in that most famous scene with the laser all before teh big climax in teh final act. The became a template and fianlly a formula for later Bond movies. As with all franchises, books or movies, when it devloves to formula it’s get tired old and bad.
I’m glad that the film-makers removed from the plot that Pussy galore was gay and turned straight simply because Bond was THAT good.
This is a film well worth watching and particularlly on Blu-Ray as I did.

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Outrageous comment

The follow is the most outrageous comment I heard during Westercon 62.

From the panelist Jacqueline Lichtenberg
The arrival of Star Trek on national television is the most important event in the history of civilization since the invention of agriculture. It is a paraphrase but she said it.

yesh I like Star Trek but this is really creepy stalker fandom territory.

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