Writer At Large

2007-04-17T00:12:00.000-04:00

Our long national nightmare is over.

2007-04-11T00:51:00.000-04:00

We can all rest easy. The greatest mystery of our age as been solved.

Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy has been revealed!

And the winner is, um, the guy who wasn't her attorney. Honestly, I refused to pay enough attention to the blairing headlines about this stupidity. I guess that guy gets the half a gillion dollars or whatever she inherited from the old guy she married way back when.

We can all be glad that it stands revealed. The truth is now known. Maybe now Fox, CNN, and MSNBC can do something like cover actual news.

I hear there's a war on somewhere

Post Christmas Blahs

2006-12-28T00:15:00.000-05:00

If I may get all schmaltzy, Christmas is the time of year when I think about my late grandmother the most. Every holiday, she would make her famous sticky buns. Since her death, I've sort of taken over that role. This year, I tried a healthier alternative as an experiment, making a batch with whole wheat flour and Splenda (TM) instead of white flour and sugar. I think they came out pretty well.

Unfortunately, I picked up a cold this weekend and cheering the Eagles beating the Dallas Cowgirls on Christmas night pushed it into laryngitis. It cost me a day off work. Lying in bed for three days made me think more about the rough times my family has endured this year. My sister's impending divorce ranking near the top. Now I'm in that blah period between Christmas and New Years where everything in the media is a retrospective of the year's events and/or predictions for the coming year. I'm feeling both nostalgic and anxious for the future.

Let's see what 2007 brings.

Quiet Day

2006-11-28T01:01:00.000-05:00

Today was a quiet day at work. Nearly the entire office was out killing deer, so I had a nice day of sitting in my cube contemplating life and writing.

One big relief is that my dog is doing better. After nearly two weeks of seizures and three trips to the vet, the medication is finally starting to help. She's going to be taking this stuff for probably the rest of her life.

I don't know how people with kids handle it. Rosie is more than enough responsibility for me and Maria to handle. I can't imagine dealing with sick kids, or even worse, kids with long term health and/or emotional problems. I'm screwed up enough by myself. I guess this incident is the final straw. Maria and I are destined to be kidless and happy. We spent Thanksgiving visiting family, which includes a grand total of three nieces and two young cousins. Kids are fun, but I'm happy handing them back to their parents at the end of the day.

I'm fully happy with this decision. Not everyone is meant for parenthood and Maria is even more convinced that this lifestyle isn't for us than I am. In a way, it's liberating. Without the added weight, I'm free to pursue my wannabe writing career and my hobbies.

Life is good.

So long as I remember to give the dog her meds.

Santorum's out

2006-11-08T00:08:00.000-05:00

Rick Santorum has been defeated!! Woo hoo!!!

2006-09-22T14:20:00.000-04:00

Santorum says Scientists are amoral

Ugh. Sometimes this sanctimonious ass just makes me sick. As a scientist, I have to strongly object. Most scientists are not "amoral" as he claims. Most scientists that I know went into the field because they wanted to do something that would better humanity's understanding of the world around us.

Unfortunately, we're up against a political class that believes continued ignorance is a virtue. Or at least, keeping the masses ignorant is a very useful tool for them.

Interview II

2006-09-11T23:59:00.000-04:00

Today's interview went well. I guess.

I got a bette vibe off of the people who interviewed me last Wednesday.

Hopefully, I'll hear from one or the other soon.

Patriot Day

2006-09-11T23:52:00.000-04:00

It was inevitable. I knew the moment people started calling 9/11 "Patriot Day", it would happen. The day would come when the murder of 3,000 Americans would become just another excuse to hold a white sale at Penny's or an extended happy hour.

Today at work, I saw a flier advertising a "Patriot Day Picnic". I felt immediately sick at the sight of it. Soon, 9/11 will simply replace Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer. With each passing year and our memory of the events on 9/11/01 fades, the remembrances will become downplayed. How many people even know which wars that Memorial Day and Veterans Day were originally created to commemorate? It's over.

Sure, we could just not question it all. Just happily call it Patriot Day. After all, who could object to celebrating patriotism? Good patriots love their country. Of course, the cynic in me sees this trend as part of the concerted effort to remind us all to be good patriots. And that means to never, ever question the administration.

At least until another Democrat gets into the Oval Office.

We are officially damned.

Interview

2006-09-07T01:09:00.000-04:00

I think the job interview went well. They seemed to like me. It's just a lateral transfer, but one that I hope will have more opportunities for promotion down the road.

Anyway, more good news: I have another interview for a different job on Monday.

Hopefully, something will come of it.

I surrender

2006-09-05T23:55:00.000-04:00

Fine. I give up. Against the unrelenting barrage, I hearby surrender and I resign from the reality based community. It's just too hard to argue facts and reality in the face of unrelenting belief.

It's just easier.

I want to believe that the WMD were found in Iraq, even though the Pentagon says they weren't.

I want to believe that reality TV isn't staged, even when it obviously is.

I want to believe that Wolverine is the coolest comic book character in the universe, even though he's nothing but a homicidal maniac.

I want to believe intelligent design because I'm told it's better than believing we're descended from monkeys, even though that isn't what the theory of evolution says.

I want to believe that Rick Santorum really does live in Pennsylvania, despite his own admission that his spends about a month total here.

I want to believe these things. But I can't. Because I can't shut my brain off long enough.

Good night, America. I have a job interview tomorrow.

Thursday blues

2006-09-01T01:13:00.000-04:00

Losing too much sleep lately. Barely making it through the day. Can't fall asleep at night. Can't stay awake during the day. It's playing havok with the writing.

Scifi announced this week that Stargate:SG-1 has been cancelled. Bummer, but ten years is a good run for any show to be proud of.

This is interesting. Bush and Rummy want to take more control over the national guard from governors during natural disasters. Bet they'll still blame the governors when the next hurricane hits.

Who wants to be a trainwreck?

2006-08-11T10:49:00.000-04:00

I don't get reality TV. I think it's the stupidest thing ever created in the entertainment industry since someone made the mistake of giving Tom Cruise his first screen test.

However, as a comics fan, I decided, what the hell, I'd give Stan Lee's 'Who Wants to be A Superhero?' a shot. Like many reality TV shows, the premise revolves taking a diverse group of people, put them together in a house and then publicly humiliate them with demeaning challenges, after which, one person gets eliminated. The twist here is that everyone has adopted a superhero identity and the challenges are designed to test their commitment to, well I'm not sure exactly what their commitment is, maybe to self-delusion. Or the how badly they need to be committed.

After three episodes, half of the originals have been told to "turn in your costume" by Stan Lee. The winner apparently will get a one shot comic written Stan Lee about their character and a made for TV movie to air on Sci-Fi's Channel's SF Saturday night. So, the whole premise of the show is to help the Sci-Fi Channel develop another low-budget cheesefest. I'm already betting that the eventual winner will be Major Victory, since he seems to be the most deluded of the bunch. I'm not sure at this point which is creepier, Major Victory's vamping around the set or see Stan Lee make godlike pronouncements over closed circuit TV.

The show does illustrate how disconnected Mr. Lee is from the company he helped create and the current comics industry in general. Stan repeatedly lectures one failed contestant how "superheroes don't kill people, they help people." I guess that's why Marvel puts a homicidal maniac like Wolverine in every one of its team books these days. Another point he makes is that superheroes never give up their secret identities. One of the examples he uses is Spider-man, who just publicly unmasked himself as Peter Parker in Marvel's big "Civil War" crossover event.

But the basic flaw of the show are the challenges. Since they acknowledge that they can't actually test the contestants on the superpowers that their character allegedly possesses, the test are designed to test issues of moral integrity: courage, honesty, commitment, etc. The problem is, the people Stan Lee is testing are reality TV show contestants. And testing people on reality TV for integrity is like giving Stevie Wonder an eye test. It's totally worthless. It's not surprising that most of them consistently fail the tests.

Useful Idiots

2006-08-10T10:23:00.000-04:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Too much to do around the house, teaching three nights a week, and working the crappy day job. I made the mistake of watching the taking heads last night lament over the Lieberman getting the boot in the CT primary. You know the voters are on the right track when both the conservative and the liberal pundits are bemoaning the election results.

The communists in the old Soviet Union used to call American communists "useful idiots" - deriding them as naive idealists but at the same time, happy to make use of them for propaganda purposes. Today, Joe's biggest mistake was in allowing himself to become a "useful idiot" for the republicans. His sycophantic behavior on shows like Hannity and Colmes coupled with his willingness to attack his fellow democrats was his undoing. Many conservatives in the blogosphere have been making much about his liberal voting record, but in politics, perception is reality, and the preception of Lieberman was that he was Bush's lapdog.

On the other hand, Joe has also developed a severe case of incumbantitis. The symptons include disconnect from one's constituents and feeling of entitlement that manifests as annoyance at the very idea of having to actually campaign among the great unwashed in order to keep one's position.

So, the republicans are lamenting the loss of their favorite useful idiot, while establishment democrats are unhappy because if an 18-year vetaran of the Senate and former VP nominee can lose in a primary, anyone can. The talking heads will debate for the next week whether this is good news for the dems or the GOP, ignoring that it's actually just bad news for the incumbant class in general. People are fed up with politics as usual and want a new breed of leader. No more politicians. No more useful idiots.

We need some actual statesmen (and women) for a change.

Tasteless Protest

2006-07-11T00:48:00.000-04:00

I usually take a walk around the state capital during my lunch break. Today, I saw something that almost killed my appetite: Three large moving vans with aborted fetuses circling the capital building.

Ick.

Now, whatever you think about the abortion issue, there are some things that are just tasteless., so this blog is directed at the contingent of the pro-life movement that thinks parading pictures of aborted fetuses are a good idea for demonstrations. Such tactics serve no purpose in converting people to your side of the issue and only offends people. Don't tell me that the shock value is intended to make people think about why abortion is legal. It doesn't do that. It only makes people sick and turns them against you.

The people who run those truth.com anti-smoking ads try to use idiotic performance art to achieve the same ends. So do many of the anti-fur groups. Here's a clue: throwing blood on people or coverting around in a rat suit doesn't advance you're agenda. It just makes you look like an idiot.

And so does driving around in a truck painted with aborted fetuses.

The one group of protesters I do like are the animal rights activists that come to Harrisburg every spring to protest the Ringling Brothers Circus. The usually feature a topless girl in a cage in full body paint. This year, she was a tiger. That's what will get me to support your cause: Topless women. We need more of that.

Pro-lifers, paint topless women on your trucks and I promise to never have an abortion as long as I live. Truth.com, have topless women had out your "gotcha memos" about the tobacco industires practices from 20 years ago, and I will pledge to never take up smoking.

See how easy I am to convince?

Happy Birthday to Me

2006-07-06T23:38:00.000-04:00

Yep, today (7/6) is my birthday. I spent most of it visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital as she recovers from knee replacement surgery. So, think good thoughts for her, please.

I'm feeling very philosophical about turning a year older. My writing is going better than ever and I still have my health. I have a great wife and some good friends. So, life is going good for this Writer at Large.

And yes, the podcast is still coming!

Spoke too soon

2006-06-26T23:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I didn't get the podcast up this weekend. I had a full podcast recorded and Audacity crashed the f*&ker! Starting over sucks, but it's all a learning experience. I'll have it started up this next weekend.

And this time I mean it.

Rolling on

2006-06-23T00:25:00.000-04:00

The podcast is going up this weekend! All technical and health problems are resolved and it's time to record. I just need to setup the libsyn acount and we're good to go.

In other news, I finally sent the first of ten query letters to an agent for my novel, Postmodern Prometheus. The novel is done and is under review by an editor, but I need representation to help sell it. The plan is to send a query to ten agents and see if anyone bites. If no one bites, then I'll send ten more queries.

I've got a few other writing projects that I'm not ready to discuss, but I have a few opportunities that I hope to get working very soon.

Bummer Day

2006-06-22T00:44:00.000-04:00

I didn't have a very productive day. I got all of a paragraph done on my latest story. I hate days like this. It wasn't writer's block so much as mild attention deficit. I was easily distracted and found myself surfing the political blogs.

Which is always a great place to see the decline of American political discouse. Political blogs are where anyone to the left of Ann Coulter is a socialist who hates America and anyone who doesn't think that Bush is the worst president ever is a fascist.

Sigh.

Well, there's always tomorrow.

2006-06-20T10:54:00.000-04:00

Oh. My. God.

I never watched this show, but when I came across this video, I just had to share it. Truth is, I can't stand either Maury or Connie.

I've always found Connie Chung rather irritating as a newreader, but I never imagined her singing could be this awful.

This is just one of those things you have to file under "what the hell were they thinking?" I have no idea what key she's singing in. I don't think she does either. But her really loud grunt as she slides off the piano is just hilarious.

Cheese Book

2006-06-18T01:30:00.000-04:00

Confession time: I don't speak Spanish, so when I first saw the ads for the new Jack Black vehicle, Nacho Libre, my best guess based on the few Spanish words I did know and my rudimentary knowledge of Latin roots, was that the title meant "Cheese Book." A friend who knew better let me know that Libre is a name for Mexican masked wrestlers and Nacho is the name of Black's character.

The movie debute this past week and the reviews are almost universally bad. Some have even gone as far as calling the movie racist in its portrayal of Mexcians. And that made me wonder about how movies are actually pitched in Hollyweird. Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler? Was there actually even one person who heard this pitch and thought this was a good idea? Was their a producer somewhere with millions of dollars just lying around and nothing to spend it on? Just watching the trailers for this movie made me wished he'd spent it on a new boob job for his trophy wife.

I felt the same way when Monkey Bone came out. When movies like this are being shot, do you think that the cast and crew are aware that they're making a bomb or are they actually thinking that this is going to be great?

How can you make a piece of garbage like this and not realize it?

Sickness

2006-06-14T23:44:00.000-04:00

I've been sick for the past several days with a vicious sinus infection and that's put the podcast project on hold. Sucks.

I think there's a conspiracy with the cable stations to motivate people to go to work even when they're sick. My basic cable package (yeah, I'm too cheap to spring for the premium package) has over 70 channels but the only thing on TV during the day is soaps, Jerry Springer, and Law and Order.

Actually, the various incarnations of Law and Order are pretty much on 24/7 these days. So I've watched a lot of L&O these past few days. There's something comforting about hearing that "dong dong" in between scenes. You know no matter how messed up these cases get, everything will be resolved in an hour. Not like reality, in which a special prosecutor can tie things up for two years and then announce, "Hey, we know something sleezy happened here, but we're not going to indict Karl Rove after all."

Sheesh.

Anyway, as much as a sinus infection really sucks, I guess I'm better off today than Ben Roethlesberger. Big Ben takes a spill on his motorcycle and breaks his jaw and fractures his skull. I find it ironic that a guy who wears a helmet in his job doesn't think he needs to wear one when he rides a motorcycle. I mean, isn't his main responsibility during the spring months staying healthy?

Of course, the real irony was the thousand or so cyclists who held a rally just the other week to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the repeal of Pennsylvania's mandatory helmet law. The reasoning behind the repeal still escapes me. We're in the middle of this national "click it or ticket" campaign telling drivers that you'll get two fines if you're pulled over and you're not wearing your seat belt. But motorcycle riders don't have to worry about any safety precautions. What makes their "personal liberty" more sacred than mine if that's what the repeal is all about?

Of course, the sensible thing to do when driving is wearing your seatbelt, law or no law. And the sensible thing when riding your motorcycle is wearing a helmet. The one thing you can't legislate is the common sense to realize this. Big Ben has already gotten heat for his "role model" status. Maybe this lessen will teach him that his moral responsibility, whether he likes it or not, extends beyond his own skull. Kids do imitate their heroes.

Maybe they shouldn't but they do. Big Ben, wear the helmet.

Podcasting Update

2006-06-06T00:54:00.000-04:00

I recorded my first podcast! Once the editing is done, I'll have it ready for downloading soon, very soon.

Balticon III and podcasting

2006-06-01T00:58:00.000-04:00

The highlight of Balticon was giving my reading of my fiction. I figures Jeff, Eric, Becky, and one or two other people I knew would show up, but not only I have about ten people listening to me, but they recorded me for the con's podcast.

Balticon had about six panels in their podcasting track and I managed to get to most of them. I learned tons from the experienced podcasters, so it's time to announce my own jump into podcasting. I'm planning on putting the first cast up with weekend!

The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson

2006-05-31T22:55:00.000-04:00

Paul Levinson takes a departure from his Phil D'Amato series with his newest book, The Plot to Save Socrates. It's 2042 and Sierra Waters is working on her graduate thesis on the development of the ancient Greek language when one of thesis advisors gives her a copy of what appears to be a lost Socratic dialogue. The dialogue appears to describe a discussion between Socrates and a mysterious visitor just before the philosopher is forced to drink the hemlock. The visitor appears to offer, using words that a person of 400 BC might understand, to take Socrates forward in time and leave a clone behind to die in his place.

Was this dialogue truly written by Plato or is it a clever forgery. Sierra isn't sure, but her advisor mysteriously disappears, leading into a secret society of time travelers. Who is truly behind the plot to save Socrates and what is his true motive? Is it even possible to save him? And, more importantly, does he even want to be saved?

The book is told in a nonlinear fashion that jumps forward and backward in time and from the perspective of character to character in each chapter. Some fans may find this a little confusing to follow, but Dr. Levinson manages to keep things fairly tight. He's also done his research on the period and the subjects. At 266 pages, the book is a short by modern SF standards, but the author crams a lot of information in those pages.

I found The Plot to Save Socrates very satisfying, not too long or pretentious, but also respectful of its subject matter. It neither insults the reader's intelligence nor tries to be above them.

Highly recommended.

Balticon II

2006-05-28T23:05:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty wiped. It's the end of day three of Balticon and I'm having a great time.

Most cons, I tend to focus on the small press authors because I can pick up books that usually can't buy at the local Borders or B&N. Sci-Fi and fantasy authors are some of the most accessible writers in the business and the small press authors are even more so. Having gone to Balticon for a few years now, I've gotten to know many of the small press authors fairly well and the best part is just having a chance to just chat them up live on what's going on in their careers.

I have to give special notice to Danielle Ackley-McPhail, who just relaunched her novel, Yesterday's Dreamers this month. Dani, who was also the editor of the anothology, No Longer Dreams, had a great launch party despite the lousy AC that made the room sweltering.

A lot of podcasters came to Balticon this year and I managed to get to several of the podcasting panels. I picked up a lot of tips this weekend as I prepare to start up my own podcast.

My own reading went well. I real my satirical story, Election 2040 and the con's podcaster recorded it, so maybe I'll end in the official Balticon podcast.

More to come after tomorrow's panels.

Balticon

2006-05-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

I'll be at Balticon this weekend. Hopefully, I'll post some thoughts about my experiences there.

I'm told that I'm a fascist

2006-04-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

I believe in being honest and direct in giving my opinions. People should never ask me what I think about something because they will find out. For some reason, in the online world of fan discussion, that translates into being cruel and close minded, especially when it comes to expressing an opinion that deviates from what the herd feels is acceptable.

Now, I'm not talking about opinions regarding the war in Iraq, racism, homophobia, religion, or anything else that normal people might be expected to feel passionate about. I'm talking about people who freak out when they find out that I don't like their favorite movie, TV show, or comic book.

A few months ago, on Peter David's blog, I mentioned that I don't like American Idol. In fact, I hate the whole concept of reality to TV. I don't see the entertainment value in public humiliation or in watching shallow yuppies debase themselves for a chance to work for Donald Trump. Personally, I'd go through 15 weeks of public humiliation to not work for Trump. But for some reason, saying you don't like American Idol is more offensive to some people than a picture of Mohammad with a bomb for a turbin. One individual even compared me to the people who tried to get movies like the Last Temptation of Christ or Dogma banned.

But at least that guy apologized when I pointed out that I've never done anything to try and keep other people from watching American Idol if they choose to. All I had said was that I had no desire to watch it. I personally don't care what other people watch, with the lone exception of Tom Cruise movies, but that's because, as I noted before, he's tried to censor what other people can watch.

But when it comes to insanity, apparently, no one can top comics fans. And here is where I have committed the ultimate blasphemy:

I don't like Wolverine.

There I said it. It's out in the open. Among comics fans, it seems like the one thing you can't admit to is not liking the star of every frickin' X-book ever made. But I find nothing heroic about a character that guts anyone who looks at him funny. And it's not just the villains, over the years, he has sliced up people who are supposed to be his friends (Rachel Summers, The Thing, Spider-man), for no other apparent reason than one creator or another thought it was the badass thing to do.

I was especially offended by last month's Astonishing X-men #13, where Wolverine, after beating up a bunch of children in the dark, ends the fight with an attempt to stab a 13-year old girl in the eys. I have a niece about the same age as that girl, and the thought that Joss Whedon included that scene because he thought it looked badass or "kewl" sickens me.

But expressing a negative opinion about Wolverine is apparently forbidden in the world of fan message boards and email discussion groups. Once, I had simply stated that I had no interest in reading any of the X-books, I was immediately assailed by people who insisted that Astonishing X-men was the greatest work of literature in the history of the written word and that if I didn't read it, I was a nazi and a fascist who wants to burn books and rip comics out of the hands of children. I'm not exaggerating. That is exactly how some people presented it: I don't read Astonishing X-men, therefore, I'm a nazi.

After about a month of getting hit with this barraged and not wanting to continue making baby Jesus cry, I took them up on their challenge to read Astonishing X-men, promising to give it a fair review. And the result was: a comic about a Canadian hairball trying to stab a small Japanese girl in eyes.

In the dark.

And he's the hero of the book. The character than every comic fan (except me, apparently) loves. Marvel's cash cow whom Bryan Michael Bendis brought into the Avengers in order to boost sales of that book.

And I'm the one whose opinions are offensive.

I just don't get it.

Dirty Zacarius?

2006-04-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that Zacarius Mousaoui actually used the words "make my day" during his testimony yesterday. He also expressed glee over the deaths on 9/11 and mocked those who lost loved ones.

You know what? For a guy who hasn't actually managed to kill any infidels, he talks pretty tough. On the one hand, he's practically begging the jury to give him the death penalty. But then again, he also claims that Bush is going to swap him for hostages in the Middle East. It's easy to talk tough in the courtroom, but so far, his talk about wanting to kill as many Americans has been just talk. He said he wanted to pilot a fifth plane, but didn't. He said he'd participate in another attack "today" if given the chance. But the evidence that he was actually an active part of the planning for 9/11 is pretty thin. In fact, it appears he's likely getting the death penalty simply for lying about what he knew.

This is purely speculation on my part, but reading between the lines, it looks like Zac is nothing but a poser. A man with big talk and big dreams; a hanger-on that the real terrorists knew couldn't be counted on. Reading his testimony, it seems like he's trying hard to puff himself up and make himself look bigger and more important than he is.

Zacarius Mousaoui is a despicable man, but he's clearly a small fish in the world of terrorism. The idea that he was the fabled 20th hijacker has long been forgotten. The shame is, this trial has given him the validation this little man had been praying for. Whether he's ultimately executed or not, we've already made him a martyr in his own mind.

With Bush having given up on catching bin Laden, it's a shame that we're reduced to getting our pound of flesh from this little man.

Boycott Mission Impossible: 3

2006-04-04T11:21:00.000-04:00

Tom Cruise is the single most overrated actor on the planet and in the history of acting going all the way back to the time of Sophocles. To top it if off, he is an arrogant, egotistical twit who thinks he's the most brilliant human being alive. Now, most actors are pretty stupid people. Five seconds of listening to them say anything that someone else didn't write for them will confirm that, but Cruise is in a league of stupidity all his own.

First of all, he's a scientologist, which is proof enough that he is so stupid that he shouldn't be allowed to handle sharp objects unsupervised. Scientology is a religion that was invented as a bar bet between L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein as to who could make the most money off of religion. (Heinlein lost because he didn't think big enough - all he could come up with was to retell the story of Jesus as a cannablistic hippy raised on Mars) Anyone who buys into that crap about Xenu and the frozen alien souls being tossed into a volcanoe is a freaking moron. Newsflash: Hubbard was a science FICTION writer! And he wasn't even a good one. Is there any surprise that the theology he came up with looks like a bad science fiction plot?

Second there is the case of Cruise's raging ego. What kind of an arrogant asshole takes an ensemble TV show and makes it in a movie and then in the first ten minutes, kills off the entire ensemble except his own character? Anyone doubt that when he was producing this film, his instructions to the writers were: "I want every scene to feature me! It's all about me! Me! Me! Me!"? I remember watching the trailer for that movie and noticing that every scene in it feature Cruise. It was like he was the only actor in the movie.

Third, there is the simple fact that he cannot act. I am so sick of his wooden, fake sensitive routine that he plays in every movie. "You complete me. blah blah blah" F--K you, Cruise! You play the same damn character in every movie. There isn't an Imax theater big enough to contain your ego.

Fourth, how can anyone buy his "crazy in love" routine. That he's gay is just about worst kept secret in Hollyweird. (Note to John Travolta and Mathew Broderick: You guys aren't fooling anyone either). Now, I personally couldn't care less who is gay and who isn't, but I detest hypocrisy and every time I see him that clip of him jumping up and down on Oprah's couch I want to vomit.

Fifth, there's his idiotic interview with Matt Lauer last year where he attacked Brooke Shields. "I know the history of psychiatry." Really, Cruise? How about you give us a detailed comparison of Freudian vs. Jungian theory? Can you explain the difference between an anxiety disorder and a psychosis? How about defining cognitive therapy for us? The only thing you know about psychiatry is what you read in a scientology pamphlet. Hell, you probable get confused reading the instructions on a stop sign.

Finally, there's the report of him using behind the scenes manipulation to get an episode of South Park pulled from the schedule at Comedy Central because it made fun of him. That's the last straw for me. Anyone who forces a network to censor its programming is scum to me. I will never again watch a Tom Cruise movie. In fact, I will actively encourage others to boycott MI:3. Since he seems to feel that he has the right to tell others what they can watch, I think it's only fair that I at least try to persuade others not to watch his garbage. Spending money on one of his movies is the same as giving it to scientology anyway. F--k him. F--k scientology. And F--k Katie Holmes while we're at it for agreeing to get knocked up just to lend credibility to the myth that they're dating.

Way to go, Drew! Screw your client over!

2006-03-20T00:20:00.000-05:00

So, T. O.'s new deal is $25 million over three years at Dallas. This after getting his ass kicked off the Eagles. This whole drama began when Drew Rosenhaus convinced T.O. that he could get him a better deal than the $48 million deal over seven years.

So, what's Rosenhaus' selling point? "Sign with me and you'll make less money, but you'll get it in less time"?

Great. What a dickweed. I'll be amazed if T. O. lasts a full season at Dallas before he pisses everyone off there, too. Not that I'll complain, because that'll just just make every tackle he gets from an Eagle all the more sweeter this year.

F.U.T.O.! I love this site. Buy a T-shirt and have a great laugh.

A Manchurian Thought

2006-03-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

The case to give Moussaoui the death penalty has tanked due to misconduct on the part of the prosecution. Am I paranoid in thinking that the feds took a dive on this one just so that later Bush can say that using the criminal justice system to fight terroristists doesn't work and therefore, black prisons are the only way to go?

Book Review 3-12-06

2006-03-13T00:09:00.000-05:00

This month is sequel-heavy. Sequel novels can be troublesome. Often, writers find themselves pressured by fans and publishers to follow up a successful novel with an follow-up, even if the author may not have anything new to say about the characters or setting. When does an author know when it's time to stop going back to the well? Or can a good writer take the same characters and/or setting a breathe new life into them by taking a different slant on it?

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Not really a sequel, this book is what Mr. Card calls a "parallax" novel. Taking place roughly at the same time as Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow follows the life of Bean, one of Ender's classmates and lieutenants. Following Bean's early days as he uses his genius to organize child-gangs on the streets of Rotterdam to becoming a team leader in the battle school.

Generally, I like Card's approach to story telling and description, but I have an issue with the way he often portrays children. Which is a shame given his fondness for writing novels from the point of view of a children. But, Card's children often act less like actual children, but small adults. In Bean, Card gives us a genetically modified genius and kid who is mature beyond his years. While that may explain some of Bean's precociousness, at just six years old, he would still be lacking in real world experiences. Card doesn't adequately balance the genius side with the naviete of a real six-year old. Also, the other kids, while slightly other, also seem mature and worldly beyond their years.

My other complaint is that Ender's Shadow lacks the moral outrage over the kind of society that would use children as weapons of genocide. Perhaps Card feels that he covered that ground in Ender's Game, but it should be better portrayed in this book.

Overall, it's a good yarn and it has already be followed by three sequels, so I guess Card has had enough story to tell on this. I'll give it a B.

The Dark Ascent by Walter H. Hunt

The third book in what is so far a four book series, The Dark Ascent details Hunt's vision of humanity unified in a single interstellar empire. In the first book of the series, The Dark Wing, humanity finds itself at war with an alien species known as the Zor. On the surface, the series of conflicts with the Zor have gone well for humanity. After each conflict, more star systems fall under control of the Earth Empire and the Zor continue to retreat backwards even though they instigate every new round of fighting. The politicians on Earth are content with each negotiated peace, believing to be the last. One admiral, Marais, however, has decided that the endless rounds of war and peace cannot continue and determines to put an end to the Zor threat once and for all. Even if it means going against the emperor and exterminating the Zor altogether.

From the Zor's point of view, they believe that humans are agents of an enemy and that Marais is the prophesized destroyer of worlds, the dark wing. Imagine if our society were attacked by the antichrist from the Book of Revelations. In the end, Marais has to find a third way an convince the Zor that he is not their angel of death and hold his own original plan to destroy the Zor.

The two books that follow, The Dark Path and The Dark Ascent, take place nearly a century later. I would strongly recommend reading the books in order as they follow each other closely. In the sequels, humans and Zor are now allies and a new alien menace has emerged: a telepathetic and shapchanging species known as the Vuhl. Are these the long-predicted enemy that will bring destruction to the galaxy as predicted by Zor religion? And will Jackie Laperriere, the protagonist of books two and three be the mythological hero? The Zor certainly believe so. But they've already been wrong once.

Hunt spins a thrilling military SF novel. In my opinion, he's one of the best writers in this sub-genre today and I highly recommend picking these books up.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

This book is a sequel to Gaiman's American Gods, but you don't really need to have read it to enjoy this book.

Fat Charlie Nancy is a very timid man. Shy and easily embarrassed, Fat Charlie (He's not really fat, but his father stuck him with that nickname years ago) works a tedious job as he and his financee, Rosie, plan their marriage. Rosie convinces Fat Charlie to invite his father to the wedding, but when he calls his father in Florida, he learns that his father has recently died. Flying out to the funeral, he soon learns that was the least strange thing going on. His father was a god, Anansi, the trickster spider and that Fat Charlie had a brother named Spider.

On a whim, he invites his brother to visit him in England and quickly comes to regret it. Soon, Spider gets Fat Charlie investigated by the police for embezzlement and makes a play for Rosie. But it's when Fat Charlie tries to get rid of his brother that things really go south.

I loved this book. It's full of the absurdest British humor in the vein of Douglas Adams and Monty Python. Pick it up and enjoy the ride.

Deju violet

2006-03-07T00:57:00.000-05:00

Watching the previews for Ultraviolet, am I the only person who thinks this movie was thrown together out of leftover footage from Aeon Flux?

Happy Fasnaught Day

2006-02-28T23:27:00.000-05:00

To much of the world, the day before Ash Wednesday is known as Mardi Gras as a result of the famous celebration in New Orleans. This year, all of the news programs have devoted considerable airtime to stories about how residents of Nawleans have struggled to rebuild in the wake of Katrina. From the few I watched, most seemed to try to find the upbeat as the city has vowed to show the world that this Mardi Gras will be the best ever.

But, in Central Pennsylvania, this day is known as Fasnaught Day. Instead of a parade of drunken dabauchery, the Pennsylvania Dutch prepare for the coming of the austerity of Lent by making fasnaughts, which are small round pastries with a hole in the center.

Yep, while people in New Orleans are having a wild party, we Penn Dutchies celebrate by making donuts.

Whoopee.

Glad I'm on a diet this year.

Swann Dive

2006-02-26T01:06:00.000-05:00

I don’t want to make this blog all about politics, but I have to put my thoughts down about the upcoming Pennsylvania Gubernatorial election. As it stands right now, the state Republican Party has thrown its support behind former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann, forcing out of the race the other contenders, including former Lt. Governor Bill Scranton. Allegedly, their hope was to avoid a costly primary battle and focus their resources on unseating Governor Ed Rendell. The reality is, as I see it, they’ve now virtually guaranteed a second term for Rendell.

Swann, a complete political novice, has never run for office, but the state GOP seems to feel that a celebrity candidate worked in California and Minnesota, so why not PA? Well, first of all, a football player is probably not the best choice. Pennsylvania has two NFL teams, and while the Steelers may have finally gotten that “one for the thumb,” Swann hasn’t donned the black and gold for decades now. And, sorry Steelers fans, but the Philly region is more heavily populated metro area in Pennsylvania. For every Steelers fan who might be tempted to vote for Swann just ‘cause he used to catch passes from Terry Bradshaw, there’s probably two bitter Eagles fans who will now vote against him because our team choked last year. Not did we lose, but we had to put up with T.O.’s crap, so if you think you’re going to get a ring and a governor in the same year, think again.

The other problem is Swann himself. Take a look at his campaign website. It’s full of the usual platitudes about how he loves his family and his community, but it’s completely devoid of any real substantive ideas. Or perhaps that best. Polls put Rendell and Swann in a statistical dead heat until Swann made his appearance on This Week with George Stephannopolis. Then the governor surged ahead by 12 points. Maybe it’s best that Swann avoids the issues and just continues to talk about football.

It’s a shame. With all that’s happened in this past year, the people of Pennsylvania deserve a real and honest race. Instead, we’ve got an incumbent and an empty suit.

No, I'm not watching it either

2006-02-19T21:51:00.000-05:00

So, anyone watching the Olympics?

Nah, me neither.

I've realized that I absolutely don't care about the Olympics in general, but the Winter Games inspire a whole new level of apathy.

It's not just that the whole thing is just a hypocritical orgy of nationalistic cheering that masquerades as promoting international understanding.

It's that the sports in the Winter Games suck. I wouldn't even call most of them sports.

Seriously, figuring skating? That's dancing on ice. Not a sport. Unless someone is getting hit in the kneecap with a pipe, I don't care.

The half-pipe? What the hell is that anyway? Any activity that allows you to listen on your Ipod while you do it is not a sport. And looking at the participants, I'd say that "half-pipe" sounds like something they're smoking, not riding on.

The luge? It just seems childish to watch a guy slide down on his back. Skeleton? Same thing, only on his stomach.

Speedskating? Okay, that's basically a foot race on ice. I'll give you that one's a sport. But do they have to wear full body condoms?

The only legitimate sport in the Winter Games is hockey and, let's be honest, even with the NFL players, the US team usually sucks. And do they have to recycle the "miracle on ice" angle every year? Okay, we get it, it was the cold war, and we beat the Ruskies at hockey. It was great when it happened, but that was 26 years ago!

But curling? I'm sorry, but there's now way you can make sweeping look athletic.

While on the subject. Soccer is not a sport. Soccer is the downfall of civilization. Whereve soccer is played, riots occur. Soccer is the only "sport" that is documented to have caused a war in Latin America. I'm sure the end game in the 6th century when two gladiators started kicking an inflated pig's bladder back and forth.

Pro-wrestling is not a sport. It's not just that fake. It's the fact that it's the stupidest thing on the planet.

Golf is not a sport. If you need a servant to carry your equipment, it's not a sport.

Wake me the games are over.

What I pulled off the shelf in 2/06

2006-02-15T00:22:00.000-05:00

Ilium by Dan Simmons

This is the first of a new series by the author the Hyperion series. Far in the future, the Trojan War isplayed out on the plains of Mars in the shadow ofOlympos Mons. Thomas Hockenberry is a 21st century professor who is one of several scholars brought fromthe dead by the Olympian gods to observe and recordthe war. Meanwhile, a number of sentient machines from the Jovian satellites embark on a mission of their ownand a group of humans from Earth embark on a missionto find the post humans. Are these the "real" Olympian gods? And, if so, whyare they recreating the events of the Iliad on Mars? Where did the post-humans go? And what will happen when some of the principals decide to go "off script"and take the war in a direction that Homer never imagined?

Some of those questions are answered in this volume. Others appear to be saved for the sequel, Olympos,which is already out in hardback. Fans of Simmons' Hyperion novels will enjoy this. Like that series, Ilium touches on role of artificial intelligence inour society and bringing people back from the dead. Also like the Hyperion books, it's peppered with numerous literally references. This is a fast-paced adventure story with complex, often conflicted characterizations. I'd highly recommend to anyone.

Signal to Noise

This 1998 book by Eric Nylund has been sitting on myshelf for quite some time, so I decided to finallypick it up. Jack Potter is an expert on computer cryptography innear-future world defined by paranoina and cutthroatcompetition. Just as Jack and his friends are settingup their own business, Jack is contacted by an alienbeing who is willing to trade some advanced knowledgewith Jack.

Soon, Jack's business is producing a virus that notonly cures cancer, but seems to make people smarter. But Jack soon finds himself caught in a struggle notonly with various governments on Earth, but also withhis own friends and business. He even realizes that this alien trading partner isn't what he thought itwas.

Is there anyone Jack can trust?

This is a dark dystopian look at the future and is not for those who like the happy uptopian futures of theGene Roddenberry mold. Still, it's a tightly wovenplot involving difficult moral choices. Jack wants todo the right thing, but often finds himself forced tomake compromising choices in order to survive. Few novels pull off a character like this and make him still be sympathetic to the reader the way that this one does.

War of the Gods

This one of the last novels published by the late Poul Anderson. Based on the legend of the Danish King Hadding, Anderson draws heavily on Norse mythology topaint a vivid picture of life in the iron age. Focusing on the story of the ware between the Aesirand the Vanir, Anderson writes in a style the evokesmany epic tales of the past. Hadding is the son of the king, but was raised by the giants. The book follows his rise to power and his struggles to maintain peace in a violent world. The style is similar to some of Anderson's earlier"historical fantasies" such as The Broken Sword and The King of Ys. If you like your fantasy with a touchof realism and historical accuracy, then this is agood book. Anderson was one of my favorite writers and reading this was a bittersweet experience for me as it marks the end of a prolific career of one of the last great Grandmasters of his generation.

The Burning Heart of Night

Imagine a world plagued by a deadly disease caused bya parasite. The only way to control the disease is toslaughter members of another sentient species in orderto harvest their natural resistance to the parasite. Could you do it? That's the premise of this 2002 Ivan Cat novel. On a colony founded by members of a puritanical religioussect, the colonists have enslaved the Khafra, the native species of the planet New Ascension. The Khafra serve as both slaves and as a source protection from the disease. But Jenette Tesla, the daughter of thecolony's leader, hopes to find another way to save her colony and end the sacrifice of the Khafra.

Throwing a monkey wrench into this colony, is Lindal Karr, pilot of the colny ship that has crashed onto New Ascension. Jenette hopes that the supply of"fugue", a strange material that slows down time, on the ship could be the key to ending the suffering ofthe Khafra. But will the other colonists and the feral Khafra (those that have resisted enslavement) let them? A deep exploration of how disease and crises can affect social mores and the lengths people will go to in order to survive, this novel, like Signal to Noise,is not for those that like their futures bright and shiny. I would have liked a more deeper explanation on how the fugue works or the culture that produced Karr's unique training. It is, however, a solid science fiction story that challenges the reader to hope for the survival of a people who may not even deserve it.