• Literacy 2008: Book 2: Old Man’s War


    Book Old Man’s War by John Scalzi Recommended by Wil Wheaton, plus dozens of commenters on half the blogs I read (including John Scalzi’s own blog). Disclaimer I have read very little science fiction (Douglas Adams and Star Wars novelizations don’t count). I’ve read none of Robert Heinlein, who is mentioned in almost every review…

  • Earnest Goes to Dublin


    The way I see it, there’s two different groups of people who wouldn’t be completely bowled over by the movie Once: Musicians living in Dublin, who wouldn’t see what the big deal is, and Unholy creatures cursed to walk the earth for eternity after having their souls ripped from their rotting corpses. I’d been hearing…

  • Literacy 2008: Book 1: The Road


    Book The Road by Cormac McCarthy Selling Points Oprah liked it! (And it won a Pulitzer Prize, too.) But look! Oprah! Disclaimer I tried to be open-minded and objective while I was reading this book, but I was definitely prejudiced against it from the start, because of all the hype and because of how much…

  • Suspenders of the Lost Disbelief


    Last night I went to see Cloverfield again. Surprisingly, it’s still as good the second time, and I highly recommend seeing it in Digital Projection if possible, because the clear picture and better sound system make it awesome. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in all the backstory and alternate-reality game stuff surrounding Cloverfield, there’s a wiki…

  • Candid Gamera


    I hope nobody else has used that title to talk about Cloverfield, because I’m inordinately proud of it. This movie is definitely one that benefits from knowing as little as possible about it going in, so if you’re interested in it, I recommend seeing it soon and avoiding trailers and reviews. I’ll just say that…

  • Virtual Orgasmic Grilling


    [Note: Links in this post are broken as of 2016, but they pointed to a pair of predictably overblown complaints about the moral depravity of Mass Effect, by a pundit named Kevin McCullough. Also, images for a lot of posts were lost during a site move, which is a shame because my Mass Effect character…

  • Stop scanning me, Steve!


    I’m not going to the MacWorld this year, which turns out to be okay because I woke up this morning and discovered I was already there! By which I mean: either I’ve become the prime example of the Mac demographic, or the company is aiming its (no doubt slim and flawlessly designed) mind-scanning ray gun…