The top fifteen reasons people checked out allyngibson.com in the month of December. 15. “John Lennon atheist.” I wouldn’t call Lennon an atheist, per se, but he certainly had his issues with organized religion. Witness this quote–“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I am right, and have been proven right. We’re bigger thanContinue reading “December’s Greatest Hits”
Monthly Archives: December 2004
Warlords of Utopia
Tuesday I finished Lance Parkin’s Warlords of Utopia, his Faction Paradox novel that recounts the trans-temporal war between the timelines where Rome never fell and the timelines where Germany won the Second World War. Warlords is not a conventional novel. Rather, the book feels like a memoir. The narrator, Marcus Americanus Scriptor, states at theContinue reading “Warlords of Utopia”
Reading Thoughts
I stopped by Barnes & Noble tonight and bought two books. One, The Penultimate Truth, a Philip K. Dick novel. The other, The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby’s new book about, well, buying and reading books. Hornby writes on page 14, “I don’t want anyone writing in to point out that I spend too much moneyContinue reading “Reading Thoughts”
Christmas Eve
Business was quiet, but a busy quiet. No mobs swarmed upon the store. Instead, customers were patient, orderly. Traffic was never overwhelming, but in the final analysis sales were solid, better than I anticipated. As with every Christmas Eve traffic fell off in the afternoon as people left to travel, to wrap, to cook–the pauseContinue reading “Christmas Eve”
Narnia
Curiously, apropos of nothing, this came up at work today, in what order should C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books be read? I said, “Publication order–The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes first.” My coworker took a different view–in her boxed set The Magician’s Nephew comes first. Oh, the pain! Some may find it curious that,Continue reading “Narnia”
Taking a Stand
Tomorrow I will be cancelling my subscription to Time. Effective immediately, I will no longer use AOL Instant Messenger. (Friends shouldn’t let friends use AOL anyway, but that’s a story for another time.) It’s a good thing I bought the Return of the King Special Edition last week–tomorrow I would not have. Why? Because TimeContinue reading “Taking a Stand”
Talking Books
Two more books came by mail this weekend. The first, from the Science Fiction Book Club—The Bloody Crown of Conan, the second volume in Del Rey’s new collection of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories. The second, from Mad Norwegian Press—Warlords of Utopia, Lance Parkin’s contribution to the Faction Paradox universe. I’ve only glancedContinue reading “Talking Books”
Going into the Weekend
The fates weren’t willing. The creek did rise. I worked on Thursday. My supervisor called me yesterday afternoon. Earlier in the week he announced that managers should take this coming Monday off. Now his supervisor wanted managers to work six days next week, taking only Christmas Day off. Half a day on Monday would beContinue reading “Going into the Weekend”
In Search of Hobbies
I’m thinking of building a trebuchet. I loved playing Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and pulling out the trebuchet, usually four or five trebuchets, in the Imperial Age and razing cities to the ground from long distances. I loved seeing the trebuchet deployed in the defense of Minas Tirith in The ReturnContinue reading “In Search of Hobbies”
A Blow Against Greed
Baseball fans received a wake-up call yesterday. An Associated Press article by Ronald Blum relates, “Washington’s new baseball team shut down business and promotional operations indefinitely Wednesday as its move to the nation’s capital teetered on the brink of collapse. The decision by Major League Baseball followed the District of Columbia’s decision Tuesday night toContinue reading “A Blow Against Greed”