Seeing a picture of a planet, orbiting a star hundreds of light years away, puts things into perspective — the universe is vast, unknowable, unimaginable. I mention this, because the Gemini Observatory has released a telescopic photograph of an extrasolar planet. A planet! Orbiting another sun! We’ve known for two decades that they exist, butContinue reading “On Cosmic Thoughts”
Monthly Archives: June 2010
On My 2010 Shore Leave Schedule
Shore Leave! It’s the media science-fiction convention held in Hunt Valley, Maryland every mid-July. This year, it falls on the calendar from July 9th through 11th. :spock: This year, barring any unforeseen happenings, I will again be attending the convention as a guest. My schedule for panels looks like: Friday Meet the ProsHunt/Valley Hallway —Continue reading “On My 2010 Shore Leave Schedule”
On Glastonbury and Robert Byrd
First, fun. Matt Smith’s appearance at Glastonbury last night with Orbital as they performed the Doctor Who theme: I’ve seen other videos of this performance, but this one is, by far, the best quality. In other news, Robert Byrd, the senior Senator from West Virginia, passed away. The longest serving Senator in history — fifty-oneContinue reading “On Glastonbury and Robert Byrd”
On Zombies and the Beatles
I don’t get the current fascination with zombies. I really don’t. Just Saturday, I saw at Barnes & Noble Shakespeare Undead, a zombie Shakespeare novel. I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was amusing, but I liked Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, with no zombies but lots of steampunk, so much more. ThenContinue reading “On Zombies and the Beatles”
On Living Through “The Big Bang”
Doctor Who. “The Big Bang.” My before-the-spoiler-cut review (because there may be people reading this who watch on the North American schedule) — I laughed. I got weepy. I was shocked — and amazed — at the audacity. The Doctor got bloody damn lucky. (I’ll explain later.) Overall, I think Steven Moffat played fair withContinue reading “On Living Through “The Big Bang””
On Crayon Colors and What They Mean
I get three crayons to make a picture. I don't know what the picture will be; I'm suddenly reminded of the last time I went to Five Guys and I drew a picture of the Union Jack on a postcard and tacked it up on their corkboard. Three crayons. A picture. I go with primaryContinue reading “On Crayon Colors and What They Mean”
On Gandalf and the Vuvuzela
How many times have I watched this? I don’t know, because each time I do I start rolling on the floor laughing. What happens when the World Cup is held in Middle-Earth? That provocative question is answered in… The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Vuvuzela. Not coming to a theater near you.Continue reading “On Gandalf and the Vuvuzela”
On More Thor Reading
A few weeks ago, I decided to make myself a Thor reader for the simple reason that I should be a Thor fan, so I started reading Walt Simonson’s run on the title, collected handily in five Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson volumes. But having only the first, and the second not arriving until next week,Continue reading “On More Thor Reading”
On the Archetypal Allyn
Within the last month, comment spam on my blog has gone from fairly minimal to fairly insane. Fortunately, I have traps in place to catch, but I’ve had to implement something I’m not a fan of — setting it so that comments don’t appear until I approve them if the person has never commented before.Continue reading “On the Archetypal Allyn”
On Craig Ferguson and Doctor Who Fandom
Said Craig Ferguson last week: Theres rivalry between the Harry Potter fans and the Twilight fans. And Twilight fans think they’re much cooler than the Harry Potter fans. And I’m like, “I dunno why… they’d all get their ass kicked by the Doctor Who fans.” That’s right, I won! Naturally, this amused me. And then,Continue reading “On Craig Ferguson and Doctor Who Fandom”