I was at Big Lots last night. I hadn’t been in a while. I puttered around the store for forty minutes, hoping to find something of interest. The store was emptier than I could ever remember seeing it. Some of the fixtures seemed to be gone. I was tempted to buy A Wish for WingsContinue reading “On a Trip to Big Lots”
On Website Fun
I have no idea what someone visiting my website this afternoon might have seen. I needed to upgrade WordPress. When WordPress 2.8 dropped, I uploaded the files, and found my Dashboard (that’s the admin panels I see when I blog) completely trashed. WordPress 2.8, in its initial release, was a total freaking memory hog, andContinue reading “On Website Fun”
On the Weekend’s Plans
I brought home no work this weekend. The past few weekends, I’ve brought something home to work on and write. Not this weekend. Though, I suppose if an e-mail had come through this afternoon with a dozen spreadsheets, I’d have slapped those onto my flash drive and cleaned them up tomorrow or Sunday. The truthContinue reading “On the Weekend’s Plans”
On the Born Chicago Cubs Fan
I’ve thought for a long time that I was born to be Beatles fan. The reason? The number one song on the charts the day I was born was George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),” which followed (or was followed by) two weeks of Paul McCartney’s “My Love.” Between you andContinue reading “On the Born Chicago Cubs Fan”
On A Needed Holiday
On occasion, my mind is stunned into a stupor. Sometimes it doesn’t take much. Writing about Twilight: New Moon collector dolls sufficed this morning; a thousand brain cells cried out in terror and were silenced. While in that slack-jawwed state, however, something occurred to me. There’s no Philip K. Dick Reading Day. There’s a TolkienContinue reading “On A Needed Holiday”
On Being Pure Poetry
Short, terse, unfriendly,Yet sometimes quite emotive;I am the Haiku. What Poetry Form Are You? And if I weren’t Haiku, I would be the Triolet. If they told you I’m mad, then they lied.I’m odd, but it isn’t compulsive.I’m the triolet, bursting with pride;If they told you I’m mad, then they lied.No, it isn’t obsessive. NowContinue reading “On Being Pure Poetry”
On Things I Wrote Today
I have a confession to make. I have never read Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. There’s a film coming out in three weeks, give or take. Directed by Spike Jonze of Being John Malkovich fame. Screenplay written by Dave Eggers of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame. Been in production for years.Continue reading “On Things I Wrote Today”
On Music Musings
In the past year I’ve started buying MOJO on a regular basis. I used to read it, then got out of the habit, and then I’d pick up an issue here and there. But about a year ago, I began to pick it up regularly; if not every month, then certainly three out of four.Continue reading “On Music Musings”
On Napoleon’s Twin Defeats
Twice I fought Napoleon — first on the Great Plains, then in the Pampas region of South America. On the Great Plains, I had at my side Ivan the Terrible. To the north, I had an enemy in Maurice of Nassau. To the east, Napoleon. I made allies with the local tribes, Comanche and Sioux.Continue reading “On Napoleon’s Twin Defeats”
On Reading and Writing, but Not Arthmetic
We’ll start with reading. A few weeks ago, on TrekBBS, novelist Greg Cox recommended in a discussion about alternate histories, a series by Harry Harrison and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey (writing as John Holm) — The Hammer and the Cross. The premise? The Norse religions put up more of a fight against Christianity in theContinue reading “On Reading and Writing, but Not Arthmetic”