Sometimes selfishness doesn't pay. Which isn't a lesson I've really learned in my life, as I generally am not a selfish person. Still, selfish moments do happen. And one such moment happened on a flight from Las Vegas to Raleigh. Until six years ago I worked for EB Games. We had annual manager conferences, usually … Continue reading On a Miserable Flight
Tag: Plinky
Deja vu. The sense that something you’ve just witnessed, something you’ve just felt happened to you before. I’ve suffered from this feeling. I’m sure every one of you reading this has as well. I can even tell you what deja vu likely is — the brain’s visual cortex gets out of sync and processes the … Continue reading On that Feeling of Deja Vu
I grew up around books. My dad was a college librarian before he retired. Mainly special collections, but he was also a library director for a number of years as well. Suffice it to say, I was never not around books. I remember a summer, maybe when I was nine or ten, that I decided … Continue reading On My Last Visit to the Library
A few weeks ago I mailed out Christmas cards. It’s something I’ve done for about a decade now, mailing out cards to close friends and random strangers. (Last year, for instance, Harlan Ellison received a card from me. Since I’m writing this, it clearly didn’t displease him.) I usually have a “main” design that goes … Continue reading On What I’ll Take Away from 2011
Five movies that everyone should, in my opinion, watch at least once. Y’know, I’ve never given this a moment’s thought. So here goes. 1. A Hard Day’s Night. It’s the first Beatles movie. It’s the black & white Beatles movie. It’s a riot. I love it. I’m too young to know what Beatlemania was, and … Continue reading On Five Movies Everyone Should See
At times, I think of myself as an amateur historian. It's unsurprising that I think of myself in that way; I was a history student in college, after all, and my library is filled with history books, from general histories of the world to histories of specific periods to histories of specific ideas. Among the … Continue reading On Fascinating Periods of History
If I could have a lifetime supply of something, it would be McVittie’s Digestive Biscuits. My sister did a semester abroad in London, and when she came back, she came back with all sorts of marvelous treats. Maynard Wine Gums! (Which are seriously awesome, by the way.) McVittie’s Digestive Biscuits! Stuff I’ve totally forgotten in … Continue reading On An Urgent Need For Digestive Biscuits
If you got to relive one day of your life, when would it be? It’s tempting to pick a day when something really bad happened. Maybe it’s a date of an unfortunate accident, like getting lost in fog and running a car headfirst into a stone wall. Maybe it’s a day when a drunk driver … Continue reading On Reliving Moments from the Past
This is going to sound nonsensical, but I’ll say it all the same. I wish I spent more time writing than I do. It’s nonsensical, in that I spend a lot of time writing. My day job is writing marketing copy; I’ve estimated that I produce between 80,000 and 100,000 words a month, depending on … Continue reading On Wishing I Had More Time for Writing
I don’t go to the movies very often. Five years ago, I would go at least once a month. Sometimes, during summer blockbuster season, multiple times a week. Now, I go to the movies maybe twice a year. In 2010, i saw Sherlock Holmes on New Year’s Day and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage … Continue reading On Disappointment in Marvel Studios’ Thor
I grew up in rural America. Mountains and trees, streams and fields. Rugged country. I’ve lived in cities since college. Richmond. Raleigh. Baltimore. At one time in my life, about a decade ago now, I thought that New York City would have been a fantastic place to be. Unfortunately, my friends who are New Yorkers … Continue reading On a City I’d Move To
Yesterday evening, I discovered a BBC program I’d not heard of — In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. It’s a history program, and the host, Bragg, talks with a few experts about a given subject for forty minutes. I went and pulled a few episodes off the podcast feed, especially when I saw that … Continue reading On the Architecture I Appreciate