America has no king.America needs no king. Seen on the official White House Twitter feed. Donald Trump, calling himself a king. A king. Donald Trump increasingly reminds me of Denethor. As he threatens our nearest neighbors, as he covets lands governed by our allies, as he spurns decades-long alliances and parcels up territory not hisContinue reading “The Madness of King Donald”
Tag Archives: The Lord of the Rings
Random Screenshots from My Travels
I take screenshots of things I see while surfing the web. On my phone, on my desktop. Doesn’t matter. “Oh, that’s interesting/amusing/weird/useful.” I take a screenshot, because I might want to come back to it later. Of course, then I never do. And the result is a folder full of screenshots on my hard drive,Continue reading “Random Screenshots from My Travels”
Wrapping Up the Catalog Copy
I don’t know about anyone else, but my sleep patterns have turned to utter chaos these last three weeks. One night I might have bifurcated sleep (sleep, significant break, sleep), the next restless near-insomnia, and the next ten solid hours of sleeping like the dead. That, at least, has been my pattern over these lastContinue reading “Wrapping Up the Catalog Copy”
The Plan
This weekend I sat down and did something I never do — I wrote out New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve never been the resolution-y type. I’d occasionally make a list, and it would be a vague list — write more, exercise more. This time, I sat down and asked myself, “What am I trying to accomplish?Continue reading “The Plan”
Link Round-Up: December 28
I’ve just finished listening to Joel McNeely’s Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire soundtrack. I bought this when it came out in the spring of 1996. And I have no idea what I did with that CD. So, after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I found it inexpensively on eBay. It arrived today. IContinue reading “Link Round-Up: December 28”
The Itch to Build
In my closet there’s an ammunition crate, painted red. It’s where I keep my LEGO bricks. There are LEGO bricks in that crate that are older than some of my coworkers. No, I’m not kidding. There are some LEGO boat pieces (that float on water) that I know date from the late 1970s, and IContinue reading “The Itch to Build”
The Trouble with Artwork
This weekend at Farpoint, I bought my first piece of artwork from the Art Auction. To be honest, it was the first time I bid on anything in the Art Auction at any convention. Usually I’ll go and take a look, see something that looks nice, but never anything I felt like I simply couldn’tContinue reading “The Trouble with Artwork”
On Building a Mega Bloks Set
A few weeks ago, the day Shore Leave began, I stopped at Target. I needed to pick up some supplies for the weekend, and while I was there I took a look at the various LEGO and LEGO-like sets that they had. And, there on the shelf, were the Mega Bloks World of WarCraft sets.Continue reading “On Building a Mega Bloks Set”
On Excitement for the LEGO Lord of the Rings Video Game
Though its existence has been known for weeks, today it became official with a press release and a trailer — later this year, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games will be releasing LEGO Lord of the Rings, a video game that transports J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic story of good’s struggle against the forces of evilContinue reading “On Excitement for the LEGO Lord of the Rings Video Game”
On Kirill Yeskov’s The Last Ringbearer
A few months ago on a bulletin board I was drawn into a somewhat tedious argument over what, exactly, pipeweed is in The Lord of the Rings. My sparring partner argued that pipeweed was clearly tobacco, Tolkien said so, and that, clearly, was that. The problem with the identification of pipeweed with tobacco, I said,Continue reading “On Kirill Yeskov’s The Last Ringbearer”