On LEGO Lord of the Rings

Today, I frightened my cubicle neighbor. I’d come into the office, and I walked into the middle of a conversation he was having with another writer in the Bullpen. “I bet,” said my cubicle neighbor, “that you can’t jump up and down for joy.” So without taking off my coat, without unslinging the BPRD bagContinue reading “On LEGO Lord of the Rings”

On the KRE-O Transformers Sets

Yesterday afternoon, a couple of us from work went to Target on our lunch break. While wandering around the store, I found myself back in the Toys section, looking at the LEGO sets they had. And there I saw the KRE-O Transformers sets. Hasbro has created a LEGO-compatible building system called KRE-O, and they’ve doneContinue reading “On the KRE-O Transformers Sets”

On Contemplating the Martian War Machine

On Saturday, I built the Tripod Invader, one of the sets from the new LEGO Alien Conquest theme which is based loosely on H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and alien invasion B-movies of the 1950s. When I wrote about the set yesterday, I mentioned that I was thinking of modifying the Tripod InvaderContinue reading “On Contemplating the Martian War Machine”

On the LEGO Alien Conquest Tripod

This summer, LEGO introduced a new theme, Alien Conquest, based loosely on classic tales of alien invasion, from H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds to 1950s B-movies and Mars Attacks!. Flying saucers, alien motherships, and tripod walkers bring the alien armada to the doorstep of LEGO City. Yesterday, I bought the Tripod Invader set.Continue reading “On the LEGO Alien Conquest Tripod”

On Childhood Memories and the Christmas Sensawunder

As I left the office Monday evening, the moon, a waxing crescent, held in the sky to the south southwest. There was a planet nearby in the sky, I presumed it was Jupiter, just from its brightness, but I didn’t honestly know. In general, the sky was remarkably clear. Monday had been a brutally windyContinue reading “On Childhood Memories and the Christmas Sensawunder”

On Friday Bric-a-Brac

This morning, while crossing the street from the subway station to the light rail station, I found myself playing an inadvertant game of chicken with a low-flying pigeon. Fortunately, the pigeon blinked first. There’s nothing weirder than looking an oncoming pigeon in the eye as it’s coming right for you. And because it needs toContinue reading “On Friday Bric-a-Brac”

On the Christmas Weekend

A hectic week at the office this shall be. I can already sense it, like a great disturbance in the Force. There’s nothing wrong with that; staying busy is a good thing. 🙂 It was a LEGO holiday. My sister and her husband gave me the LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary, which will prove invaluableContinue reading “On the Christmas Weekend”

On LEGO Star Wars: The Novel

On TrekBBS, there’s a discussion asking Star Trek authors if they would like to write Star Wars novels. Said I in reply: I would absolutely write a Star Wars comic or novel. In fact, I know the approach I’d take, and the setting I’d use. It would be mental. Abso-fucking-lutely mental. And hilarious. Did IContinue reading “On LEGO Star Wars: The Novel”