Monthly Archives: March 2014
Here I am in the midst of another snow storm, days after the official start of spring, wondering if the Groundhog had a heart attack.
I’m not going to just revisit the Game of Thrones meme—although, it’s intriguing how Ned Stark still dominates our thoughts about the series. (SPOILER ALERT: He gets his head chopped off at the end of the first season.) I also want to do a little reflection.
I have been working on a personal transformation blog entry for weeks, and I can’t seem to finish it. Partly, because the transformation is ongoing. Partly, because I’m finding it hard to translate between my internal reality-modeling software and the meat-flap languages used here in the outside world. Every rewrite leaves me thinking, “No, that’s not really what is going on.”
I might end up deciding that it’s inexpressible. Except through action.
I have also been struggling with a fiction series I’ve been reading, which has taken a disappointing turn into stifling gender politics. In short, it’s selling its female villain short by treating her like a baby, in the interest of making her more sympathetic. In book one, the male villain ended strong, defiant, and shot in the face without trial. In book two, the male villain ended strong, defiant, and locked indefinitely in solitary confinement. In book three, the female villain ended weepy, confused, and an emotional funnel for other characters’ sympathy and forgiveness.
That might seem like a pro-female dynamic, but it really makes women seem like perpetually unaccountable minors. And that’s not how adults should be treated.
Anyhow, I guess that’s all that’s going on really, beyond a few side projects that should remain unexplained for now. Hope everyone stays warm. I’m sure spring is right around the corner.
“Tactical obsession is a confession of strategic incompetence.” – Waverly C. Young, conceptual editor
Read more on this principle of dysmanagement.
A “pedicurie” is when you burn the edges of your toenails off with radiation.
Okay, so it was a no-brainer that the iconic astromech droid would probably not be left out of the sequel Star Wars trilogy. J. J. Abrams, whom Disney has put at the helm of the next three Star Wars flicks, is known for pandering to fans.
But, I did also include R2D2 in my take on how Abrams might scramble Lucas’s universe, based on his ethnicity-flipping, plot-reversing, lens-flaring, fan-servicing reboot of the Star Trek series. So, I’m taking credit for that. *shrug*
It’s been a while since I’ve taken a look at my stats. Today, I decided to peek.
Looking at shorter time scales, of course, the stats are dominated by things I’ve posted on relatively recent viral stories, like the Shia LaBeouf plagiarism debacle, Voyager “leaving” the solar system, the Ender’s Game boycott, and Abrams taking the helm of Star Wars. But, taking the long view, I was surprised to find readers still racking hits on some of the older stories.
Here are my All-Time Top Ten regular posts (i.e., not category pages, “About,” etc.) just for curiosity’s sake, in countdown format. It’s a good mix of writing advice, commentary, reviews, and civil design ideas.
10. “Five Songs That Should Be Made Into Movies” – 12 May 11
9. “One America : A New Vision For US Rail” – 08 Feb 13
8. “Four Approaches To Female Characters In Historical Fiction and Fantasy” – 01 Jul 11
7. “Historical Fiction Resources On The Longhouse” – 23 Nov 10
6. “Review : True Grit” (book and film) – 23 Jan 11
5. “Optimizing The DC Metro” – 22 Jun 12
4. “How MFA Programs Can Hurt Literature” – 02 Sep 10
3. “Four Ways To Come Up With Fictional Names” – 31 Aug 10
2. “Jeremy Spoke, But Is Anyone Listening? Irony And Understatement In Pearl Jam’s Jeremy” – 30 Jul 10
1. “Chad Harbach’s Slate.com Piece Describes The MFA Side Of The Pyramid Scheme” – 30 Nov 11
So, I was recently shamed in an internet comment feed (no surprise there) for not posting “spoiler alert” before suggesting that the character Billy Bones probably didn’t really die in the first season of the Starz series Black Sails, because the show is conceived as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, in which Billy Bones plays a significant role.
The book was published in the 1880s, by the way. All of the people who read the first printing have lived their entire lives and are dead now.
Spoiler alert! The name of the cook on the show, John Silver, sounds familiar for a reason! (Yes, he’s the Long John Silver who started those seafood restaurants.)
This internet crusader wanted to pretend to care enough about the show to attack someone for revealing information, but didn’t care enough to know anything about the premise of the show. And, here’s the thing about trying to shame someone for revealing something that any real fan should know: it’s essentially a lazy, ignorant person’s attempt to make someone feel bad for being smarter than them and having the audacity not to keep their mouth shut.
And, you know what I think about trying to make people apologize for not being dumb and intellectually lazy? Continue reading
Remember the 70° (pardon my Fahrenheit) weather the other day in the nation’s capital? Well, forget that, it’s inches of snow for you tomorrow, District of Columbia!