A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay This was a re-read for me, as it just became available on Kindle. It in fact wrapped up my complete re-read of Kay's fiction, which I mostly handled in 2018. Grant by Ron Chernow (incomplete) After reading the award-winning (and musical-inspiring) Hamilton by Chernow, I was moved to pick [...]
Jeribon
I'm getting back into D&D, hopefully, and I'm starting with Jeribon, a gnomish rogue. In the best traditions of the Internet, I've just stolen this image (from http://wow.blizzgame.ru/gallery/hazlow-mudshuggle-by-matt-cavotta/ ) until I can figure out one for myself. Backstory Jeribon was a young gnome at the time of the Sundering (ten or so years old). His [...]
The Orville v. Discovery: Small reference Pools
I was watching a YouTube video comparing The Orville to Star Trek: Discovery. As it went on, it became almost surreal. At first, it was fine. The YouTuber likes The Orville over ST:D, because it feels more like "classic Trek" -- which is a reasonable opinion, and one I more or less agree with. But [...]
Movies 2019
Aquaman (12/27/2018)Bumblebee (1/3/2019)Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (2/16/2019, Google Play)
America is a Choice
It’s been two years since I woke up to a country I didn’t recognize, and I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with what that means. I suspect that won’t be ending any time soon. Over the course of this administration, my social media feeds have been peppered with reactions to outrages that were virtually [...]
Agents of SHIELD meets its “End”
It took only a week for me to catch the Season 5 finale of Agents of SHIELD, fittingly called "The End". It was pretty fantastic, actually, even if it barely tied into the Avengers flick. Agents of SHIELD has been the little show that could, toiling away while the MCU bounces from spectacle to spectacle. [...]
The best thing about The Last Jedi
I finally got to see The Last Jedi (after two previous failed attempts, both amazingly sold out afternoon shows, a month after the premier). I liked it a lot. My personal rankings of the "main" Star Wars movies is now something like The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars (A New Hope) The Force Awakens The Last Jedi [...]
The power of the dark side
[amazon_link asins='0785192557,0785192565,0785199772,0785199780,0785197893' template='ProductCarousel' store='gilroy0-20' marketplace='US' link_id='0a4327d5-eb7a-11e7-a142-c169eec473c4'] No, this is not a political post. 🙂 I absolutely tore through the omnibus Kindle editions of the Darth Vader comic (one of several in the rebooted Marvel line). I guess it really paid off for Amazon to make Volume 1 free to Prime members because it hooked me fast. I [...]
Happy New Year and Happy 2018
Just a quick maintenance post. In the new year I intend -- as anyone who writes does -- to write more frequently and more broadly. I don't expect it, but I intend it. 🙂
Facetious blueprint
An AI researcher (Kai-Fu Lee) has written an article ("A Blueprint for Coexistence with Artificial Intelligence") that fails at its own goal, spectacularly. He assures us we need not end up in the dystopias so common in movies and literature. And I wanted to his assurances to be convincing, because I happen to feel the [...]