The Cosmic Courtship, written by Julian Hawthorne (the son of Nathaniel, of The Scarlet Letter fame) was serialized in pulp magazines in 1917, and hadn’t seen print since then until Cirsova Publishing came along and offered it in novel format. It’s considered an early science fiction work, though like all good science fiction it was … Book Review: The Cosmic Courtship by Julian Hawthorne
While watching RazörFist’s stream of the new Halo Infinite game, I realized how not-great the subtitle UX (user experience) was. It ranged from serviceable but awkward, to slightly confusing, to unreadable. Good video game dialogue and subtitle UX should (in rough descending order of severity): Have good color contrast, size, and line length The subtitles … How to Create Good Video Game Subtitle UX
From That Hideous Strength: “Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and … C.S. Lewis on Educated Readers
Order of the PenTriagon is the first of two books about the peaceful aftermath of an alien presence on earth, two youngins damaged by the vaccine deployed worldwide to combat the disease the aliens brought with them, and a prophecy of a future warrior to battle said aliens (I think I got all of that … Book Review: Order of the PenTriagon by Jill Domschot
Cowboy Bebop (2021) Let’s get this out of the way, first: this was bad, to no one’s surprise, but I gave it the ol’ three-episode college try. The original 1998 series was storytelling perfection and accepted as such by a wide margin of viewers and critics, so any kind of reboot is not only unnecessary, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 28
Ingredients 8oz sugar-free dark chocolate 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/2 cup of Stevia or natural sweetener 1 pinch of salt 1/4 tsp ground pepper (optional) cocoa powder for dusting Directions 1. If your chocolate is in bar form, chop it up into tiny pieces. I’d do it if it’s … Recipe: Spicy Grimdark Chocolate Rocks
Here’s Lynnette with a copy of Pale Blue Scratch. Print books are life. Send a photo of you with the book, or just a photo of the book, send it to me, and I will post it here. Here’s the paperback, but you can also send a photo of the free e-book version on your … Lynnette Got Scratched!
These were taken by Jonathan from Hot Metal Studio for a behind-the-scenes type of story run for Noisecreep, for The Devil Wears Prada’s “Assistant to the Regional Manager” track. It was filmed by Danny Yourd (he had an official crew at the time; sorry, forget the name) at 31st Street Studios in the dead of … Photos: Jay at The Devil Wears Prada Video Shoot
In a different timeline, he was standing on a beach of calm tides, looking across at the orange sunset burst. He might’ve been a little bit taller, a little less weird in the face, more extroverted. Outward with his energy, the things people admit to liking when they murmur to each other. There was a … Story: Prior Restraint
Creed 2 Creed fights the son of his father’s killer, Ivan Drago. Rocky IV was a big staple of my childhood, so it was neat to see Dolph Lundgren in the role again, even though he wasn’t a huge part of this particular movie. I also liked that Viktor, Drago’s son, wasn’t as cartoonishly villainous … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 27
I wouldn’t quite call this exposition as much as it is the backstory for Rosalina, but you don’t know the story’s protagonist is actually her until later. The player is also not required to read the book to understand the world of SMG, since all of that is communicated as the game progresses. Still, it’s … Super Mario Galaxy’s Storybook
Kate sent me this photo of Pale Blue Scratch, Juniper, and Juniper’s formidable whiskers.
That title says “Static Index Page” in Spanish, in honor of it being the Day of the Dead, of Jill getting her blog back up, and of me starting to read her new book. She often posts Mexican music and language, and is Catholic, so it seems like all of these things are related. The … Página de Índice Estático
Spoilers ahead. I will also note that I read Dune many years ago, but have since forgotten much of it. Yes, I plan on reading the series again soon. “DUNE?” More like, “DUDE, call a plumber.” Score: 9/10 The Frank Herbert’s literary sci-fi classic was previously adapted for the large hypnosis machine movie screen with … Review: Dune, Part 1 (2021)
Time Bandits A young boy with neglectful parents helps dwarves time travel throughout history, escaping the owner of a map they stole. I watched this a lot when I was a kid, not realizing how non-kid-friendly it was. I mean, his house burns down and his parents combust right in front of him at the … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 26
The old building in which my wife used to work had a display case of old typewriters in the lobby. One of the security guards was nice enough to let me take them out and photograph them (very averagely, it looks like) in the last few weeks before last day there. I didn’t know it … Photos: Underwood Typewriters
It turns out the woman’s iconic face from Converge’s Jane Doe album cover art is a real woman’s face, and that woman found out 20-ish years after the fact and posted on Instagram about it. Converge’s vocalist, Jacob Bannon, who also did the artwork, responded: “Just to be clear: This is definitely one of the … Jane Doe Lives and Has a Face
Some photos I took of the Cathedral of Learning a few years ago. It was inspiration for the de Sales College building from Pale Blue Scratch.
I created what I think is the best workout playlist, using the most anal retentive criteria imaginable. 1. The songs shouldn’t take longer than 5 seconds to get going in some manner, and there shouldn’t be more than 5 seconds of silence, feedback, or any fadeouts at the end. This eliminates a lot of songs, … Behold! The Best Heavy Metal Workout Playlist
The map below is inaccurate, as AllTrails’ UX for recording hikes sucks. There’s no easy way to “stop” the hike recording, and “pausing” the hike recording restarted it after a certain time for some reason, so the app recorded me driving home. Encountering these hiccups in a process annoys me both as a user and … Photos: Deer Lakes Park Blue Trail Hike