When I was in college, I did a “binge read” of Philip K. Dick. A “binge read” involved taking an author and, for a semester, reading as much of his work as I could get my hands on. One semester I did a binge read of Larry Niven. The next semester was Orson Scott Card. [...]
The story of the 2 year-old girl in Kentucky, who was shot and killed by her 5 year-old brother with a rifle he was given as a present, has been preying on my mind much of the week. I think about the little girl, I imagine that just a few days ago she was a [...]
The news has broken on casting for November’s Doctor Who anniversary special — in addition to John Hurt, the special will also guest star David Tennant and Billie Piper. Fandom, naturally, is sharply divided. There is wailing that there’s no Eccleston from the new series. Classic Doctor Who fans are wailing that the pre-new series [...]
For the historical record, because I want to lay claim to this idea, a Facebook post… Serious question time. Would Antonin Scalia’s written decisions in the Prop 8 case and the DOMA case be eligible for the Hugo and Nebula Awards? These decisions will be so divorced from reality that they would be fantasy fiction, [...]
The tenth anniversary of the Iraq War has been on the minds of many in the past two weeks. Some who supported the war at the time have said that they were deeply wrong. Some who supported the war at the time fail to recognize that it was a collosal, world historical mistake. Last week [...]
To get to Shamrock Fest, I had to navigate a phalanx of Bible-thumpers. Shamrock Fest is an Irish and Celtic music festival held annually at RFK Stadium, and the organizers recommend that people take the DC Metro to reach the music festival. You take the Blue or Orange line, disembark at the Stadium-Armory stop, climb [...]
I received a credit card offer in the mail yesterday. I receive these from time to time. I’ll open the letters, read them, study the terms, and then recycle them. It’s a good system, it serves me well. Today, though, I responded to one. It’s for an offer from CreditOne Bank. The terms were rediculous. [...]
It’s been too long since Carbon Leaf’s last album. How do you count their last album? Their last release was 2011′s Live, Acoustic, and In Cinemascope!, which, as you can tell from the title, is an acoustic live album. How the West Was One and Christmas Child, both 2010, were longer than EPs but shorter [...]
As people who follow me on Twitter know, I watch Elementary, CBS’s “Sherlock Holmes in present day New York City” series. I’ve gone from liking it (and calling it “House with murders”) to really enjoying it. There are people who won’t watch it because they think it’s a Sherlock rip-off or because they cast Lucy [...]
Last night we started with Bates walking out of prison and ended with Robert, Matthew, and Tom walking into the sunset. And in the two hours in between, there were headscratching moments, there were funny moments, there were touching moments, and there were stupid moments. Sometimes all at the same time! That’s the way of [...]

