It’s hard to know exactly where to start here, which seems to be how Stephen R Donaldson felt when he decided to take one more trip to the well for The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The Runes of the Earth is filled with the retelling of tales any fan of the earlier books already know-and surely no one would pick this up and start reading here-so why all the backstory? The Runes of the Earth is a pretty bad book on countless levels. It follows in the tradition of the Second Chronicles-give the readers something broken-by allowing long years…
Category: random thoughts
A Few More Lance Armstrong Thoughts
Just as I’d never heard of propofol before it killed Michael Jackson, I’d never heard of EPO before Oprah asked Lance Armstrong if he had used it to win the Tour de France seven times. Being a vitamin and supplement junkie, and having waded through Life Extension many years ago, EPO sounds like the kind of thing everyone should be using. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show ran a clip of an interview he did with Lance Armstrong-one of countless interviews where Lance lied about cheating-and Jon looked a good deal young than he does now. Lance looked pretty much…
Hope Springs
You’d think that knowing I have a couple of months off every year that I’d be able to make a few plans. Maybe go on a trip somewhere. Maybe bang out a couple more chapters on that never ending novel. Maybe go out and take a few pictures of this or that and tweak them in Photoshop and Lightroom. Maybe do a bit of marketing and see about getting some Clients so I won’t have to bother going back to work. But no. Like out of work guys throughout the ages I have done nothing productive, well, pretty close to…
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Urban Legend:Mussolini keeps the trains running on time. America is a funny place. We want to keep Nature safe-as long it’s somewhere else. Here we want mining, logging, farming, drilling, endless miles of paved roads and all the normal stuff:hot and cold running water, electricity, gas, broadband, and at least 500 channels. Everywhere else-well, they should be Organic, All Natural, Old Growth, No Mining, No Drilling, No Clear Cutting, No Farming, no Paved Roads, and as close to the way the country was when Columbus stumbled onto San Salvador as possible. We have the same simple logic when it comes…
A Few More Gun Thoughts
Guns are one of those great American topics like Abortion, Evolution, and Global Warming, where what we believe is the absolute truth and everyone else is just flat WRONG. This, of course, makes it a lot of fun to talk about. Real munitions, like Metal Storm million-round-a-minute machine guns and A-Bombs, are not easily available to the average citizen. Fully automatic machine guns can’t be found at Wal-Mart. Tanks and Aircraft Carriers aren’t for sale on eBay. No private citizen owns a fully functional Black Bird or a Stealth Bomber. What kind of panty waist Militia are we Americans putting…
The Legacy of Jerry Jones:LOSER
Annual Dallas Cowboys rant. The Dallas Cowboys had a shot at winning the last game of the regular season against the Washington Redskins. There was a chance for one of those world famous Dallas Cowboy Comebacks in the closing minutes-but those hopes were dashed with a Tony Romo interception that lead to a Redskins touchdown to seal the game. I was listening to one of the talk radio stations after the game. A fan called in to say that the Cowboys should fire Tony Romo and that Jerry Jones should come to his senses and hire a General Manager. This…
Fiscal Cliff Thoughts
At midnight on December 31, 2012 a number of tax increases and spending cuts will go into effect in an effort to help balance the United States budget. Since we have been told countless times over the past couple of decades that our ever increasing National Debt is a BAD thing, the fiscal cliff sounds like a great idea. We’ll finally be doing something about that damned National Debt!! So naturally, every politician that can get near a microphone has talked about how bad this will be. Politicians only care about two things-1) keeping their job, and 2) making as…
Thoughts on Turning 50
“Do you know that Mozart had already written three operas by the time he was your age?” The Teacher asked his student. “Do you that by the time he was your age.” The Student replied. “He was dead?” Being old isn’t what it used to be. Life expectancy was 65 when they started Social Security in 1940, and now it’s closer to 77. My Mother was 85 when she died and Dear Old Dad was 65. Either way I have a bit less to go than I have come already. In the off-chance that I end up setting some kind…
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Agent Smith: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. -The Matrix A number of doctors have suggested that there are certain foods we should all avoid,…
Lance Armstrong Remains Most Hated Champion of All Time
Lance Armstrong cheated? I don’t believe it. Lance has maintained his innocence and says he was just tired of fighting an endless battle. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is a self appointed group of witch hunters who started their work in 1999. Like all such people they make up the rules and change them whenever they feel like it. Things that are legal this year will get you banned for life next year. Which is fine, live and learn. What isn’t fine is the fact that this group of do-gooders treats hearsay evidence as if it were scientific fact. A cornerstone…