Category Archives: Interests
Getting to Know Mister Rogers
Mr. Rogers would have been 84 today. Here is a great retrospective.
My day with UNLV’s Hey Reb – Las Vegas Weekly
A neat interview with the soon-to-be-outgoing Hey Reb. Gabriel always got a kick out of him.
Daily Kos: Illinois Republican primary voters: President Obama is a secret Muslim and might not be American
I expect this level of stupidity and hate in the South, but in Illinois?
Geez, no wonder I moved out of there as fast as I could.
Geeky Words You Can Use With Geeky Friends | Underwire | Wired.com
Alternate, and often pre-existing, definitions to a lot of the words and acronyms you think you know the meaning of.
Star Wars: Blogs | Prefect’s Corner | Shades of gray
Apparently, the Star Wars Blogs are being wiped out soon.
Probably for good reason. Folks almost never use them and when they did it was for a RPG system that is a couple years out of print.
Still, I went to them periodically for writing ideas and I will miss having ready access to the minds of Dan Wallace, Sterling Hershey, and others who have since stopped posting.
I had a few entries into something I called the Prefect’s Corner. It was the title I had in the Vast Empire club (of which I am still a member so come join us!) but only one seemed worth preserving.
Read it, if you have thoughts, comment on it.
Shades of gray
One of the things that my club has been debating is what to do about our club history. At the moment we are in the age of Thrawn. We don’t currently buy that he is the Empire reborn and this has led to a few discussions that are not exactly canon-related.
In short, it is this: if you fracture an Empire, how do you expect it to consolidate around one man no one has ever heard of? This isn’t to discredit Zahn; I like his books and I think he’s done a lot for the community.
That said, why can’t there be more than one Empire? More importantly, why are there only two sides to every war? I seriously doubt every smuggler and pirate in the galaxy sided with the Republic. I mean, consider it: open trade and anti-slavery governments are BAD for the not-so-law-abiding. The Empire was good for business, and if it could clean up some business practices, more to the good.
So, as we are playing this out in our heads, we see an Empire backing Thrawn and the various little warlord-ships everywhere else. And hell, maybe even a centralized Empire with Isaard in charge. And why the Praetorian Guard gone bad plot? Why can’t Thrawn live to further keep the galaxy divided. No, it isn’t noble, and it isn’t remotely optimistic. But it does seem to ring more true than what we were given.
In the extreme, you have a Smuggler’s Alliance with more teeth than diplomats. You may also have a reactionary Republic than lashes out on humans – admit it, there HAS to be an angry undercurrent to feed off of. Fey’la for Chancellor for life?
These are a few of the notions going around. Just wanted to throw them out there for some feedback.
Art History Through Sci Fi-Colored Glasses | Tor.com
Some interesting perspectives here and the related links are just as cool.
The future of space with Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss discuss our future in space | Geekation: where geeks go
A Pirate’s Life for Me: Celebrating the Science of Pirates | Cocktail Party Physics, Scientific American Blog Network
Pirates and science. Hey, it is about more than just sporting an eyepatch. Check it out.
WGME 13 – News – Kim Block Takes Us Behind The Scenes at CBS News Sunday Morning
I wish I could embed the video but a neat behind-the-scenes look at the Sunday Morning program.
