Author: Karel Kerezman

  • How I Spent My Weekend

    It was to be a lovely weekend, full of opportunity and wonder. How did I spend the 48 hour period from midnight Friday night to midnight Sunday night?

    In a torrid marathon of heated passion? No.

    Writing madly a masterwork of prose fiction? Hardly.

    An intense round of hardcore gaming, complete with huge levelling of Diablo II characters and lotsa neat Unique loot? I wish.

    Solving the deepest mysteries of existence? You should be so lucky.

    Sleeping like the dead while some annoying little flu virus dances a jig on my intestinal tract, only allowing me to manage a grand total of ten hours out of bed the whole weekend? Bingo.

  • My two book reviews so far

    So far I’ve reviewed two novels, both by Anne McCaffrey. I’ll be expanding my horizons soon, I assure you. (I’m going to give the Eddings tome The Redemption of Althalus a once-over some time very soon.)

    Click on the Books link to the right to see the relative ratings given to the novels, or click the links below to read whichever particular review interests you.

    Nimisha’s Ship review
    The Skies Of Pern review

  • Cutesy icon added to site

    Because I can’t resist the temptation to indulge in the latest, greatest goofy web-design trend, there’s now ‘favicon’ support on this site. If you notice the super-scaled-down version of my Deviant Picture adorning the address bar, bookmark or browser tab while surfing here… good for you.

    And if you actually have bookmarked this site and you aren’t me, please don’t tell me. I’d simply faint dead away.

  • Strange Days Indeed: Another body to be missed

    What would Brian Boitano do? Apparently, he’d get himself a better-paying gig with a good chance for advancement.

    Brian Blair, of the same National Broadcasting School class that also propelled this little grey duck into the Radio Biz, is leaving KFXX today for greener pastures. He started his internship a couple of weeks before I did, some 10 years ago or so. (Fall of ’91, November-ish I believe.) While he stayed in the actual broadcast production side of the business, I realized where my strengths weren’t and eventually ended up the MIS instead of an air talent.

    In a weird sort of way, it’s the end of an era. Brian and I had something in common unique to any other two people in the building, and I’m going to miss that. It’s not as though we’ve been “best buds” over the years, but we’ve always been friendly and cordial.

    There aren’t many left from those strange, heady days of the early ’90s, back up in the Kelly building with KGON and KFXX. Given my wide nostalgic streak, I’m going to quietly mourn the passing of good old days while I also wish Brian the best in all the days of his future.

  • The Skies Of Pern

    If you’ve read my review of Nimisha’s Ship, you’re probably aware of my distaste for the direction Anne McCaffrey has taken in some of her more recent novels. I approached the reading of Skies with a certain amount of trepidation.

    I’m pleased to say that this book does not suffer from many of the problems that have plagued her other recent works. The things that happen, even if they are a bit “out there,” do make sense within the bounds of the known world of Pern. In fact, almost everything in the novel is built upon various elements of earlier Pern novels like All The Weyrs, Dolphins and even the mostly-damnable Masterharper. It seems as though Pern really is her native element, and she moves as beautifully through it now as she has at her best moments in years past.

    The key romance in the novel is telegraphed from the get-go, but if you’re a regular McCaffrey reader you know that this has always been her style. The primary conflicts are more or less based on previous events, so having read the full series is generally a good idea. What’s interesting is that it isn’t actually necessary, since background data is presented in such a way that it makes sense even to non-fans, but it also does a wonderful job of evoking the relevant part of the previous work in just the right way. I was often pleasantly surprised at how well one reference or another was handled.

    Overall, I recommend this novel to anyone, long-time fan or no, who likes a pleasant mixture of adventure, science, fantasy and romance. It obviously helps to be somewhat familiar with at least the original Dragonriders series, if not fully versed in the series entire. I think that a non-fan could get the gist of the story and enjoy it on its own merits, however.

    It’s out in paperback now, so pick it up and give it a read.

  • The Webcam Returns

    You’ll notice that along the left is a link to the “Office” camera. Yes, it works. It’s a 60-second refreshing webcam attached to a test server in my office. I’ll probably end up moving it over to Zero later on, but this configuration will suit my needs for the time being.

    Next on the agenda? Improve the overall look of this site. I’m thinking of going to a three-column rig… calendar and other Monaural Jerk stuff (channels, media) on the right and regular links and what-not on the left. What do you think, sirs?