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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • The Great Way trilogy – by Harry Connolly

    Chalk this one up to word-of-mouth (well, social-media mostly-Twitter) marketing, but I purchased an entire trilogy from this fellow Harry Connolly, someone I’d not heard of before, over the past couple weeks. I saw the series billed as “fantasy adventure without the dull bits” and “non-grimdark” and at that point I perked right up because, lemme tell ya, I’m more than done with the grimdark in current fantasy novels nowadays.

    (Joe Abercrombie’s first trilogy was “hurled with great force,” in the Dorothy Parker parlance.)

    So. “The Way Into Chaos,” “The Way Into Magic,” and “The Way Into Darkness” make up a single, self-contained, it-begins-and-it-ends story. No plot hooks dangle for interminable sequels, what you read is what you get. It’s not that Mr. Connolly couldn’t write more in this world, but there’s no sense of urgency to have this happen. And I’m okay with that. It’s nice to get a complete story with no dangly bits hanging on at the end. (more…)

  • I Quack To Believe

    DuckActionShot_XFilesRiff

    This is what happens when I have a few minutes at work, access to FireWorks, and someone posts an action shot of a rubber duck on Tumblr.

  • House of Clubs

    You have a weekend to burn, and you’re planning a viewing marathon of a TV show on Netflix. If that’s your thing, who am I to judge? Perhaps I can help you make a decision, however, on what show to watch.

    The first season of Netflix’s version of the show, “House of Cards,” totals 13 episodes at just under an hour per episode, give or take. The only existing season of the anime, “Ouran High School Host Club,” totals 26 episodes at about twenty three minutes per episode, if you don’t skip the theme songs and previews. The run lengths balance out, more-or-less, for each show’s initial season outing.

    “But Karel,” I hear you asking, “what is it about either of these shows which would make me choose one over the other?” Well, let’s put it this way:

    One show centers on a group of rich and powerful people who use their money and influence to shape the world according to their whims, leverage the media to fashion narratives of their choosing, trample the fourth wall, shamelessly exploit taboo behaviors, and engage in complex schemes which would never actually come to fruition in the real world.

    The other show, of course, stars Kevin Spacey.

  • Soon No Longer To Be The Ultimate Answer

    Four weeks from now, I cease to be the Ultimate Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything.

    I don’t know what the number 43 is. Wikipedia doesn’t give me anything interesting to go on. I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?

    Enjoy it while it lasts, eh? Oh, and if you’re considering buying me things to ease the passing of this most momentous time in my life, I’m okay with that. Totally not required, mind you. It’s not like I have spent a lot of money on anybody outside my immediate circle in a while. (Hey, maybe my finances will settle down a bit more so I can change that…)

  • Starting A Thing

    Last night I began assembling ideas and “locations” and characters and plot beats for a writing project. I can’t promise anything grand, but I woke up this morning and didn’t immediately say to myself, “What a terrible idea, what was I thinking?” so maybe there’s hope for this one. We’ll see.

  • Accentuate The Positive

    I exercised more, and I ate junk food a lot less, thus I became a bit healthier.

    I even lost a few pounds, and a few inches around the waistline.

    I won not one but two raises (with additional responsibilities, mind you) at my job.

    I maintained the most important relationships in my life.

    I kept the drama levels low.

    I completed a public writing project.

    I feel like, even though 2014 wasn’t very good to very many people, I did the best I could this calendar year.

    I have no regrets going into 2015.

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