Author: Finious

Burned My Blog

(NOTE: This post updated 5/27/14 w/ additional info.)

So I burned my blog today. No, I didn’t delete or otherwise destroy my blog. Rather I did something I thought I had done a long time ago, and apparently never completed. Namely I signed my blog’s post feed up for a FeedBurner account so I can use some of the features that service provides: such as stats, friendlier subscription options, SmartFeed, and more.

What prompted this is that one of my friends asked if he could subscribe to my blog via email instead of via a post feed. I know there are a number of WordPress plugins that can enable this feature, but I thought I already set up FeedBurner monitoring of my site and knew that the service could be set up to manage email subscribers. Continue reading Burned My Blog

Reading Updates: 5 Book Ratings

Reaper Man, Red Mars, Moving Pictures, Elminster: The Making of a Mage, and Altered Carbon

Haven’t been updating my blog as I should. I have read a lot recently, and while I’ve been posting ratings on GoodReads, I apparently had not checked the “update my blog” box to have those posted here. Oops…

So I guess I’m going to manually post the book readings & their ratings here. Books rated were… Continue reading Reading Updates: 5 Book Ratings

Living Mars

I’ve been reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’m about 1/3 of the way through it and so far it gets about 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’ve always been fascinated by Mars and have fantasized about visiting it.

Anyway, reading the book got me interested in looking up some good images of Mars so I could “see” where some of the events of the book take place. Continue reading Living Mars

Johann Gambolputty… …von Hautkopft of Ulm

As many know, I like classical music, particularly Ludwig von Beethoven.

Well, I recently discovered this little-known German composer:

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern -schplenden -schlitter -crasscrenbon -fried -digger -dangle -dungle -burstein -von -knacker -thrasher -apple -banger -horowitz -ticolensic -grander -knotty -spelltinkle -grandlich -grumblemeyer -spelterwasser -kürstlich -himbleeisen -bahnwagen -gutenabend -bitte -eine -nürnburger -bratwustle -gerspurten -mit -zweimache -luber -hundsfut -gumberaber -shönendanker -kalbsfleisch -mittler -raucher von Hautkopft of Ulm. Continue reading Johann Gambolputty… …von Hautkopft of Ulm

The Funniest Joke In The World

“Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!”

 

“It was actually German gibberish,” Eric Idle explains. “It’s written-down gibberish, because we all had to learn the same thing, yeah, but it’s gibberish! It doesn’t mean a thing at all. At least, I don’t think it does…”

Actually, some of it is legit… Below is my attempt at translation. Continue reading The Funniest Joke In The World

Review: The Einstein Intersection

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. DelaneyThe Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars2 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1967
Read from: February 22 to March 08, 2014

Can’t You Just Let a Story Be a Story?

“The Einstein Intersection” by Samuel R. Delany won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1967 and was nominated for the Hugo Award for 1968. I had read some things that piqued my interest in this novel so I managed to get a copy through an inter-library loan — strangely my huge local library system did not have a copy of their own.

Sadly, this book continues a trend I’ve noticed recently where many “award-winning classics” are not really all that good. It seems that genre novels that do something for the first time — whether it is for artistic effect, to state their often biased opinion on current political or sociological trends, or to capitalize on some popular fad of the time — books that do stuff like that so often become award winners… whether or not there is actually a decent or engaging story wrapped around all that “stuff”. Read My Full Review →

Review: RoboCop

RoboCop (2014)
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars3.5 out of 5 stars
Directed by: José Padilha
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson
View Movie Info on Wikipedia

RoboCop Reboot Better Than I Expected

Some parts of the new RoboCop movie, (and not just the effects,) were much better than the original. Other parts; not so much… Read My Full Review →

Review: Assassin’s Apprentice

Assassins Apprentice by Robin HobbAssassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars5 out of 5 stars
First Published: August 1995
Read from: February 04 to 19, 2014

Proving Assassins Can Also Be Nice Guys

The novel Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb was much different than the title led me to believe, as I probably never would have given it a try if I had judged this book by it’s title. However it’s very high ratings and the frequency with which fantasy discussions brought it up moved it to the top of my “to read” list. For a story about an Assassin’s Apprentice there is actually very little killing going on. Thinking this would focus on assassinations I had thought I would be turned off. Ironically, one of the few problems I had with this book was actually the LACK of action in places. But it is safe to say that the main character, and most of the characters as a whole, do not fall victim of the traditional stereotypes of the genre tropes. Over all I had mixed feelings about this book while reading it. Read My Full Review →

Music: R.I.P. Bob 2 of DEVO

Sad news. Bob Casale (Bob2) of DEVO passed away yesterday, February 17, from heart failure. See the press release from his brother and DEVO founder Gerald Casale.

The news had me crawling the web watching DEVO videos…

Devo’s “Beautiful World” seems an appropriate song for today, exposing that ironic mixture of beauty and ugliness of life. Continue Reading and Watch Some Devo Videos →