StanleyWheeler

"If you call that interfering, there's something wrong with your Funk & Wagnalls." That was my favorite line from an episode of Buck Rogers last week. The clip is at the end of the post. Some amusing SF/Fantasy book titles that I would like to see: Death of a Talisman To Clone a Mockingbird Of Humanoid Bondage Gorn with the Wind Book Reviews First, the book for which I didn't have the stickety-to-itey to complete. Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits As I did not finish the book, I won't give a standard review. I got the book for free through Prime. The book is the tale of an online gamer who actually makes his living via his character's online income. The character is some big boss head of a guild or something. Treachery sends the character to an unknown region of the game, transformed into a lowly goblin. Additionally, the player himself soon becomes trapped in the online game. The story of the lowly goblin character's rise to power (and sev...

I don't remember where I found this, but it is my favorite rendition of the Enterprise. This conception screams 1966 Corvette Stingray, or some sleek vehicle of that time frame. Imagine the series if the Enterprise ran on an internal combustion engine instead of warp drive. Scotty would be doing frequent tune-ups, changing the points and plugs, boring out the cylinders, or perhaps just adjusting the fuel mixture for that extra .02 bump in speed necessary to elude the two big block Ford Klingon Battle Cruisers that were lurking behind the moons of the mysterious green planet R2X7 at the corner of the Galactic Boulevard and the Asphalt Nebula. I know--there are no gas stations in space. But enough of that. The real news is that I've finished writing the sequel to Justice in Season . I still have to proof it myself and then have my special editors provide their feedback and corrections, and then it will soon be available for download. Shortly after that, both the first ...

Before the irregularly scheduled episode of Combat! , a few words from a book I'm reading. Just because I may not agree with the statement, doesn't mean that I don't find it humorous. L'âge, incapable d'embellir, efface du moins les différences excessives qui séparent la beauté de la laideur. À cinquante ans, ce qui reste d'une femme laide est bien près de ressembler à ce qui reste d'une jolie femme . – Le Loup Blanc . Paul Feval. Combat! Season 1 Episode 10: ”I Swear by Apollo” The wind is blowing fiercely. The squad is headed into some trees. They come (like children through a wardrobe) past the shaggy limbs of a coniferous tree. They escort a Frenchman who is carrying a roll of papers. He’s obviously NPC number one. Saunders tells them that they’ll go in single file, staying in his footsteps, as the area may be mined. They spot some cloister nuns from a nearby convent working in a cemetery. Is it an omen? Saunders says their job is to get ...

There's an undeniable satisfaction derived from pounding a screwdriver through an oil filter. Grasping that skewering tool's handle, applying the torque--that transference of will into action--and twisting the recalcitrant part to force the release of its tenacious hold upon the engine block brings an indisputable sense of gratification--until you realize that the removal of the nearly brand new filter was completely unnecessary. That oil filter was the single most expensive part in the repair that I did Saturday on the lawn mower aka the Craftsman warmachine. It had a broken intake rod. I had discovered the broken rod when I had removed the valve cover and found things in a state of complete disarray--not to be confused with Desiree, who is complete and is also found in my state. The repairs included replacing the rod guide (which I had unwittingly (or half-wittedly) damaged in a previous repair, and which ultimately, I believe, was the cause of the broken rod) both the int...

From one of Benjamin Franklin's lesser known writings: "Are there twenty Men in Europe at this Day, the happier, or even the easier, for any Knowledge they have pick’d out of Aristotle? What Comfort can the Vortices of Descartes give to a Man who has Whirlwinds in his Bowels! The Knowledge of Newton’s mutual  Attraction  of the Particles of Matter, can it afford Ease to him who is rack’d by their mutual  Repulsion , and the cruel Distensions it occasions?" Ben Franklin 's proposal for a special study The last book finished in August: Requiem: Dawn of Dragons: Book 1: Requiem's Song : General Thoughts : Arenson has superior writing talent. He excels at writing combat scenes. His style is easy to follow and quite exciting. I wish more fantasy writers possessed his skill. I enjoyed the first half of this book. The second half was a drudgery, trudging from one fight scene to another with one of the many characters struggling with some hardship in between. It ...