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More madness here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Signs for the modern age.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Two hyperactive dogs plus one cranky child equals no coffee in the morning.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A long time ago I decided Stephen King was a bag of wind and stopped buying his books. Nice to have it confirmed, yet again.

I don't want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got, the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's, it's not as bright. So, that's my little commercial for that.

Hey, Stephen, thanks for supporting the troops! Oh, by the way, you really express your total ignorance of the military here. Moron.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Mr. Postman brought me books signed by Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph."

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Posted by: JohnL at 09:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm in love with Agatha Heterodyne!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is pretty nifty. The "missing link" in electronic circuit theory, the memristor, has been invented. Time to re-write all those textbooks!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Gawd, the female characters in this webcomic are hawt, hawt I tell you!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman: A Walking Tour of the Shambles (Little Walks for Sightseers #16) (American Fantasy, 2002, ISBN 0-9610352-6-9; cover art by Gahan Wilson, interior art by Randy Broecker and Earl Geier).

This is a very small book...not sure I'd rate it a book, other than the fact that it is between too covers.

It is also an utterly hilarious book. From the listing of "other books" (all fictional titles) to the amazing sites you'll see in an obscure part of Chicago, to suggestions of what to eat at a restaurant you'll come across on your walking tour...funny stuff. Did you know about the buried Chinese cemetery? How about the tunnels under Lake Michigan? And what about that odd statue with the ruby eye that gets stolen and returns on a regular basis.

Try to find a copy and save your pennies to buy it. Bonus for me, my copy is signed by Wolfe, Gaiman and Wilson (and I'll let you guess which signature I value the most).

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For Father's Day, I gave the young lady a copy of The Daring Book for Girls.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Father's Day is kind of depressing, given the state of health of my own father.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Nothing wakes up your day like stepping on a nest of yellow jackets; I think I collected ten stings.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume One (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-69-5; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Two (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-73-2; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Three (Night Shade Books; 2007; ISBN 978-1-892389-80-0; cover by David Martin).

As I read more and more of David Drake's books, I find that I did him something of a disservice in my earlier review of this series. It is only after going through the series, hearing a couple of interviews with him, and reading a chunk of additional tales (of varying lengths) that I see how lightly I dismissed his work.

And for that, I apologize.

more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Following up on the previous entry, I really recommend a visit to The Agony Column's audio page and Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing (silly name, that). I've been downloading podcasts like mad; and even if I've never heard of the author, or have had any interest in the genre being discussed, I've been finding a lot of stuff that is making its way to my wish list! more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'll freely admit to having ignored this gentleman's work. There are two reasons, really: (a) I'm not as interested in fantasy as I am in science fiction; (b) other than a few exceptions, I tend to ignore long open-ended serial novels (especially if they fit the first category!).

However... more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A friend passed on a link to an interview with Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of I am a Strange Loop as well as the (in)famous Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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NewDog likes to block the stairway from the deck to the yard, engaging OldDog in a stare down.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yes, folks, even the end of the world can be funny. But you have to have been in a unit with a new butterbar to really appreciate something like this.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I am currently watching Being John Malkovich.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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