Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 95
October 11, 2017
More likely an ET attack?
I always had my doubts when it was announced that our U.S. diplomatic corps in Cuba had suffered a sonic attack that made them sick and even brain-damaged (never mind that politicians suffer brain damage to begin with). But I didn’t have any data to back up my doubts. While high intensity sound can lead to hearing losses—baby boomers like me who’ve done a few rock concerts are beginning to experience them—it seemed to be a stretch that sound waves were the culprits. I thought it was more like...
October 10, 2017
Real tax reform…
…won’t happen. It never does. Lobbyists and special interests vie for their special deals, the GOP hauls out its debunked trickle-down economics theory to make the rich richer and widen the income gap, the middle class gets the shaft yet again, and the poor just become poorer as always. We don’t need a Sheriff of Nottingham or Prince John when federal, state, and local taxes are much more egregious than Robin Hood’s foes’ and make the revolutionary mantra “No taxation without representation!”...
October 9, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.—Arthur Schopenhauer.
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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of “Game of Thrones” fantasy mixed into the hard sci-f...
October 6, 2017
Movie reviews #53…
Stronger. David Gordon Green, dir. The superlative title is taken from “Boston Strong,” the ubiquitous cheer after the Boston Marathon bombing. The main character is Jeff Baumann who lost his legs in the attack. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who maybe gives an Oscar-worthy performance, Mr. Baumann comes across as an ordinary guy with a lot of rough edges. His family comes across much worse, and the girlfriend Erin Hurley, played by Tatiana Maslany, comes across better than all of them. Of course...
October 5, 2017
Californian memories…
The state is big—in size, scenery, population, and history. As a native Californian, it’s odd that not many of my stories have a Californian setting. Silicon Slummin’…and Just Getting’ By, the second Mary Jo Melendez mystery, take place there, but mostly in Silicon Valley, the one place in the state I don’t know very well because it wasn’t there when I was growing up! (Millennials might not realize that we actually could survive without so much technology back then.)
When I started writing my...
October 4, 2017
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches # 150…
[Another milestone for this online newsletter: edition # 150…and it doesn’t even come out every week. OK, I’ve been doing this for 10+ years now, but it’s still fun! Hopefully for you too.]
Would you rather be reading? Of course, this question probably doesn’t apply to you—that is, all the avid readers out there—but I can now add two more modern activities that have less worth than reading. In other posts I’ve mentioned streaming video (especially “binge viewing”) and video gaming. The two ne...
October 3, 2017
Age discrimination…
A popular adage says “60 is the new 40.” Try telling that to companies and other hiring institutions. Most companies don’t like to hire anyone over fifty—they view older workers at best as a drain on their benefits programs, and at worst they’ll fire older workers because they figure they can hire two or three younger employees for the same salary. Experience has no value anymore.
Colleges and universities can even be worse than companies. There’s a wealth of experience among retirees from in...
October 2, 2017
Monday words of wisdom…
Would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones.—Hannah Arendt
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Sci-fi book sale: More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are now on sale at Smashwords from October 1 through October 31. Their prices are reduced to $1.99—that’s one-third off. In the first novel, an ET virus changes the world, but in a good way, and leads to the colonization of Mars. In the second, there’s a wee bit of fantasy...
September 29, 2017
Movie Reviews #52…
Wind River. Taylor Sheridan, writer and director. This has been on my must-see list for a while. After seeing it, I can say it’s an intense movie where the snow and cold play a big role. Set in Wyoming, it’s based on true events (you never know how much Hollywood changes them, of course) and features a tough forestry service hunter Cory Lambert (played excellently by Jeremy Renner) who helps FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) find the men who raped and killed an eighteen-year-old Native...
September 28, 2017
Old, but…
For those familiar with my Facebook author’s page, on Thursdays I usually choose to feature a book from the list you’ll find on the “Steve’s Bookshelf” page of this website. I read many books, of course, but this list includes those that struck me as special for one reason or another. To make this brief, a while ago I chose Ken Follett’s novel Eye of the Needle. While he has a new book out—James Bond in a very old historical sitting—Eye of the Needle is his best by far and the one I remember...
