R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 30

Pontificating on the Shell and Its Ghost

You claimed WHAT on the internet?!TL;DR version: I don’t give a damn.  She’s Asian.  I’m going to see the movie anyhow.  So should you.
This discussion grew out of, what else, an online argument about Ghost in the Shell and the apparent white-washing done to the main character Major Motoko Kusanagi when Scarlet Johannson was cast.  The work was enough, it seemed only right to keep it and share it.
If we're seriously discussing this, then let’s start at the basics. Masamune S...

Yo Soy!

Next stop—WORLD DOMINATION!I have to give a little shout out to my 9yo and my almost-7yo: Porter and Tristan.  Last night was Open House at the elementary school.  Both boys are in the dual language immersion program, and are learning Spanish.  We started at the Tristan’s classroom, but pressed for time, we didn’t really get to interact much.  However, when we went to the Porter’s class, most of the parents and students were gone, so there was a lot of interaction with the...

But Why Didn't You!?

With deepest, most heartfelt apologies to Miss Jane Austen:
And apologies to all blondes!It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an author, in possession of a good story, must be in want of a critic.  Whether that critic is a professional or not hardly matters.  The story, being the thing, and the internet, being another thing, critics and readers alike—both of which are often interchangeable—will assert themselves into the life of the author whether he, or on the most fortunate...

Cover Quotes For The Win

Nothing says it all like that!With McCandless, the action doesn’t stop from the get go.  And get going it does.  Taut, tight, pulse pounding, this struggle between good and evil r...

A Brief Treatise on the Nature and Appeal of Klingons

I find your lack of faith . . . disturbing.This is just a quick discussion on why some audiences really enjoy Klingons. There are a lot of quotation marks on words and phrases in this one—more than I "usually" use—because at the heart, Klingons tap into a bit of myth that isn't necessarily based in reality.  We'll get to that toward the end, but it seemed appropriate to mention at the beginning so that the author's intent was a little more clear.
Klingons tap into a lot of things that aud...

The Book of Viking Myths—by Peter Archer

Got Vikings?“The Book of Viking Myths: From the Voyages of Leif Erikson to the Deeds of Odin, the Storied History and Folklore of the Vikings” by Peter Archer is the perfect collection of myths and legends from the eponymous “Vikings”.  Anyone who has ever had an interest in Norse mythology, but isn’t yet ready to read “The Prose Edda” in the original in Old Norse, this is the book for you!
Archer opens by providing the reader with a brief background of the history of the Vikings.  H...

Malta - Azure Window

[image error] Obvious tourist is obvious!A friend of mine, something of a world-traveler, posted a few weeks that Malta’s Azure Window had collapsed into the sea.  I was saddened to hear this, although it’s more of an aesthetic tragedy than anything else.  This prompted me to find the pictures I had taken when I visited Malta nearly four years ago.
At first, thanks to my clever filing system, I wasn’t able to find them at all.  Today, while I was doing some other work for a friend, and inadve...

Writerz With Attitude

Oh, really?Damn, it feels good to be a writer.A real writer keeps a world tight.A real writer gets the characters in sight.Cuz a real writer is always ready when inspiration strikes.
Damn, it feels good to be a writer.
And everything's chaotic in the mind of a writer'Cause writers gotta juggle a dozen plotsUp twenty-five-hundred k every day,Cuz a real writer will wake up in the night,Grab a pen and a paper just to write.
And all I gotta say to you is,Damn it fee...

In Which I Ruin Someone's Day

Demons.  Amiright!?Burning flaming hellfire!
I just spoiled a reader.
Not just any reader either, but a very dear friend who has supported me from way, way back in high school.
I didn’t mean to do it.  I was just trying to share what I thought was a bitchin’, awesome, badass bit of dialogue.  But there it is and it can’t be taken back.  I apologized, removed the offending tweet and post and hoped that the 20-off minutes the spoiler was up didn’t ruin anyone else’s day.
If it d...

I "Slept In"—Dancing Cow

Disappointed.Generally, I don’t need an alarm to get up.  That’s not a brag, it’s just that I’m usually so on edge about being to places on time that my body simply freaks out if I think I’m going to be late.
Just ask the wife.
Well, obviously that didn’t happen this morning.  I woke up around “6:00am”.  That’s in quotes, because that’s totally a fake time.  That’s Daylight Stupid Time.  In standard time, I woke up a leisurely 5:00am, and I still had time to relax a bit...