Dave Higgins's Blog, page 108
October 7, 2015
The Tranquillity of Sunsets To Come
My wife is away for a few weeks. While I certainly don’t desire her absence, I had thought previous time apart had given me a basis to prepare. However, I had forgotten the impact of those things I don’t need to remember: habits. Having what my wife describes as a mature relationship, we don’t need […]
October 5, 2015
The Only Threat Is Essex
While out shopping this morning, I discovered evidence that the New World Order are becoming bolder. Whether they have newly involved themselves in my local supermarket or expanded their operations, the signs of their presence are there for any not blinded by logic and reason. On each pillars in the aisle containing kitchen roll, a […]
October 2, 2015
Infinite Waters by Nicholas C. Rossis
Focussing on aspects of character and the narrator’s immediate perceptions rather than complex details and world building, Rossis creates a series of tales that are about immediate challenges rather than the epic expanses of fresh worlds. Several of the stories include a twist ending. While I have attempted to avoid mentioning those details, this review […]
September 30, 2015
That Sinking Feeling
As part of my quest to play instalments of games before the one that follows goes on discount, I started playing Fallout: New Vegas last week. So far, it’s been great fun: the revisited content and mechanisms are comforting rather than stale; the new content and mechanisms provide excitement rather than frustration; even the return […]
September 28, 2015
The Small Things
As an example of the power of my words, I was washing my hands this morning when I heard Una meow loudly from somewhere else, so I meowed back where I was. Immediately, there was a pattering of paws and she rushed into the bathroom. Clearly, my Cat-tongue is improving. As a more generally applicable […]
September 25, 2015
Clockwork Menagerie by Karen Kincy
Intermingling the fast-paced action of a spy thriller with solid character development against a background of clockwork mysticism, Kincy produces a story that will appeal to a broad range of speculative fiction readers. Archmage Konstantin would like nothing more than to devote his time to studying the clockwork dragon Vienna has captured from Russia. However, […]
September 23, 2015
Liberty in Proportion to Restraint
The morals and ethics of Kim Davis’ stance have been hashed and rehashed over the last several weeks. Philosophically, both the choice between civil obligations and religious ones, and the determination of what are properly obligations rather than personal choices, are complex topics. However, the question of whether imprisoning her for not doing her job […]
September 21, 2015
A Crust of Peace
Social anxiety is often portrayed as a trait of shut-ins and outsiders, but it isn’t. Some coping mechanisms might display as traits commonly assigned to those groups, but others don’t. Depending on the person, their method of coping with a situation might not even present as anxiety. Much as mine doesn’t. I have presented cases […]
September 18, 2015
I’m Antisocial, Coffee Never Lies: Part I by Mallory Smart
Mixing cats, coffee, and mellow commentary, Smart peels back the masks of social meaning that cover our choices to reveal that it might not matter why we enjoy things as much as whether we enjoy things. From an objective metric perspective, this book is 45 pages long including front and back matter, contains five illustrations […]
September 16, 2015
The Beauty of Our Own Reality
PsychGuides have published a study of how the BMI of successful contestants in the Miss America contest has changed for the worst over the years, along with some of the risks of an unhealthy BMI. I can’t add to their science, but what I can do is add my voice to the side of healthy […]
