Dog Ear
May 5, 2022
s I always start off these blogs, “XXX simply another way to communicate, so i is covered in this blog”. I write about ways humans communicate. And one way they communicate is through software code. So now you know what “XXX” means in this context. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m writing a game named Pathfinder, an epic adventure of exploration, exploitation, starship crew management, aging and death. It’s a lot of work since Squiffy (the gamebook generator I prefer) has its own language. But to make it sit up and bark, you also need JavaScript knowledge. Both of these I’ve […]
April 28, 2022
used to love listening to Rollins College radio (WPRK) while I doodled back in the train/computer room. It had such good DJs (students and wannabees). When I’d drive in to work (on the day’s I didn’t have the bike) I could listen to Nina’s Sunrise Soul or student interviews or whatever. Then Covid hit and the station went into a broadcasting loop, the same songs over and over. Even with the pandemic winding down (but please, Readers, be careful!) they haven’t brought back the wonderful format I enjoyed, not fully. My radio, 40 years old, finally crapped out and I […]
April 21, 2022
he other night I was enjoying a quiet evening the way I like it – writing game code for my new effort, Pathfinder, the window open, the cool breezes flowing around me, the online radio quietly playing French soft rock. And that’s then the guy, the girl, and the motorcycle entered my world. They came down the street, making more noise than I make in a week. It was one of those suburban Harley’s bought from those urban-dad fake-factory stores, all noise, heavy as a tank. And even though they were rolling slow, the guy was revving his engine (because […]
April 14, 2022
was in the bookstore the other day and I saw a woman who appeared to be pregnant perusing a book on pregnancy. It wasn’t a for-dummies book, it was a fairly leaned tome, which means lots of words, not many pictures. But still, even though I’m a man without kids, I figured I should weigh in on this, just so she had my take on this whole “baby” and “birthing” thing. After all, I’m trying to help, right? So I went up to her and said, “Oh, you have one in the oven…?” Cringing yet? I’m giving you this allegory […]
April 8, 2022
ou might wonder about my reading room. Possibly you imagine a high-ceilinged, oaken place with towering bookshelves filled with leather-bound tomes. Well, using the magic of description, let me take you to the place I do much of my reading at. It’s an old shopping center along Corrine Drive in part of Old Orlando – the area of Colonialtown was build in the late 40s and remains (with the exception of sprouting, insufferable McMansions) pretty much as it was then. Anyway, this shopping center has been there for over a half-century. The sidewalks are cracked, the storefronts old-fashioned, painted and […]
April 1, 2022
o I was at home yesterday and got a call from someone named Joel Landau on the coast. He’s a project manager for Paramount (well, technically he works for a subsidiary of theirs). But he is one of those studio guys. It seems that the someone in Paramount got a hold of a copy of Early ReTyement (God knows how), read it, loved it, and saw potential in it. Studios, he related, are trying to get crowds back with new things, trying to outplay the Netflixs of the streaming world. Early ReTyrement is just what they needed: epic, vast, amazing. […]
March 24, 2022
here is a house about a mile away with two curb libraries in the front yard. Who knows why – maybe they have two many books or it’s a husband/wife thing; I dunno. All I know is that they generally have great books for adults (too many of these library’s become dumping grounds for last year’s school primer or half-done coloring books (yes, I’m looking at you, sister-dear)). Anyway, I generally come across this house without too much trying. I wander past it from time to time and believed it was at the intersection of Finch and Bobolink streets. The […]
March 16, 2022
ames are media, too. Which is why I’m covering this here. I’m currently writing a game called Pathfinder. The game focuses on a pathfinder ship that has the ability of slingshot around the sun and go up to the speed of light. Even at this speed, the average distance between stars is four light years, meaning it will take four years or more per jump. Of course, most of the crew can go into suspended animation in their sleep bunks for the flight, but a skeleton crew will need to be assigned (and they won’t be happy to lose four […]
March 10, 2022
o some of you might be wondering where I’ve been recently. No book reviews. No DOG EAR. Well, I’ve been in the jug, the slammer, the big house. Yes, I’ve been in FaceBook jail. There was a discussion that noted that we, as citizens of the United States, should resist calls to hate Russian local businessmen and immigrants for their crazy leader’s invasion of Ukraine (though, from the long view, it looks a little like Iraq, doesn’t it?) But, yes, I agree. But I couldn’t help to point out my own thoughts of our “educated citizenry”… Well, it’s true. We […]
February 24, 2022
am a fan of Goliath, a show on Amazon. It was a great four-season story about a very shrewd lawyer who lives out of a bottle in a Malibu bar, brought back from the pasture by a case involving is suspicious boating accident. It’s a fun set, with Billy Bob Thornton playing it to the hilt, amicable and shrewd all at once. I loved the line where an apposing corporate attorney tries to bluff him by asking if he’s trying to make a million or so in settlement and Thornton replies, “I’m going to reach up your client’s ass and […]