Dog Ear
June 6, 2024
ith the advent of cheap yet reliable camera technology, people take pictures of everything now. For every train activity we do, I get at least twenty photos “snapped” of the action. No focus. No lighting hassles. Just point and snap. And who hasn’t seen the wave of selfies (where people block otherwise amazing vistas with their own smiling, V-fingered images) or food shots (I saw someone recently in a McDonalds snapping a photo of their burger). Pictures pictures pictures. And sure, I take pictures of things. When we went overseas, I took pictures of places I saw (without me in […]
May 29, 2024
nteresting little event tonight. We were in a chain-ish deli, enjoying dinner. Just quiet time, my wife and I reading over our meals. I had on my My Hero Academia t-shirt on, the character Bakugo, the rival of the hero, a guy who can cause explosions from his hands. He’s loud, crazy and fun to watch. Anyway, when it was check-time, the waitress said, “I like your shirt. And I like anime.” And that got us both wound up, comparing titles and frothing about that media. Turns out she watch all of Bleach (something like 20+ seasons of 24 episodes […]
May 16, 2024
t’s interesting to look over this history of Jimmy Buffett and his hit Margaritaville. After all, he was a guy hanging out in the Caribbean and supposedly wrote this song that resonated amongst all the sad yuppies of the world. The song in its imagined state implies a laid-back lifestyle. But if you look at the lyrics, it’s more about a marginalized alcoholic “wasting away” in the bottom of a margarita glass, who is wandering aimlessly and slowly realizing that he fucked up his life and there is no coming back. The thing is, Buffett was no fool. Soon as […]
May 9, 2024
ccasionally people buy my books on Amazon and Smashwords – gratifying. The pocket change is nice. Of course, the entire reason this site exists is for me to peddle my books while attending more book shows, writing more books and being famous and all. Well, most of that didn’t happen but I have to admit, I enjoy blogging and posting every little bullshit that comes to mind. But still, the minor monetization of the site is part of it, so for every posting (and I have thousands of them), I always add a link to my page with Amazon links. […]
May 2, 2024
hat, I’m still doing this? It’s been, what, weeks since my last DOG EAR. Well, I’ve been busy. First off, I was off for two weeks in the wonderful Netherlands. And as my want, I write a blog each day about what we saw and experienced. That’s all find and good – with my tinytop computer, it’s nice to retire to the quiet lounge at the end of a day and just… reflect. It’s the writer’s thing to do. And you can find all my recent travels HERE. The Netherlands are right at the top. Anyway, I’ve been doing this […]
March 21, 2024
omeone loaned me the first (and really, only) season of Jonny Quest. It was fun to watch, and it involves the titular character (a young boy) whose father, one of those all-fields scientists of yore, takes him on all sorts of adventures. Included in their posse is body guard/builder Race Bannon and a young Hindu boy, Hadji, who the good doctor adapted after the plucky lad saved his life (hey, besides the thirty-two gallons of blood I’ve donated, I can think of two specific lives I’ve saved. Nobody’s adapted me). Oh, and Bandit, the dog who growls at scorpions that […]
March 7, 2024
ne of the popular methods of making distant future scifi relatable to us in the present day is to adorn the stories with items that relate to our world. The idea is that our present is carried into this future, to make us more curious. After all, there is our time carried forward for our amusement. Some examples. The Rocinante – This is the space ship in the wonderful Expanse series. It is the name of Don Quixote’s broken-down mount, and sorta hints that the heroes of that series consider themselves misguided in their various quests. Also, in one part, […]
February 22, 2024
very now and then while scrolling FaceBook, I’ll find an old Calvin and Hobbs strip. I’ll generally pause and enjoy it (which is probably why the FaceBook AI bots send me more of them (creepy)). I like the fresh art and the humor of a child who, like Dennis the Menace, is out of control. It ended after ten years when creator Bill Watterson decided he’d said all he could and couldn’t work with the compression of comics in dying newspapers. I can respect him for this. Recently a Dilbert group showed up, complete with a weird cartoon that didn’t make […]
February 16, 2024
o today, here’s a brief column about the earliest form of human communication: the gesture. In this case, it’s flipping the bird. Side note: Yes, the finger came about after Agincourt in 1415, but it is a gesture so I’m going with it. Now, I’m a cyclist. And a pedestrian. I walk and bike more than most people, and hence can tell you that most people drive like furious buttheads. Having been on the receiving end, I slow way down and swing way wide of any non-car humans. I’ve been hit by cars once while on foot and six times […]
February 1, 2024
t was an interesting day. My friend Chris models (indirectly) the railroad yard at Taft, south of Orlando. Of course, the only real way this game executive and dad can really get an idea of the actual industries and scenery is google maps. You just can’t really stroll onto railroad property anymore, not with the railroad cops and hobos (both equally dangerous). So I suggested making a day of it using SunRail, our local north-south heavy rail than runs down the CSX lines into Taft (which he wants to see up close). So we did. It was a nice ride […]