Category: Commentary
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A Little Spam for the Soul
Some days just have a way of putting a smile on your face—if you look at them the right way. I got a couple of emails this morning that tickled my very peculiar funny bone. First I received this: Actually I added the last line because that’s what went through my head. BTW the actual…
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What are My Principles?
An excerpt from A Geek’s Progress: When I was 11 years old and getting my hair cut, I had an interesting revelation. The barber shop was set up with large mirrors on opposite sides of the narrow room. Being bored, I noticed a reflection of the mirror behind me in the corner of the mirror…
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Book Selling & Mysterious AI
Although my wife and I have published ebooks before, after going to several SF Conventions the last 3 years, I decided I should also publish my first novel in paperback—maybe even hardback and audio eventually. When I did, mysterious things happened. I published Advance Guards on Amazon, the big boy in indie publishing because, well…
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The Riverside Monster
Image by Jimmy Lai/HIGHLANDER My alma mater, University of California, Riverside (UCR) emailed me yesterday (cuz’ I’m on their email list) with a request to fill out a survey. Despite my misgivings about the likelihood of anything this old geezer says being thought of as relevant, I decided to go ahead, mainly because I want…
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Is It Cheating if We Do It?
The current controversy over Texas’ redistricting of their congressional districts–to increase fairness, or to legislate Democrats out of existence–depending on your partisan political point of view, makes me nostalgic. You see, in the late 80’s I still harbored an ambition to attain a Master’s degree in Geography to go with my Bachelor’s degree in History.…
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Why I Am a Christian
In a few weeks, I will, God willing, be baptized and chrismated into the Eastern Orthodox Church. It seems a good time to share this essay that I wrote years ago. Let me first make clear that my purpose is not to convert anybody, but rather to explain why I believe what I do. For…
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Machine Unlearning
I’m a SF writer and have participated in multiple SF conventions this summer. If you’re not familiar with the world of ‘Cons’, they are a ubiquitous practice where those formerly known as nerds and geeks gather and celebrate the culture of comic books, science fiction, fantasy, science, potential futures, etc., exchanging ideas in the hopes…
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Impressive Baseball Stats (or Not)
Now that the baseball season is in full swing, allow me to quote a couple of “impressive” achievements from early in 2025. According to Underdog Fantasy’s Justin Havens, Tatis is the seventh player in the Wild Card era to record at least four home runs, six stolen bases, nine RBIs and 13 runs in his…
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Shakespeare Is Not Dead, But Alive, For He has Risen
No blasphemy intended by the title, just borrowing a phrase. Allow me to share just a small sample of a single contemporary work set in America’s 1920s to make my point. Let me describe some scenes, so you can tell me what this work is all about. A young woman is a waitress on a…
Musings of a Restless Mind 