Batman: Gotham Knight
This is an odd duck: a bunch of Japanese animation studios each produced a short film about Batman, and assembled them into a movie. Moreover, the shorts are all connected in a loose overall plot, despite the wildly different visual styles of each short. Batman: Gotham Knight features a Batman who is still mostly a […]
He’s Way Too Calm In The Face of Imminent Alien Death
So I’m terrifically behind the times when it comes to computer gaming. But many months ago, I finally got around to playing the original Halo. It’s a perfect first-person shooter. Now, that’s all it is, but it provides a fantastic environment in which to shoot at things. Excellent quality all around. Until I noticed something: […]
Houses of the Blooded
Saalon and I have talked before about the future of tabletop roleplaying. It started with the fantasy hack-and-slash of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970’s, followed by the introduction of generic systems like GURPS and FUDGE in the 1980’s (allowing for modern games, science fiction games, etc.), and the explosion of more open and acting-driven […]
Dead Poet’s Society
So I watched Dead Poet’s Society a couple of months ago. I’d heard it was good, but never really got around to it. It knocked my socks off. First off, it’s beautiful. The cinematographer goes to great lengths to capture the beauty of prep school grounds in New England. From the fiery colors of the […]
Osamu Tezuka’s Brilliant Buddha
I recently finished Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha, a manga adaptation of the life of Buddha. It’s about 3,000 pages that focus on the historical man, and the evolution of his philosophy, as opposed to attempts to teach you Buddhism. I had to be careful when reading this book, as I couldn’t simply pick it up, then put it down; I’d get sucked in and read through to the end. This is partly due to Tezuka’s unique style: he […]
Surreal, Yet Real
Read a fascinating book lately: Boogiepop and Others. It’s the first novel in a whole franchise, which itself takes some explaining. The franchise focuses on an entity called Boogiepop, which exists in the collective unconscious, and surfaces in certain people whenever a paranormal danger to humanity manifests. So, yes, it’s something of an urban fantasy. […]
North World: The Legend of Conrad
For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe the online comic North World. And I can’t. That’s one of the reasons I like it. North World has elements of a fantasy story—the protagonist wields a sword and confidently fights creatures in the wilderness. But that’s crossed with a very […]
What I Think of My Kindle After 6 Months
I’ve written before about my Kindle, and how much I’ve used it (I read 3 books in the first week). Now that I’ve had it for 6 months, my passion has cooled. I still enjoy my Kindle, and I’m glad I bought it. I like being able to read the WSJ any time I want […]
Neil Fiore’s The Now Habit
I’ve heard good things about Neil Fiore’s The NOW Habit, so I finally read the thing a few weeks back. It’s good. Didn’t change my life, as it apparently did for others, but I gleaned some good ideas from it. In particular, Fiore recommends that you rest, then work. Schedule and take breaks before you […]
Johnny Bunko and His Career
Just finished—literally, just—a career management book called The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. It’s pretty short, it’s got good advice, and it’s got great art. It needs to be : it’s a manga. This sort of thing is commonplace in Japan, where you’ll find how-to manga on just about […]