Author Archives: Craig

Miracle Review

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, Willis. Yes. This was a book club recommendation, though I don’t need much encouragement to read Connie Willis. I enjoyed the collection more than I would have expected given that I’m not much of a fan of novelty (especially holiday) literature, but somewhat less than I would have expected given that I’m a substantial fan of Connie Willis. Some of the stories were also included in Winds of Marble Arch, but that did not significantly impair my enjoyment.

Finally upgraded

I’d been looking at the “you need to upgrade your WordPress software” warning for a few weeks, wondering whether the fixed vulnerabilities existed in 2.7.x, when this broke (Scoble was on 2.7 and got hit, so the vulnerability goes back at least that far), and I finally bit the bullet. It’s harder than it ought to be because my hosting provider doesn’t let me allocate as much memory as the automatic WP upgrade needs, but aside from the natural pain of “I’ve never done this before, and I really don’t want to break my blog”-inspired double-checking of everything, it wasn’t so bad. So if you’re running your own WordPress blog, please upgrade to 2.8.4 now.

Top Gear Series 10 Review

Top Gear Series 10. Does what it says on the tin. Well, strictly speaking, it approximates what it says on the tin. It’s Top Gear, certainly, with all the features you expect, but the episodes have inexplicably been cut down by roughly ten minutes each. Frequently, this results in the loss of the “news” segments, though they bizarrely chose to omit two “star in a reasonably priced car” segments, and at least one Stig power lap, f’r Chrissakes.
I cannot fathom what has possessed 2 Entertain to abridge the episodes at all; I know that they are similarly hacked up for US transmission, but that is so BBC America (and other licensees) can insert ads. There are, mercifully, no ads inserted on the DVD, so I can only speculate that somebody was very lazy or there was some rights issue that just happened to affect ten minutes per episode. In any event, it was extremely disappointing not to be seeing the full episodes.

Nose Down, Eyes Up Review

Nose Down, Eyes Up: A Novel, Markoe. Yes. I love Merrill Markoe. I’ve been a fan of her work since the mid 80s, when I figured out how much of what I found funny on a then-favorite show was her responsibility. That said, I did not love this book as much as I wanted to. The characteristic I can most easily identify as jarring is that the first-person narrator is a guy. I can’t say for sure whether the fault is in me or the writing: maybe if I had been reading it without having my expectations dialed to “Markoe,” I would have completely believed that a guy who was doing the things the narrator was doing was also thinking the things the narrator was thinking. I fear, though, that if I hadn’t had my expectations so dialed, I would have simply put the book down.

Children of the Streets Review

Children of the Streets, Ellison. Yes. After reading a bunch of early and less-known Zelazny, it has been interesting to read this early and somewhat less known Ellison. In both cases, the writer’s strong voice preceded the truly great writing. This is clearly early Ellison, both of a different time, and from a less-practiced writer: the seams are laid out for inspection, the prose ultraviolet. Not to say that Ellison’s prose has moved very far down the spectrum over the years, but it has definitely modulated a bit.
As an example of what I’m chalking up to inexperience, the narrator in the opening story (“No Way Out”) is distractingly omniscient. There’s no need to wonder what’s going on in a character’s head; no sooner has a character appeared in the story than the narrator lets us know thoughts, fears, hopes, and motivations.
Still, withal, compelling story-telling.

Constantine Review

Constantine. Okay. I was surprised that this comic book adaptation starring Keanu Reeves was watchable. It’s not good, but it’s a decent sound-system workout, the cast is uniformly competent, the effects hold up nicely, and even the mountains of exposition were handled surprisingly gracefully.
I expect the shots I found most annoying were taken from comic book panels (I have not read any Hellblazer comics; I suspect this caused me to enjoy the movie more), but I expect that some of the more visually arresting effects shots were also taken directly from the comics, so that may balance out.

I [heart] Costco

A few weeks ago, it finally registered that Costco had discontinued Gillette Sensor cartridges (I’ve been going through razors a bit faster over the last several months than I had in the last several years). I was frustrated by this, since the replacements (Mach 3 and (especially) Fusion) are roughly 3x the price (and, really, 5 blades?). I suspected that Gillette had pressured Costco to drop the less-expensive blades, and resolved to ask the question, though I didn’t expect to get an answer. I just got a call from Costco HQ, and I learned some things that surprised me.
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