Blog

The old blog, active from 2006 through 2012.

Infoquake Chapter 4, Podcast Chapter 2, and Final Cover

Infoquake

It’s now approximately two months until the release of Infoquake. Pre-orders are available on Amazon.com, Booksense, and Barnes & Noble. News this month: Chapter 2 of the Infoquake Podcast Now Available Chapter 2 of Infoquake is now available as a podcast read by the author (me). Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS to get each chapter as it appears, or download audio files from the website in MP3, Ogg Vorbis or Windows Media... Continue reading→

“Return of the Jedi”: A Postscript

Film

My tale of seeing Return of the Jedi for the first time in 1983 is not nearly as interesting as my tale of seeing The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. I spent three summers waiting and imagining. The events of Empire were carefully parsed and dissected with my brother and all of my friends. I wrote several episodes of fan fiction in which I actually predicted Luke and Leia’s siblinghood and the return of the... Continue reading→

The Day “The Empire Strikes Back” Changed Everything

Film

Saturday, May 24, 1980. It’s a sunny morning in Orange County, California. Jimmy Carter is president of the United States, Mount St. Helens has just erupted, Richard Pryor will be setting himself on fire any day now. The Iranians have taken a number of Americans hostage in Tehran. Lots of people seem to be singing “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” though I’m not quite sure why. My mother takes my brother, my sisters, and me to... Continue reading→

Sid Meier’s “Civilization IV”

Uncategorized

I’ve been a longtime fan of the Civilization series of turn-based simulation games — ever since the first iteration back in the very early ’90s. But I held off buying the latest release, Civilization IV, for several months because of its horrendous quality control issues. (For more on those, just take a gander at all the nasty reviews on the Amazon page.) But finding myself in need of a major distraction a few weeks ago,... Continue reading→

Why Is Health Care So Fucked Up?

Uncategorized

The American health care system is fucked up. And I’m not talking about health care on the macroeconomic/social policy scale here — right now I’m more concerned with the average Joe/Jane’s trip to the family practitioner or the emergency room. Why do so many doctors still schedule appointments in a black ledger book on the desk instead of in a shared calendar on the computer? How come they can’t e-mail you to confirm or reschedule... Continue reading→

The Cultural Speedometer

Film

There’s a scene from the John Hughes/Brat Pack classic The Breakfast Club where John Bender (the “troubled rough kid” played by Judd Nelson) gets a lecture from Carl the Janitor (John Kapelos). John has just mocked his fellow classmates by suggesting that they should become purveyors of “the janitorial arts” like Carl. Carl makes a little speech about how he is really “the eyes and ears of this institution.” The camera cuts to a shot... Continue reading→