More Fool Me is the story of Stephen Fry’s life, so far. I’ve been a fan of Stephen Fry since the days of Black Adder I and Jeeves & Wooster. He’s a funny fellow with a great deadpan deliver. He’s also a pretty damned good writer. Making History, a time travel book about Hitler, was shockingly good. More Fool Me is what all autobiographies should be. A bit of history, a bit of reflection, and a bit of actual diary from the good old days. I have been a fan of Stephen Fry for lo these many years, but I…
Category: random thoughts
Violence on TV-Too much or is it just me?
It seems today, that all you see is violence in movies, and sex on T.V. -opening of Family Guy I don’t watch as much Network TV as I used to, but the shows I do like tend to be on the tame side. Big Bang Theory, Heart of Dixie, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Forever, and Downton Abbey. True, there is a bit violence in these shows, but it’s usually pretty mild and often happens off screen. I’m not against violence, I watch R-Rated movies and Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones are two of the best shows of the…
American Sniper
I read an article written during the The Bosnian War where the writer was meeting an old friend. This friend was fighting in the war. He was a sniper. The writer of the article made it clear that this was not a good thing. A lot of people have this kind of fantasy idea of war, where Arthur stands toe-to-toe with Lancelot and doesn’t draw his sword until he sees the whites of his eyes. The idea is that there is honor in facing an enemy and giving them a chance to kill you as you try to kill them.…
The Red Bulletin
The Red Bulletin is not a bit of Soviet Era Communist Propaganda, it’s a strange little publication from the good people at Red Bull soft drink. I was an early adopter of Red Bull, a rather unpleasant tasting beverage that inspired a whole world of other ‘energy’ drinks. I drank it not because it gave me wings, but because it helped me to stay awake for a couple of hours. Now, the makers of Red Bull pretty much ignore their core audience, people who want to stay awake for a couple more hours, and instead like to focus on people…
Priceline and Extended Stay America
I use Priceline a lot. Like once a week or so. I’ve become a huge fan of the Express Deals feature, which often has rooms at half their normal cost. The only problem is that you don’t know which hotel has the good deal until you buy it. Of course, you can do a little research and figure it out most of the time. Look at the map and the rating and comapre it to the regular listings. I often just roll the dice though. Over the years I have been using Priceline I have only had one or two…
Beezid-going…
Beezid is a Penny Auction Site, which means they have things like Kindles, DSLRS, TVs, Computers, and the like that sell for a few cents to a few dollars. The catch? You will spend a lot more than a few dollars to win them. Beezid is a fun site and in the past few days I have won three items and one Bid Pack. I won some cologne, a set of meat thermometers, and a wireless keyboard. The easy wins are for items no one wants. Beezid is like Storage Wars in that no one wants to let you win,…
The American Gothic House
Just east of Radar O’Rielly’s home town of Ottumwa, Iowa is a tiny little town called Eldon. You make a few turns down some narrow little lanes and there at the end of one road is the house from the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. It’s a lot smaller than I expected, though to be honest, until I saw in noted on the map, I had never given it any thought at all. American Gothic is one of the most paradied images of all time with hundreds of people and things standing in for the grumpy couple in front…
Andrew Wyeth-Looking Out, Looking In
One of the great things about the internet is you can find an image of just about any work of art ever made. This is also one of the bad things about the internet, because people decide why should I go to a museum when I can just google it? Well, because a few pixels spread across a computer screen is not the same experience as standing where the Master stood as he/she applied the paint to the canvas. The National Art Gallery in Washington, DC has a collection of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings and sketches having to do with windows…
A Small Twitter Obsession
I’ve been using Twitter for about five years, in a mostly passive way. I tend to make about ten tweets a day, follow just about anyone who follows me, and have the occasional chats and comment exchanges. I’m one of those people that uses my own photo and when I do chat I tend to express my real thoughts. This is not the case with many Twitter users, who often view their Twitter account as a Role they are playing. Like any large community, Twitter has many smaller neighborhoods where wandering round may get you into trouble. I met a…
Writing Novels
When something is finished, that means it’s dead, doesn’t it? I believe in everlastingness. I never finish a painting – I just stop working on it for a while. -Arshile Gorky I was fired not too long ago. Rather than look for a new job or trying to find work on my own, I decided to work on a couple of books that have been kicking around in my head. My thought was that these were going to be fun little books about vampires and I could bang them out in no time. Sure enough the rough drafts were mostly…