The British weekly news magazine The Economist, one of the world’s most renowned news outlets, has set up a rather nifty site where people from all over the world can drop in and vote for their favourite candidate for the American presidential election this November. Go check it out; it has a lot of fun [...]
Posts filed in Links
You know, those things chains are made of?
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
The Last Colony by John Scalzi.
Tor Science Fiction, 2007.
320 pages.
“Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”
— Commissioner Pravin Lal of the Peacekeepers,
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
The Punic Wars and Expansion — Lecture #2
2nd lecture — The Punic Wars: From Village to Mediterranean Empire.
(This post is based on a lecture held by Jan Frode Hatlen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology on August 28 2008. However, any factual errors in the text is strictly my responsibility.)
I still don’t quite believe my own eyes…
Because of the extensive coverage of the American presidential election in the last couple of weeks, I’ve suddenly found myself wanting to see the complete West Wing series — of which I’ve seen the occasional season, but never the whole shebang. Subsequently, I go to Amazon.co.uk, search for “west wing”, and get this as one [...]
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
(If this isn’t my best review, please bear over with me; it’s been over two months since I read this book.)
2001 (1970, 1962, 1970).
165 pages.
“Induction” (2 pages)
“The Snow Women” (74 pages)
“The Unholy Grail” (27 pages)
“Ill Met in Lankhmar” (62 pages)
Swords and Deviltry is the first collection of short stories in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series’ [...]
The impressiveness of detail
On the currently newest Order of the Stick page, in the very first panel, do you see what it is?
You’re completely right; Lord Kubota stands there reading one of the books from the DnD 4th Edition core rulebook set, which he’s obviously ordered from Amazon.
It’s a small thing, I know, but it still warms my [...]
The sites you (or someone who might seem like they kinda hate you) stumble across…
So, first of all, I found this in my e-mail inbox just now. Horrible disgusting stuff, which I honestly can’t understand why I watched, as I was warned what it was beforehand. (Okay, never mind that; I didn’t watch it at all. Primarily because there was a link to another video there, and that video’s [...]
A Plague! A Plague on Our Houses!
In my Last.fm shoutbox, I was recently asked by one of my readers to post more frequently in my blog, and seeing as your whim is my law, I bring you this: an essay of sorts about the last topic you’d expected me to write about!
One of the things you might not know [...]
Iron Man
So. The second most anticipated movie of the year or something, Iron Man. I was a skeptic, I have to admit as much. Sure, I’d heard from both Loki and Kalle that it was a phenomenal movie, but they’re both something resembling Marvel fanboys. And me? I’d encountered Iron Man in some minor spots in [...]
Hero
After the awkwardness of The Sword and the Sorcerer, it felt good to watch one of my favourite fantasy movies, namely Hero. (Granted, it’s more of a historically based wu xia movie, really, but seeing as its pretty much based on a myth and not on what the historian in me would call history, and [...]
A Message from the Lost Son: Why I Love Heraclius
“The Persians were applying inexorable pressure on what remained of the empire. Heraclius was faced with a stark choice: he could either wait for the Persian grip to tighten, fighting a series of rearguard actions which offered little chance for ultimate success, or he could throw caution to the wind and take battle to the [...]
Success!
Finally, after close to three months of almost constant webcomic reading, I’m finally ajour with Order of the Stick, PvP, xkcd, Penny Arcade and Ctrl+Alt+Del, meaning that I am now ready to strart reading new ones! Wee!
Which is something I feel like celebrating a bit, as I haven’t really started reading more than one new [...]
… and the first ones of 2008
A few ones more…
Ghostbusters
Do I really have to sum up the plot? Didn’t think so. So, this used to be one of me and my friends’ favourite movies when we were 7-8 years old, and I have no idea how long I’ve spent playing Ghostbusters with sticks or LEGO. The movie was still fun, but [...]
The last movies of 2007…
I’ve been over a month since I last reviewed any movies, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t watched any since.
America’s Sweethearts
A romantic comedy about two self-absorbed actors who’ve been an item for several years. Has some parodical elements which are worth watching — especially the ones involving Billy Crystal’s calculated PR man — but the [...]
Another one of GRRM’s ASOIAF fantasy references?
So far, I’ve noticed references to at least two other writers of Epic Fantasy in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The first was quite simply the use of the name Vance on one of Westeros’ noble families, and the second (which I admittedly didn’t discover myself, I’m ashamed to say) is [...]
Oh. My. Fucking. Gods.
I just found out that there exists a British television show from 1990 where Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry plays the parts of P.G. Wodehouse’s Wooster and Jeeves. Naturally, all my viewing plans and schedules have been postponed until I’ve downloaded and watched all four seasons.
Not that that means much — I’ve hardly watched any [...]
Curses! Or constructing next term’s schedule
I checked my course registration page at NTNU (ooh!) about an hour ago, and much to my delight I discovered that I’ve been registered for not two but three courses this spring, and that these three combined fill my required term quota of 30 study points.
English Linguistics gives me 7,5 points if I pass it; [...]
Where you around in Pirate Times?
“Our research shows that pirates flitted about and spoke in a lyrical falsetto voice.”
First brilliant PvP strip in a really long time.
Wastin’ money
Be that as it may, seeing as I don’t think I’ll fail any of my exams, I decided to take a quick trip downtown, to visit my favourite purveyors of fine leisure activities.
The first of these was Avalon, also known as Gotham. I was primarily looking for John Scalzi’s Ghost Brigades, but it as turned [...]
w00t!
Finally! Almost two years since I bought and started playing it, and some five or six years since the game’s release, I finally finished Neverwinter Nights!
I was close about half a year ago, too, when I had this rather nice Half-Orc Paladin going for me, but unfortunately, he proved to be no match for the [...]
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