Wallpaper - Destination (Calvin & Hobbes)

Wallpaper.

It's summer, and life and work are changing yet again. The future is... unclear.

It's a good thing I'm not the only one who doesn't know where he'll end up.

The truth is, most of us only discover where we are heading when we arrive...

Jack McDevitt - The engines of God (1994) / Deepsix

Audiobook Review.

Strange... I'm pretty sure I've read some of his work, but I cannot recall a single title. Oh well... I had totally different expectations of these two books. I was expecting large, grand space opera, and though it features explorers, fighting for their lives, spaceships, aliens and what not... 

Sanctuary (2008..2011)

Series Review.

Amanda Tapping takes care of 'abnormals'. Innocent young man ends up protecting supernatural beings. Some evil machinations try to take the sanctuary for aforementioned supernatural beings down. Troubles ensue.

I think that's pretty much it 😁

Chapter Size and Reading Speed

Writing + Reference

(This is a follow up to Book And Chapter Sizes)

Do you need chapters, and is chapter size related to reading speed? I think it is! Read on...

Babylon 5 (1993..1998)

Series Review.

I never saw all episodes of B5 thus far, so I'm watching them now. (But I realise that I saw quite a few, to be honest.) I watched this late at night, on a Hong Kong television channel whilst I was working in China, back in... 1995? Time flies...

The Retro-Plotter part 2 - No job is done until the paperwork is finished

Writing.

Why and how I keep track of events in my own stories... no matter how bad they are 😁

This is a sequel to The Retro Plotter part 1, and before I dive in, keep in mind that everyone has their own system. This is just an example of how I do things. Your approach might be far superior to mine!

The Retro-Plotter part 1 - Notes and pseudo-script

Writing + Reference

Plotters plot, pantsers invent on the spot. I'm a bit in between.

Yes, I plot a bit, but I also make up things as I go. So how can I keep track of things?

VirtualBox 6.1 blocks outgoing WOL packets

Windows 10.

Symptom 1: WOL tools no longer work after installing VirtualBox.

Symptom 2: SqueezePlay no longer works but SqueezeLiteX does.

Symptom 3: Connect App no longer works

Configuration: PC1 running WIN10 + WOL tool + VirtualBox --> PC2 running WIN10

(For clarification: the WOL tool is NOT running INSIDE VirtualBox.)

Continuum (2012..2015)

Series Review.

Continuum wrapped up. It could have used a few more episodes, but this was all they got.

So, what do we have here? Time traveler turns into buddy cop show turns into avoid the next apocalypse. Near the end there's a hint of alternate universes, but that never went anywhere, probably because the show runners were informed it was time to wrap things up.

Corona - T Plus 358 - Side effects

Column.

One of the more curious side effects of this whole Corona mess is a loss of sense of time. We've been locked in our homes, stuck in an endless rut of repeating events, surrounded by the same four walls. For so long now that we're all losing our sense of time, even without catching actual Covid. Nothing seems to change, except for the weather, so perhaps it's only natural to forget about unimportant things like seasons, appointments, and clocks...

The 'why' game

Writing + Reference

Solve prompts for short stories, work out mini-plots for your chapters, avoid (stupid) mistakes, and expand your chapters. All that by simply applying the 'why' game, using just five (5) simple words, that's all it takes...

Writing to a prompt part 2 - The 'why' game

Writing.

You can turn any 'prompt' into a short story, and it's worth doing so. At least to try to, now and again.

All it needs is proper application of the 'why' game. And then that same ruleset can be used to check what has been written.

Best of all, it  works for everything, longs as well as short stories. Read on...

Netflix - Shadow and Bone - Season 1 (2022)

Series Review

Shadow and Bone is a fantasy series on Netflix, with shades of The Witcher, Game of Thrones, Shanara, and every other fantasy series ever. Which doesn't make it bad. In fact, it throws in enough interesting twists to make it worth your while.

Wallpaper - Lake Sakura

Wallpaper

In May 2010 I visited Japan. I love that place. Summer started early that year, and the cherry blossom was (mostly) finished by the time we arrived. Well, there are still good images to be found on the internet 😉

It's... Complicated - Netflix - Fate / Evangelion / Sword Art Online - viewing order

Anime Review

Some anime series can get rather complex... And some of those series made it to NetFlix.

I haven't seen the following (yet) but I thought it best to start with figuring out the proper viewing order. So, as far as I can tell...

The Event (2010)

Series Review.

Looks promising. Regular 'government's hiding stuff we have visitors with their own agenda' show. I've only sampled a little the moment I wrote this so I might be very, very, very wrong... Well, at least my disappointment will then be genuine. That's me. Delivering genuine disappointment since 1965.

Update. Finished it! Read on...

To those wo still take Wattpad serious...

Writing.

... congratulations! Indeed, Wattpad is a serious problem 😁

Yeah, I know, I'm just jealous of those very successful authors with millions of (unpaying) readers. Then again, am I that jealous?

Yes.

Steven Gould - Jumper (1992), Reflex (2004), Griffin's Story (2007), Jumper (movie, 2008)

Movie Review + Book Review

Jumper (the 2008 movie) could have been the start of a great franchise, even if it had little to do with the books.

Young guy discovers he can jump, the goes kind of undercover, until the 'Paladins' (an anti-Jumper organisation dating back to the middle ages) catch up with him. Bad things happen.

But... how about the books? (And their relation to the movie?)

F1 - Bad Poetry in Motion (Balls of Steel)

Writing + Formula 1

As I said before, if you suffer from writer's block then write some bad poetry. Coincidentally, the new F1 🏎️ season just started. Tomorrow's race two, and with some (bad) luck Mercedes will be just as boringly reliable as always...

But... it did inspire me to write some bad poetry...

Writing to a prompt part 1 - From prompt to (mini) plot

Writing.

How would you write a (short) story based on the following plot?

' A clubber who wants to damage a diabolical, holy symbol, but it will introduce a dangerous technology to the world. '

Push (2009)... and a little Calvin & Hobbes

Movie Review

Push and Jumper... In case I did not mention these two before (where are my old TellTales, humpf)... I think both movies deserve a little more credit than they got, especially Push was pretty much ignored, and Jumper could have been the start of a great franchise.

Inkjet printer - Paper quality, paper jams, and bleed-through

Datatalk / Printing.

How important is the quality of the paper in your laser / inkjet?

Perhaps more important than you think. However, I'm not the expert (I'm no expert on many things 😉) so consider these my 'personal' notes...

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Movie Review

Is there anything better than the original (?) animated Disney movie? Perhaps not... Still, Tim Burton did a pretty good job back in 2010, in spite of it all. Yeah, 3D was 'the' thing, and that was the one thing I hated about the movie.

Wallpaper - Nighthawks

Wallpaper.

There is one person missing in this image. The artist. The author.

Writing is hard. It's toiling away in a corner of the night, burning that midnight oil. Imagine that poor writer, driven by a mad vision, eschewing the niceties of the world to bring you the word...

Yeah. It's a lonely profession... no time for hanging out in bars meeting fans 😉

My Author Blog is up and running...

Writing.

I've created another website / blog account to handle everything related to the novel I'm working on.

Update.

It's 2023 by now, and I'm finally getting ready to release. Talk about being slow!

Streamline your novel - remove unnecessary words

Writing + Reference

Vivien Reis suggests to remove 29-ish words from your novel (if possible, of course 😁).

Blindly stripping them out isn't the way to do it, but you might want to go through your writing, and see where you do not need them.

My novel finally has a cover (and a wallpaper)

Writing.

I finally settled on a cover and a pen name. So now both my writing related websites are up-to-date. Unfortunately I haven't released the story yet...

Well, I have to start somewhere 😇

Photon (1997)

Anime Review

You'd be tempted to think I watch loads of anime... but I don't. These are old reviews I wrote over the years, most for Dapper. I promised to post something every Monday, and I have been a bit busy, work wise, so here's another review of something old.

Photon then... Six episodes... Drawing style is somewhat childish, plot is somewhat illogical, purpose is somewhat undefined, it's all somewhat... vague.

Typewriters... (re)live the experience!

Column / Writing.

Do you remember good ol' typewriters? Man, the horror! 😣😂

I don't think there's anyone who has good memories about typewriters. I'm certainly not one of them.

Xara / Magix Designer Pro - Love it or hate it?

Datatalk.

The Xara Designer Pro software package is quite nice, and capable of incredible things. It never got the traction it deserved, and has been picked up and then abandoned, more or less, again and again.

Some time ago Magix picked it up, and that rarely bodes well...

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Movie Review

Wanna' see something incredibly old? (No, it's not a picture of me 😄)

Here's a very old Fantasy / Supernatural / Romance movie, A matter of Life and Death from 1946!

Book And Chapter Sizes... in words

Writing + Reference

The optimal chapter size is driven by your audience and publication platform. The size of the book is just all those chapters together. Too little words and people are going to be unhappy. Too many words and they'll get bored.

This means you either have to adjust your chapter size to the target, re-chapter before publication, or simply don't give a damn 😁

Ranma 1/2 (199x)

Anime Review

Revisiting the past... ever heard of Ranma 1/2? Boy meets girl, which appears to be just another fiancée. Credits to daddy. Girl meets boy. But boy is, sometimes, a girl.

Don't go and look for anything politically correct, or any LGBTQ+ sensitivity. This dates back to the early nineties, and is slapstick anime comedy, aimed at younger teens.

Wallpaper - Beach

Wallpaper.

We had -17º degrees a few days ago... as in one real week of winter. I wonder if we'll ever see it again with all that global warming...

Nevertheless, it was warm inside, and I couldn't help myself from thinking about warmer weather, and walking on the beach...

Skyland (2005)

Anime Review

Ten years ago or so Skyland was showing on Dutch television. At the time I downloaded a few episodes, and noticed that the broadcasted version was post-processed to look more 'dirty'. Which made it look a lot better, to be honest. 

Story wise both versions are the same and okay.

Galactik Football (2006)

Anime Review

I'm not into soccer much, but the anime series Galactic Football wasn't too bad. Though it wasn't too good either, to be honest 😅 Most interesting was perhaps the drawing style, CGI 'cell shaded' characters on more detailed backgrounds.

The writing process

Column + Writing + Reference + Mindmap

Writing is hard. It's very hard. People have no clue how hard it actually is. Even writers themselves are clueless.

So, I set out to document the writing process. Read on (besides, it was about time I created another mindmap)...

Converting and formatting manuscripts

Writing + Reference

Every writer has their own preference. For example, I prefer to write with empty lines instead of indents. (There are some disadvantages to that method, but I just find it easier that way.)

Still, you might want to go for the 'official' 'manuscript' format when submitting. Unfortunately, there's no such thing...

Netflix - The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Series Review.

I’m in love. Not necessarily with Anna Taylor-Joy (who, frankly, is way easier on the eyes than I am 😂 even if deliberate make-up choices make her look a little weird now and again), no, I'm in love with the sixties. I’m a bit surprised that nobody is mentioning Beth Harmon’s… eh… predecessor / inspiration misses Emma Peel 😅

Windows 10 shortcuts to batch files and Store Apps

Windows

Windows 10 is pretty inconsistent when it comes to creating and pinning shortcuts. Here's some information if you need to pin a shortcut to a batchfile to the taskbar, if you want to create a desktop shortcut to a Microsoft Store App, or if you want to automate stuff...

Rename a Bluetooth device on Windows 10

Windows 10.

You can rename your Bluetooth devices under Windows 10 (1909 and 2004). But it's not obvious how to do it, and in some cases it simply doesn't work at all.

Follow these steps...

Wallpaper - Dual Monitor - Avatar vs. Alita

Wallpaper

This month's dual monitor wallpaper features two James Cameron heroines. No points for those who recognize the movies 😁

Click on image to enlarge

Will Wight - Cradle 1 - Unsouled

Book Review.

A typical (?) LitRPG, no tables, but it’s all about leveling and power, and boring as hell. It’s book 1 of the Cradle series, and I got the first eight books for free, but I doubt I will enjoy any of them.

Anything even vaguely resembling LitRPG or GameLit is a definite no-go for me.

Disney+ - Ready or not (2019)

Movie Review + Disney+

I’m typically not into the horror genre, but this one a. was a gift from some online service, and b. is more action than horror. Call it a light horror movie, I’d say a B+. The best scene is the one in which the bride watches herself in the mirror, holding an elephant rifle. I think just that single image would make the movie deserve a sequel.

I want to write but I have no idea / the best idea ever

Writing

Writing is a lot of hard work, but can be a lot of fun and very rewarding. If you want to write, go ahead!

But if you ended up here you need help. Definitely. And the person to help is the one that looks back at you in the mirror... Read on!

Francis James Blair - Bulletproof Witch - The Delivery of Flesh (2019)

Audiobook Review.

Just started this YA (?) series, about an alternative reality in which a gun-slinging daughter tries to take down the demon that killed her grandpa. I never heard of it before, but a reader told me Kind’s Kiss made him think of that series, so I had to try. (I think it's very different, but that's okay.)

Disney+ - The Mandalorian

Series Review.

Finally. Redemption.  After the promising The Force Awakens came The Last Jedi, which was so bad I completely gave up on the Star Wars universe. I still don’t know why they did not base the latest trilogy on Zahn’s three books (some seriously good reads)… still, TFA was promising. Then came TLJ and I thought I would never enjoy anything Star Wars again. (Except perhaps for the cartoons.)

Netflix - The Order (2019..2020)

Series Review.

Better than I expected. I didn’t watch it when the first season was released, especially because season one had a cliffhanger. When season two came along I gave it a chance. Light fare, teen demography, werewolves versus magicians.

And weirdly enough, this series is more interesting than it has any right to be...

Critique Swaps

Writing.

Welcome in 2021! It's time to wrap up my first novel, but I could use a little more feedback, so... how about some critique swaps?

Interested? Then read on...

Wallpaper - Doctor Strange

Wallpaper.

Some wallpapers are stranger than life... (Click the image to enlarge.)

I believe wallpapers are an essential part of our day-to-day computer experience, so of course I have a whole slew of 'm, that automatically rotate on every reboot.

I'll (try to) share one every month.