Nietzsche's Ring: The Platypus Reads Part LXXIX

In "The Lord of the Rings," Sauron's body is diffused throughout Middle Earth in a perverse parody of Christ's Church. It is significant that the object that ties this diverse organism together is a ring; gold and unadorned. In fact, Sauron's ring resembles nothing so much as a common wedding ring. ...

Future of the Internet Symposium: Identity

Zittrain’s book mentioned en passant that unlike the closed, proprietary services, the Internet has no authentication; he also suggests that this is tied to the alleged lack of consideration for security by the Internet’s designers. I won’t go into the latter, save to note that I regard it as a calu ...

Terminó el Verano - Novedades

Creo que ha llegado la hora de dar un pequeño paso hacia adelante. He decidido que a partir de ahora quizá haga algn que otro cambio en el blog en muchos sentidos. Al principio mi idea era hacer un simple blog de relatos de fantasía-terror, contar algunas cosas de rol, mundos de fantasía... pero la ...

Test sui libri!

Avrei dovuto scrivere un paio di post ma questa sera proprio non ne avevo voglia, così mi sono messa a fare questo simpatico questionario sui libri al quale ho poi aggiunto delle domande da un altro test trovato sempre su internet (così l'ho allungato per benino!), volete farlo anche voi?? 1) Quale ...

Geeks to Mainstream: We have your culture surrounded

Well. Nominally at least. OK, more like we're all up in your culture's shit and are fiddling with it to our liking. Somewhat. Regardless of that fairly hyperbolic opening statement and it's fairly tacky powder coat of not-exactly-unbridled optimism, I gotta say, things are looking up in the geek wor ...

fhfhfhfdllflldkdkf!?!??!!?!!!

Martin Freeman to Star in 'The Hobbit After All?' Yesterday, The Sun broke news that actor Martin Freeman had been offered a seven-figure salary to play Bilbo Baggins in the long-delayed cinematic version of The Hobbit. Unfortunately for Freeman, a scheduling conflict led to him turning down the rol ...

Carina says ‘revise and resubmit’ Lament of the Dove!

I finally heard back from Carina Press today about my submission of Lament of the Dove to them, and I gotta say, folks, this is hands down the best not-an-acceptance response I’ve had to a story to date. One of Carina’s editors sent me a very long and detailed feedback letter not only calling out th ...

Creating a Monster

"Never laugh at live dragons"— J.R.R. Tolkien We stood in line for 45 minutes to have the amazing Mimi paint Walker's face at our neighborhood pool Monday. She does awesome work and it's so worth the wait! And, the finished product. Three minutes later, he jumped in the pool and it all washed off. O ...

Paper, or Plastic?

There is nary a decision in life that is not a moral decision on some level, and no moral decision that is not black and white on some level. Facial hair, for instance. Culture shrivels where the manly cheek is bare! As a graphic artist, I used to work with halftone sheets, which was just some nifty ...

Martin Freeman's Exhausted Stare as Bilbo Baggins?

In what seems to me to be the most apt-looking Tolkien casting since Ian McKellen put on a robe, New Line and MGM are reportedly in negotiations with Martin Freeman to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Following up on a dubious story from The Sun, EW claims the studios have indeed put out an offer t ...