Not Everyone’s White

Few things make me want to vomit like political correctness does. Institutional racism, sometimes. Multiculturalism, other times. Globalisation and the delusion that we are all alike, with the same needs, same desires, is a very close second. We are not all alike and you can’t prove that we are. We naturally find affinity with those who…

I Told You So

Does anyone else remember wondering whether soaps that kill 99.99% of germs on your hands are doing more harm than good? No? Didn’t think so. Most people are gullible when it comes to fraudulent advertising. But if you went to high school, you know that a balance of so-called germs are what protect us from…

Christmas in New Zealand

Last year’s Christmas was characterized by the most awful weather ever. This year is the flip side of that coin. On Christmas Eve, we had the entire house open, every door and every window. It wasn’t sunny beach weather, but it was exquisitely comfortable and balmy. Christmas Eve’s feast consisted of cider-braised turkey legs from…

The centaur-bike project, part the third

Melody refined the candidate sketches and produced this one. Its strengths are the strong statuesque lighting, the correspondence of the diagonal shadow lines with the general thrust of the centaur’s firing line, and the abstract anatomical connection between the centaur and the bicycle wheels. There’s also a sense of motion and 3D depth that I’m…

Summer of ’28

When I first started writing with aspirations of professional publication, Ray Bradbury was one of the quiet giants who always captured my imagination. If I learned anything from him, it is that the poetry of an idea is more important than all the words used to execute it. He happened to be both an idea…

Kick less ass

The difference between an entertaining story and a great one is the difference between predictability and inevitability. A predictable conclusion is one where you guess with a fair amount of accuracy what’s going to happen at each milestone leading to the conclusion. An inevitable story is one where you know the outcome will be positive…