After their Embrace, and the recent meddlings of a certain "Trent Kallo", the characters have been left paranoid of others' intentions, and aware as to the depths of their own lack of education as to the realm of the Kindred. While they once thought they hunted a serial killer, they now are faced with the knowledge that the person they hunt is not ( Read more... )

The virtue of the photograph is capturing a moment in time to be remembered. It becomes all the more important when it is of something you will never be able to see, whether it is of a deceased loved one, or of a place and circumstance that you will never be able to experience.

SATURNThis is what it looks like when Saturn is eclipsing the sun. ( Read more... )

One of the many reasons that I am often absent on Facebook is the presence of "Facebook Causes." I never sign these internet petitions, regardless if they are to oppose child rape in South Africa, wish Oprah a happy birthday, encourage some celebrity to get naked on camera, or fight world hunger. They irk me, not only from the endless barrage of ( Read more... )

Similar to many continental locales throughout the world, the shift from warmth to cold has happened quickly here in Knoxville. It is all the more dramatic for Kate and I because of our frugality in heating and cooling our house. During the summer we left the thermostat off whenever we could, and set it to 79 when it was too hot to bear. In the ( Read more... )

I just finished The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui, all 92 chapters of it. While I consider myself thoroughly educated, sometimes getting through dense books is as much an achievement as comprehending them. I felt a similar way in 8th grade when I read Roots by Alex Haley ( Read more... )

The building that I work in is located at the bottom of "the Hill" on campus. Its pipes are old and leaky and were no doubt built by the lowest bidder back in the 50s. Add a good nighttime rain to these factors, and on occasion there are some mornings in which the building 'farts'. In my little section I am safe from such odours, but walking ( Read more... )

ProblemMy computer died. It has been through a number of deaths during the time its been under my possession, each time a choke and a gasp that causes me to scowl. As a laptop, its not something I feel comfortable disassembling as the parts are small and the case is sealed in certain places, whereas a desktop you just pop the hood and start ( Read more... )

Hanging like grisly trophies claimed by some amazonian tribe of cannibalistic stuffed animals, a series of foul yarn art has been a plague upon my existence for some years. Every time I look out the door of my office to the hallway, to what would be freedom if it were closing time, instead chills my soul and fills my heart with convulsive dread. ( Read more... )

This comic by xkcd pretty much describes what a slow day at work looks like for me:


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Undertaking what may be a bad idea, I'm reading two books concurrently.

The first is Izzo's A Sun For the Dying, the same Izzo that wrote the very bleak "Mediterranean noir" detective book I read about a month ago. This book is about a homeless man in France, deciding to flee the winter of Paris to find some solace on Marseille's southern shores ( Read more... )