The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone By by Robert Kirkman, et alI’m new to The Walking Dead, having heard about it from my brother, then watching and enjoying the series on AMC. I finally got around to reading the source material over this weekend.
Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid by Simon PeggI don’t normally read celebrity memoirs, but I’m a fan of Pegg’s and had been hearing good things about this one. It was an engaging read and made me laugh a few times. The problem is, these sorts of memoirs are a rather thin sauce when it comes to substance. Seemingly the biggest hurdle Pegg had to overcome was being from a rural area, so there’s not a lot of drama. My favorite bits were his critical analyses of Star Wars and other genre films. I think that if he published a book like that I could unreservedly recommend it, but for this one I can only recommend it if you are a Pegg-mad super fan.
About a month ago Rebecca Watson put into words something I’d been thinking myself. Women’s rights are not being taken as a series priority by the secular movement in this country. I’ll go further and say that LGBT rights and racial equality are also not being taken as seriously as they ought to be. Rebecca asked “Why aren’t more of the big secular organizations decrying what’s happening?” I have an idea why, and it has to do with privilege. Straight, white, male privilege. The skeptic movement is overwhelmingly straight, white, male, and economically comfortable – and that is a problem.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life. Career-wise I stalled out in my 20s. I could never really settle on something I wanted to do that had good job prospects and that I found interesting. I saddled myself with a sense of obligation about being “responsible” and ensuring a good, stable income because I was earning for two. (I want to be clear that that was my own mental load, not someone anyone inflicted upon me.) Now I find myself in dramatically different circumstances than I was in mere months ago, and since I’m 35 now I really need to make sure that what I choose to do with myself now is something I truly love.
Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard KadreyThis is the second volume in Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series. I reviewed the first back in January and I hear the third is due out later this year. I picked it up, and started reading it, shortly after I finished the first one. I sort of got distracted part way through, which often happens to me when I try and read through a series in a straight run. I’m glad I picked it back up, because my distraction was no fault of Kadrey’s.
My last post in this series was filled with hope and positivity. That was sure some fun while it lasted. While I’m still looking forward to moving, today I’m back in the abyss, mourning my condition. I feel like an unlovable, friendless pariah and the real truth is I’ve sort of done it to myself more than anyone’s done it to me.
[Don’t read further unless you want to know some sad stuff about me that only a handful of people have ever known before now.]
Weird Tales #357As soon as I learned that Weird Tales was offering e-book subscriptions, I signed up. This was my first issue. I wasn’t sure if I should include it in my reviews, because it felt like a cheat considering the shorter length of an issue as compared to a full-length book. Then I got over myself and decided you folks are as busy as I am, why the hell not? I won’t be reviewing most of the non-fiction portions of the issue, and I expect that to be my practice in all similar reviews in future.
My post last week, while it may have seemed quite dire, was very cathartic and helpful for me. Confronting where I’m at, and where I’ve been, plus reading the kind words of support from my friends near and far let to a pretty good Friday. Saturday was even better. I spent the afternoon and early evening with not one, but two new friends. One of those friends and I also struck a deal that will be changing my life in big ways. For the first time in almost two years, I’m optimistic about my future and can’t wait to get going.
Not nude, but not fully dressed.
I’m a pretty open guy, sometimes too open, but I always feel weird when talking about my feelings. Wait, that’s not entirely accurate. Like most people I have no problems telling people when I’m feeling great. Unfortunately things haven’t been so great for me for a while, especially since mid-February.
Sasha's Old Den of Iniquity 