Both fun and funny, the animated sci-fi children’s movie “Planet 51″ is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Some big names were drawn in for the voices in this film (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Seann William Scott, John Cleese), and they really helped to pull this[...]
! SPOILER ALERT !(This review contains plot details for “The Reader.” If it bothers you to read plot details before seeing a movie, then do not read further. You have been warned.) Overall, watching “The Reader” was an enjoyable experience, but it does suffer from a few fatal flaws in my opinion. This film tells[...]
This is one of those films I dragged my wife out to see because I’m a huge fan of science fiction, apocalypse, end-of-the-world type movies (she’s not). And, in a very rare instance, she admitted I was right. It’s a great movie. Overall, the movie 2012 is well done. Unlike many news reports as of[...]
Author: Richard OverySubject: Adolf Hitler’s Germany compared to and contrasted with Josef Stalin’s Soviet UnionGenre: History / Nonfiction / BiographyPublisher: Konecky & Konecky The Dictators is 849 pages of solid information and facts; fortunately, for the reader’s sake, about 200 pages of that is bibliography, notes and index. The text is actually 651 pages, still[...]
This is at least the 18th movie based on Charles Dickens’ novella, written in 1843. It’s the third one by Disney in 26 years. Did we really need another one? Probably not, and that’s the only reason I couldn’t rate this one higher than 8 out of 10 on my personal scale. Looking at the[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987) by Robert A. Heinlein, the last novel he published before dying in 1988: “I remember Earth. I knew her when she was clean and green, mankind’s beautiful bride, sweet and lush and lovable… It is futile to mourn over[...]
There is a school of thought, albeit a relatively unpopular one, that poor grammar or punctuation on printed signs should be corrected with a Sharpie or other tool, vigilante style. In the News: Vigilante Copy Editor (New York Times) And there are older instances, such as this one (The Virginian-Pilot).
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners (1985) by Robert A. Heinlein: “It does not do to encourage bad banners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.”
In The News: Adobe starts subscription for Photoshop and Dreamweaver (BBC News) This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; many software companies are moving in this direction. Instead of having to ship millions of boxes and discs every year when they upgrade the software, they’re just going to add the updates to the online[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert Heinlein: “…most people think of money as something to pay the rent. But a money man thinks of money in terms of what he can do with it.” “…it’s impossible for a woman to lay it on[...]
For about $5, I made this measuring cup holder that’s hidden inside a kitchen cabinet: (Copyright © 2013 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.)
My wife and I invoked our “30 minute rule” when watching this movie. The rule is: if the movie can’t interest either of us in 30 minutes, then we turn it off and quit wasting our time. According to Wikipedia, this film is based on a 1974 novel and “the story follows the hunt for[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during my 2002 reading of Stranger In A Strange Land (1961) by Robert Heinlein, of which I wrote on Nov. 14, 2002, “Perhaps the best book ever written.” (I no longer feel that way, but it’s still a pretty good book.)
There’s a new White House Tumblr page, and the first entry includes an image with this lettering: “ANIMATED GIFs (HARD ‘G’)”. First, let me say I’m proud that they didn’t put an apostrophe in “GIFs”, as so many on the internet seem to do these days.
Because I assume everyone wants to know my opinion (ha!)… In the News: Is Handwriting Still Important? The Digital Generation Skips Penmanship (BBC News) While I’m admittedly old-fashioned in many ways (for example, I don’t have a “smartphone”), I can usually argue practicality (for example: there’s no point in me having a smartphone). But the[...]
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