Ken Newquist I’ve been a stranger in a strange land the last two weeks as I’ve spent half my weekend hours in Home Depot, and the other half working hard to transform my old gaming room into my daughter’s new bedroom. Fortunately I had plenty of geek podcasts to keep me company through the process. Radio Active … Read more
The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack has me torn. On the one hand, I’ve now got another fantasy-themed soundtrack that I can use in my role-playing game sessions. On the other, my geek music collection now includes a song by Alanis Morissette. I mean no offense to the women geeks out there, for whom this is … Read more
A round-up of what I’m reading now, including the May issue of Analog, the graphic novel V for Vendetta and scifi anthology The Hard SF Renaissance. Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2005 The first issue of my Analog subscription features the start of the four-part serial “A New Order of Things” by Edward M. … Read more
Radio Active #26 offers a well-rounded podcast, with some updates on the ongoing “Nuketown Beta” project, followed by an editorial on the sorry state of science fiction publishing, particularly with regards to using technology to promote their wares. There are also three sites of note, including the podcast Most People Are DJs, the Cthulhu-inspired LEGO … Read more
Way back in 1995, just after I graduated from college, the fledgling network UPN launched with two notable scifi shows: Star Trek: Voyager and Nowhere Man. Voyager went on to a seven-year run that took Trek technobabble to new heights, while its sibling Nowhere Man struggled to complete a single season and then disappeared into … Read more
According to Gaming Report, WizKids is returning to the Clix-mechanic with HorrorClix. It’s a collectible game in which you control a horde of undead and/or supernatural monsters who are either out to protect or eat innocent bystanders (“protect” them? That reminds me of the great t-shirt with the tagline “Cthulhu Saves … For Later!”). According … Read more
A short film, Fear of Girls — about two stereotypical uber gamers — is circulating around the geek community. The ten-minute film tells the tale of two “advanced” gamers who are a cut about your normal geeks, which means they do stuff that would freak out regular gamers, like role-playing sex or dressing up in … Read more
Stellarium is an open source sky simulator that allows you to view the constellations as they appear from any place on Earth, at any time you choose. It’s a beautiful piece of software, with fantastic sunsets and night skies (as you can see from the screenshots). I’m still exploring it — I’m still not sure … Read more
Show #25 gets back to the speculative fiction with some thoughts on losing — and finding — my interest in scifi, reviews of the Does My Geek, Roll 2d6 and BrickNebula podcasts, and a review of John Scalzi’s military SF novel, Old Man’s War. There’s also news of the Nuketown beta and a possible theme … Read more
The podcast gets back up to speed after the holidays with news about what’s up with Nuketown, both on the site, and at home. There’s also speculation about the possibility of a geek workbench, and a review of the SciFiDig Podcast. Getting the Podcast Download the MP3 directly Show Notes Intro: Babylon 5: Season 3 … Read more