Ken Newquist

Searching for an Unlit Geek Tree

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My quest to improve the Geek Tree this year continues. I have found what I think is the perfect size for the tree — 9 feet tall, and 40 inches in diameter. That makes for a narrow, slender tree that shouldn’t have huge footprint in the living room, but provides ample space for the various … Read more

Kings of the High Frontier

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Victor Koman’s Kings of the High Frontier shows us a world a few years in our future where a number of individuals, from billionaire Larry Poubelle to smuggler Marcus Grant, seek to shrug off the combined shackles of Earth’s gravity and Earth’s government to live among the stars. Caught between the astro-entrepreneurs and the sinister … Read more

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

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Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is a tile-based board game in which players assume the roles of hunters and gatherers attempting to glean resources from a prehistoric landscape. It’s a great game for geeks, but it’s even better for families. The game uses a mechanic similar to the original Carcassonne game. The game “board” consists of … Read more

My Favorite Podcasts, Part 1

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My audio-starved commuter brain has been greedily drinking down podcasts for a few days now, and I’ve found – and continue to find – the entire phenomenon to be invigorating. I’ve also found quite a few podcasts worth listening to. I am, of course, continuing my search for good content, and I’ll be posting them … Read more

The Geek Christmas Tree 2004

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Hallmark officially released its Christmas 2004 tree ornaments earlier this month, so naturally that brings to mind thoughts of what to do with this year’s edition of the Geek Tree. For those who don’t know, the “Geek Tree” is my annual celebration of speculative fiction … in the form of a Christmas tree. Originally, all … Read more

5:30 a.m.

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After more than a year and a half of being a dad, I’ve come to the conclusion that 5:30 a.m. is the golden time, or as close to it as I’m likely to get. On a good day, Sue’s asleep, StarGirl is [fingers-crossed] asleep, and I can catch a shower and spend an hour writing … Read more

Debate at the State

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Easton’s historic state theatre is hosting a debate featuring four candidates — Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Green — for the House of Representatives. The event will be held Thursday, Oct. 14 at the State Theatre on Northampton Street in Easton, Pa. It is sponsored by the Express-Times (Easton’s daily newspaper), moderated by State Theatre Executive … Read more

The Hypertext d20 SRD

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The Hypertext d20 SRD is an exceedingly useful site that every d20 game master and player should have bookmarked. In a nutshell, the site’s exactly what it says it is: an extensively linked, searchable version of the d20 SRD. It’s focused on the “basic” d20 SRD drawn from the Dungeons & Dragons rules, and does … Read more

Attack of the Pod People

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Radio sucks. iPods are everywhere. So someone got the brilliant idea of bypassing the vast audio wasteland that is the radio dial nowadays, and broadcasting original content directly to people’s iPods. Well, almost directly. The idea behind “podcasting” is brilliantly simple. We’ve already got a standard for syndicating text content on the Web, called “RSS” … Read more