One of my big frustrations with the environmentalist community (that I like to think I’m part of) is jus how ideological they are. Today’s big hub-bug on TreeHugger.com is that apparently Sarah Palin is hosting a show on TLC about Alaska’s natural wonders. Personally, I don’t care much for Palin one way or the other. I think there’s much ado about nothing with regards to her. She’s a conservative politician. But the Treehuggers are absolutely going bonkers about it because she su...

The answer is almost always: No, actually it doesn’t. In almost any debate, we’ll hear about how the “United States is the only X that does Y [or doesn’t do]”. Except that’s not the case when you compare apples and apples. One of the constant, long-time, ongoing debates in the United States is one that Europeans now find themselves in as well – where do the “states” stop and the “union” start? When you dig into countless numbers of political topics, you find that opposition t...

In no particular order, here are some of my favorite memories of being a very small child. Blue toilet water The theme song to Bewitched Catching Locusts (Ciquadas) Eating angel food cake made by our neighbor Beverly Going to the Great Sand Dunes with my parents and thinking the clouds were where we were going. Getting a TCR track delivered by Santa after Christmas Catching lizards in my neighbor Betsy’s back yard Looking for snail shells with my Unc...

I am glad that people are actively following politics more these days.  However, I am somewhat concerned with the amount of passion that’s been directed towards it. I enjoy a good political debate but I never for a second believe that I’m going to be brought in as Emperor of the world to institute my theories.  Discussing topics to try to persuade or educate others on political philosophies that you think are good is a noble thing.  However, hating other people over the...

Well for the first time in 4 years I have dropped under 170 pounds.  My slow diet has a total of 11 lost pounds in 11 weeks. The main thing I’ve been doing is greatly reducing my liquid calories. I was not aware of how many calories I was consuming by drinking juices and pop a day until I measured it. The other thing has been a family-wide re-design of our dinners to be much lighter, healthier and frankly tastier.

This is the chair I want.

People tend to project their hopes and dreams onto things based on their name. They hear “health care reform” and they see their ideological allies supporting it and they assume it does all kinds of magical things. For those of you glad that the bill passed, be aware that what was passed resembles nothing like what is in Europe or Canada.  Here’s what it does (you can read the details at CBS News ): 1. It “provides” insurance to 30 million Americans. How does it do thi...

About 10 weeks ago, I started a diet called 10 pounds in 10 weeks.  I was 180 pounds. 10 weeks later (technically 11, I took a week off for a trade show) I’m down 10 pounds. I’m going to see if I can get down to 165 pounds (another 5 pounds).

Sometimes you get pictures from friends and family that really do justice to the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

Random House announced its new initiative (see this Wallstreet Journal article) today to collaborate with game developers to improve their in-game stories as well as present those stories in other mediums (books, movies, etc.).

The first result of this initiative comes from Elemental. The universe created through a collaboration of writers at Stardock and Random House is seeing itself presented first in the upcoming book, Elemental: Destiny's Embers (August release date) and then followed up by the PC strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic.

What does this mean to gamers and readers?

For gamers, it means that the quality of the writing in Elemental: War of Magic will be much stronger than it would have been otherwise. This manifests itself in terms of the backstory, the campain, the in-game quests and the general the cohesiveness of the game world.

For readers, it means that the book won’t just be the standard “book based on a video game” fare that often comes across as only vaguely connected to the same world that the game came from.

Elemental: Destiny's Embers is a story I’ve been working on for some years now. With help from Random House’s writing team, they’ve helped me take my early manuscripts and polish them and craft them into a story that I think readers of fantasy will enjoy.

More information:

The book: Elemental: Destiny's Embers

The game: Elemental: War of Magic

 

-Brad Wardell (aka Frogboy)

I feel bad for the current generation of kids in some respects. They are being told that intelligence is the end-all be-all. It’s all about being smart. In reality, no, it’s not.  Being intelligent is helpful but it isn’t a key ingredient to success.  Being above average in intellect is probably a pre-requisite for being successful but beyond that, it does very little. So what does matter? That is, in the real world, what makes the difference? In a nutshell it’s 3 things...

Warner Todd Huston has written a statement of conservative values that I found very interesting.  Here it is below. The Huston Statement   Since our political climate has long since drifted from the first principles of our founding and since we now face a crisis threatening to tear down our American moral center we commit ourselves to re-establishing our American character. We believe that our Constitution and the principles...

I sometimes wonder what the various greenie sites I visit would think when they realized that I was using their info on how to build a green home to construct a 22,000 square foot house that is, technically green.

Phil Jones is “the guy”, as in THE go-to guy when it comes to climate change. In an interview where he complains about skeptics “spinning” statements he ultimately reveals this: "I'm a scientist trying to measure temperature. If I registered that the climate has been cooling I'd say so. But it hasn't until recently - and then barely at all . The trend is a warming trend." You can read the whole thing here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511701.st...

There’s a big Impulse announcement on Wednesday so we’re going to get bumped to the following Thursday. I guess we’ll just be that much more polished. Sorry about the wait guys.  The Impulse announcement is pretty cool though. I’ve been watching what they have in store. It’s one of those “Duh, why isn’t everyone doing this already?” type things. But IT can’t handle us, this and the Sins of a Solar Empire update next week too. On the bright side, there will be a TOOONNN of new ...