Scooter Chronicles

One of the classic fantasy stories.

It is also very short. At least by today’s standards. Clocking in at 181 pages in paperback, it was a quick read. I had borrowed this from my friend David who is a Moorcock fan, especially the Eternal Champion Series, and Elric in particular. I wanted to get a taste of MM’s writing style and an idea of what the Elric series was about.

After reading PSS by Miéville, the first Elric book was a fast, enjoyable and seemingly easy read. And maybe because I read PSS before it, it came across with a bit of innocence. Of course that is very contradictory to a point, because the...

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I ruptured my achilles tendon in my right foot/ankle today playing tennis with Marcia. Surgery is scheduled for 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. I know it is routine and such, but still a little worried. It will be the first time I will be having surgery, and I am the squeamish type, too. Ought to be interesting. Up side though, it will get me out of work for a week. ; ) (Not much of a consolation either.)

Today I finished reading the famed Perdido Street Station. It has quite a reputation around the “speculative fiction” genres as being quite a book, the debut novel for Miéville. And it didn’t disappoint.

PSS was the winner of the 2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2001 British Fantasy Award. The reason it took a sci-fi AND a fantasy award is because it does a lot of genre bending. That was one of the reasons it has become so acclaimed. It reads at times like a hard sci-fi novel, and at others like a vast epic fantasy. The plot and descriptions are very gritty, yet also ornate. Miéville has gotten a lot of ink simply on his writing style, one that is very metaphorical and has you scrambling...

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According to an article on the Detroit Free Press web site, the Detroit franchise of the new WHA have named Moe Mantha as their head coach. Mantha spent 11 years in the NHL starting in 1980, and continued playing on a minor league level for another 12 years.

Detroit Free Press Article

More interestingly the article pointed out that only four of the intended franchises appear ready to play. It states that the Toronto and Hamilton teams still haven’t solidified building leases. And that the sale of the Orlando and Jacksonville teams (who currently play in the Southern Hockey League) to a business man in Calgary that was to move them to the WHA, has fallen...

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The Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, Washington has officially opened!

I am a big fan of sci-fi but surprisingly I heard little about this venture. I wasn’t sure it was actually going to happen. See, I spend too much time reading to keep track on what’s happening.

Here is a link to an article written by Charles N. Brown, the publisher of Locus Magazine.

Locus Magazine On-Line Article

I am going to have to spend some time and browse the web site. They have a Hall of Fame with many names already in their. And the display of those in looks like a much more futuristic version of the Hockey...

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Marcia and I usually head down to a place called Pinball Parlour on Wednesdays. They have a wide array of old and new video games and pinball machines. Some of the pinball machines date back to the early 70’s.

We are creatures of habit and play a rather modern racing game, one of them where you actually sit in the “driver’s seat” and have to shift. After a while we head upstairs to the pinball machines. I have a few favorites that I normally play. Twilight Zone being one of them. My highest score is 129 million. Today I was playing rather bad, but did manage to hit 120...

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Another step in turning around the Tigers organization.

Reports around the baseball world is that the Tigers and their shortstop Carlos Guillen have agreed to a contract extension. Guillen was to be a free agent at the end of the season. Many believe that was the biggest reason for the Mariners trading him to the Tigers.

The reports are saying that he will be signing on for another 3 years at $4.5 million a year. That is a steal for a few reasons. The Tigers were offering Miguel Tejada during the off season $12 a YEAR for his services at SS (he signed with Baltimore eventually). And at the moment, Guillen is leading all shortstops...

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Marcia and I went to the Phillies’ game on Friday night. We were part of the Southeastern PA Lutheran Synod group. They lost 10-4 to the Kansas City Royals, part of the interleague play this year. Matt Stairs, Royals right fielder, had a great game with two home runs, and catcher Benito Santiago started the charge with a three run homer in the opening inning.

The biggest treat though was the new ballpark. I never had the “pleasure” of seeing an event at the Vet. And I have not gotten to see any of the new parks in this latest wave that started with Camden Yards in Baltimore. That is other than Comerica Park, home of the Tigers. But Citizen’s...

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Does owner Bill Davidson have the magic touch?

Congratulations go out to my hometown basketball team, the Detroit Pistons! I am not really much of a basketball these days, but it’s nice to see them win. And especially beating the Lakers. They seemed to do it in typical Detroit “blue collar” fashion. They didn’t have a superstar, but used great team strategy to bring down the favorites.

As for the owner Bill Davidson …… ho hum, another professional sports championship. OK, so it really isn’t “ho hum”. But you have to be amazed by the man’s ability to put together winning...

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Had to stay an extra day. We ran into some problems. Nothing major, but nothing that could be fixed really fast. Steel is kind of like that. If it was Play-Do, we would have been home on Wednesday night. ; )

After the problems were fixed, the testing went overwhelmingly good this morning.