A Family of Killers

As I get ready to teach my first day of two separate classes this semester, both of which center on Artificial Intelligence, I thought it would be useful (to me, at least) to take a minute to talk about my current approach to AI in general. This is something I think about fairly regularly and it’s something that has steadily changed over time as I get more and more used to incorporating the technology into…

I’m in the middle of another Stormlight Archive book, so nothing new that I’ve read this week. (Honestly, I think I deserve some credit for being 1,000 pages into Oathbringer in a week. I will definitely (definitely) be picking some shorter books after these 5.) More things to report on the TV/Movie front: Penguin 1–The HBO production was really well done, and a great example of how to make a bad character likable. (Just make…

I’ll actually be teaching not one, but TWO courses this semester. One will be a team-taught course focused on Artificial Intelligence: the philosophy behind it and application of it. I’ve known about that one for a while, and I’m very excited for it. We’ll be exploring multiple platforms, and it will give me a chance to get even more familiar with AI and how I can put it to use. In addition to that one,…

I have long been a proponent that you need to separate the art from the artist. An artist can do or say things that are repugnant to you, but that shouldn’t necessarily influence you one way or the other when it comes to their art. Woody Allen and Michael Jackson were two examples I liked to turn to, as both have extremely problematic histories, but I still really like both of the works they produced….

I want to try a bit of a different approach for the blog for some posts. I’d like to get in a bit of a pattern for a topic or two. Right now, my thought is that each Monday, I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been doing from a reading, writing, and playing perspective. Maybe this will be a full blown review of something, or it might just be a general overview. Here’s the…

I don’t usually add new goals to my list when January comes around, but this year I’m making an exception. I want to make an iPhone app. (Funnily enough, most people when they hear that assume it has something to do with cats. Nope. This one is decidedly cat-free.) It’s not an incredibly complicated app (at least, it doesn’t seem like it should be to me), but it fills a need I think exists, and…

Okay, folks. I’m working on finally setting up an online store where people can buy signed copies of my books directly from me. As I’m doing it, I have to decide all sorts of details like . . . how much to charge for shipping. You’d think this would be relatively easy, but I’ve been postponing the decision for weeks. Every time I decide I’m going to figure it out, I come up with something…

I just came across this post from director Steven Soderbergh detailing everything he saw and read in 2024, and I really liked the way he broke it out. I liked it so much that I decided to do the same thing this year with my year in review, detailing everything I consumed, and not just highlighting the best. I still want to highlight the best, however, so I’m going to put an asterisk in front…

Hiya everybody! Here we are in 2025, and I’m ready to get back into the swing of things. I want to start things off by a look back on my watching and reading in 2024, as I am wont to do. Before I go into that, though, I wanted to write for a bit about negative reviews. Often, a real panning of a book or a movie or a TV show can be a lot…

It’s that time of year. The time when I start really kicking things into gear for the holidays. I take time off from work, so you’d think I’d have tons of time for everything else I need or want to do, but . . . that’s not how it ends up, a lot of the time. Some of this is self-inflicted. Our family does homemade presents each year, where we each get a different family…