Blue Dragon

How PCs Took Down JRPGs

File under: Gaming Ground Zero. And thanks again to author David V. Stewart for sliding this item across my desk. We've covered the descent of JRPGs from their peak in the 90s. Recently, legendary Final Fantasy director Hironobu Sakaguchi explained how Western RPGs dethroned Japanese game devs from their place…
March 16, 202319 Comments
UK NEETs

The UK’s NEETdemic

In other news, it turns out the 19th century model of state-mandated education focusing on rote memorization isn't working any better outside the US. Across Britain, ... businesses ... say the nation's schools, technical colleges and apprentice schemes are not turning out the workers they need, from software coders and…
March 15, 20235 Comments
sentence

Writing Tips: The Sentence Level

Working as a professional writer and editor these past years has not only taught me a lot about writing; it's shown me much that I didn't even suspect I didn't know. Since I always try to have one hand reaching down the ladder to help folks below me up while…
March 14, 20239 Comments
Florida Girl

Florida Girl

We were due for another tale of high strangeness around this place. And as usual, synchronicity provides. Here's a headscratcher I was just told yesterday. A family was vacationing in a mid-sized town in the middle of Florida. While they were driving down one of the main thoroughfares that run…
March 13, 202310 Comments
Nightland Racer

Nightland Racer

Newpub author Fenton Wood presents a new edition of his most popular novel! Reynard "The Fox" Douglas is an outlaw racecar driver who despises the government that jailed him, drafted him, and seized his money. He's also the only man who can pilot an experimental nuclear-powered supercar into the Zone,…
March 10, 20234 Comments
scruples

A Question of Scruples

Being a theologian who travels in circles that take their faith seriously, one of the subjects people ask me about most often is scrupulosity. In case you don't know what scruples are, the term comes from the Latin idiom for a pebble in one's shoe. It's a nagging irritant that…
March 9, 20233 Comments
Three-Act Structure

Should You Outline?

Writers come in two broad types: architects who draw up thorough plot outlines before they start writing, and gardeners, or discovery writers, who just dive in and play it by ear. Some writers are natural outliners. Others are natural gardeners. A common complaint of the latter is that they lose…
March 8, 20236 Comments
The Pillcoaster

The Pillcoaster

A vicious cycle that tends to afflict dissidents is the white pill-black pill rollercoaster. You see this phenomenon when some news story seems to signal a reversal of--or at least a pause in--the West's long cultural decline. The white-piller gets a dopamine rush that puts him on cloud nine. When…
March 7, 2023
John Wick Chapter 2

John Wick: Chapter 2

The reader reaction to my review of John Wick was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, there were immediate calls for me to review the sequel. But enthusiasm got the better of my mutuals over the weekend, so they posted their own takes on John Wick: Chapter 2. And you know what?…
March 6, 20236 Comments
Demon Ex Machina

Demon Ex Machina

Author David V. Stewart unveils his latest occult horror tale ... ... with a tech twist DEMONIC AI The face… So human, yet not human, the face of an old woman, man…monster. It haunted me, a demon reaching out, looking out into the world beyond cyberspace, beyond printed circuits. Buried…
March 4, 20238 Comments