“You know,” Luisa said. “This isn’t the only Mayan game that involves time travel.” “It’s a Mayan game?” Beatriz said. “From what we can tell,” said Diego. “I would like to know more about these Maya people,” Columbus’ son said. “They must have been very smart if they were able to build such incredible structures.” […]
Author: karlschmieder
Movie Review: Looper. With An Explanation of Time Travel from Captain Underpants. Action. Pranks. Laffs.
Admittedly, I’m late to seeing Looper. I saw it last night because Argo was sold out and The Cloud Atlas wasn’t for a couple of hours but I really enjoyed it and I’m glad we saw it. The premise: In 2074, time travel has been invented. It’s illegal but is being used by criminal organizations […]
Maya Warrior Queen Tomb Found: Lady K’abel
Check this out: Seventh-century Maya Holy Snake Lord, Lady K’abel, was just found in Guatemala. According to the article: K’abel, considered the greatest ruler of the Late Classic period, ruled with her husband, K’inich Bahlam, for at least 20 years (672-692 AD), Freidel says. She was the military governor of the Wak kingdom for her […]
R.I.P. Chavela Vargas (1919-2012)
A brief moment of silence, a shot of tequila and a grito de un amor perdido for the great ranchera songstress Chavela Vargas. When I hear Chavela Vargas, I hear ranchera at its most definitive. Her voice expresses hardships and pain, loneliness, bitterness, discontent, desires, love lost and love with a capital ‘L.’ Here’s BoingBoing’s Xeni […]
My Modest Reading List: Summer of 2012 Edition UPDATED
UPDATE: Starting in 2013, I tracked the books and media I consumed throughout the year. Want to see what I was into in 2013? Click here. Want to know what I’ve been reading in 2014? Click here. I’m busy. Unfortunately, that means I can’t read as much as I would like. It kills me, actually. […]
Using Your Bloody Red-Eyed Insomnia to Get Things Done
I had two good friends make suggestions on what I should blog about and I liked what they suggested, so here’s the first post for my good friend Laura Thanks to X’s “Nausea” for inspiring my title.over at Learning Catalan. My name is Karl and I am an insomniac. As a kid, I always had […]
BOOK REVIEW: THE ARCTIC INCIDENT (Artemis Fowl 2 )
Someone’s been selling illegal fairy technology to goblins. The Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit (LEPrecon) suspects Artemis Fowl, a 13-year old criminal mastermind, who previously cost the fairies of the Lower Elements a half-ton of gold and the embarrassment of being outwitted by a human. Goblins, fairies, LEPrecon and a teenage criminal mastermind? For readers […]
SF+F OWW: Columbus Circle of Time is an Editor’s Choice
I am proud to say the first four chapters of The Columbus Circle of Time were chosen as an Editor’s Choice on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Online Writer’s Workshop. When I heard at the end of last month, I couldn’t believe it but when the review came in I couldn’t stop smiling. Here’s a […]
Blatant Consumerism: End of Days Limited Edition Capitalizing on the Mayan Prophecy
This arrived in my mailbox today on the backpage of the Fountain Pen Hospital catalogue. I know people are capitalizing on the Mayan 2012 prophecy, have been for the past few years, and I expect more will follow but for some reason this really amused me. Here’s the marketing copy (bolding and italics are mine): […]
Review: The Hunger Games
I’ve mentioned before that I like to read what my 11-year old Alejandro is reading and last summer, I noticed several of his friends were reading The Hunger Games. Alejandro tore through the three books in the series in a matter of days. And when I finally had a chance, I read the first two […]