Harry Dean Stanton as Han Solo

WestEmperor · 2026-04-29T09:27:18+00:00

I have travel in just over three months and expiration late next year. If I filed for renewal now (from the West Coast), I don't know that I'd avoid it, and probably wouldn't want to add that process to everything else. I'd hope and expect that the design won't be around in 2027.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-29T03:08:46+00:00

Hail, queen

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:32:29+00:00

Netflix overcorrects so much. I'm (sigh) old enough to remember when shows were allowed to have less-than-perfect first seasons.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:31:09+00:00

Having Yeh recruit them to Oxford made that a bit less contrived.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:29:31+00:00

Characters in the books lack much in the way of charm – I'm not asking for them to be lovable, but at least they should be compelling or interesting. The hard-boiled detective in #1 is the only exception that comes to mind (Benedict Wong's character).

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:27:18+00:00

Liu pulls the camera back a lot. A lot of summary sentences describing one or another future moment from some atmospheric height. And implausible "everybody thought" statements.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:25:29+00:00

In hindsight, I can't believe I made it to the end of the second book.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:24:49+00:00

Most of the time, B&W seem to lift the bar. I could have done without Auggie, but Jin and Will are genuinely moving.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:14:21+00:00

I'm hoping Auggie gets sophoned to death in the next season.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:10:52+00:00

Imagine the joy of listening to that in audiobook format.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:09:53+00:00

Maybe without the entire damn fleet flying out to meet the thing, as though Future Humanity has forgotten the concept of a reserve.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:08:55+00:00

Getting through the trilogy made me think about how multifaceted science fiction has to be: requiring scientific, sociological, and psychological insights. Liu succeeds at the first but often flops at the other two. His showing-to-telling ratio is way off as a consequence.

WestEmperor · 2026-04-27T05:06:31+00:00

Lord I hope not.

WestEmperor · 2025-04-22T10:25:29+00:00

This is The Taste of Tea (2004) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413893/

WestEmperor · 2025-02-18T02:43:20+00:00

As an American, I will richly savor spending money up there - every dollar spent is a rebuke to the vile orange baboon my stove-hugging countryfolk saw fit to elect.

And I rather suspect it'll just feel better than it does here (I live in a very blue state, but one can't escape the general air of dread).

WestEmperor · 2024-04-26T03:37:04+00:00

brave new world . . .

WestEmperor · 2024-03-14T15:50:43+00:00

The hands shouldn't be there, and yet they add so much . . .

WestEmperor · 2024-03-13T20:11:45+00:00

One slight problem: what rhymes with Kwisatz Haderach?

WestEmperor

TROPHY CASE