Ken Newquist's Blog at Lafayette College
Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet: Victorious is a worthwhile, if somewhat disappointing end to the series. Having demolished most of the Syndic fleet, Black Jack Geary returns to his enemy’s home system for one final battle. Unfortunately, there’s not much to the fight — having gutted the Syndics in his earlier encounters, there’s only a … Read more
Century Rain is a space opera/noir/alternative history mash-up that echos Reynolds earlier work in its combination of post-Singularity speculation and end of the world/galaxy/university machinations. The book opens a few hundred years in the future. Earth has been rendered lifeless by a nanotechnology plague. Humanity survives in two factions: the Threshers, who are regular humans … Read more
When it comes to web design I find a lot of people like to start with the sexy part — the graphic design — and then either ignore the site’s underlying structure, create it as they go along or (more rarely) back into it after they realize the design’s turned into a mess because they … Read more
Book 2 of the Twilight vampire/romance series, in which the vampire Edward his leave of our protagonist Bella, leaving her distraught in Oregon. And yes, this is a huge change from reading The Cole Protocol. I’m reading the novel as part of a book exchange with my wife – I’m reading New Moon, she’s reading … Read more
Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Tetris, Pac-Man and other 80s icons make appearances in PIXELS, a short film featuring an 8-bit invasion of New York City. It’s a well-done little movie — I loved how the city is rapidly transformed by the pixelated attackers, and I thought having Donkey Kong throwing barrels from atop the Empire … Read more
Rush, one of my all-time favorite rock bands, is playing at the Allentown Fair on August 31. I didn’t start listening to them until my 20s, when they were already past their 70s/80s heyday, but once I did I didn’t waste time. I bought every album I could get my hands on and spent hours … Read more
Baseball season is officially here! Ok, it’s been here for a few weeks now, but it became official for me when I got to go to my first game of the season: the Lehigh Valley IronPigs vs. Syracuse Chiefs on Monday, April 19, 2010 at Coca-Cola Park. It was a close game, right up until … Read more
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/cDIzMGh94vo” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] I’ve had “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” by Weezer stuck in my head for the last week or so — so badly that I ended up buying the Raditude album just to get rid of the song. No dice: now I’ve … Read more
This is a random post of baseball happiness: In 10 days I’ll be at my first IronPigs game of the season. It feels my heart with geeky baseball joy to know I’ll soon be hearing the sound of baseballs hitting leather and bats slamming balls into the outfield. If you’re into baseball and want follow … Read more