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Science fiction is sometimes referred to "speculative fiction," and while the name hasn't stuck as well, it's more accurate. I believe science fiction/speculative fiction is supposed to be the narrative of ideas. It's a story with a conceit (or two) that leads us into a sort of intellectual exercise -- a dramatic game of "what if...?" Usually ( Read more... )

I woke up from two space/astronaut dreams. One I was alone in a rocket trying to reach Mars, struggling against time to plug in my laptop to stay in touch with my destination. The other I was alone on a space station and the Moon was calling me when nobody was supposed to be there. Both had more to do with a bank of machines in front of me, ( Read more... )

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Having taken a step back and looked at it again with fresh eyes (on DVD instead of on the computer), I'm pretty happy with my progress. Not there yet but today was good.

Progress report:

• Right now I tentatively like the more abstract opening; I like it enough that I can't be objective about whether or not it really works. I want it to.
• Happy with ( Read more... )

I was Robert Altman's second-unit director, but it wasn't like I was running around getting b-roll while he got the main bits. I got the action sequences, sort of, but I worked with him, or while he watched. I was somewhere between understudy and backup. Obviously the man was still alive ( Read more... )

So the bad news, even though the bailout hasn't gone through yet, 30% of all our money is in the hands of only three companies now. Yeah, that's something to give you pause.

But the good news is, commercial space flight is right around the corner, and soon we can just leave this whole mess of a planet behind and go live like sexy astronautsSpaceX ( Read more... )

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In the last few days I've been watching my guilty-pleasure movies again. I've even been putting on random Star Wars movies to fall asleep to. Hell, I slipped in Episode III at one point and was disturbed to find myself half-awake and half-watching about half of it (which I calculate means I saw one-eighth of the film that night ( Read more... )