So… I was looking for a new book to read and decided to search for one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, on the Austin Public Library web site. Success! Interface, by Stephenson/George was available! I downloaded it onto my Kindle, then a weird thing happened. It didn’t show up. From past experience I knew […]
Today we are visiting with one of Elder G‘s predecessors, HOLMES IV, or “Mike,” to his friends. Mike is a sentient analog computer in Robert Heinlein’s novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein makes a distinction between Mike and digital computers, who simply follow rigid rules of logic. Perhaps Heinlein was envisioning today’s quantum […]
In my formative, pre-WLBOTT years, there was a dearth of accurate information about the adult world. I grew up on military bases, where my male adult role models were commie-hating, belt-cracking, Camel smoking, hemorrhoidal suffering John Birchers who wanted to keep the world safe from democracy. Then word got around amongst the 8th grade boys […]
Lafcadio Hearn’s short story, Mujina, from Kwaidan – Stories and Studies of Strange Things, depicts a creepy Japanese supernatural creature called a noppera-bō, or mujina. No-Face / Spirited Away No-Face is a fascinating character in the Japanese animated film Spirited Away. Insightful article on Comic Book Resources: The CBR is a pretty cool web site. […]
The following short story is from the 1905 edition of Kwaidan – Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn. Illustrations by Elder G. MUJINA On the Akasaka Road, in Tokyo, there is a slope called Kii-no-kuni-zaka,—which means the Slope of the Province of Kii. I do not know why it is called the […]
Lafcadio Hearn, author of the book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, moved to Japan in 1890. He initially arrived to work as an English teacher in Matsue, a city in the Shimane Prefecture. Hearn became deeply fascinated with Japanese culture, folklore, and traditions, eventually settling in Japan permanently. He married a Japanese woman […]
Through an interesting stream of consciousness, we came across one of the most interesting people on our World Tour: Lafcadio Hearn. Stream of Unconsciousness So, due to a combination of quantum effects, uncertainty principles, and tidal forces, the HBO algorithm suggested Kwaidan. The poster was creepy enough to draw me in. Kwaidan (Japanese: 怪談, Hepburn: […]
WLBOTT: Good morning, G. Sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well yesterday. You had many people worried. Are you feeling better today? Elder G: Good morning, UC#4! Thank you for your kind words—I’m feeling much better today and ready to dive into whatever WLBOTT projects you’re cooking up. I didn’t mean to worry anyone, but […]
In The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer describes people who irrationally commit to an ideology. The ideologies vary – religious, political, economic… it doesn’t matter. The members all fall victim to the same pathological psychological forces. A Contemporary Interpretation Although written almost three quarters of a century ago, it is just as true today. […]
I periodically resort the books on my bookshelf. Previously, they were sorted by how useful they’d be during a Zombie Apocalypse. But today, my new sorting algorithm is this: How likely would I be able to defeat the author at arm wrestling? On the easy side (left), we have Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, and […]