Archives for 2014

Nolan’s “Interstellar”: Now with Realistic Black Holes!

November 4, 2014 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

According to this article on Discovery.com, a black hole featured in Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi film “Interstellar” will have the “best black hole in sci-fi.”

scientifically realistic black hole depiction

A black hole seen in Interstellar, courtesy of Paramount.

Nolan has consulted with Caltech physicist Kip Thorne, who provided a modern, scientific understanding of black hole theory via Einstein’s general relativity equations and the Black Hole Information Paradox.

Oh, and also the movie apparently stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, and comes out tomorrow, yadda-yadda-yadda…

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 7)

November 3, 2014 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Yeah, it’d be nice if there were a clever caption here, but we can’t always get what we want.

Something was stolen, monsters are attracted to demigods, and Mr. D’s still cranky. I now present the seventh chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…

My Dinner Goes Up in Smoke

This is another chapter that’s primarily given to world-building and character development, both of which are welcome things at the moment. Most of the development goes to Annabeth while she introduces Percy to more of the camp and many of the concepts related to it. I still like her – she’s friendly enough, but she’s got her own agenda as well; this is a good thing. She seems to be her own character rather than just a prop for Percy. Luke, the counselor that’s one of Hermes’s sons, got a bit of development, too, but so far the book hasn’t had a chance to give him too much depth. [Read more…]

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 6)

October 29, 2014 By Michael G. Munz 2 Comments

I was supreme lord of the bathroom once, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

I used to be supreme lord of the bathroom like Percy, but then I took an arrow in the knee.

Something weird is in the attic, and there’s sewage water everywhere! So naturally that means it’s time for the sixth chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…

I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

I liked this chapter. It had a lot of exposition, but it’s exposition that previous chapters have given me an appetite for, so it works. Percy gets a tour of the camp, learns that all the kids (including him) have a divine parent, and then unwittingly empties a bathroom’s worth of toilet water on some of Ares’s kids. [Read more…]

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 5)

October 27, 2014 By Michael G. Munz 4 Comments

FIIIVE GOLDEN…um…
Line?

Rick Riordan drops the capital-G God-bomb and then runs away! “We shan’t deal with the metaphysical.” (But really, can you blame him?) It must be time for the fifth chapter in Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…

I Play Pinochle with a Horse

In this chapter I met a couple of new characters, got annoyed with Percy, and had a suspicion confirmed. [Read more…]

Gaming: Rebel Galaxy

October 25, 2014 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Primitive but excellent.

Long, long ago, in the before-time, I got my first computer. It was 1990, and on my birthday my parents presented me with a state-of-the-art PC. It had an Intel 286 chip that could run at the whopping speed of TWELVE MEGAHERTZ! That was fast, for the time. It had no mouse, because the operating system was text-based (MS-DOS). It had no hard drive, because the OS booted into RAM from a floppy disk. A 5.25″ floppy disk. The monitor? 14 inches of amber monochrome awesome! It had a word processor, but being a 15 year old boy, I primarily used it for games. [Read more…]

Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 4)

October 24, 2014 By Michael G. Munz 1 Comment

Send Fourth the Minotaur!

Lightning-lit battles, horny adversaries, and even more pantsless-Grover! It must be time for another installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. It’s the 4th chapter…

My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting

MY mother once taught me how to catch bumblebees. Never bullfighting. Then again, there were very few bulls in our neighborhood, to say nothing of minotaurs. That’s county zoning law for ya. [Read more…]