Keeping the Tryst: Evolution of a book

Earlier tonight I was checking some things on Facebook and there was a memory that popped up, from a year ago.  Usually I don't look at those, there have been just so many things I've shared over the years.  But for whatever reason I went down the rabbit hole and took a gander.

Here is what it pulled out from this day in 2025.  A few things: this references the time I spent at the nearby Whataburger (the first location in the state of South Carolina).  I was there for awhile, earning some supplemental income to the artificial intelligence training I've been doing a few years now.

And at this point Keeping the Tryst had pretty much gone through editing and revision.  This was heading toward the final stages in getting it published.  This was also the time when I had started designing the cover.

I went further.  It turns out that a LOT has happened on July 26-es.

From ten years ago, when Tammy and I were in Oklahoma City.  Pokemon Go had been out for a few weeks and I was having fun going to gyms and taking on whoever was in control.  On July 26, 2016 I was on fire!  And I was having lots of giggles installing Pokemon with some funny names...

A few more clicks and I came to this post, from 2015.  Again, about the book.  At this point it had been in the works for about nine months.  I started working on it roughly two months before Dad died.  He was the one who most encouraged me to write it (a lot of other people had been telling me that I should write a book too).

As you can see the book (which was far from having a title) was in much different condition from what it would eventually transmogrify into.  It was going to originally be more in-depth about my life with bipolar disorder.  And this was also more than ten years before the book was finally published (say, what is keeping George R.R. Martin from finishing The Winds of Winter anyway?).  A lot happened in my life during the intervening decade.  Good, bad, wacky, tragic, horrific, hilarious.  And during that time more people said that they wanted to read my entire life story.  So that's what it became.

At the time Chapter 2 did cover the first twenty-five years of my life.  In its radically changed final form the second chapter of Keeping the Tryst spans up to the time I'm in second grade.  Blame my incredibly precise memory: I came to realize that there was much in my childhood that resonated across the next several decades.  Like how Chapter 2 now starts, with my first brush with insanity at the age of six.

It's really quite something, as the author of the book, to look back upon its evolution.  It's kind of a chronicle of how I was also evolving as a person.

Maybe someday I'll get to do it again.  I like to think that as far as I've come as a human being, there is still quite a bit of developing left.  Perhaps there will be enough material for a sequel.

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Comments moderating policy of this blog

EDIT: A good friend sent me this graphic.  It's as apt for this situation as any other:

A recent post on this site has provoked a larger than usual amount of nitwits.  It seems a good time to reiterate some things...

Ever since the start of this blog more than twenty years ago, I have welcomed vigorous discussion and debate in the comments sections of the posts.  I have also allowed for anonymous comments to be made.  My policies about that have been more liberal than a lot of sites on the Intertubes.

Last month, as a result of some people abusing the rules of polite society when commenting, I turned on moderation of comments.  It is now set to publish a comment only after I approve of it.

Many of the comments that had been made were laden with profanity and obscenity.  They were not the writings of civilized people.  It would be an insult to young people if I said that the comments were "childish".  They were more like adolescents enraged with the onset of hormones.  The comparison I've made of them to manic eighth graders is an apt one.

They refused to behave. So I turned on moderation.

The nitwits cried out that this is a violation of freedom of speech.  They demanded that I make this place one rife with abuse again.

It's very, very simple.  Anyone and everyone is free to make a comment.  And I do indeed allow for a wide range of opinions and perspectives.  I like it when this blog can be a place of vigorous debate and discussion.

But there is expectation also: that people commenting do so in a polite and dignified manner.  Which means NO hard profanity, NO crude sexual references, NO petty insults, NOTHING that you would be too ashamed to show your mother.

(Some of the people I'm talking about come across as having no shame at all.  Who knows, maybe their parents didn't love them enough.  Maybe they've never known any better than to not act like @$$holes, but I digress.)

I have told the people screaming for open comments about this many times by now.  Have laid out the instructions so clearly that a young child could grasp it.  The nitwits still don't understand.  Their minds seem as dark as their souls.

I see this place as an arena of ideas.  Some people want it to be a no-holds-barred battle royale with flying chairs and hidden weapons.  They just don't seem capable of being decent human beings.

So I'm saying again, as crystal clear as I know to say it: be nice and your comment will be allowed, and I believe that over the years I have demonstrated appreciating a remarkable latitude of opinions here.

If you cannot stop acting like wild naked savages dancing in blood however, you will not be allowed to enter the discussion. 

If a person has something legitimate to say, they certainly can do so and I will definitely hit the publish button for it.  Regardless of viewpoint.  But if they can't do that without acting like a total bastitch, it will not be published.

And now I'll wait for the rabid jackals who have been abusing the comments to come again to cry foul.  I can practically hear them even now.

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And now...

 “If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumbered here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:

If you pardon, we will mend:

And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call;

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.”

- from A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare

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Updated: Remember "SW Geek Hub", that stalker who accused me of bigotry?

Last month the operator of the "SW Geek Hub" group on Facebook went up and down the Intertubes accusing me of bigotry, because I refuse to endorse and condone the LGBT agenda.  I called him out on it, told him that he was being the true fascist in this matter.  Here is the post I made then about it, which attracted the attention of probably no more than ten or so of his "mates", who also joined in with their disdain for my refusing to join the forces of "Pride".  I left their comments up. I want the world to see what kind of ugliness rests beneath the velvet glove of "tolerance" and "diversity".

This person made all the accusations.  He claimed moral superiority.  "SW Geek Hub" has a history of attacking anyone who doesn't measure up to his standards.  He has even "doxxed" the information about those who disagree with him and has done his best to have them fired from their jobs (at least twice he has succeeded) on the grounds that they are "bigots" and "haters".

But he never shows us his real name or his face.  He's too afraid to be identified.

(He didn't like it that I turned off unmoderated commenting on this blog.  He claims that I'm violating freedom of speech.  As I said on another post I approve the comments of anyone who has something legitimate to say, regardless of whether or not I agree with that person.  SW Geek Hub and his associates refused to do that, apparently they can not do that much.)

I don't like anonymous cowards who attack others and then run away without being confronted.

But "SW Geek Hub" isn't anonymous anymore.  I have come to know quite a bit about him.

A reader has provided plenty of information about "SW Geek Hub"...

His real name is Connor Heggie.  He's about age 34 or 35.  He lives in Newcastle upon Tyne in England.  Here is his Facebook page.

(Heggie is also known as Objective-Meal-7450 on Reddit.)

For all his ravings, he is really a very sad individual.  He has no one in his life apart from people down at "the pub" which includes Front Street Tap House and occasionally the Hobbit Pub, running trivia nights every week or so.  One of his Star Wars groups on Facebook was shut down for impersonating another page.  His only legitimate claim to fame is that he boasts of having nearly a thousand DVDs.  The SW Geek Hub page on Facebook itself is loaded with obscene material that Heggie posts.  It's certainly not a place for decent people.

I am in possession of a few photographs of him.  He definitely does not look as well as the impression he tries to make.

At one point Connor Heggie claimed to have run for office himself.  Personally, I doubt it.  He comes across as too much a severe screaming nutcase.  He's especially fixated on finding "bigotry" and "fascism" among real Star Wars fans.

Our guy Connor will probably never know the love of someone special.  He will never write a book.  He will never direct or edit together a movie.  He will never truly see the world beyond his own small corner of it.  He will never know real beauty.

What's worst of all, he will probably never know God.  He harbors pathological hatred toward anyone who does believe in God.  He certainly tried to mock me for my own faith.

Maybe I'm wrong.  God has provided salvation to many people who we mortals would often think don't deserve it.  I know that I certainly don't deserve it.  If God could rescue me, then no one is beyond His forgiveness.

Why am I writing this?  Because Connor Heggie/"SW Geek Hub" has tried to slander and hurt a lot of people.  He's hidden behind his screen names, too afraid to come out and show the world his face.  I'm doing this because it's only fair to other people, that they will know who they are dealing with.  I don't like cowards, especially when they accuse others of things like "bigotry" with no rationale whatsoever, and going so far as to take away their livelihood.

I'm posting this so that others will be aware of who this bully really is.  And, like me, laugh even harder at him.

As I said in the original post, Connor Heggie aka "SW Geek Hub" seems to be someone who is oblivious and ignorant of the real fascism of his country.  England is becoming worse by the day, but he and too many others are too cowed by their government to do anything about it.  They will protest "I know my place guvnah!" all the way into complete totalitarianism.  And no amount of pop culture trivia will be enough to save him or his buddies down at the pub.

And now you know what I know, what I have learned.  A true coward is being exposed and given the same light upon him that that is cast upon others.

I'm certainly satisfied now.

EDIT 07/25/2026:  This post has certainly aroused a number of deviants and other nitwits.  Here is an image that a dear friend sent along today.  This and the Facebook post associated with it are a good assurance.  It could also be said that the reward for being an idiot is being surrounded by them.

EDIT 07/25/2026 07:48 PM EST: Heggie did not like it, to put it mildly.

Long story short, this lil' post has ignited a tempest in a teapot.  But some things have come up in discovery...

This whole thing started with me citing a four word phrase from the Bible.  That happened last month.  It then came to light that Heggie admitted that he had at least two people fired from their jobs.  Allegedly for using the "n-ger" and "f-g" slurs.

Which is already doubtful.  Very, very few people would be as idiotic as to use the "n" word on Facebook.  Especially on a page supposedly for Star Wars material.  What would be the point of such a thing?

It turns out that Heggie has a considerable record of accusing those who differ from him on social and political matters of being "bigots" and "racists" and "fascists".  He has been doing this for quite some time, without being held accountable for his claims.

Well, in the past few days I have engaged with Heggie and his associates in what could be called a good ol' fashioned flame war.  I know: I should be above such a thing.  But when the opposition is a bully who has cost others their livelihood, that demands accountability.  It isn't the first time I've done such a thing.

You would think that in accusing someone of bigotry and racism, that there would be preserved some substantiating evidence.  In the form of screenshots of the offending language, of emails, whatever documentation is needed.

A short while ago however, Heggie admitted that no such evidence exists.  He pursued two individuals that he did not like, got them fired, and did not keep the records of the exchange between himself and the two alleged offenders.

Who would be so stupid as to not keep the basis of their accusations filed away somewhere, if it came to being in a court of law?

Given how nowadays practically anyone in Britain can lose their job if not be thrown into jail on flimsy evidence that they broke the "hate laws" there, one can easily envision that it would be quite easy for someone as wretched as Connor Heggie to lie and accuse two people of actions that they did not commit.

Heggie has admitted openly many times that he got the two individuals fired.  But he can't prove whatever it was that they said.  He'll call anyone who confronts him with that a liar and a bigot.  But the onus is on him.  He should have maintained records of what these people said.   Heggie did not do that.  He claims that the screenshots were erased during some purging that Facebook did a while back.  As if he doesn't know how to take screenshots and save them locally.  Millions of people do that every day.  Why didn't Heggie?

The onus really is on him in this matter.  The people he got fired from their jobs have claimed that they did nothing wrong, other than rub Heggie the wrong way.

That isn't an act of bigotry.  And neither is merely hating someone.  Hate is an emotion and as long as it's not acted upon, there is nothing to punish a person for.  It might be unethical, it will reflect badly on their character.  But it's not a crime.

Well anyhoo, unlike Heggie I have screenshotted our interactions.  In case there might be legal repercussions.  I'm being very thorough.  I can produce documentation of his admitting that he has no evidence of the alleged "offenses".  All he has is a trail of accusing people he doesn't like of things that they are not and likely never were.

The ball is in his court.  He should answer for what he has done, and threatened to do again, to innocent people.

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A robot teacher is about to be unleashed in New York schools

 

Meet "Sally".  She costs $57,000: less than the yearly pay of the average teacher in New York State.  She is an automaton.  A robot teacher.  And she is coming online in a school district this coming fall semester.

Here is another picture of Sally courtesy of Realbotix, the company that created her:

 

"Welllll long tall Sally, she's built for speed, she got

Everything that Uncle John need

Oh bay-bee, yeaaaah bay-bee, WHOO-OOOH, HOO-OO bay-beee

Havin' me some fun tonight, yeah! "

 

(I just couldn't resist that, folks.)

I think that Sally is a glorified Teddy Ruxpin.  Remember him? The animatronic teddy bear that toy company Worlds of Wonder came out with in 1985.  Sally probably has a cassette tape hatch in her back that contains her programming, lets her move her arms and head (she has legs but she's unable to walk).

The school admins swear that Sally and any other robots won't replace real teachers.  But really, does anyone expect that to be the case?  All Sally needs is periodic maintenance and updates/service packs, and she's cheaper than several years' salary of one teacher.  No doubt the teachers unions are going to be keeping a wary eye on this one.

Well, the New York Post has much more about Sally and what she's supposed to do.

The only other thing I know to add is this, from Battlestar Galactica:

"All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again."

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Just feeling meh about the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer

I must be honest, that I'm not completely jazzed about Avengers: Doomsday.  Not like what happened the last time the Russo brothers made Marvel movies (Infinity War and Endgame).  Maybe I'm just tired of comic book movies?  Others seem to be feeling the same.  This and Dune Part Three are coming out on the same day and I know which I would get a ticket for.

What about you?  Does a new Marvel movie stoke you?

Well anyhoo, here is the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday.

I do confess that Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom piques my curiosity.  So we'll see.

And yes, I am aware that there is a new trailer for Dune Part Three.  But I haven't watched it.  The first two movies were such a delight (though there was some deviation from the novel) that I want to go into this next movie as cold as possible.

EDIT 07/20/2026 06:43 PM EST:  Earlier this afternoon Marvel also released this image of presumably the teaser poster for Avengers: Doomsday.  This is starting to incline me toward having more interest in the movie.  It depicts Doctor Doom, his back toward us, as he gazes up at a haunting tapestry depicting a boy and woman (young Doom and his mother?).  Beneath them is a depiction of a world on the verge of being shattered.

I really, really like this picture.  Who knows, maybe Marvel will stick the landing with this movie yet.

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Watching my "first" church on Sunday mornings

I am somewhat in a state of flux at the moment.  See, I've been living in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area for going on eight years now.  But I don't know if it can truly be called that I've "set down roots" here.  This is one of the fastest-growing areas in the entire country, there are people coming to live here in mega droves (the constant residential developing is something that's irking longtime members of the community) but even so, there's not been a peace on my heart about staying here.  If I can swing it I'd love to relocate to the Greenville area.  I have a lot of friends and family there, it would be nice to be closer to them.

One of the things that has suffered because of that "lack of peace" is my spiritual life.  I've been here for the better part of a decade and I still haven't found a place of regular worship that suits my needs and what I've come to appreciate most in a church.  Truth be told, I haven't had something like that since I was married, almost twenty years ago.

I feel closer to God than I ever have before.  But still, we as Christians are not meant to "go it alone".  We are supposed to be in fellowship and communion with one another.  We are meant to lift each other up, encouraging and edifying one another.  Scripture even instructs us in this matter: Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

So I've been searching for a church.  Some come close to the mark but I've found that I can't be in regular fellowship enough to make it a home church.  And maybe that's God's way of goading me to move on elsewhere.  I did report in my book that when God spoke to my heart, all the way back more than ten years ago, He said that I would not find my lasting happiness quickly.  I've found a great deal of happiness, yes.  But if my spiritual needs aren't being met, well... that's a lot missing from the equation of my life.

I have compensated a bit though.  I'm not entirely without spiritual nourishment.  Indeed, this easily ranks as the congregation that is dearest to my heart, because this is the church that I was attending when I first accepted Christ into my life almost thirty years ago (wow, thirty years?!?  How did THAT happen?!??).

If you've read Keeping the Tryst then you know about my fondness for Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina.  The final steps of my journey to Christ took place in the fall of 1996, and a massive part of that steering toward God happened because Antioch and the services that it held on Sundays for students at the nearby college.  I wish that I had been able to take more advantage of what Antioch and its members and clergy had to offer, because it might have given me wisdom enough for things that happened later in my life (again, something that you can find in the book).  The people of Antioch are a real family of brothers and sisters in Christ, more than any place I've found in all the years since my salvation experience.  I really miss that kind of fellowship.  And I had missed the preaching of pastor Mark Fox and the occasional sermon by others in the congregation.

So for awhile now - and I must thank my dear friend Geoff Gentry for first telling me about it - I've spent an hour on Sunday, either during its live broadcast or later on, watching the service at Antioch Community Church via streaming video through Facebook.  It's much of what I remember from being there: the praise and worship songs, the reading of the scripture, Mark Fox's teaching... pretty much everything stopping only for the meet and greet among attendees and the periodic communion.

It's not completely being in a spiritual community.  I think that's going to come when my dog and I are where God truly needs us to be.  But for quite some time and I think it will go on into the future, watching or listening to the messages from Antioch Community have been sustenance that I cherish and incorporate into my life.  It's something that I am very thankful for.

So... wanna check Antioch Community Church out for yourself?  Their website is antiochchurchnc.org.  If you find that you want to watch the services as they happen, here is their Facebook page from which the live video streams every Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. EST.  You can also find each week's preaching on their SermonAudio archive.  However is best for you I think you'll get a lot out of it.  I certainly do.

And if you so choose to want to visit in person, Antioch Community Church is physically located at 1600 Power Line Road in Elon, North Carolina.  No doubt they would be delighted to see you!  Be sure to tell then that Chris Knight says hi! 😊

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The Hand of Darth Sidious: A Star Wars Theory by Yours Truly

What if the Palpatine we saw in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker was not the "real" Palpatine at all?  What if he was some kind of replica without an iota of Palpatine/Sidious's spirit whatsoever?

There is precedent for such a notion.

In Timothy Zahn's two-part "Hand of Thrawn" novel duology from the late Nineties, the galaxy hears whispers about the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn.  Thrawn in the still-venerable expanded universe, you may recall, was killed toward the end of The Last Command.  The galaxy thought he was dead.  But he prophesied that he would return in ten years' time if he ever was thought to have died.

Long story short, it turns out that at Thrawn's hidden fortress (see what I did there?) in the Unknown Regions, the grand admiral had prepared a clone of himself.  It had been in stasis all that time.  Just waiting to be "brought online" by his faithful Chiss followers.  It would not have had any of Thrawn's soul, but it definitely would be Thrawn after a fashion.

What if Emperor Palpatine did such a thing for himself?

I can easily imagine that Palpatine went to Exegol and had himself cloned, and had it put in storage.  It would be waiting, for the "unlikely possibility" that Palpatine would die.  Who knows how but perhaps the clone was given the original's memories and abilities (it seems to have been the case for Joruus C'Baoth in the expanded universe), ready to be taken out of its vat and brought online.  The Emperor would be reborn.  But as Palpatine says in a deleted scene we know exists, he would be "more than a clone, less than a man."

So Palpatine/Emperor/Darth Sidious creates the clone and when his Sith Eternal followers get the news that he died and the Empire is finished, they activate the clone.  Just as Thrawn's people were about to do with his own clone.  And THAT is who we see in The Rise of Skywalker: a replica of Palpatine, created as a failsafe in case the real one was killed.

Such a notion preserves the idea of Anakin Skywalker being the chosen one who brings balance to the Force.  While at the same time restoring Palpatine as the overarching mastermind behind the dark events throughout the Star Wars saga.

Just a theory, I confess.  But it's one as good as any other.

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Aliens came out forty years ago today

 One of the seminal motion pictures of the science-fiction and action genres hit theaters on this date in 1986.

And it still holds its own four full decades later.  Aliens is going to prove to be as timeless as its predecessor.  I love pretty much everything about this movie.

Bit of a side note: a week and a half before 9/11 I had dinner with Jenette Goldstein, the amazing actress who played Vasquez.  She's an absolutely delightful woman.

Happy anniversary Aliens.  And no doubt we will be enjoying you just as much forty more years from now as we do today.

 

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Fallout 5 is officially in the works, and remasters of two previous games are coming! Along with...

It is official: Fallout 5 is in development.  Bethesda mastermind Todd Howard confirmed it yesterday.  Right now it's being called "in pre-production", which could mean a lot of things.  Depending on how far things are it could mean that concept art is being created.  It could also mean that the staff are still trying to determine where this new Fallout game takes place.  Previous games have been set in the California desert, the ruins of Washington D.C., the Boston region, and the landscape surrounding Las Vegas.  Where will the next Fallout take us?

Speaking of Las Vegas, Howard also said that remasters of Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 are coming.  Which will become an enormous time sink for me.  Fallout 3 sucked me in so hard that I spent over 130 hours playing it.  I got sooo obsessed with finding every secret, talking to every character that I could.  If someone said that Fallout 3 must be my most favorite game ever, that would probably be close to the mark.  And as I said a few days ago about Fallout: New Vegas I seem to be cursed to start that game but never close to finishing it.  Maybe I should wait for its remaster to begin anew?

Howard also reconfirmed that studio Obsidian - the outfit that brought us New Vegas - is at work on their Fallout game (there's no word on where that takes place either).  And there are updates coming to Fallout 76 and mobile game sensation Fallout Shelter.

And finally, Howard reports that something special is being planned for the thirtieth anniversary of the original Fallout next year.  The event is to be held in Washington D.C.

I'm looking forward to Fallout 5.  Although it will be somewhat bittersweet.  I'm probably going to ve in my mid-sixties, at the least, before Fallout 6 comes out.  Maybe I should begin that Fallout tontine I suggested a year ago.  Might be a fun lil' exercise to get involved in.

Anyhoo, be of good cheer.  Lots of good Fallout is coming down the pike.  

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Memories of the giant turtle

My memoir Keeping the Tryst has been getting around some.  I confess, its biggest audience seems to be composed of people who have known me, friends and family.  It's gotten some other purchases, though it's far from being a "bestseller".  Still, I've been happy.  And one never knows how far a book will get in the larger scheme of things.  A lot of books started out selling small but went on to bigger things.

One of the most consistent remarks that I've gotten about Keeping the Tryst has been about my memory.  This book covers half a century of the lifetime of an American boy, and it does so in at times almost microscopic detail.  As I said in the first chapter, I have no idea how it is that I remember some things so vividly and clearly.  It just "is".  Sometimes I feel like Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: unstuck in time.  One moment I'm here in the present and the next I'm anywhen else down my timeline, and sometimes it's as if I can see a little bit ahead, too.  The memories come often without anything precipitating them.

Like this latest one, that has me stumped about why it should come to mind many decades later.

A few nights ago I remembered something that I saw on television, at an age so young that I couldn't pinpoint what year.  It had to do with a giant green turtle and a beautiful woman with glowing green eyes.  It was a movie.  And for some reason it made me sad, like it had a tragic ending.

I knew that I wasn't imagining this.  It's something that has crossed my mind a number of times over the years, without warning.  This was a thing that I had seen with my own eyes and it must have been before I ever started school at the age of five.  And it was haunting me.

Why?

The other day, the memory came again.  And finally, at long last, I plugged what little I knew into Google and braced myself for whatever might come.

Well, it turned out that I was not the only poor soul who had gone looking for the giant turtle and the girl with glowing green eyes.  Many others had too.  And so I followed the trail...

It led to one Michael Summers, proprietor of the Dangerous Universe website.  And with his post from 2000 titled "Dream of the Big, Huge Turtle" the final link in the long chain going back to my childhood snapped into place.

It was a movie after all.  Its title is The Bermuda Depths.  And it was broadcast on the American television network ABC on January 27th, 1978.

That was a few months shy of my fourth birthday.

I read the article on Wikipedia and found out more...

The Bermuda Depths is a science-fiction/fantasy/horror film, starring among other people Carl Weathers (who was in between the first two Rocky movies) and Burl Ives.  It's about a young man who grew up on Bermuda, meeting a girl named Jennie when he was younger, and after some time away comes back to the island.

I remembered that much, too.

And then there was that monstrously enormous turtle.  That more than anything else is what made the impression on me.  It was a terrifying spectacle.  I remember there being a fight with it toward the end of the movie.  And I think that in a way the turtle won.

I have memories of watching the final scenes and crying.  I cried a lot, as a child. I was very sensitive.  Sometimes I would cry listening to a song.  It just needed to sound sad enough.  Songs that don't faze me and haven't for a long time since then.  The Bermuda Depths made me cry, and I don't know why.

I suppose that I'm going to have to watch this, sometime or other, maybe in the near future.  I did a looksee and it's available on DVD at Amazon for thirteen bucks.  Maybe when I do see it, the real last pieces of this movie that has at times haunted me unbidden will fall into being.  Perhaps then I will understand why memory of it has lingered and persisted for going on fifty years.

If I do see it, I'll make a post about it.  But then again, I wonder if I really should watch it.  There should be a bit of mystery in one's life.

However this goes, my memory has a name now.  And I know that I wasn't imagining it.

EDIT 07-18-2026 02:06 AM: I was so startled by discovering that I hadn't hallucinated it that it didn't occur to me until just now that there might be clips of The Bermuda Depths on YouTube.  But there are some.  So I'll post that link and lure others to also partake of the madness.

(Turtle picture generated with Google Gemini)

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The trailer for I Play Rocky goes the distance and I wanna see MORE!

I have already told my best friend Chad that if I can get 250 miles to where he lives in November, we are going to see this movie.

Yowza!!  I believe already that MGM has a solid, solid hit on their hands.  This is going to connect with the fans and the critics.  Darn it, we need a feel-good inspirational movie right now, if we ever needed one at all.  And the story of how Sylvester Stallone came up from the streets to write and star in Rocky is as inspiring as it gets.

I Play Rocky comes out in select theaters on November 6th and all over the place later in November.  Plenty of time for award consideration.

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13-year old kid struck by lightning while playing video games

This is why I still cherish my Game Boy Advance.

I found this story at Not The Bee: the "real life news" daughter site of The Babylon Bee, one of my favorite places on the whole heapin' World Wide Web.  Seems that 13-year old Vlad Skuridin of Cypress, Texas was playing a game on his computer.  Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck his house and blew him out of his chair.  For good measure the lightning strike also set a small fire in the attic and knocked a hole in the wall.

Here is young Vlad describing the incident to KPRC reporter Corley Peel:

Okay, let's be clear: playing the video game itself did not cause lightning to strike Vlad.  It doesn't sound like the bolt was channeled through his computer and from there jumped to Vlad.  He just happened to be touching a metallic surface when the bolt hit the house.  It sounds like a one-in-a-zillion freak of nature situation.  Even so, it's not a bad idea to unplug everything you can when a storm is threatening.  I certainly do while lightning is a severe threat.  Especially the computers.

And Vlad is a wise young man too.  It's true: you never know when something might happen.  Be good to the people in your life.  Let them know that you care about them.  That you love them.  We aren't guaranteed tomorrow or even an hour from now.  So make your life count!

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There's a new Fallout game coming! And guess what...

 ...it's being made by Obsidian, the studio that almost 16 years ago brought us Fallout: New Vegas.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that the new Fallout game is guaranteed to be good.  But a lot of people put great store in Obsidian.  New Vegas is widely considered to be the best Fallout game produced yet and the onus is going to be on the studio to deliver.  They know this.  I have faith in them.

And I say that as someone who has still not finished playing New Vegas.  It's sort of become a curse in my life: I cannot continue that game without something happening to throw me so far off course that by the time I get back to it, I've forgotten where I was and how I got there.  The last time I played it I had just come to New Vegas itself and was trying to find Mr. House.  But that was two years ago.  My main PC died on me and I need to get it fixed and when that happens I'll probably want to restart the game just to get the full experience.

Well, I should have plenty of time to do that.  It's probably going to be at least three or four years before this new Fallout game is ready.  And Lord only knows how long it will be before we get a proper Fallout 5.  All I'm sure of is that by the time Fallout 6 comes, many if not most of the people reading these words will either be retired or dead (see my idea from a year ago about having a Fallout tontine with your friends!).

Anyhoo, the announcement about the new Fallout game comes hot on the heels of Microsoft letting go thousands of employees from its Xbox and gaming divisions.  You can read about all of that over on Nerdist.com and their article about Obsidian going to work on Fallout whatever.

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Indian Simulator: NOT for those with weak stomachs!

This is terrible!  But having endured more than two hours of tech support based in India during the past few days, I'm feeling ornery enough to share this anyway.

If you've ever wondered what it is like to live in India, those good people have produced Indian Simulator.  We have gobs of simulators about American life already - flight simulators, goat simulators, and of course the Grand Theft Auto games.  But what is it like to make one's home on the subcontinent?  Indian Simulator is the game for you then!

Now that's ONE pre-order I for one will be avoiding like a disease-ridden brahma bull!

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Haven't seen Young Washington yet. I did see Disclosure Day though...

On Independence Day some friends asked if I wanted to join them at the theater to see the new Steven Spielberg movie Disclosure Day.  I went with them and we agreed afterward that it's a great movie!  Not Spielberg's best but it's definitely tapping into "old school Spielberg" that a lot of us remember from our youth, with a dash of the "mature Spielberg" who has been with us since Schindler's List.

That is how I gauge our greatest living filmmaker.  There is the Steven Spielberg that I met at the Boy Scout Jamboree in 1989: the "big kid" who was as giddy as a schoolboy, dancing around in his Scout uniform.  That's the man who brought us E.T. and Indiana Jones and Jaws and the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.  He had a childlike twinkle in his eye and we were fortunate to have him.

Then Spielberg went off to Poland to make Schindler's List.  He wasn't the same after that.  The twinkle went out of his eyes.  The Spielberg who came back was a darker figure, and it reflected in his work.  The Jurassic Park sequel was Spielberg attempting a return to form, but it... lacked something.  I can't put my finger on what it was, but it did.

It was like that for Steven Spielberg for awhile, until 2001.  It took finishing his pal Stanley Kubrick's work with A.I.: Artificial Intelligence to pull him back to the wonder. Even there, I don't think it was a complete return.  The Spielberg of fifteen years earlier might have left David inside the amphibicopter, looking at the blue fairy, until his power ran down and everything was frozen around him.  That would have been a downer of an ending and yet one with hope.  The Spielberg of 2001 couldn't leave David like that, he instead gave him a more concrete ending.  One that was completely absent of humanity, it must be noted.

Over the past quarter century it's been coming back in fits and starts, and with Disclosure Day we have gotten as close to the old-school Steven Spielberg as we've gotten post-Schindler.  This is definitely going back to Spielberg's fantasy/sci-fi roots, the rich soil that bought forth Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  Disclosure Day is a pure Spielberg film, with a script written by longtime collaborator David Koepp.  And the cherry on top, a terrific score by John Williams (this is the thirtieth project that Williams has done with Spielberg).  It's got all the classic Spielberg cinematic style, and it's pretty obvious that true to form Spielberg chose to shoot this with real film: it's got that beautiful grain look to it.  Visually I thought it much resembled the look of 2002's Minority Report, and that's not a bad thing at all.

I'll have to say that I recommend Disclosure Day.  It's not a perfect film, but it is a fine enough motion picture made by the greatest filmmaker of our time.  Try not to make sense of it as you go along, is the biggest advice I'll give it.  Suspend your disbelief at the theater door.  Trust me, it will make sense toward the end of the movie.

So that's what we saw on Saturday.  My friends already had tickets for Disclosure Day.  Had we gotten to the theater without any real plans in mind, we might have seen Young Washington, which debuted the day before.  I have heard nothing but amazing about that movie.  More than enough to make me want to catch it while it's in theaters.

Young Washington is produced by Angel Studios.  I've had my eye on Angel for awhile now and it has been a pure pleasure to watch it grow into a solid, solid mid-tier studio and maybe more than that.  Angel is building off of lessons that faith-based filmmaking has long been in the process of learning.  Let's face it: the Christian filmmaking community has made some real stinkers over the past fifty or sixty years.  Only now, in the last fifteen or so, has it come to realize that the message is little or nothing if it's without a story that sincerely entertains the audience.  Sherwood Pictures earnestly began the trend with their movies like Facing the Giants and Courageous, and now others have come along too.

Keep an eye on Angel Studios.  They really have become and continue to be as formidable an outfit as there is apt to be for a venture of its size and scope.  And it's only going to get better.

But I think that Angel Studios missed a real marketing opportunity with Young Washington.  One of the current gimmicks for seeing movies in a proper theater is that they offer the opportunity to have special popcorn buckets.  I've seen them in all shapes and sizes.  Some amazing to behold and some downright ridiculous (the one for Dune, a plastic sculpture of the sandworm, was... shall we say, "suggestive"?).  But they have become very popular and nice collector's items.

Angel Studios should have had a popcorn bucket for Young Washington.  It could have been a tricornered hat.  Holds your popcorn during the movie, and fashionable to wear afterward!

Yeah, it's a ChatGPT rendition.  I'm still sticking with my vow to not produce any AI-"written" work on this blog.  And if there is any AI "art" I'm going to disclose that.  But I needed a hat/popcorn holder pic and that was the fastest/dirtiest way to have one :-P 

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