REVERSALS IN ACTION
by William C. Martell

Reversals are like Good News/Bad News jokes - they keep action scenes
exciting and actually help to infuse action scenes with emotions by
adding suspense and surprise. When I was a guest speaker at the
Sacramento Film Festival a few years ago, I used this scene from ROAD
WARRIOR to show how reversals work. Here's the set up: Mad Max and the
Feral Kid are in a tanker truck being chased by all manner of scumbags
in dune buggies and pick up trucks...

BAD NEWS: Three scumbags, including the mohawked WEZ, jump onto the
back of the tanker truck!

GOOD NEWS: Max swerves the tanker, ramming their dune buggies- CRASH!
- trapping them on the tanker truck.

BAD NEWS: Scumbag #1 climbs onto the roof of the truck, fires and
arrow through the roof at Max.

GOOD NEWS: It misses.

BAD NEWS: Max has to reload his shotgun.

SUSPENSE: Who will finish reloading first? Max or Scumbag #1?

GOOD NEWS: Max reloads first. Swings his shotgun up to the roof.

Big day tomorrow. The seriously ill MIL may be moved to a more
private hospital, and I want to be there to hold her hand during the
transfer.

Today we visited her, and she felt well enough to threaten me if I
tried to stick one more spoon of food into her mouth. I waited a few
minutes and then snuck a morsel of smushy veggies in there, and she
begrudgingly swallowed it.

Everyone post well, and don't worry about Ted Kennedy's seizure. He
has survived much much more, and all of it totally without shame.

--Rich Man,

Justine Larbalestier sez, Speak for yourself.

<http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/?p=1160>

[via Scalzi's Whatever: <http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/>]

For some reason, I did not get a check in the mail today from a client
who promised to send it last Wed. But, since it was allegedly mailed
from Canada, it might have got lost between the mailbox and the post
office. That country is so screwed up.

Benefit of the doubt, eh?

It's not a large amount, but I'll hound that two-bit liberal until he
pays.

I hate liberalislam.

--Rich Man,

Richard Watson's book includes a cool graphic that's been getting a lot
of buzz: the EXTINCTION TIMELINE 1950-2050 (co-created by Future
Exploration Network and What's Next)
<http://nowandnext.com/PDF/extinction_timeline.pdf> [PDF ... duh]

The timeline shows the end of the Ottoman Empire and Czar Nicholas II,
the Berlin Wall and Kurt Cobain, Betamax and habeas corpus. In our
future, mending things will become extinct in 2009, video rental stores
and FAX machines in 2013, copyright and Taiwan in 2020, free roads in
2025, a good night's sleep in 2040, physical newspapers, blindness and
Google in 2049. ...

[via twisty turny internet tubes in some convoluted way: Laughing Squid
<http://laughingsquid.com/extinction-timeline-1950-2050/>]

Yahoo Nuze headlines says: Sen. Kennedy is 'conscious, talking' after
suffering seizure.

They misspelled stupor.

--Rich Man,

First published by Klaudio Zic Publications, 2008, www.lulu.com/astrology.
Copyright © 2008 By Klaudio Zic. All Rights Reserved. No part of this
material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or otherwise, for commercial purposes or otherwise, without
the written permission of the author, except when permitted by law.

ASTRONOMIC ZODIAC
an overview for the year 2008

Copyright © 2008 by Klaudio Zic, all rights reserved. http://www.lulu.com/astrology

ASTRONOMIC ZODIAC

The astronomic zodiac1 as presently defined is based on the IAU2
resolution dated August 2006. The present zodiac hosts 22 IAU
constellations in all.
Since Pluto is no longer a planet3, we lose several...

<http://www.crimefest.com/index.html>
Jun 5-8, 2008. Bristol, UK.

"Following the success of the one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the
American Left Coast Crime convention, the organisers are putting on a
new biennial international event called CrimeFest. CrimeFest will follow
the format of US conventions, featuring interviews, panels, a Gala
Dinner, and possibly one or two surprises. Our 2008 Featured Guest
Authors are Karin Fossum and Ian Rankin. Find out more about the award
winning Inspector Sejer series. And what's next after Rebus? Find out at
CrimeFest, and check the website to see which authors are attending."

Registration: £125

World Wide Telescope

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

What a powerful education tool!