Visuals, Part Two

(July 12, 2008) - With the new photo gallery on line, I'm playing around with a new layout for the front page, a cleaner, streamlined presentation.

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Visuals

(July 10, 2008) - So I'm pretty sure I'm going to revamp this whole site, and probably scrap that whole WordsPress idea as well. Too much hassle, really. In any case, here's the first update: a new photo gallery.

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Technicalities

(July 4, 2008) - Sorry to take June off, won't happen again.

One of the problems with this site has been the designer's inability to utilize all the tools that most other blogs have; this is because the designer is not, strictly speaking, a web designer, or a software engineer, or even particularly technically proficient.

So we're going to try an experiment. We're going to maintain the blog portion of this site at a WordPress blog: Man With a Pen. Everything that gets posted there, will also get posted here, along with links between the two. It's only an experiment, and will probably be scrapped when it becomes obvious it's as confusing to maintain as to read. But we'll see.

Meanwhile, on a completely random note, here's a 1943 Bugs Bunny cartoon, in which our hero battles a gremlin aboard an Air Force bomber:

Happy Fourth of July, America.

- Paul Vigna

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As Time Goes By

(June 4, 2008) - Here's the nut graf for you:

It's as if, for all of our knowledge, for everything we've gained from peering into the night sky, building magnificently powerful telescopes, for blasting man onto the moon and sending myriad probes out into outer space, our concept of the universe is still shaped by the ideas and notions we've carried around in our collective heads for thousands of years.

Still interested? Continue

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Rage Against The Machine

(May 30, 2008) - I didn't have to go any farther than the BBC's front page for this one: two extremely rare rhinos captured on film in Indonesia, before one of them blasts the camera:

The world's rarest rhinoceros has been captured on film by a specially installed camera in the jungles of Java, Indonesia.

But the female rhino, which was accompanied by a calf, promptly charged the camera, sending it flying.

It's not exactly the Battle At Kruger, but it's pretty good. The video's only about a minute long, and the two massive whacks she gives the camera before it goes flying are well worth the wait.

-Paul Vigna

P.S. Speaking of the Battle at Kruger, here it is. It's like safari day here.

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Life

(May 29, 2008) - I take the train into work in the city, and portions of it run along carved out rail beds bound by concrete embankments. It always amazes me to see weeds growing out of cracks those walls. It's incredible how little sustenance life really needs in some cases to get going. A little dirt forms in the tiniest of crevasses, a seed lands, it rains, and life forms. Continue

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The Phoenix Has Landed

(May 27, 2008) - My dreams of being an astronaut died roughly around the time I realized just how hard it would be to actually become an astronaut, but the exploration of space has soldiered on without me. This evening, as Americans across the country were saluting our armed forces, enjoying barbecues and beers, NASA scientists were working hard, excited and nervous as all hell, the fruition of a 423-million mile journey at hand, waiting for word from the Phoenix probe, which was expected to land on the Martian surface just before 8 p.m. eastern time.

The 15 minutes between the ETA and the expected first images - the amount of time it takes data to travel at the speed of light from Mars to Earth - must have seemed an eternity. But, then, to cheers, images finally did arrive... Continue

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Weekend Getaway

(May 25, 2008) - Where are you going this Memorial Day weekend? The Jersey Shore? Maybe you're more of a Hamptons type. Maybe you want to really get away. No matter where you go this weekend, somebody's going further. Much further. Continue

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The Tao of Einstein

(May19, 2008) - "Einstein dreamed up the theory of relativity but still pondered the meaning of God and religion," I wrote in my last post. Originally, I'd written that Einstein dreamed up relativity and also believed in God. But I struck those words. Did Einstein really believe in God? I thought he did, but maybe I had that wrong. Not wanting to misrepresent the greatest thinker in the history of New Jersey, I hedged my bets. The next day, evidence would come to light that would show it was a good edit. Continue

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Our Alien Brothers

(May 15, 2008) - This is big stuff. Big Bang stuff.

It's one thing for Pope John Paul II to admit in 1992 that the persecution of Galileo back in the 17th century was an "error." But in an interview Tuesday, the Vatican's chief astronomer went where no Roman Catholic official has gone before.

He said there could be life out there. Continue

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Taco Hell

(April 26, 2008) - I've been much less dedicated to "Repubblica" than I should be, and for the happy few of you reading it, I apologize. I've got more stories rumbling around in my brain than I've got time to write, and some of them lately have been taking away from this one. Plus I've been putting the finishing touches on a spec script I've written, "The Annetteology," trying to get that ready for a couple of competitions that are coming up.

That's a winding way of saying I've finally posted Chapter VIIII of "Repubblica." It picks up right where Chapter VIII left off, with Tom outside the taco truck right after the thief held it up. Before he can finish his taco, Tom encounters a truckload of vigilantes and a bike messenger who's got something for him. Can you stand the suspense?

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You Have No Internet

(April 25, 2008) -- Okay, so a month between posts really is pretty ridiculous, even for this site. And, this isn't even really a post. But, this is a great South Park clip:

 

For a show that started out as one big joke, well, it's still one big joke. But it's a really funny one.

But don't think it's too crazy to happen. The Internet is just a system, after all, and systems can crash. Ironically, AT&T said just think week that without substantial investments, the Internet could get saturated by 2010 - and crash. Some say the company's just using scare tactics to ram through its plan to charge for bandwidth. Maybe, but I'm too old now to go back to a world without the World Wide Web.

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Perpetual Motion

(March 20, 2008) -- You can win a bar bet with this one. You pick up a bottle of beer, say that's resting on a coaster, take a sip, and place it back on the coaster. Is it in the same spot?

Or how about this: You take a book off the shelf to read. When you're done you put it back on the shelf. Is it in the same space? Continue

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 A New Chapter

(March 6, 2008) -- I've published Chapter VIII of "Repubblica." This chapter relates a critical moment in Burke's life, where he nearly gets himself killed over a taco.

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Chapter VII

(Feb. 10, 2008) -- So I've finally gotten around to publishing Chapter VII of "Repubblica." Between work, the holidays, and the Giants' Super Bowl run, I haven't spent much time writing. Actually, between work, the holidays and the Giants' Super Bowl run, I haven't spent any time writing.

But I've haven't forgotten the story, and I'm busy now editing the first six chapters, while I develop and write subsequent chapters. "Repubblica" is something I'm publishing as I write, more or less live, so you can expect as time goes on I'll be reworking the story in both big and small ways.

Personally, I think this is a fascinating way to write a story, although I'm not sure how much non-writers will appreciate watching the lump of clay getting molded. I hope, however, that you, dear reader, do find it interesting, and will keep coming back to see how the story changes and develops. Feel free, too, to write with comments, criticisms, or ideas.

- Paul Vigna

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A Giant Book

(Feb. 9, 2008) -- Someday, somebody's going to write a great book, not a good book, but a great book about Super Bowl XLII. It was a great game, and as the years pass and its mythology grows, somebody will commit it to paper. If I'm still around, maybe I'll do it. Continue

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Capa's Cache

(Jan. 27, 2008) -- Amazing story in today's New York Times about three boxes of almost mythical lost negatives belonging to the photographer Robert Capa that were thought to have been lost when he fled Europe toward the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Capa's most famous for his photograph, left, of a soldier taken at the exact moment he was shot. After being rediscovered in a closet in Mexico City, they've found a home at the Intenational Center of Photography in Manhattan. Continue

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 A Really Old Idea

(Jan. 24, 2008) -- Charles Dickens got paid by the word.

I remember reading that years ago, while I was struggling to get through one of his brick-like books, and it infuriated me. That swindler! This guy's rambling on and on, secondary characters and tertiary characters, and plots and subplots and on and on, and then to learn that they were so long because he was getting paid by the word - by the word! - it just killed me.

Now, apparently, this wasn't entirely true. He was paid by the installment. Learning that what I once learned and thought was true wasn't the truth, I should give him a second chance, although I have yet to do so.

But that part about the installments always stayed with me, and came back to me recently when I was thinking about this website and what to publish here. Continue

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Updates

As I keep writing, I expect to keep updating older chapters as well as publishing new ones. Chapter 7 should be coming very quickly, which sees Tom risk his life for just a taco. Chapter I Chapter II

- Paul Vigna

Fiction
Repubblica