Author: Shannon Turlington
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Is there any point to blogging anymore?
I enjoy blogging so much that I maintain several of them, but I have to wonder if there is a point. To be honest, it often feels like I am shouting into the void only for the privilege of hearing my own voice. Many web tools have arisen that do certain jobs better that I…
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A helpful guide to the apocalypse…
Note: I originally posted this somewhere else, but I thought it was cute, so I’m reposting it here. With so many ways to die out, it’s a wonder our species can get out bed in the morning. Yet, despite all odds, the sun rises each day, and the planet continues in its natural course. How…
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Are we the Eloi?
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading the long-neglected novelette, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do. It will take one or two sittings to get through. I don’t recommend it so much for the story, which can border on the ridiculous, but for Wells’…
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The death of the book has been greatly exaggerated…
Image via Wikipedia I see that yet another pundit is predicting the death of the physical book. His argument seems to be that books will go the same way as music and movies and become completely digitized. Well, I say that person does not understand that people interact with books in very different ways than…
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A few thoughts (and some links) about content mills…
Over the last couple of days, I have been reading a lot about content mills. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, content mills or content farms are websites or networks of sites that churn out thousands of pieces of content per day, which are optimized to score high on specific search engine results.…
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So much crappy writing, so little time…
The web has made it easy for anyone anywhere to publish their writing with very little effort or money, and for the most part, I believe this is a VERY GOOD THING. There probably hasn’t been a time in history when people could so easily express themselves, and instead of shouting into the void, there’s…
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Why are stories so important?
Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating. More so, in fact, for while food makes us live, stories are what make our lives worth living. — On Stories, Richard Kearney To be a person is to have a story to tell. — Isak Dinesen Once the necessities for survival are taken care…
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Endings: Why the Dark Tower succeeds where Lost fails
Please understand that if you read further, you will be totally and irrevocably spoiled for the endings of both The Dark Tower series by Stephen King and the Lost television series. The choice is yours. Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and Lost have a lot in common, and it’s no secret that the Lost writers…
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Recommended science fiction reading for people who don’t like science fiction
I am a great fan of science fiction. I have been reading it all my life, and I read across the spectrum of the genre, from the very soft to the very hard. I enjoy it all, as long as it’s well written. But I realize that science fiction is not for everyone. Some people…
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Let’s all stop saying “after the jump”…
The phrase “after the jump” on blogs is one of my particular pet peeves, and I have noticed that usage does not seem to be abating. One reason why it’s annoying is because the majority of the readership has no idea what it means — including the blogger, in many cases. Besides being unintelligible, it’s…
Shannon Turlington 