Sean Faurschou: 1977 ~ 2014

For my last post of 2014, I thought I ought to address something important.  I know this blog has seemed abandoned and forgotten, but truly this is not so.  To varying degrees, and based on the day, I know it's still here.   That fact worms away in the back of my mind sometimes.  But I just have not been paying it much attention of late.

Then this past year, something happened in my life that needed to be discussed in some relevant manner.  And I started - in fits and starts - to write down some things that I think need to be said.  I need to do this so that it will not be lost.  I need to tell a story that concerns someone who was dear to me, and who I won't see again in this life.  I need to do some quasi-eulogizing, I suppose you might say.  I need to remember my friend Sean.

Get suited up

Is plate armor in fashion this year, or is chainmail still all the rage?  I was never one with much sense of style, so don't ask me.

Source: ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com

Googled images of "armor fashion show" and this is one of the first results.  Looks to me more like it'd fit in on the set of an "odd" low budget sci-fi film.  But hey, whatever works.

Book Review: Armor

To Kill A Mockingjay?

Use Tracker Jacker-laced bird seed?  Or how about not toying with your opponent so much, and just out-and-out nuke them from orbit.  As another famous movie heroine once said, "It's the only way to be sure."

Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I

Source: pintrest.com

From Imperials to the "Evil Empire"

Yesterday I posted a group of books from the so-called Star Wars Expanded Universe.  Thus the "Imperial" part of today's title.  And for the "Evil Empire" part?  That's what Reagan called the Soviet Union, of course.  Today I'm posting a review a one of Volkogonov's fascinating texts on the leadership of that nation during it's failed experiment with communism.

Book Review:  Autopsy for an Empire: The Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime

Source: Flicker.com

Source: Foundsh*t.com

It seems to me that, in the Special Edition versions of Return of the Jedi, there is a scene where a statue is being pulled down as grateful citizens celebrate the fall of the Galactic Empire.  I'm sure Lucas was inspired by the scenes from the Fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union.  But then, I suppose a scene where the Emporer's statue is carted down a river wouldn't jive well with the whole thing Lucas was trying to do there, yeah?  Still, it is a very telling image.  That river boat looks like it has seen better days, eh?

A big pile of Star Wars

I'm doing something I rarely do, and that's put up five book review posts in one day.  The reason?  Well first off, I have a butt-load of reviews to post, and this is a convenient way to get 'em delivered.  But more to the point, all five reviews are for Star Wars-related novels.

Book Review: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

Book Review: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed II

Book Review: Star Wars - Splinter in the Mind's Eye

Book Review: Star Wars - The Mandalorian Armor

Book Review: William Shakespeare's Star Wars

And speaking of all things Star Wars, here is a rather clever video I found.  The world wide web came together to crowdsource the original Star Wars, in fifteen second clips.  The disjointed-ness of the presentation is a little distracting form the narrative to me.  But the idea?  Genius!  And how much fun would it be to get to portray part of cinematic legend, even in a fifteen second snippet?


Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Do they keep Yeti in Area 50, perhaps?

And vampires in Area 52?

Sorry I've failed to post in the past few days.  Things have been chaotic around my place.  Had another minor basement flood.  At least I'm getting good at repairing the damage from them.  I think this is the third or fourth one that downstairs bedroom has suffered in the past few years.

Of course, having to get into the access space for the plumbing on the shower (where the leak originated this time) meant going through my daughter's room, and that set off the ticking time bomb of "clean-it-or-lose-it," that her mother and I have been telling her for some time.  So not only is the basement a mess from having to clear out the room and tear out the paneling I put up (paneling instead of more drywall, since another flood was inevitable, in my mind... gotten soggy enough times now to know better), but the upstairs is a mess from all her stuff being moved about for sorting and disposition (keep, donate, toss).

Of course, it could be worse.  I could be the hapless soul who has to tend to the government's secret sites out in the desert regions of the western United States.  That mess makes my own household troubles look positively minuscule, by comparison.

Book Review: Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

It has nothing to do with Area 51 (or does it...  sinister government plumbing conspiracy?) but I LOATHE polybutylene pipe.  Some well-meaning soul plumbed our little one bathroom home with it at one point in the past, and now...  you breathe on the stuff and it breaks!  All I had to do was Google images of "polybutylene pipe leak" and I found plenty of examples that are consistent with my own experience.  / Source: GoodHouseBadHouse.com

It gets great gas mileage

Source: Pintrest.com

 For a "monster" station wagon, that is.

Book Review: Mile 81

Anybody know just what that sounds like?

Source: Threadless.com

I admit, I've not spent much time around swans.  But what exactly does a swan sound like?

Book Review: Swan Song

Here's what Led Zeppelin has to say on the subject:

Not that kind of Bombshell

Source: thewalkmagazine.com

I am not sure who coined the phrase "Blond Bombshell," though I could easily look it up.  I will say that for me, one of the first people to come to mind when I think of that expression is Marylin Monroe.  Be assured, I am not one of those people who thinks Ms. Monroe was hot stuff.  Sure, she was pretty.  But if you Google her and look at the images, it seems to me that the lady was one of those sorts who could naturally translate sensuality via photography. 

And Monroe certainly wasn't the first woman to accomplish that, by any means.  Though I'm no authority, I'd venture a guess that Mae West may have been the first to fit the term.  Nor did Monroe have any secret combination that has yet to be duplicated.  Looking at a glossy fashion magazine, you'd see the same expression on some woman's face in there, at least once.  The same semi-vacant eyes, neutral face, slightly parted lips...  Monroe didn't corner the market on that look, by any means.

What does this have to do with the link below?  Nothing.  Just a bit of clarification that Tom Holt's book, Blonde Bombshell, has only the slightest bit of connection to the conventional meaning of the term.  The good thing is, Holt's book has it's own unique blend of style and humor that puts it in a classification not unlike the term it uses for it's title.  It's a true stand-out.  But don't take my word for it; go see for yourself.  It's a good book, and certainly worth the read.

Book Review: Blonde Bombshell

Orange Thursday

Source: fanpop.com

 If Friday is black, then perhaps Thursday is orange?  For some reason, I think of that color when I think of Thanksgiving.  Maybe it has something to do with pumpkins, since they are the pie of the season.  Or the color of turkey when it has just come out of the oven (a deep, rich orangy color).  Or maybe it's my Bears, since Thanksgiving was about football long before it was about sucking every last dollar out of the American consumer.

Thanksgiving Thoughts from the White Board

So the city is actually Phoenix then, yes?

Source: eedenartwork.deviantart.com

Because Phoenix's rise from their own ashes, and ashes form from embers, and the book is about the city of Ember, and so it must be Phoenix, yes?

Book Review: The City of Ember

I should be VERY tired

Twenty-five movie reviews in one day!  I know, I have traditionally only published one post at a time, but desperate times call for crazy solutions.  I have to give credit where credit is due though.  This crazy idea came from my wife. Thanks Dear.  If I published each of the reviews I have sitting around in nearly ready-to-go shape on a daily basis, I'd have enough to post each day for almost a month.  So I decided to dump these twenty-five online and then take a rest.

Movie Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Movie Review: As Above, So Below

Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow

Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Movie Review: The Other Woman

Movie Review: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Movie Review: The Amazing Spiderman 2

Movie Review: Divergent

Movie Review: Dredd

Movie Review: Ender's Game

Movie Review: Gravity

Movie Review: Iron Man 3

Movie Review: Looper

Movie Review: Maleficent

Movie Review: Man of Steel

Movie Review: Now You See Me

Movie Review: Pacific Rim

Movie Review: Pompeii

Movie Review: R.I.P.D.

Movie Review: Red 2

Movie Review: Red Dawn (2012)

Movie Review: Skyfall

Movie Review: Robocop (2014)

Movie Review: The Conjuring

Movie Review: The Guilt Trip

A fascinating look at a somber subject

Today's book review covers some pretty heavy subject matter, but I found the book to be insightful and worth the time spent.

Book Review: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

On Killing hearkened me back to a book I haven't read since I was in junior high school.  Years have given me more perspective on Crane's novel, The Red Badge of Courage, but even back then I felt more than a touch of the significance imported by that seminal text.

Source: minorart.com

Catching Fire? Stop, Drop & Roll

Another review, but this one seemed timely.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Source: lol-rofl.com

Thinking and then some

Another book review today.  This one I read over the past summer.  It was pretty good.  Check out my review at the link below.

Book Review: Thinking, Fast and Slow

Speaking of thinking, here's a great example of thinking on your feet.



Source: v5.bearskinrug.co.uk

Interstellar Love Song

Oh, that's "InterSTATE Love Song."  Sorry Stone Temple Pilots, I got it mixed up.

Source: HollywoodReporter.com

In the meantime, here is a review for a film that - shocker of shockers! - is still in the big box theaters!  I'm really on a roll here, I know. First Dracula: Untold and now Interstellar.  Maybe I ought to quit my day job and start being a film critic full-time, huh?  Or on second thought, I'm gonna stick to making bad jokes and pointless but pedantic observations.

Movie Review: Interstellar

And here is the song, since I mentioned it.

After America... comes South America?

No!  China!  No, wait!  Australia!

R.I.P. Uncle Sam.  This is part of the book cover image for the book I thought I was reading, by the way.  / Source: popcultureninja.com

Check out my review of After America (The Disappearance) at the link below.

Book Review: After America

Dark Matter... it just has a spooky ring to it

Source: astrosociety.org

I'm not talking about the cosmological substance theorized by astrophysicists (see the chart above, or for in depth detail, check out this Dummies.com article if you are as sadly perplexed by high level physics as I am).  Nope, I'm talking instead of the 2010 novel by Michelle Paver.  It's pretty good stuff, and suitably scary for a good thrill.  Check out the review at the link below.

Book Review: Dark Matter

More Thoughts from the White Board

Posted some more Thoughts this evening.

Theological Thoughts from the White Board - Nov 13

Book Review: A History of Western Philosophy

Ah philosophy...  As I have no doubt mentioned before, and will do so again, my freshmen level philopsophy course was my worst grade in college.  Up until my final semester in school, that is.  Math took the top -err - bottom spot then.

In case you were curious what the differences are between the east side and the west side, vis-a-vis the philosophy thing. / Source: theliberatedmind.com

But I still find the subject somewhat fascinating.  Enough so that I actually read this book and did up some notes on it.  See the link below for the details.

Book Review: A History of Western Philosophy

Date night at the cheap seats

Guardians of the Galaxy poster. / Source: wikipedia.org

Had the opportunity to go out with my wife on Saturday evening.  Nothing fancy, but it was so nice just spending time together.  Went and saw Guardians of the Galaxy.  Check out my review, at the link below.

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Movie Review: Elysium

Poster for Elysium. / Source: Wikipedia.org

It's not a fresh review.  It's not even a good movie.  But it is something.  And something is good.

There will be a few posts like this for the foreseeable future, until I start getting caught up.  But on the bright side.....  hey!  Content!

Movie Review: Elysium

Thoughts from the White Board for Nov 3rd

First White Board post for the revived blog is now up.  I'm just making all sorts of progress here, aren't I?  Use the link below to go there.

Chubby Thoughts from the White Board - Nov 3

Happy Halloween

My first movie review is up today, and it is coincidentally - or not so much - a Halloween-ish movie.  Check it out here:  Movie Review: Dracula: Untold

And again, Happy Halloween!

Oh, and this was kinda cool.  Enjoy!

Welcome back

With little to no fanfare, Wong Lives! re-opens.

Things are a bit different this time around.  One really obvious change is that I'm keeping some of my more regular columns in separate areas (actually completely separate blogs, but they're all under the same umbrella of the "Wong" name, so it works out nicely).  My first post of any really sizable content is at the link below.

Book Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes

More details will follow, as I get to them.  And the decor will improve, as I have time to work on it.  But for now...  well at least it's something.

And as I always say, thanks for reading!