Author Archives: BT

Blog Reborn – September News

Posted on September 9, 2015 by BT

The boiling summer of 2015 is nearing its fiery end, and autumn is just around the corner. September is my birth month, and so a good time to give my blog a much-needed rebirth. This month sees a spate of … Continue reading →

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Games I’d Like to See

Posted on September 8, 2012 by BT

The arts are stuck in a rut. How many more sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings do we have do see before we admit that the film industry is, creatively speaking, in dire straits? How many fifty shades of vampires in love must we pass in bookstores before we accept that publishers are now only playing it so safe as to be stale?

Games are no different. Continue reading →

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R is for Ray

Posted on June 6, 2012 by BT

I grew up on Ray Bradbury. Each raven-winged October, I would sneak off to my school library and promptly vanish into the pages of The Halloween Tree and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Ray was born in the month of … Continue reading →

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Mass Effect 3: Change it or Leave it?

Posted on April 21, 2012 by BT

Roger Ebert was wrong. I’m not sure when it happened, but modern video games crossed a threshold at some point where they ceased being simple time-sinks. Since the Battlezone, Moon Patrol, Gravitar, and Pac-Man days, they spun themselves into a digital cocoon and emerged as honest-to-goodness art.

At this point, it isn’t even an argument any more. The Smithsonian has an exhibit on art in video games. And the California Literary Review and Forbes magazine have featured articles on the impact of games. Fucking Forbes! It’s clear that we have turned a corner, culturally, and the only people still calling games “adolescent distractions” are like those Continue reading →

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Meet Athena

Posted on February 26, 2011 by BT

2011 was the year I decided to get a pet. Oh, as a kid I had various fish, which is basically like owning a short-lived three-dimensional screensaver. And years later, I interacted with other people’s dogs and cats, lizards and … Continue reading →

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And so we arrive at the next leg of the journey, 2011…

Posted on December 31, 2010 by BT

For me, New Year’s is as close to a sacred holiday as anything in my life. Another year of journeying through space, learning, thinking, loving, fighting, and evolving. It has been a strange year for me, and for many people … Continue reading →

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A few words on friendship

Posted on November 17, 2010 by BT

“Friendship is the marriage of souls.” — Voltaire I have often said that my greatest gift in life has been friendship. For whatever roll of the dice and stir of the social pot, I have been gifted with extraordinary friends. … Continue reading →

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Horror remakes that are actually good…

Posted on October 22, 2010 by BT

In the spirit of Halloween, Donna and I have been watching some horror classics of the 80s this week. Specifically, remakes that are (gasp) actually better than the originals. As a rule, I am furiously opposed to remakes, reboots, sequels, … Continue reading →

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Farewell to a Generation…

Posted on October 22, 2010 by BT

Three weeks ago, my last surviving grandparent, Mary Tropasso, was checked into the hospital complaining of pain in her bones. The doctors diagnosed her with bone and lung cancer. Fourteen days later, she was dead. This pic is of both … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on the Proposition 8 Ruling…

Posted on August 25, 2010 by BT

Proposition 8 has been overturned as you may have heard. The justice, a conservative, ruled it unconstitutional. I have stated before how important it is for people to read things for themselves, rather than let others tell them about it. … Continue reading →

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