Spoiler #REVIEW: Rogue One

On December 16, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn movies, Reviews3 Comments

Okay. You may remember my review of The Force Awakens, which basically went through the entire movie point-by-point and dissected the entire thing. I liked TFA, but it hasn’t held up for me as well as I wanted it to. In fact, as you can tell from the review, it started falling apart almost as soon as I got home.

My short, spoiler-free review of Rogue One is that it is a much better movie than The Force Awakens was, but– alarmingly– the places where it is bad, it is bad in exactly the same way as TFA. Which is not a good sign for future films.

I am going to spoil the shit out of this movie. I’m giving you a picture and then an actual jump screen so that you don’t get caught up accidentally. But you will Know All the Things when you’re done. Okay? No whining. SPOILERS!

Continue reading “Spoiler #REVIEW: Rogue One” →

The scary thing is this counts as progress

On December 15, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I actually managed to have a reasonably full day, if “full day” is allowed to include several hours of vaguely dissatisfied video gaming and clearing snow off of the driveway. We’re back in “cold as hell” territory around here, so leaving the house after dropping the boy off at school wasn’t happening.

For the last few hours I’ve been binge-watching Community and staring at a blank screen on the computer. That’s almost writing, right? And I get to see Star Wars tomorrow! Which will no doubt make Friday night’s post easy to write.

All told, not a bad day off.

On what I’ve read: 2016

On December 14, 2016December 14, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Reading5 Comments

I know not all of you are friends with me on Goodreads (and you should be!) but I’m getting close to closing out 2016 for the year and writing my Best Books I Read post. Just in case you were wondering, this is the competition:

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down	Abernathy, Ralph David
Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)	Ahmed, Saladin
All the Birds in the Sky	Anders, Charlie Jane
Karen Memory	Bear, Elizabeth
Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1)	Beaulieu, Bradley P.
Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 3 (Alias (Alias (2001-2003))	Bendis, Brian Michael
Jessica Jones: Alias, Vol. 2	Bendis, Brian Michael
Jessica Jones: Alias, Vol. 4 (Alias, #4)	Bendis, Brian Michael
City of Blades (The Divine Cities, #2)	Bennett, Robert Jackson
Crystal Rain (Xenowealth, #1)	Buckell, Tobias S.
Ink and Bone (The Great Library, #1)	Caine, Rachel
The Girl with All the Gifts	Carey, M.R.
Alexander Hamilton	Chernow, Ron
The Tale of Yin	Chng, Joyce
The Terracotta Bride	Cho, Zen
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1	Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Nemesis Games (Expanse, #5)	Corey, James S.A.
Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas, #1)	Córdova, Zoraida
The Devourers	Das, Indra
Are Prisons Obsolete?	Davis, Angela Y.
The Wizard Killer – Season One	Dreece, Adam
My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, #1)	Due, Tananarive
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States	Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne
Black Wolves (Black Wolves, #1)	Elliott, Kate
Dead Souls: A Novel	Fenn, J. Lincoln
A Book of Tongues (Hexslinger, #1)	Files, Gemma
The Force Awakens	Foster, Alan Dean
The Drowning Eyes	Foster, Emily
The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)	French, Tana
Kenyatta’s Escape	Goines, Donald
Kenyatta’s Last Hit	Goines, Donald
Crime Partners	Goines, Donald
Death List	Goines, Donald
Bloodline	Gray, Claudia
Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2)	Gray, Claudia
A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1)	Gray, Claudia
Three Slices (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #7.5; Blud, #3.5; Miriam Black, #3.5)	Hearne, Kevin
Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #8)	Hearne, Kevin
The Destruction of the European Jews	Hilberg, Raul
A Rage in Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #1)	Himes, Chester
Brown Girl in the Ring	Hopkinson, Nalo
God’s War (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #1)	Hurley, Kameron
The Geek Feminist Revolution	Hurley, Kameron
Infidel (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #2)	Hurley, Kameron
A Brief History of Seven Killings	James, Marlon
The Children of Men	James, P.D.
The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)	Jemisin, N.K.
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe	Johnson, Kij
Ahsoka	Johnston, E.K.
The Unquiet Dead (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #1)	Khan, Ausma Zehanat
Hammers on Bone	Khaw, Cassandra
The Ballad of Black Tom	LaValle, Victor
Moth and Spark	Leonard, Anne
The Wall of Storms (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2)	Liu, Ken
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories	Liu, Ken
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening	Liu, Marjorie
MJ-12: Inception (MAJESTIC-12 #1)	Martinez, Michael J.
Chaos Choreography (InCryptid, #5)	McGuire, Seanan
Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid, #4)	McGuire, Seanan
This Census-Taker	Miéville, China
Lagoon	Okorafor, Nnedi
Akata Witch (Akata Witch, #1)	Okorafor, Nnedi
Binti (Binti, #1)	Okorafor, Nnedi
Midnight Taxi Tango (Bone Street Rumba, #2)	Older, Daniel José
Infomocracy (The Centenal Cycle, #1)	Older, Malka Ann
Midnighter, Vol. 1: Out	Orlando, Steve
Mr. Fox	Oyeyemi, Helen
Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)	Palmer, Ada
The Family Plot	Priest, Cherie
Chapelwood (The Borden Dispatches, #2)	Priest, Cherie
Concrete Park Volume 2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T	Puryear, Tony
Concrete Park Volume 1	Puryear, Tony
The Female Man	Russ, Joanna
A Stranger in Olondria	Samatar, Sofia
Calamity (Reckoners, #3)	Sanderson, Brandon
The Quest for Cush (Imaro #2)	Saunders, Charles R.
Imaro	Saunders, Charles R.
Fire Boy – Book 1 of the Djinn-Son duology	Shah, Sami
Hoodoo	Smith, Ronald L.
A.D. After Death, Book One	Snyder, Scott
Scale-Bright	Sriduangkaew, Benjanun
An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)	Tahir, Sabaa
The Root (Wrath & Athenaeum #1)	Tilahun, Na’amen Gobert
The Rising (The Alchemy Wars, #2)	Tregillis, Ian
Pride’s Spell (Sin du Jour, #3)	Wallace, Matt
Lustlocked (Sin du Jour, #2)	Wallace, Matt
Fluency (Confluence, #1)	Wells, Jennifer Foehner
Aftermath – Life Debt	Wendig, Chuck
The Hellsblood Bride (Mookie Pearl, #2)	Wendig, Chuck
Invasive	Wendig, Chuck
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman	West, Lindy
Masterminds and Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World	Wiseman, Rosalind
Hope Rising	Witter, Pamela H.

For reasons that aren’t quite clear to me, that list (which I just pulled off of Goodreads) doesn’t match the number of books that GR says are on my 2016 shelf, but screw it, it’s close enough. I should pass 100 books read in the year rather easily by the end of the month, which means I read a bit less this year than I usually do– which kind of surprises me. I’ve read 97 books this year, only a very few of which were rereads– not enough, honestly. 45 of them were by authors who were new to me and 74 were by women or authors of color. I’m going to keep up this plan next year, too, although I’m going to toss sexuality into the mix– I’m going to keep books by straight white men to no more than about a quarter of what I read. I liked what that did for my reading choices this year so I don’t see any reason to not keep it going.

Anything on the list you particularly liked? Anything I should make sure to get to next year?

Must be Tuesday

On December 13, 2016December 13, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn WorkLeave a comment

I think the highlight of the day was the crazy woman who came in, at 7 pm, claiming she had “several” pieces of her sectional (bought in 2012) in her car (fitting more than one piece of a sectional into a car means that you do not have a car) who was insisting that we did in-house furniture repairs– for free!– which we do not. At times she seemed to think that the repairs would be done on the spot.

“Not even for the scratches on the leather?”

“Not even then.”

She then went on to insist that we “used to” and we fixed her furniture for her in-house the last time it was broken. My co-worker this evening has been with the company for 28 years, so that didn’t go over well either. She really seemed to be poised to fight about it, so how I got her out the door without an argument really is a mystery– as is why she would randomly bring in broken furniture without calling first, or why she seemed to think that raising her voice might lead to a world in which we just decide to fix her shit in-house when we don’t actually do that.

(And to be clear: I think she knew that we didn’t do in-house repairs and was just hoping to bully us into it.)

Other bits of fun today included unloading the truck in sub-freezing weather (no broken bones!) and five customers all day. Oh, and also, a nearly $4,000 return, which means that for the second week in a row I’m headed into the weekend at negative sales for the week.

I will stop bitching about my job soon, I swear, just as soon as I have literally any other thing in my life to spend my time talking about. I didn’t get home until after 9 PM tonight. Shit’s gotta change.

A few facts about the world

On December 12, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized1 Comment

The main problem with unloading a giant truck full of furniture in the wintertime is not the cold– not to say that that’s not a problem– but rather the ice all over the dock. Even if we are vigilant about de-icing everything, and believe me, we are, the shit’s kind of unavoidable if it’s actually snowing outside. Sooner or later, I’mma break a leg. Looking forward to it.
Turns out, speaking of snow, that people don’t make a big thing about going out to buy furniture when it’s cold. Today I sold a lamp, a basket, and a vase. The week after Christmas is supposedly generally bananas but the last couple of weeks haven’t been exactly lucrative.
Thus far I’ve not been super impressed by this season of Walking Dead— I’ve all but lost interest in the show, honestly– but it’s turning out that Pregnant Maggie is Best Maggie. Which entertains me.
You may have noticed that I’ve said next to nothing about the election since the election. That is because I am still currently firmly in the I Can Not phase of coping. It’s odd to recognize that you’re in denial and still remain there. This shit can’t possibly be happening, therefore it isn’t. Probably not the healthiest frame of mind to be in.
I will, very soon, be writing the Best Books of the Year post. The competition is as harsh as it’s ever been. I’m planning on getting to it by Christmas at the moment, but I want to finish the book I’m reading first.
I think every other post I’ve been doing at the end of the year is going to get wrapped up into a Jesus Fuck 2016 Sucked post. If I have the energy to write it. It’s possible that I won’t; it’s been that kind of a year and also, see a few points up re: denial.
Rae Sremmurd’s first album is as good as their second.

That’s what I’ve got at the moment. Whassupwitchu?

See effete tree dress red at Ra dress d

On December 12, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking2 Comments

So I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it had opened the app and written that post title on its own. Thought I’d share.

STATION IDENTIFICATION: Infinitefreetime.com

On December 11, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn WritingLeave a comment

I’m Luther Siler. I’m a writer and an editor. Welcome to my blog, infinitefreetime.com.

I’m the author of Skylights, available for $4.95 from Amazon, and The Benevolence Archives. Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 is 99 cents from Amazon. Volume 2, The Sanctum of the Sphere, is $4.95. All three books are available in print as well, and the print edition of Sanctum includes BA 1 as a bonus! My newest book is a nonfiction memoir about teaching called Searching for Malumba: Why Teaching is Terrible, and Why We Do It Anyway. The ebook is $4.95 and the print edition is $15.95.

Autographed books can be ordered straight from me as well.

Here’s where to find Luther Siler on the interwebtron:

You can follow me on Twitter, @nfinitefreetime, here or just click the “follow” button on the right side of the page. I am on Twitter pretty frequently; I use it for liveblogging TV, whining about anything that strikes me as whine-worthy, and for short, Facebook-style posts. I generally follow back if I can tell you’re a human being.
Sign up for my mailing list here.
My author page on Goodreads is here. I accept any and all friend requests.
I have a Tumblr! I don’t actually know what Tumblr is, because I’m old, but I’ve got one.
My official Author page on Amazon is located here.
Feel free to Like the (sadly underutilized) Luther Siler Facebook page here. It’s mostly used as a reblogger for posts.
And, of course, you’re already at infinitefreetime.com, my blog. You can click here to be taken to a random post.