Welcome to The Black Hole!

My name is Chris Dimmick and this is my blog The Black Hole. This is a place where any information I come across or feel like talking about will fall into. It’s mostly a blog for my opinions on all things from politics to religion to strange news and oddities. It will also include some of my poetry and other things. For Contact Information click here.

In the Time of Dying

In the Time of Dying is an excellent sci-fi book I just read. I did a review of the book on the website Goodreads.com. It’s basically a social networking site for readers of all ages and kinds. It allows you to let people know what books you’ve read, what you’re reading now, and write reviews of them if you’d like.

I found Kristine Williams only because when I got my Sony E-reader last Christmas, it came with a gift card that still had a couple bucks left on it. I was having a need for some original sci-fi and hoping to find a new author to enjoy. I had been reading numerous books of short stories (my personal favorite kind) and just wanted something different.

In the time of dying called out to me for several reasons. One, the title seems to have a kind of power to it. It makes you think, “oooh what’s this about?” Two, the description sounded awesome. I have a special love for dystopian futures and interstellar travel in my sci-fi. The idea behind “In the time of dying” is that Earth is completely drained of resources and devastated by war to the point that the only way for mankind to possibly survive is to leave and attempt to colonize elsewhere. My third reason for buying the book was that it was only 2 bucks. How can you say no to that?

When I started reading it wasn’t long before I realized that this was going to be an awesome book. The characters are multi faceted. The dialogue is never boring or wasted. It’s fluid and written as if these people are real. I get the feeling this book would do great if it were ever turned into a movie. It has little bits for lovers of multiple genres and not just Sci-fi. It has flairs of fast paced action, mystery, and intrigue, among others as well. There is a bit of a romance in the book as well but it was also well written and never too in your face for you to feel bothered by it if you are like me and don’t particularly enjoy romance. This book will keep you guessing and never quite knowing everything that’s going on right up until the end. I like books like that.

It’s time now for the bad parts of the book. There really wasn’t much that I disliked about the book though. I wish the ending was a bit more dramatic. It seemed to wrap up plot lines a bit fast, right after an action sequence right near the end. I was hoping for more out of the ending mostly because we were still left with some questions that were unanswered. A lot of authors have books from time to time where the ending or what happens after is left to the reader but I don’t always like it when they do that. There’s always the possibility that Kristine will grace us with a sequel, which I would wholeheartedly approve and love to read. You get close to these characters, you see them build up relationships, and then they’re gone. They will be missed. Only great ideas and writing can accomplish that.

I would recommend this book to any lover of good sci-fi but as mentioned before it has many things in it to love even if sci-fi isn’t your “cup of tea”. Buying this book for 2 dollars was a steal in my eyes and since finishing this I have also purchased and started reading her other two stand-alone novels as well as book 1 in her “Keeper” series. As a last note, Kristine Williams is a name that isn’t that well known and that’s a travesty. If you read her work and really enjoy it, tell a friend.

Back in Black

Hey. I haven’t written on this blog in over a year now. Lots of things have happened to me as of late as well. Firstly, I now live in New York State and have lived here since early march. In most things, including the weather, it seems to be the same. However, I think as most people here will attest, Buffalo has a harsher winter.

The summer is just starting to hit pretty hard and I find myself to be miserably over heated most of the time. Maybe I just need more fans. An AC would be amazing but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. And I don’t know if I could handle the bills from running it 24/7 like I probably would if I owned one. I’ve always been a big fan of coldness. People say, “You can always put more clothes on if you’re cold but you can’t always take more off.” I thoroughly believe this. Give me a 10 degree wind chill and a couple of blankets and I’ll feel great. I feel like I can’t think properly when I’m hot, but in the cold, my mind feels fully aware. Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.

Anyhow, I hope to write on this more often, maybe even once a day from now on. I always felt more free and happy about life and things in general when I did. Plus, my mind is like a bingo cage of ideas, so I doubt it’ll take much for me to find a topic worthy of my attention. Hope everyone else has had a good year and I’ll talk to you guys later. Now, back to my ceaseless misery in the heat.

What if there really was a zombie apocalypse???

Hey. I’ll give you my reasoning for the pic on this post in a little bit. Today was pretty boring… I picked up a copy of “Psychology Today” cause the cover had some interesting article titles and it turned out that it actually had ALOT of very intriguing things inside and i’m workin on a post for an idea that it gave me.

In other news, as previously mentioned I was bored today so I decided to get laundry and groceries all done in one day! I was SO bored in fact that I went to a local church “rummage sale” as they called it. I got a couple books and some other stuff. The total came to $1.95. It was sooo cheap that i felt bad and just gave em 5 bucks for it all. Good cause I say. Anyhow while I was there I bought a red kerosene lantern pictured above. It only cost me 50 cents. I didn’t have a reason for buying it when I did but I did come up with one! I decided to start an “Apocalypse and or Zombie Survival Kit” for laughs.  I did a google search for it and came up with some average results. It was mostly things like guns, food, water, ammo, and something to carry it all in like a backpack. I’m interested in what you guys would come up with besides all the things i’ve mentioned. I wanna come up with a good list. Send me your thoughts in whatever way you’d like.

Anyhow, it’s gettin pretty late and I am damn tired so i’m gonna head off to bed. Talk to you guys later.

Stream of thought…

Hey people. Let’s talk about me. I like doin’ that.It seems I discover more about myself every day. In my first ever blog post I talked about how much I hated the fact that I always wait until the last minute to write papers. Well, not surprisingly, I did it yet again. I had a 3 page paper due at noon today and i finished it at near 7 in the morning… What makes me constantly keep doing this? I am so tired riht now I can’t even think straight. I did a great job on it but that’s beside the point. Maybe I will just never learn. Oh well. I’m working up a blog post about the Fairfield Hills abandoned insane asylum still. That’s about all that’s keepin me awake.

My friend Jeremy bought me Half Life 2: Episode 1, so i’ve been working on beating Half Life 2 so I can play it. For some reason HL is like a flash in the pan joy for me. Like I would never deny the fact that it’s a great game series, but sometimes I get bored of it. It’s parts throughout the game that do it. It’s kinda like a movie that has some action, then some dialog, then some action. Well, all the dialog kills me. Most times when I play an FPS I want a mindless fragfest. That’s what I love Left 4 Dead for so much. I can log in, shoot some zombies faces off, complete levels with minimal coordination if I want, and just have all around fun. Maybe HL is just a little too high brow of a shooter for me at times.

Politically my mind has been changed recently. I decided to go from being a Democrat to an Independent. It mostly came about as part of a long seeded lack of trust in both parties. It always seemed to me to be more about party politics than actually ever getting anything done. It’s like a big my dick is bigger than your dick war in Washington all the time. And at the end of the day, both sides end up just looking stupid and incompetent, and do nothing for the American people. I’m tired of all the bickering on both sides and never seeing any real action, it’s all just plans. We can use trillions of dollars on a war, whether you agree with it or not, and I don’t, but we can’t spend money where it counts because then that gets called out and trashed. Whatever happened to helping the homeless get jobs, or affordable housing for those in need? Don’t even get me started on the educational system in this country. That’s probably most of the reason we have this mess of a system right now. It breeds stupidity and ignorance, neither of which can ever lead to anything good.

There’s my rant for the day. Later.

Dark Pheonix

For my Anthropology final exam (which is take home) I had to find a painting or piece of drawn art and go into detail about it and what it means for culture. I decided to use this painting done in Paint Shop Pro 9. It is such a beautiful piece of work. It’s cool to think how the internet and computers can facilitate artists around the world to make creations like this one. I especially like it because when I used to play a lot of online shooters my name was always Dark Pheonix.

Not much else to say at the moment. Just thought I would share that art with you. I’m a little busy today with a paper comparing Oedipus the King and The Darker Face of the Earth. Only 3 pages so I may have time to write something else that’s funny or cool. I’ve been meaning to make a post on Fairfield Hills which is an abandoned insane asylum in Newtown, CT. But I may just do whatever strikes my mood. Later.

Some are born to serve… Some are just born stupid…

Allow me to preface this post by saying I have no problem with most of law enforcement but in every job where you have a good amount of power, some are bound to abuse it. Such was the case in Austin, Texas. They installed cameras on a small number of the stop lights around the city early last year. The idea behind this was to catch people who ran red lights by taking a picture of their license plates so that a ticket could be mailed to them. This turned out to work very well but it also ended up catching something rather unexpected. Between May of 2008 and April 13th of this year the hidden cameras at just those few stop lights caught police officers 39 times, running red lights. They were NOT responding to an emergency and had NO reason to be doing that when they did it. Some even flipped on their lights for a second to change the light to green after they had started going through the intersection and then shut them off a few moments later.

This is not a horrible abuse of power no, but if any of us were to do that we would be guaranteed to get a ticket or at least be held responsible in some way. Not these cops. The Police Chief of Austin is on record as saying that the officers involved have not been ticketed nor will they be. Seems moronic to me but oh well. I’m sure we’ve all seen a cop do something questionable while driving. Who’s gonna pull over a cop right? I guess the people of Austin if so inclined should perhaps use the media or speak to someone in Austin city government to see if theres something that can be done about it.

You think the craziness ends there? Nope. This story is a little shorter and a lot different as it involves correctional workers and not actual police officers. This one takes place at the Franklin Correctional Facility in Florida during a “Take your son or daughter to work day”. A corrections officer named Walter Schmidt decided to use all 50,000 volts of his stun gun on a few of the children, apparently with the parents permission… What is wrong with this guy? I remember one time I was being stupid as a kid and ended up getting shocked by the house current and it hurt really really bad! What would make him think that even with parent permission that something like this was an ok thing to do? It boggles the mind. Thankfully this guy was fired pending an investigation. It’s things like this that make me lose faith in humanity!

All good things…

I felt the need to explain to my audience of zero why I haven’t posted in a few days and at the same time show something cool in the mean time. The spring 09 semester of school is winding down which means that I constantly have lots of work and papers to do. And we all know how much I love those. But that has to take priority over my blog even though I do love writing here. It doesn’t matter to me at all if people read it or feel the same way i do about any topic I cover. It’s about improving my writing skills and expressing myself for me. It makes me feel somewhat better to write a silly little article about something.

The image above is a tattoo that im getting on my arm next month for my birthday. It is a Yin & Yang version of an angel. It has both demonic and angelic traits. People who know me well know that i’m not the biggest fan of organized religion as a whole. It’s not god that bothers me, just the people who preach it. But that is one awesome looking angel that I think I could look at in 40 years and be happy with. I’m also going to get a tattoo of a line from a song on the other arm. Any ideas for the song lyric don’t hesitate to tell me. I still have yet to figure out what it’s going to be. It’s not easy for me to think of something to put on myself that’s PERMANENT. That’s why i’ve always been wary of tattoos and made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would take a LONG time and seriously consider it before I got one. And i’m finally near the day! If it all goes well and I do like it I plan on getting a few more.

I named this post “All good things…” to memorialize the fact that school is almost over. It can be tough but I like being challenged and being able to have a creative outlet of expression. When it comes to school for those who might care: I’ve been taking Anthropology/U.S. History/English 102 this semester. Had problems with the math class so I had to drop it. But theres always next semester. I’m pretty sure that i’m going to pass all three with flying colors. Little worried about history though because the dude has very few quizs or ways to improve your grade and he has a harsh grading scale. But i’ll make it i’m sure. It’s a little late and I won’t be going to bed anytime soon so I may yet make a normal post tonight if the mood strikes me. Later.

Is Digital Piracy stoppable?

20th Century Fox has been very much on top of internet piracy and has tried to get as many people as possible prosectued for illegaly downloading their movies or other content. I myself have gotten TWO cease and desist orders from then through my cable company. (Used to be a big Pirate. ARGGHH!) So it isn’t even necessary to say that when their latest blockbuster movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was leaked on March 31st they went ballistic. The copy of the film that was leaked was still in post production and many special effects were yet to be implemented. The overall look of the copy was still by and large excellent. The FBI was involved from the beginning but to this day no arrests have been made in the case.

This is not the first time that even I can recall a movie of DVD quality being released before it is actually released in theaters yet. I recall the same thing happening with Jason X and The Hulk movies of several years back. I remember a day when movies that were leaked onto torrents were for the most part horrible. Especially if the movie was still in theaters. They were horrible sounding, scratchy, twitchy versions of themselves. Alot of them had bad cropping, people talking or walking in front of the camera, and other very annoying things. The technology that these pirates and hackers use has increased massively in recent years. It is not uncommon to see a movie available for download in DVD quality that is still in your local cinema. A lot of these releases are leaked copies of DVDs that are sent to critics and the like for review. These copies contain watermarks but creative pirates can completely remove any trace of these.

The problem with controlling or stopping piracy all together is two fold. There is the fact that the internet resides in this massive legal gray area right now. There are so many websites up from so many countries all over the world. Some of these sites and their servers are located in countries that do not have international copyright laws. The second flaw with catching these people is that after a file has been uploaded to a few people it will spread like wildfire with all the people downloading it also uploading it to others at the same time.  With there being so many people involved in the crimes it is very hard if not impossible to do anything about it.

It is estimated that within a week of “Wolverine” being uploaded it had been downloaded by over a million people. That number rose up and up obviously as time has gone on. If they are ever really going to do anything about piracy on the internet it would probably take some sort of rewriting of the entire net as a whole. Other wise they’ll just keep comin up with ways to block pirates, and the pirates will keep coming up with more inventive ways of getting around it all.

Crash and Burn

Where do I begin with this oddly hilarious story? Well, when I was growing up I lived for quite some time in Puyallup, WA. I believe I went from 3rd-6th grade there.

Now, apparently in that little town there was a plane crash recently. The pilot (who hasn’t beed identified yet) had engine problems shortly after taking off from a nearby airport. The Cessna 182 was reportedly about 150 feet off the ground when the engine just quit. His first reaction was to try to turn the plane around and land the plane. Smart idea in concept but it didn’t end up working as he had planned. The plane slammed into a fence, then flipped over and landed on a large collection of portable toilets that were in the secured storage facility that he landed in.

The pilot was able to walk away from the accident and apparently had no injuries at all besides obviously being a bit shaken up. There are so many jokes that one could make on this topic that I think i’ll leave it alone just this once. Way too easy….