Author: Alex Diaz-Granados
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Old Gamers Never Die: An Unexpected Victory in ‘Cold Waters’
Well, I finally beat one of Cold Waters’ tougher battles, an almost-straight-out-of-a-Tom Clancy-novel engagement titled Beating the Odds, which pits a Sturgeon-class nuclear-powered fast attack boat against a Soviet surface action group supported by Soviet Naval Aviation patrol planes and – sometimes – submarines. In the month-and-a-half that I’ve been playing what Killerfish Games calls…
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‘Star Wars’ Collectibles & Toys Review: Hasbro Star Wars The Black Series Rebel Soldier (Hoth) (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary Figure)
REBEL SOLDIER (HOTH): After the battle of Yavin, the rebels fled from the Imperial Starfleet, seeking a new main base of operations. They settled on the frozen Outer Rim world of Hoth. – Hasbro character description blurb On June 1, Hasbro introduced a wave of Star Wars The Black Series 6-inch scale action figures based…
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Confessions of a ‘Star Wars’ Collector: Temptation Strikes Again!
A day after splurging on my Star Wars The Black Series Snowspeeder with Dak Ralter (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary) collectible, temptation once again gets the best of me! This time around, I caved to the lure of the Dark Side – or the endorphin high from finding (and buying) a new…
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Confessions of a ‘Star Wars’ Collector: Giving in to My Inner Kid
Well, Dear Reader, I did it. I gave in to the inner teenager that resides inside this very middle-aged screenwriter/blogger/commentator and film reviewer and just did it. I just went to Amazon and ordered one of the priciest Star Wars collectibles I’ve ever bought: Hasbro’s new Star Wars The Black Series Snowspeeder with Dak Ralter…
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Old Gamers Never Die: Waging War in the ‘Cold Waters’ of the Taiwan Straits
The date: 20 August 2000. The time: 0700 Hours local time. The situation: USS Seawolf (SSN-21) is in the shallow waters of the narrow Taiwan Straits under orders to intercept and destroy a Chinese amphibious group bound for Taiwan. Primary Target: The merchant ships and landing craft of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s invasion force.…
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Thoughts & Musings on a Saturday Morning, August 22, 2020
Hello, there. I would say “Good morning,” since it is just past 9 AM in my little corner of Florida, but I know that many of you live in other parts of the world where it is already afternoon. Right now it is a dark morning, as the sky is mostly cloudy (over 80% cloud…
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Thoughts & Musings on a Rainy Friday, August 21, 2020
Hi there, Dear Reader. As I write this, it’s mid-afternoon here in my corner of Florida, and it’s a dreary, stormy one at that, too. Currently, the temperature outside is 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) under rainy conditions; with humidity at 74% and a southwesterly breeze blowing at 6 MPH, the feels-like temperature is…
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Rainy Thursday and Other Thoughts & Musings, August 20, 2020
Hi there, Constant (and Not-So-Constant) Reader. Well, it’s rather late in my blogging schedule on this Thursday, but that’s what happens when you have two blogs and realize that while one of them is getting new content almost every day, the other one is not. So on this rainy and gloomy evening, I am posting…
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‘Star Wars’ Collectibles & Toys Review: Hasbro Star Wars The Black Series Luke Skywalker (Yavin Ceremony)
Last fall, during the last months before the premiere of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Hasbro released a wave of new tie-in products from its Star Wars The Black Series collection to both promote the final film of the Skywalker Saga and celebrate the legacy of the first six films released between…
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Book Review: ‘The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11’
On August 8, 2006, Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of the multinational Penguin Random House publishing company) published The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, a non-fiction book by New Yorker staff writer and screenwriter Lawrence Wright. Released a few weeks before the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in…
A Certain Point of View, Too 