Author: Alex Diaz-Granados
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Dealing with Stormy Family Relationships Isn’t Easy
As the fifth anniversary of my mom’s death draws ever near – it falls on Sunday, July 19 – I find myself in an emotional tug-o’-war, just as I have done over the previous four anniversaries. I’m trying hard not to let myself fall into a depressed fugue, but at the same time I can’t…
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Why July is NOT My Favorite Month: Part Two
I hate July. First of all, if you are a Florida resident – or a resident of any of the Deep South states that were once part of the Confederate States of America, for that matter – you know that July is when the summer heat starts rising to almost intolerable levels. It’s not, of…
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Book Review: ‘Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost’ Audio Drama Script
On October 1, 2019, Del Rey Books – an imprint of Random House – published the hardcover edition of Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost, the complete script to the full cast audio drama by British writer Cavan Scott. The publication of the script followed the July release of the audiobook published by Random House, which…
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Why July is NOT My Favorite Month: Part One
July is my least favorite month. Last Tuesday – July 7th – marked the fourth anniversary of a hearing I attended in a Miami-Dade County civil court’s probate division judge’s chambers to settle a dispute between my half-sister Victoria and me over our late mother’s estate. Vicky had filed a “Lost or Destroyed Will” petition…
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Music Album Review: ‘A Bridge Too Far – Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack’
In June of 1977, Metro Goldwyn Mayer/United Artists released director Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far, a World War II epic based on Cornelius Ryan’s 1974 non-fiction book about Operation Market-Garden, the star-crossed attempt by the Allies to use three and a half airborne divisions (two American, one British, and one Polish brigade) and the…
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Summer Sunday Daze: On My Reading List for July
Hi, Constant Reader. It’s Sunday, July 12, and as I start this post noon is not that far away on this hot summer day. Right now the temperature outside is 92˚F (33˚C), and with humidity at 66% and a 3 MPH southwesterly breeze factored in, the heat index (or “feels like”) temperature is 108˚F (42˚C)…
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Life in the Time of COVID-19: Ennui, Angst, and Other Frustrations
Well, Constant Reader, another weekend is upon us here in my corner of Florida. Right now it’s early afternoon here, and the temperature outside is 92 degrees Fahrenheit under mostly sunny skies; with humidity at 62% and a westerly breeze of 11 MPH, the heat index is 108 degrees Fahrenheit. If it wasn’t so beastly…
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Into the Deep in Steel Coffins: ‘Red Storm Rising’ & ‘Cold Waters’
Running Silent, Running Deep Back in the late Eighties and even into the early 1990s – even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I loved to spend much of my downtime playing Cold War era military-themed computer games. At the time, I had two different computers: an Apple IIe, which was a gift from…
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‘Cold Waters’: Striving to Be a Good Sub Skipper!
Hi, Constant Reader! It’s morning here in my little corner of Florida on Wednesday, July 8, 2020; it’s the middle of the regular work week, and so far it looks like it’s going to be a hot and even rainy day. Right now it’s hot outside; the official temperature is 89˚F (32˚C), but the heat…
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Retro Review: ‘Silent Service II’ by MicroProse
In 1987, sometime after my uncle Sixto Diaz-Granados – my dad’s older brother – bought me my first home computer, I bought my first submarine simulation game, MicroProse Software’s Silent Service. This was a game designed by the legendary Sid Meier, who had (along with Lt. Col. William “Wild Bill” Stealey) co-founded MicroProse in 1982…
