A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

  Hello, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. The current temperature is 88 ˚ F (31 ˚ C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 56% and the wind blowing from the east-southeast at 7 MPH (11 KM/H), the heat index is 96 ˚ F (36 ˚ C). This afternoon we can expect thunderstorms to pass through the area; the high will be 91 ˚ F (33 ˚C) . Tonight, scattered showers will occur, and the low will be 74 ˚ F (23 ˚ C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 38 or Good . Well, where to begin? For starters, I have what seems to be a garden variety summer cold, so I am not exactly at my tip-top best right now. I’ve had a low-grade but persistent headache, intermittent sneezing fits, a nose that alternates between an uncomfortable stuffiness and an icky, disgusting runniness, and occasional (but mild) fits of coughing. I’ve had worse respiratory ailments, to be sure, but this is the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out early last year

© 2014 Universal Pictures Home Entertainment   Greetings, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida, on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 86 ˚ F (30 ˚ C) under rainy conditions. With humidity at 63% and the wind blowing from the northwest at 6 MPH (12 KM/H), the feels-like factor is 91 ˚ F (33 ˚ C). Today we can expect scattered showers throughout the day and into the evening. The high will be 89 ˚ F (32 ˚ C); the low will be 72 ˚ F (22 ˚ C). My two Indy Blu-ray sets. 4K UHD set on the left, my original 2012 Blu-ray set on the right. Photo by the author. Well, after a delay of nearly two weeks, I finally received my Indiana Jones: 4-Movie Collection with the first four Indiana Jones films in 4K UHD Blu-rays late Monday evening. I pre-ordered it on March 16, and the original delivery window was for June 10 or 11, a few days after the five-disc set’s street release. But Paramount Home Media Distribution, ViacomCBS’ division in charge of phys

  Waging Virtual Combat in the War that Could Have Been   © 2017 Killerfish Games If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I came of age during the last stages of the Cold War between the United States (land of my birth) and the Soviet Union. That “war in peacetime” between the world’s superpowers dominated at least half my life. My mom was pregnant with me during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and I grew up under the shadow of a possible showdown between the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact. In order to cope with “Cold War-gone-hot” anxiety, I tried to reduce my fear of a war with the Soviet Union by learning as much about Soviet military technology and strategic/tactical thought. I also did the same for U.S./NATO military hardware, strategy, and tactical doctrine. I spent countless hours at the public library branch closest to my house, poring over the most recent edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships a

© 2021 Paramount Home Media Distribution and Lucasfilm Ltd.  Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s mid-afternoon here in my corner of Florida on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 83˚F (28˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 73% and the wind blowing from the west-southwest at 9 MPH (15 KM/H), the heat index is 92˚F (33˚C). The forecast for the rest of the day calls for occasional thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening hours; the high will be 85˚F (30˚C). Tonight, storms will continue to pass through our area, and the low will be 74˚F (24˚C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 34 or  Good . If you recall, I ordered the Indiana Jones: 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD Blu-ray box set on Amazon as a pre-order on March 16. Paramount Home Media Distribution scheduled a release date of Tuesday, June 8 – just a few days before the 40 th Anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s theatrical release (June 12, 1981). Initially, Amazon – basing its estimates on Paramount’s rosy

A screenshot from my Steam account's Screenshots  page.    Hi, there, Dear Reader. If you are a regular reader of this blog or its WordPress counterpart, A Certain Point of View, Too, you know that I lived through the last 28 years of the Cold War and the (mostly) peaceful collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I won’t exaggerate and claim that I went to bed wondering if the next day I’d wake up to the news that the United States was at war with the Soviets. The late Cold War period definitely had its dark, scary moments, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979 and the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shootdown of September 1983, but my Cold War experience paled in comparison to folks who were kids in the late 1940s and early 1950s and lived through the creation of the Iron Curtain, the establishment of NATO, the Korean War, the various crises centered on Berlin, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Senator Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare, and the Cu