A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

A few days ago, Harry Turtledove, one of the authors I follow on Twitter (and the only one with whom I interact regularly on that social media platform), posted this whimsical Christmas wish list from the 1970s: #70sChristmasList Harvest gold refrigerator Avocado stove Betamax Quadraphonic sound system English Leather, or maybe Brut Cargo pants for the guys Hot pants for the women Platform shoes A leisure suit A case of Miller Lite Or of US-brewed (aka ruined) Löwenbräu I thought this was clever, amusing, and cool, so I replied with a #70sChristmasList of my own: #70s ChristmasList Stereo system with LP/8-track/AM-FM radio Brut, or English Leather Wacky Packages Star Wars figures (by Kenner) Billy Joel albums Star Wars OST 2-LP set Superman OST 2-LP set Classical music LPs A Bridge Too Far book Over the past few days, I've been going through the decades (the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s) and thinking of typical Christmas wish lists based on the trends of the...

A few days ago, writer Harry Turtledove (a novelist who specializes in the alternate history sub-genre of science fiction and is known for his Worldwar series, as well as his novel about Spanish-occupied Britain, Ruled Britannia ) posted this whimsical #70sChristmasList tweet on Twitter: #70sChristmasList Harvest gold refrigerator Avocado stove Betamax Quadraphonic sound system English Leather, or maybe Brut Cargo pants for the guys Hot pants for the women Platform shoes A leisure suit A case of Miller Lite Or of US-brewed (aka ruined) Löwenbräu Inspired by Mr. Turtledove, I've decided to share similar Christmastime wishlists across the decades, starting with the 1970s and ending with the 2010s. The wishlists are not real lists that I handed out to family and friends before the holidays. I mean, sure, Mom (and sometimes my older half-sister) would ask me to write a short list of things I wanted for either Christmas or my birthday, but more often than not my friends, who ...

In The Beginning.... : It's hard to believe, but it's been a bit over 16 years since I was invited to my computer-savvy friend Raci's house and "sneakily" introduced to one of the most popular strategy game franchises ever published.  At the time (1991), I owned an Apple IIe personal computer. I used it mainly for word processing; I was then beginning my career as a self-employed copywriter and communications consultant, but I also liked to unwind with military-themed strategy games (Avalon Hill's  Gulf Strike  and MicroProse's  Crusade in Europe ), flight simulators (MicroProse's  F-15 Strike Eagle ), a few sports games (Epyx's  Street Soccer ), and some naval-related sims (MicroProse's  Silent Service ).  Raci, however, was into PCs in a big way at a time when the operating system was MS-DOS, so he owned more advanced games than I did. He was, and still is, a very generous person, so we had an understanding that if I saw a PC game that I re...