tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93779332024-03-07T18:35:17.124-05:00James Maxey - Jawbone of an AssJames Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.comBlogger500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-90355939328181167272021-10-28T11:31:00.001-04:002021-10-28T11:31:55.016-04:00Ghosts With Halloween only a few days away, I've of course been thinking about ghosts and other dark matters. Specifically, I've been thinking about dark matter. There's been some advances on a modified gravity theory that seemingly eliminate the need for dark matter. You can read about it here. I'm certainly not a quantum physicist, just a science fiction nerd. I like to read about thisJames Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-52772844157004873682021-10-28T10:16:00.003-04:002021-10-28T10:16:53.676-04:00Dumb Science Fiction Part 3: Workers of the Future, Unite! (Wait, where is everybody?) In my last two posts, I wrote about some of the dumb motives science fiction writers give to aliens (they've come for our water!), and about some of the stupid clichés that persist around robots, who we keep trying to imagine as looking and acting just like us. Today's post again tackles motives and robots, but this time I'll be going the opposite way and arguing that science fiction James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-23735584530944653832020-12-01T12:24:00.000-05:002020-12-01T12:24:10.853-05:00Dumb Science Fiction Part 2: Aliens are Stealing Our Women! And Water! Or Whatever! As a writer, if I had to name a single definitive requirement of good storytelling, it would be motive. Why characters do something is just as important if not more important than what they do. So, when science fiction writers want to write a story about aliens, they often try to give them some simple, easily understood need that they've come to our planet to fulfill. Sadly, these simple motive James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-89922912882053725022020-11-30T13:53:00.004-05:002020-11-30T13:53:47.124-05:00Dumb Science Fiction Part 1: Robots I say this only because I'm a serious fan of the genre: A lot of science fiction is just dumb as hell. I've got a long list if impossible or impractical technologies and tropes that I see again and again in science fiction, to the point that these dumb ideas aren't some rare aberration in the genre, but defining characteristics. The list is pretty long. Human-like aliens. Time travel. James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-58019027481050764262020-09-01T13:33:00.006-04:002020-09-01T14:49:58.353-04:00From Couch to 1000kChalk art in the tunnel beneath Yates Store Road on the ATT.Back at the beginning of September 2012, I wrote a post titled "Lifestyle Changes Ahead." I was overweight and out of shape and I swore, seriously, for real, this time I was going to change my life and start eating better and exercising more. As I wrote it, I thought, who am I kidding? And, if I did exercise, I was James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-70426649192767360732020-07-30T14:16:00.003-04:002020-07-30T14:17:45.565-04:00Struggling with the Whiteness of Classic LiteratureFor anyone who believes there aren't giant ongoing structural barriers to Blacks feeling like full, equal members of American society, I'd like to inform you as politely as possible that you are utterly disconnected from reality. You might look at Black Americans and think, well, what barriers are left? Congress and the courts have passed laws ensuring that Blacks can vote, and that James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-40983558953714908352020-01-17T12:27:00.000-05:002020-01-17T12:27:00.241-05:00My Impeachment Rant
This is the third impeachment process I've encountered in my life. I was just a kid when they were making the case against Nixon (who, I know, wasn't technically impeached). My main interaction with it was that the hearings preempted Gilligan's Island when I got home from school so I had to just go outside and play. Still, I remember all the adults in my life talking about it. I don't even James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-2907249791420339542019-12-30T18:30:00.001-05:002019-12-30T18:30:51.853-05:00Best of 2019: Flora
One of the most wonderful things about travelling with Cheryl is her eye for spotting flowers. I can't tell you how many rides we've completed where I've not seen a single thing I thought was worth taking a picture off only to have Cheryl show me a dozen or more breathtaking shots. Most of these are just taken with her cell phone, a Pixel 2XL. It's a good camera for a lot of situations, but James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-9169938453331610482019-12-30T18:16:00.000-05:002019-12-30T18:16:01.193-05:00Best of 2019: Landscapes and SunsetsJames Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-73276239442627700212019-12-30T00:38:00.001-05:002019-12-30T00:38:22.436-05:00Adventure 2019 Part 2!More memorable moments!
James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-6374370384465275892019-12-29T09:48:00.000-05:002019-12-29T09:48:34.778-05:00Adventures of 2019, part 1!
A more or less random collection of images from our meandering journey through North Carolina and just about every state that touches it, and a few that don't, like Kentucky. I thought about organizing by destination, timeline, or activity, but that leaving them mixed up reflected more of the actual experience of the year. We were outdoors in the heat, in the cold, in the sun and the rain, James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-45026875002462750672019-12-28T20:57:00.002-05:002019-12-28T20:57:18.691-05:002019 FaunaSome of our best shots of critters taken in 2019. Foxes, beavers, gators, snakes, birds, bees, and butterflies. Also deer and dolphin. It was a busy year.
James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-32447206522573853802019-10-16T10:57:00.000-04:002019-10-16T10:57:51.175-04:00A very untimely review of Captain Marvel
Finally saw Captain Marvel last night. I've really fallen behind on Marvel movies (and superhero movies in general). Early on, I made a point of seeing every new superhero release while it was in a theater, and was eager for each new release. But, with the exception of Thor: Ragnarok, it's been a while since I saw a superhero movie I found really satisfying. I feel like the food critic in the James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-50070841746566503312019-06-25T14:16:00.000-04:002019-06-25T14:16:00.039-04:00How We Learned to Enjoy Being Sore
I wrote this in response to someone else's post and it sort of stretched from a reply into something more deserving of it's own conversation. The biggest obstacle a lot of people face in sticking to a fitness plan is a pretty obvious one: Working out leaves you aching, if not in outright pain. Sore muscles, sore joints, and noticeable wear and tear on knees and feet. Take up running or hiking James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-81517007574407088202019-06-09T12:27:00.001-04:002019-06-09T12:27:27.616-04:00Tips and Tricks for Longer Bike Rides
Cheryl and I are heading into our busiest season of the year for biking. Most of our biking is done in after work rides on local greenways, like the American Tobacco Trail, but we also like to get out of town to ride in some less familiar locations. Often these are pretty long rides, over thirty miles, and occasionally more than 50 miles. But, even for shorter rides, we're usually James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-31234899442099952122019-03-19T13:50:00.002-04:002019-03-19T13:50:33.498-04:00A Flunking Grade in Quiz WritingClicking through headlines this morning, I saw one that didn't come as much of a shocker: "American's Get Flunking Grade on Economic Literacy." I clicked on it partly because of the irony of a "flunking grade" headline containing a grammatical error. (American's should be Americans.) But then I took the "quiz." From the very first question, I knew I'd been suckered into reading political James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-3157181758474903792019-02-17T18:11:00.001-05:002019-02-17T18:11:07.779-05:00Don't Wait for Perfect Days
I post a lot of pictures from the adventures that Cheryl and I undertake in good weather. Sunny days are conducive to photography. If nothing else, they have good light. Warm days also mean we're not bundled up in so many layers of clothes that pictures of us look like snapshots of potatoes wearing bike helmets. Not all seasons are pretty to look at. Fall has leaves, spring has blossoms, and James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-79364453407396963052018-12-28T14:46:00.000-05:002018-12-28T14:46:01.787-05:00Best Photos of 2018: Big Pictures
Lots of time outdoors this year. Sky, water, trees, sand are more of a living room to us than our, you know, living room. It's good to get out into places where there aren't any walls around you.
Cheryl started the year with knee replacement surgery. Two weeks later, she walked her first mile on the new knee and never looked back.
Okay, so yes, some of the James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-12575658187462512102018-11-02T11:18:00.000-04:002018-11-02T11:18:09.626-04:00Our Biggest Threats Part Three: Plague! Plague is a pretty reliable stand by for science fiction authors when they need a plausible apocalypse. After all, it's happened before in history, and we don't have to go to ancient history. In our lifetimes, 70 million people have been infected with AIDS, and 35 million people have died.
Go back only a century, and you find 500 million people infected with flu in 1918-1919, with 50 million James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-87873746171318154542018-10-16T12:23:00.000-04:002018-10-16T12:23:00.829-04:00Our Biggest Threats--Part 2: Authoritarianism Continuing my series of looking at potential apocalypses, I'll veer off into something that isn't technically the end of the world, authoritarianism. As a science fiction author, this is sort of baked into our view of the future. There's a looming doom ahead of us that the relatively free life we enjoy today will vanish and be replaced by an authoritarian form of government that squelches all James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-11233309425681662882018-10-15T13:10:00.001-04:002018-10-15T13:10:56.429-04:00The Biggest Threats Before Us, and Why We'll (probably) Beat Them -- Environmental Collapse
An article by Kevin D. Williams called The World Keeps Not Ending struck me as fairly insightful, and made me reflect on the fact that pretty much every day of my life I've lived under the threat of an imminent apocalypse.
I'm old enough that I remember taking part in nuclear preparedness drills. I attended a school that had a bomb shelter. It was full of boxes of rations that, in my James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-41895477499421306992018-09-04T13:17:00.000-04:002018-09-04T13:17:43.318-04:00Fitness Update--Six Years In
I think it's safe to say that the changes have stuck. Six years ago, I did a blogpost called "Lifestyle Changes Ahead." I talked about being overweight and out of shape and resolved to change things. Each year, I've been reporting how things are going. This year: So far, so good.
This year started with a curveball: Cheryl had to have knee replacement surgery. It's tempting to James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-63997069653005062772018-04-19T14:30:00.001-04:002018-04-19T14:30:36.381-04:00I waited far too long to quit my day job...For a little over twenty years, I worked two jobs. Job one, of course, was writing. Even though twenty years ago I was unpublished, I was working hard to perfect my craft and spending a great deal of time writing, rewriting, critiquing, and submitting stories, usually for no money at all. Which is actually not all that different from my writing career now, if you change "no money at all" to "James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-15230408292324374752018-01-01T17:40:00.000-05:002018-01-01T17:40:50.191-05:002017: A Year of Recovery and AdventureCheryl spent most of 2016 being treated for breast cancer. The worst of the chemo was behind her as we entered 2017 and we were eager to find out how fully she would recover her strength and stamina. Pretty fully, it turned out! We each logged over 1635 miles on Endomondo last year, the most distance we've yet tracked. February helped us set the pace, as we decided that month to walk every singleJames Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9377933.post-79670500068836995542017-12-23T13:34:00.001-05:002017-12-23T13:34:23.709-05:00Greg Hungerford: A Remembrance I met Greg Hungerford in college as a friend of a friend of a friend. We talked occasionally, but weren’t particularly close. Then fall break rolled around and the campus cleared out. I didn’t have a car and my parents couldn’t afford the gas to drive across the state to pick me up. I was facing a long weekend hanging around my dorm alone.
On the afternoon that the break began the cafeteria was James Maxeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16927848864775293278noreply@blogger.com0