Blog post number 39 Written: 07-07-2021 Uploaded: 12-09-2022
I am not a one-dimensional man, there are things I like besides science fiction. Before science fiction I had a love for fantasy, that love never when it away, it was not replaced, just superseded. Before that, I had a love for the historical Middle Ages. With knights and armor and swords and horses and bows and chivalry and all that. Before that, I had a love for dinosaurs. I mean most little boys do, but I took it a step farther, my interest has not diminished just been superseded. I’ve got quite a few books about dinosaurs. It was just last night while discussing with my wife how to rearrange the house so we could make room for more bookshelves did I realize that half of my books are fiction. I have encyclopedias, flight manuals, historical books, stuff about aviation both engineering and historically speaking as well as a whole shelf of my college textbooks with titles like principles of electronic communication systems and principles of avionics. Among all of that fiction, is a collection of dinosaur and archeological books, though They’re old enough that they don’t have dinosaurs with feathers. And While I know academically speaking it has been decided that they did have feathers, I don’t like it, and my head cannon still has them as big and mean and covered in scales.
I’ve always loved history, especially WWII history and the seemingly endless list of tales of sacrifice and heroism. Most recently it has been a fascination for cold war and space race-related history. The loss of submarines and space ships and all the probes and satellites sent to all the strange places. Like they voyager probes, and all they have discovered, and the pale blue dot picture and… That’s another rant for another time. otherwise, I’ll never finish writing this. But there is a whole plethora of science, fantasy, history, and technological topics that interest me. Not just science fiction, granted when I am writing, that all ties into science fiction. The archeology and biology that goes into strange planets and alien races, the history between the different space-faring countries and their political interactions and motivations, how the technologies were developed, and the driving factors to do so. Technology evolves to suit the environment much the same way biological creations do. And all the engineering that goes into those technologies, the tanks, and planes and guns and space ships and missiles and armor and submarines. Anything, everything interests me. I spend so much time on Wikipedia. I really should start donating to them. I just don’t want to be accused of being an elitist or something, because I talk about science fiction so much. For me, science fiction is a broad term, an umbrella that covers all the topics of history, science, engineering evolution, astronomy, physics, and so on. I love learning, I love thinking and discussing.
So please, feel free to strike up a conversation on any topic. I am open to academic discussions about anything. Either I know it, and we can have an academic discussion about it, or it is a thing I do not know, and we can still have an academic discussion about it because I want to learn it. Not just sci-fi, but anything. There are some topics While I will discuss academically, I will not offer personal opinions on, such a politics. At least not in an electronic environment where something is going to record them and beat me with them in the future when they are no longer relevant. But that is also a different rant for a different time. This time I just want to say, HMU for a good conversation about anything, not just science fiction.
Chace Randolph 