Grug barely heard the trap click beneath him before he plunged through the floor and into the water below. Fragments of what had seemed to be a perfectly sound floor tile slid past, as Grug’s brain belatedly called “it’s a trap!” The current was strong, and Grug could hear the shouts of his companions growing […]
Welcome to the World of Grug Smash
That’s it; you’ve arrived. Drop your bags, take load off. Put up your feet for a bit. You are now in the Nerd Incognito Universe. The Grug Smash novels, Dicing with the Gods, Stealing From a Sorcerer , and the exciting conclusion Battling for the Heavens (Fall 2016), are the first novels written by Sean McKenzie (that’s me), and […]
An Uncomfortable Silence
I know, and I’m sorry. You’ve been coming to Nerd Incognito, looking for your regular amusement and connection, and there has been (devastatingly) nothing. I apologize. In my defense, I have been writing; I have simply not been writing here. Let me explain. No, it is too much; let me sum up: after […]
All About ‘Dem Dice: Odds of Death and the Oscar Boycott
It’s often hard to resolve broad statistics and scientific findings with our own, everyday, anecdotal evidence. Take, for example, illness and death. Statistics will show us that our chances of death are influenced by a lot of things: genetics, eating habits, exposures to certain toxins, and age, to name a few. We know, for example, that smoking is bad for us, but you’ll sometimes hear someone trot out the somewhat tired “my (grandfather/grandmother/person I heard of once in a story) lived to be (90/105/336), and he/she/they smoked a pack a day” line to justify or excuse their habit. This is occasionally coupled with a line like “non-smokers get cancer every day, so it’s obviously a craps shoot, anyway.”
A craps shoot is a perfect analogy, actually. Let me explain why, using Dungeons and Dragons (bear with me, it will make sense in the end)
Where Have All the Good Men Gone: The Loss of Our Icons
It’s been a rough week. I’ll admit that I’m not a huge David Bowie fan–not anti-Bowie, more that he was just never on my radar–but it’s clear that his loss echoed around the world. He was a rock icon, a pioneer in music, fashion, and public sexuality, and (perhaps most important to a child of the 80s) star of the movie Labyrinth. He was important to a lot of people, and it’s damned unfortunate that he was taken at only 69, when he likely had years of creativity and life left in him. Cancer is a bitch.
However, the much more cutting loss for me came this morning. Alan Rickman, an extraordinary actor of a like rarely seen, passed away–also at 69, and also from cancer.
Having “The Talk” with my Three Year Old Son
Yesterday, the day finally came, though it wasn’t one of our pets that passed; it was a family member’s pet that our son knew and loved. RIP Moon. Originally published on Dads Round Table, February 2014 I dodged a bullet this week. I thought for sure that I would have to have “the talk” […]
