The Wrath of Kon

Dispatches, thoughts, and miscellanea from writer Jon Konrath

Month: October 2015

  • The Watch

    I got an Apple Watch this week – it was an anniversary present from my wife. I’ve vaguely wanted one, but wasn’t sure. I’ve used it for a day now, and it’s interesting in the same way all new Apple products are interesting to me. I’ve had two different experiences with new Apple products: either…

  • the changing range of nostalgia

    I got an observation/question in email from Larry about this (and I’m paraphrasing): back when we were in high school in the mid/late-80s, there were a couple of kids who had old cars, “classic” cars like the ’57 Chevy, and that was a big deal, because they were 30 years old and “antique.” Or back…

  • Current Obsession: Pole Chudes

    I don’t know how I got to this, but I’ve been borderline obsessed with the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune, which is called Pole Chudes. I do not speak Russian, and can’t solve Cyrillic letter puzzles, but the fascinating thing about the show is how little it has to do with the actual word…

  • why web search is completely useless at this point

    I wanted to look up pockets, as in the thing in your clothing where you put your phone and keys. Searching on “pockets” brings me a page of stuff about Hot Pockets. (Granted, I’m eating Hot Pockets right now, but my computer doesn’t know that. I hope it doesn’t.) Searching on “pocket” brings me pages…

  • Sleep Research Facility and ambient music

    I’m always searching for music to listen to while I’m writing, because I can’t think and fall into the right kind of trance to dump my subconscious onto pages when extreme death metal is screaming away in the foreground. Classical music puts me to sleep, and jazz is jazz, so it’s hard to precisely nail…

  • The Glossary

    I recently found myself back at The Big Fun Glossary, which was a point of obsession a dozen years ago. It is the story of a college-aged punk rock slacker and his band of friends living in an old farmhouse in rural Virginia in the mid-90s, told in a wikipedia-type A to Z glossary. As…

  • Lunchables, In Order

    Turkey + Cheddar Cracker Stackers Turkey + American Cracker Stackers Pizza with Pepperoni Nachos, Cheese Dip + Salsa Extra Cheesy Pizza Mini Hot Dogs (only if heated) Ham + American Cracker Stackers Chicken Dunks Pizza Kabobbles Turkey + Cheddar Lower Fat Cracker Stackers Mini Burgers Light Bologna + American Cracker Stackers Any of the ones…

  • Alt-F3

    I had an awful WordPerfect 5.1 flashback, just for a second. I was trying to explain some HTML formatting in an email, and my mind flipped back to the days of helping some old guy in the library un-fuck his endless maze of bold and italic codes in a blue-screened document. It almost made me…

  • various k-holes as of late

    Here are the various rabbit holes that have lured me lately, in lieu of actually writing: Watching aircraft disaster videos. I found a POV video of an F-16 that had a bird strike at takeoff, and the pilot had to immediately turn around and make a no-power landing. That led to a whole series of…

  • Sicario

    Sicario is Denis Villeneuve’s critically-acclaimed crime thriller about Mexican cartels and narcoterrorism. I went into the film only knowing that Benicio del Toro was in it, that it had done well enough in its limited-market launch to green-light a sequel along with the wide release, and it was “intense.” I’m a little curious about Villeneuve,…