I haven't done an "of the Moment" post in a short while, but I've been bubbling over with fascinating things to talk about. So I'll just lump them together...
I finished When the People Fell, an anthology of Cordwainer Smith stories. It's an interesting collection of bits of early world building, most of which is still fascinating decades later. It certainly has been an interesting counterpoint to the other anthology that I've been swapping between, The John Varley Reader. John Varley has some beautiful prose. The Reader has introductions from him that tell intriquing anecdotes. John Varley is most thought provoking with regard to gender differences, as most of his short stories take place in a world where gender swaps are cheap and easy, and his characters can and will swap genders on a whim.
Amongst the interesting world building of When the People Fell I was somewhat irritated by Cordwainer Smith's romantic (in both senses of the word) return of Xianity towards the latter part of his timeline of the Instrumentality. Reading that was one of the threads that led to my intentionally weird/goofy romp The Sign of the Pasta.
I've been in a bit of a Steampunk kick lately. I've always been a big fan of retro-futurism, having a love of the fairly wide spectrum of Steampunk and later "Decopunk" for lack of a better name. (Bioshock and Crimson Skies would be more "decopunk" than true steampunk.) It started when I finally added Brass Goggles to my feed reader. I've picked up and started into the YA novel Larklight, which is so far really cool. I downloaded some music from Vernian Process and am debating purchasing Abney Park's latest album, with its great steampunk cover. I'm also debating the merits of a three-piece suit, or at least a nice waist-coat/vest. I've got a nice Gangster-style Homburg and that will suffice, even if I realize that in Victorian/Edwardian fashion the Homburg was the less fashionable "day hat", and to really look spiffy I need a top hat...
I tracked down a copy of Arcanum and I might try it now that I've completed Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1, which was a lot of fun. I wasn't thrilled by the combat system (as I've said, I'm not a fan of RPGs), and at times I felt like things were almost way too busy. I loved the animations and the dialog. I wanted a few more dialog puzzles, though. I think a couple of the achievements are entirely unfair. I'm looking forward to Episode 2. I also finally "beat" Psychonauts, with a cousin, and a group of us finished Stubbs the Zombie start to finish in co-op. That was quite fun.
I watched There Will Be Blood and was a little underwhelmed. I'm a big fan of a slow build to a climax, but this film lacked key ingredients in the slow burn. I watched Infest Wisely and thought it fun, even with a left-field face turn heel toward the end and a bit of pseudo-computer-science quackery.