Monthly Archives: August 2018
A Pre-Worldcon Q&A
Posted on August 14, 2018 18 Comments
Tomorrow I head out to San Jose and Worldcon 76, and before I go let me address some questions about it and related things that I’ve been asked online and in real life, through the use of my fictional interlocutor. That’s me! Yes, it is. Let’s begin, shall we? Okay! So, are you nervous yet? […]
We Interrupt Your Monday For This Very Important Picture of Smudge
Posted on August 13, 2018 23 Comments
I think we can all agree that this has been a vital and necessary update. For those of you asking how well Smudge is being assimilated into the Scalzi clowder of cats, the answer is: reasonably well, but not without its problems. Smudge basically has two personality settings at the moment, “adorable” and “asshole,” which […]
Kayaking at Lodi Lake
Posted on August 11, 2018 17 Comments
Hello, everyone! I hope y’all’s weekend has been awesome so far! My week has been pretty uneventful, but today I actually did something fun and exciting! I got to go kayaking at Lodi Lake with my Cali family. I’ve only been kayaking a couple of times before, and each time my arms get insanely sore, […]
New Books and ARCs, 8/10/18
Posted on August 10, 2018 22 Comments
Hey! It’s Friday! And that makes it a very time to show off another stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound this week. See anything here that piques your interest? Let us know in the comments.
What You Should Be Watching: YouTube Edition: Binging With Babish
Posted on August 9, 2018 11 Comments
Hey, everyone! Welcome to another edition of “What You Should Be Watching”! And, yes, it’s another YouTube one because, hey, there’s a lot of good content on YouTube, and it’s free, unlike Netflix or whatever, so. For this edition, I have chosen another cooking channel, mainly because I have only posted like one cooking related […]
My Worldcon Schedule
Posted on August 8, 2018 18 Comments
Next week I’ll be at Worldcon 76 in sunny San Jose, California. Want to know my schedule of events while I’m there? Sure you do! This is what it is. All events in the San Jose Convention Center unless otherwise noted: Thursday, August 16: 8pm: Retro Hugos Party (includes 80s dance), room LL20: All attending […]
Diego and Lola!
Posted on August 7, 2018 14 Comments
One perk of being in California is I get to hang out with two cool cats, or rather dogs, Diego and Lola! I know it’s only Tuesday, but, hey, it’s been a long week! You deserve these dogs! Lola is younger than Diego by two years, and has the black stripe pattern. Diego has more […]
My High School Gets It Right
Posted on August 7, 2018 20 Comments
The Webb Schools of California, which is the high school I went to way back when, has updated its handbook with a section for “Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Students” and as far as I can see it gets it right — establishing explicitly that Webb students have a right to identify their own gender and […]
The Greatest Burgers In the World
Posted on August 6, 2018 65 Comments
The real reason I have come to California is for one thing and one thing only: In-N-Out. A.K.A. the greatest burger place ever. No burger place, nay, no fast food place can compare to the glorious burger joint known as In-N-Out. It is truly a shame that they are only on the Western part of the […]
An August Hemi-Demi-Semi Hiatus
Posted on August 6, 2018 36 Comments
So, I don’t know if you know this, but next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the existence of Whatever. This is a fact that among other things is causing me both practical and existential reflection on what this place is, and what it means to me, and what is the best way to […]
This Song Is In My Head So It Must Be In Yours
Posted on August 5, 2018 2 Comments
Hello, everyone! Tomorrow is Monday, and that is always a bummer. So I thought I would bestow upon y’all this song I recently found to help you make it through. Also, it’s been in my head for about a week and I want others to suffer the ear-worm with me. I heard this from the […]
New Books and ARCs, 8/3/18
Posted on August 3, 2018 17 Comments
As we’re easing into the first weekend of the last month of summer, here’s a nice, varied stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What is making your eyes say “yes”? Tell us all in the comments.
Here’s a Lil’ Something I Wrote For Creative Writing Class
Posted on August 3, 2018 24 Comments
Hello, everyone! Today I will be sharing a short story I just wrote the other night for class. It had to be two and a half pages long, no more, no less, which was kind of difficult to make it fit perfectly into that amount of space, mostly because of pacing issues. This is also […]
The Gamification of Rhetoric
Posted on August 3, 2018 43 Comments
I posted a thought earlier on Twitter today and I’ll repost it here in non-tweet form: It’s really frustrating to me that more people don’t understand that racist/alt-right people have gamified their rhetoric; they’re not interested in discussion, they’re slapping down cards from a “Debate: The Gathering” stack, and the only goal is taking heads. […]
The Big Idea: Michael Mammay
Posted on August 2, 2018 8 Comments
Trust in your friend, colleagues and superiors is a good thing… mostly. In Planetside, author Michael Mammay considers the price of loyalty and the cost of trust, and how both can end up being different than one might expect. MICHAEL MAMMAY: The big idea that became Planetside started with a conversation I had with another […]
A Summary of How the Rest of My Trip To NYC Went
Posted on August 1, 2018 15 Comments
Ah, yes, the Big Apple! I have no idea why they call it that, but in case you didn’t read my last post, that’s where I was last week! Instead of going to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Meg and I went to the Brooklyn Museum because it was a hundred million degrees outside and the […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying