The Whatever Digest, 9/14/18
Posted on September 14, 2018 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
Let’s start this off with a picture I took this morning. I call this one “Worlds on a String.”
See, there’s an upside to spiderwebs everywhere.
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I was in Columbus last night to take part in a panel at the Religion News Association’s conference, on science fiction and religion (appropriately enough, given the conference I was at). On the panel I and three other panelists looked at how and why religion makes its way into science fiction and why writers and readers come back to it in the genre. Inasmuch as this was a panel at a conference of journalists, did they record this panel and then put it up on Facebook? Why yes! Yes they did.
So if you’re interested, here it is. My particular bit starts about fourteen minutes in, and the camera angle really accentuates that at the moment my hair looks like I have a chinstrap on the top of my head, so I have that going for me, which is nice. But the whole thing is worth watching, because everyone on it (Me, James McGrath, David Williams and Farah Rishi) had interesting things to say.
***
So just in case you think Twitter is a complete waste of time, my friends Chuck Wendig and Sam Sykes just had a film made based on a Twitter thread they did, just goofing around:
Chuck’s got the whole story on his site. I particularly like the fact that Chuck is played by Allyson Hannigan. And honestly this is probably the best Twitter story ever (the fact a movie was made from their Twitter thread, not the Twitter thread itself, although that’s pretty funny, too).
***
I’m sure things went on the world yesterday (aside from Trump’s dumbass comment about Puerto Rico), but honestly I was off traveling and talking about God and science fiction, so I didn’t keep up. In lieu of trenchant commentary on the state of planet, please accept this picture of a kitten in a sink.
The digest will see you next Monday!
At the end of the 20/20 month, would you consider taking a look at your analytics to see if the increased content from you has increased either visitor volume (new vs returning) or engagement (time on site), and sharing the outcome with us? I’m curious since, as you note, the blog format is not currently particularly popular as a platform. Also I personally am really enjoying this series!
John, I’m sure this thought has occurred to you, but the photo strikes me as an excellent visualization of The Flow.
(One reason why I’m sure you also think this is the title you chose ;-) )
Aw, cute kitty! He is a most handsome cat :) . And the spiderweb pic is quite meditative.
Kitten in the sink, hurricane disaster down the drainhole.
It literally blew my mind that, after warning people to evacuate, rescue operations are saving people stuck in the floods. And not all poor old disabled people either…
That spiderweb picture is stunning. And I prefer a picture of a kitten in a sink to current news any day! Smudge looks like he’s starting to grow into his ears.
When I saw the spiderweb, my first thought was that it was some kind of star chart. Dont mess with our feelings, Scalzi! *waves his fist angrily at the sky*
Now, seriously. It’s a great pic.
Thanks for the link with the panel!
beautiful photo!
also thx for kitten in sink.
That spiderweb photo is amazing.
We will, I suspect, ALWAYS cheerfully and gratefully accept adorable kitten pictures! And I agree with others; the spider web photo is fabulous.
I never saw Buffy or American Pie (don’t hate me) but Allyson Hannigan is adorable as the host for Penn and Teller’ Fool Me.
How come there was never a BaconCat movie? And why has Sam Sykes been so humble about this?
Is this related to String Theory?
Frankly, the world would benefit a lot from more pictures of kittens in the sink and less pictures of everything else.
That hairstyle is known as a tonsure, so appropriate for the venue.
That is one cute kitten. He might be in the sink because he’s looking for a better source of fresh water than his water bowl, which he likely instinctively views as a dirty, stagnant puddle.
John, you might want to look into getting a pet fountain. We did that just a few years ago and our cats no longer hang out in sinks and bathtubs. And the extra drinking that the cats will do from the fountain is also supposed to benefit their long-term health. There are lots of details on that on-line.