Monthly Archives: August 2022
My Chicon 8 Schedule
Posted on August 31, 2022 9 Comments
I’ll be at Chicon 8, this year’s Worldcon, starting tomorrow, and if you’re there, you’ll be seeing me doing public events at these times and places: Friday, September 2, 20221:00 PM CDT: 45 Panels in 60 MinutesGrand Hall LDuration: 60 mins 4:00 PM CDT: Autographing – John ScalziAutographing areaDuration: 60 mins Saturday, September 3, 20221:30 […]
The Big Idea: Bob Smietana
Posted on August 30, 2022 16 Comments
For years now, Bob Smietana has been a writer, reporter and editor for the Religion News Service, and as such has had a front row view of the changes in, and challenges of, religious organizations and entities here in the United States. Where is it all going — and where should it be going? In […]
The World’s Biggest Pooper Scooper
Posted on August 29, 2022 20 Comments
Because we live in the country and are not hooked up to the village of Bradford water supply, we have a septic tank, and because we have a septic tank, every five years or so the county comes by to check on it and make sure it’s in working order. The last time, everything was […]
Church Update, 8/28/22
Posted on August 28, 2022 25 Comments
As summer begins to wind down, so too does the first phase of the church renovation. Things done since the last time I checked in here: Railing added to the balcony: Sanctuary floor and chancel finished (the pews, while out, are not in their final positions), new basement-level floors laid, one restroom refurbished and another […]
Sunset 8/27/22
Posted on August 27, 2022 15 Comments
I occasionally remember that it’s not that the sun is setting, it’s that the planet is turning away from it at up to 1000 miles per hour. And that’s pretty wild. — JS
The Big Idea: Randee Dawn
Posted on August 26, 2022 2 Comments
Life is short… but TV is forever. Author Randee Dawn plays with a fantastical variant of this sentiment with her new novel Tune In Tomorrow. RANDEE DAWN: Who wants to live forever? One great thrill we get from writing and reading fantasy, science fiction or even horror is about imagining creating and watching creatures who […]
Universal Yums: August 2022 Review
Posted on August 25, 2022 13 Comments
Hello again, everyone! Today I’m back with another Universal Yums review. This time it’s the August box, so I’m just barely fitting it in before the end of the month. Hard to believe it’s almost September already! In case you haven’t seen my other posts over Universal Yums, it is a subscription box company that […]
The Big Idea: David Quantick
Posted on August 25, 2022 2 Comments
You have to hand it to David Quantick: He took a wild idea, and then, as the kids used to say, let his fingers do the walking (on the keyboard. I’m sorry. I will stop with the puns now). In this Big Idea, learn how the author finally got the idea for Ricky’s Hand out […]
GeForce Now: A Review
Posted on August 24, 2022 11 Comments
In my writeup the other day about not getting a new computer (or, more accurately, about ordering one and then cancelling the order because of supply chain issues), I mentioned that in lieu of getting a ginchy new computer with a top-of-the-line graphics card, I got a subscription to the GeForce Now streaming service, which […]
The Big Idea: Dan Koboldt
Posted on August 24, 2022 7 Comments
Heists! Dan Koboldt has been thinking about them — strictly for fictional purposes, honest! — and in this Big Idea for Silver Queendom, Koboldt gets into the nitty-gritty of what makes them work. DAN KOBOLDT: I love a good heist movie. It probably says something about me that my favorite film genre involves cleverly stealing […]
More New Music: “8/22/22 (Perseus Galaxy Cluster)”
Posted on August 22, 2022 23 Comments
NASA’s Exoplanets Twitter account posted this yesterday: And I was all, huh, I wonder if I can make some music out of that. The answer is: Apparently! Although I didn’t end up using the original audio file. What I did was make a MIDI file out of the original audio, quantize it for time and […]
(Not) Getting a New Computer
Posted on August 22, 2022 54 Comments
My desktop computer has been slowing down a bit recently, and my graphics card is now several years old and questionable for a number of new games I wanted to play, and my C drive recently informed me it had only 5GB of space left on it. So I made the decision a couple of […]
Charlie Points Us All Toward the Weekend
Posted on August 19, 2022 9 Comments
“It’s this direction.” Well, thank you, Charlie, for your help in this critical mission. You are indeed a good dog. — JS
The Big Idea: R.R. Virdi
Posted on August 18, 2022 5 Comments
All legends have an origin. Author R.R. Virdi tells us a bit about how stories change, shift, and adapt over time in the Big Idea for his newest novel, The First Binding. R.R. VIRDI: Something I wanted to tackle with The First Binding is the nature of stories: how they’re created, how they travel, change their […]
The Big Idea: Kate Heartfield
Posted on August 17, 2022 3 Comments
Author Kate Heartfield brings us an original story based in the wildly popular videogame series Assassin’s Creed universe. Come along as she unwinds the history of her newest novel, The Magus Conspiracy. KATE HEARTFIELD: Queen Victoria survived eight attempts on her life over the course of her reign, by seven assassins (one guy tried twice). […]
Oh, Right, Governance
Posted on August 16, 2022 26 Comments
I’ve noted before that I am posting less about politics these days, primarily because I find it largely enervating, and there are only so many ways to say “The current GOP is a white supremacist authoritarian cult who threw away any pretense at seriousness to grovel at the feet of an actual seditious criminal” before […]
Why I Like Making Music
Posted on August 14, 2022 25 Comments
Mostly, it’s because I’m not good at it. This is not me fishing for compliments. I am aware I can fiddle about and get something out of my equipment that is musical, and that it isn’t completely awful. What I mean is that my level of technical competence with the programs and instruments I own […]
New Music From Me: “8/13/22 (They Were Not Aware They Had Become Ghosts)”
Posted on August 13, 2022 15 Comments
More fiddling about with my DAW and musical equipment. This one is noisy and saturated and the drums have more echo on them than is perhaps wise, but I kinda like it, which is why I’m sharing it. I suspect this is may be an early draft of something else (which is to say I’m […]
Your Weekend Cat
Posted on August 13, 2022 13 Comments
I had the Midjourney AI art generator give me a few pictures of a cat in a library, in the style of Gustav Klimt. This was my favorite, both for the absolutely unimpressed expression but also because in the cat’s “fur” you can see hints of books and bookshelves, which is actually quite clever for […]
Love Death + Robots Renewed For Season 4
Posted on August 12, 2022 9 Comments
Netflix announced it on its Twitter feed (and presumably elsewhere): Of course I’m thrilled about that and for the whole team at Blur, the production company who makes LD+R for Netflix. Before anyone asks, at this particular point there’s very little I know and even less that I could tell you about the status of […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying