I’ve been a subscriber to New Scientist since October 2008. It is my primary source of keeping up with science and technology each week. For those who’ve never read it (or heard of it), New Scientist is a weekly science magazine out of the UK. It is usually around 48 pages and contains a summary…
I saw late last night that a deal was reached on the debt ceiling. I’m not particularly relieved by this deal, nor do I think the people involved deserve applause for getting this deal done. It should have been done a long time ago without the petty bickering and childishness that took place over the…
I don’t remember what I was doing on August 1, 1981. I was living in Warwick, Rhode Island. I was nine-and-a-half years old. It was summer and school was out. We would  occasionally go to summer camp, but August 1 was a Saturday and there was no camp on weekends. We did have cable, so…
For a long time, I’ve been a fan of Superman. I’ve talked about how I introduced the Little Man to Superman. But until Friday night, I’d never read a Superman comic. And doing so gave me a nifty little idea. When I heard about the DC Comics “new 52”–their renumbering of 52 of their most…
I managed to get in two writing sessions today! The first one was right around noon while Kelly and the Little Man were out. I joined a Google+ writers hangout that Mary Robinette Kowal started (but from which she was mysteriously absent) and managed to get about 600 words written on scene #3 of my…
I just got a phone call from the Democratic committee to reelect President Obama. The campaign representative went through the usual schpiel, thanking me for my past donations, pointing out that the Republicans are launching a $20 million ad campaign, and that the Democrats and the Obama reelection campaign needs to be prepared to respond…
The results from my poll asking “What classic science fiction novel should I read next” are in. Taking the lead by just one vote is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s The Mote In God’s Eye. Mote received 9 votes, followed by a tie for second place between The Lathe of Heaven and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel each…
Earlier in the week, I posted about how I created a custom short fiction template for Scrivener. A number of people asked me if I could make that template available for download and I have now done this. You can download the template here: ETA (11/15/2022): I did indeed once have a custom short fiction…
I mentioned in the previous post that I watched a live webcast of George R. R. Martin at Google yesterday and it was fascinating. I’ve written of how Martin made me a fan of epic fantasy with his Song of Ice and Fire series. During the Q&A session yesterday, he said something that I found…
Life has been keeping me so busy that I haven’t had much time to read outside the reading I do for my Vacation in the Golden Age, keeping up with my science magazines, and reading manuscripts for critique for various writers groups. I last touched George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords well over…