I was saddened this morning to hear that our family’s feline elder statesman, Shamokin (seen above with his representative curmudgeonly expression) passed quietly last night, asleep on his favorite chair. He came into our family as a small kitten, whose eyes took up roughly 80 percent of his head, shortly after we adopted Calypso, and […]

Not feeling particularly profound today, but I thought since I was getting back into the routine everywhere else, I might as well do it here by posting something. The routine was disrupted last week, as I was off for a week. I needed some time, and some things needed done. Didn’t get quite as much […]

The last few days have been very trying for me, physically and emotionally. Don’t worry, I’ll pull through, but don’t get concerned if it looks like I’m maintaining radio silence – I am, but only because I need some time to hide away in an undisclosed location and recharge. before I go, though, I wanted […]

So, this past weekend was Balticon. I was there. In dramatic contrast to the last 48 hours or so, I mostly had a pretty good time, basking in the communal glow of geekdom (or not…the communal “glow” can occasionally be described as more of a “funk” or “stench”, and is not particularly pleasant to bask […]

At least to me, it seems like I’m not posting as much lately. I suspect that if I go back and count things, I’m probably running at about the same pace; it just doesn’t feel like I’m putting in the time. Granted, there’s been a bit more of life out there to take up my […]

Just something to think about – remember ten years ago when a computer not connected to broadband internet was a perfectly useful piece of equipment, and not a plastic and silicon doorstop? I’d written a bit more here, but I deleted it after I realized it sounded an awful lot like Abe Simpson yelling at […]

So, the weekend events proved to be both as enjoyable and as stressful as I expected. I’m really not complaining about any of it, per se; I enjoyed the company of some quite wonderful people, and, somewhat unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to be a bit of company for someone else who maybe needed it. […]

I did a bit of sleep deficit spending this weekend; such is the toll of a busy weekend followed by a week during which rest did not come easy, followed by another busy weekend. Mostly it was Saturday that did me in. It was really the two-pronged assault of (1) the labor involved in helping […]

Seems a bunch of Rhode Island “Christians” got upset when Governor Chaffee referred to the big evergreen displayed in the state house as a “holiday tree.” Their chosen method of protest? Interrupting a children’s choir performance at the tree-lighting with a renegade singing of “O Christmas Tree.” “Oh Christmas Tree.” A largely secular little ditty […]

As you may be aware, dear reader, I’m a big fan of the kind of pop culture meta piece like this one from (surprise) Amanda Marcotte about what she perceives as the ascendance of mass-market mediocrity in modern American popular culture as being inherently more “worthy” than properties with more limited, niche appeal. I include […]