“Your girls are so lucky.” It was after a TaeKwonDo class, and I was dropping off a classmate home, telling her about my little girl who had (still has!) such a talent for drawing. “What do you mean?” I asked. “We weren’t allowed to focus on anything that wasn’t ‘serious’ when I was growing up,” she said. “Sports were okay, but not art.” And I was kind of gob-smacked. Up until that point, I had really never conceived of a…
(*) Well, dang. It looks like mental fatigue is a beast I still haven’t licked yet. That’s the thought that crossed my mind last year after I’d been hammering away at assembling a formal code update and found myself (once again) feeling extremely mentally rundown. Except that ‘mental fatigue’ and ‘run down’ really don’t cover what it feels like, and, taking another look at that sentiment from this perspective of a year later, there’s also this whole extra layer of…
So, I wanted to do a post that was going to be, sorta kinda, about one of my favorite fairy tales. But then I realized there were a lot of different layers to that, not even necessarily relating to said fairy tale at all, and that what I really need to post about was Video Stores! I spent a non-insubstantial fraction of my formative years in video stores. From the time when I was little and slammed my sister’s hand…
Okay, it’s time for another post about writing (because I like to write about writing, apparently). This one is about story ideas! Story ideas are lots of fun and can feel really precious, but are actually pretty darned easy to come by. This, of course, is not news. It seems like nearly every writer’s blog I’ve read has some variation on the idea that story ideas are the easy part of writing (the actual writing is way more work!), or…
Happy Solstice! The 2024 new year is coming soon, and with it, I’ll be hitting the 1-year mark of having this blog. Therefore, for the final, regular (non-weekly-garden) post of the year, I’d like to do a look-back of what I’ve done with this blog over the course of 2023. When it comes to any sort of hobby, I’m definitely prone to, and enjoy, tabulating the various stuff associated with it. And so, without further ado: General Accomplishments 1. I…
Okay. We’re closing in on the end of the year. Which is the first year I’ve had this blog. Which I started in large part because I wanted a place to be able to talk about my writing (and my garden). You’ve seen my garden, so now, the least I can do is tell you how my writing’s gone this year. The short answer is: Not as great as I was hoping. But, I didn’t do nothing. So, I’ll give…
I just started re-reading a book I really like. Though some people re-read a lot, for me it’s really rare, even with favorite books. Though…perhaps lately it’s been getting less rare? I think this’ll be my third time through this one. The book is called The Wizard Hunters and is the first in a trilogy called The Fall of Ile-Rien by Martha Wells. Like many, I quite like a lot of Martha Wells’ work (Murderbot, anyone?), but I really think…
Okay, friends. I think it is time to tell you about something I call Quick-Chores, which is a house-keeping tactic I’ve been playing with this year, to varying degrees of success. First, I should say that on the spectrum of people, I am the sort of people who neither enjoys housework, nor feels strongly compelled to do very much of it. I think I’m in a lot of pretty good company. Never-the-less, I do prefer a clean house to a…
Okay, so ordinarily outreach astronomy isn’t my jam. I just really don’t have a bent toward teaching, though I am ever grateful for all those out there who do. But this recent Annular Eclipse had an interesting confluence of events for me that made me realize again that, of all of the sciences, I’m grateful my path took me to Astronomy. I do think that Astronomy is super great. It’s also a lot more accessible than you might expect, both…
Now that we’ve reached the end of the season, I wanted to show you a round-up of all my pretty roses. I can’t say that I’m an excellent rose gardener. My primary gardening technique is to keep planting things until some things don’t die, and that’s pretty much the same approach I use with my roses. This means 1) I have kind of a random assortment and 2) I count things as a success even if I get only two…