We are all under the weather. On Tuesday, the Little Miss’s daycare called to tell us that she was throwing up all morning and probably has a virus. I left the office at 2:30 to pick her up. When I arrived there she was a happy little girl. She hasn’t thrown up since. To be…
A few days ago, I arrived home from work to find a package from Amazon. I didn’t recall ordering anything, and when I opened the package, I discovered it was book I’d never heard of by an author I’d never heard of. Included was a gift receipt and a note from the author. The note…
Back in September, I took a break from my reading of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. At the time, I was almost halfway through A Feast For Crows, but my mind was beginning to wander and needed other forms of entertainment. Also, my time for reading had been compressed down…
Over at Freedom To Tinker, my friend Paul Ohm has a good analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Jones. This is the “GPS privacy” case that’s been in the news today. Paul is a lawyer and law professor at the University of Colorado Law School and one of the smartest people…
I was browsing my spam folder to see if there was anything snagged as spam that was actually legitimate and I came across this PayPal spoof mail attempt. Unfortunately, the spoofers make it way too obvious the message is spoof mail. I’ve circled the two salient parts of the message in the image below: Epic…
It was one year ago today that Episode 1 of my Vacation in the Golden Age made its debut. In that time, I’ve read 31 issues of Astounding and produced 31 Episodes of my Vacation, totaling over 118,000 words. To me, it seems rather incredible that a year has already gone by. I remember just…
This was a pretty poor week for fiction-writing. On only one day–yesterday–did I get any writing done. Combined with last week, that makes for 9 consecutive days of no new fiction-writing. Not a very auspicious start. But I did learn a few things. Given my schedule, and how full my days are, it just isn’t…
With Episode 31 we enter the 4th “vacation-year” of this Vacation, 1942. And with the new year comes the new, larger-sized Astounding that Campbell spoke of in the last issue. I was skeptical of the larger size, but I have to admit, it grew on me in minutes. Something abou the larger format just feels more…
Last night, as we spent the evening in the family room with a fire going in the fireplace, Kelly put on the HBO show, “Talking Funny.” I’d never heard of it until I saw it. It’s a 50 minute show with four of the greatest modern comedians talking shop: Jerry Seinfeld, Louis CK, Chris Rock…
I have occasionally complained that Scientific American was not available on the iPad. At present, it is the only magazine I receive that I don’t get in electronic format. That includes all 6 of my science fiction magazine subscriptions and 2 science magazine subscriptions. I have received New Scientist on the iPad (via Zinio) since last May. And…
The Little Man has a routine before bed. After he’s gotten into his pajamas and brushed his teeth and is all cleaned up, we find Kelly and the Little Miss. I remind to him say goodnight. “Goodnight, Mommy,” he says. “Goodnight, Little Miss,” he says. Then I usually have to nudge him before he says,…