I used to be a regular blood donor. By used to, I mean I hit the 20-gallon donation plateau, and donated regularly for years via apheresis. Apheresis is the process by which your blood is removed, spun through a centrifuge, and separated into its component parts. Because of this, a single donation can help as […]

(Cockroach Stories v. 2) Colleague Patrick Tomlinson writes up a highly amusing story about bugs and Living in Florida. You can find it Here: https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/1170128466722852876 Anyway, that story reminded me of my own personal bug epic, one that played out in my apartment one evening during the summer of 1993 when I lived in Austin, […]

An acquaintance of mine from sci-fi fandom recently posted what I term a rant on Facebook. She was responding to a blog post by an author I respect, Theodora Goss, about how Ms. Goss is re-evaluating how she spends her time. The main sticking point was conventions: Ms. Goss describes how many conventions don’t routinely […]

I’ve come across an annoying trend recently, and wanted to share a few of my experiences. The trend is the “Buy it now or you’ll lose this discount” variety of sales tactics, and some places resort to near blackmail to trick you into buying something you may or may not need. Here’s an example: I […]

Twenty years ago, I used to write articles about toys for a living. I was recruited by a friend of mine, who in turn had been recruited by a friend of his. There were a bunch of us sci-fi fans who worked at this site, Collecting Channel, once it was up and running. I spent […]

Recently, a blog post from a self-proclaimed steampunk fan posed that very question to his readers. He listed several reasons why Steampunk was dead: unsurprisingly, those reasons focused on a highly self-absorbed premise; that, because Steampunk wasn’t exactly the same as when he started, it must be dead. At the very least, it no longer […]

We as a culture love bad movies. Seriously: look how many have been lionized far beyond their relative level of quality. The best example I can come up with is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Let’s be honest: it’s a lousy movie. However, it has an enduring life as an audience participation film, plus hordes […]

In mid-September, we adopted two kittens from the same litter. The adoption was through Angel’s Wish http://angelswish.org/ in Verona, WI. They were nearly six months old at the time, curious and full of energy as most kittens are. When we first met them, they were very interested in T and pretty much ignored me, which […]