Reading

Entry tags:

looking for a link/website

Sometime in the last couple of months, someone posted a link to a site that had interesting looking shirts made of linen, for lower prices than most places charge. I forgot to bookmark it. Can anyone point me to it? or to something else that fits that description, even if you didn't see it here?

Edited to add: A the shirts were less expensive than I expected, which is a large part of why I'm interested. Those may have been sale prices, I don't remember.

Also, the were made of either linen or a linen blend, not "line".

(no subject)

I'm in a tent kind of hard far from the house. It's not really technically all that far from the house but it's in a little alcove of woods. Now I keep hearing the animals I guess making things crackle
And it's mildly freaking me out and I really do need to go to sleep cuz it's after 3:00 and I'm sure people will be up fairly soon.

I guess I'll put earplugs in and hope I don't turn into a snack.

. .. oh cool. When I look out the tent windows I can see fireflies. I have thought they don't go to sleep hours ago.

Too much tree cover and too much
Light from Winchester for stars from here.

Happy 4th. Happy birthday mom. We could see some fireworks far away. Many many sets

I'm still kind of annoyed with myself for not staying over last night too. But that's okay. It's been a good evening.

It's amazing how late I manage to stay up regardless of when I try.

Really weird thing is the birds have never been quiet.

Looking forward to visiting more in the morning. I think I very much do like this little Walmart tent, three sardine. Works well when everything's mostly in the car. Someday I guess I have to try it out in the rain.

well ...

With the country in the state it's in, I needed something offbeat to commemorate Independence Day, and then YouTube dropped this in my lap:

Frank Sinatra sings "America the Beautiful"
(an impression by Mel Brooks)

Watch on YouTube

Entry tags:

Once More, With Feeling

Back to the studio again and just about to start recording. We'll see how much I get done.

A note about the new computer. The previous computer, which is still on the network and which needs to keep its unique name, is "Thunderbolt", although the Thunderbolt card that prompted the name has been removed.

The *new* computer is named "Cei-u".

If you know why, you will know exactly why that is appropriate.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Else :: Deus Ex Machina (EP) :04: The Wolf’s Lair

Friday’s Comic: as any student of history

Just think of the possibilities!

On the things and the stuff or not really

I've been running running running for so long.
And then when I'm not I just lose so much time.
And then it was 4a when I got to sleep last night after figuring I'd go to the Blues because of the DJs but it took me so long that I got there at 1045 and it's over 1130 . . . and the rest was fallen into the phone.

Danced with a couple of the VA Beach guys, but felt off kilter at the dance. Highly aware of not being a sought after partner. Or imagining that.

Could have driven out to the farm where I'm camping tonight after festivities. Probably should have. Ironically if I'd not brought my duffel upstairs there was almost noghting I'd have needed. Have tent and spare and mattress and spare in the car still, and there was laundry that could have become clothes for today and tomorrow. I think bug spray and sunscreen are also still in the car.

It's 2p. I need to get more moving.

I'm sure a lot of this is shock that the BBB passed. And there's SO MUCH bad. So much that people hadn't even really noticed. This'll trigger reconciliation which will affect medicare. Stuff with education. ICE as more funding than defense in several countries. 45mil just for building more detention.

And most states call medicaid something other than medicaid.

Most of the cuts and additional paperwork hoops won't come in until after the midterms. That's of course on purpose.

Entry tags:

impolitic,
linky

welp

In Minneapolis, where it is overly Warm but where there were decent fireworks and a lightning-filled thunderhead last night. Feeling some kind of way about the political situation, for sure.

Have some links.

UPDATE! Breaking News: Everything Is Bad. (This is absolutely worth your two and a half minutes, I promise.)

Edward Gorey’s "Great Simple Theory About Art" is essential reading for writers: "[T]he theory ... that anything that is art ... is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it's irritating." That last bit puts me in mind of James Nicoll's "I don't object to hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."

ICEBlock: "ICEBlock is an innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone." US only, and iOS only at the moment. Via jwz, who notes "The cowards at Time wrote a whole article about the app and didn't include a link to it".

methaphone: "methaphone can help you manage cravings and withdrawal symptoms. It can fill that hole in your back pocket. ... methaphone looks like a simple acrylic slab -- and it is." I kinda want one. (I am a sucker for glass and lucite.)

Entry tags:

political

July 4th

Jay Kuo takes a break from chronicling the regime's crimes to share some honest hope for today, and the days and months ahead:

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/celebrating-independence

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Santa Clara, California

Entry tags:

On to Westercon

I got away from home at 5:30, but immediately had to stop for fuel because I forgot to refuel last night. I also stopped in Reno to grab a breakfast sandwich, Donner Summit for the rest area, Colfax for coffee and a restroom, Lodi Junction to refuel, Livermore for coffee, and Fremont to buy Kayla some nail polish remover because she forgot to pack some, before getting to the Marriott about 1:30 PM. That's really good time for me. I managed to miss Reno and Sacramento's rush hours, and when I reached the Bay Area, I was going against the holiday get-away traffic.

( Moving In )

I am not sure if I'll post much about the convention while it's going on. Friday in particular is super-busy, with the Preliminary WSFS Business Meeting online at 9 AM, and the Opening Ceremony of BayCon/Westercon at 1 PM, followed by Site Selection opening at 2:30 PM. Furthermore, I personally am not going to be around the convention. I've delegated everything to Kayla. And I'm clearly not going to get enough sleep, which is bad.

Entry tags:

Meanwhile, Back in the Studio

I rambled downstairs today and got back into the studio and worked over three songs for Crosstime Bus, leaving me three to go, all of which are fingerpicked guitar, so they will require a slightly different setup. I'll see if I can get those to behave tomorrow.

One of the songs that I worked on today, "Dance by Starlight", is going to need some fixup before I'm done with it. I wrote that song back in 2005, about ten years after Gretchen and I got married, when I was an ocean away from her at the British filkcon which was very, very full of wedding vibes that weekend. I like the song a lot, which is why it's on the album list.

It is, however, being a pain in the butt, because I wrote it *before* I started using a pick again. When you're not using a pick, you can easily transition between the fingerpicked section at the beginning, the strummed section in the middle, and the fingerpicked section at the end. When you are using a pick, this is not something that can be managed at my skill level.

When I'm playing the song *now*, I have worked out that I can arpeggiate the formerly fingerpicked sections and play them with the pick. However, the timing on that is just slightly different from the timing when fingerpicking. The scratch tracks, which have some accompaniment associated with them already, were played without a pick.

Today's session made it clear to me that I cannot get the fingerpicked section to time out correctly when I'm using a pick. This means that I am going to have to record a separate guitar track for the beginning and end of the song and patch it in around the picked section in the middle. I can do this, of course.

It's just another learning experience. :)

But I really like the song, so it will be worth it.

Current Music: Mad Mav :: Bloody Fingers :04: Deathwish

Wednesday’s comic: sumvun iz haffing fun!

«They’re doing just as much damage as we are!»

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

books,
mysteries

Books read, June 2025

Here's what I read last month:

Vanishing Treasures - Katherine Randell (non-fiction)
Mystery Most Humorous - John Betancourt, Michael Bracken & Carla Coupe, eds.(anthology)
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge - Andrea Penrose

chirps

Chirp. It was the smoke detector in our bedroom, waking us to inform that the battery needed to be replaced. Or so we thought. Upon inspection, it turned out the battery couldn't be replaced on this one. You had to buy a new detector. Wait for the hardware store to open for the morning, then find one of the same model, so it fit on the same brackets. Sort of. Anyway, it's up and alert now.

Boom. That, I presume, was the sound of the warehouse full of fireworks exploding after it caught on fire, a couple days ago. Although it was after hours and out in the countryside, seven people were reported missing. It may be a while before this can be put out; fireworks keep exploding. At least one local town had been relying on those fireworks for its July 4th show, which has been canceled. Be careful out there.

Smof. It means ... well, it means someone experienced in running science-fiction conventions. One such has written that the unopposed bid for the next Worldcon up is woefully unequipped to do its job. This is the sort of thing smofs often say about Worldcon bids, whether or not it turns out to be true. The smof recommends voting No Award, er I mean None of the Above, so that the Worldcon Business Meeting will decide what to do. Reading the very serious comments on this post, I decided it was better not to post my snarky comment, which would have been, "Maybe we should put the Worldcon on a boat." But I'm not sure how many readers will have been around long enough to remember what that's a reference to.
Update: Worldcon bid in question has responded with a puff piece. This does not instill confidence.

Meow. A cat walking in front of my monitor, hoping for an early breakfast, made it difficult for me to read the announcement of the impending publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's Book of Cats. This is apparently a collection of unpublished or obscure pieces, many of them whimsical, rather than e.g. an omnibus of Catwings.

Speaking of cats ... This was on xkcd a few days ago:

Manga (Anime) series info?

I'm writing a story where my main character stops his friend, a dad to a 13-ish year old boy, from purchasing some ~~anime~~ manga books because the main character knows the book series is too adult (sex, violence, both) for a 13 year old. The main character then recommends a different series because the story line is more appropriate for the age of the teen.

The story is the relationship between the main character and the dad, so this is a small piece of the larger story. But I know absolutely nothing about anime (or manga, obviously!) and would appreciate some recommendations of titles that would fit those categories.

Thanks!

ETA: I'm looking for currently available titles and perhaps where they are best purchased (a bookstore, a comic book store, a specialty shop, online?)

ETA2: I'm looking US-centric here.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Nottamun Town -- no idea why

Entry tags:

thanks

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for...

Rain, and a change in the weather. Hot weather is part of why I'm glad I left San Jose. But there are still a lot of things I miss.
Spreadable blue cheese. Gazpacho in hot weather. A fridge with a working ice maker.
Pipes (in the Unix sense), bash, and grep. Honorable mentions to locate, column, and units.
Cuddly cats.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

Entry tags:

westercon

Packing for Westercon

Because I'm driving to Westercon instead of flying, I can be more expansive in my packing and don't have to fit everything into one (or at most two) bags. That's both good and bad. The good part is not having to work so hard packing. The bad part is carrying way too much stuff. But I guess it's sort of good practice for Worldcon. I sprung for first class for the flight to Seattle, so I get two checked bags, and based on what I've been packing for Westercon, I think I'll need it. Mind you, I won't be taking an extra Banker's Box of Westercon gear with me to Seattle, which will help.

Tomorrow's plan is for me to get away from Fernley as early as possible. I typically am up around 3 or 3:30 AM on Thursdays anyway, so if I can make an early start, I should be able to get to the hotel and get moved in fairly early. I'm I'm lucky, I won't get tangled up in any of the commute-time traffic, save possibly the morning Sacramento commute. Wish me luck!

Entry tags:

It Must Be Time For a Vacation

It is clearly time for me to take some vacation days. Most everyone else is at work. :)

We use Gradle for our builds and to automate a number of tasks. One of those tasks is fetching the project files for JDeveloper from our Artifactory, which has the advantage of keeping developers who are less familiar with how things *ought* to work from accidentally checking in changes. Unfortunately, this gave me a problem over the last few days, because I am working on a big, ugly merge. I had loaded the JDeveloper files for the combined project, but the merge had left me with a ton of compile errors and JDeveloper was doing its little trick of "I can't see this perfectly good code over here" during the compile, even after I fixed things.

I decided that the right thing to do was to switch to the JDeveloper files that just look at my group's source code, get that fixed, and then go back to the integrated project. It was a great idea.

Except that Gradle would insist on compiling the code on the branch before it would let me download the JDeveloper files. That would fail (which was not a surprise; it was why I was trying to get the JDev files downloaded) and when that failed the process was done and the JDeveloper files were not downloaded.

Swearing ensued. Asking the build team for a fix ensued, but our U.S. guy is on vacation in India and the rest of the build team is in India as well and didn't seem to grasp the problem. I eventually sent one guy a screenshot of the directory listing showing that I did not actually *have* the JDeveloper files on my machine in this directory. This didn't get me a solution to the problem, but it made me feel better.

I figured I would take most of today off if I didn't get a solution. And I didn't. I answered some emails, went out for a nice lunch with Gretchen, came home, and went upstairs to take care of a few things.

And then I started researching Gradle, because I really know very little about it.

I figured out that what I needed to do was to tell Gradle to pretty please, don't run a compile when running this particular task. I still haven't figured out how to put this in the build.gradle file, but I did figure out how to get the files downloaded by changing my command line options. To wit:

"gradlew loadJDevFiles -x compileJava"

And look! I got my files.

I sent an email with the solution and went off to spend the rest of the day in the studio, because I deserve a vacation.

Starting now. :)

(More about the studio later...)

Entry tags:

Wednesday reading

Boston's Orange Line, by Andrew Elder and Jeremy C. Fox. This is a collection of black-and-white photos, going back to the start of the old elevated orange line, with captions. This was for the "explore Boston history" square on the BPL summer reading bingo. If I'd noticed the "images of rail" series title, I wouldn't have borrowed this book. The captions are just about enough to confirm that there's more than enough to be said on the subject to make a book, but this isn't. This has a disjointed discussion of the lengthy "realigmnent" of the orange line to its current route, and a couple of paragraphs on the decision not to run an 8-lane interstate through the middle of Boston and Cambridge, and no suggestion that anything similar had happened elsewhere. Ah, well.

There are suggestions on the library website for some of the squares (including "with a green cover"), but not this one. Searching the catalog for "Boston histpry" got me this, along with, among other things, a book about the Big Dig, a book about the Great Molasses Flood (which is at least mentioned in this, with a picture of damage to the orange line), and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

We are off through July ...

... but we still have shows for you. We put the question up on FB, your favorite songs about books. We got quite a list! Five shows worth, with more to come later in the year or next January!

This week on FilkCast
Maureen O'Brien, Leslie Fish, Broceliande, Jordin Kare, Tom Smith, Anne McCaffrey-Tania Opland-Mike Freeman, Mikey Mason, Mike Whitaker, Larry Warner, Mike Whitaker, Mark Horning, Roberta Rogow, Echo's Children, Joey Shoji, Bob Asprin & Al Frank

Available on iTunes, Google Play and most other places you can get podcasts. We can be heard Wednesday at 6am and 9pm Central on scifi.radio.

filkcast.blogspot.com

Entry tags:

Bangs and flashes

Yesterday evening, someone a block or two north of my home was setting off a bunch of fireworks for Canada Day. I got a decent show, watching from my driveway, appearing over my neighbor's home across the street.

While I was out there, I could see a fair number of fireflies flickering around my yard and across the street. Perhaps there is some benefit to having one of the most unkempt lawns on my block.