Here are a bunch of assorted updates about what I’ve been up to. (No advice, please.) Got my second Shingrix shot and my second Hepatitis B shot yesterday. Had no ill effects for about 24 hours; then this afternoon I got a headache and some general-body acheyness and started feeling a little chilly. Not bad, […]
My latest acquisition: a rice cooker! (No advice, please.) It occurred to me a couple months ago that I like rice, but that I only eat it with takeout food, because I don’t like making it. My parents taught me how to make rice when I was a kid. (Using the knuckle method for measuring […]
Even more than usual, I’m finding lately that it works well for me to take a big project that involves doing the same type of thing many times, and break it up into little chunks, and do one piece every day or two. (No advice on any of this, please.) That kind of incremental-progress is […]
Number of stories from a given year that I normally manage to read before the Hugo nominating-ballot deadline: 0. Number of stories from 2022 that I set out (in February, 2023) to read before the Hugo nominating-ballot deadline: about 12. Number of stories from 2022 that I ended up reading over the past two and […]
I have a pair of shoes that’s a little bit difficult to slip on—the shoes fit well when they’re on, but it takes a little work to get there. So it occurred to me that what I needed was a shoehorn. (No advice needed.) A couple weeks ago, I went to a grocery store, and […]
BoardSpace is another site for playing boardgames online. Overall, I don’t like it as much as Boardgame Arena, but it has its advantages. Some notes about BoardSpace: Design/layout looks like something from the ’90s. Has about a hundred games. Focused primarily (but not exclusively) on abstract strategy games. Has a downloadable app that you use […]
Waymo cars have now driven 1 million miles with no human behind the wheel. Waymo posted a blog post about that in February, focused on Waymo’s safety record during those first million miles. That post links to a paper with many more details. During those first million miles, Waymo vehicles were involved in 20 “contact” […]
I’ve had a few conversations recently about blogs and Dreamwidth and RSS feeds and how to go about reading them in the modern era, so I thought it was worth posting about the app I’ve been using. It’s called News Explorer, and I should start by noting that it’s Apple-ecosystem-only, so it won’t be useful […]
The spring equinox here in the northern hemisphere will be about six hours from now. Here’s my traditional spring quotation of Swinburne: For winter’s rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remember’d is […]
(That title seems like it ought to be the title of a crossover fic between A Few Good Men and The Thing. “The truth? You can’t handle the truth! The truth is I’m a shapeshifting alien!” Nom nom nom) A few good things lately: A week or so ago, I improved the lighting in a […]
On the one hand, I’m still feeling kinda generally grumpy. On the other hand, I’m also feeling a little triumphant (grumphant?), because I have finished going through my boxes of old papers. Or at least I’ve finished the first pass of doing that. I now have the following: One plastic bin full of papers to […]
Today was kind of emotionally exhausting, but productive. (No advice, please.) Background: Although Google laid me off back in January, I’m still officially an employee until March 31—just an employee who has no responsibilities and no access to anything. (US law requires them to give two months’ notice for this kind of thing, but doesn’t […]