Photos

Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.

Year 50 Day 164

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Me crouched in front of my desk. In the foreground, on the desktop, is a plastic Halloween teddy bear skeleton, with two tiny plastic human skulls at its feet.

Day 164: Happy Spooky Friday the 13th to all who celebrate! Nothing particular happened today, so here’s a peek at my some of my desk decor in my office at home. The skelebear usually sits atop my Mac Mini with the skulls at its feet, like a little sacrificial altar. The bear, of course, came from silly Halloween shopping one year; the skulls were 3D printed by a Norwescon member and hidden around the hotel during the con a couple years back, and these are the two I found and kept (I spotted more, but left them for others to discover).

Year 50 Day 163

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Me next to a white bookshelf with a number of science-fiction books visible. Next to my head is a small bust of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E Neuman with his ‘what, me worry?’ phrase on the pedestal.

Day 163: I inherited this Alfred E. Neuman bust from dad when he died. While monetary value certainly isn’t the point, I tried looking it up once, and if I did it correctly, it could be worth somewhere in the $150-$400 range. If I ever get the chance to head to Antiques Roadshow, this would probably be one of the things I’d bring along.

(Also, based on the tags WordPress is suggesting, I think I blogged about this at some point in the past. But hey, I haven’t done it this year yet!)

Year 50 Day 161

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Me standing in my office, wearing a shirt with a print of dragons flying and breathing fire. Visible behind me is a Star Trek art print, and on my desk is a silly plastic octopus skeleton Halloween decor.

Day 161: Since I was doing a presentation for a group of students that had already greatly appreciated my shirt with multicolored dinosaurs, this time I went with dragons, and it was also a hit. I’m going to have to keep track of which shirts I wear for presentations this year to keep them all interested.

📚 Guises of the Mind by Rebecca Neason

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56/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A somewhat surprisingly Catholic approach to Star Trek. Not badly done, though as other reviewers have noted, does give it a very monotheistic viewpoint; though it does note that there are other options, those definitely aren’t its focus. Given that, outside of DS9, religion isn’t often focused on in Star Trek, I found it an interesting approach, particularly the choice to focus on Tori rather than Data, the perennial outsider (though his interest is a present side thread).

Me holding Guises of the Mind

Year 50 Day 160

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Me standing at the kitchen sink and doing dishes.

Day 160: I’m not much of a food-oriented person, and so have little in the way of cooking skills (though I can manage a pretty darn good take-out pizza or Kraft Mac-N-Cheese). So I make up for my limited usefulness in dinner prep by being responsible for the cleanup. It’s better than not bothering with the kitchen at all!

Year 50 Day 159

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Me, with a slight smile, lit entirely in purple.

Day 159: Quite happily, I’m feeling much better today. Not quite back up to 100%, but improvements have most definitely been made. So I’m not nearly as blue as it may appear (though it was fun to play with the lights in my home office window).

Year 50 Day 157

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Me outside in front of the Highline College library building, with a group of about 30 people visible behind me standing around and chatting with each other.

Day 157: Had our morning interrupted by a fire alarm! Turns out it was an unannounced drill, so no real danger or anything, but it was definitely an unexpected minor adventure.

📚 Queen Wallis by C.J. Carey

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55/2023 – ⭐⭐⭐

A sequel to Widowland, one of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award-nominated books, set in an alternate-history UK where Germany won WWII, and the UK is now an allied protectorate of Germany, under the nominal reign of Queen Wallace Simpson, entirely reduced to a figurehead. Following the events of Widowland, and in anticipation of the first diplomatic visit from the United States in years, England is under even tighter control. The importance of literature and poetry are important threads again, and the book does a good job of continuing the story after the climax of Widowland, picking up threads and quite believably ratcheting up the tension. I’ll definitely be interested to see if the series continues on.

Me holding Queen Wallis