Played some fris golf today. That's like frisbee golf, but when the group ahead of you gets attacked by a swarm of enraged bees, you say "Let's skip this part of the course." ...
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Book Report: Thursday's Children
It's a "best of" collection of Curtis Chen's 512-words-or-fewer flash fiction. Short storylets, one or two scenes apiece; that's about enough space for some wry witty banter and/or to start noodling ...
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Book Report: Solaris
Humans try to communicate with alien intelligence and wacky tragedy ensues. Some science fiction authors use "first contact" scenarios to point out things about humanity; but you never really believe...
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Book Report: Mind Games
It's a book of short stories by Richard Thieme. I saw a recording of an interesting talk he gave at DefCon. So I read this collection, which turned out to be largely about UFO sightings and the paran...
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Dr Who's Martians as Puzzle Designers #badpuzzles
Cramming for the Doctor When game, I watch Doctor Who. The Pyramids of Mars arc aims at being puzzle-huntish... kind of... Towards the end, there's a Martian stronghold guarding a treasure chamber; ...
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Book Report: Embassytown
It's weird science fiction: humans interact with aliens. In the aliens' language, statements must refer to real things. If you wanted to compose a poem about a purple cow in this language, you would ...
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Comic Report: The Martian Confederacy (vols 1-2)
It's a comic book. It's science fiction. But the characters are interesting. Why would the author of a science fiction comic book bother to come up with interesting characters? Doesn't he know his ta...
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Milestone: 15 Million Hits
I'm writing this in kind of a hurry. An out-of-town cousin is in town. There have been fun activities. There will be more. Thus, apologies. I write in haste. The 15 millionth item (modulo the us...
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Book Report: Fire Time
Fire Time is a science fiction novel from the early 70s. It brings you back to an earlier kind of science fiction. The author Poul Anderson drew out a solar system based on a trinary star. Then he...
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Book Report: An Evil Guest
Amongst books set in the Lovecraftian "Mythos" universe, this is the best I've read so far. That's kind of a backhanded compliment. I dislike H.P. Lovecraft's Mythos books. I suppose it's guilt by ...
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Book Report: The Mote in God's Eye
Happy National Poetry Month! To celebrate, this blog post contains no poetry. You're welcome. The Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction classic that I never got around to reading. Except that I ...
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Book Report: Matter
It's a novel of The Culture. If you didn't like other novels of The Culture, you probably won't like this one. If you like other novels of The Culture, you probably will like this one. If you have...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere: Iron Puzzler BANG
BANG 18, the Iron Puzzler BANG was last weekend and it was awesome. The excellent organizers--the Burninators, Coed Astronomy, BootyVicious, Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow, Platonic Solids, and...
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Book Report: Cosmonaut Keep
There's a parallel story; humanity's learning the secret of a light-speed interstellar starship drive; humanity's rediscovery of same, hundreds of years later. There is politics, humor, ... I dunno,...
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Book Report: Seabiscuit
This was a fun read about horseracing.Labels: book, entertainment industry, interspecies diplomacy...
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Book Report: Iron Council
I read a lot on the bus. Today, I didn't take the bus and yet I've been able to get yet more reading in. My secret? I'm staying home today with food poisoning. I'm not trying to read anything too...
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Book Report: Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers
Context matters. At work, I'm sitting in a new area with some folks who don't know me very well. Today, someone asked for some help making a decision. I didn't have an opinion, so I sought an exec...
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Book Report: The Algebraist
I walked several miles today so that I could fail to see a calligraphy exhibit. In theory, it has some work by Tauba Auerbach. In theory, it was open today, but a sign on the door said it was close...
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Book Report: Out of Eden (an Odyssey of Ecological Invasion)
(or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Invading Species) This is a fun book on a serious subject. Alan Burdick traveled the world, talking to scientists about invading species. Sometimes p...
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Link: Sam and Max Game Announcement
Holy moly, it's an announcement of intent to produce a game starring beloved freelance police officers Sam & Max! OK, I concede that the last few such announcements haven't led to any games that...
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Book Report: Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man
This comic book by John Porcellino was informative and thought-provoking. The mosquito abatement men walk through nature, learning its beauty. And they slaughter millions of insects along the way. ...
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