ravan

Another nice walk with the dog, although not so far. But then it was Independence Day evening, and she came into my room in distress from fireworks I couldn't hear. An hour or two of distressed barking and attempts to escape followed. It wasn't as bad as last year, and so far it's been shorter, although she's just resumed trying to hide under my desk.

Fireworks are supposedly banned in this city (and it's a city with an extraordinary number of dogs). But I used to be able to hear the official show over in Mountain View from our back garden, so maybe she's hearing legal fireworks, poor thing.

Tonight we did our home fireworks show. :D These are the things we bought from JT Fireworks Sales in Charleston...

( Read more... )

Current Mood: happy

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Layers of the Law
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1361
[Wednesday, 2 August, 2017, 5:30 p.m.]

:: More law enforcement personnel arrive to speak to the Cort parents. It quickly becomes a problem. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

The door to the conference room opened without a warning knock.

The man who stepped inside wore a crisp, dark gray suit and a bone-white dress shirt. He opened his mouth to speak, glaring toward Maurwen, who was helping a groggy Theo into a clean shirt. “What’s that witness doing here? She’s supposed to be kept--”

Elisabeth Finn and Robert Cort stepped forward at the same moment. “You have no right to barge in on a medical consultation,” Robert snapped.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

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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.

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In honor of the Fourth of July, here are a few tidbits to enjoy.

Today's Adventures 6/28/25 -- We bought fireworks for our home show, and we watched the show in Tolono.

Fireworks 7/4/25 -- Read about our home show tonight.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Today is mostly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a mourning dove.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I checked the south lot and put topsoil in a few low spots, prior to our fireworks show tonight.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked up a trough pot that fell off the old picnic table, restored the curry plant and purple basil as best I could, then watered them and a few other things in the house yard.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I sowed 6 pots with mulberry seeds. Half are from a particularly pleasing mulberry sapling near the west end of the old fishpond, the other half from a mulberry that was left on the porch step as if a gift.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and a few seedlings in the savanna.

My partner Doug mowed the ritual meadow and prairie paths.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of herbs to make a skillet scramble for supper.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries in the prairie garden. There are plenty left; I ran out of heat tolerance long before I ran out of berries. :D

Cicadas are singing.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries in the prairie garden. Still more left, but I'll have to hunt those another day, because it is still hot and the sun is about to set.

.

Current Mood: busy

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Here is the 4th of July Modem Problems from Matthew McAndrews:

( Matthew McAndrews' Modem Problems #2244 - The 4th - July 4th, 2025 )

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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.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Santa Clara, California

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Today's theme is Historical Fiction.

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Current Mood: busy

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The sky was dramatic all day: intense blue with racks of broken cloud lines overlaid with whisps like arcane symbols. It was never intensely hot and this evening became cool enough that I closed windows against the chill; most days the a/c has been firing up in late afternoon, causing me to close them and then later reopen them. But the forecast is for a heat dome next week, although we should be on the edge of it and less baking than across the Bay. Here's hoping.

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.

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Collectivism
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1781
[Wednesday, 2 August, 2017, 5:00 p.m]]

:: The black hats pool their resources. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Daniel Tamsen paused, one foot still hanging a few inches above the narrow brass strip that bridged the faux-brick hallway floor with the thick honey-colored shag carpet. The office in the basement of the “Forty-Niner Bar and Grill” was difficult to reach, even after descending a flight of steep, narrow stairs which could have been copied from the viciously steep stairwells installed when dividing a three story Victorian home into a dozen apartments.

The Federal agent swallowed down a litany of curses as he finished that last step. On the three windowless, doorless walls opposite him, paper maps had been mounted on the walls with wide bands of blue painter’s tape. Sheets of clear acrylic the same size as standard plywood covered every inch of the maps, and the glimpses of brown wood paneling from the mid-seventies, when the building had been completed.

“You’ve been busy,” Daniel Tamsen managed to say.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused

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FireSmart Canada is pleased to release Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire
Stewardship, a beautiful, bound publication that recognizes the contributions to wildfire
prevention of Indigenous communities in Canada.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Today is partly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I refilled the thistle feeder. I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/3/25 -- I took a few more pictures around the yard, mostly flowers at the end of the driveway.

EDIT 7/3/25 -- I dug up three pots of wild senna and one of purple echinacea that had seeded themselves in the savanna, hopefully to transplant them elsewhere if they survive.

I've seen a pair of mourning doves and a gray catbird. I also saw a very large bird, possibly a vulture or eagle, flying over the field to the west.

EDIT 7/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/3/25 -- We hooked up the new, flat water hose. The "non-kinking" label is a complete lie; it is the most prone to kinking of any hose I've ever used. Straightening it out enough to work is a bitch. However, it is extremely lightweight and completely flexible, so those are pluses. Also the multifunction water wand is by far the best nozzles I've ever used. I favor with "shower" and "flat" functions the most. The new picnic table garden and septic garden have been thoroughly watered.

EDIT 7/3/25 -- I watered the old picnic table garden and the plants in the house yard.

The corn is tasseling. The pollen hangs heavy on the wind with a sweet, dusty, buttery, golden smell.

Fireflies are coming out.

I saw a skunk in the house yard. I've seen a squirrel at the hopper feeder.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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When rainforests died, the planet caught fire: New clues from Earth’s greatest extinction

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.

I pointed this out decades ago and nobody listened. Now here we are. But hey, someone could roll up this newspaper and beat Brazil with it.

Current Mood: busy

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

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thanks

The dog took me on a long walk today: all the way to the park and looping back through part of it. That was after insisting on lying in the grass for much of the afternoon.

No cat sightings, unfortunately.

Thanks to a donation from

fuzzyred, you can now read the rest of "In the Heart of the Hidden Garden." Lawrence gives Stan a tour of two more buildings and two more gardens -- and then explains why.

Current Mood: busy

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Side Conversation
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1607
[Wednesday, 2 August, 2017, 4:30 p.m]]

:: While the Cort adults and Doctor Elisabeth Finn have a much needed discussion, there's a very different conversation going on nearby. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

A flamenco pink neon sign in the picture window read “Pink Pearls,” as a nervous young woman opened the door into the shop. The movement made her loose brown curls bounce across her face, covering it from the tip of her nose upward. At her collar, the curls seemed determined to slide between the blue chambray and her pale neck, but the weight seemed to keep them more firmly in place.

Inside, the shop was barely wide enough for a walkway and a nail station, though it was long enough for two work stations and the small counter and register fitted diagonally in the corner next to two bookshelves filled with products for sale.

The woman beside the register had sorrel skin and almond-shaped eyes. She waved toward the rear station, just as a middle-aged woman approached from the depth of the shop. “Arminda, your friend is here. Shall I set up, then put in headphones?”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

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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!

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: Fernley, Nevada

Tags:

westercon

D.O.P.-T.

Fireworks

Layers of the Law (part 1 of 1, complete)

Once More, With Feeling

Writing About Fireworks

Birdfeeding

#2244 - The 4th

On to Westercon

Follow Friday 7-4-25: Historical Fiction

D.O.P.-T.

Meanwhile, Back in the Studio

Collectivism (part 1 of 1, complete)

Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire Stewardship

Birdfeeding

Climate Change

Thankful Thursday

D.O.P.-T.

Side Conversation (part 1 of 1, complete)

Packing for Westercon

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