Thursday, December 31, 2020

Almost over

Just a few hours left until this horrible year is over.  Will it actually happen?  Will 2020 actually end?  Or will some other black swan event occur to send us into a thirteenth month of it?  Perhaps an alien civilization will open up a time warp on our world just for kicks and giggles, sending us back to January 2020 to relive it all.

I hop you all have a Happy New Year, or at least as happy as can be reasonably expected due to the circumstances.  Take care, y'all.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Tutorials

What's the best thing about the internet?  In my opinion, it's the fact that you can learn about anything.  Not only can you learn any subject, but you can learn it from top-notch experts.

YouTube, for example, is full of tutorials for every subject.  Yesterday, I watched some of Paul Seller's stuff.  He's a British woodworker, and he does fantastic work.  Early today, I watched a video of a guitar teacher breaking down one of Billy Strings's songs and really diving into the music theory.  I played sax for many years and learned a good bit of technical stuff about music, but I never knew half the stuff this guy knows.

This is the real value of the internet.  Knowledge is freely shared, and that accelerates learning on the part of those who are interested.  No tuition or apprenticeships necessary.  Only patience, practice, and determination.

It's never too late to master a new subject.  Go for it!  :D

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Merry Christmas, y'all

Whatever your plans, I hope they go off without a hitch.  If you're getting together with family, then I hope you and your loved ones are all doing well.  And wherever you go, please drive safely, because lots of accidents happen on holidays.

Take care, folks, and have a Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 21, 2020

Don't miss the Christmas Star!

Saturn and Jupiter are going to put on a show today.  They'll only be six minutes of arc apart, so they'll almost look like a single star.  This is the "great conjunction" of 2020.

Article at space.com.

If the weather permits in your area, be sure to check it out.

Friday, December 18, 2020

I now know

On YouTube, whenever you see someone making a wooden mallet, it's always from pieces of lumber--like a 1x6, for example--that are sandwiched together to make the head of the mallet.  I now know why they all go this route instead of trying to make the mallet head from a single piece of wood.

First, it's easier to make the hole for the handle.  A lot easier.

Second, with the laminated style, you reduce the chance of the wood splitting when you pound the handle into the head.  And I'm guessing you don't have to pound as hard since most of the straight cuts were already made at the sawmill.

Third, all the cuts and measurements have been standardized before you even get started, so everything fits snugly together without even trying.

If I ever try to make a wooden mallet again, I'm doing it the easy way, not the hard way.

On the plus side, I'm using wood from a tree I felled myself, so I should get bonus points for recycling, right?

Monday, December 14, 2020

What I learned from the chisel

I've said before that I'm not a woodworker.  And I'll say it again: I'm a total novice at this stuff.  I can hack up pieces of wood and join them together in a rough sort of way, but it ain't pretty.  It's more like Frankenstein's monster.

I recently bought a chisel set.  Today I did some chiseling as part of my current project.  I learned three things from today's work:

1.)  Make a chisel cut across the grain first.  Only make parallel-grain cuts between your cross-grain cuts.  The problem with parallel-grain cuts is that they split the wood.

2.)  Start in the middle of your planned hole and work outward.  It's a lot easier to chip way at an edge that it is to drive down into a place far from a hole.

3.)  If you're chiseling all the way through, make some cuts or drill some holes or something on the other side.  If you go in from one direction and try to go all the way, you'll split the wood on the back side.

Those are my newb-learns-the-hard-way lessons for today.

So long, Flash

Adobe is phasing out Flash.  This means no more Flash games, which means no more Bloons TD 5.  There's still a mobile version, but I won't be able to just go to the website on my computer and crank up a free game.

It's a shame, because I really liked that game.

At least I still have Sudoku.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

R.I.P., Chuck Yeager

A giant in the history of aviation has passed away.  General Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket plane, was 97.

When I was a boy, I did a book report on his autobiography.  It was recently published--the same year of my report, I think--and I was utterly fascinated by it.  Yeager's wartime experiences read like bad fiction.  I say "bad" because, if it had been fiction, no one would have believed it.  Readers would have rolled their eyes at the unlikeliness of it all.  Professional critics would have derided the main character as a Mary Sue and made snide jabs about "author wish fulfillment."

But it wasn't fiction.  It all actually happened.  And that makes the man's life all the more remarkable.

I'd encourage everyone to check out the book, assuming you can find a copy.  This is the one I'm talking about, though it seems to be a used copy (i.e., it's out of print).  Hopefully his heirs will put together an ebook version some day.

In recent years, General Yeager took to posting on Twitter.  I don't have a Twitter account, so I don't "follow" anyone, but I'd read some of Yeager's posts from time to time.  He revealed some fascinating behind-the-scenes stuff about the things he had been involved in, not just as a pilot, but also civil service things like diagnosing the Challenger disaster.

He lived a long, action-packed, amazing life.  The world is a little duller now, a little less bold and brave and forthright.

Rest in peace, General.

Monday, December 7, 2020

I know it's winter when...

 ...my head is hot and my feet are cold.

That's what happens when you have HVAC vents in the ceiling.  The warm air gets pushed down until it reaches the thermostat.  Then it shuts off.  Everything below the thermostat, though--which is me when I'm sitting down, which is most of the time--remains cold.  Except my head which is close enough to the thermal boundary to get hot.

If those vents were near the bottom of the walls where they belong, the house would warm from the bottom up.  Hot air rises, so the air would mix better, too.

The moral of this story is that if you ever design your own home, don't put those vents in the ceiling.  You live in the lower half of the room, not the upper half.

Friday, December 4, 2020

Physical update

Good news: my toe seems fine.  I think I must have just rubbed it the wrong way while doing yard work or something.  In any event, it's not infected, it doesn't hurt, and I'm back to my normal routine.

Friday night, I felt a little sick.  Fatigue and chills, the usual stuff.  I suspected I had picked up a bug from my relatives at Thanksgiving.  However, I felt fine the next day, and I've felt fine since.  So it was a false alarm.  Probably just still tired from all of Thursday's activity.

I've been getting some exercise in.  I'm not anywhere near where I'd like to be as far as physical fitness goes, but I'm making progress.  I'm pleased to be moving in the right direction.

Fun fact: Accept's Blood of the Nations album makes for good workout music.  :)

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Finished the last scene

I just finished the final scene in book 5 of Wheel of Fire.  Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of middle scenes left to write.

I usually write sequentially.  I outline thoroughly, and then I write the scenes in order.  I do this so that, if anything changes, I've only screwed up the remainder of my outline, not a big chunk of the draft.

For this book, though, I've had trouble staying focused.  Hey, 2020, right?  But I needed to jump-start things, so I'm trying different tricks.  One of those tricks is writing the scenes out of sequence.

Hopefully everything will work out.

Friday, November 27, 2020

It was a nice Thanksgiving

Got to see the extended family.  Ate some good stuff.  Had fun.

I hope y'all had a nice holiday, too.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Revenge of the toe

My toe has been healed up for several months now.  For most of this year, I've been wearing normal shoes and doing normal activities.  I thought this whole abscess thing was behind me.

On Monday, the toe started hurting again.  Same place where the abscess had been.  And it was a little red and swollen, too.

I should add that, as far as I can recall, this development was due in no part to anything I did.  I didn't pluck out another hangnail.  I didn't drop something heavy on my foot.  I didn't trim my toenail too close to the skin.  There's no identifiable reason for this to be an issue.

Yet hurt it did.

On Tuesday, I started treating it.  I'm cleaning the area with alcohol, applying antibiotic ointment, and bandaging it.  I won't be wearing shoes for a few days, just flip-flops.

Psychologically, I'm really bummed out.  It's like the universe decided that all the stressors from 2020 just weren't enough, so let's heap another one on poor Jeff's shoulders.  :(

The good news is that the pain, which hadn't gotten too bad yet, has already subsided a bit, so maybe the area just got pinched in my shoe or something.  Maybe it's not another infection.

If it gets worse, of course, I'll have to seek treatment.  But I'm really hoping I don't have to do that.  I'd love to beat this thing myself over the next few days.  Because right now, I need every personal victory I can get, no matter how small.

Monday, November 16, 2020

Billy Strings

I've been watching this guy's videos on YouTube.  He's simply phenomenal.  Like Doc Watson reincarnated.

I won't embed a video here.  Better to go to YouTube and search for Billy Strings, because then you'll get the sidebar full of recommended videos and you can browse the songs he's performed.

But yeah... awesome picker.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

A sober Veterans Day

I like the word "sober."  We usually use it in conjunction with alcohol consumption.  It's not limited to that, though.  The word can be used in other circumstances, and it's those other circumstances I'm talking about here.

The first definition in the dictionary is the alcohol-related one.  The second definition is this:

 

marked by sedate or gravely or earnestly thoughtful character or demeanor

 

Veterans Day is when we remember and appreciate all of those, both living and dead, who have served in America's armed forces.  It can be celebratory at times, but it should also be sober at times.  We should take a moment to reflect on what those men and women have done and why it matters.  We should do it sedately, gravely, and in an earnestly thoughtful manner, just as the definition says.

Here's wishing everyone in America a sober Veteran's Day.

Sunday, November 8, 2020

Jabbed my eyeball again

I hate it when this happens.  I'll be putting my contact lenses in, and one of them will turn sideways for whatever reason, and the edge of the contact pokes my eyeball.

Sometimes it happens because I was careless.  That's not the case this time, though.  I wasn't careless.  And it still went sideways.

So I'm in glasses for a few days until my eyeball heals from its scratch.

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Sweetgum logs

I cut down a young sweetgum tree recently.  These trees drop little spiky balls on the ground, and those things just suck, and the tree is in the shadow of a much larger sweetgum tree anyway, so the younger tree served no good purpose.  It had to go.  It was about five or six inches in diameter, so I was able to handle it myself instead of needing the services of a tree surgeon.  Once it was down, I chopped it up into manageable pieces.  I now have several sweetgum logs.

I've decided I'm going to try to make a pair of wooden mallets from a couple of the logs.  I used my angle grinder and a flap disk to debark the logs.  (This worked pretty well, by the way.)  At first glance, the debarked logs look like good pieces of wood.  No internal rot or anything like that, though I won't know for sure until I start cutting into them.

Sweetgum isn't typically used by novices like me for woodworking projects.  It's a hardwood, but it tends to warp more than other hardwoods as it dries out.  Its commercial value is in things like plywood and veneers.  I have no idea if these logs will dry in a satisfactory manner or not.  They might crack and split all over.  We'll just have to see.

Right now, though, they're handsome pieces of wood, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Internet is back

I lost internet and cable service early Thursday morning due to Hurricane Zeta.  Those services came back Saturday afternoon.  For about two-and-a-half days, I was unplugged from the world.

In the meantime, I did a little reading on the Kindle, and I cut down a tree.  It was a nice little respite.

After Zeta blew through, the air got cooler, and it's predicted to remain that way.  Late October finally feels like late October.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Did some chiseling

I'm not a woodworker.  Just a reminder.  I'm a total novice when it comes to this stuff.

Today, though, I finally got around to trying out my new chisel set.  I made a practice mortise in an old piece of 4x4.  I had another piece of scrap wood that functioned as my tenon.

The good new is that I actually made half-decent mortise for a beginner.  The tenon piece fit snugly inside, and I think it went in to the proper depth.  There was a small space on a couple of sides of the tenon where the sides of the mortise weren't flush to it, but it wasn't too bad.  Overall, I'm pleased with how I did.

I did have some chunks of wood get torn out from the sides of the mortise while chiseling.  I guess that's what softwood does.  I don't know.

Anyway, it was a new experience, and while it looked a bit rough, it wasn't a failure.  That's a win in my book.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Preventative measures

I woke up on Saturday with a stuffy nose and what looked like a sinus infection.  I decided to nip this thing in the bud, so I stayed in, didn't do anything strenuous, and drank a lot of water and Gatorade.

It might have actually worked.  I usually fail at nipping illnesses in the bud, but none of the days since Saturday have been that bad.  *knock on wood*

It would be nice to not be down for the count for a couple of weeks, which is what sometimes happens.

In a completely unrelated side note, I still don't like the new Blogger.  It puts a single-space indentation at the start of my blog post.  I have to delete that space every time.  It's not enough to be a proper indentation--that takes three spaces, if I recall correctly--but it's enough to annoy me.  It serves no purpose that I can fathom.

But as long as Blogger is free, I guess I can't complain too much.  I still like it better than the alternatives.

Saturday, October 10, 2020

A little risky

I usually prefer to have a story outlined to within an inch of its life before I start writing.  The reason is that, if I don't, then I tend to wander off on tangents.  Before I now it, the story has morphed into something very different from what I intended.  Usually that means that I've written myself into a corner.  That's the main motivation for outlining: to prevent yourself from writing the story into a corner.

Right now, though, I'm living on the wild side a bit.  I've got the bare bones of a story outline, but only vague stuff, not the usual detailed scenes.  And I've started writing the story.

The good news is that I've got over 10k words, and I'm not in a corner yet.  It's usually somewhere between 10k and 20k that "the corner" happens.  So I'm cautiously optimistic.

The bad news is that I've still got lots of unknowns to tackle.  But for now, I'm willing to face them head-on.

In the meantime, I'm putting words on the page.  I'm doing what writers do.  I'm cool with that.

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Keith Richards is a cool guy

The internet is full of jokes about Keith Richards, mainly aimed at his inexplicable longevity in the face of his past drug use.  But there's another side to the guy, too.  In addition to being a fantastic guitarist--and an underrated vocalist, too, in my humble opinion--he's a class act who exhibits lots of respect for the musicians who blazed the trail he walks.

He's not the sort of guy to normally put on a tuxedo and play a country song.  He's a rocker, after all.  But he'll do it for Jerry Lee Lewis, and he'll do it on short notice.  That's the sort of guy Richards is.

 



Thursday, October 1, 2020

Fun fact about Amazon

If you buy enough Amazon Basics products--Amazon's house brand--then they'll send you a ten-percent-off coupon for your next Amazon Basics purchase.  I didn't know they did this. Apparently, though, they have purchase tiers, and when you hit the next tier, you get a coupon.  Pretty cool, huh?

I used my coupon to buy the Amazon Basics chisel set.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Hand planing

I recently bought a hand plane.  I figured it was a good thing to have on hand for any future woodworking projects.  I'd never used a plane before, so this was a first for me.  I have an old piece of scrap wood, a 4x4, that I tried it out on.

It was... awkward.

For one thing, you've got to clamp that wood down tight, otherwise it'll absolutely shoot off like a bullet whenever the blade bites into it.  

For another thing, you need a heavy table on which to work, otherwise the whole table will jump when the wood is clamped to it and the blade bites the wood.

The there's the pressure involved on the front end.  How hard do you bear down with the left hand?  Well, that's a trial-and-error thing, apparently.  :/

I used it enough to where I sort of got in a rhythm.  I didn't quite get the wood flat, but I was on my way there--somewhat--when I decided to call it a day.  It's a workout, too, by the way.  If you want to burn calories and sweat, do some planing for a while.

One thing I couldn't figure out is how to plane the area behind the blade.  Am I supposed to start planing with the tool hanging off the end of the wood?  Am I supposed to plane from the opposite direction?  I'm planing with the grain here to avoid tearout, so going from the opposite side seems wrong.  And starting with the plane mostly hanging off the wood seems wrong, too, due to the angle and the leverage and whatnot.  So that's something I'll have to research, I guess.

Anyway, it was a neat experience.  Maybe I'll get good with it with more practice.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Knee-jerk thoughts

I saw the trailer for Dune 2020.  Here it is:

 


Okay, so it's got some good stuff there.  I like the look of the soldiers floating down to the surface.  (Not sure whether those are Harkonnen soldiers or Sardaukar, but I think they're Sardaukar.)  And the personal fighting shields are better than the blocky things in the Lynch movie.

But the trailer ends with the sandworm, and I'm a bit disappointed with it.  I've always seen the sandworm with a three-jawed mouth apparatus, and this one doesn't seem to have that.

Wiki says the three-jawed thing is a result of an early book cover, not from the actual description in the book.  So it's technically not canon, I guess.

 

John Schoenherr provided the earliest artwork for the Dune series, including the illustrations in the initial pulp magazine serial and the cover of the first hardcover edition. Frank Herbert was very pleased with Schoenherr's art,[8] and remarked that he was "the only man who has ever visited Dune".[9] Schoenherr gave the sandworm three triangular lobes that form the lips of its mouth. This design was referenced for the sandworm puppets that appeared in the 1984 movie adaptation of Dune.[10]

 

Still, though, there's this thing called "fan expectations."  The three-jaw design is decades old and ingrained in the consciousness of the fans.  There's no good reason for Hollywood to ditch it.

Then there's the fight scenes.  We only get a brief glimpse in the trailer, but the hand-to-hand stuff looks a bit too choreographed for my liking.  Hopefully it'll play out as more realistic in the movie.

The trailer shows Jason Momoa more than it shows Rebecca Ferguson.  That's an ill omen.  Lady Jessica is a far more important character than Duncan Idaho.  Hopefully the movie won't sideline her.

I really hope there's no Pink Floyd music in the movie.  Nothing against the band, but I want a symphonic score.  Symphonic music is timeless.

I didn't get to see enough of the ornithopters to form an opinion bout them.  I didn't see much of the Fremen, either.  Or Baron Harkonnen, or Feyd Rautha, or the Spacing Guild...  I know a trailer is just a trailer, but this is like a Star Wars trailer not showing Darth Vader, the Death Star, any rebel fighters, or the Imperial fleet.

Was the spice mentioned at all?  If so, I missed it.

So, yeah... I'm not terribly enthusiastic about the trailer.

However...

When the trailers for The Matrix hit television back in 1999, I thought the movie looked pretty dumb.  I thought it was just a mindless action flick made for the purpose of playing around with CGI.  When I saw the movie later, I was blown away.  It's one of my favorite movies.  And I was pissed off at the trailer for giving me the wrong impression.  So I'm not willing to write off a movie based on the trailer, because I know first-hand how a trailer can fail.

The movie is part one of two, so it's also possible that the trailer only shows stuff from the first movie, not the second one.  Still, though, that's no excuse for not mentioning the villains or the McGuffin (the spice).

Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to seeing the movie.  I won't fear the impressions given to me by the trailer.  Fear is the joy-killer, the little-death that brings total disappointment.  I will put the trailer out of my mind, and when it is forgotten, only the movie will remain.

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Well, that was fast

Hurricane Sally blew through in a hurry, didn't it?  The forecast had predicted several days of rain, but it looks like that's not going to happen.  Once this storm came inland, it stepped on the gas pedal.  It was in the Carolinas in no time flat.

So what does 2020 have in store for us next?

Here's Sally

 Hurricane Sally is here.

 


Looks like Macon is getting dumped on at the moment.  I suspect there will be some flash flooding there.

The areas downstream will probably flood, too, because water flows downhill, so the coastal plain gets both the rain from the storm and the rain runoff from upstream.

As for me, though, I'm fine.  Just the usual heavy rain.  No winds powerful enough to do any damage.  The northern part of the state is pretty immune from hurricane damage due to being so far inland and at a higher elevation.  By the time a storm gets here, it's already lost a lot of energy.  So don't worry about me.  Worst case scenario is a few low-lying areas experience flash-flooding, and I'm not in a low-lying area.

Best wishes, though, to everyone affected.  Y'all stay as safe as you can, and watch out for each other.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

The sandcrawler cometh

Okay, so it's not actually a Jawa sandcrawler.  But it looks like one.

My street is in the process of being resurfaced, and one of the construction vehicles is a tracked thing that looks like it belongs in the Tatooine desert.  Four tracks, just like a sandcrawler.  When it rumbles past, the room shakes.

I think they're just fixing the sunken-in parts of the road for now.  From what I hear, the plan is that they'll repave the whole thing next week, presumably after the hurricane blows through.

Speaking of the weather, it's seventy-one degrees right now, and the projected high for the rest of the week is only seventy-five.  It feels almost chilly.

In other news, I started a new story recently.  I was stuck in neutral with book 5 of Wheel of Fire, and I needed something to jump-start my production.  So I started a new story.  We'll see what happens.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Even the tool boxes?

Thanks to the lockdowns and factories being shut down or on limited shifts, stuff has become scarce.  I'm browsing for a tool box, and most of the items I've looked at on Amazon are only available from third-party sellers.

So I'm browsing Walmart's site now.  It looks like they might have something that suits my needs, though I'd have to actually go in person to the local store to get it.

So, yeah... even the tool box supply has run low.  Way to go, 2020.  You win again.

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Migration has begun

I've been seeing a swarm of hummingbirds around the feeders lately.  They're putting on fat for the long trip over the Gulf of Mexico, and that makes them frantic and competitive.  But they've also all been female.  I haven't seen any males in a few days.

So I guess the males are gone.  It's typical for the males to leave first and the females to follow about a week later.  Last year, the males left in early August, much sooner than usual, and the females stuck around an extra month.  It'll be interesting to see how long the females stick around this year.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Old version was better

Blogger has decided to force us all to use its new interface.  I don't like the new interface.  I prefer the old one.

*sigh*

This isn't the first web site to do this, of course.  It happens all the time.  Using the internet means constantly having to throw out some of your knowledge and start from scratch.

Such is just "the times," I guess, the inevitable consequence of living in this century.

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Free books!

My book Clouds of Venus is currently appearing in two group promotions.  All books are FREE.  Check it out:



Direct link:  https://storyoriginapp.com/to/DvDapB6




Direct link:  https://storyoriginapp.com/to/aai2e5g


These promotions are a great way to give new-to-you authors a try.  Please take a moment to browse the selection.  

Thanks for supporting independent authors!

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Background music

I usually don't write with music in the background.  Too distracting.  Sometimes, though, it works for me, so long as there aren't any lyrics tempting me to sing along.  At the moment, I'm writing and listening to music from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  Great stuff.



Monday, August 31, 2020

Watched another launch

Was it last night, or was it the night before?  I can't remember.  Events have been moving so quickly lately that I'm getting things muddled.

Anyway, SpaceX put another satellite in orbit and successfully brought the booster back to Florida for a vertical landing.  Man, I love those.  Right out of the old SF pulps from the early twentieth century.

Keep up the good work, SpaceX, and put a man on Mars already!  :D

Best wishes

My thoughts go out to all those affected by Hurricane Laura.  Wikipedia says it had the strongest sustained winds of any hurricane to hit Louisiana since 1856.

2020, man... what a horrible year.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Double hurricanes?

Probably not.  Marco has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

But both Marco and Laura are still projected to hit the Gulf coast the same week.

Article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Now, ordinarily I wouldn't worry too much about this.  After all, these are relatively weak storms, and I live in the northern part of Georgia anyway, so any hurricanes that come this way will have been weakened enough so that they're not much different from any other heavy rainstorm.

However, this is 2020.  We've already seen all kinds of crazy stuff.  Biblical stuff, like "ten plagues of Egypt" stuff.  I'm not discounting anything right now.  Aliens could arrive and ship us all off to work in the salt mines of Zeta Reticuli, and that wouldn't surprise me one bit.

So we'll see what happens.  Maybe it'll be no big deal, and we all escape with minimal damage.  Or maybe these two storms will join together to make a giant Sharknado.  Even odds either way, I figure.  Because 2020.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

That's no moon...

...or is it?

Our little blue planet has apparently captured an asteroid called 2020 CD3.  It's between three and six meters wide.  We now have a temporary second moon.  Or we did, anyway.  According to predictions, it's probably gone already.


I imagine our world's gravity captures all kinds of things like this.  We just don't know about them because we don't have the technology to see things that are that small at those distances.  As the tech improves, though, we'll notice a lot more clutter, I'll bet.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Mostly good

I put some polyurethane on the wood project I'm building.  It's been a long time since I've used this stuff on anything.  Last time--decades ago--I used a brush.  This time I used a rag.  I'm convinced that the rag is the way to go.  You get a thinner coat and less dripping.  Multiple thin coats are better than fewer thick coats.

I still ended up with a couple of drips.  I'll see if I can sand those down.  For the most part, though, I didn't have any drips, and I'm pleased with that.  The first poly coat is mostly good.

No, I'm not posting any pictures.  I'm not a woodworker, and the results of my labors leave a lot to be desired.  But I'll have a functional--and hopefully waterproof--piece of furniture soon, and that's all that matters.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Cool Georgia libraries

A friend brought my attention to this link, a list of the most beautiful libraries in Georgia, so I checked it out.

A few of them are just "meh," in my opinion--I don't care much for modern architectural trends--but a few are pretty awesome-looking.  My three favorites are the Mary Willis Library in Washington, the Carnegie Branch Library in Savannah, and the Dog River Library in Douglasville.

The Carnegie Branch Library began as the Carnegie Colored Library, a place for black residents during segregation.  It's a rare example of Prairie-style architecture in Savannah.  Even more interesting than its appearance, though, is that it was the local library for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas back in the day.




The Dog River Library is a new one, built in 2011.  What makes this one interesting is that it has an architectural "theme," and that theme is "library in the woods."  That theme isn't terribly clear on the exterior, but when you check out the interior, you can't miss it.




Here's the architect's web page for the library.  It's pretty neat, and you can see the "woods" theme in the interior photos.  You can also read about all the "eco-friendly" stuff they incorporated as part of the theme.  Check it out.




I saved the best for last.  The Mary Willis Library is the oldest one on the list, built in 1888.  It's done in the Queen Anne architectural style, and it has a stained glass window made by the Tiffany Company at a time when Louis Tiffany was actually alive.  Authentic Tiffany glass, folks.




Another author has some pictures of the interior, including the Tiffany window, so check out her blog post about it.  It's just a gorgeous place.  I definitely need to pay it a visit someday.

Thanks to notthatamanda at Writer Sanctum for pointing me to the list.

R.I.P., Kamala

James Harris, a.k.a. Kamala the Ugandan Giant, has passed away.  He was 70.




I used to watch wrestling when I was a boy back in the '80s, and Kamala was one of the wrestlers who was active during that time.  I was young enough to believe it was all "real," and I sincerely thought the wrestling promoter had ventured into the heart of the African jungle to recruit a real-life cannibal.  I actually thought Kamala would start munching on his opponents at any moment.  The man absolutely terrified me.

From Wikipedia:

The character was a vicious Ugandan headhunter with face and body paint copied from a Frank Frazetta painting. His backstory was that he was a former bodyguard of deposed President of Uganda Idi Amin who had been discovered by J.J. Dillon during an excursion to Africa. A promotional vignette aired on WMC-TV featuring a spear-wielding Kamala seemingly emerging from a steamy African jungle; the vignette was actually filmed on Jarrett's farm in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with the steam effect created using dry ice. To establish Kamala as a monstrous character, Jarrett instructed him to wrestle in a brawling style with chops and biting. To preserve kayfabe, Harris wore robes and refused to speak English while in public in Memphis.

Kamala wasn't just a gimmick, though.  Don't let the fat belly fool you; the man had some real muscle.  He body-slammed Andre the Giant, no easy feat.




Later in life, of course, I learned about the reality of the wrestling business, and I grew to have more respect for professional wrestlers as performers rather than as just athletes.  I especially gained some respect for the villains, because they have to endure all the negative crap they get from the kids day in and day out--kids like me who believed it was all real--and that's got to really wear on a man's soul.

Mr. Harris suffered health problems later in life, particularly diabetes.  He would eventually have his legs amputated.  There's a short documentary on YouTube about his struggles.  It has over two million views.  It's only seven minutes and change.  You won't regret watching it, I promise:




R.I.P., Mr. Harris.


Friday, July 31, 2020

They grow up so fast

I'm talking about mosquitoes, of course.  :/

On Tuesday, I noticed some mosquito larvae swimming around in an outdoor container--a saucer thingie for a potted plant to sit in--that had some water in it.  So I did what any reasonable person would do.  I dumped the water on the ground and washed out the container thoroughly.  I put it back dry.

Three days later, I looked again.  The saucer once again sported a crop of larvae.  Even more this time!

I couldn't believe it.  Just three days, folks.  That's all it takes.  These things reproduce fast.

If you've got any standing water outside, check it for mosquito larvae.  And then check it again three days later, because they like to come back.

They like to come back.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Comet Neowise

I think I saw Comet Neowise the other day.

It was a hazy night, thanks to someone in the area who did some burning and filled the air with smoke.  Not sure who it was or what was being burned, but as soon I opened the door, the stink hit me.  A bit of an annoyance.  In spite of the haze, I decided to try to spot the comet anyway, because it was an otherwise clear night.

And I think I did.

It sort of follows the Big Dipper across the sky.  It's on the "cup" side opposite the "handle."  Find the Big Dipper, then move away from it in the opposite direction of the handle.  The comet is a faint smudge.  I couldn't see it with the naked eye at all.  I needed my binoculars, and even then it was hard to find.  And I'm still not sure that what I saw was actually it.  I think it was, though.  It was in the right place, and it was a "star" that I couldn't bring into focus the way I could the other stars.  (I.e., it was fuzzy as a comet would be.)  And there looked to be a barely perceptible streak leading away from it.

The comet is best visible after dark and before sunrise.  I think it was around 10:30 P.M. when I saw it.

You still have a few more days to see it before it moves on.  If you miss it, though, then you'll never get another chance, because it won't be back for over 6,000 years.

It rained today, and the sky is cloudy and foggy right now, so no stargazing tonight.  I'm going to try to spot it again, though, if the opportunity presents itself.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Dipping my toe in the Kobo Plus waters

Kobo announced that they've added Canada to their list of nations eligible for the Kobo Plus subscription reading program.  They've also abandoned the minimum enrollment period (which was two months, I think).  So I've decided to give it a try.

I've enrolled my short stories and my trilogy box set in the program.  I have not enrolled the individual Free Space books or the Wheel of Fire books.  Like I said, I'm just dipping my toe in for now.  I may add the rest of the books to the program later.  We'll just have to see.

In the meantime, if you or anyone you know is a Kobo Plus subscriber, then you or that other person can now read some of my stuff for free as part of your subscription.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Finally feels like summer

Most of the summers of this century--in this area, I mean--have been cooler and wetter than the summers of my youth.  The past few days, though, have been hot and sunny, and the grass is starting to dry out.  It actually feels like summer now.  It's a bit nostalgic.

The good news is that the lack of rain means more time to do things outdoors.  The bad news is the potential for increased stress on plants.  But that's the way of things.  Everything in life involves a trade-off of some sort.  Each of us has to weigh our options as best we can and make the choices that seem to provide the lowest cost-to-benefit ratio.

2020 sucks so far, but the suckitude won't last forever.  Hang in there, folks!  This too shall pass.


Thursday, July 9, 2020

You're never too young

Mary Shelley was only twenty when Frankenstein was published.  She started writing it two years earlier at the age of eighteen.

Kids, if you've got a story in you... don't hold back from writing it just because you think you're too young.  Give it a shot.  You never know what might happen.

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Trilogy box set is on sale

My Free Space trilogy box set is on sale at Kobo.  Regularly $5.99, it's only $2.99 this weekend.  It's part of their Independence Day sale.  Sale ends July 6.





Saturday, June 27, 2020

Sometimes you just get swept away

There are times when, while browsing YouTube, you come across something that just carries you away to another time and place.  For a brief spell, you're not in 2020 anymore... you're back in the 1970s, or the 1990s, or whenever, and reminiscing of a time when life was slower and simpler and, frankly, a hell of a lot happier.

That's how I felt when I came across Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed performing "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.  The original is blues-operatic, but Chet and Jerry put their own jazz/funk spin on it.

Also of note is that Chet is playing a fretless guitar during that song.  The fret markings are on the neck, but there are no actual metal frets.

The song starts at about 1:53.

There might some rare guitarists who are as good as Chet and Jerry, but there are none better.



Thursday, June 18, 2020

Gmail's "nudge" feature

I never even knew this existed.  If you send an email to someone, and you don't hear back for a few days, Gmail will suggest a "nudge," which I guess is intended to nag the other person into replying.

You can turn this feature off in the settings.  I think I might leave it on, though, at least for a while.  It's a good way to remind myself that a person hasn't responded yet.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

When your wood is warped

...try to join the pieces together so that they're warped in the same direction rather than in opposite directions.  Yes, I learned this one the hard way.  I'm doing everything wrong.

Man, I'm a terrible woodworker.

In other news, it's been unseasonably cool here lately.  Yesterday's high was 68.  :o

I want some summer, dadgummit.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

I've learned something

I'm not a carpenter.  I've said that before, and I'll say it again, because it can't be said enough.  I absolutely suck at woodworking.  My wood is warped, my edges are crooked, and the holes I've drilled are only mostly circular and on target.

Having said that, I've learned something new.  My plan was to join the pieces of wood together with dowel pins.  I'm using quarter-inch pins, so I drilled quarter-inch holes.  And the pins fit in the holes... barely.  They're very tight.  There's no wiggle room, and that means all my holes have to line up exactly in order for this hare-brained scheme to work.

Since I suck at woodworking, my holes obviously don't line up exactly.

So I decided to go up to the next-size drill bit, a 17/64, and use that to enlarge the holes.

The newer, slightly larger holes are better.  The pins go in freely, and there's enough wiggle room for me to put the pieces together.  And the holes are still tight enough to create a snug fit once I add the glue to the mix.

From now on, whenever I'm planning to do the dowel-pin thing, I'm going to use a drill bit that's the next size larger rather than one that matches the diameter of the pin.  That's what I've learned.

Baby steps.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Returned the sander

Well, that didn't last long.  I noticed a couple of places on the sander where the plastic had broken, so I sent it back.  It's disappointing, because I was otherwise satisfied with it.  It performed as expected.  But I'm not keeping something that breaks so soon after brief and gentle use.  It may have even been broken before I started using it; I don't know.  The fractures were in hard-to-see places.

So now I've been browsing Amazon for sanders.  I'm not sure what kind I want to get, if any.  After all, I've still got the sanding attachment on the oscillating tool.

In other news, I drilled some holes today.  They were roundish and mostly on target.  They might actually work, though my warped pieces of wood with the raggedly cut edges will be a challenge to piece together.

I'm not a carpenter.  :(

Friday, June 5, 2020

No sanding today

I was going to get back to my sanding today, but it was rainy and overcast, so I figured I'd wait until a sunny afternoon made itself available.

I'm sanding with two new tools: an oscillating tool, and an orbital sander.  I've never used either of these kinds of tools until just recently.  I'm learning a few things, though.  The orbital sander tends to "round" edges due to the sandpaper bending over the edge a little.  Luckily, I know I'm not a carpenter, so I'm allowing myself some imperfections in this project (which is a custom-designed shelf for the bathroom, by the way).  My intent is to make a functional piece of furniture while also trying to do new-to-me woodworking things.  I want to learn.

I'm using the orbital sander with a course grain paper for the rough sanding.  Then I'm switching to the oscillating tool with the fine grain paper for the finer sanding.  It works for me.  *shrug*

One thing I've learned during this project is that making rip cuts with a jigsaw is impossible.  Or, at least, it's impossible for me.  The blade wanders along with the grain and becomes impossible to control.  I ruined some wood learning that.  :( 

The internet says it can be done if a straight-edged piece of wood is clamped atop the work piece as a guide.  I'm skeptical.  I think only a guide channel--something that constrains both sides of the shoe--would work for me and my saw, because no matter how much I tried to muscle it in the right direction, it wandered, and it got so that I was afraid I would permanently deform the blade if I muscled it too much.

There are guides on the internet for building a jigsaw cutting station, and I might just do it.  Then I might be able to make easy rip cuts with it.

Of course, I could also just buy a miter saw.  That's a lot of money, though, and I'd rather not buy any more tools for now.  Maybe I'm just stubborn.  Anyway, I'm making my cuts with the jigsaw.  And, occasionally, the oscillating tool.

One of my goals for this project was to avoid using metal fasteners.  All joining will be done with wooden dowel pegs and glue.  I was tempted to attempt a mortise-and-tenon joint, but after the setbacks I've already endured with this project, I'm thinking I'll hold off on that until the next project.  Besides, I don't have a router, so I'd have to use the Dremel and its router attachment, and that would take forever.

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying my new power tools.  So far, they've performed as advertised.  Hopefully they'll continue to do so.  We really do live in a golden age for power tools.

Sander bit me

I am not a carpenter.  My woodworking skills are very limited.  I'm going to make mistakes doing the simplest of woodworking tasks.

I was using an orbital sander, and I got the edge of the sandpaper too close to my finger.  It cut a nice little slice in it.  It's not bad; just a surface cut.  Still, though, any injury sucks, because it's a reminder that you were careless.

In the meantime, I've had a hard time concentrating on my writing.  The riots are too distracting.  I've been watching the live streams a little, and man, I've seen some stuff.  I watched the Metropolitan Optical in D.C. get ransacked in real time.  :o

I hope all y'all stay safe out there.

Friday, May 29, 2020

SpaceX launch tomorrow, hopefully

If the weather permits, SpaceX will launch actual humans into space tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it.

Launch time is scheduled for 3:22 P.M.

This will be the company's first time putting people in space, so it will be a major milestone, assuming all goes according to plan.

Best of luck, guys!  :D

Thursday, May 28, 2020

More sun, please

Enough rain already.  Let's bring back the sun.  I've got outdoorsy stuff to do.

Besides... it's starting to smell musty out there.  When you get a musty smell as soon as you open the door, you know there's been too much rain.  I'm shocked there hasn't been a bumper crop of mushrooms yet.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

That's far enough, spider-bro

I'm pretty tolerant of household spiders.  They eat other--nastier--bugs, after all.  They serve a purpose.  As long as they confine themselves to the corners, and as long as they're not the dangerous widows or recluses, I'm generally content to leave them be.

On occasion, though, a spider will decide to go a-wandering.  One particular arachnid decided to a-wander up my leg and then rappel off as if it was some sort of fleshy Matterhorn.  That creepy tickling sensation was a bit too much for my tolerance to bear, so the little bugger got his eight beady eyes ground into the carpet.

The lesson here is this: no matter how much you tolerate some sort of behavior, there will always some bold creature that decides to push the boundaries too far.  Spiders, humans, whatever.  Know your line in the sand and stick to it, because you'll have transgressors no matter where you draw it or how far you move it back.

Browser update

Windows 10 informed me I needed an important security update.  That's what it called it: a security update.  My computer was in danger!  Naturally, I told it to go ahead and perform the update.

I had to pause what I was doing, of course, since the update required a restart.  But that's okay.  Just a minor inconvenience, right?

Well...

When the computer restarted, I got the welcome screen for the new browser.  That was it?  The big security issue was just an update for Edge?  *eye roll*

It said it was signing in to my Microsoft account.  It didn't say "trying."  It said, actually and definitively, that it was signing in.  That was a lie.  I don't have a Microsoft account.  I've never had one.  I don't like it when people--or machines--lie to me.  *scowl*

I right-clicked on the icon in the toolbar and selected "close window."  The window didn't close.  That annoyed me.  I don't like it when some program insists on remaining open until I click the "get started" button, or whatever it said.  That's basically hijacking.  *harsh muttering*

After clicking through the intro screens, the regular browser interface came up.  Then I was able to close it out.  But it left something behind: an icon on my toolbar.  I didn't have the Edge icon there before.  I had intentionally removed it a long time ago.  Microsoft put it back without my permission.  That's something non-Microsoft programs always ask about during the installation process: desktop and toolbar icons.  But not Microsoft.  *exasperated cursing*

So, while no harm was ultimately done, I'm still a bit annoyed.  There's no reason to be doing this sort of weaselly nonsense.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Box set sale

Attention, Kobo shoppers!  My Free Space trilogy box set--which is exclusive to Kobo, by the way--is 40% off for the next few days.

Be sure to use promo code MAYSALE when you make the purchase.


https://www.kobo.com/p/may40




Sale ends May 27.

As always, thanks for your support.  :)