Books ⁽⁴⁶⁾

Brian Bilbrey August 23, 2015

Kerfuffle, Past and Future

The Hugo Awards were last night. First off, congrats to the winners. I'm happy for them. I enjoyed the winning work in each category that had a winner. Well, except Guardians of the Galaxy, through no fault of its own. I don't go to movies, and rarely watch them. Five categories went to No Award. To me, that seems a bit harsh. I read everything that came in the Hugo packet, and dug up everything I could that wasn't in the packet. For me, only four or five works out of dozens rated below No Award. The people who annoy…

Brian Bilbrey June 14, 2015

Heat

Summer officially arrives next weekend. But so far as I can tell, it arrived this last week. 90+ degree temps, high humidity, big thunderstorms. Today, in fact, we had a storm line pass through that gave us a bunch of lightning and thunder, and 1.4" of rain in 45 minutes. Note: Lexi really hates thunder. She spent the entire storm (and last night's late storm) huddled against me, trembling. * * * The garden is doing okay with this heat, though. I saw one tomato starting to turn color - that's a good sign. Once I spot that, I'm usually…

Brian Bilbrey May 19, 2015

Whoa...

Sorry for the lag. I've been really busy. We got in some time with family from afar this weekend, and I wasn't even able to get all of the small new weeds out of the garden: * * * I will point out that if you're a supporting member of WorldCon this year: Sasquan, the Hugo voting packet is now out. I've got a fair bit of reading to do, since I'd only read a couple of the contenders. My recommendation? Ignore the controversy, read the works, vote for what's good and well-written. ALSO, You can now pay your voting…

Brian Bilbrey December 14, 2014

Year Winding Down

We're about two weeks out, and at 36"+, just a little under eight inches shy on precipitation compared to annual normal. Of course, the tree abutting the deck has put on some bulk in the last couple of years, and it's entirely possible that the current siting of my rain gauge is in tree shadow part of the time. I'm thinking of re-siting it (or even getting a more comprehensive weather thing) in the next year. But that's a project for another day (month?). But this year certainly has flown by. * * * If you saw what I was…

Brian Bilbrey November 2, 2014

Space, Patch, Read

A number of folks who lack a sense of wonder, a sense of adventure, a ... spine, perhaps, are whinging in articles here and there online about how awful it is that Michael Tyner Alsbury died testing a near-space tourist plane. How very risk-averse we've become, as a culture. I'd do his job tomorrow, in a heartbeat, if they'd let me. The wonder and joy of experimentation, research at the edges of what's possible make life worth living, either personally or vicariously (for those of us too old to but dream). Again, risk vs. reward. * * * Today I…