Archive for April, 2015
not buying stuff I don’t need
Re the Hugo Awards: I wonder if “coming in below No Awards” will make it into the lexicon to mean something that’s terrible or that’s never going to happen. (This thought was sparked by a comment on Ravelry from someone whose relative had informed her that she was expected to make them a specific (and […]
a year’s time
Today is my dad’d first yahrzeit – the anniversary of his death in the Hebrew lunar calendar. Memory is not circumscribed by a candle For this first anniversary of your death, I was so happy to find a proper yahrzeit candle – plain white in a glass cup, made to burn the prescribed twenty-four hours. […]
I am having a hard time with this
My Dad died last May, but in the Hebrew calendar, the anniversary of his death is next Wednesday. Jewish practice is to recite Kaddish on the anniversary of a death or on the Shabbat (Sabbath) before. It’s not something you do alone; this is one of the prayers that traditionally requires a minyan, a gathering […]
review: Five Children on the Western Front (and some thoughts about how we’re still in a post-Great War world)
My copy of my recently stumbled-upon book Five Children on the Western Front finally arrived yesterday; I read most of it last night and finished it when I came home for lunch today. And it’s pretty much everything I wanted it to be. The writing isn’t perfectly in Nesbit-voice; for instance, I’ve definitely come across […]
a quick one in three parts
I. I have to link to this essay by Spacefem about being a female engineer / engineering manager. I think she’s a decade or so younger than I am, but this is close to my experience as well. 2. I have a trip coming up to our main office in Ohio, in which I get […]
kerfuffling. All the cool kids are doing it.
Here’s the thing that’s bugging me about the current kerfuffle around the Hugo awards and the Sad Puppy slate: Maia Drazhar. That requires some explanation. You know how a lot of science fiction and fantasy fen go to cons, find their people and live geekily ever after? For one reason or another that never worked […]
boots and stories
I have a really ridiculous number of boots (well, okay, at least they’re in pairs – I suppose really ridiculous would be an odd number of them, assuming a two-legged wearer). I was just realizing this morning that it makes me slightly sad that the one I’m wearing today don’t have any story; like my […]