Category: Blog

Home Economics is not a great show, but I do enjoy watching Topher Grace be a struggling novelist. And it’s nice to have another sitcom to look forward to each week, along with Abbott Elementary and the new Reboot (Rachel Bloom! Keegan-Michael Key!).

Sitcoms are so important. Continue reading “Writers in Sitcoms”

Me: “Time to write!”

My brain: “Let’s look up collie puppies that are available in Oregon.”

Me: “That’s not… I mean… fine.”

The horrible clattering sound of a cat knocking down an entire container of pushpins and them scattering everywhere…

Followed, of course, by the sweet, angelic mew of a perfectly innocent baby who wants you to know she could never, ever, ever do anything wrong.

That is all.

You know the scene in Roger Rabbit where no one in the bar gives Roger up to Judge Doom, because he made them laugh?

Because he made them laugh, they cared about him.

This is why stories need humor, even if they’re not comedies. It makes the audience care.

Robot Weekend continues today with plans to watch more silly 80s robot movies — “Making Mr. Right” and “Electric Dreams”.

Also, here’s a cute little robot story on Deep Sky Anchor (originally published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact), newly illustrated by Midjourney. Continue reading “Making Mr. Right, Electric Dreams, and DARYL”

Let Robot Weekend commence with the watching of Short Circuit!

We’ve been meaning to do a Robot Weekend for a long time, but always get stuck on the question of what thematic food would be… Finally, we mostly just gave up on that question and are starting with some chex mix. Continue reading “Re-watching Short Circuit”

I’m currently reading 3 books—one as part of a race with my 9-year-old; one alongside my 15-year-old for their Gothic Lit class; and one just for me.

I’m interested in and enjoying all three. But I just got to spend an hour reading the one for just me, and it was really nice.

I love how totally unfazed everyone on DS9 is by Kira’s constant, simmering rage at everything. She’s effective; she’s reasonable; she’s their friend. They don’t police her tone. I wish so dearly the real world could be a place like that for me.

Diablo 3 seasons pro-tip: if you’re trying to solo the Boss Mode conquest and want to keep track of time without wasting any looking at it, listen to a 20-min music album you know well.

I like to listen to the Once Upon a Time musical episode soundtrack.

I really wonder what I would have thought of the Animorphs books if I’d read them when came out, or better yet, a few years earlier even. Would I have loved them? I was a pretty opinionated, judgmental kid… but I think I might have loved them so much it would have changed me.

Would I have written different books myself if I’d read Animorphs when I was a kid? I think that’s really possible, and it makes me wonder what those books would’ve been. Continue reading “If I’d Encountered Animorphs Earlier…”