Threat Alert Thursday: Consider a Password Manager
Last week’s Twitter kerfuffle led Vox to dust off its primer on password managers which, if you’ve been thinking about starting to use, you might want to check out.
Various and Sundry
Various and Sundry
Whaddya know? It’s Unicorn Wednesday!
Look, I don’t make the rules, I just know it’s Unicorn Wednesday. You may be indifferent to Wednesdays, but who doesn’t like unicorns? They’re the national animal of Scotland for crying out loud! And for that matter, who doesn’t like magic? Misty Lee has you covered:
Various and Sundry
Grieving and Living
While I’m sure its author would not purport to be the last authority on the subject nor her article a substitute for medical advice, I thought Lori Gottlieb’s piece in The Atlantic to be a good reflection on the grieving process.
Writing
Aka, Keep on Swimming
My recent project, Jabberwocky Audio Theater, is not a recent development. I’ve been working on it in one form or another since 2007. When you work on something that long that means there’s definitely breaks when you’re not working on it… and within those breaks and at those moments of starting or stopping, your doubts about continuing happily pay a visit. In one of the blogs I perpetually read, Mark Evanier has a response to…
Various and Sundry
All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by… and maybe some deflector shields
Rockets and starships and especially naval ships getting spacefaring analogues occupy my thoughts from time to time. Okay, a lot of the time. I know I’m not alone in this gentle obsession, so it was nice to come across this lengthy article by Jeff “Hageshii01” Venancio all about military ship types in actual naval history and how they’ve been applied in science fiction settings. This is probably a good time to mention that, if you…
Various and Sundry
Move over Monorail, It’s Electric Bus Time
I still remember researching electric cars being developed during the beginnings of the auto industry and being surprised when my dad mentioned that there were still electric vehicles on the road when he grew up in the 40s and 50s. Old models of delivery vehicles were still being used by thrifty businesses — and, in fact, the Walker Vehicle Company made such vehicles up until 1942 in Chicago. The reason the vehicles were still on…
Various and Sundry
Say! That Sounds Like…
Devices and contraptions that make sound effects are among my favorite things, ranking well above cream-colored ponies, bright copper kettles, and possibly even whiskers on kittens. So I was delighted to see this little video about how sound effects have been made over the years (though I think they skip over the valuable contributions voice-over artists have been able to do with their own voices: think Mel Blanc’s sad Maxwell sputtering on the Jack Benny…
Acting Raves
Praise for the Non-Human Character Actor
I’ve always loved character actors and spotting them in myriad movies and TV shows is a habit I’ve inherited from my dad. I also like “creature features.” So really, when someone put together a video honoring the very talented Doug Jones, I had to share it:
Writing
10 More Motivation Levers for Your Writing
Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve done a “Motivation Monday,” so it seemed like Big Bill’s birthday was as good a day as any to get back to it. I’d caught Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2009 TED talk on writing and motivation (the video is 20 minutes, and this link also has a transcript), so when I saw an Amazon article ad for her “10 Tips for Writers,” (as compiled by Cynthia Shannon), I figured it was…
Various and Sundry Writing
Stepping Away from Comics, Directly
This past week, a friend posted a video of a friendly local comic shop/bookstore. Used books are stuffed into every conceivable bit of shelf space, surrounding long boxes of comic book back issues, with memorabilia and figurines placed in strategic –and sometimes haphazard– locations. It’s almost archetypical for what you’d imagine a used bookstore/comic shop to be. A week earlier, I stepped into that same comic shop for, if not the very last time, my…