Author: Claire
I wasn’t going to blog today because a) I don’t do “on demand” blogitude on special occasions and b) because the holiday formerly known as Independence Day has gotten so depressing. But I ran into this and remembered that some American traditions are still very much worth celebrating: H/T Never Yet Melted Bear’s got a good reminder, too.
A reviewer implies “Please don’t read this terrific book” Yesterday I stumbled upon an enthusiastic review of a new apocalyptic fantasy novel. The book sounded different and interesting. I nearly stumbled back out again when the first words out of the reviewer’s keyboard were a snotty complaint about how too much SF and fantasy has historically been written by and for white men. The reviewer didn’t literally tell males and Caucasians not to read the new book, but might as well have. The tale sounded terrific, though (once she finally started talking about, you know, the actual plot and characters…
The Wandering Monk finished up his part of the porch project on Friday. We now have steps. Since then I’ve been working in desultory fashion (and a steady rain) cleaning up the site and making a start on giving visitors a way to get to that nice new porch. The concrete chunks on the sides are only to hold down the black plastic, but the ones in the center might become permanent if they embed nicely in the gravel I don’t yet have. Mostly, I laid this out because I didn’t feel up to hauling all that heavy stuff away.…
… wait ’til you see SWORD, the weapon-detecting smartphone case, currently available in vaporware. According to its maker’s claims (and we can assume “claims” is the operative word, thank heaven), the SWORD allows its holder to scan a person from up to 40 meters away to detect the presence of a hidden weapon. Not only that, it recognizes faces and compares them against a “watch list.” Apparently if it detects both weapon and facial threat it alerts a “security officer.” No word on whether a mere weapon or mere facial threat alone is sufficient to bring chaos down upon the…
Another good day’s work for The Wandering Monk and me … The Monk was embarrassed that it took us 5-1/2 hours to create this simple-seeming frame for the porch cover. But doing so involved a lot of tricky decisions. We had to work around weird roof lines and Ye Olde Wreck’s general oddities. Two of our hours were occupied thinking out the technical problems and putting up a rough proof-of-concept version before heading to the lumberyard for final supplies. We’ve done an amazing job salvaging materials on this and the earlier deck project. By the time we’re done with the…
And family. And neighbors. You know how it goes: You gently nudge acquaintances into prepping, and they (all too often) respond, “Haha, if anything happens, I’ll just come to your house.” Worse, they mean it. Kit Perez writes about this infamous problem at the new American Partisan blog. She examines various possibilities, many of which may have crossed our own minds. So, while it’s a little early for a Friday Freedom Question, here are two: 1. What do you say when people respond to you with this wildly unoriginal “joke”? 2. And what would you do if they really did…
She posts: As you may have already noticed, Nathan Barton has taken over publishing The Price of Liberty. He has been my faithful friend, critic and moral support over at least the last 20 years, and I couldn’t say enough about that if I wrote for a week. I won’t be involved any more because I am dying of an aggressive cancer and have little idea how much time I have left. I am blessed with a wonderful family and many good neighbors and friends, so will not be alone or lonesome in that process. Please give her your good-byes…