Some things about stuff
There’s a terribly good article here about what I spent a lot of my life doing between 1999 and 2007. I miss the ol’ collection sometimes, but recently got back into a fray in a small way to accumulate some GBA games for the boy. I’d forgotten how entertaining the hunt was – almost as fun as actually playing the games.
I’ll post some photos soon; I didn’t exactly take a glut of pictures because my hands were full of presents and goodies. He got quite a haul of clothes and goodies, and to everyone’s amazement he seemed genuinely jazzed about all of it. No “oh… yay… socks” from him. Not yet anyway. To my not-inconsiderable shame, I think he knows we’re struggling a bit financially, and the sheer amount of clothing he got was a Good Thing. I hate that he’s aware of that struggle at the age of five. But he’s also very happy about all the goodies he got, whether they were clothes or games. I’m very grateful to all the family who showed up for the big oh-five bearing gifts. I wasn’t expecting that.
theLogBook.com hasn’t been terribly active lately; I’ve had my head buried in a project that is, ironically, related to theLogBook.com. The project started out as supporting research for the webseries idea I’ve had, and then it struck me, a few days into that research, that the webseries project had indirectly provided me with an answer to the question “What’s your website about?” Which has been an elusive question, you know, for a long time. (Pretty sad when the thing has been operating in one form or another for over 20 years.) That’s when it hit me: the thing I’m working on is going to become the new main menu for the site. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with the current one, mind you, but after all this time, I’ve figure out what the site is about, and so it’s time to jump in with both feet and do this main menu revamp that nails down precisely what that is. Because it’s kind of neat.
And at that point, after all these years, I think the time will have finally come when I give up the ghost on saying “Yes, there will be regular daily/weekly updates, like clockwork,” because even with me being out of work, that’s just not happening like it should. Real life intervenes. And I’ve found that when I’m trying as hard as I can to maintain that schedule, it becomes a chore instead of a joy. This site should never be like that. It will still be updated – probably quite a lot, actually, in support of the book projects I’m working along in parallel – but the notices that “hey, I posted something new” will probably happen in the forums after that, since the main menu will be taking on quite a different form. A “most recent updates” widget will be added to Episode Guides so everyone can keep up with the most current stuff.
What exactly that form is… you’ll just have to wait and see. As usual, I hope everyone enjoys using it and reading it as much as I’m enjoying putting it together. As always, the site’s not going away, just entering a new phase where I can add stuff at my leisure.… Read more
On this day five years ago, my life changed. I had a brand new, huge responsibility. These days, I have a huge responsibility, a gaming buddy, a Star Wars-watching buddy, a music-listening buddy, a reading buddy, and just the best kiddo in the world.
Spaceflight is routine and completely safe.
I could lay a great big sob-story guilt trip on you about how hard it is to even begin to get within four billion light years of “making it” as a self-published author, but instead I’ll just throw out a few facts and figures. I’ll try not to take more than, oh, say, 45 or 50 minutes of your time with this. … 
I’ve been teasing a third book project in the works for a couple of weeks now, though at the time its general shape was still sort of coalescing in mid-air before my eyes. The skeleton of it has evolved to a point now where I feel comfortable enough to make an announcement. I think it’s safe to say that you’ll probably dig this if you even remotely liked VWORP!1. … 
