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William Denton wrote yesterday, in a postscript to a blogpost:No library in Canada had this book, and I got it through interlibrary loan from Rice University in Texas. Resource sharing departments are wonderful.Being the son of a librarian taught me a lot about libraries (and a lot about librarians!), including the superpower of being able to request any book—even, and especially, ones not held by my local library—by interlibrary loan. …

True confession time: I have an increasingly hard time watching frock flicks with subtitles. I

An epic adventure anthology which takes some big chances. Extremely impressive. Easily adaptable for a variety of games (D&D, Legend of the 5 Rings, Usagi Yojimbo). Review Originally Published December 25th, 2000 I was immediately drawn to Shiki for one simple reason: It dares to be epic. Many generic adventures share a simple problem: They confuse “accessible” with “boring”. They don’t do so in so many words, of course (no …

I wrote on this website in 2021 about my puzzlement regarding the fact that the most “bike-friendly” cities in the country seemed to be rather unfriendly to kids and young families. The reasons eluded me then and now. There is also a strong correlation between a city’s overall bike-friendliness “score” and a host of other liberal/progressive, “urbanist” policies. Indeed, with some outliers, the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. tend …

[As with Shining the Holy Ark I will try to use official English names wherever possible, however as I’m playing in Japanese there might be some slight differences/slip-ups/personal preferences along the way. You can read through the official English script here. One last thing: Here, “Shining Force III” refers to the trilogy as a whole. I’ll always use “Scenario 1” when talking specifically about this game.] CONTENTS ~Chapter 3: Target: …

Texaco Sky Chief gasoline anyone? The cosmetically restored old service station has the owner'shouse attached. A very short commute to work! Notice the red outhouse on the far right sidebehind the station. (click to enlarge)Nikon Zf; 40mm f/2 Nikkor lens; 1/320th sec. @ f/11; ISO 100; All images from JPEG filesAs I often do, on Tuesday I decided to go out and wander the countryside with my camera. I was …

Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956).François Truffaut saved his most pointed barb for last. Ending a short review in 1957 with a kiss-off, the notoriously venomous critic urges: “Anatole Litvak despises you; despise him back.”1 He was writing about Anastasia (1956), “a most mediocre film which has for its theme a historical enigma, one of the stupidest and emptiest subjects in a category that never fails to fill the theaters.” Anastasia certainly …

What caught my eye this week. I belatedly enjoyed Dumb Money on Netflix this week. Finumus put me onto it as a chaser to the story in my Active Antics links below about the Canadian who made and lost $300m trading Tesla options. Dumb Money is hilarious (whereas that second story is almost tragic) but it’s also a solid piece of filmmaking. The movie deftly captures the time and (all …

John Gruber asks: Why in the world didn’t Apple take regular use of a screen-recording app into account all along? I think this is the question you ask when you have not used a Corporate Mac in the last 4-5 years. For those who are, you know that companies install applications which take screenshots and screen recordings of certain or all activities being done on the Mac. You know, for …

Of course we’ve got them. This is of course an homage to an epic fantasy adventure. A finish on the voided falcon panel. Foreground first in double running stitch, using black thread. Background then worked in the same accent yellow I’ve been using, in long armed cross stitch (LACS). The telltale plaited look of LACS done in rows that alternate direction is clear: Working the voiding after the outlines can …

Newsletter peeps heard about this already, but Repeated Burn is on sale through Kobo in Canada and the US for 1.25 CAD/0.99 USD. The sale is October 10-14.It's also available to Kobo Plus folks regardless of location. And is also available at it's regular degular price on all platforms. And in paper.Repeated Burn is the story of Raven who has a bad day that involves her ex's new ex showing …

Branch Rickey? John Milton? Alexander Pope? Anonymous? Two 20-sided dice from Unsplash Question for Quote Investigator: Confident people believe that luck is really controlled by human action. Religious people believe that luck is actually controlled by divine action. Here is a pertinent adage: Luck is the residue of design. This statement has been credited to prominent U.S. sports executive Branch Rickey and major English poet John Milton. I cannot find …

A post at Metafilter a few months ago highlighted the unexpected poetry of PhD acknowledgements, a nice article from the publicity team at the ANU College of Science. Scrolling its images of Black Mountain Tower at sunset and the compactuses in the basement of the Menzies Library hit me with a wave of nostalgia, as my own PhD thesis is in one of those somewhere. It was a bit of …

Following up on our Warship Wednesday this week, which covered the Great War-era Admiralty Strath-class “battle trawler” HMT William Barnett (3632) and its later life as the French Navy’s auxiliary minesweeper Roche Noire during WWII, how about a great series of related period maritime art? British portrait painter, landscape artist, and printmaker Francis Edgar Dodd, RA, turned 40 as the “lamps are going out all over Europe.” Volunteering to serve …