Recently updated blogs

I have been a very happy Spotify Premium subscriber since 2010. While I don’t necessarily like or agree with certain decisions and stances the company took in the past, from a mere customer experience standpoint, I have had nothing to complain about. Last year I took advantage of a coupon I got at a local electronics store and tried Apple Music free for three months. But I only lasted four …

March 3, 2024, 9:43 PM EST on the video game forum GameFAQs, a user by the ID Xclaim created a thread with the following assertion as the title, “Barret deserves proper beachwear.” Barret, from the Square Enix RPG Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is the only humanoid character in the party who does not get a swimsuit during the beach scenes at Costa Del Sol. While everyone is in trunks and …

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Earlier this year, following the closure of my publisher, I reacquired the rights to my three books. And as of last night, you can read the first two books — the second edition of Responsive Web Design, and Responsive Design: Patterns & Principles — online, right here on this very website. For free. I have a lot of emotions about my publisher’s sudden closure, but I’m just thrilled I was …

Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, wrote the following in an op-ed published by the New York Times (the article is paywalled)When most Americans wake up in the morning, they are not thinking about politics. Americans wake up thinking about their jobs and whether they make enough money to support their families. We wake up thinking about the next doctor’s appointment for ourselves, our parents or our kids. We wake …

A couple years back, people would joke that they were tired of living in unprecedented times. Well, we’re still there and I don’t really see anyone laughing. Inflation is a real problem and it comes at a time when the beer industry in Ontario is being shaken up by serious changes to the retail program in the province. At this point, you can buy beer at the LCBO, The Beer …

This might be the happiest place on earth. I was walking along Regents Canal when I saw this sign. It was noonish. I hadn't eaten. What more invitation might I need? My only fear was that I might be lead to some ironic hipster place that only did oats. Then there was this sign. I found this reassuring. And I needn't have worried because the Happy Cafe is godamm perfect. …

In 1944, before the D-Day landing and while WWII was still grinding on, MGM made a heartwarming movie about American soldiers successfully diffusing a notorious British ghost. The Canterville Ghost (1944) stars Robert Young, as an affable US soldier, and Charles Laughton as a blue-blooded apparition who’s been haunting a castle for centuries. It also stars Margaret O’Brien as a … Continue reading →

I should do one of these “what I read” bits before October becomes too distant. I should also mention my health. A little over a year ago a surgeon of genius removed a cancerous tumor from my liver, taking much of my liver along with it. My recovery went well, and my liver grew back without, so far, another tumor. An experimental immunotherapy treatment likely had a role in that. …

RinCon is coming up in Tucson this weekend and I’m gonna run myself ragged catching up with games I’ve wanted to run but simply haven’t had time: Inevitable, an Arthurian-Western mashup about doomed knights holding off the fall of their kingdom. Cowboys With Big Hearts, a Jason Morningstar jam about sickly cowboys headed off for one last act of justice. Zoetrope: Death Didn’t Take, an improv time travel game with …

My students struggle with sleeping and are distracted by electronics. This interactive activity allows them to think about their sleep relative to norms regarding age and sex. It also dives deeply into how sleep changes over a person's lifespan, which is a topic suitable for non-static classes like Health or Developmental. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2024/sleep-data-survey-americans/*You need a WaPo subscription or paywall buster to get to this interactive. Like this one! https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2024/sleep-data-survey-americans/Here is a …

If only to distract myself from the fact that the flaming jalopy which is the western world just failed to clear the chasm jump which might have kept the wheels rolling a while longer, here is a little post to celebrate the fact that, after three consecutive Octobers, I’ve finally managed to watch, and write something about, every episode of the 1980 ‘Hammer House of Horror’ series. Not exactly a …

This is what happens when you hire Florida Man as your attorney: Attorney William F. Koegler had been acting as special prosecutor in the Miami (Florida) Court of Crimes all the week. Then he changed his role and defended a youth charged with stealing a watch. He ended his speech to the jury with the Read More

Last week, reverse-cycle air conditioning was finally installed at our place and my god, it’s so much more efficient than the plug-in electric heaters we used to have to put everywhere. Judging by the last few days, we’re going to save hundreds of dollars a year on power bills. More money for nappies, hooray!