Category Archives: Diversions

The stuff that didn’t fit elsewhere.

My favorite kind of birthday present

Rockford gave me a copy of “The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018” for my birthday because NK Jemisin was the editor and he knows I love her. So far I have had to set the book down and stare into the middle distance at the end of every story. Each of the three I’ve finished has been astonishing and fresh and unexpected, which is exactly what I like about Jemisin’s work. Will they continue to be this good? I hope so.

I have written five essays in the last two months

I haven’t written anything much at all here lately, I know, but since September I’ve written off-the-internet about a memory of a sleepover I went to when I was a kid, I’ve written about both of my grandmothers and I’ve tried to write about Poppy. That one is unfinished. I’m not sure where I want to go with it. I’ve written a couple of other things, too, but I’m not sure exactly what they are. That is not a great sign.

I would publish it all here for you to read, but then I couldn’t get it all published in elite paying marketplaces. I’ll share the links to those unicorns with you when they’re available. /sarcasm.

I’ve been writing these offline because I’ve been taking a writing class. I’ve spent a few hours every Wednesday for the last few months in a room downtown with about a dozen other people, talking about our writing and writing about our families. The class is part of a local university program. It has been even more enjoyable than I’d expected it to be. The Spring class offerings were released last week. Nothing leapt out at me, but I might sign up for something anyway.

I am writing this while US Ambassador William Taylor testifies in the House impeachment hearings, and one thing I have learned today is that it is not a good idea to try to write a blog post while listening to US Ambassador William Taylor testify in the House impeachment hearings because it is both sort of boring and very distracting simultaneously. #writingtips

What I watched today on Disney+

Disney+ launch day happened to be a snowless snow day for my children, and much television was watched.

  • An episode of “Darkwing Duck”
  • An episode of “Ducktales”
  • “Forky Asks What is Money”
  • Part of “How Dogs Got Their Shape,” and then I took an accidental nap.
  • The first episode of “Encore,” and I would like to know where the rest of the episodes are.
  • The first episode of “The Mandalorian,” and I am both glad and not that they’re not releasing it all at once.
  • The Mickey Mouse short “The Lonesome Ghosts.”
  • The first “Pixar in Real Life” short.
  • We also made a rather extensive watchlist. It includes both “Apple Dumplin’ Gang” features, “The Cat from Outer Space” and “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” because apparently I just long to be 10 again.