These photos are from my trip to Yosemite in February. I got a deal on a room at the Lodge. A couple of co-workers joined in. A drove us up in his AWD car. M rented the snowshoes. Thanks to El Niño, there was plenty of snow, and it happened to be warm and sunny while we were there, ideal conditions.


( Read more... )

My sweetie gave my a book of David Rains Wallace essays. I've been enjoying them a lot. Then I read this one and just had to share it. The subject is almost like something out of a Martha Wells novel. It's about embiids, social insects that build webs to protect themselves and their eggs from predators. Really unusual and nifty social insects. It ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Just returned from a Thanksgiving dinner with nearby relatives. There was lots of good conversation, good food, and good wine. One of my relatives needs to avoid gluten, so I experimented making an apple galette with buckwheat flour instead of wheat. I thought the hearty taste of the buckwheat might go okay with the apples. And if you can't ( Read more... )

I just saw a thrilling program by the San Francisco Symphony, Susanna Mälkki conducting. The first piece was "Alma III: Soma" by Jukka Tiensuu. I'm not going to try to explain it. Here it is. See what you think:

Click to view

Try to listen with headphones if you can. The sound is very dynamic. Little computer speakers will not do it justice. Seeing it live was ( Read more... )

Gilgamesh / a new English version by Stephen Mitchell, 2004
Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg, 1984
The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs, 1985

My favorite winery has copies of Gilgamesh for sale, because that's how they roll. It's the Mitchell version, which I hadn't read, so I got it. This led to me also reading ( Read more... )

Art Widner's grandchildren and their spouses organized a lovely memorial for Art on Monday in Gualala. It was a long drive (3 1/2 hours each way) to get there, but I am glad I did and that I had a chance to meet Art's family. They were very close to Art, and there is definitely a lot of his spirit in them ( Read more... )

Heard on the radio this evening.

Amen.

This entry was originally posted at http://voidampersand.dreamwidth.org/21141.html.

The friendly staff at San Jose Public Library's Partners in Reading have a question: Can you recommend good written science fiction and fantasy for their adult students?

To start things off, I recommended Tobias S. Buckell's awesome global warming techno-thrillers Arctic Rising and Hurricane Fever. They have big ideas, complex plots, fast moving ( Read more... )

I'm participating in the San Francisco AIDS Walk again this year. HIV is still there. People still need help. Golden Gate Park is still a wonderful place to walk on a summer morning.

If you would like to make a donation, it will benefit dozens of Bay Area services that work to prevent HIV infections and to support people living with HIV/AIDS. ( Read more... )