Category: Life
-
Son of SilverCon III
SoS three was just as much fun as the first two. It was a small gathering of smart, well-read folks who loved to swap their experiences and their dearly-earned wisdom. Maxwell Drake was a very gracious guest of honor and gave us portions of his writing courses that he teaches at Starving Writer Studio in…
-
Across the Great Divide
This essay will probably be disjointed because it’s about my third year taking the cross-country railroad trip from San Diego to LibertyCon in Chattanooga. It will be disjointed because I’m trying to hurry to finish my second book, hopefully before Son of SilverCon in Vegas in mid-July, so I have little time to make it…
-
How Sharon and I “Met”
Sharon and I met in a creative writing class our senior year in college. She told me later that her academic adviser had looked at her askance when he signed off on her choice, but she had never given up on wanting to write, even if she made her living as a Chemist. She came…
-
Fun with Error Messages
Kaeley Triller Harms of the Honest to Goodness blog wrote a short essay today about how computers (ok their programmers) can unintentionally miscommunicate. We’re all familiar with how active bluetooth and wifi can send messages to our phones and tablets that indicate a printer or new network device has been detected. Her family was driving…
-
A Systems Engineer in the Hospital
I haven’t posted anything for a month or so, and there’s a reason for that as I explain below. Life is slowly getting back to normal…, well except for all that extra time it takes to watch the hit ’em where they ain’t Padres line drive their way to the World Series (fingers crossed). First,…
-
The (Rail)Road Home
Last (I promise) installment about my June cross-continent trip. Next onto Vegas and InvisiCon (aka Son of Silvercon). Once I was in Atlanta, the trip home would be straightforward if not exactly straight geographically, and I was soon at the Amtrak station to head for the Big Easy and the Hostel Auberge where I had…
-
The Hall of Fame
Before I get into my trip back to San Diego, I should talk about my brief stop at the Baseball Hall of Fame on my trip to Chattanooga. A quick uber got me from the Amtrak station in Utica to the car rental place where I rented a mid-size vehicle, adjusting my Michael Phelps like…
-
Sweet Home, Chattanooga
Chattanooga seemed like a very nice town with a “bigger than a small town” but not a “too big for its britches” place, so I had arranged to arrive a day early to explore a little bit. I had nabbed a tourist magazine from the lobby of the Marriott last year and planned on checking…
-
On the Way to Choo Choo Less Chattanooga
My second cross-country rail trip was again spurred by the goal of attending Liberty Con in Chattanooga. I had been to D.C. last year and contemplated what I wanted to do for my side-trip this year. First I planned an extra day in Chattanooga since I didn’t get to do any sight-seeing last year. I…
-
Tales of Sweet Melissa
My wife and I have always named our cars. My first car, a white 60 Chevy BelAir—one of those with tail fins—was named Whiskey, and her first car, a giant burgundy Olds 88 was named Gypsy. We were both poor in those days, and when our old cars died one after the other, my father…
Musings of a Restless Mind 