Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

While I’m posting about lovely things what you can get from the InterTubes for free, I should also point out that the most recent issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is out and that it contains something of particular interest to me. See, as you probably know, I’m a fan of Peter Watts’ writing. And before the [...]

Generally speaking I hate this time of year on the Internet–I am so tired of year-end wrapups, best of lists, etc. It’s even worst this year, since it’s also the end of a decade. Enough with the lists. Having said that, I did see one list that actually got my attention: Paul Witcover‘s list of [...]

Since the girls are gone for a couple of days, I am in Unemployed-Until-January Bachelor mode today. This means that I slept in, and that upon waking I was allowed to relish the rare opportunity to lie about in bed and read something without needing to rush off to something or other. Since it is [...]

Nice to see the Watts story get some coverage on one of the larger political blogs. I quite like this bit: It’s ironic, though, that the same day I was arrested one Mary Callahan, chief privacy officer for Homeland Security, was up here in Canada reassuring us that the border isn’t so bad a place [...]

I’ve been very busy the last few days, with a combination of post-moving stuff (hey, look, we’re close to family now, and it’s the holidays), and with some important changes at work (on which I shall write a very journal-y entry shortly). Which explains why I haven’t already written about an utterly unacceptable, and miserably [...]

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will. They range the field and they rove the flood, And they climb the mountain’s crest; Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood, And [...]

Speaking as someone who’s lifelong love of1 reading was to some significant degree ignited by regular trips to pick up comics from the used bins at Allison The Bookman, it’s no surprise to me that research shows that kids reading comics “increased their vocabulary and instilled a love of reading”. I’d say there’s a serious [...]

If I had been moving back to the KW area at the end of September, rather than the end of November, I certainly would have been hitting some of the events at the Quantum To Cosmos conference. I hope some of my pals in the area are planning to check it out. I’ll be able [...]

A couple of years back I ran through several variations on the Lucifer character / story that appeal to me. You may recall Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In doing some reading last night in The Eldritch Dark‘s archive of Clark Ashton Smith‘s poety1, I found another interesting variant. Or rather, two interesting [...]

I spent a lot of time last night looking at translations of Latin and Middle High German poetry. Oh, and listening to what I can only refer to as operatic renditions of the pieces. How did this happen? Well, actually, like many times when I start following a trail of weird connections, it all comes [...]

Yesterday was a marvelous mail day at the McLaren household. Through a confluence of mail karma–or possibly because our mailman seems to be skipping a day whenever he gets bored with the route–I had several books arrive from several different publishers. This will consequently be one long post full of book porn. If you’re not [...]

Earlier today I ran into this passage in the course of my wanderings: From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to [...]