Work, GenCon, WorldCon, and other updates

Work

I have worked as a journalist for decades, from copy editing and layout/design, to editor and editor-in-chief of a small daily, to project coordination, to scheduling and sharing on social media, etc. On Friday I was laid off. Here's my LinkedIn profile. I'm starting a job hunt this week, and I'd like to stay in journalism, but I'm open to other options. Meanwhile, I suddenly have more time than expected for WorldCon preparations, which is a silver lining. See below.

GenCon

I went to my first GenCon (in Indianapolis) at the beginning of August. I attended numerous panels on the Writer's Symposium track, attended a game played by authors, went through the dealers' room several times and got some books and a gamebook, and roleplayed in two games. I had a great time, and will certainly consider going again next year, depending on other demands on my time and energy. I skipped the downtown walking tour since it was raining, but got to see a few sights anyway, including the impressive Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. I missed the Escape Room event I'd signed up for, due to a schedule mixup, but got to play an informal sort of Escape Room game later.

Panels attended: Adding Maps to Your Writing; Objectivity in Reviewing; Who Cares, It's Magic; Sword & Sorcery Renaissance in Writing; and Imagining Alternate Futures. 

D&D  with Authors Liveplay was GMed by Greg Wilson (host of the ArvanEleron Twitch channel where I'm a moderator), in a special one-shot adventure that he created. The players were Brandon O'Brien, Richard Lee Byers, Gini Koch, C.S.E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez and Karen Bovenmeyer. It featured some puzzles and some fun RP, and a good time was had by all, including the audience, which included quite a few Arvanauts (regular watchers of ArvanEleron). (The earlier link was on Twitch; here the game is again on YouTube.)

Saturday morning, I played EsperGenesis: Crisis on Kammria. This is a prologue to the Expedition from the Barrier Peaks campaign system, which imagines what happens 200 years after the Expedition to the Mysterious Peaks module published in 1980. I had backed the campaign on KickStartr, but it hasn't delivered yet, due to various circumstances, so I was excited to get a chance to play. The DM was Rich Lescouflair, listed as the creator of the campaign. This one-shot preview turned out to be basically D&D 5e with a little tech flavor, but plotwise it was not like any module I've played before. The group (7 players) meshed pretty well, and I enjoyed rolling some dice with them.

Saturday evening, my friend and I played Weird Stories, a collaborative storytelling RPG, with half-a-dozen other people who had signed up. It's card-based, and the deck includes settings, characters and story prompts. I had voted for the creepy small town setting because I thought that would be the easiest for a group of strangers to play together, but the group decided on Victorian Manor with Something in the Basement. We ended up having a really good time with this -- a lot of good RP and moments of "Yes, and...!" building off each other's moves and ideas.

On Sunday, my friend and I went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, primarily to see the highly recommended sculpture garden, but since it was pretty brutally hot, I suggested seeing the museum first and waiting until later in the afternoon for the sculpture garden. We spent a few hours looking at the museum, which was grouped primarily by theme rather than period, and had some interesting discussions. However, to our dismay, at 5 p.m. the museum closed -- not just the building, but the grounds. Maybe we'll get a chance to look at the sculptures if we go back next year. But something my friend commented on prompted me to go on a rant about Roy Lichtenstein's plagiarism. Please feel free to search for yourself, but here's a link to get you started:   http://www.scottedelman.com/2013/04/12/another-reason-i-love-dave-gibbons-and-continue-to-hate-roy-lichtenstein/

Sunday evening, we joined Greg, his family, E.D.E. Bell, her family, and some others for a few informal games. We played a couple of rounds of Werewolf, and then we played Escape from Hoth, a combination card/online game from Fantasy Flight Games. It's the basic plot of the Hoth part of The Empire Strikes Back, but you have to solve a series of puzzles to get off the planet. Some of the puzzles were pretty obvious, some we had to use hints for, and some we gave up and looked at the manual for. We did eventually make it offplanet, but well past the deadline, alas. But we had fun anyway.

Safety: GenCon required proof of vaccination, and masks at all times at official con spaces. A lot of people whipped off their masks the second they were outside the convention center, but people were good about wearing them correctly inside. My friend and I kept ours on at all times except in our own hotel rooms and when eating outside (at a restaurant patio, or from a food truck). 

I really liked the food at Cafe Patachou, but be advised that their "spicy" scrambled eggs are far from it: not even Minnesota spicy, my friend said. The corned beef sandwich from High Velocity sportsbar (to go) was also surprisingly good, with high quality meat and plenty of it.  

WorldCon

I've known for quite a while that I wanted to go to the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention at Chicago, aka ChiCon, which will be over Labor Day Weekend this year. (Masks and proof of vaccination are required.) I indicated interest in up to 10 panels this year, but said the maximum I wanted to be on was eight. Despite Skiffy and Fanty, which I think of as my home podcast, not being a finalist this year, and despite my not doing many reviews last year, they ended up putting me on a lot, possibly partially because I was on several ConZealand virtual panels two years ago that the audiences appeared to enjoy, and probably partially because I've demonstrated interest in the history of the genre. My preliminary schedule had 7 panels from the 1946 retro track, and one modern panel on The Resurgence of Epistolary Stories. Sadly, the epistolary panel was canceled, so it's all 1946 for me.

The 1946 track is a new venture this year. Previous WorldCons have often held Retro Hugo Awards to recognize work done in years that didn't have WorldCons and thus didn't have Hugo Awards, but prizes often arguably went to big names rather than the best work of that year, and it's getting harder and harder to track down winners or their surviving relatives to receive those awards. So this year we're having panels instead of prizes. These are my panels:

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2:30 CT, Roosevelt 3: 1946: A Year in the Life of a Fan, with David Ritter (mod), Jerry Kaufman, Joe Siclari and Peter D Balestrieri. As the Second World War ended, fandom in the United States began to come back to life. What would it have been like to be a science fiction fan in 1946? How did the war change fandom? What were fans reading, who were they corresponding with, and where and how did they meet each other? (This panel is part of the 1946 project, a look back at the year in lieu of awarding Retro Hugo Awards.) 

Thursday, Sept. 1, 5:30 CT, Grand Hall GH: 1946: A Vintage Season for SFF, with John Hertz (moderator), Alec Nevala-Lee, Dave Hook. As the world began to recover from the trauma of the Second World War, SFF authors grappled with atomic futures. From Chan Davis to C.L. Moore, what works have withstood the test of time, and how are these works continuing to influence the genre today? How did they reflect, respond to, or ignore social and technological challenges of the day?

Friday, Sept. 2, 11:30 CT, Atlanta: The Life and Impact of C.L. Moore, with Marta Murvosh (mod), Carrie Cooper, and Rich Horton. Among the first prominent female science fiction and fantasy writers in the United States, C. L. Moore stands as a titan of early science fiction and fantasy. Starting in the 1930s, her work regularly appeared in publications like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, and later in life won the World Fantasy Convention Lifetime Achievement Award and was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Our panelists will discuss the life and impact of this influential writer.

Saturday, Sept. 3, 10 CT, Michigan 3: Undiscovered and Forgotten Gems of 1946, with Alec Nevala-Lee, Connie Willis, John Hertz and Michael Haynes. I'm moderating this one. The authors and stories of 1946 that we remember and celebrate today are just a fraction of what was published. Which forgotten authors and stories captured the attention of science fiction fans in the wake of World War II? What happened, are all of them out of step with our current social values, and are they forever relegated to the dustbin of history, or is there room in modern science fiction for these older works? 

Saturday, Sept. 3, 1 CT, Airmeet 5 (virtual): Leading Ladies: Women in Fandom in 1946, with Carrie Cooper, Kate Heffner and Lisa Yaszek. I'm moderating this one. From super fans to popular authors to legendary editors, women have helped shape and define science fiction since its inception. Leigh Bracket, Myrtle R. Douglas (aka Morojo), Edythe Eyde (aka Tigrina), Doris Baumgardt (aka Leslie Perri), Dorothy McIlwraith and more: our panelists will discuss the prominent female fans, authors, and editors of 1946 and the role they played in creating the science fiction community and industry we know today. 

Sunday, Sept. 4, 11:30 CT, Atlanta: Science in Science Fiction: The Guesswork of 1946, with Daniel Ritter, G. David Nordley, Henry Spencer and James L. Cambias. I'm moderating this one. It’s sometimes easy to take for granted how much we know about technology and science today, but in 1946 much of what we know now had yet to be discovered. Authors wrote about spaceflight before we had sent a human into space, imagined exoplanets before we had confirmed they existed, and built galactic empires without the notion of the internet. Our panelists will discuss what writers would have known and not known about technology and science in 1946 and how that impacted the science fiction they wrote. 

Sunday, Sept. 4, 4 CT, Grand Hall I: The Likely Hugo Nominees from 1946, with Rich Horton (mod), Dave Hook and John Stith. Hugo Awards were not presented at the 1946 Worldcon, as they were first awarded in 1953. But what did attendees of the 1946 Worldcon think of the science fiction stories published that year? Using the comments, surveys, and reviews left to us by the fans of that era, our panelists will look at the most popular works published in 1946 and what the fans and readers of the time thought of them.

I'll also be attending the Hugo Awards ceremony. And I'll be visiting numerous museums, etc., in Chicago before the convention begins. Other parts of my schedule remain TBD.

Reviews/Podcasts/Video Updates

Good grief, I hadn't updated my blog since February! 

Reviews: Even before my layoff, I've been itching to get back to reviewing. I have a couple of ARCs from NetGalley in my TBR already, and expect to start tackling them this week, along with my WorldCon homework. 

Books currently in progress: "1946: The Making of the Modern World" by Victor Sebestyen, "The Best of C.L. Moore" (1975 collection), and, just for fun, Arkham Horror's "Grim Investigations: The Collected Novellas Volume 2."

Video/Podcast: I'm on Seth Heasley's Hugos There podcast again, for the "2022 Nominees for Best Novella – Discussion Panel" -- recorded on July 23, 2022, it's also a video, which you can watch here:  https://hugospodcast.com/podcast/2022-nominees-for-best-novella-discussion-panel/

Other panelists besides Seth are Cora Buhlert, Gretchen Jones, Ivor Watkins, Juan Sanmiguel, Kristenelle, Lori Anderson, Olav Rokne, Rob Tomshany, and Scott Ullery. My top 2 favorite novellas were The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente and Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Skiffy and Fanty: On April 3, I was on a Patreon-only podcast from the Skiffy and Fanty Show, discussing "Conflict in SF/F" with Shaun Duke and Brandon O'Brien. A very broad topic! In other Skiffy and Fanty news, I am stepping up to help with audio editing. Basically, I do some noise cleanup and take out most of the "uh" "um" "like" "you know" etc. fillers, tack on a beginning and ending, and toss it to Shaun for a final polish. My first edited audio this year is the discussion of "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey"   https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/462ptolemygrey/  and I am working on another one this week.

Other podcasts:

Aug. 15: In the latest SFFaudio podcast, Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Conner Kaye, Alex of PulpCovers and I discuss H.P. Lovecraft's The Doom That Came to Sarnath (and Jason Thompson's awesome graphic interpretation, and more). Spoiler: Those murderous, appropriative Sarnathians deserved what they got. https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-695-audiobook-readalong-the-doom-that-came-to-sarnath-by-h-p-lovecraft/

July 18: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, and I discussed Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel In the Sky. Parts were interesting, but I found the ending dissatisfying.   https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-691-readalong-tunnel-in-the-sky-by-robert-a-heinlein/

July 4: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada and I discussed John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos" novel that was made into movies as "Village of the Damned" and others. There was a lot to discuss in this one!   https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-689-readalong-the-midwich-cuckoos-by-john-wyndham/

June 20: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Alex of PulpCovers, Connor Kaye and I discussed Robert E. Howard's "People of the Black Circle." This is probably my favorite Conan story.    https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-687-audiobook-readalong-the-people-of-the-black-circle-by-robert-e-howard/

June 6: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, Will Emmons and I discussed Robert A. Heinlein's "The Star Beast." Either this or "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" was the first Heinlein I ever read.  https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-685-readalong-the-star-beast-by-robert-a-heinlein/

May 16: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Scott Danielson, Evan Lampe and I discussed James Tiptree Jr.'s "The Screwfly Solution."  https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-682-readalong-the-screwfly-solution-by-james-tiptree-jr/     This is just a discussion, no readalong, so I highly recommend listening to Pseudopod's free version:  
https://pseudopod.org/2014/08/22/pseudopod-400-the-screwfly-solution/

May 9: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons, Connor Kaye, Alex of PulpCovers and I discussed William R. Bradshaw's "The Goddess of Atvatabar." This was a quite colonialist planetary adventure (hollow earth) that had some interesting ideas that it basically dismissed at the end. Lots of (unintentional, I believe) humor.  https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-681-audiobook-readalong-the-goddess-of-atvatabar-by-william-r-bradshaw/

April 4: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Scott Danielson, Will Emmons and I discussed William Shakespeare's The Tempest. This is such a masterpiece. I listened to or watched multiple versions of the play in the week leading up to this and never got tired of the various interpretations, although some were definitely better than others. https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-676-readalong-the-tempest-by-william-shakespeare/

March 21: On SFFaudio, Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Jason Thompson and I discussed H.P. Lovecraft's The Cats of Ulthar.  https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-674-audiobook-readalong-the-cats-of-ulthar-by-h-p-lovecraft/

Update 8/18:

If you're looking for me at WorldCon/ChiCon8, I'm on the program as TrishEM. 

Update 9/16:

I went to WorldCon/ChiCon8 and had a great time, which I still intend to write a full post about when I have time. I had a panel added, on "The Hollow Earth and other 'SF before SF'" with Heather Rose Jones (moderator), E. Lily Yu and David Stokes. 

Also, I completely forgot to write about ArvCon from Memorial Day Weekend! Once again, I had a major role in running this marathon fundraising stream on the ArvanEleron Twitch channel over Memorial Day Weekend. I ran almost all of the giveaways onstream for the chat, while the games were happening, reorganizing prize packages as needed when some game codes turned out to be broken. We raised $7,051.77 this year.  

More podcasts:

Aug. 29, 2022: The SFFaudio Podcast #697 – "Almuric" by Robert E. Howard, discussed by Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons, Connor Kaye (who narrated the audio), Cora Buhlert, and me.
https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-697-audiobook-readalong-almuric-by-robert-e-howard/

Sept. 5, 2022:  The SFFaudio Podcast #698 – "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin, discussed by Jesse, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons, and me.
https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-698-readalong-the-dispossessed-by-ursula-k-le-guin/

Sept. 12, 2022: "Flowers for the Sea" by Zin E. Rocklyn on Skiffy and Fanty's subcast, Reading Rangers -- Shaun Duke, and Brandon O'Brien discussed this book with me. Episode 464.  https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/464flowersforthesea/

I also did the initial audio edits for Skiffy and Fanty  episodes 463 and 462, an Andrew Liptak interview and a discussion/review of "The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray," respectively, before handing them to Shaun Duke for their final polishes and releases. I don't talk on those episodes, however.

Update 9/19: 

Sept. 17, 2022: If you're a Patreon supporter of the Skiffy and Fanty Show, you can listen to crew members Shaun Duke, Alex Acks, Brandon O'Brien, Paul Weimer and me talking about our WorldCon experiences: 
https://www.patreon.com/posts/speculative-25-8-72119642?utm_medium=post_notification_email&utm_source=post_link&utm_campaign=patron_engagement&token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWRpc19rZXkiOiJpYTozODAxZWJjZi1jYTEyLTRmZjAtYjJlMS04ZGE3YjlmNzJhZDQiLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo3MjExOTY0MiwicGF0cm9uX2lkIjozMDA2MDl9.Z_HosU5w7y1eQo7bQcNjBh6IE6n4BQqYNOK5-Oi2-kQ

Sept. 19, 2022: The SFFaudio Podcast #700 – The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein, discussed by  Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, Evan Lampe, and me. Interesting technical work, but none of the characters are interesting, not even the protagonist, except for his determined loyalty to his cat. I was really excited for a little while when I thought the little girl was going to grow up to become an inventor herself, but no, that female empowerment plot was only in my dreams. The cat has more inner life portrayed than any of the women in the book do.
https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-700-readalong-the-door-into-summer-by-robert-a-heinlein/

New for 2022

Happy Groundhog Day! This is a good day to revisit some of my creative activities, from October 2021 through January 2022, from podcasts to paneling, with some streaming writing and RPGS to boot.

Podcasts: Mostly SFFAudio in the past few months, but I also appeared on Hugos There again, and I've recorded on a new-to-me show that should be released soon.

Nov. 29:   "The SFFaudio Podcast #658 – READALONG: Dancing Aztecs by Donald E. Westlake" with Jesse, Paul Weimer and Scott Danielson. Westlake has written some science fiction, but this is a crime caper, one of my favorite standalone Westlake novels. In fact, I went so far as to compare Westlake's affectionate character sketches to Jane Austen's characterizations. Others compared this to the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-658-readalong-dancing-aztecs-by-donald-e-westlake/

Dec. 6:  The SFFaudio Podcast #659 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Shadow Of The Vulture by Robert E. Howard" with Jesse, Connor Kaye, Alex (from Pulp Covers), and Chris Schweizer. Not a Conan story, this is 16th-century historical fiction, but it does introduce Red Sonya of Rogatino, who was later repackaged into the Conan comics and movies

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-659-audiobook-readalong-the-shadow-of-the-vulture-by-robert-e-howard/.

Jan. 3:  "The SFFaudio Podcast #663 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Murder In The Gunroom by H. Beam Piper" with host Jesse along with Paul Weimer.  A pleasantly competent mundane mystery by a writer better know for SFF, which reminded me of some of Rex Stout's non-Nero Wolfe standalone mysteries.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-663-audiobook-readalong-murder-in-the-gunroom-by-h-beam-piper/

Panel on Video: In November 2021, I appeared again on Seth Heasley's Hugos There podcast, except that this time, it was a panel video recording. I thought it was also a podcast, but I can't find that in his feed. You can watch the recording on his Patreon at  https://www.patreon.com/posts/2021-hugo-for-58465159  or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TkggnYzvKU&t=61s .

 

This panel on "2021 Hugo Nominees Best Dramatic Presentation (Long)" was a lead-up to the Hugo Awards voting, which was late this year due to the pandemic delaying WorldCon.  On the panel with me, discussing the Hugo finalists (they were all movies) from 2020, were host Seth Heasley and Juan Sanmiguel, David Agranoff, Nana Amuah, Paul Senior, Steve and Marshall from Androids & Assets, Josh Ziefle, and Lori Anderson. For my favorite, I went back and forth between "Palm Springs" and "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" ("The Old Guard" is what won). I think I settled on Palm Springs there, but Birds of Prey ended as my top pick on the ballot.

WorldCon

Speaking of the 2021 WorldCon, I went in-person to DisCon III in D.C. Attendees were required to be masked and show proof of vaccination, which was certainly reassuring. If I recall correctly, about 2,600 people attended, and about 25 attendees and staff reported COVID symptoms afterward, but many appeared to have contracted it before, and it definitely wasn't a super-spreader event. I attended many interesting panels, and I went to the Hugo Awards ceremony with a couple of my Skiffy and Fanty friends. I also took a lot of photos at museums and parks, which I posted to Twitter and may eventually upload to Flickr.

Flash Writing

ArvanEleron hosted another Infernal Salon on his Twitch channel, inviting numerous writers and other creatives to participate in a prompted writing session. They all had individual prompts and had about half an hour to write, and then read their creations. The audience also received one prompt ("Ruins are ruins for a reason") and several people, including me, submitted pieces that Arvan read onstream. The name Infernal Salon is from the fact that the writing prompts were taken from the Negocios Infernales card/writing game by Carlos Hernandez and C.S.E. Cooney. The event was a fundraiser for Worldbuilders.

This time I wrote prose. I didn't think it came together quite as well as my poem, but Carlos and CSE and chat all liked it a lot. The audience pieces start at about 2:06:00, and mine is from 2:12:05 to about 2:14:55. 

 

"Ruins are ruins for a reason"

The mock chapel ruins had always bothered the silent ones. A ruined church was one thing, that was right and proper. But to take the green meadow between the big house and the forest and build a ragged stone corner on it, with an unfinished steeple? What sense did that make?

But they liked the treacherous spiral stair. At night, they would creep from their shaded swards to nestle in those gneiss niches.

When the sun shone, children might play as knights and ladies, cowboys and Indians, astronauts and aliens, repurposing the purposeless ruins as castle or fort or moonbase as desired.

When the ruins were moonlit, their watchers mostly saw courting couples, playing at being scared and then taking comfort in each other. 

Once in a while, a curious soul would wander alone among the shadows, by day or night, fleeing noisy company or simple seeking a mood. The silent ones loved best to watch these loners, wondering at the moods crossing their faces. Sometimes they helped to set those moods, sometimes they reinforced them ... sometimes they swallowed them up!

When this had happened a few times, the chapel ruins became less popular with the children, and were forbidden by their parents, even though no bodies were ever found. Only a few courting couples with very particular tastes kept frequenting the ruins. 

Ghost-hunters began to haunt the ruins. Nobody mocked them anymore, except from a very safe distance.

Twitch Gaming

Because people's lives have been complicated, and some of us have also had hardware woes, the ShadowCrew hasn't played in The Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign on ArvanEleron's Twitch channel since mid-October. I should probably watch the last episode before resuming my Tabaxi bard character, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, hopefully later in Feburary.  Here's the playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGklVrDoisE&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=31

However, I have played D&D a couple of times in a new campaign! Well, it was supposed to be a one-shot, but we've played two sessions so far, and are hoping to wrap it up on Friday, Feb. 18. It's a module by Critical Crafting called Midwintär’s Mourning. ArvanEleron GMed for Shaun Duke (of Skiffy and Fanty), PrinceJvstin (from so many things!) and me on the Sunday of WorldCon (in person! It was AMAZING to play D&D in person again!) and then we streamed on his channel for part 2. 

Part 1

Part 2

I am playing Vivian the Victorious, a halfling fighter. battlemaster specialty.  

UPDATES:

Part 3 of Midwintär’s Mourning was played on Friday, Feb. 18! Between my character, Shaun Duke's tiefling bard, Sir Reginald Bartholomew III, and PrinceJvstin's dragonborn cleric, Elurian Bluewater, we resolved the adventure satisfactorily.

On Feb. 22, I guested for the first (but hopefully not last) time on Continuum Drag, a podcast "exploring the forgotten and little seen sci-fi television of yesterday." I really enjoy Luke and Jordan's wryly affectionate takes on old shows. We discussed episodes 9 and 10 of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." This show from the 1970s features Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter who keeps running up against stories with supernatural aspects. Naturally, I had a great time discussing "The Spanish Moss Murders" and "The Energy Eater" with Luke and Jordan.

https://continuumdrag.podbean.com/e/181-kolchak-the-night-stalker-episodes-910/

On Feb. 14, I returned to SFFAudio to discuss "The Seascape Tattoo" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes with Jesse, Paul Weimer and Scott Danielson. Set in the world of Niven's "The Magic Goes Away," this 2016 entry was far less impressive than the stories that started the series, but we still enjoyed an interesting discussion.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-669-readalong-the-seascape-tattoo-by-larry-niven-and-steven-barnes/

Late 2021 updates on Twitch and podcasts

When I started to add another update to my January 19 podcasts and Twitch updates, I was told I couldn't switch from HTML mode to Compose mode or else I might lose part of my post so I'm starting another roundup post. Wow, I haven't updated since July 29! 

I've attended a couple of Skiffy and Fanty livewatch events of Torture Cinema movies -- for "The Ghosts of Mars" and for "Lady Battle Cop" -- but I had conflict dates with the podcast recordings for both, so I haven't been on any of their episodes lately. 

 I've been fairly busy with an impending move, but I've been on four SFFAudio podcasts released in the last few months, recorded months in advance:

Aug. 9: "The SFFaudio Podcast #642 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Sowers Of The Thunder' by Robert E. Howard" with Jesse Willis, Will Emmons, and Alex and Connor Kaye. https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-642-audiobook-readalong-the-sowers-of-the-thunder-by-robert-e-howard/ 

Aug. 16: "The SFFaudio Podcast #643 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Hound' by H.P. Lovecraft" with Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons and Connor Kaye.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-643-audiobook-readalong-the-hound-by-h-p-lovecraft/

Sept. 13:  "The SFFaudio Podcast #647 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Picture In The House' by H.P. Lovecraft" with Jesse Willis and Connor Kaye.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-647-audiobook-readalong-the-picture-in-the-house-by-h-p-lovecraft/

Oct. 18: "The SFFaudio Podcast #652 – READALONG: 'Farmer In The Sky' by Robert A. Heinlein" with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada and Evan Lampe.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-652-readalong-farmer-in-the-sky-by-robert-a-heinlein/

Yes, these are all old stories, but I and several others in each discussion try to bring a critical 21st-century eye to them, while recognizing some merits in each (except The Hound, which I remember with no fondness at all). However, this month we discussed a major story by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon), which will come out in another six months or so.

Twitch:

Several of the channels I follow have been on hiatus for the last few months, due to hate raids, marriages and other reasons. ArvanEleron has continued to be an active streamer, and I've played Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, a tabaxi bard, live onstream for Community D&D: The Dragon of Icespire Peak, several more times. Episodes are here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i

Finally, I wrote a poem for a 30-minute creative writing challenge (extended to 36 minutes) during an Infernal Salon fundraising stream for the 2022 Strange Horizons kickstarter on Oct. 24, hosted by C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream. More than 20 people connected in some way with Strange Horizons came and did a panel, giving brief self-intros and then writing to prompts from the lovely and disconcerting Negocios Infernales card game.

Three non-panelist people who were watching the fundraiser also submitted poems or stories they wrote during the stream, and I was one of them. 

These are the three writing prompts; I used them all for inspiration: 

https://twitter.com/csecooney/status/1452442455752728585

"If it unlocks, it's a lockpick"

"How perfect the poem before it is written"

"Live long enough for better stars"

Arvan Eleron kindly read my poem onstream, starting at about 3:39:33:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQMLh1yr-Q

Here's the poem. I submitted the three stanzas that night and added the title the next day.

Keys to Better Stars

To find the key, first find your awareness:

What are you trying to open? What do you seek to unfold?

There is no understanding without a fair test.

Not all keys look like keys; the keyhole can be the whole.

The keyhole and key are partners in a dance.

Imagine what you want, feed it with your zeal.

Plan it out first or ride/write the winds of chance

Let it live in your mind and then make it real.

Let your desires build, for better or for worse.

Feed your seeds in secret, let them grow, then go through

into the wide and wondrous universe.

May the best of your dreams outlive you.

Barding for BardandBarbarian

 I started watching https://www.twitch.tv/bardandbarbarian one night when, among the Twitch recommendations, I saw that an Episode 1 of Dread Rising, a zombie apocalypse game, had started. I figured that it would be easy to dive in, and I could drop it if it wasn't interesting.

Well, I've been watching every week; the finale is [June 16, two days from this writing]. I love this ill-assorted trashfire of a party, playing their roles with conviction no matter how much conflict that creates with the other characters. Some are genre-savvy while others are decidedly not. Some are trying to save loved ones (including a Honda), while others are ready to just destroy anything that gets in their way. It's been very amusing.

Two weeks ago, I wrote bredliks for each character, during the stream:

Quin Strong: My name is Quinn, I have a gun; Shut up soldier, and let me run!

Maxwell Gray:  Barbara my love, we need to move; and I to you, my love will prove.

Clyde Myst: Jetta my queen, our love is true! Don't walk away! Oh, boo hoo hoo.

Daniel Smith: My genre lore will save the day; survival by zombie cosplay!

Last Tuesday, I wrote a limerick as the show started:

Finally leaving the hospital; key to surviving the zombiefall. 
This party of four Could live one day more,
Though they work as a group not at all.

Having become a fan of that, I have added another show on that channel, "Call of Cthulhu: Iron Dust & Blood." It's cosmic horror set in the Wild West. For this one, I jumped into the middle of the campaign. 

Last Thursday, at the beginning of the CoCIDB episode, naive young Maybelle Monroe slipped an anonymous sonnet under the hotel door of Dallas Rex Mason. He read just enough to realize what it was, and stopped reading. 

I decided to take the challenge and write the sonnet that Maybelle might have written. Given that it was supposed to be by a teenager, I did not polish away the word repetitions, etc.; this is pretty much how it came into my head. I take some pride in the rhymes in the first and third lines in the middle quatrain, and I am particularly fond of the dreadful fourth line in that stanza.

Love in the Dead of Winter: An anonymous letter 

"Spending all winter in this tiny town
Has made me think much on how I feel.
But it's hard to pin those feelings down;
How much is imagined, and how much real?

"You surely are a fine gentleman;
Courteous, capable, kind.
But maybe I'm too sentimental when
my heart could all be in my mind.

"Is it just that I'm scared and need a broad shoulder,
Or can I trust the warmth in my heart?
You, sir, would help if you'd be a bit bolder;
if you'd only step up and play your part!
This poem right here is all I can dare;
please let me know whether you, too, care!"

I finished it before the stream ended and posted it in the chat after they finished the action and were wrapping up. Diana, who plays Maybelle, was kind enough to read it on stream, in character!

https://clips.twitch.tv/ElatedEnchantingWoodpeckerPrimeMe-Sya8AYfwSypkNqCC

Podcasts and Twitch Updates

 Happy New Year!

Since my last social media update on 12/1/20, I've been up to a few more things.

Podcasting

Stargate SG-Fun

Two more Stargate SG-1 reviews have been released. I'm the host, with David Schaub and Andrew Pontious:

Where Do Little Goa’ulds Come From (Stargate SG-1 “Bloodlines” to “Singularity”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/682/

and A Little More Oomph (Stargate SG-1 “Cor-ai” to “Solitudes”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/685/

All the Stargate podcasts can be found here:

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/stargate/

We announce new episodes on Twitter, and welcome comments:

https://twitter.com/stargate_sg_fun

Members of The Incomparable's Slack can also discuss things with us there.

Two more SG-Fun podcasts are in the can that haven't been edited and released yet.

SFF Audio

Two more SFFAudio podcasts that I'm on have been released, and I've been on a few more that aren't released yet:

The SFFaudio Podcast #610 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Star Hunter by Andre Norton, Dec. 28, 2020. I was astonished at how disappointed I was in this book's bait-and-switch meandering plot, since I read and enjoyed a lot of Andre Norton in my teens. We all disliked it, but the discussion was good. I recommend fast-forwarding to 3:37:53. With Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons, and J. Manfred Weichsel.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-610-audiobook-readalong-star-hunter-by-andre-norton/

The SFFaudio Podcast #611 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Jewels of Gwahlur by Robert E. Howard (Jan. 4, 2021). Not the best Conan story, but fine, and as always, the discussion ranges far afield. With  Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons, and Alex (pulpcovers.com).

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-611-audiobook-readalong-jewels-of-gwahlur-by-robert-e-howard/

Twitch

The ShadowCrew's campaign, where I play a Tabaxi Bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, continued on Dec. 3. 

Arv streams Day 18 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Sword & the Stalker! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMZn1OwJY8c&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=18

Next episode, hopefully, is tomorrow, Jan. 20, at 9 Eastern on  https://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron !

I also played a druid, Willow Kingsfoil, in what was supposed to be a D&D With Viewers one-shot but stretched into two nights in December, called Winter's Splendor. The first night was a little agonizing, as we fumbled around trying to solve a mystery, but I was very pleased to collaborate with Brandon O'Brien in crafting a poem in-game!

 Arv streams a special holiday edition of D&D with Viewers--Winter's Splendor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-D7guGXU6U

Arv streams a special holiday edition of D&D with Viewers--Winter's Splendor, Part Two!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgsoVwucubg

Update 1/24/21: We did play CD&D on Jan. 20. Here is the link for "Day 19 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Favors at Falcon's!":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-bz8u8SAM

Update 1/25/21: Another SG-Fun podcast was released!

Goo Not Go (Stargate SG-1 “Tin Man” to “Within the Serpent’s Grasp”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/686/

Update 2/28/21: 

I've been on another SFF Audio podcast, discussing The Untamed, a 1919 Weird Western sort of novel by Max Brand, with Paul Weimer, Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Maissa Bessada, Will Emmons, and Jonathan Juett. The linked podcast includes the 7+ hour audiobox from Librivox, and then we have a wide-ranging and very interesting (to me, at least) conversation about it. I don't think you need to listen to the audiobook to enjoy our talk, but I do think you'll get more out of it. The tale is a bit old-fashioned, in language and pace as well as some attitudes, but I liked it.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-617-audiobook-readalong-the-untamed-by-max-brand/

Another Stargate SG-Fun review has been released. I'm the host, with David Schaub and Andrew Pontious:

Goo Not Go (Stargate SG-1 “Tin Man” to “Within the Serpent’s Grasp”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/686/

And I continue to play D&D on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream, with the ShadowCrew:

Day 20 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Metamorphoses at the Manse, Part One!

youtube.com/watch?v=_GWyN1t3a2U

Update 3/24/21

David Schaub and I returned to the Supergirl Supercast to review the pilot of the new CW show, Superman&Lois:

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/694/

I continue to play in the Community D&D campaign on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream:

Arv streams Day 21 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Of Manse and Magic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVpXEm6xq7I&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=23

Update 4/5/21

The SFFaudio Podcast #624 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe

I'm in this with host Jesse Willis and fellow guests Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, and Will Emmons. The story is about 53 minutes, then we have about 90 minutes of fairly on-topic discussion, we return to the topic occasionally for the next half hour, we talk another 20 minutes and wrap. Then Jesse tacks on our 40 minutes of pre-show chatting!

Yesterday, I recorded another SG-Fun (we have quite a backlog built up), and today, I recorded a discussion of the Supergirl S6 premiere!

Finally, I continue to play in the Community D&D campaign on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDQcjB5dCa0&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=23

Arv streams Day 22 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Hog Hooves of Thunder!

Update 4/6/21

https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/419captivesoftheflame/

Shaun Duke and I discuss Samuel R. Delaney's Captives of the Flame!

Update 4/11/21

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/704/

David Schaub, Alan Yu, Brianna Taeuber and I return to the Supercast to discuss the Season 6 premiere and sort-of-Season-5-finale of Supergirl.

Update 4/21/21

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-626-readalong-the-jewel-of-seven-stars-by-bram-stoker/

The SFFaudio Podcast #626 – READALONG: The Jewel Of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker with Jesse Willis, Maissa Bessada, and Will Emmons

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/706/

David Schaub and I discuss Supergirl Season 6, Episode 2, "A Few Good Women"

Update 6/15/21

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/supergirl/

Supergirl S6E03 Review: “Phantom Menaces” (released April 28) with David Schaub

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-629-audiobook-readalong-rastignac-the-devil-by-philip-jose-farmer/

The SFFaudio Podcast #629 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Rastignac The Devil by Philip José Farmer with Jesse Willis, Will Emmons, and me. This is an odd book with some odd ideas; maybe skip it and just listen to the discussion. (released May 10)

Finally, our Community D&D campaign continues on ArvanEleron's Twitch channel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NT5l46mKUI&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=25

Arv streams Day 23 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Summoned Swine! (released May 20)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOEivZ3tjjA&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=25

Arv streams Day 24 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--An Inquisitory Interlude! (released May 20)

Update 7/1/21

I made my first appearance on the Hugos There podcast on July 1. I discussed the 2020 Hugo Best Novel winner (and my own top vote), Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, with the host, Seth Heasley. 

I was on another SFFAudio podcast, this time discussing Sin Hellcat by Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake, with Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, and host Jesse Willis. I love both those authors, but I do not recommend this book, especially for modern readers. But the discussion was certainly interesting!

As explained in a separate 6/15 post, I wrote a love sonnet during the BardandBarbarian Twitch stream,  and the player was kind enough to read it at the end of the session. 

I continued to play a Tabaxi bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, on The Dragon of Icespire Peak on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream. Day 25&26:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSDuLTnUVCs&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noO4eIaDDC0&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=27

and I cosplayed as Grace during the May 29 session. It was a significant game, as part of a significant weekend. Read on ...

Finally, and most importantly, I helped run ArvCon, the Memorial Weekend charity fundraiser, May 28-31, on twitch.tv/ArvanEleron -- I was one of the moderators, and I carried out most of the giveaways. We blew past our goal and raised $7,000 for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

https://www.damonrunyon.org/

Update 7/29/2021:

I discussed Milo Hastings' In the Clutch of the War-God on SFFAudio with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Bryan Alexander and Kate Follis: 

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-637-audiobook-readalong-in-the-clutch-of-the-war-god-by-milo-hastings/

I discussed Vonda N. McIntyre's Dreamsnake on SFFAudio with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Scott Danielson, Maissa Bessada and Will Emmons:

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-638-readalong-dreamsnake-by-vonda-n-mcintyre/

I continue to play Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, a Tabaxi bard, on The Dragon of Icespire Peak, a D&D 5e campaign on Twitch.tv/ArvanEleron . You can see the episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i

Words that sound similar but appear to be unrelated

I've idly wondered for quite a while about the connections between certain words that sound very similar to me.

First of all, Iscariot is the surname of the Biblical Judas who betrayed Jesus. Izchierdo (or izchierda) is Spanish for "left" -- as in the direction. Iskierka is a very aggressive and self-centered dragon in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

I've known the name Iscariot since childhood, of course. Izkierka is a name that seemed oddly familiar to me when I ran across it in Novik's books -- about dragons in the Napoleonic wars -- but I couldn't pin it down then.

Finally, the association clicked for me after I resumed studying Spanish on DuoLingo. I speculated that all three words might come from a root word meaning "left" that might also mean malicious or sinister,  according to the common old superstition that left-handedness meant something was wrong with somebody, perhaps cursed by the devil. Indeed, the word sinister comes from the Latin for left, or left hand, which also carried connotations of unluckiness and bad omens.

But I finally looked the words up, and it turns out that my speculations were just wrong.

Etymonline.com and other sources say that Iscariot comes from Greek Iskariotes, said to be from Hebrew ishq'riyoth "man of Kerioth" (a place in Palestine).

Wiktionary says that izquierdo is derived from the Basque word ezker (left), and ancestry.com says the word has pre-Roman origins and also mentions ezker. Houseofnames.com goes further and says

The word "izquierdo" is ultimately of Basque/Celtic origin deriving from a combination of the Basque word "escu" meaning "hand" and the Celtic "kerros" meaning "left."

Finally, I hadn't remembered Iskierka's origin clearly. It turns out that her name is explained in Black Powder War, the book where her egg hatches. As naominovik,fandom.com summarizes it,

The name she chose was "Iskierka", from a Polish folksong which a local girl had been singing nearby. (The literal translation of iskierka is "little spark", an affectionate diminutive. The song may have been Bajka iskierki ("Little Spark's Fairytale"), a popular Polish lullaby by Janina Porazińska.)

So there you have it. These three words sound quite similar to me, but they are apparently completely unrelated.

***********************************************************

A Twitch streamer whom I follow was GMing a science fiction game on Friday. The party encountered some beings in a marketplace who speak in a mechanical-mask voice that he said resembled what Leia sounded like in Return of the Jedi when she was disguised as a bounty hunter, saying something that sounded like "Yo toe, yo toe," and then he tweaked that a little, with his aliens using a greeting that sounds something like "Ya tey! Ya tey!"

Actually, I just went back and watched the clip from RotJ, and Bounty Hunter Leia sounds like she's saying Ya tey, ya tey, yo toe.

I've read a lot of Tony Hillerman mysteries, so the "Ya tey" phrase reminded me immediately of the Navajo / Dine Bizaad greeting , sometimes transliterated as "ya teeh" or "ya ta hey" but more formally as “Yá’át’ééh." Various sources say this literally means "it is good" or "it is well" rather than "hello."

Note, I wouldn't be all that surprised if George Lucas appropriated the greeting from the Navajo for RotJ, or maybe Lawrence Kasdan although I know far less about him. I just don't have time right now to go down a rabbithole of Star Wars research to find out. 

I mentioned the Twitch thing to someone else who said (before I mentioned the Navajo word) that she was reminded of Hiro Nakamura's triumph phrase he says after the first time he teleports, in Heroes, which I had remembered as being close-captioned as "Ya tai! (I did it)" but which fan lore spells Yatta!

Guillermo Paz claims on seriesandtv.com:

Yatta (???) is a Japanese short form for “yarimashita”, which translates to “(I/We) did it!”, but can also have meanings of “okay!”, “it’s done!”, “ready!”, or “all right!” 

The words in this example are a little closer in meaning than the Iscariot/izchierdo/Izkiera trio, but I seriously doubt there is any linguistic connection between the Navajo and Japanese words. However, that article says Yatta is a more modern Japanese usage, so I suppose it's faintly possible that it was taken from Navajo code talkers in World War II? If anyone knows anything about this at all, let me know! 

Finally, I asked my phone's Google assistant verbally to translate what I pronounced as ya-tey. It detected Spanish and spelled it yate and said it meant "I already." I haven't run across that one yet in my irregular Duolingo study.

***********************************************************

Anyway, I was interested that those different clusters of similar-sounding words grabbed my attention during the same week. I'd be really interested to hear about any other clusters of words that sound similar but do NOT have anything to do with each other.

SG-Fun and catching up on other social media

As I posted on Twitter last night, "With no new Supergirl to review for a while yet, @DavidPSchaub  and I, with @apontious, have started a new SG-Fun podcast about a 20-year-old show. SG-1 is mostly optimistic, though with some problematic elements. Want some comfort-food critiques? Join us!"

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/671/

As that post explains,

STARGATE SG-FUN PODCAST 1

"Thanks, Send More (SG-1 “Children of the Gods” Part 1 and 2)

Stargate SG-1 Unscheduled Off-World Activation Detected! Welcome to the start of a new Stargate TeeVee podcast on The Incomparable. We’ll only be covering Stargate SG-1 episodes we find most entertaining and important, in order. We’re starting with the two part pilot “Children of the Gods” and we all watched different versions!"

I'm a member/subscriber of The Incomparable network of podcasts (and live YouTube RPGs). That's where the Supergirl podcast is hosted. Several weeks ago, people on The Incomparable Slack's TeeVee subchannel were discussing shows they missed, and the one they talked most about was Stargate SG-1. My most frequent Supergirl co-host, David Schaub, and Andrew Pontious, who was on The Incomparable's podcast about The Good Place, and I kicked the idea around for a while and came up with a format and a name. We're planning to record every two weeks. We are NOT doing a deathmarch slog of covering every episode for 10 years of this show, let alone the spinoffs. The goal is to have and share fun! Instead, we'll be choosing some episodes from each season, in order, and discussing them.

You may well ask why, with all the fantastic new books and media being offered these days, we want to spend time on a show that premiered 23 years ago. Well, it's a fun show, despite some dark moments and, as I tweeted, some problematic issues. There's action and adventure but also a lot of character-based humor, and some character development. Also, it's an ensemble show -- Jack O'Neill is definitely the leader, but Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter and Teal'c, along with General Hammond and a few other Stargate staff, all have their moments. Sometimes Jack is wrong and one of the others is right. And they are all likeable, although Jack can be gruff and dismissive of the science/linguistics/astrophysics stuff.

Also, Andrew and I saw the original, and David watched the spinoffs SG-Atlantis and SG-Universe, although he missed the original show. Addiitionally, SG-1 is easily accessible; right now it's available free to Amazon Prime and Hulu viewers.

Morever, the show is back in the news. Talks are progressing for a possible new Stargate series. That might or might not happen, of course. But right now, there's a new 5e RPG coming soon! It's already fully funded, although there it has a couple of days left on Kickstarter.

Finally, to be honest, although I've been diving into the new-to-me medium of Twitch, I have not had the mental energy to experience a lot of other new TV shows, or even new seasons of shows I've been following, or even new books. Besides my annual Hugo reading, and the short stories on podcasts I follow, and the "assigned" reading for podcasts I talk on, I've mostly been revisiting old favorites this year. (I did binge Watchmen in one weekend when HBO made it temporarily free to see, and it was AMAZING.) SG-1 is comfort viewing for me, even though some things are raising flags that I didn't notice so much 23 years ago when it premiered.

*********************************************************************

Well now, it's been quite a while since I updated this blog, so here is what else I've been up to in SFF and RPG activities:

First, we did finish discussing Season 5 of Supergirl. But since that had only two more episodes, I added them as an update to my podcasts roundup post from April:

http://whatsthewordnow.blogspot.com/2020/04/roundup-of-my-podcasts-in-2019-20.html

Next, I've been on several more SFFAudio podcasts after my debut discussing Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Efficiency Expert, which is included in the roundup above. Dates are when podcasts dropped; usually the discussions are about 6 months before. Note that just because I discuss something in a podcast doesn't mean I endorse it! These are critiques, sometimes highly critical.

May 18: The SFFaudio Podcast #578 – READALONG: She by H. Rider Haggard, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, Will Emmons

July 13: The SFFaudio Podcast #586 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Tree Of Life by C.L. Moore, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons

Aug. 3: The SFFaudio Podcast #589 – TOPIC: WORLDCON 2020, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Scott Danielson, Trish E. Matson, Evan Lampe, and Alec Nevala-Lee

Aug. 24: SFFAudio posted my 5-part Librivox narration of H. Beam Piper's Omilingual as a single SFFAudio podcast for the convenience of listeners.

Aug. 31: The SFFaudio Podcast #593 – READALONG: Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons

Sept. 7: The SFFaudio Podcast #594 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Horror At Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Julie Hoverson

Oct. 12: The SFFaudio Podcast #599 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Hawks Of Outremer by Robert E. Howard, with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Trish E. Matson, Alex, and Connor Kaye

Third, I've been continuing to play Dungeons and Dragons on Arvan Eleron's Twitch channel. I've discussed previous games elsewhere, but these are new since then:

Arv streams Day 13 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Shrine of Savras! (focus on combat and suspense)

Arv streams Day 14 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Along Paths Old and New! (focus on shopping and character development)

Arv streams Day 15 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Untravelled Trails to Tread! (decisions, development and combat)

Also, a couple of Saturdays ago, I participated in Arv streams D&D with Viewers--The House of the Midnight Violet! There weren't any D&D newbies this time: Along with me, they were Brandon O'Brien (therisingtithes on Twitch), @lightandpassion, Shadowcrew companion @echoAlpha_x5, and @wenchkin, so once we got our tech issues worked out and our characters picked, we were able to jump right into play, and had quite a good time interacting with each other and the GM, Arvan. The show picks up there, with introductions. Sadly, we didn't finish the mystery, but we did get in some combat, and I was satisfied with how I was able to portray my character, Perdita, a half-orc paladin (with her dog, Jaws), in not a lot of time.

If you watch these games live on Twitch, you'll have the fun of commenting along with the community. Sometimes there are highly amusing strings of puns, sometimes there are serious side discussions.

I've been posting nearly all of these on Twitter as they happen, so if you want to keep caught up on my podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

UPDATE:

Another SFFAudio discussion that I'm in went live on Monday, Nov. 2:

We discuss a weird sort-of-science fiction and social commentary story from 1911, in https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-602-readalong-an-exchange-of-souls-by-barry-pain/ with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, Evan Lampe, and me.

UPDATE 12/1/20:

Two more SG-Fun podcasts have posted:

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/674/ i.e. Human Style People -- deep dives into "The Enemy Within" and "The Nox," with briefer mentions of the four episodes between those

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/678/ i.e. A Lot of Hugging -- brief mention of Brief Candle and deep dives into "Thor's Hammer" and "The Torment of Tantalus"

My Twitch gaming continues:

Arv streams Day 16 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--An Annoyance of Ankhegs!

Arv streams Day 17 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Depths of the Dead!

In Day 17 at 1:51:55, I sang a song of Inspiration for the party.

I've also come up with a couple of impromptu poems during people's streams:

https://clips.twitch.tv/AdorableTalentedPorcupineMcaT

a silly limerick for gcdarksiderob following chat comments by wookiecookie, and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_umtPyCOl0&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG8VAkkyjaq4Yk3ePnn5v9GA&index=10 starting about 3:00:40.

a ballad-style thing for Arvan following an anecdote he told during an Adventures in Middle Earth ttrpg session.

Here's the tale of nine-fingered Greg,

Lucky not to lose an arm or a leg.

The knife from his dad was a perilous gift,

Meant well but could have caused a great rift.

Few presents are more thrilling than a multitool

for a young lad, but he's little more than a fool.

In his greed and his awe, he opened them all,

and sliced open his hand. Did he, pray, start to bawl?

But it turned out okay; now he treats blades with care.

And another tie with Dragonspeare Arvan doth share.

I also wrote a poem in praise of moderators and posted it on Arvan Eleron's mod channel in Discord, just for the other moderators.

Oh yes, Arvan promoted me from a follower/subscriber to be a moderator for his Twitch channel in November! Basically that means I have the power to ban trolls and spambots, in order to help keep the chat community warm and welcoming and somewhat on topic.

Cow pun-ching during CD&D on Twitch

I have been really busy at work since I came back from my latest furlough, which was the first week of August. I never even took the time to blog about WorldCon, where I was on 3 panels! Then I volunteered with NASFiC! I'll try to write those up soon, but meanwhile, this is time-sensitive (scroll on to see why), so it gets priority.

I've played two more Community D&D sessions on Arvan Eleron's Twitch channel since my July 21 post. Yes, these games take time and energy, but they are also very refreshing breaks from the daily grind.

Here's Day 11, which happened a few weeks ago (I started with this group on "Day 9"). This is all about our party fighting a group of orcs that had raided a farm, and trying to rescue the farmer. We performed some cool maneuvers! It's off Twitch by now but posted to YouTube:

"Day 12" this past Wednesday, Aug. 26, was probably the most fun combination of humor, character development and combat yet. I had an absolute blast! But a big part of the excitement was how very engaged the Twitch-stream watchers were with what was happening. That's why this is time-sensitive: If you're at all interested, I highly recommend watching on Twitch, where you can easily see the comments in chat, rather than waiting for it to show up on YouTube. Remember, you don't have to register with Twitch to watch, only if you want to comment during a session.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/722613435

What happened was, after we had saved the farmer last time, he begged us to go save his favorite cow, Petunia. Our characters are mid-level but none of us are experienced cattle wranglers, so this turned into a comic misadventure. We players started some weird and funny conversations about 45 minutes into the session, and Isil had his usual problems with his horse, but the cow pun-ching really started to moooooove at an hour in, when Arvan Eleron started ramping up the wordplay, and many people played along, adding their own. Chat was on fire for a while! I was laughing a lot.

Eventually, around 1:14:45, we got the cow headed homeward, and the tonnage of chat punnage started dwindling a little. Then my character, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, a Tabaxi (felinoid) bard, unveiled a song I had written last month about Isil, the warlock who keeps trying to read while he's riding. There wasn't any opportunity for this humorous ditty during our combat-heavy Day 11 session, so I had to wait for the right time.

Here's the clip:

https://clips.twitch.tv/TallMoralTubersUnSane

And here are the lyrics:

Silly Isil on a horse, his nose is in a book;

Drakes and dangers line the course, but he won't even look.

Up and down and all around, he's riding for a fall;

Reading every chance he gets, no time to read them all.

Why does Isil read so much?

Learns a lot, but out of touch!

Isil's useful in a fight, once his attention wakes,

but he's easy to surprise, eyes up for goodness' sake.

Save your scrolls for camp and town; be ready for some strife;

Join us Isil, if you please, and learn by living life!

My fellow players really appreciated the song, and chat liked it too. Then the puns resumed as things progressed.

Finally, at the end of the episode, there was an adrenaline rush of combat! I was really afraid for a while that we were in for a Total Party Kill!

Here's "Day 12" on YouTube, if you really don't want to deal with Twitch. The comments are tiny and on the right.

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For the record, I also played on Arvan's D&D with Viewers night on Saturday, Aug. 30, but it was basically puzzle-exploring and some fighting, with some people I hadn't played with before, and no character development. If you're interested, it's here, not yet on YouTube:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/725637629

UPDATE 9/1: I did finally write up my CoNZealand (WorldCon 2020) experience, but rather than a new post that would have had to explain a lot of backstory, I added that as an update to my previous "I'm on panels at CoNZealand (WorldCon)" post! The update is almost as long as the original post, so if you're interested in fan activities, I think it's worth checking out.