Recent Blog Posts

  • The saga of learning a new craft

    Update: I’m now selling freeze peaches at my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Rillion I haven’t been writing much lately, I know. That’s due to a lot of factors, but one of them is something I have the opportunity to now write about and show you. I’ve been learning how to make things with epoxy resin. Epoxy resin is…

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  • Why #WeNeedDiverseBooks

    Or, why good storytelling requires good representation: When the story doesn’t contain the “why,” the audience looks to the author. Let me back up. Writers are often advised to “write what you know.” That’s good advice, because you can’t write believably about what you don’t know. However, authors who took this advice to a logical…

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  • Tardigrade parade

    Why yes, I am watching Cosmos…why do you ask? Actually I think I first time learned about extremophiles, including tardigrades, was while watching the BBC’s Blue Planet series…which I have on DVD, and have watched so many times. I’m looking forward to re-watching Cosmos too, because there are so many things to absorb that one…

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  • How to be the creepiest nerd at the beach

    Saw this in my email newsletter from Think Geek this morning, and…I had thoughts: Main thought: This is creepy The thing that creeped me out about it most is that it suggests that Princess Leia is wearing a bikini on purpose because she wants to lie on the beach and tan and look sexy or…

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  • Silverman clarifies

    …sorta: I was talking to a lot of press this week – I mean a LOT of press, and most of it hostile. When I was talking to Raw Story I gave them the same pitch I’d given so many times before: Conservatism is basically divided into two parts, fiscal conservatism, which is real conservatism,…

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  • Addendum — parsing libertarian-speak on abortion

    Apparently part of the issue with David Silverman’s statements is that people think he brought up secular arguments against abortion out of nowhere. Trust me, he didn’t. Here’s how it works: 1. Silverman described social conservatism as theocratic, and he gave three examples of what he considers to be social conservatism: gay rights, the right…

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