November does still feel like an event, even with the demise of Nanowrimo. There are plenty of alternatives around. My writing group is doing a little challenge, basically just 'finish something', which for us is easier said than done. Plus my wife is always up for a challenge so we decided to gamify it a bit more too. My goal is to get the penultimate chapter of my fic done. I've got hardly any idea what will actually happen, about two hundred words, and I've not updated since March. So…

AI has taken most of the manual coding off my hands — and some of the joy with it. So I went back to an old hobby: electronics, logic gates, and the abstractions underneath.

No. I tested one across four configurations, and every variant lost to a constant forecast predicting zero price change.

There I was recently, thinking I needed to get the monochrome ratio up to 90%, but of course this causes me to get right into a color period. Oh well. The light had an amazing quality earlier so I could not not share this image in color. (The kids were marveling at it as well.) Still not feeling super well, this thing is a drag… Annoys me greatly.

Hello again, and welcome back to my monthly newsletter. Last month, I tried writing more of a prosaic update, and I enjoyed it - so I am continuing that style here. I am currently back in Brooklyn, having just returned from the F1 race in Mexico City. This was my first time attending an F1 race in person, and it was a lot of fun. I was surprised by how close the audience is to the track, and how much of the noise is not the engines - but air whooshing around the cars as they punch through. It…

Been feeling super ropey all day today. I hate stomach aches and nausea so much.138 words · 1 image

A few people have reached out to me to ask how I did X, or Y with my site, so I thought I'd talk about the customisations I've made to this site, and how they work. Firstly, this site runs on Pure Blog, a CMS that I've been building over the last year or so. As it's matured, I've added features that allow more advanced users to do clever things without having to fiddle with the core platform. This means that people generally shouldn't have to fork the project and should continue to get all the…

Book title: Carl's Doomsday Scenario Author: Matt Dinniman Rating: 4.5/5 Looks like this series is picking up steam, slowly making it clearer what the whole thing is actually about. I'm also happy that, at least so far, there's no annoying, manufactured drama, especially between Donut and Carl (please, let there be no fake drama, that epilogue worries me a little). Crazy world-building, though!

On The Paper Trail Live in Nashville (via Olive Octopus). Lisa’s workshop turned out to be a weekend highlight, and she does a great job of capturing the spirit of the event. It’s About That Time! (via Pen Addict). Who else is following along on Brad’s trip? As someone headed back to Japan in a week for two shows, I’m keeping a list.Colorverse Colorvents Past (Part 2) (via Dime Novel Raven). I’m enjoying this project and reminiscing about some great ink that didn’t make the 2024 Top 3.You Need…

I took my daughter last week to see Phoebe Bridgers at the Chase Center here in SF, and was blown away by the show in ways I honestly didn’t expect. I wasn’t sure how her often somber, intimate songs might hold up in a big arena, but they did. And the light show would give Pink Floyd or Peter Gabriel a run for their money. This intimate Sound Check at Cherry Lane performance is a whole other animal though. Art & Design What I’ve always loved about print and maybe more so even now than when we…

Why the Experiment Still Matters More Than the Model Previously, in Part 1 (skip ahead if you’ve just read it) Any piece of causal human biology sits in one of three tiers: known (established in the published literature), hidden (latent in data we’ve already generated but not yet extracted), or unknown (not yet revealed by any data, because the experiments haven’t been run). Which tier applies depends on the question. For drug discovery, there are three: the disease-level question (is this gene…

Welcome to Pre-Code Crazy, the monthly series here at Shadows and Satin and over at Speakeasy, the blog authored by my pal Kristina, where each month we recommend a pre-Code feature for you to watch on TCM. We never know what the other has selected until we post, and part of the fun is trying to never pick the same movie! Pre-Code in Noirvember??? You bet! But since I’ll be placing so much focus on my daily noir-related posts this month, I’m digging into the Shadows and Satin archives and…

The November issue of Foofaraw Zine is here! Download below or read in our purpose built ebook reader. Of course, all stories will be published for free on the web throughout the month, but paid supporters receive a PDF/EPUB with all of the month's stories at the beginning of the month, along with a few other goodies. And Patrons get stuff in print! Or you can pick up a copy of this and more from our webstore or visit our friends at Weightless Books and pick up mags from other publishers as…

I really love this front cover design for As You Wake, Break the Shell, gorgeous colours and concept. The cover illustrations are by Sam Chivers and design is by Sam Payne. For the hundred thousandth time, she fell in love, and it wasn’t brought on by any one particular thing. It wasn’t the complexity of her wife’s notes, or the knowledge that she’d been up picking berries before the lights came on. It wasn’t her choice of outfit, or the way her salt-and-pepper bedhead perfectly complement the…

Reading this week: Weird Fucks by Lynne Tillman (not very weird at all) I alluded to it in the last post but the gaping hole in my super amazing wife’s previous encounter with the City of Brotherly Love was a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We had gotten close the previous day with our visit to the Rodin Museum but made a point of not going all the way over. We wanted to start the day there and savor it, and so on our second day in Philly we arose and sampled the hotel breakfast fare…

#coffeeneuring2026 No. 6; 6.8 km round-trip A total bust. As advertised previously, this was a repeat visit to establish some details about the Mystery Café so that I could contribute them to Open Street Map. Alas, it was not to be. The café was practically deserted. A nice barista emerged when I rang a little bell, but was unable to supply me with either the hot chocolate I truly craved, it being the first actually cold day of the season, or even a cup of tea. I settled for a caffè lungo but…

Leica M11-P · Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH. · 35 mm · f/2.8 · 1/2000 s · ISO 250

After using macOS for over 25 years for both work and private projects, heavily using open-source software, I fully switched to Linux around 2019, following many previous attempts at experimentation and switching. Initially, this presented particular difficulties for my music production, which is why I have since devoted myself to promoting Linux for music production. My goal was (and still is) to encourage music software vendors, particularly smaller (boutique) developers, but also larger…

With everything going on this month, I didn’t get to making a 3D modeled jack-o-lantern before Halloween. I did manage to design the face for one, though. So, I carved a last-minute eraser stamp from one of the little square Milan erasers.This did double-duty as a match for the final #PinkEraserArtober prompt for October of 2026, “Dragons.” There is a quick impression-making video on YT, too. The post Great Dragon Jack-O-Lantern Hand-Carved Eraser Stamp appeared first on Evermore Stud.io.

Another month goes by! For October I decided to mostly focus on a plan for my gaming and my reading! That’s the reason I managed to get a lot of books done! I am quite happy with that progress, although I still have one week to finish all the games I planned. Still, this was all pretty cool! Some artwork of my favorite media that showed up during the month! Podcasts Into The Aether - I listened to this the most, but not as much as usual because the last episode came out in October 31st and I…

My wife and I have been UHF diehards from childhood, so when we got news a while back that Weird Al and the gang were going to do a one-night-only live screening of the movie at LA's Greek Theatre (complete with a live orchestra/rock band and cast/crew reunion Q&A), we knew we obviously had to be there...

Due to the lack of rain, the trees have been under much more stress this year, and therefore the fall colors are not as good. This is the best color in our condominium this year.

It’s-a me, Mario! #mario #halloween2026 #gayhalloween #gay

If you missed it, here’s a link to the NPR site and the audio of the interview. The transcript is not yet up but when it is, I’ll post it too. It’s a good interview! But then I am biased. Just two days until the book is out! — JS

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Favorite Vacation Spots.’ See more responses here. I thought I’d go with a couple of old photos from a vacation I took many, many years ago to Switzerland. I really enjoyed Switzerland because the scenery was wonderful, the trails were well marked and maintained, and good chocolate was plentiful. The top photo shows the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau Mountains in the Alps. The bottom one shows some hairy yob atop the Mettelhorn, near Zermatt, with the…

If you've been along for the ride from the beginning, you'll already know that I took on a massive project for the Ottawa elections to create a zine for each ward in the city with info about their local councillor candidates. To bring this project to life, I partnered with Synapcity and over the course of the election season, volunteers stepped up to help design the cover art, compile the candidates' answers, print and fold zines, and distribute them across the city. Together, we: wrote 4…

I didn't really need the police then. I guess, what I needed was like... a notary? Haha A secretary? A scribe? I don't know. But not really whatever this person imagines the police does. 3/2 (Oops)

Last night we were treated to a spectacular display of fireworks. The barrage lasted several minutes, with no pauses between the blasts. I suspect they were being fired from two or three points simultaneously. That was the best one. There were shorter, less-intense displays in other parts of the city. You can count on Halloween fireworks every year in British Columbia — a tradition that seems not to have taken root anywhere else in the world. My research indicates that it started in the 1970s…

Case in point: I was held at gunpoint once. (On the night of my aunt, who was a second mother to me, 's funeral, no less.) I was so drunk and in mourning that once I figured out what was going on, with the gun in my face, I just threw down my wallet & kept walking. I only bothered to report it because I had to fly back home the next day and I needed a police report to document why I had no ID but needed to board a flight. But I was under no illusion they were getting my wallet back. 2/2

I am fascinated that Keychron is entering the split ergo keyboard space and that too with a trackball and what looks like a scroll wheel on the left side? Keychron github has more details. Source: www.reddit.com