… because I’ve been having that much fun, that’s why. Below, Saruman of the Many Colors, by Harold Jog. Known in some circles as “Saruman shows his Gay Pride.”
Category: Fresh News
What's been going on lately
Passing Obsessions 1-28
Popeye, along with many other creative works, enters public domain in the US this year. Vast online library of cookbooks, including advertising pamphlets, dating from way back to the 1800s. Want to play or watch Rugby games in the Pacific Northwest? Confused about Laurel K. Hamilton, her many loves, and her series of naughty paranormal …
2025 Reading Challenge
This year I’m going to go back with 12 choices, to challenge myself. 2. Animal house: A book about animals in any way. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, Frans de Waal Natural history book about animal intelligence. 5. Breaking Ground: A book about exploration or discovery, fiction or nonfiction. …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/7/25: Best of Twittersnips 2024 (Magic Spells)
Selection of my favorite Twittersnip magic spells of the year 2024, chosen from my X feed. 2024 Magic Spells (Best of) Amphibian Trailblazer: The mage can lay down an invisible trail for others to follow over both land and water. Claws of the Peacock: Curse that makes a character overly concerned with their attractiveness …
Passing Obsessions 12-24
This oddball Christmas special from the 1980s. Many more oddball, lost, and forgotten Christmas specials from decades past. All you ever wanted to know about old Christmas tree lights. Let’s start drooling over the explosion of Betelgeuse when the supernova comes. It might be a new Star of Bethlehem!
Two by Tolkien — Foreign Editions of The Hobbit
I recently came across two foreign editions of The Hobbit I haven’t seen before. First, The Little Gnome. I guess the translator didn’t think the made-up word “hobbit” was understandable to Portuguese audiences? That said, I like the cover design. It’s whimsical if misleading — hobbits had nothing to do with mushrooms, except for eating …
Passing Obsessions 11-24
Former Korean actor now lives inside an amusement park he built himself. Sounds like an ideal life, myself! The Rhunic language created for The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime (it’s a lot like Hungarian). Author Diana Paxson pulled into the child sexual abuse reckoning taking place in the SCA, Berkeley, and Marion Zimmer Bradley …
The Casual Gamer: Shelf Sort Games
Since I’ve critted books, movies, and shared worlds, why not games? I don’t mean immersive ones like Halo or Dragon Age. These require far too much investment for me. I prefer casual games, the kind players can download on their phone or iPad, try out, and delete if they don’t like them. Casually… just like …
AI Art Adventures: Fiddler on the Ref (Ref’ing on Classic Art)
I was going to call this the Art Forgery Edition, but realized that wouldn’t go down too well. My post on the 17th century artist Diego Velázquez made me think. What if I took one of those imaginary lost paintings and used Midjourney to create it, using –sref and –cref parameters? As a plus, he’s …