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Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 103, December 2018
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 103, December 2018 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was an awesome issue of Lightspeed magazine where I really enjoyed every story. I was especially happy to find out that I started out my Lightspeed magazine subscription with this issue because for the next 5 issues they…
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Podcasts I’m Listening to In 2023
Once again I used a script to pull out the official descriptions of the podcasts as well as the URL where I access the feed. After the official description you’ll see my commentary about the podcast. Politics 5-4 Pod – Official Description:5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. It’s a progressive…
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Programming Update: December 2022
December was wholly dedicated to solving the Advent of Code 2022 problem set. Our job was to help the elves trek through the jungle to get magical starfruit. It was a lot of fun to do it live once again! This year I also had experience from the previous years (both live and on my…
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2022 in Music (Last.FM and Spotify Listening Trends)
Another year, another look at my music trends for the year. It was another year of music acquisition (supporting the artists, ftw! – I knew Spotify wasn’t paying artists well, but Corey Doctorow’s book, Chokepoint Capitalism really brought home how much they’re screwing over artists), although I think things may slow down in 2023. Here…
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Blog Post Series
This page will capture any long-running post series in one spot to reduce the need for lots of links in the posts themselves. Web Browser Exploration (2020-Ongoing) Are Web Browsers Getting Exciting Again? Vivaldi On Windows Part 1 Vivaldi on Windows Part 2 (plus a teeny bit about Vivaldi on Linux) Web Browsers Update: Vivaldi…
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MxPx – Plans within Plans
After spending the last year and change filling in the holes in the MxPx discography from when I last was an active fan with 2000’s The Ever Passing Moment, I have arrived at the final full album I was missing, Plans within Plans. I still have a couple EPs to buy, but this will probably…
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Podcasts I’m Listening to in 2022
This time around I’ve written a Python script to take the OPML file from Podcast Republic and generate the list along with URLs and official descriptions for all the podcasts. If I have additional thoughts I’ll add them after the official description. The World Around Us 99% Invisible – Official Description: Design is everywhere in…
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Examining Web Browsers: Microsoft Edge on Windows; Linux Browser Update
This post continues a series on exploring new browsers: Are Web Browsers getting exciting again? Vivaldi Part 1 Vivaldi Part 2 Vivaldi Part 3 Brave on Windows Part 1 Vivaldi Part 4, Brave Part 2, Qutebrowser Part 1 Quite a bit has changed since I first started this series about 18 months ago. Back then…
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2021 in Music (Last.FM and Spotify Listening Trends)
This year I was able to attend the Paul and Storm / JoCo concert that COVID stole from me last year. While there I bought the entire Paul and Storm discography, but I think because I listened to it so much on Spotify in the past, I didn’t listen to it as much as I…
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MxPx – Panic and Secret Weapon (Special Edition)
I continued to catch up with the MxPx back catalog and purchased both Panic and Secret Weapon. My initial feelings upon listening were that I liked a lot more songs on Secret Weapon. But maybe, as with Before Everything & After this would turn out to be just a first impression where when looking at…
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Review: Black Powder War
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik My rating: 4 of 5 stars Black Powder War is another great entry by Ms. Novik in the Temeraire series. It picks up almost immediately after the previous book ended. Now Temeraire and crew must head to the Ottoman Empire. Oh, and for variety, Ms Novik has their ship…
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Review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well, that was quite an excellent book! My 9-year-old read it and then wanted to share it with me, so she asked me to read it to her before bed. I must say, this book was a lot more sophisticated…
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Podcasts I’m Listening to in 2021
I’ve both added and dropped some podcasts since last time around. Where I’m listing the same podcast as last year I may use the same description as in the past with slight (or no) variation. Public Radio Radiolab – Heard about them because sometimes their stories are used on This American Life. Radiolab is a…
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How Desktop Environment Tweaking Helps Me Be More Productive
A few months ago, someone asked about whether the rices*/modifications/tweaks people displayed on reddit.com/r/unixporn (where people show off their desktops, not human pornography) were actually useful. Someone commented they’d like to see a post on how someone uses their mods. So I decided to write this up. *I know the term ricing could be considered…
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Five Iron Frenzy – Until This Shakes Apart
Over its long tenure as a band, Five Iron Frenzy has had some really silly songs. Songs like “Arnold, Willis, and Mr. Drummond”, “Oh, Canada”, “Blue Comb ‘78”, “The Untimely Death of Brad”, “Where is Micah?”, and many others. But they’ve also always been a really political band. On their first album, Upbeats and Beatdowns,…