August 31, 2026 · 23:55

Post-Worldcon Brain Fuzz

Back home, back to the routine, back to work tomorrow, back to the liminal spaces and brain fuzz tonight.

Goodbye vacation, goodbye restaurants, goodbye 150 step hike from the room to the elevator and 800 step Bataan-death-march from the hotel to the convention center.

Goodbye August, hello September.

Not sure what day of the week it is? Shit, not sure what freakin’ MONTH it is, and the year is up for grabs as well at times.

In an almost Biblical moment upon arrival back at home, “Consider the birds of the air…” (Matthew 6:26-27) Contrary to popular opinion, “our Heavenly father” doesn’t feed the ones in our yard, *I* do, and I’ve been gone for six days. They were pissed! Then, while re-filling the seed feeders, ALL of the sirens and fire trucks took off, headed toward a small brush fire less than a mile away, down in the Cajon Pass over the edge of The Mesa.

Maybe three acres, they stomped on it FAST (which is good!) but it’s a great reminder that we’re not in Fandom any more.

At least football starts in earnest in September…

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Filed under Fandom, Forever Home, Paul, Photography

August 30, 2026 · 23:48

Proof Of Life – August 30th

A good day at Worldcon, two excellent panels featuring two of my favorite authors, John Scalzi and Martha Wells.

Then tonight we had the Hugo Awards ceremony, where Martha Wells’ “Murderbot” show won for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) and John Scalzi won the Best Series award for the “Old Man’s War” series, which is also a huge favorite of mine.

Many other amazing people won awards for fantastic works, congratulations to them all.

And Brisbane, Australia won the bid for the 2028 Worldcon, which will be just five days after a total solar eclipse across Australia, so we’ve got some planning to do. That trip really, REALLY needs to happen!

A good day at Worldcon. Tomorrow we wrap it up and head home.

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August 29, 2026 · 23:12

Fireworks From Afar

Over the July 4th weekend this year we were down in Anaheim to see the Angels lose a three-game serie to the Red Sox, with fireworks after each of the games. (Pictures here, here, and here!)

Tonight we’re not at the Angels game, but we have a clear view of it about three miles away from our hotel at Worldcon. And it being Saturday, there were fireworks again.

Not quite as good, but still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

 

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Filed under Fireworks, Photography

August 28, 2026 · 22:12

Walkway

Between the Anaheim Hilton, the primary hotel for Worldcon, and the Anaheim Convention Center, the huge convention hall where the dealer’s room, art show, and dozens of huge meeting rooms are, there’ a couple hundred yards of walkway. To keep it cool and shaded and gorgeous, they have palm trees.

It doesn’t get much more stereotypical “Southern California!” than that!

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August 27, 2026 · 23:16

ACC & The Partial Lunar Eclipse

The ACC is the Anaheim Convention Center, which, along with the next-door Hilton and Marriott hotels, are the site of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention.

It’s a massive venue. We’re all getting our steps in, and then some.

Just when you think you’ve seen how big it is, you go around a corner and it’s huge-r.

A good first day of activities. Three panels (all space & science related), a first run through of the dealers’ room and art show, and the first open filk of the con.

And then, tonight, there was the moon and the partial (96%) lunar eclipse.

We had mostly cloudy conditions all day and I didn’t expect to see anything, but when I came up to our room after dinner, there it was, just after maximum coverage! It was a healthy shade of brownish-orange, particularly orange-ish along the top edge of the Earth’s shadow. All of the recent forest fires worldwide might be helping with that.

It was very pretty, but the picture is just a handheld, 10-second iPhone exposure, braced against the hotel window for stability. The blurry lights below are Anaheim, looking off toward Anaheim Stadium.

Did you get to see it?

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Filed under Astronomy, Fandom, Photography

August 26, 2026 · 22:55

Worldcon #21 For Me

My first World Science Fiction Convention was in 1978 in Phoenix at Iguanacon.

Tonight we’re at the 21st Worldcon that I’ve attended of the 48 starting in 1978. Not quite half. A lot of them were overseas and expensive to get to. A lot of them were when I was busier than God being a single dad. A lot of them were both.

This weekend we’re just “down the Hill,” in Anaheim. Piece o’ cake!

The picture is from up on the third floor of the Hilton, the main convention hotel, looking down into the lobby and bar.

Tomorrow the panels start, the artshow and dealer’s room open, and filk concerts kick off.

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August 25, 2026 · 23:31

Partial Lunar Eclipse On Thursday Night

In slightly less than 48 hours, the Full Moon will pass into the Earth’s shadow and we’ll have a partial lunar eclipse over most of the Western Hemisphere.

Tonight it was only 95% full.

And the world moves on. Despite everything.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets

August 24, 2026 · 23:52

Adrift In Liminal Space

Today’s “really, REALLY, kinda sorta critical drop dead” deadline got met (I think) and even got met with several hours to spare. I was up until way past 02:00 last night working on things, and didn’t get much sleep, but got the last couple of checklist items wrapped up about 14:30. I had sort of expected that “Monday” might mean about NOW, 23:39 on Monday, but I beat that by about eight hours. Now we wait for follow-up tasks and questions and explanations and so on, but for the moment, my checklist is complete!

Which has left my brain in a somewhat odd and not entirely pleasant liminal state, adrift. My mind has been racing and running on maximum overdrive 24/7 for weeks, hopping from one deadline to another, and now that this HUGE task is done, or at a minimum has plateaued and left the ball in someone else’s court for the moment, it doesn’t know what to do. Yes, there are a gazillion tasks that need attention because they’ve been pushed off onto the back burners for days and weeks and month, but they can safely stay there for now.  My brain is the flywheel that’s been working under a heavy load at high RPM at 115% of capacity for so long, and now the clutch has been popped and it’s just spinning and whining and slowly winding down.

As I said, while the pressure and drive and adrenaline weren’t a lot of fun, this isn’t necessarily better. Just, different.

Maybe some sleep will help. At least I might know what day of the week it is tomorrow.

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Sunsets

August 23, 2026 · 23:45

Jeez Louise! SET SCE TO AUX!

When do I get to retire? No, seriously…

Too many deadlines, not enough time to breathe or relax, too many out of control roadblocks and random FUBAR situations that no sane persone could have forseen.

I’m still upright and taking nourishment, but I feel like I’ve done fifteen rounds with Ali or Frazier this weekend, and tomorrow’s not going to be any better.

On top of all of that, I’ve been fighting a cold for the last week and some sort of comes-and-goes GI issues that have made me extremely cranky for weeks.

The worst part is the lack of sleep – between the hours, and the pressure, my dreams are wall to wall stress, trying to complete monsterous Excel files and being trapped in old jobs with old coworkers who I was not fond of to begin with.

They say “this too will pass.” Well, yes, that’s true. Just like kidney stones do. Been there, done that!

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Filed under Paul, Photography

August 22, 2026 · 21:29

Sunset Cloud Shadow

This is from a week or so ago. While we’ve had our share of spectacular sunsets with orange & pink & purple & cotton candy clouds in the last month, this particular sunset was much more restrained and tame.

Off to the east was pretty much just this one big cloud, a nice pink-ish, orange-ish hue, with an interesting lecticular structure.

What made is special was that it was quite obvious that you could see the cloud’s shadow stretching out behind it, projected on the background haze in the air.

You can see this effect in pictures from Low Earth Orbit or the International Space Station, but it’s usually less noticeable from the ground.

I thought it was cool! (But, as my high school friend Keven MacNamara pointed out over fifty years ago, I am easily amused.)

 

 

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Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Weather