Someday I will settle down, probably in southern Utah or somewhere else in the American West. I will live with my wife and kids in a small house in the country, one that I’ve built with my own hands. It won’t be larger than 1,000 square feet, but we’ll have at least five acres of… Continue reading Someday…
New theme
Hey guys, I decided to update my theme to make it a little less cluttered and easier to read. What do you think? A lot of the stuff in the sidebar seemed rather useless, so I got rid of everything but the bare essentials (book links, email newsletter, progress bars) and the visitor map. The… Continue reading New theme
A Letter From My 2013 Self
So shortly after writing up my last blog post, I got an email from myself marked December 27, 2013. How freaky is that?I don’t know if it’s a glitch or a feature, but apparently in 2013, you can use gmail to send messages back in time. In any case, the letter is pretty interesting, so… Continue reading A Letter From My 2013 Self
A Letter To My 2011 Self
Dear Joe, Well, 2011 has been an eventful year, hasn’t it? It sure didn’t feel like it when you were down in the trenches, but now that it’s over, you’ve got to admit, you sure came a long way. You’ve discovered a lot of things about yourself since January. In your quest for economic security,… Continue reading A Letter To My 2011 Self
Trope Tuesday: Peking Duck Christmas
It’s Christmas, but for whatever reason (most likely because you’re Jewish), you don’t celebrate. Or maybe you do celebrate Christmas, but you live in a place where no one else does. So December 25th comes around and you feel left out. What do you do? Simple–you find a cheap Chinese place, or somewhere similarly non-festive that’s… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Peking Duck Christmas
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
When Doctor Elwin Ransom went on a spontaneous walking tour of rural England, he wasn’t expecting to be kidnapped by a mad scientist and taken to Mars. He soon escapes, only to find himself lost without any way to return home. Fortunately, the native Martians soon take him in, teaching the otherworldly stranger of their… Continue reading Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
Hello internets! I’m back (sort of)
So today I said goodbye to my village and moved out to Tbilisi, where I’ll be spending the next week. It was emotional. My host mom cried. It was raining, too, which pretty much reflected the way I felt. Goodbyes are tough when you’re going halfway around the world. The last few days have kind… Continue reading Hello internets! I’m back (sort of)
A few quick updates and a new publication
Sorry, no Trope Tuesday post this week. I’m leaving Kutaisi in a couple of days, to spend Christmas in Tbilisi before flying home. Needless to say, things are a little upside down right now. I’m still writing though. Making progress on The Sword Keeper, though not as much as I’d like. Once the school year wraps… Continue reading A few quick updates and a new publication
Some thoughts on internet access, self-discipline, and productivity
As many of you probably know, for the past four months I’ve been living in a small Georgian village in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. It isn’t as remote as some places in this country (like Tusheti, where some people still practice pagan animal sacrifices), but my internet access has been limited, especially compared… Continue reading Some thoughts on internet access, self-discipline, and productivity
Trope Tuesday: Terraforming
One of the problems with interplanetary colonization is that Earth-like worlds are fairly rare (though possibly not as rare as we once thought). In our own solar system, the only other world that comes anywhere close (Mars) is a radiation-blasted desert with only the barest hint of an atmosphere and a surface temperature colder than… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Terraforming