Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 380

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

This post was brought on partially because of a line of thought I developed yesterday while on this interview with Brad and Mad (political Mobius) Mike (Z. Williamson) yesterday. Link here for seriously uncaffeinated unslept Sarah. (You get a bonus chance to hear one of my cats, Euclid the very Neurotic, yelling at mommy for doing this stupid thing instead of pets.) Note for those who haven’t heard me before, yep that REALLY is my accent.

Anyway, some of you probably remember that I once almo...

Nag Rage – Christopher Nuttall

Nag Rage- Christopher Nuttall

[Quick explanation. I wrote this at the heart of the Starbucks ‘Race Together’ idiocy, then sent it to Sarah. However, it was delayed and may be slightly out of date. The core idea still holds true, though. CGN]

(Addendum: Yeah, I was — literally — dopey and only got my bearings enough to put it up today. I don’t think it’s outdated. – SAH)

I am not a psychologist. Indeed, it is a profession I hold in considerable mistrust. However, after reading a couple of arti...

The Architecture of Fear

Years ago on this blog I talked about Technique of The Coup D’Etat by Giovanni Guareschi and I typed the beginning in here. I shall copy that. (Assume typos are mine.)

At ten o’clock on Tuesday evening, the village square was swept with wind and rain, but a crowd had been gathered there for three or four hours to listen to the election news coming out of a radio loudspeaker. Suddenly the lights went out and everything was plunged into darkness. Someone went to the control box but came back sa...

A Way Station Into Science Fiction

Before I go into the post proper, I want to speak about Shadowdancer. Since bad news spreads like wild fire, I think most of you know she lost her beloved 11 week old son to SIDs last week. Since all her online family had been living her joy and motherhood through pictures of him (sometimes daily) and progress reports, it very much feels like I lost a grandchild or a favorite nephew.

Even so we had to contend with her to LET us help with something, anything. As many of you know this is the se...

The Graying of Fandom- Sanford Begley

The Graying of Fandom – Sanford Begley

I attended Millenicon this past weekend (at this writing the date is 3/22/15), a small Literary con in Cincinnati. I’m not a big con goer, I went because my Lady was involved in several panels and because a few friends and a few legends of SF were going to be there. Christopher Stasheff, David Drake, and Mike Resnick were there, Mike’s daughter Laura was the GOH. They are not those I am claiming as friends by the way; I doubt any of them would recognize...

Of Science Fiction and Bed Making

In 2000 my husband had a traveling job. They were sort of the Marines of computer programming. If something was irretrievably mucked up on a computer system somewhere, they sent for this company who, for a high cost, flew their guys in to perform miracles.

Some jobs took three weeks, some three months.

For most of 2000 Dan was working on the computers of a Wall Street firm.

Now, his traveling was very bad for the family, which is why he gave up that job, even though it was fantastically paid...

Social Ignorance Warriors- Bill Reader

Social Ignorance Warriors- Bill Reader

In most real-world conflicts, the key to victory lies not on a battlefield, or in any one special strategy or tactic, but inside your opponent’s head. This can be argued for a variety of historical conflicts and, in my experience, holds up pretty well in day-to-day experience. The key to beating back superior British forces in the American revolution wasn’t besting them at their own game. It was, in some sense, making mostly-inevitable losses too painful...

Not Your Shield- Rhiain

Not Your Shield
By Rhiain

K. Tempest Bradford of “The Social Justice Warrior Racist Reading Challenge” fame is at it again. On her Facebook wall, she posted the following a couple days ago (no, you don’t have to follow the link). Her original words are in italics, and my responses are in bold.

Here’s a thing: I need people to stop responding to this Sad Puppies/Hugo thing with “well, if you want to change things, you should have voted.”

Because complaints that the Hugos were dominated and man...

De Gustibus – David Pascoe

De Gustibus – David Pascoe

With the madness raining down from on high in a flood of mixed metaphor vitriol the anti-fun crowd have been spewing their hatred with predictable and familiar, if disappointing, illogic. Those seeking to prevent puppy-related sadness Sad Puppies (I’m not a puppy, personally, and I’m depressed, not sad) are hatey mchaters, secksissss, racisssss, homophobisss, and any other -isss you can imagine. We cheated. We bloc-voted, which isn’t cheating (witness the efforts of...

An Update

First of all, to those who celebrate it, happy Easter.

For those who’ve sent me guest posts, I am not running them this weekend because it’s typically low hits. Yes, Mad Genius Club is through the roof right now, but I don’t think it’s to TODAY’S post.

On why it’s through the roof — the Hugos — and that whole kerfuffle, I’m only going to say a few things.

First and most importantly I’m going to say congratulations to all the nominees. The ballot is a rather sweet result to me. Kevin J. Anders...