C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 64

Picoreview: NCIS Season 10

Picoreview: NCIS Season 10 (and the first 2 eps of s11): …that was actually really, really good.

I mean, NCIS is a solid show. It’s generally of reasonably high quality and consistency, with very few actively bad episodes and correspondingly few really *good* ones. The actors are all appealing and their interactions are terrific, and the whole thing lends itself to the sense of family that it’s supposed to. The season started out with plenty of AUGH, between the bombing and (much more alarmin...

Kitsnaps: Godslight, Athy

Godslight, Athy

Sunlight breaks through the clouds in streams above Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland

The post Kitsnaps: Godslight, Athy appeared first on The Essential Kit.

funny things with houseguests

Woe, our guest has had to return home, but she has left us with many smiles and funny memories. The other night she cleared her plate from the table, then returned to the dining room, where she picked up a napkin and wrung it as she gazed indecisively at our plates.

Ted said, in the driest and most certain tone ever, “You’re procrastinating. Go work on your thesis.”

She said, “I’m NOT! I’m trying to be a good guest!”

Ted said, “I’m married to a writer and you’re procrastinating. Go work.” And...

Throwback Thursday: Well-Loved Books

A hash tag popped up on Twitter yesterday, #WellLovedBooks, and I immediately went and took pictures of several of mine. I thought they’d make a kind of nice different Throwback Thursday post idea, too, so I present to you a handful of my well-loved books. :)

My 8th birthday prsent: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, which I read to pieces.

I love these books so very much. It is so mind-bogglingly cool to me that I can now count Lawrence Watt-Evans among my friends.

I want to re-read these, as they’re s...

Writing Wednesday: Putting Handles on the Cups

There’s a Writing Rule that says “Write every day, no matter what.” You hear people tout this rule, just like every other Writing Rule, and since I’m dragging myself back into the swing of things after what amounts to a five month hiatus, I thought I’d address it.

Obviously it’s terrible advice.

I mean, yes, if you can write every day, that’s awesome. That’s great! Go for it! Have fun! Write every day! God knows I do when I can. But the idea that you must is as crippling as any other Writing...

Guest Post: Chaz Brenchley & the Crater School!

It is my delight and honor to host my friend Chaz Brenchley on the blog today. I met Chaz online, and then through the Irish/UK con circuit, oh, several-many years ago now. Most lately he’s been working on a project that I’m utterly in love with, both in concept and execution, and he’s here to talk about it–and its crowdfunding support system–today!

One of the joys of living in the heart of Silicon Valley is that NASA Ames is just over there, and SETI HQ is even closer. We live among the cool...

blackberries, crumbled and plucked

I was faffing around on Saturday trying to convince myself to get my act together enough to Make The Apple Pie, and mumbled, “Or maybe I could just make a blackberry apple crumble, that’d be easier,” in the vicinity of our guest, who said, “I didn’t know that was an option!!!”, thus indicating I should do that. :)

I poked around the internet and couldn’t find a recipe I really liked, so I kind of invented one. It went like this:

Kit’s Blackberry-Apple Crumble
1 oz butter
1 oz sugar
4-5 green...

a friendly moment of panic

A friend of ours is visiting and working on her thesis. Early yesterday evening she came downstairs with the look of one martyred and suffering nobly for her cause and handed me her phone so that she couldn’t check Twitter or FB while she was supposed to be working on her thesis.

Several hours later, just before bedtime, she retrieved the phone and went into her bedroom. Moments later she came back out saying, “Catie? *CATIE*?!” in increasingly alarmed tones. Ted ran out to see what was wrong...

Kitsnaps: Golden Graveyard

Golden Graveyard

Sunrise over an old graveyard turns the stones to gold in Athy, Co. Kildare, Ireland

I love photographing graveyards, especially if there’s some kind of Weather going on. Sunrise turned out to be good Weather at the old graveyard in Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland. Best of all, it was January, so sunrise wasn’t even at, er, the crack of dawn… :)

The post Kitsnaps: Golden Graveyard appeared first on The Essential Kit.

Kitsnacks: Blackberry Jam

I’ve been going out and getting nettle-stung in search of the wild blackberries that are growing in our garden. (Nettles offend me mightily. Plants do not try to kill you in the land of my people, at least, nothing but Devil’s Club, and Devil’s Club looks like it wants to kill you from forty feet away.) Anyway, I’m apparently too easily taunted by blackberries and when I see them I feel obliged to get them immediately instead of preparing myself sufficiently against the nettles, so it’s this...