I was under water for pretty much the entire month. Teaching my extra class (and all sorts of other work stuff) has me working a lot of extra hours to keep up with everything, and my dad was in the hospital twice (he’s doing a lot better now). So overall it was a keep-the-fires-out and just-keep-trucking kind of month. I’m really hoping October will bring some down time and smoother sailing.

Events & Places

  • Got together to make music with some of my mates. It feels nice to play in a group again.
  • Tenth anniversary! Celebrated with a very fancy dinner at Barley Swine.

Blogposts

Books

The Best of Greg Egan by Greg Egan
This is my kind of sci-fi. A lifetime collection of short fiction from one of Australia's greatest sci-fi writers that is imaginative and vital with big ideas and questions seeping from every page.
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
The second book in Asimov's famed Foundation series. It's clear that he'd grown quite a bit as a writer by this one, with a plot more intricate, subtle, and less predictable. A classic for a reason. (In case you're wondering, I have no interest in Apple's new TV series based on the books. It's not the kind of thing that can be done properly on screen.)
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Continuing my Shakespeare reading project, this particular play has always been a personal favorite. The titular characters are so fully realized, mercurial and tragic, that I really love them for all their flaws. Reading it this time, I kept picturing it filmed as a space opera with larger than life production design!

Films / Shows

Finished the first season of Reservation Dogs
A lovely little show on Hulu about a group of teens on a tribal reservation in Oklahoma. Co-produced by Taika Waititi, it has the sort of unpretentious humanity and understated humor that makes his films so great. Definitely looking forward to a second season.
Bill and Ted Face the Music
I must have watched the first two Bill and Ted movies about a million times each as a kid, so I was worried about this belated sequel souring their legacy for me. I needn't have worried though! This one captures the same silliness and doesn't collapse under the weight of its own nostalgia like so many other rehashing of classic series do.

Projects

Not much to report on this front. I made an attempt to integrate the Eleventy Image plugin to this blog, but something went funny when I pushed it to Netlify and I didn’t have the bandwidth to troubleshoot, so I rolled it back. The only thing outside of work that’s really moved forward is the new issue of Rust and Moth, and that’s only because we’ve made it into such a well-oiled machine. Hopefully next month will allow more freedom.