Category: General

Just the random, everyday stuff.

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Review: A Furious Sky

I have a thing for learning about natural disasters. It’s something that I’ve discovered about myself over the years–there is something about the whole man versus nature and the events surrounding these experiences that is fascinating to me. As a result of this interest, I picked up A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred Year History of America’s Hurricanes on Audible during one of their two-for-one sales and gave it a listen.

I got through the book in only a few stretches of time and probably could have listened to the whole thing in a day if I’d had the 10+ hours where I didn’t need to engage with other people beyond the perfunctory. On the audio end of it, it was well-produced and the narrator was very good with the material that he was presenting.

The actual content of the book, for me, was largely familiar territory, though there were some segments of the book that were new material for me. For those who have read or seen documentaries about the Galveston Hurricane, the Labor Day Hurricane, or the Long Island Express, these sections of the book will be very familiar and tell stories that you’ve heard before with very little variation from previous works. If you don’t know much–or anything at all–about these events, though, they offer a striking window into what the experiences of these storms were like. Information about some of the earliest recorded storms was very interesting, and the storms discussed in the mid- to late-twentieth century and beyond offered glimpses into these storms that went beyond the headlines and weather reports.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the coverage of how the science of hurricane prediction and the technology involved has evolved over time and continues to evolve. If anything, the book was a worthwhile listen for this information alone. The author, Eric Jay Dolin, is a scholar himself and has synthesized a lot of information into a (relatively) short piece on the subject.

All in all, a worthwhile listen. Definitely recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the weather–and looking for a slightly heavier but still completely accessible beach read.

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Because pens?

I wasn’t actually intending to write this, but I’ve been going on and on about this pen and ink for at least two hours, so I figured maybe it was something that was worth writing a little bit about here–in part because I am at least at the moment mildly obsessed.

So, here’s the story.

For the last few weeks as I’ve been browsing Facebook, I’ve been seeing ads for a fountain pen subscription service. Now let’s be honest, Facebook doesn’t always have the best algorithm when it comes to me, but I kept tripping over this ad enough to be at least a little intrigued. So I clicked, I looked, and got a little curious. This particular company (Truphae, for those curious) is a business that apparently started from the husband’s fascination with fountain pens and he and his wife leveraged it into a really neat business model. They’ve got a few levels on their subscription boxes. On that initial visit, I browsed the site, was like ‘huh, that’s cool,’ and moved on, not ready to take the plunge yet.

Then, last week, I happened to see the ad again. They were running a special on the subscription service so I was finally “well, why not?” and took the plunge. The option I picked includes a budget-level fountain pen and a full pot of ink. What’s the harm, right? I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d get but it was worth a try for a couple months to see how I felt about it.Holy crap, let me tell you, this was better than I expected on so many levels.

When you hear “budget fountain pen” I’m sure you’re thinking like I did: “something super lightweight and super inexpensive as fountain pens go.” Well, the last part was fairly on point (the pen I got in my box retails under $25 most places as a basic cartridge pen, anyway – this one is modified so you can easily refill it from ink bottles) but the quality on this pen is much more than I expected. The casing is all metal and it’s a heavy pen–heavy to the point that I set the cap aside when I’m using it instead of letting it perch on the back of the pen like you usually would. It was extremely easy to fill (after a couple of YouTube tutorials for a fountain pen beginning like me – all of my previous fountain pens have been cartridge pens which are also great) and writes beautifully.

Then there’s the ink. The ink pot I got is a pretty big (60ml) and the color is beautiful. I love colored inks–looking at my notebooks and planners definitely bears this out. It retails for about $15 across the board at that size and my biggest problem right now is figuring out where I’m going to store the bottle safely because it is definitely still full even after filling the pen. It’s definitely a green ink (looks very dark in the bottle – you can only tell what color it really is around the edges of it) but once it’s down on paper it’s this beautiful green with a blue undertone to it. I am admittedly in love and am really, really excited to see what my box next month brings me. I can’t seem to stop using this pen and ink.

Guess we’ll see what happens…

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This is 2021

Well, we are now exactly a week into 2021 and…it’s already been a trip, hasn’t it? We’re still wrestling with a public health crisis that’s not going away anytime soon, still dealing with vaccination shortfalls and supply issues, and just this Wednesday, supporters of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named stormed the Capitol with the intent of a) preventing the certification of the legitimate election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris as president and vice president respectively and b) taking over the government in order to ensure the continued power of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. I have a lot of thoughts on this, but that’s going to be saved for another blog. Probably.

As of this writing, I am eleven days out from the beginning of my last undergraduate semester for my second bachelor’s degree. Hopefully within the next six weeks I will know where I am going to graduate school (people keep telling me that I am going to get in and I am not up to 100% believing them in case my hopes are dashed). Applied for four doctoral programs, all in the Chicago area, for those who are curious.

Going into this year, I’d decided to diversify my activities just a little bit. I’ve been pondering podcasts for over a year now and I believe there are at least two that will be in the offing hopefully by June (but let’s not jinx myself and promise them by then). The first of these is Fictionalize This! which will present bites of historical, scientific, or other interesting information with the challenge to listeners who are so inclined to figure out how to use that to inspire their fiction. The second idea is actually the one that I will probably end up launching first is Wait, THAT Was News? which will examine and contextualize old newspaper articles because old newspaper articles are wild. If you’ve never read any, you’re in for a treat.

This is, of course, in addition to all of the writing I do–both fictional work and academic. Expect to see more of that from me this year, and also expect (again, hopefully by summer) the release of the next UNSETIC Files book, Lost and Found. It’s still in the editing stages, but that should be done in the next few months. Last year for Christmas my brother and sister-in-law got me some awesome editing pencils and I have very much enjoyed using them in my editing processes. I also hope to have another Awakenings edited book out by the end of the year, but that is a bit more of an arduous process given its very nature.

Expect to see more essays, more fiction, and more thoughts this year, regardless.

Welcome to 2021. Let’s hope that, at the very least, this year is different from the last.