Category Archives: Nonfiction

Magic Monday – Campaign Concept – The Fire From Down Below

Posted on June 27, 2017 by

This post was brought to you by the very fun “You’re Welcome” song from Moana. I’ve talked before about an “unlocking” campaign, in which the main draw is to explore and plan, negotiate and fight, and acquire new tools that … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Musing, Setting, World-Building | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Magic Monday – Thoughts on Timing

Posted on June 13, 2017 by

(I picked up YAOSC and tinkered with it in the winter, then put it down… for the whole spring semester. It’s high time I picked it back up for more tinkering, at least for the duration of the summer. I’ll … Continue reading →

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Toddler Cognitive Development: And then the questions began.

Posted on May 19, 2017 by

(Note: Because we’re working on raising the kid Japanese/English bilingual, pretty much all my conversations with him these days are about 99% in Japanese. I render everything below in English for simplicity’s sake.) So the kid’s thing, recently, has been … Continue reading →

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Obamacare feedback PSA

Posted on March 13, 2017 by

So it turns out that the White House is soliciting negative “Obamacare stories,” perhaps in the belief that unverified rumors scavenged online count as some sort of meaningful data. You too can go here and tell them about your experience with … Continue reading →

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Parental Cognitive Development: Devolution to BUS

Posted on February 3, 2017 by

The kid continues to grow and learn. He’s picking up all sorts of phrases at daycare… and inventing some of his own? (For example, asking for “don don choo choo” videos. I have no idea what kind of train that might … Continue reading →

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Year in Review: The Kid in 2016

Posted on December 31, 2016 by

At the start of 2016 I was a full-time stay-at-home dad. When I had errands to run, I strapped the kid to my chest and walked or got on the bus. He was curious and observant, but couldn’t express himself … Continue reading →

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It never rains but it tiny stones

Posted on November 25, 2016 by

Sometimes you hit a run of bad luck. Sometimes, the bad luck is extremely specific. This is the story of such an occurrence. I ride my bicycle a lot. It’s my preferred mode of transportation, weather permitting, and I’ve been … Continue reading →

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Challenge accepted: Artifact dash

Posted on September 9, 2016 by

Today I finally got around to reading a post from a couple of months ago over at an RPG blog called Semper Initiativus Unum about “megadungeons and artifacts.” As is generally the case when I write this kind of post, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Musing, World-Building | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Toddler Linguistic Development: Sentences!

Posted on August 23, 2016 by

The kid has been building up his vocabulary in both English and Japanese, of course, and at some point started stringing words together. At first, if I recall, it was a couple of stock phrases like “all done,” then rudimentary … Continue reading →

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A random generator for political comments

Posted on August 18, 2016 by

On one website that I visit once in a blue moon or two, there’s a silly little internet game you can play where you type a string of characters (it’s supposed to be a name, but what’s stopping you from … Continue reading →

Posted in Japanese, Musing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment