I did one of those ancestry DNA tests a little while ago, and the results come as an absolute…lack of surprise. German father (the green area), Croatian mother (the blue one), and my paternal grandmother was from East Prussia (the very top of the western part of the pink area.) No idea where or when…
Military time in the civilian world
Out of idle curiosity this morning, here’s a question for those of you who have served in the military: How many of you are still using 24-hour and DDMMYYYY calendar format on your digital devices? I turned in my kit 28 years ago this month and I still do it. My digital watches are all…
From the Castle Frostbite IT department
Robin’s iMac started giving her the Beachball of Death, hanging up on almost everything she tried to do with it. I used to be a hardware tech support guy and systems administrator, so I am the official Castle Frostbite IT department. In that function, I diagnosed the iMac and suspected that the hard drive was…
The last days of winter
Yesterday, I took Girl Child out to the slopes here in town for what was probably the last good skiing day of the season. Later this week we’re supposed to get a few days of 60-degree weather, which is going to melt most of the remaining snow and kick-start my least favorite season in New…
The Great Link has been upgraded
The Internet connection at Castle Frostbite as of last night: Not bad for a rural setting on a dirt road, right? Ah, BUT. The Internet connection at Castle Frostbite as of today: Those are legit 2021-level Internet speeds. The kicker is that the new provider is supplying ten times the previous speed on the download,…
More Tik-Toks
Someone asked about the rest of the collection in comments, so here you go. It’s a modest collection of nice-but-not-outrageous watches as far as price goes. The whole case is worth less than a single basic Omega or Rolex. Not that I would mind owning a Seamaster or a Submariner, but I don’t think I’ll…
Posting a TikTok
Eight years ago, when Terms of Enlistment started selling a lot of copies, this $45 Casio Duro was the first “extravagant” purchase I made with some of the first windfall royalties. Fast-forward to 2021, eight years and ten novels later, and I own a lot more watches, but I still wear this one a lot….
ORDERS OF BATTLE is out on audio
The delayed audiobook version of ORDERS OF BATTLE was released yesterday, and it’s now available via Amazon/Audible. The new narrator is Eric G. Dove. As I have mentioned before, the delay in production was due to the unexpected passing of Angelo DiLoreto, who was scheduled to narrate the book originally. As most of you will…
Cellulose backups
These are the original handwritten drafts for “On the Use of Shape-Shifters in Warfare” (which ended up in Love Death + Robots on Netflix as ‘Shapeshifters”), and “Ink and Blood”, which was my first published short story ever. It seems that the stories of mine I like best all started out on paper and came…
Release date for CITADEL
There’s a new release date for CITADEL, the third book in the Palladium Wars series. It will be released in all the usual formats on August 10. Last year, I was on a two-novels-a-year pace, but then 2020 happened and it all went to hell. But this year has been absolutely fine for me so…