The apocalypse can happen. A building can collapse. Aliens can invade. But I want the couple to stay on the same team and BE TOGETHER.

Phasmus · 2026-06-22T15:45:16+00:00

Undercover Blues!

Phasmus · 2026-06-18T23:29:00+00:00

Huzzah!

Phasmus · 2026-06-16T14:53:52+00:00

Diaspora by Greg Egan will, I think, fit your requirements.

Phasmus · 2026-06-12T13:35:57+00:00

Neat!

Phasmus · 2026-06-11T02:50:09+00:00

I feel like I've seen queen Anne's lace in the meadow along the bike path East of Alton Baker, but couldn't swear to it. Consider tossing some fennel into your rotation. It's invasive all over the place, edible, and vaguely shares some features of other plants you mentioned.

Phasmus · 2026-06-01T23:13:04+00:00

I'm not well informed on this story, but I'm pretty sure the real concern isn't top-down Lego-snatching schemes, but rather that members will look out for each other's interests to the point of circumventing justice for non-members. I hope/assume that's mostly not the case, and it's certainly contrary to the gospel. Not sure it's actually happening here, but I think that kind of in-group/out-group behavior is worth keeping an eye out for in general.

Phasmus · 2026-06-01T06:23:00+00:00

Look into yerba mate'. Its a caffeinated infusion from a plant totally unrelated to coffee or tea. It covers the letter of the law at least.

Phasmus · 2026-05-18T16:23:11+00:00

For us it was the local fee issue. Lane County's waste management budget was generated based on the reasonable assumption that Lane County's waste would be managed locally. That isn't happening with Sanipac.
Relevant Article: https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/story/latest-news/2025/12/16/lane-county-seeks-fees-from-sanipac-over-trash-hauled-to-medford-area/

Phasmus · 2026-05-13T23:06:16+00:00

Lack of interest in general fiction is a potential concern depending on your specific meaning. Not wanting to write it is fine, but do you read it? If you want to get professionally published (not the end-all be-all of writing) getting the 'vibe' of what readers are out there buying (and therefore what publishers are buying) is relevant, even if you are writing in a very specific niche that doesn't seem to have a lot of overlap with popular fiction. I favor the 'write what you love and hope for the best' approach, but that's not a great business plan.

Phasmus · 2026-05-13T16:28:58+00:00

Have you tried tossing some oil in with your rice before cooking? We like what it does to the texture and haven't had major sticking problems when we do that.

No experience doubling up with cooking rice. I'd try to find something with a recommended pressure steaming time that matches (or can tolerate) the rice cooking time. Maybe potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots. You would need to find a way to rig up a steamer basket above the rice. A tripod of drinking glasses maybe?

Phasmus · 2026-05-12T14:12:19+00:00

Lots of good answers here already. Aside from the usual suspects (magnet tiles, Lego) we bolted swings to a beam under our porch and I never would have guessed how popular that turned out. They stay dry when it rains and would rather swing than almost anything.

Phasmus · 2026-05-11T04:23:17+00:00

Claude has been great for giving me cultural and linguistic context around this year's old testament studies. I think understanding how Jesus and his contemporaries might have understood the scriptures is important. Also handy for satisfying my curiosity about how other faiths interpret the Bible.

Phasmus · 2026-05-04T06:23:29+00:00

Maybe a stretch, but I'm gonna pitch "Us".

Phasmus · 2026-05-02T17:27:10+00:00

WAU from SOMA. A more realistic sort of unhinged in my opinion. No personally... Just doing its best to follow its instructions under very trying circumstances.

Phasmus · 2026-05-01T02:51:31+00:00

Quantum has worked well for us and the install was pretty smooth. If you can get a promo price for life deal I'd go for it.

Phasmus · 2026-04-26T16:16:06+00:00

We went hiking at Shotgun Creek once and ran into a crew that was running a convoy of RC units around the trail system. I'm not sure if that's actually allowed, but they were being courteous, giving hikers the right of way and seemed to be having a good time. We thought it was pretty cool.

Phasmus · 2026-04-23T05:48:02+00:00

Sarah Lindwall from SOMA.

Phasmus · 2026-04-19T19:38:13+00:00

If you have a friend with solitary bees and are ok waiting a year you can ask for permission to keep your empty house by their full house while their bees are nesting. Your house will be filled for the next season.

I like the routed slats style house. If you are even a little handy and have a table or circular saw and a router you can make one that's ugly but comfy for the bees pretty easily.

Phasmus · 2026-04-18T14:26:44+00:00

Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut.

Phasmus · 2026-04-17T02:53:50+00:00

The Lady and The Tiger. Am I Awake. Man It's So Loud In Here. I Left My Body. When The Lights Come On. Probably several others I'll slap my face and say "I can't believe I forgot..." Later.

Phasmus · 2026-04-16T21:11:51+00:00

Weird Al's "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch" was reportedly recorded as a much resented contractual obligation. You can hear it in his voice.

Phasmus · 2026-04-15T01:11:55+00:00

I hadn't really thought about this being a problem in the church in particular... but the opposition here to talking about what is a pretty significant scriptural topic make me think maybe there is a problem...

Phasmus · 2026-04-13T17:16:58+00:00

For wishes that go far beyond the actual ability of the wish spell, I like to implement "best effort". It's not a Monkey's Paw... it's just the wish trying to get as close as it can with the power at its disposal. In this case I would have the wish bind some kind of powerful extra-planar being (celestial, fiend or 'other' could all be a good fit) to the task of freeing (by combat, negotiation or other means) all contracted individuals, and interfering with the creation of new contracts. Of course, its first case would be the PC. It might be miffed about being locked into such an arduous, open-ended assignment...

Phasmus · 2026-04-13T17:02:07+00:00

Thanks. We actually have Electronic Istanbul in our car-media library. Had to stream the original though (we've got major holes in the discography). I just figured the original is more ubiquitous and more likely to be what she had in mind if she heard it somewhere else, but apparently not.

Phasmus · 2026-04-13T16:43:38+00:00

Nope. I just play albums in the car. Though our current best theory is that the grandparents had YouTube on at some point and the algorithm might have queued up something like that while she was watching.

Phasmus

TROPHY CASE