Threads Is my Twitter Replacement, Book Cover Reveal Is Nigh!
I’m pretty sure at this point that Threads is my Twitter replacement, and I have some details on the cover reveal for Accidental Intelligence. I’m still on all the other alternative social media platforms (@GeekTells for the lot of them), but Threads is where I’m consistently posting*. It’s also where I’ve been able to tap […]
GeekTells Is on Bluesky, Threads, and Post
Hey folks, I am on Bluesky, Threads, and Post, all @GeekTells. Twitter’s poison and X’s stupidity has simply spoiled it for me. Yours truly! Having gotten on Bluesky in the last week, I will agree with Jeff Gamet that it is the most Twitter-like enviornment (I don’t have access to invites yet). It feels the […]
Review: ECM Tamper Station, the Espresso Accessory You Didn’t Know You Needed
Check out the ECM Tamper Station, an espresso accessory I had no idea I needed until I saw it (on IG Reels, FWIW). It is my second favorite espresso accessory after the Asso Dosing Funnel I reviewed last week because it makes every tamped puck easier and faster to do. I’ll tell you why! (Check […]
Review: Asso Dosing Funnel, Your Magnetic Espresso Grinder Savior
I have a favorite accessory for my espresso setup, and I’m here to apologize for not telling you about it earlier. It’s official name is the Asso Dosing Funnel (Asso being the brand), but in case that doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s a collar that fits on your portafilter to keep your ground espresso […]
Happy New Year!
My last post was a…well, a wee bit acerbic might be polite. But hey, let’s get 2023 off to a good start with some well wishes! I noted on Post.news (which I really like) that the last few years have set a low bar, but 2023 is going to be good on a new level. […]
May You Live in Interesting Times
Firstly, according to Wikipedia, the titular phrase of this post has never been traced back to a Chinese source, but it’s apt nonetheless. We live in interesting times. And it sucks. So yay us! In no particular order, it turns out that Elon Musk is really, really weird. And a massive hypocrite. I mean, I’ve […]
The Context Machine and Other Updates
Looks like a couple of things have happened since my last post. There was the ongoing pandemic. An insurrection. A massive spike in homophobia and transphobia. Book banning (which always works out well). Putin’s bullshit. I moved back to the possibly haunted townhome. My point is that it’s been a while since I posted, and […]
People
I love people. I mean, sure, “people” can be trying, exasperating, infuriating…but screw that. I love people. People are lovely, funny, delightful, inspiring, amazing, talented, surprising, and sometimes even awesome. I’m not just talking about my family, friends, and loved ones. I’m talking about people everywhere. From those little, tiny acts of kindness strangers pay […]
Then There Was the Mayoral Candidate Who Listed Being “White” as a Qualification
I can’t even…I mean…fuck me running, I so want to go low on this one. I so want to heap ad hominem attacks on this creature like an elephant keeper piling up poop at the end of a circus parade. A long circus parade. But I won’t. I’m going to take Michelle Obama’s guidance, and […]
Mason Truman Is on Twitter, and So Is GeekTells
Check this out. Mason Truman is on Twitter. @MasonTrumanPI. Yeah, I know. He’s the main character of my first novel, and sure, he was born…err…will be born in 2087, but there he is tweeting up a steady diet of algae-strained coffee, eagles, and life in the Dawdle. Bleh. AIs, combines, and writers. Literally the […]
It’s Time for Rich Flat Earthers Like Shaq to Prove the Earth Isn’t a Globe
Flat Earthers. This is somehow a thing. Today. It’s a fucking thing. There are people who fucking think the goddamned fucking Earth is fucking flat. In 2017. And while this exemplary expression of Idiocracy no doubt wallows broadly in the intellectual wasteland of climate change denial, creationism, and other anti-science, anti-elite ignorance, it has some […]
And Then I Fell Into a Cauldron of Sealing Wax
When I was a kid, my Big Sis™ had a sealing wax kit. It was this Hallmark affair with one color of wax—red—one handle, and 40 or so stamps. It had one for each letter, one each for the Zodiac symbols, and maybe numbers, too. I don’t remember for sure. I coveted it. In fact—and […]
The Black Angels Announce New Album, Here’s the First Single and Video
The Black Angels have a new album coming out! Titled Death Song, the album drops on April 21st. You can preorder it on iTunes or at The Black Angels’ site. The band released the first single off the album, a tune called “Currency,” which I included below. It harkens back to the sounds of 2006’s Passover, […]
Love Letter #8
What I would see in your eyes A world other than mine I long to know it To feel it I want you to show it to me Slip, slip, further and farther The distance glows so brightly I should know it I should feel it Will you show it to me? Time […]
Whispers 4
The bathroom is steamy, the mirrors fogged. I’m drying off when I see it. A large X on the medicine cabinet mirror. A loose circle surrounds it. Hastily scrawled, like it was spray painted. It wasn’t there yesterday. Or the day before. Or a month ago. Or ever. No one else uses my bathroom. No […]
Stranger Things, an Awesome Show from Netflix
Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhsquuuuuueeeeeeeeeee! I loves me some Stranger Things! That’s a Netflix Original series. It came out in July, and if you’re cooler than me you’ve already watched it. But this toy started and finished it a few days ago. Man, oh man, but is it good. Because I love you, dear reader, I won’t do any […]
Good Writing and Bad
It’s a funny thing about writing. It turns out it’s hard. In my efforts to become a published novelist, I’ve had many opportunities to learn some things about writing fiction. One of my first lessons, for instance, was that a Venn diagram of writing skills for journalists and writing skills for fiction has surprisingly little […]
Chaffin’s Razor
I have this theory, something I’ve been working on for many years. One of our listeners (D. Scott Frey) on The Apple Context Machine came up with the name “Chaffin’s Razor,” and I quite fancy that name, so let’s go with it. In any event, here’s my thought: When someone does or says something that […]
Whispers 3
It’s Sunday. A day for sleeping late. A day for not worrying about getting up. Or meetings. A day for no alarms save the morning sun peeking past my shades. Sunday is the kind of day night owls with day jobs love. At least this night owl. It’s one of two days when I get […]
Bryan’s Tips for Making a Tasty Iced Latte
My Death Wish Coffee review was fairly popular, and I thought it would be nifty to follow it up with some tips on making coffee espresso lattes iced lattes. At its heart, all forms of coffee are chemistry-in-action, and while I won’t pretend to understand that chemistry, trial and error has helped me optimize my […]
Death Wish Coffee Quick Look
I Instagrammed a photograph of the Death Wish Coffee Dave Hamilton sent to me, and several people asked me to review it. Accordingly, I pulled a couple of espresso shots with it this morning, and I’m delighted to report that Death Wish Coffee is good. What could go wrong? Thanks @davehamilton! A photo posted by […]
Whispers 2
It’s been a while. Those whispers. More than a year. I’d kind of forgotten about them because the house has been…I don’t know. Not quiet, exactly. Acquiescent? There’s always a bit of a feeling around here. But then today I was taking a shower. It was the middle of the day, a perk of working from […]
Prologue Is Past
I stripped the prologue from my novel recently. I had to do it, and that makes me tense. Let me explain. No, first, some catchup: I took time off from my novel last year (hence the lack of updates here). I needed to distance myself from it so I could see it with fresh(er) eyes. […]
Mining For Pics
Been busy. Synopsis writing—have I mentioned how much I hate writing a fucking synopsis? And querying. I hate the query process. There was also a little thing called Christmas. Next is New Year’s, followed immediately by CES. I hate CES, too, but that’s another story. Anyhoo, I’ve been mining my photo library for good pics. Wait, […]
Whispers
I’m getting ready to leave. TV off, ceiling fans off. Windows, closed. It’s quiet on the third floor. I turn off the lamp in my office, the last light on the third floor that was on. I hear a door shut on the second floor. I thought I was alone in the house. Whispers. Close. On […]