Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, free, ice cream on April 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
If you happen to have a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store near you, you should know that today is Free Cone Day!
Which shops are participating? This map knows.
Not near a B&J? Maybe patronize a local ice cream parlor instead? Because we all deserve a treat now and then, and that goes double on Tuesdays.
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Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, cooking, food, free on August 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I have not tested this cookbook, but it looks fun and it’s free and the illustrations are excellent and there are copious speculative fiction references, and I dig the vibe.
The title is funny but I submit that it is too reductive. One doesn’t need to be a sad bastard to enjoy quick, easy cooking. I’ve also spent a non-zero part of my life eating versions of many of these recipes, and know them for the lifesavers that they can be.
Are you newly parted from the parental homestead? Newly parenting? Only have half an hour before you have to log on for a Warcraft raid? Are you just really, really freaking tired?
This may be the cookbook for you.
The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food you can make so you don’t die
By Rachel A. Rosen and Zilla Novikov
Illustrated by Marten Norr
This cookbook is all the recipes you already make, when you’ve worked a 16-hour day, when you can’t stop crying and you don’t know why, when the eldritch abomination you woke at the bottom of the ocean won’t go back to sleep. And hopefully, this cookbook gives you some new meal ideas. Even Sad Bastards have to eat.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #PSA, free, stupid Covid on January 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This is for all my American readers out there.
Need a free Covid test and / or N95 mask? This is your lucky day!
Omicron just waves as it floats past cloth masks, and surgical masks (while a marked improvement) aren’t always ideal. What’s better? An N95 mask. Unfortunately, top-quality masks aren’t cheap.
The good news? Most of us can reuse N95s, and there are ways to get these masks for free.
There has been a lot of press about this but in case you haven’t heard or don’t have the links, here’s how to take advantage of these free offers:
Stay safe out there!
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Posted in Likes, tagged #coronavirus, #stayspotless, #ThingsILike, #WashYourLyrics, free, home, Thoughts on March 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
tl;dr (even though it’s short short short!): Covid-19 a.k.a. The Coronavirus. Ugh. But we’ll get through this.
In service to the greater good, I am amplifying this genius little tool: Wash Your Lyrics.
Type in a song title and artist, come away with a custom hand-washing poster to make it easier to get through the whole… freaking… twenty!… seconds… worth of hand-washing the CDC and every other knowledgeable organization / official / healthcare professional / your mom says we all need right now. More details here, but it’s pretty straightforward.
Obviously, it’s been done before, but to get you started here’s a set of hand-washing instructions set to the world’s most obvious song choice (waiting to see stats on song selections, but I’m pretty sure I’m right):
Let me also take a moment to thank all the public servants, health care professionals and first responders working on the front lines. Stay safe, my friends!
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged #ThingsILike, Fiction, free, genre fiction, Nebula Awards, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, writing on March 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Looking for new reading material? Good news! The Nebula Award finalists have been announced, so it’s time to pad those To Read lists, people. Here is the complete list, some with links to reviews, previews, and full text where available (and I felt like it:).
What looks interesting to you?
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2018 Nebula Award Finalists
Novel
The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) [review]
The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga) [review]
Novella
Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee (Semper Fi) [preview]
The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing) [review]
The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean) [preview and review]
Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing) [excerpt]
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing) [review and review]
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing) [excerpt]
Novelette
“The Only Harmless Great Thing”, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
“The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections”, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)
“An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)
“The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births”, José Pablo Iriarte (Lightspeed 1/18)
“The Rule of Three”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Future Science Fiction Digest 12/18)
“Messenger”, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi (Expanding Universe, Volume 4)
Short Story
“Interview for the End of the World”, Rhett C. Bruno (Bridge Across the Stars)
“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)
“Going Dark”, Richard Fox (Backblast Area Clear)
“And Yet”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 3-4/18)
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)
“The Court Magician”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)
Game Writing
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker (House of Tomorrow & Netflix)
The Road to Canterbury, Kate Heartfield (Choice of Games)
God of War, Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert, Cory Barlog, Orion Walker, and Adam Dolin (Santa Monica Studio/Sony/Interactive Entertainment)
Rent-A-Vice, Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games)
The Martian Job, M. Darusha Wehm (Choice of Games)
The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
The Good Place: “Jeremy Bearimy”, Written by: Megan Amram
Black Panther, Written by: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
A Quiet Place, Screenplay by: John Krasinski and Bryan Woods & Scott Beck
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Screenplay by: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman
Dirty Computer, Written by: Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning
Sorry to Bother You, Written by: Boots Riley
The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)
Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi (Rick Riordan Presents)
A Light in the Dark, A.K. DuBoff (BDL)
Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House)
Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, Henry Lien (Henry Holt)
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Let’s see if embedding my Goodreads list works here… Why yes, I believe it does. If the list isn’t showing for you, find it here.
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Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged #ThingsILike, #WonderWoman, awesome, coding, creativity, free, fun, Google, magic lasso, science, STEM, Thoughts on June 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »
What am I doing this fine Saturday morning? Why, playing with Google’s newest entry into the Made with Code catalog, Coding with Wonder Woman.
Made with Code is Google’s push to keep girls and women active in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Girls are awesome. Sci-tech is awesome. Together, they make an awesome sandwich.
Of course, boys are awesome too (hello, most excellent nephew!), but they aren’t facing this less-than-awesome prospect:
Yeah, that’s just… no. We can do better. If we’re going to tackle the long and growing list of environmental, social and technical challenges in the world, we need everyone’s brain parts. And not in a night of the undead hunger sort of a way.
There are a lot of intro to coding resources on the web, but this one is fun, free and lets you fight bad guys with a magic lasso and a big-bad sword. So girl or boy, man or woman, child, teacher, parent or otherwise curious mind, if coding looks like fun but you don’t know where to start, this may be the game for you.
(Haven’t seen the movie? Recommended!)
J.R. Johnson 
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