Open Thread: Minicon 51 Report

Open Thread: Minicon 51 Report For those of you new to this blog, Minicon is the Easter weekend science fiction convention put on by MN-StF every year.  I’ve been going to it for somewhere around three decades now, and this year was no exception.  Once again it was at the RadiShTree (Bloomington Doubletree) hotel, and… Continue reading Open Thread: Minicon 51 Report

Open Thread: Bloggers Get Social

Open Thread: Bloggers Get Social Last Wednesday, I went to an event titled “Bloggers Get Social”, which was held at a Davanni’s in Edina.  Getting there was the first hurdle, as it started at 5 P.M. and I got off work at 4:30 several suburbs away.  I found an express route that worked on paper,… Continue reading Open Thread: Bloggers Get Social

Open Thread: Top Ten Lists 2015

Like many bloggers, I keep a close eye on the stats of which posts get traffic, and it’s time to reveal the winners for this year.  You all like list posts, right?  So here are the reviews you the readers felt were important in 2015. Top Ten Posts of 2015 Anime Review: Urusei Yatsura Book… Continue reading Open Thread: Top Ten Lists 2015

Open Thread: Reading Challenges

Back in November, some folks in the Booklr community of Tumblr organized a challenge called #readwomen.  The idea was to deliberately read books written by women for pleasure in December.  For full participation, every book should be written by a woman, but I opted to just increase the proportion by picking from my to read… Continue reading Open Thread: Reading Challenges

Open Thread: RIP Shigeru Mizuki

Open Thread: RIP Shigeru Mizuki Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015) was a manga artist famous for his horror works, most famously Gegege no Kitarou, and did much work to familiarize younger generations of Japanese children with the traditional stories of yokai. As I’ve written here before, Mr. Mizuki was stationed in New Britain, Papua New Guinea during World War… Continue reading Open Thread: RIP Shigeru Mizuki

Open Thread: Nephew’s Wedding

Open Thread: Nephew’s Wedding Last night, my nephew Terran got married to his sweetheart Katie.  The service and reception were at the Bear Claw Country Club, which is in a gated community.  The service itself was short and sweet, and my parents (Terran’s grandparents) were able to watch via the Internet. The reception was more… Continue reading Open Thread: Nephew’s Wedding

Open Thread: Minicon 50 Report

Over the Easter weekend, I went to Minicon, the Minnesota Scientifiction Society’s yearly convention.  This was the 50th convention, although not the fiftieth year, as a couple times early on it was held twice yearly.  To mark the milestone, the convention ran four days instead of the usual three, and had a whole bunch of… Continue reading Open Thread: Minicon 50 Report

Open Thread: Happy New Year!

2014 ends, and 2015 begins, so let’s see what this year’s top ten lists look like. (You like top ten lists, right?) Top Ten Posts of 2014 Comic Book Review: The Forgotten Man Graphic Edition Comic Strip Review: Spacetrawler Book 1 The Human Seat Manga Review: Weekly Shonen Jump (USA) Book Review: Insurrections of the… Continue reading Open Thread: Happy New Year!

Open Thread: Judging by the Covers 10/18/14

Time for another open thread!  Since this went over so well last time, I’m going to post another six book covers from my more obscure posts.  Let me know which ones you like, and what you think the cover tells you about the contents.  Or tell me what kind of cover makes you want to… Continue reading Open Thread: Judging by the Covers 10/18/14