Beach, I am with you

Well, technically, beach house so far.

Ah, it's good to be back.

I leave for the beach in the morning

so you'll have to enjoy this new Delta Rae video as I pack, load the car, and so on.



I do love their sound.

Always something new to watch

I cannot imagine being bored in a world so full of wonderful books, music, TV shows, and movies.  On the latter two fronts, these trailers fill me with hopeful anticipation.

The Sherlock special.



Doctor Who's new season.



And, of course, Bond, James Bond.



I look forward to all of them!

So you want the other take on Terminator Genisys?

The one that, while giving away spoilers, explains most (but never all) of the aspects of the movie that are just plain dumb?

Want no longer:  io9.com has come to your aid with this excellent piece.

I still had a good time watching the movie, but only because I tried never to think about it.

About my story in Onward, Drake!

I've been mentioning this upcoming book

a lot lately, and I'll continue to talk about it from time to time until it appears.  A few folks have asked me about my story in it, so I thought I'd break my usual silence on such matters and share two facts with you.

First, as the ToC I showed yesterday gave away, the story's title is, "All That's Left".

Next, here's how it starts:

Crane froze a step short of the doorway. The room screamed indifference and menace. He looked at his husband and shook his head.  

To read more, you'll need to pick up the book.

More reasons you need to pre-order a copy of Onward, Drake!

I've mentioned this October book before, and I'm going to mention it again.

If you're even remotely considering not buying it, check out this table of contents:

Introduction:  It’s About Time - Mark L.  Van Name
The Great Wizard, Cabbage - David Drake 
Incubator - Gene Wolfe 
A Flat Affect - Eric Flint 
SUM - Cecelia Holland 
David Drake - Tom Doherty 
The Crate Warrior, the Doppelganger, and the Idea Woman - Mur Lafferty 
Working with Dave, or, Inmates in Bellevue - S.M.  Stirling 
Hell Hounds - Tony Daniel 
Technical Advantage - John Lambshead 
Saracens - T.C.  McCarthy 
The One that Got Away - Eric S.  Brown 
Appreciating Dave - Toni Weisskopf 
Swimming from Joe - Barry N.  Malzberg 
The Village of Yesteryear - Sarah Van Name 
The Trouble with Telepaths - Hank Davis 
A Cog In Time - Sarah A.  Hoyt 
All That’s Left - Mark L.  Van Name 
The Losing Side - Larry Correia 
Save What You Can - David Drake

We're talking multiple bestselling and award-winning writers, a wide variety of stories and essays, and hours of entertaining and often thought-provoking reading.

Yeah, you need this book.

Two Roosters: The second great local ice cream

For quite some time now, the best ice cream in the Triangle area, hands-down, has come from The Parlour in Durham.  No other ice cream I've tasted has even come close to the wonderful confections from The Parlour.

I'm happy to say that we have now gained another great local ice cream vendor:  Two Roosters.  I've sampled their ice creams twice now--once at a Durham food event and earlier today when they were scooping from their ice cream trailer a mile and a half from my house--and both times everything I tasted was delicious.

Click the image to see a larger version.

As you can see if you magnify the photo, their menu is small but interesting, with a few classic flavors and several of their own invention.  I'm particularly fond of their vanilla vanilla, and the strawberry I tasted today was also excellent.  Their flavors are generally strong and clean, though the more complex concoctions, such as the butterscotch haystack, definitely will leave you smiling as you discover their ingredients.

Also obvious is the fact that they operate out of a trailer, so you'll have to follow them on Twitter to learn where they're going to be--just as we did in the days before Parlour had a store.

Before you ask me in email or a comment, no, I am not going to choose one place over the other.  I don't want to do that.  Instead, I want to encourage all of us to support both businesses; the Triangle can handle more than a few great ice cream sources.

I certainly intend to support both.

On this Fourth of July

about a hundred of us gathered in the country at Dave's house, ate, talked, and watched (or, in my case, helped put on) a lovely fireworks show.

It was a good, if hot and tiring day.

I hope your Independence Day was equally good.