Obsessed with AQI

Like many Californians during fire season, I’m currently obsessed with the Air Quality Index (AQI). I spend my day constantly checking to see what level we’re at, so I can decide whether it’s safe to talk a walk or whether just running to the grocery store requires an N95 mask to protect against the particulate […]

If I wanted Las Vegas heat…

I’d have moved to Las Vegas. Or returned to West Africa. While we didn’t quite get to the 112F predicted yesterday, we did get up to 109F today. That’s the hottest temperature I remember since moving to California in 1999.To help reduce the heat in my bedroom, which gets the afternoon sun, I went out and bought […]

The September Issue of The KierDevil News Is Out!

It’s funny typos time again! The September 2020 edition of my KierDevils newsletter went out on Thursday, September 3rd.  If you’re a subscriber and don’t see it in your Inbox, please check your Spam or Junk folder. For Gmail users, it might also be on your Promotions tab. If my emails are consistently ending up in your spam […]

Accentuate the Positive

I recently heard a podcast interview with Tank Sinatra. The takeaway is that our brains are wired to focus on the negative. In order to maintain balance in a world that shoves negative news at us in a never-ending stream, we need to actively seek out good news. To assist with this, he’s created a […]

To Breathe or Not to Breathe?

When we’re stressed, one of the easiest ways to calm down is to take a deep breath. Yet what if the air isn’t safe to breathe? We’re afraid to breathe when in close proximity to others due to COVID-19. Here in California, wildfire smoke has turned the air toxic. As I’m writing this, the air quality at […]

Storms!

Photo licensed from Depositphotos. Photo copyright Konrad MostertIn the wee hours of this morning, I woke up to find sheet lightning flashing through my bedroom windows. This was silent lightning, without any rain. But accompanied by a very strong wind that had already blown a few items off my nightstand. The sheet lightning continued for several […]

The Curse of the Skunk

Ever since I moved into my current apartment, I’ve been plagued by skunks. y previous apartment backed onto a wooded space. We had the occasional skunk spray nearby, but nothing compared to the number of times I’ve had to close my windows against skunk stink at my current place despite it being in a less wild […]

The August Issue of The KierDevil News Is Out!

The August 2020 edition of my KierDevils newsletter went out on Thursday, August 6th. It contains information on what I’ve been researching, plus what I’ve been reading for pleasure. Enjoy! If you’re a subscriber and don’t see it in your Inbox, please check your Spam or Junk folder. For Gmail users, it might also be on your […]

A New Diving Universe Kickstarter

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember that last year I posted about the Diving Universe Kickstarter offering an early copy of the novel The Renegat by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I’m a huge fan of the Diving Universe space opera novels, so I’m thrilled to have a chance to get […]

Ebook Subscriptions – Aye or Nay?

Are you an e-book subscriber? For those of you who are unfamiliar with ebook subscriptions, they are programs for ebooks that are similar to Netflix. For a monthly subscription fee, the reader gets access to ebooks in the service’s library. The authors get paid on a revenue-sharing basis based on a formula that allocates a portion […]