The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Culinary Notes

    This is the weird time of the culinary year. This coming week I'm going to be canning summer tomatoes . . . and making a pudding for Christmas. New England's late growing season means you get all the summer produce right about the time it starts getting too chilly to sit outside and enjoy it.…

    jamescambias

  • Albacon 2023

    Albany's long-running science fiction and fantasy convention is back up to full speed this year, with an impressive guest lineup, a full schedule, and a nifty hybrid live-plus-online format. As always, I'll be there — I said I'd be at their disposal for one full day, Saturday the 10th — and they're getting the most…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • Island of Lost Games: Fading Suns

    It's been a while since we visited the Island of Lost Games, but there are still a few old and obscure titles on my shelf to explore. Today's game is 1996's Fading Suns, by Bill Bridges and Andrew Greenberg. It's probably the most well-known and successful of the Island's titles, but it never did manage…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • Notes on Lovecraft’s Great Race

    The "Great Race" — often known as the "Great Race of Yith" or "Yithians" (but more on that later) — are the villains (?) in H.P. Lovecraft's last major story, "The Shadow Out of Time." Written in 1934 and published the year before Lovecraft's death, the story is the narrative of one Professor Nathaniel Wingate…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • Nope

    I write science fiction. I'm a huge astronomy buff, and a fan of all things space-related. I'm theoretically in the middle of writing a series about designing alien planets and extraterrestrial civilizations. So now that the United States Congress is holding hearings on whether there are alien spacecraft visiting the Earth, and whether the armed…

    jamescambias

  • France Excursion 2023 Part Nine: Reunion in Paris and Departure

    On June 28 I had my last breakfast in Tours, said au revoir to Diane, and went off to the train station while she remained behind for another couple of days at the conference. I made the train in plenty of time, rode to the transfer at St. Pierre-des-Corps, and boarded the TGV to Paris.…

    jamescambias

  • France Excursion 2023 Part Eight: Heroes of the AEF

    On Tuesday, June 27th, Diane had to head off to the neuroendocrinology conference, so I was on my own for the morning. I got some espresso and walked about more or less at random. I went across the Loire via the Pont Napoleon, which crosses a large island in mid-river. The island is set up…

    jamescambias

  • France Excursion 2023 Part Seven: Secrets of the Templars!

    Monday the 26th was the last full day before the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology conference got underway, so we decided to go see what lies west of Tours, having gone east on all our previous jaunts. More or less at random we chose Chinon as our destination. Chinon is a little town sheltered between a…

    jamescambias

  • France Excursion 2023 Part Six: Pandas!

    On Sunday we set out early once again, heading up the valley of the Cher a second time. Our destination was the town of Saint-Aignan, home of the ZooParc de Beauval — one of France's best zoos. It's big, modern, and — on summer weekends, anyway — packed with visitors. We got there at opening…

    jamescambias

  • France Excursion 2023 Part Five: Naps!

    On Saturday the 24th we decided to take it easy. We slept about 11 hours, then I stashed the car in a garage for the day while Diane went out to find pastries for breakfast. We took our dirty laundry two blocks to the nearest laundromat: "Charlie et le Choco-Laverie," a hybrid cafe-laundry with wifi.…

    jamescambias

The Worldbuilding Index