My student, Jaume de Dios, has set up a web site to collect upcoming mathematics seminars from any institution that are open online.  (For instance, it has a talk that I will be giving in an hour.)   There is a form for adding further talks to the site; please feel free to contribute (or make […]

In contrast to previous notes, in this set of notes we shall focus exclusively on Fourier analysis in the one-dimensional setting for simplicity of notation, although all of the results here have natural extensions to higher dimensions. Depending on the physical context, one can view the physical domain as representing either space or time; we […]

This Thursday (4/9), eighteen authors (including yours truly!) will be doing live readings to celebrate International Unicorn Day!!! At 10:30am ET, I'll be on Facebook Live on my author page here: https://www.facebook.com/sarahbethdurst

And I may be wearing a unicorn onesie... 

Eeeeeeep!!! A STARRED REVIEW from Booklist for CATALYST, my next kids book, out 6/9! Thanks for brightening my day, Booklist!

https://www.booklistonline.com/Catalyst-Sarah-Beth-Durst/pid=9729210

Woohoo!!! SPARK made the Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award 2020-21 list! Thanks so much, Florida librarians! You have absolutely made my day!

https://www.floridamediaed.org/ssyra.html 

One thing I like about the Star Wars franchise: it is coherent; it doesn’t keep trying to reimagine or reinvent or reinterpret itself. The latest film, Rogue One, goes to great lengths to look like and fit in with the very first film, the original Star Wars, from 40 years ago. Star Trek made a […]

A friend wrote to me today urging me to read Killing the Rising Sun as, by he said, Bill O’Reilly, since it made the case that the U.S. had to drop atomic bombs on Japan. My reply: You underestimate me, my friend; I’ve already read to Killing the Rising Sun. The key issue out of […]

The times they are a-changin’ in publishing, and so I’ve set up a Patreon page at patreon.com/robertjsawyer, where my readers can support my work directly. Please check it out! Many thanks! Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Email

In my new novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative — coming June 2, 2020, and available for pre-order now — the following exchange occurs between J. Robert Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty (with Kitty employing a racial slur that was regrettably all-too-common during the Second World War): “They … they’ve dropped a second bomb,” Oppie said, holding her. […]

My week has been stressful. They called Thursday and offered me the half-time job. They needed to know that day -- we haven't heard back on the lucrative job James has applied for, so I declined, citing the fact that I'm the only breadwinner and James hasn't heard back about the job he was waiting to hear from (I didn't mention to the HR person that it's a job at my same employer, because it's probably not her fault they're lagging on his job, and I'm not an asshole). She wanted to know when I'd know, and I said, "Well, I was supposed to know two weeks ago, so I mean, soon, I hope, but no guarantees."

She called me back an hour later and offered to give me a week to decide (because they actually don't want the other two people who interviewed, is my surmise), so yeah, rollercoaster day on Thursday.

And then a student's mom called and cussed me out for like half an hour. I don't take that stuff personally, but it does wear on me. My co-workers marvelled over and over about how calm I stayed, and I said (and I meant it), "She was frustrated. That's understandable. And I don't have to attend every fight I'm invited to," which became a theme for the week.

My mom got in a fracas with another member of her senior center, and I shared my week's theme with her. I think she felt a little chastised, but she also seemed to latch onto the theme as a potential sanity saver.

And then today at the donut shop, I accidentally passed up another person who was waiting to pay (because I followed the person who gave me our donuts to the register and didn't notice the other person who was standing away from the registers at the window. She berated me for many minutes about how rude I was, and how I should give a bitch some space, and how in America, we call this White Privilege, and and and... I just apologized, didn't engage beyond that, (felt frankly detached and mildly amused -- not sure what that says about me) and then once she'd left, the cashier apologized to me for the customer.

Me: "Nah, she's not wrong. I didn't see her, but I did cut in front of her."

I mean, I don't like being yelled at, or having people behave in ways that I perceive as rude towards me, but I'm not gonna fault someone for standing up for their space when I've violated it, so long as they're not hitting me or something. Not a fight I need to get into; not a hill I'm gonna die on.

So yeah, stressful week for many reasons, but not something that's gonna ruin my Saturday, which will now be completed by spending many many many hours writing and catching up on webcomics.

And how are YOU, dear ones?

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Just emailed this to a family member and thought I'd put it here for my later reference:

Thanks for the update. Sorry for being brief before. They closed my school to move to online instruction (and UCSD; and most or all the K-12s; I don't know about SDSU yet). We're off for at least two weeks, and they'll let us know for sure on the 23rd if we're going back on the 30th. They're paying us, thank goodness (and thank labor unions), and they've given me remote access so I can work from home, which I'm happy about.

Mom has finally gotten it in her head that this is serious, so she's bowed out of her big weekly bridge game, which is actually illegal here now -- more than 10 elderly people or more than 250 people, period, is outlawed.

Today, I'm taking it easy except for a visit from the kid and some work-from-home stuff that's not difficult. For the next two-plus weeks, I plan to read a lot, write a lot, and play cards with mom, who will develop cabin fever pretty quickly. We stocked up on necessaries last weekend, so we've decided that barring actual urgency (not, like, "I want ice cream" urgency, that is), we're not going to shop at all during my break. This will be harder for mom, as you can imagine.

My baby brother (he will be 48 this week -- a mere embryo! -- is near ground zero in Washington State, but so far, his family is okay. He's worried about his wife's grandparents, who are quite old and quite ill. He (my brother) is in management at the cable company there, and he's just making sure his installers keep their distance, etc.

Love you, and hope to see you soon. Don't touch your face. :-)

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Some of us who are disabled and/or fat are worried we'll be denied access to scarce medical resources during the pandemic. This document describes our legal rights (in the US) and ways to maximize our likelihood of getting care.

#NoBodyIsDisposable Guide to Surviving COVID-19 Triage

Crips and fatties made this.
Please share with everyone who needs it.

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Bring the galaxy home on May the 4th.

That trip to Tosche Station can wait!

Six young Jedi face their fears and themselves in an ancient rite of passage.

Download the Padmé-starring novel at no charge from May 1 - 8.

May the 4th be with you with these special sales and discounts on items from around the galaxy.

Watch the debut of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and more!

Darth Sidious’s master plan becomes reality, and the galaxy will never be the same.

The award-winning title from ILMxLAB heads to PlayStation VR this summer.

Celebrate May the 4th with Death Star-sized deals on some the biggest Star Wars games.

Emmy Nominee Leslye Headland to write, produce, and serve as showrunner for new untitled Star Wars series for Disney+.

These lines are impressive. Most impressive.

Get behind-the-scenes peeks from the production of The Mandalorian with personal photos from Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and many more.

Hondo, you ol' pirate.

In the chilling series finale, Ahsoka and Rex try to survive Order 66 and plot one final escape.

There was a time – before I sank my teeth into the board game hobby and before I took on the demands of being a stepmom to three children - that I planned frequent trips for my friends circle. Each month would see us jet setting off to a different part of the United States (or a different part of the world) in search of adventure and great cuisine. I would pour myself into the research project that proper trip planning requires and create a custom itinerary for our group, working to ensure we caught all the highlights of our destination. This post is about the one I worked up for our last trip to some of the great Western National Parks in the United States.  I share it here with the hope that you might find the itinerary useful in planning your trip out west.

--> Full Photo Gallery – Come and Explore 

Let's take a moment to talk about the series Exit: The Game, which debuted in the United States in 2016.

Designed by Inka and Marcus Brand and published by Thames and Kosmos, the games are advertised as an Escape Room in a box. In an escape room, you and a group a friends are placed into a room (you may literally be locked in, depending on the fire code of the city where you book the room). Then,  a timer is set, a story is told to you to provide context and atmosphere for your puzzling adventure, and you attempt to solve a series of puzzles, the answers to which will eventually lead you to a key or combination to escape the room - hopefully before time runs out. These rooms typically book for $30+ per person, so the promise of replicating the escape room experience out of a tiny little box for a fraction of the cost is very appealing.

But does Exit: The Game live up to its promise? It does. It absolutely does, with one caveat - some of the games have you puzzling to solve a mystery within the time limit, but you aren't trying to escape anything.

Earlier titles in the series are fairly straightforward. A paper booklet of puzzles; a set each of riddle cards (pair with the booklet to solve the puzzles), answer cards (used to validate puzzle solutions and lead you to new riddle cards),  and help cards (hints for solving the puzzles); a decoder wheel (used to input codes derived from the puzzles); a simple rulebook; and various accessories (usually constructed of cardboard or paper) provide the core of the game experience. Players need to come equipped with scissors (destruction of components is required in nearly every game), pens/pencils, rulers, and a sharp wit to finish the game and calculate their score (measured in stars). The puzzle mechanisms vary, but they will be at least somewhat familiar to players who have done escape rooms or puzzle hunts before.  Depending on the title chosen, the puzzles also vary in difficulty. There is a difficulty rating printed on each box. We found that on average, we finish every Exit title in about 75 minutes; what varies for us across difficulty ratings is how many hint cards we lean on to solve the puzzles.

As the series has progressed in maturity, Inka and Marcus have been able to deliver titles with creative new puzzle mechanisms, changes in solving methodology (such as varying whether the puzzles in the paper booklet must be completed in sequential order or not), and meta puzzles. Meta puzzles are those which you cannot solve without getting a piece of the solution from some or all of the other puzzles included. For example, a puzzle that has you solve for a sentence comprised of words derived from other puzzle solutions is a meta puzzle. A good example of a title from the Exit: The Game series with a meta puzzle is Exit: The Game  - Dead Man on the Orient Express. It includes a meta puzzle that requires players to pay close attention to the passengers, their possessions, and locations throughout the game in order to solve it successfully. That game also introduced envelopes to open as the game progressed and it’s one of the titles that doesn’t see players escaping anything; instead they are trying to issue a code at the end to transmit the identity of a killer to authorities.

By the time the series release of Exit: The Game – The Catacombs of Horror  came around, I really thought the Brands couldn’t have any new tricks up their sleeve. I was wrong. With Catacombs of Horror, they have introduced the two part adventure, giving players a longer puzzling experience in one box. You can play straight through the entire game (allot yourself at least 2 hours) or play the first half and come back to the second half another time. There are also some fantastic new twists on the puzzling mechanisms (a candle is included and must be lit to solve one of the puzzles, for example), and the components got an upgrade (I’m holding onto the adorable little skulls indefinitely). Alongside the puzzle elements, the theming in the series has gotten better and better as new titles are released. Catacombs of Horror provides a well written narrative, albeit very very dark. As we solve puzzles, we find ourselves chasing down what happened to a friend of ours who disappeared into the Catacombs of Paris. It seems he may have met a dark end after having crossed paths with some demonic forces. This title is definitely not for the kiddos, which might be its only drawback. We have clever tweens who enjoy puzzle games, and this isn’t something we can share with them.

There have been at least three more titles released in the Exit: The Game series since Catacombs of Horror  was published in 2018 and more are on the way for 2020. If you’ve previously purchased any of the series, I’d strongly recommend adding Catacombs of Horror  to your must-play list. If this is the first you’ve heard of the series, do yourself a favor, and start with one of the easier titles, such as Exit: The Game – The Sunken Treasure. Then if you have a good time, move onto Exit: The Game – The Pharoh’s Tomb, before sinking your teeth into the most difficult titles like Exit: The Game  - Dead Man on the Orient Express or this one (Exit: The Game – The Catacombs of Horror ).

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Publisher: Thames and Kosmos
Players: 1-4 (we always play with 2)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 2 and a half hours
Game type: puzzle, cooperative
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

I will meet you there this weekend!

I'll be at TABLE F2 with the lovely keshii! There's going to be a lot of amazing and beautiful people there!

I will have Starfighter: Chapter 01, t-shirts, hot shorts, AND ALSO, some sweet extras. This will be my first con with a table.. and it is all because of you guys! Thank you so, so much! I can only hope I can meet you guys so I can thank you in person; you have my humble love and affection.

I'll see you there, sweethearts! -HamletMachine

Hey Everyone! I've been hard at work for the last month or so on doing a small update to the website. The most obvious thing you'll see is it's gotten a bit of a facelift which will hopefully make it a little easier to use. I've also tried to streamline things a bit so we don't have as much server strain when Hamlet puts out a new page.

Additionally, we've put in a new fanart section that features a whole bunch of awesome Starfighter fanart done by sexy Starfighter fans from around the world!

The games section is also improved, sporting games to some of our favorite awesomely talented artists.

If you don't watch HamletMachine on DeviantArt, check out the extras section too, where I've added a bunch of her recent Starfighter drawings.

Wow, ok that's it for now I swear! -Thisbe

Thank you all for your patience! I've had a lot of computer problems over the past two weeks and lost what I had been working on for page 26 of Chapter 2… But don't worry, very much like Narsil of King Elendil, IT HAS BEEN REMADE! My apologies for the delay! I really appreciate the continued love and support. And yes, I have a new hard drive now.

Also, the long awaited second Starfighter T-Shirt IS NOW AVAILABLE! This shirt had previously only been available at MoCCA and Yaoi-con, but now it's ready for purchase on the shop! This is actually the first t-shirt I designed, so I am quite fond of it!

Along with the new shirts, we've gotten in another shipment of the original Black Starfighter T-Shirt as well.

Thank you all so much! Enjoy! -HamletMachine

Yes! It's time for my NYC to SF pilgrimage for Yaoi-con! The con will take place October 21st through 23, 2011 at The San Francisco Airport Marriott hotel in Burlingame, California.

I will be in the Dealer's Room this year!

I will have a bunch of new stuff with me: new t-shirts, new prints, new buttons, KEYCHAINS, and..

/ / / CHAPTER: 02 PRE-ORDER! / / /

WHICH I AM EXCITED FOR! This is a special promotion for Yaoi-con-- Chapter 02 will eventually be available online for pre-order, so don't worry if you can't make it to the con! The chapter is very close to being finished but there are still some smutty extras to draw for the printed version-- so please hold on a little longer, I promise it will be worth it!

I'll also be raffling off an original piece of traditional art, so watch out for that as well!

Ah, I am really looking forward to meeting sweet readers and hanging out with west coast friends! If you are at the con, please stop by, I would love to give you thanks and kiss your sweet fingertips!

As always, thank you so, so much for you love and support! I hope to do you all proud! -Hamlet

Hello!

I've gotten a few questions about when Starfighter: Chapter 03 will start! I don't have a specific date, but it certainly won't be until after Starfighter: Chapter 02 is printed and on sale! Chapter 02 is going to have some exclusive extra art and I am working really hard to make it special for the readers.. It's going to be worth it, trust me! Just take my hand, sweetheart, I'd never lead you astray..

Thank you so much for your patience and support! ♥ -Hamlet

Hello! Everyone who is waiting for the print release of Chapter 2, here is a progress report! The Deimos mini-smut-comic is finished, which is great, and I'm now in the middle of working on the Cain and Abel mini-smut-comic… which I have been waiting FOREVER to do! I'm so glad to get my black claws into this. So hold tight, my sweethearts, these goodies are on their way to you! I'll make more announcements as things develop!

Thank you so much for your patience! -Hamlet

TCAF site!

If you're attending, stop by and say hello!

(I don't have a table number yet but I'll be sure to announce this as soon as I know! If not, I'm sure you can find where my table is in the directory!)

EDIT: OH MAN! I almost forgot— At last Yaoi-con, there was a sweet person who had lost her voice from a cold (ah, I'm not sure if I got your name) and had printed out some TCAF info so I could attend— SWEETHEART, IF YOU READ THIS, THANK YOU! I hope to see you there!) -Hamlet

I will be in the Otakon AA at tables S01 and S02 with my buddies, Lochi and Cucoo! The Teahouse ladies will also be right next to us, so it will be a big NSFW party!

Here's our table spot!

I'll be selling everything in the Starfighter shop, INCLUDING CHAPTER 02! The t-shirts are restocked and there's some new prints, plus a beautiful new Starfighter icon neckalce - so look out for those!

(I'll also try to attend the Homestuck draw party!) Please come say hello if you're visiting the AA- I really love meeting readers and I hope to see you!♥ -Hamlet

I'll be at OTAKUTHON in Montreal, Canada, this weekend!

Here's the con site!

I'll be at table #244 in the Exhibition Hall! I'll be selling everything in the Starfighter shop, INCLUDING CHAPTER 02, plus a beautiful new Starfighter icon neckalce!

ALSO! I'll be doing a late night 18+ panel scheduled for Saturday at 11PM, in the room “Panel 7” which is room #524AB!

I hope to see you there! -Hamlet

I'll be at YAOI-CON this weekend!

My table will be in the Dealer's Room this year! I'll be selling all the usuals to be found in the site shop - plus necklaces and sticker sheets!

I'll also be doing a SPECIAL PANEL at 6pm on Saturday! Filled with prizes, some smutty sketches, and shameless flirting.

Meeting readers is seriously the best thing ever and I hope I get to see you, if you're attending! -Hamlet

It's a double update all the way!

We had an awesome time at Yaoi-Con last weekend, it was so wonderful being able to meet all of you that came to the table and to the panel. Now that we're back home, Hamlet worked extra hard to get two new pages out for everyone this week!

We've also put a few new pieces of merchandise up on the Starfighter Shop! There's a new print, a Starfighter Icon Necklace, and a super-cute Sticker Sheet.

Enjoy! -Thisbe

I'll be at KATSUCON Feb. 15th-17th, in MD! More info at the Katsucon site!

We'll be at table #D17 and #D18 in the AA with my buddies Lochi and Cucoo! Look for Starfighter/Bone Menagerie! -Hamlet

I WILL BE AT OTAKON! IN THE AA! We'll have some copies of Coven, as well as my new witch zine Devil's Dance!

I will be a guest next year at Ahn!Con in Kansas City! This will be our first midwest con! There will be a special panel, plus we'll have Chapter 1 and 2 of Starfighter, as well as my new witch zine Devil's Dance!

I'll be in the Artist Alley, table M01:

I might be able to wrangle a very SMALL amount of Chp 2 and 3 early from the printer (the rest of the books will be coming in about two months, I'm told! Kickstarter merch can go out when those arrive! Ah, I'm sorry it takes a while to be made!), this way I will.. actually have some books to sell at my table! But it will be a very limited amount, so it might sell out quick!

I don't have a panel or anything at Otakon, I'll just be at the table- please stop by if you are around, I'd love to say hello!

See you there! -Hamlet

I'll be in the Dealer's Room at Yaoicon this year! (Sept 12th-14th) This is my only CA con this year, so if you're attending, please stop by!

SEE YOU THERE! -Hamlet

I'll be a guest at Nijicon, an east coast con all about m/m romance, Oct 18th and 19th in Valley Forge, PA!

I'll also be on a panel but I'm not quite sure when that will be just yet!

I hope to see you there! This will be my last con of 2014--! -Hamlet

I’ll be at Fanime! San Jose, CA, May 22nd - 25th!

I’ll be in the artist alley! I hope to see you if you’re attending! Come say hello~ -Hamlet