Andrew R Gross

I just finished "Perdido Street Station", a 2001 steampunk novel by China Mieville.  Overall, it was good enough that it captured my interest, although it doesn't rise to the title of "favorite".  The story follows Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a scientist who is commissioned by a crippled human-bird hybrid to invent an anti-gravity field so that he can fly again.  This is all ancillary, though.  The central conflict is the looming catastrophe threatened by a quintet of gargantuan multidimensional psychic monsters which are unleashed by Dan der Grimnebulin accidentally during his investigations into flight.  The world is populated by numerous non-human creatures, of which birdmen are one.  Also, science is magic.  The major consequence of this manifests in the time it takes Dan der Grimnebulin to accomplish something:  He can't ignore physics at an instant with a wave of a wand, but he can if given about 6 weeks and a trip to the apothecary. ...

A few weeks ago my neighbor got three chickens.  Following some discussion, she agreed to let me build a coop for them.  I'm excited to have a new project to work on.  Last Sunday I got started.  Pictures are below.  This is the space it will go in.  The current coop will go inside of the new one. The design   Cutting wood  Laying out the frame of the first wall The first wall, with a door. As I said, I'm super excited for this.  It's a fun project, and it's larger in scale that I'd be able to manage normally.  My neighbors have a great backyard to work in.  More picture as this project develops.

Here are some pictures from February. The Heart of Art is a gallery in central LA.  Here, I convinced a reluctant Julie to put on a big foam skull.  Jack's roommate Natalii threw a Frozen-themed 26th birthday party.  Julie wore a thematically appropriate dress.  Horseback riding for Valentine's day Ruby trying a bite of my ice cream sandwich in the park It was a busy-ish month, especially the back-half.  Kind of exhausting, really.  March is shaping up to be more fun and less anxious.

Previously,  I described how an attempt to execute a powerful shape-shifter was derailed when they transformed into Alden's dead wife and then switched bodies with him during the ensuing confusion. The finale wasn't very literary, but it was entertaining for those of us present.  We carefully planned where each of us would be.  We had to consider distance to water, who was standing next to whom, and many other details.  We arranged a code phrase and a physical feat for each person to use to demonstrate their identity.  Eventually, we put our complicated plan into effect.  It was Lazlo who delivered the fatal blow, lifting the curse which Grimdark had placed upon him.  Corelis remains cursed.

I started playing D&D about a year ago.  For those unaware, Dungeons and Dragons is a popular role-playing game in which players embark on medieval fantasy adventures.  More information can be found here .   This is not to be confused with S&M, which is Sado-Masochism: a different kind of role-playing in which participants consensualy give and receive abuse for sexual gratification.  I mention this because I learned after nearly a year of mentioning my hobby that my mother had been somewhat confused on this point.  It's a bit of an awkward misunderstanding, but it firmly demonstrates her level of tolerance to anyone who might ever challenge her. I play weekly with Julie and six other friends.  When done correctly, it provides a great ongoing story.  This will be the first of many occasional blog posts to share our most entertaining episodes. Our core party consisted of Alden, a jeweler and hedge-wizard on a midlife crisis; Maraduay...

Last week, I went through an odd illness.  What I initially assumed were pangs of hunger began on Tuesday night and then persisted for the rest of the week.  It wasn't a constant ache.  In fact, it didn't feel like a typical pain.  It was just a series of uncomfortable, acute pangs that waned and waxed through the day.   By the end of the week, I was more perplexed than uncomfortable.  Most stomach ailments I've felt cause some kind of digestive trouble, but my digestion was unaffected.  Was it a chemical intolerance to something I ate?  Some kind of stomach flu?  I don't really know, but it made me think about my stomach more than I normally do. My biggest wonder was this: why did I experience any given stomach pang specifically when I did?  Why not five minutes earlier, or later?  If you burn your hand, the pain is dull and continuous.  If you have a sore muscle, it barks when touched or used.  What made my stomac...

In my previous post, I shared a picture of a sign marking Frogtown, with an arrow pointing down.  Although this was located above a sewer entry tunnel, it was apparently just an indication of what neighborhood we were in. Furthermore, apparently it's the unwilling focus of new developers.   I didn't Google this, I just came across it by coincidence. L.A.'S HOTTEST NEW NEIGHBORHOOD, FROGTOWN, DOESN'T WANT THE TITLE Frogtown Fancification on a Roll With Second Big Mixed-User Also, while I'm making corrections, I want to clarify that the incident with the poop was not meant to represent the standard state of my home.  Discounting that incident, the pets of our house are fairly well behaved.

Here are some photos of January, guest starring out-of-town friend Dan.