Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 156 entries, all of them here in full.
November 3, 2016 · 92 words
Mystery Plane
I’ve run a number of mystery plane contests, with my online friends of the Ground Observer Corps never taking longer than about 20 minutes to identify the plane. So I thought I’d put up a poser. What plane did I find here on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? There’s an oval defense blister on […]
Read entry →November 2, 2016 · 1,112 words
Manta Ray
It’s always been my ambition to view a manta ray, or devilfish, though luck has always been against me. One of the best places in the world to see a manta is the German Channel in Palau, a channel in the reef blasted by German engineers in support of their phosphate mining endeavors, back when […]
Read entry →November 1, 2016 · 304 words
Ghost Ship
Wanna hear a ghost story? (It’s still Halloween in the States, I believe, though I’m on the far side of the dateline myself.) This is the story of an unknown ship, known as the “depth charge wreck” or the “helmet wreck,” from its cargo. It was a Japanese sub-chaser sunk during the Second World War, […]
Read entry →October 22, 2016 · 172 words
Return to Palau
After two days on airplanes and in airports, we got to spend a night in a luxury hotel. It caters more to Japanese than American visitors, so the breakfast buffet had some interesting choices. I had a vegetable stir-fry of udon noodles topped with a couple eggs sunny-side-up, along with tropical fruit and coffee, and [
Read entry →October 19, 2016 · 117 words
Oceania
I’m going off to the Pacific for two and a half weeks, to commune with my finny friends. Much of that time I’ll be on a boat with no phone or internet connection, which I for one find to be a delightful prospect. The rest of the time I’ll be on one or another island. […]
Read entry →October 18, 2016 · 562 words
Wonderful World of Color
When I made my trip in August to view the Tall Ships, I decided to replace my digital Pentax SLR. I chose the camera in the first place so that I could use the lenses that belonged to my beloved old Pentax film camera, which finally pooped out around 2006. But the new camera had […]
Read entry →October 16, 2016 · 78 words
Last Chance
My 99-cent sale on my Praxis novel Investments, and my sale (outside North America) of The Praxis, are now entering their last hours. So if you want Investments at 99 cents, please go to: [kindle] [nook] [Smashwords] [iBooks] [Kobo]. And The Praxis may still be found for 99 cents at: Amazon.co.uk, iBooks, Kobo, and Goo
Read entry →October 13, 2016 · 1,218 words
Reviews Too Late: Staying Up Too Late with HBO
I got free HBO last weekend as part of a promotion for Westworld, which I didn’t watch. But I did sit down to watch a number of movies I hadn’t seen in theaters. (I see so few movies on release that if I were an Oscar voter, I’d be voting only for the Retro Oscars.) And […]
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