I’ve added a new section to the blog: “Links.” I’ve been using RSS¹ off and on since it was invented to keep up with stuff around the web.² I’ll be posting (theoretically weekly) a roundup of whatever I found interesting that crossed my path (via RSS or any other way), but which for whatever reason I don’t have much to say about beyond that. Note that the key word here is “interesting,” not “correct”—and definitely not “endorsed.” This will be its own section, but will still appear on the main page of the site and in the main feed.

¹ By which I mean “a feed” of whatever sort, whether technically RSS or something like Atom or the newfangled JSON. It’ll be “RSS” forever, I’m afraid, just like basically everybody still says “SSL” instead of “TLS.”

² The demise of Google Reader was a stumbling block, but not a fatal one. These days I use a self-hosted Miniflux instance; I’ve self-hosted FreshRSS in the past and also used Inoreader.

This is my first real post. I am almost too tired to write, but if I don’t start, I’ll never start. And I didn’t set up this blog in order to not start.

Wednesday of last week, I flew into MSP for the wedding of a friend’s son. That leg of the trip was uneventful—in the good way, meaning there were no problems. I flew in, found my Airbnb, went to Vigil that evening at St. Herman’s and Liturgy on Thursday morning, and the wedding that afternoon (at a different church) was beautiful. Unlike some people, I don’t actively miss the hymns from my Protestant upbringing,¹ but it was genuinely great to hear so many people singing together.

The return leg of the trip started off fine, from MSP to CLT, but thereupon things became uneventful in the bad way, meaning nothing happened. My flight home was delayed, then cancelled. Then I got rebooked with an additional stop through DFW (not ideal, but fine, whatever)…which then itself got delayed to the point that by the time I arrived there, my actual flight home to JAN would already have left. Then I was able to get rebooked again on a CLT to JAN direct flight, which was then cancelled about an hour before it was supposed to board. And on and on. Long story short, I finally crawled into bed about 1:30 AM Monday morning, just slightly over 48 hours after.

I’m tempted to badmouth American Airlines here out of sheer frustration; but I won’t, since they (as far as I know) can’t control the weather, and in any case I’ve had similar experiences with other carriers. I will say, throughout all this, every American employee I interacted with was unfailingly polite, personable, and as helpful as they could be under the circumstances. That didn’t make the experience good or fun, but at least I wasn’t also seething with rage.

Okay, that’s an entry. More soon.

¹ Probably because I still sing the ones I like to myself, even if they don’t get an airing in church.

OK. Textpattern is installed. Now to actually write things.

In 2025, I finished the following books:

1. Yendi by Steven Brust.
2. Issola by Steven Brust.
3. At All Costs by David Weber.
4. Orca by Steven Brust.
5. Dragon by Steven Brust.
6. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
7. Jhereg by Steven Brust.
8. Athyra by Steven Brust.
9. Phoenix by Steven Brust.
10. Dzur by Steven Brust.
11. Taltos by Steven Brust.
12. Jhegaala by Steven Brust.
13. Iorich by Steven Brust.
14. Tiassa by Steven Brust.
15. A Rising Thunder by David Weber.
16. Hawk by Steven Brust.
17. Vallista by Steven Brust.
18. Teckla by Steven Brust.
19. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers.
20. Everyone’s Austistic: A Memoir on the Spectrum by Jeff Romanczuk.
21. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787): Their History and Theology by Leo D. Davis.
22. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers.
23. The Byzantine Rite: A Short History by Robert Taft.
24. The Bible in the Syriac Tradition by Sebastian P. Brock.
25. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham.
26. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason.
27. Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham.
28. Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham.
29. The Eye of Osiris by Austin R. Freeman.
30. The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett.
31. Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham.
32. Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham.
33. The Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham.
34. The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham.
35. Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham.
36. Out of the Soylent Planet by Robert Kroese.
37. The Wrath of Cons by Robert Kroese.
38. A Scammer Darkly by Robert Kroese.
39. A Grift Too Far by Robert Kroese.
40. High Plains Grifter by Robert Kroese.
41. Pearls before Swine by Margery Allingham.
42. The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.
43. Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham.
44. The China Governess by Margery Allingham.
45. The Way of a Pilgrim by Anonymous.
46. The Church at Prayer by Aimilianos of Simonopetra.
47. The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto by Leah Libresco Sergeant.
48. The Mystery of 31 New Inn by Austin R. Freeman.
49. The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914 by Béla Zombory-Moldován.

I finished the following books in 2024:

1. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
3. The Big Time by Fritz Leiber.
4. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie.
5. The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie.
6. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin.
7. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie.
8. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie.
9. The Big Four by Agatha Christie.
10. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie.
11. Dragon Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
12. Kai Lung’s Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah.
13. From the Exile to Christ: A Historical Introduction to Palestinian Judaism by Werner Foerster.
14. Kim by Rudyard Kipling.
15. Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley.
16. The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander.
17. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers.
18. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers.
19. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers.
20. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.
21. Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers.
22. Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village by Serge Schmemann.
23. Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin.
24. On the Ecclesiastical Mystagogy by St. Maximus the Confessor.
25. Homilies on Joshua by Origen.
26. City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
27. Planet of Exile by Ursula K.Le Guin.
28. Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier.
29. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
30. Lyorn by Steven Brust.
31. The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John of the Ladder.
32. Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.
33. Amid Weeping There Is Joy: Orthodox Perspectives on Tolkien’s Fantastic Realm by Cyril Gary Jenkins, et al.
34. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
35. Faith and Humor: Notes from Muscovy by Maya Kucherskaya.
36. The Philosophical Strangler by Eric Flint.
37. Lost Histories: The Good, the Bad, and the Strange in Early American Orthodoxy by Matthew Namee.
38. To Clear Away the Shadows by David Drake.
39. Shift Happens: A Book about Keyboards by Marcin Wichary.
40. Ribbon Dance by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
41. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
42. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
43. Journey to Reality: Sacramental Life in a Secular Age by Zachary Porcu.
44. On the Apostolic Preaching by St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
45. The Computers that Made Britain by Tim Danton.
46. The Red Box by Rex Stout.
47. Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout.
48. Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout.
49. Where There’s a Will by Rex Stout.
50. The Silent Speaker by Rex Stout.
51. Trouble in Triplicate by Rex Stout.
52. Three Doors to Death by Rex Stout.
53. The Second Confession by Rex Stout.
54. In the Best Families by Rex Stout.
55. Murder by the Book by Rex Stout.
56. Triple Jeopardy by Rex Stout.
57. Prisoner’s Base by Rex Stout.
58. The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout.
59. Three Men Out by Rex Stout.
60. The Black Mountain by Rex Stout.
61. Before Midnight by Rex Stout.
62. Three Witnesses by Rex Stout.
63. Three for the Chair by Rex Stout.
64. If Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout.
65. And Four to Go by Rex Stout.
66. Plot It Yourself by Rex Stout.
67. Too Many Clients by Rex Stout.
68. The Final Deduction by Rex Stout.
69. Homicide Trinity by Rex Stout.
70. Gambit by Rex Stout.
71. The Mother Hunt by Rex Stout.
72. Trio for Blunt Instruments by Rex Stout.
73. A Right to Die by Rex Stout.
74. Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
75. On the Razor’s Edge by Michael Flynn.
76. Death of a Doxy by Rex Stout.
77. Time and Man by Georgios I. Mantzarides.
78. Starship Grifters by Robert Kroese.
79. Aye, Robot by Robert Kroese.
80. Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust.
81. The Ivory Grin by Ross Macdonald.
82. Find a Victim by Ross Macdonald.
83. Mort by Terry Pratchett.
84. The Book of Steps: The Syriac Liber Graduum by Anonymous.
85. Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser.
86. March Violets by Philip Kerr.
87. The One from the Other by Philip Kerr.
88. A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr.
89. Field Gray by Philip Kerr.
90. Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr.
91. A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr.
92. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
93. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann.