Halloweeeeeeeeeen

On October 27, 2017October 27, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek5 Comments

Not too bad for my first attempt at surface carving, eh? Please say yes. 🙂

KOKOMO-CON: The Cosplay

On October 14, 2017October 14, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Photography1 Comment

I will be back at this con next year. I had a blast, sold an entire box of books, and the cosplay was magnificent. I’ll be annotating some of these tomorrow (a few of them won’t make a ton of sense out of context) but for now here’s the cosplayer pictures I took:

WELL OKAY ONE STORY: I use free Oreos at my booth as a way to catch people’s attention, right? Toward the end of the con, the guy dressed as Negan waltzed over to me, looked me straight in the eye, and said “You have Oreos. I’m taking half.”

And then he actually did it.

I laughed my ass off. This may be my single favorite con moment so far.

Anyway, the pictures:

HELLO, KOKOMO: The View from the Couch in the Living Room

On October 13, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn Photography1 Comment

I was not expecting an actual suite. I not only got that, there’s a balcony!

Also, I’m in Booth 82. Last-minute change.

You feed a cold, right?

On August 19, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, life3 Comments

Last night, at approximately 4:30 in the morning, I was bludgeoned out of a sound sleep by the sudden and overwhelming need to vomit. Like, threw the covers damn near off the bed, kicked the cat, scared the shit out of the dog, damn near fell over clawing for the bathroom before I projectile vomited all over my entire fucking bedroom. And then… nothing. I got into the bathroom and absolutely nogoddamnthing happened. When my alarm woke me up this morning, I spent a moment reflecting on the fact that I was able to breathe normally and thought oh, hey, maybe I’m better! and then got out of bed and was damn near forced to my knees by the virulence of the ensuing coughing fit. How the hell I made it to work this morning is a mystery, and instead of the usual caffeine product that I make sure to bring with me every day (a bottle of tea, most of the time) I brought Robitussin. I literally do not know how I got through the day, but I managed it, and with enough sales to make the effort more or less worth it.

On the way home, I drove past another fucking wild turkey. I live less than a mile from what is effectively open prairie and woodland (yes, both, in different directions) so the occasional deer and the much-less-occasional herd of deer in the neighborhood isn’t unheard of, along with the other usual urban wildlife, but I swear I never saw a wild turkey before this year and now I’m seeing them all the time. Wild turkeys are fucking weird, guys, and I have the same reaction every time I see one, which is to briefly wonder why the fuck a dinosaur is that close to my car. This particular wild turkey was even weirder, because I watched it in my rear-view mirror as I was driving past and the damn thing was hopping, not walking, across the street. So maybe it’s a one-legged wild turkey? I dunno. I’ve never been one for hunting but I kind of do want to see if these things make for good eating or not.

A minute or so later, I had another massive coughing fit and came very close to swerving into oncoming traffic. Frighteningly close, actually. Probably should have pulled over.

And then I got home and made the sumptuous feast you see in the photo above for dinner– yes, that’s turkey– and for dessert I plan to have codeine. I will try to post something more generally useful and less hallucinatory tomorrow; for now I’m just happy to be alive.

The end.

Zoooooooo

On August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn PhotographyLeave a comment

So the Louisville Zoo is pretty cool. A couple of these pictures will obviously have stories, which I’ll share later. Time to spend 8 hours in the car and drive to Kansas City.

Guest post this evening sometime, with actual words n’ stuff.

VACATION DAY ONE COMPLETE

On August 1, 2017August 1, 2017 By Luther M. SilerIn life, PhotographyLeave a comment

So we left on our vacation yesterday.

Today was a Driving Day; get from northern Indiana to Louisville, with a stop in Bloomington along the way. I haven’t been in Bloomington for years, so it was great to get back into town. Also, we got to explain what “college” is to the boy. We only really had time to eat lunch and tour the southwestern part of campus, but that’s where most of the fun stuff is so it worked out.

Wright Quad! The window to the left of the door there was my dorm room the only year that living in the dorms mattered. I considered trying to swing by my apartment my junior and senior year and then realized I probably couldn’t find it without thinking hard.

Some things never change; there are still shoes dangling from damn near every overhead power line. Don’t ask.

Some things do change: The Von Lee used to be a movie theater. The building is still there, and it’s still the Von Lee, but it’s apparently a Noodles now? Which I feel may be a bit of a demotion.

Sample Gates, the unofficial doorway to campus. My favorite Sample Gates story has nothing to do with me: my brother was going to propose to his fiancee (now wife) there, but had to rapidly abort and find another location when someone else was already proposing when they got there.

Most of the buildings on campus are made from southern Indiana limestone. I always enjoyed this quote, especially the odd hyphen in “master-spirit.”

My wife, a journalism major, poses with Ernie Pyle, an IU grad. The boy appears less certain about him.

The Student Building. It’s not called that for any clear reason that I was ever aware of, but I’ve always loved the clock tower.

Herman B. Wells and his Missing Cane. This statue and the flowers around it are new since I was there. The pained look on the boy’s face is because that’s a bronze bench and it was hot outside; to his credit, he allowed us to photograph him before remarking that he was partially on fire.

Immediately behind where the last picture was.

The mighty Jordan River! Shut up it is mighty.

I am aware, intellectually, that I have the sky and clouds at home, and that the sky at home is the same sky that I look at when I’m in Bloomington, but I swear the skies are prettier down here anyway. God, I miss this town.

We swung by my mom’s childhood house in Bedford at her request and I managed to stealth a couple of pictures of the house without the current homeowners noticing. I remember this hill being a lot steeper and taller, but that’s what 30-year-old memories will do for you: