On the one hand, I don’t have anything to say beyond what is being said and has been said regarding the full-scale military invasion of a European country and neighbor by a christo-fascist autocrat, tacitly supported by fellow dictators, cheered on by white supremacists, evangelical nationalists, straight-up nazis, and Fox News, and we...

One always needs to be wary of the recency illusion, but I don’t remember so many recurring “get off the street or get mashed to pulp” storms with canceled carnival parades and stuff during the 1990s or early 2000s. I might have forgotten them, though. The worst storms I remember happened in 2014, right around where I live, and in 2007...

Two years ago, we expected virtual collaboration and teaching tools to bloom. Now it’s 2022. For reasons I can’t fathom, there are people who stick with Adobe “Welcome to the Real Virtual” Connect, where “real virtual” probably means that you no longer have to upload almost everything before you can share it. Then there’s MS Teams, abo...

It wasn’t Covid, but I didn’t feel too well recently—tired, especially. Maybe it was a common cold that didn’t fully develop, or its viral load wasn’t serious enough, who knows. But it’s really weird. We usually catch a common cold between two and four times in any given year, plus more serious stuff on the side. And now it’s been two ...

It’s been a month since I queried my literary agent of choice, and so far I haven’t heard back. Impossible to tell what that means—and writing a follow-up email isn’t usually considered to be good manners in this context. There’s an acronym, CNR, for “Closed No Response,” and it’s up to you to figure out when that might be the case! Th...

All the stuff I bought for Sunday night & Monday last week, along that grocery shopping adventure I wrote about—it turned out I’d bought so much stuff that it almost lasted the entire week. 'Twas all healthy stuff tho! :-) Otherwise, not a lot has happened. I’ve been cruising along sketching scenes for my follow-up novel, answering que...

Another busy week with writing, sketching, and mentoring—everything online, of course, as Covid-19 incidence rates around here are approaching the four-digit range. Still, yesterday I went grocery shopping to buy nuts, fruits, dried fruits, bread, cheese, wine, and so on for a special dinner tonight, plus ingredients for tomorrow’s vea...

While I’m waiting to hear back from the literary agent, I’m not twiddling my thumbs. I began to sketch the dramatic structure of my follow-up Voidpunk novel, its chapter layout, locations, characters, and theme. And before I start to write, hopefully in March, I want to do the same thing for a second follow-up novel, so I can try and w...

Lots of things happened here throughout last week—particularly in the departments of eating, drinking, rotating in and out of our friends’ Finnish sauna, more drinking and eating, and having fun all day round. All of us were fully vaccinated and boosted, of course, and we regularly took rapid tests on top of it. And, after four long ye...

While I don’t celebrate Christmas (duh!), I often visit friends who do, but it’s usually a very secular affair. Same this year, with American and German friends, close to Stuttgart. Thus, I’m too relaxed and too well-fed to write a lot. Even so, I check and recheck the query letter every day that I’m going to send out to a literary age...

If it weren’t for the surging pandemic on the horizon and the raging eso-fash brigade on the ground, whose parties have historically a lot more in common with each other than merely their affection for fatal quackery (source), life would almost feel normal again. To start with, I’ve discharged almost all of my lecture duties for this t...

As I mentioned a while ago, my workload for the winter term is so lopsided that ninety percent of my lectures fall into the first half of the term. Now, there’s one week left! This time next week, I’ll have a life again! Miraculously, though, I managed to send out the advance reading copies of the horror sf novel I finished editing las...

To start with, those who expressed their interest in an advance reading copy of my upcoming (episodic) sf-horror novel, don’t despair! I had literally no free minute left last week to get everything lined up. But I’m trying! Usually, my half-time position leaves me a lot of room to work on my own projects, freelance and personal. But m...

This week will be brutal. Lectures every day, two of which are fresh courses; several meetings; lots of other stuff I didn’t get around to finishing last week; and, of course, Hanukkah. But again, as in 2020, no dining out with friends this year! With incidence rates in Germany of up to & over 2000 (yes, you heard that right); national...

Finally, I wrapped up editing! This week, I will send out advance reading copies in epub or mobi format to some trusted friends as test readers who signaled their interest; set up my synopsis and cover letter and stuff; and pitch the manuscript to my agent(s) of choice. Also, I will put the finishing touches on the associated website a...

Last week was so busy, from tons of lectures to meetings to carrying a washing machine downstairs, that I was already exhausted by Wednesday. This week, luckily, there’ll be more breathing space. Time to pick up my book manuscript again! I completed the final line-by-line read-through two weeks ago, right on the day I went to Stuttgart...

Germany, I have to tell you, is caught in a time loop. Time and again, everybody is shocked, shocked, that there’s an ongoing pandemic. Time and again, the schools aren’t prepared for shit. Time and again, policies are designed to appease the anti-vaxxer crowd. Time and again, at least one insane political decision is made, which in th...

One day late, but today’s a holiday around where I live. So in a way the new week hasn’t yet begun, right? Also, I’m on my way back to Düsseldorf after a trip to Stuttgart—visiting friends, drinking beer, playing games, and eating a lot. That should suffice for an excuse. So, what happened to my plan to buy a vintage camera and return ...

Last week was brutal, I didn’t publish any images or texts. Also, I had little time to think, so more on photography and memory next week. Early into the pandemic, there were many bizarre discussions about masks. Particularly the WHO and other hallowed institutions fumbled their way through the worst arguments imaginable against mask u...

April this year, I wrote the first part of a blog post on “Consolidating Memories in the Photographic Field” at my secret level just draft about memory, biography, and documentation in the context of in-game photography and photography in general. I haven’t gotten around to writing that damn second part yet, but lately I’ve been occupi...

Last week was one of those rare weeks where each day was crammed—lectures and meetings during weekdays, events and meetings on the weekend. I didn’t write any blog posts, didn’t upload any pictures, didn’t play any games, and didn’t listen to new music (even though I finally noticed that IAM released a brand new EP three weeks ago). I ...

There’s this old adage that if you want to spot any errors in what you just wrote, press “send.” For manuscripts, my personal version of this is the idea that I’m done editing, that I can wrap it up now and call it a day—but let’s read that thing one last time fully relaxed without editing/nitpicking as it’s supposed to be read before ...

If you haven’t yet voted by mail in the German federal election, remember the Rule of Least Strikes when you cast your votes today: • 1 Strike: Parties who fucked everything up for 15-odd years or more but promise now to change everything as if they’d just freshly arrived on this planet. • 1 Strike: Parties who have no chance whatsoeve...

Coming Sunday, if you live in Germany and are eligible to vote in the federal elections and Berlin state elections, you have to make the most important political decision in your lifetime. And you have to do that particularly for the future of younger generations. In four years, it will be too late. It’s almost already too late. You’ve...

For the upcoming federal elections in Germany and the Berlin state election, there’s the Wahl-O-Mat to pair voters with political parties. But there are so many questions and it’s all so confusing! Thus, as a free service to my readers, I devised a simple three-strike-questionnaire to help you find the party or candidate that’s right f...

On Twitter, I’m usually way more engaged in political matters in the U.S., Israel, and East Asia. But with the upcoming federal election in Germany, that has shifted a bit. First of all, there’s one thing that is both true for the U.S. and for Germany: trying to barge into Congress or Bundestag with a small party that advocates radical...

Yesterday, the two pigeon babies we’ve watched grow up for weeks, right in front of our window on the fifth floor, had their first flying exercises, and today the tree nest was empty. They both pulled through, which is great, but they will be missed. Also, the weather is sad, with all that rain chipping away at the final days of my sum...

Still in vacation land even though last week didn’t feel like vacation at all. I attended the end-of-term presentations—term projects, level design, and music/sound/video—which were great, and had a number of appointments like going to the dentist or getting a haircut, which were necessary. The strongest counter-vacation vibes came fro...

Still in vacation mode, so I’ll again keep it brief. I’m back now in this festering hellhole called NRW, where the state legislature has just casually scrapped the incidence rate of 50 as a key measure to trigger more restrictive public health policies; decreed that schools will reopen this week just as planned despite rising infection...

Since Friday, my protection against COVID-19 is as effective as it can be at this point in time. Also, I’m in Berlin. It’s my first trip in two years. I’m visiting my father, who’s back in Germany after about a lifetime, and we do a lot of “normal” things together. Like, eating at restaurants, visiting museums, swimming and sunbathing ...