I originally wrote these 2012 blog posts directly on the Blogger site. In 2016, as part of an effort to reclaim all my blog “source code” so that I wouldn’t lose anything if my blog vanished, I extracted the HTML from the blog and translated it into Markdown with pandoc. From that point on, I wrote all my posts in Markdown format on my old computer, then used pandoc to turn them into HTML, which I then copied and pasted into the Blogger editor.
In 2022, I began a project to edit all the posts, create new index pages with summaries and word cloud images, re-generate everything from Markdown source, and start hosting the blog on my own site. When that process is complete, I will delete the Blogger blog.
August 1, 2012: Introduction and Dar Tellum: Stranger from a Distant Planet • [PDF]
Approximately 4,200 words • Topics: in which I introduce myself • under the influence (of books) • the impulse to autobiography and the nature of self • Dar Tellum: Stranger from a Distant Planet by John R. Berry • your humble author circa 1973 • the Scholastic Book Club: neither scholastic nor a book club (discuss) • the child and the alien • the crisis • the truth • back to the book • stand back — I’m going to try science!
August 10, 2012: While Reagan Mauled America: John Varley’s Gaea Trilogy • [PDF] 
Approximately 6,000 words • Topics: that awkward age • the things they carried • allegorically speaking • ten thousand hours • guitar hero • the uncertainty principle • the other hemisphere • duelling microprocessors • somewhere in time • the siren song of Titan • a Titanic undertaking • plotting along • winning hearts and minds • they fuck horses, don’t they? • pay not attention to the drunk behind the curtain • good Lord, how long have you been waiting to make that joke? • strength and helplessness • demon seed • in which your author awkwardly attempts to wrap things up
August 27, 2012: Some Fun Trash, He Said, Smiling as He Said It • [PDF] 
Approximately 3,600 words • Topics: they can’t all be Bleak House (for which I thank G-d) • Simon R. Green’s Nightside books • it’s not so easy reading Green • Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files • A Game of Thrones • high fantasy and epic and did I mention epic? • not what I meant by trash • the HBO adaptation
