VCON 44: "I'm doing my part!"

It seems appropriate to use the "I'm doing my part!" meme from Starship Troopers to announce that I decided to volunteer to assist with the upcoming VCON44 convention being hosted by the West Coast Speculative Fiction Association.

 I still wanted to be able to attend the event, so after some thought I asked if any help was needed with the Vcon.ca website.  The response was positive, and I've since done a lot of work on putting together site content. The design template was already established when I started, so I didn't have any creative input into the process, but I'm happy to just be a production person, that's how I spent a lot of my professional life anyway.

The site is built in Wordpress, which has been an interesting learning process - I'm much more familiar with Squarespace and Wix for site management - but it's not a complicated site, and I'm starting to get a handle on how things work.  (After all, there are only so many ways to assemble blocks of HTML content.)

I assume that there will be some kind of gratuity for volunteering to help.  I've already purchased my ticket, so that's not an option, but a t-shirt would be a nice thank-you - fingers crossed, I do love a t-shirt.

- Sid

Vancouver Writers Fest 2026: Fan Options.

https://www.tomgauld.com/

This year's Vancouver Writers Fest has some interesting options for fans of fantasy and science fiction.  Emily St. John Mandel, best known for her breakout novel, Station Eleven, is appearing next week in a pre-Fest event to talk about her new novel, Exit Party - sadly, the event is sold out, but there's always the standby line if you're feeling lucky.

Award-winning author Amal El-Mohtar will be talking about Seasons of Glass and Iron, her new short story collection, at a couple of program events, and veteran author Nalo Hopkinson is part of a creative writing workshop presented in collaboration with the UBC School of Creative Writing.  Cory Doctorow will discuss his most recent book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, and how we can change the situation so that AI is working for us, rather than the opposite. 

Of Magic and Monsters, featuring YA authors Rachael Kin, Coltrane Seesequasis, and Elle Tesch, will look at how each of the authors create their fantasy worlds, and trans authors Vivek Shraya and Kai Cheng Thom will talk about their new dystopian/utopian novels, The Hystericals and The Shapeshifter's Guide to Gym Class, in The World We Long For.

I can't say for certain that the above is a comprehensive list.  A polite request to the VWF organizers: it would be enormously helpful if there was a specific Genre search field in the program guide - Fiction is a useful start, but still leaves a lot of options to explore!

- Sid

UPDATE: Ticket purchased for Good Reads, featuring Amal El-Mohtar. Apparently one of the other two works being discussed in the session, Catherine Chidgey's The Book of Guilt, is an alternate history story set in a world where World War II was a draw - two speculative fiction authors for the price of one! The third book, Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, is set during the Peloponnesian war - I'll reserve judgement on its status until I know more.

Worldcon 2026: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

The title of this posting is taken from a very old joke involving a famous musician, who has never been to New York, trying to find Carnegie Hall, the venue for his performance that evening.  He asks a curbside busker the question from the title, and their response is "Oh, man - practice, practice, practice."

The 2026 Hugo Awards would certainly have benefitted from that bit of advice, at least based on the plethora of technical issues which punctuated the event: needing Ursula Vernon, who hosted the event, to stretch out her introductory speech to a full 20 minutes of nature trivia while some unknown issue was resolved; doing the In Memoriam section twice because apparently the slide show didn't run the first time*; the charming interpretive dance performed by presenter Tracey Baptiste while waiting about a minute for the Lodestar Award nominees clip to start; starting the Best Fan Artist clip while presenter Tim Kirk was still speaking (with the result that he almost announced the winner before the nominees were listed); and so on and so on.

Mary Robinette Kowal, who presented the Best Novelette Hugo, mentioned that the tech team have to "basically build a television studio in two days, and it's harsh", and I don't argue with that observation for a moment.   

Regardless, once the studio is built, it's prudent for the director - there must be a director**, in responsibility if not in name - to take some time to get all of their production ducks in a row: which camera is which in terms of picking the appropriate angles or shots; setting up for audience cutaways when the stage is empty; which button will switch from the camera feed to the computer for pre-recorded acceptance speeches and in memoriam slide shows; and organize their clips so that they can cue up the appropriate nominee announcements and matching category slides over the course of the evening.

It's also prudent to bring the talent together for a rehearsal. Apparently the Oscars do a full dress walk-through the night before the actual event - if they can get a full spectrum of movie stars to rehearse for their event, certainly the Worldcon management could at least get everyone into the auditorium for a quick run through of what's going to happen and when. 

I realize that the dictum regarding no battle plan surviving contact with the enemy applies just as much to live presentations as it does to combat, but in both cases, it's a good idea to do everything possible to ensure that as little as possible goes wrong.

So, if any future WorldCon organizers should stumble across this post in a search for advice about how to plan the awards show?

Practice, practice, practice. 

- Sid

P.S. I hesitated to post this critique of the awards - as per my comment on the Barbara Hambly livestream, I used to work in the presentation industry, and as such I have a high professional standard, perhaps too much so.  But my comment about future Worldcon organizers reading this justifies it.  If you're one of those future readers, this is a cautionary tale: a lot of things can go wrong, and the more prep you do, the more that you can minimize issues like the ones listed above.

* I had assumed that only the live stream audience had seen a black screen for the first attempt, but apparently it was a larger problem than that.

** After all, the ceremony was held in Los Angeles, how hard could it be to find someone who wants to direct?  

Worldcon 2026: The Hugo Awards.

"Falcons get all their water from drinking blood."

T. Kingfisher, Hugo Awards Host

"Oh shit, I guess I should have attended WorldCon!" 

Jason Sanford's in absentia acceptance speech for Best Fan Writer, 
as read by Chris Barclay

Last night saw the presentation of the 2026 Hugo Awards at LAcon V, entertainingly and skillfully hosted by award-winning author T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon*) in a succession of increasingly absurd hats. 

The event suffered from a number of technical issues, but Kingfisher handled everything that happened with humour and aplomb.  (Sadly, her demonstration of grace under pressure was not rewarded by a win in the Best Novella category, but such is life.) My only minor criticism of her hosting performance is that, amusing though the obscure animal facts were, wouldn't trivia from the history of science fiction and fantasy have been more appropriate?  

Hugo Awards Administrator Tammy Coxen, who introduced the awards portion of the evening, mentioned that several of the awards were decided by a single vote, amplifying the degree to which the individual vote really is of importance.  

I was impressed by the number of noteworthy names that presented awards over the course of the evening: Neil Clarke, David Gerrold, Barbara Hambly, Ronald D. Moore, Tim Kirk, Colleen Doran, Stan Sakai, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, and R2-D2 - well, to be completely accurate R2-D2 only delivered the Best Novel envelope to the stage, but still, impressive that he was there at all.  

The presence of R2-D2 aside, the Hugo Awards have traditionally been ignored by the television and motion picture community**, but this year's ceremony at least partially made up for the indifference of past winners. Although Ryan Coogler declined to accept the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form award in person***, his absence was comprehensively compensated for by the Short Form winners for Murderbot: All Systems Red, who filled the stage with members of their team, including author Martha Wells and actor David Dastmalchian. 

As a group, the winners were eloquent and passionate in their comments about the ills that plague the world, particularly the United States, expressing a sense of concern and activism in their acceptance speeches that's shared by the community in general.  

And, without further ado, the 2026 Hugo Award winners are:

BEST NOVEL
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

BEST NOVELLA
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

BEST NOVELETTE
Never Eaten Vegetables by H.H. Pak

BEST SHORT STORY
In My Country by Thomas Ha

BEST SERIES
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

 BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham 

BEST RELATED WORK
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM 
Sinners, screenplay by Ryan Coogler, directed by Ryan Coogler 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM 
Murderbot: All Systems Red, written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells 

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive

BEST EDITOR SHORT FORM
Neil Clarke

BEST EDITOR LONG FORM
Diana M. Pho

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
John Picacio

BEST SEMIPROZINE
Uncanny Magazine, publisher and editor-in-chief: Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

BEST FANZINE
nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla

BEST FANCAST
Hugo, Girl!, presented by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson

BEST FAN WRITER
Jason Sanford

BEST FAN ARTIST
Yuumei

BEST POEM
Hex Supply Customer Support Log by Elis Montgomery 

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YA BOOK
Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee 

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW AUTHOR (sponsored by Must Read Books Publishing)
Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility) 

The full awards ceremony can be viewed on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyarB0EVaM

(Be warned, it's over three hours, you may want to make popcorn.)  

- Sid

* It took me a few minutes to figure out who she reminded me of: she has a remarkable resemblance to my friend Christi in both look and delivery - not an exact match, but perhaps the sister that Christi has never told me about.

** As per last year's "Shame, shame, shame" statement. 

*** The joke was that apparently the invitation did not specifically invite him into the venue - IYKYK.  

WorldCon 2026: At least the audio was good.

I freely admit that working in the corporate presentation industry for many years has given me a critical mindset whenever I'm dealing with anything involving public speaking events, certainly more so than most people.  As such, I'm at a loss to understand how anyone providing AV support at an event like Worldcon would set up the camera to livestream a conversation with fantasy author Barbara Hambly and decide that this is an appropriate framing?  

That aside, I had no idea that she'd been married to SF author George Alec Effinger! 

- Sid

Space truckin'.

In 2024, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory satellite, originally launched in 2004, began to experience difficulties with its orbit due to unexpected atmospheric drag from atmospheric expansion caused by solar radiation. The resulting orbital decay was predicted to eventually result in the satellite's destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA commissioned Katalyst Space Technologies, a US-based aerospace startup specializing in robotic spacecraft for Near Earth Orbit (NEO) operations and satellite maintenance, to undertake a rescue mission. On July 3, 2026, Katalyst's robotic LINK spacecraft was launched with the intention of capturing the Swift Observatory and boosting it to back to a safe orbit.

And it failed. 

On August 19, NASA announced that due to attitude control issues, LINK would be unable to rendezvous with the Swift satellite, which is now doomed to re-enter the atmosphere sometime in the fall of 2026. 

This is all very unfortunate, but here's the question: why is the International Space Station unable to perform this kind of satellite mission?

It would seem to be simplicity itself for a couple of astronauts to jump into some kind of NEO vehicle, something halfway between a pickup truck and a tug in function, do a quick burn, match trajectories, and use some Mini-Me equivalent of the Canadarm to capture the doomed satellite and pull it into a stable orbit. 

I realize that the above description is an enormous simplification of what would be a far more complex activity, but the concept seems sound.  As such, it seems like an odd gap in the station's capabilities.  It's as if the ISS were a private island, accessible only by helicopter, which couldn't save someone who's fallen overboard from a passing vessel because they don't own a speedboat.

To my mild surprise, I was unable to find any references to NASA giving consideration to some sort of EVA utility vehicle, just the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).  The MMU was an individual propulsion unit used for extravehicular activities outside the Space Shuttle that was introduced in 1984.  The MMU was actually used to retrieve a pair of malfunctioning satellites before being retired from use due to safety issues (along with the Space Shuttle program).

The practical requirements for a vacuum-capable utility craft seem obvious: you'd want something with lots of horsepower and a substantial fuel payload to allow for both extended missions and to provide the fuel for moving larger payloads (such as falling satellites). The space pods from 2001 are an interesting example - shirt sleeve environment, lots of work lights, capable of remote control, and, importantly, there are external controls on Discovery which are designed to be operated by the pod's manipulators.  The addition of a standardized tow point on future satellites would certainly simplify the capture process for our shuttle crew.

However, it would require substantial redevelopment of the ISS infrastructure to allow for the creation of the kind of hangar that Discovery's pods use to allow for pressurized access - it would be simpler to have a vehicle open to vacuum that's just docked to some neutral portion of the station's exterior.  I don't recall any mention of astronauts performing ISS maintenance work having to worry about micrometeorites or similar kinetic impact hazards, so our utility vehicle probably doesn't need a windshield.**

The most important modification to existing technology that our proposed vehicle requires would be an external connection from the astronaut's environment pack to air tanks on the chassis.  It seems like such a good idea to have a breathable backup in case of a problem half way around the planet from the station.  

- Sid

* Sadly, Chris Hadfield didn’t respond to my DM on Instagram asking whether anything similar had been considered - no, seriously, he seemed like a useful source of information, but I accept that he must get thousands of messages, the man has 335,000 followers.  That being said, how cool would it have been to get a response! 

** Realizing that there's no wind involved, but it's a very convenient word for a transparent barrier that shields the driver/pilot of a moving vehicle. 

Seriously, though, it is weird.

Yes, I'm looking at you, The Raven Scholar and The Incandescent.

Regardless, I managed to finish off the remaining Best Novel nominee last night, and I've submitted my votes for the Hugo Awards.  I have to admit that I used the NO VOTE option for a couple of categories:  I hadn't read all of the Best Series books, or the Lodestar Award YA novel nominees, and I didn't wade through the Editorial options, either Long or Short Form.  

That being said, it was a challenging ballot - there's a lot of really solid work out there, and it was a struggle to rank the nominees from 1 to 6, especially in the Best Novel Category, duplicate amputations aside.  And now we wait: I'm still hoping that my Voting membership will get me access to the LACon Hugo Awards livestream on the 30th - fingers crossed!

- Sid

The Thief of Time.

While we're doing awards housekeeping, just a reminder that the voting deadline for the 2026 Hugo Awards is this coming Saturday, August 8th, at noon PDT.  Which means that when I finish this posting, it's back to the last novel nominee that I have to finish reading!

- Sid

The 2026 Aurora Awards: Live

Dedicated Canadian science fiction and fantasy fans (or international fans, for that matter, I've been getting an awful lot of views from Brazil*) are invited to watch the 2026 Annual Aurora Awards livestreaming on YouTube™ this Sunday, August 9th, starting at 5:00 PM EDT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMO5oUJ4zjE

In addition to the awards for this year's best Canadian science fiction and fantasy, Kelley Armstrong, James Alan Gardner, and Mike Glicksohn will be inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame. 

See you there!

- Sid

* Although, sadly, probably not by people. 

Neuromancer: Observations.

The man who stood blinking now in the doorway behind them, the blanket draping one shoulder like a cape, seemed to have been designed in a wind tunnel. His ears were very small, plastered flat against his narrow skull, and his large front teeth, revealed in something that wasn’t quite a smile, were canted sharply backward. He wore an ancient tweed jacket and held a handgun of some kind in his left hand. He peered at them, blinked, and dropped the gun into a jacket pocket. He gestured to Case, pointed at a slab of white plastic that leaned near the doorway. Case crossed to it and saw that it was a solid sandwich of circuitry, nearly a centimeter thick. He helped the man lift it and position it in the doorway. Quick, nicotine-stained fingers secured it with a white velcro border. A hidden exhaust fan began to purr.

“Time,” the man said, straightening up, “and counting. You know the rate, Moll.”

“We need a scan, Finn. For implants.”

William Gibson, Neuromancer 

Today we saw the Comic-Con-synced release of a new teaser for AppleTV's upcoming adaptation of Neuromancer, William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk masterpiece. It's a rapid-fire montage that provides an intriguing glimpse into the look and feel of the series: settings, characters, action and technology.  And, I was pleased to see that it felt good, that it had the right flavour, for want of a better word - the Sprawl, Chiba City, a flash of Freeside, Case jacking into cyberspace.

However, the teaser is exactly that, a teaser (as it should be, I hate trailers that tell me too much) and as such, I couldn't quite make out who was playing Armitage, the ex-Special Forces soldier who recruits Case, the console cowboy/protagonist.

I paid a hopeful visit to IMDB to see if there was a cast list for the series, where I made some interesting discoveries. 

Neuromancer is in fact listed on the site, and I was able to discover that Armitage is played by Mark Strong - presumably with a hairpiece of some sort, based on the brief glimpses of the character in the trailer.  Not necessarily who I would have picked for the part, but I'm willing to give him a chance.  

I already knew that Callum Turner was playing Case, a casting choice which I don't have strong feelings about one way or another, and I have absolutely no familiarity with Briana Middleton, so it's a case of wait and see in terms of how she handles the pivotal role of street ronin Molly Millions, with her scalpel-tipped fingers and integral mirrorshades.*  Dane DeHaan, who I did not immediately recognize in the teaser, takes the role of the perversely sociopathic Peter Riviera - interesting casting choice, and a good one, I suspect he'll do well with the role.

IMDB helpfully lists how many episodes each actor appears in, and it's worth noting that members of the millionaire Tessier-Ashpool dynasty appear in every episode, which suggests that there's more focus on their back story than in the books.**  

The Dixie Flatline - check, although again, no one whose name I recognize.  Oddly, they've changed the spelling of the Zion orbital tug pilot's name from Maelcum to Malceum, which may well just be a typo.  There are some character names that I don't recognize at all, which is interesting, and one glaring absence. 

Where's the Finn?

This is not really a minor omission.  In one form or another, the Finn appears in all three books of Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy*** - it would involve some notable alterations to the storyline to accommodate his absences.  

In researching this post, I read some suggestions that the duties of the Finn might have been combined with the character of Julius Deane, one of Case's underworld contacts.  I really don't see the roles as interchangeable: Deane occupies a very specific slot in Case's self-destructive criminal existence, whereas the Finn is more a part of Molly's world.

Deane does appear in the IMDB listing, and is shown as being in all ten episodes, which lends some credence to the possibility that he's been combined with the Finn in the interests of simplifying the number of characters in the story. However, there's an assumption there that I don't agree with: why in the world would I want the story to be simplified?

- Sid

*As a sidebar, I'm not wild about how they've done the shades, I pictured them as smooth ovoids rather than faceted lenses.  But that's just nitpicking. 

** I'm second guessing myself a bit on this one. I'm going to have to revisit the book to refresh my memory on exactly how many references to Tessier-Ashpool there actually are throughout the text. 

*** Neuromancer tends to get all the attention due to its breakout reputation - the other two books are Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, both excellent reads.

VCON 44: Where, who, and how.

Although it's a bit of a trek down to New Westminster, I'm glad that I attended today's Fandom Bazaar, hosted by the West Coast Speculative Fiction Association.  In addition to picking up a couple of replacement Ace Doubles in good condition for an affordable three dollars each (and just generally enjoying the vibe), I discovered some additional information about VCON 44.*  

According to the promotional postcards available at the event, programming will take place in Buildings SE02 and SE06 at Burnaby's BCIT campus.  The Guests of Honour will be SF author Holly Schofield, and veteran conceptual FX artist Eric Chu, best kown for his work on the 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot. And, if the theme of your event is "Pick Your Punk", who better to make a special appearance than William Gibson, whose work virtually defined the subgenre of cyberpunk?**  

If you're interested in attending, you can register at this address:

VCON Registration. 

Reduced Early Bird pricing is available until August 31st.

- Sid

 

* This is actually a little puzzling.  Yesterday, the VCON web site said (and still says) that there was no news other than to say hello.  Today, I was able to pick up a postcard with information about the guests of honour and the special guest, along with a QR code linking to the registration site.  If that info was available for a postcard, why would it not be posted to the website?

** The postcard describes him as "The Father of Cyberpunk" - I almost guarantee that William Gibson has NEVER referred to himself as such, I strongly suspect that his opinion of the relationship is far more nuanced than that.  

VCON 44: Pick Your Punk — Living Through the 21st Century.

For decades, VCON has been part of British Columbia’s speculative fiction history.

Now, VCON is back!

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, WCSFA will host VCON 44 at BCIT Burnaby: a one-day convention focused on speculative fiction, fandom, creativity, community, and the many futures we imagine, resist, build, and survive together.

This year’s event is a deliberate rebuilding step. It will not attempt to recreate every part of past three-day VCONs all at once. Instead, VCON 44 begins with the core of what our community told us matters most: strong programming, shared fandom culture, meaningful conversations, and the chance to connect with other fans.

Our 2026 theme is Pick Your Punk: Living Through the 21st Century.

Cyberpunk, solarpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, hopepunk, biopunk, mythpunk, stitchpunk, nanopunk, lunarpunk — bring your goggles, your circuits, your seedlings, your cautionary tales, and your better futures. 

I've been a member of the West Coast Speculative Fiction Association (WCSFA) for about a year now.  I freely admit that I joined for the simple reason that I wanted to attend their annual Fandom Bazaar: members got free admission, and the membership fee was the same as the admission fee. Since then, I've enjoyed their monthly newsletters, and won the monthly draw once, an occurrence which excited me more than it should have - I am generally not lucky when it comes to winning prizes.  

Among other activities, the WCSFA hosts VCON, an annual three-day convention based in the greater Vancouver area.*  Sadly, VCON has been inactive since 2021, and as part of the process of rebuilding the event, the WCSFA is planning a one-day convention this fall as a bridge to the full three day version.  

VCON 44 will take place at the Burnaby BCIT campus on November 14, 2026.  For updates on guests, programming, panels and vendors, bookmark the VCON site at vcon.ca, subscribe to the WCSFA newsletter, or follow the WCSFA on Instagram, Facebook, or Bluesky.  

- Sid

* The first VCON was held in 1971.  Responsibility for the event transferred from the Western Canadian Science Fiction Convention Committee Association to the WCSFA in 1993.  You can read the full history of VCON at the WCSFA VCON Archive.

But not actually, you know, exploding.

"I must remind you that the scanning experience is usually a painful one.”

ConSec scanner, Scanners 

I suffer from Exploding Brain Syndrome, a harmless condition with the most over-the-top name ever.  EBS is a sleep disorder-related sensory illusion: some people hear explosions, or perceive flashes of light - in my case, it's like a brief cymbal crash that occurs three or four times in a row, separated by a few seconds.    

Because EBS has such a dramatic appellation, it's impossible for me to experience it without thinking about Scanners, David Cronenberg's breakout 1981 science fiction horror film.  Scanners is best known for the horrifying scene where Canadian actor Louis del Grande's* head is made to explode by Michael Ironside, who plays the villain of the film.  The overly graphic effect was created through the rough and ready special effects expediency of firing a shotgun up through a prop head filled with dog food, leftover hamburger, and rabbit liver, resulting in an undeniably effective moment** that makes me very grateful that my experience of EBS is not a literal one.

- Sid

* Coincidentally, Del Grande went on to create and star in Seeing Things, a CBC dramedy about a newspaper reporter who experiences psychic visions of crimes.  The show ran for six years and featured the who’s who of the 80s Canadian acting community.

** For anyone wishing to see the cinematic results, here's a link to the clip:

https://youtu.be/KYEOuBWVFvk?si=cthRaE_tf0ApOJDF

The exploding head is quite near the end of the scene, if you happen to be one of those people who just can't wait to see what that might look like. 

Canada Day 2026: Art Imitates Life.

Happy Canada Day, everyone - celebrating 159 years of being the place that desperate people escape to from the United States.*

- Sid

* Strangely enough, it actually never occurred to me that this statement applied in the real world as well as in science fiction until I typed that sentence.  I was really just thinking of The Handmaid's Tale, although the photo is from a Philip K. Dick story.

93,980?!

For the longest time, The Infinite Revolution pottered away at about 3,000 views a month.  Sometimes it would go over, sometimes it would be under, but 3K was the median for about six years.

Which was fine with me.  This blog was originally just an excuse to spend some time writing, an exercise in professional development.  I never promoted it on other platforms, although I did briefly monetize it through Google Adsense, but I was kicked off the program after I was accused of faking views.*  

At some point, I decided that it was a good enough sample of my writing style that I could put my name on it so that a potential employer could read it.  I didn't get the job, but to my complete surprise, it came up at my next job interview - they'd searched my name and found the blog. (I did get that job, although I doubt that the blog was a factor.)

Then, for the next six years, the median dropped down to about 2,000 views.  One month it went under a thousand - again, not an issue, but I was curious as to what might have changed.   

And then, sometime in 2024, it started to spike. In January, I cracked 10,000 monthly views for the first time, an achievement which I repeated over six times that year, culminating in over 17,000 in December.  July of 2025 took me over 20,000; August, over 30,000, then back down under 20,000 for a few months.

February 2026 - 45,262, a number which seemed ridiculously high until June, which rocketed up to over 93,000 views - 93,980, to be specific.

What happened?  I suspect that with over 1,300 posts, I've simply reached some threshold of volume that makes for a visible presence. I'd love to think that it's more people reading the content rather than bots, but the alert reader will notice in the above screen capture that I only have four followers, which I feel is a far stronger metric of actual human readership that the views counter.

Still, it's hard not to feel a certain sense of accomplishment.  It's going to be interesting to see if it breaks 100K a month by the end of 2026 - and even a couple of months of half that would put me over a million total views for the blog.  I wonder if Blogger will notice?  If so, some kind of commemorative plaque would seem to be in order, like getting a letter from the Queen when turning 100. That would be fun, I wonder if there's someone I can contact about that?

- Sid

* After which I ended up getting a little money from Google after a 2018 class action suit accusing them of withholding Adsense payments was successful. Last year I attempted to rejoin Adsense just out of curiousity, and was accepted back into the fold. Since then it's generated about six bucks, it's certainly not a route to financial independence.

Especially over seven hours worth.

"It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it." 

Mark Twain

Today, two astronauts conducted a seven hour twenty minute spacewalk in order to replace the wrist joints on the International Space Station's Canadarm 2.  You have my sympathies, Canadarm - in my case, it's the knees that are showing signs of age, although I'm hoping to avoid any sort of similar replacement surgery.

- Sid

Glory to the Principality of Zeon!

"A mobile suit's abilities don't decide a battle's outcome. I'll teach you that!"

Char Aznable, Mobile Suite Gundam  

Wednesday night is Date Night for my lovely wife Karli and I, a tradition that we've maintained for over a decade, and this evening we decided on dinner at Zubu Ramen in Kerrisdale.  

It's a busy neighbourhood at the best of times, and it took a couple of circuits of various side streets to find a parking spot.  We ended up behind what I initially thought was a Toyota dealership vehicle of some sort, until I got out of the car and took a closer look. 

The truck in question was a rolling tribute to the concept of "if you know you know".  Its impressive iconography was derived from the Mobile Suit Gundam animated series, the polystyrene models of the various mecha in the Gundam franchise manufactured by Bandai Namco, and scale modeling in general. 

Let's start at the beginning.  The Principality of Zeon is the villain of the Gundam series, an association of Earth colonies which goes to war against the Terran Federation.  Zeon created the first combat mecha, the Zaku I and Zaku II mobile suits, which led to the Federation's development of the Gundam in response.

We also have some references to Bandai Namco, the company that manufactures the various Gunpla line of Gundam models, the Tomica cast metal model car company, and the Tamashii line of toy figures.

The rear gate references Zeon once again, along with the Tamiya model company, and the Metalbuild modeling brand, which features a combination of metal and plastic components. (Not to mention a witty 1:1 scale reference.*)  

But there were also a few just random non-Gundam stickers on the cab and fenders: VISA, KFC, Sega, Hot Wheels, Marlboro - cigarettes, in this day and age? - Los Pollos Hermanos, McDonald's, Shell, and so on. It's entirely possible that they were added post-production, so to speak, and were not part of the original design, but I didn't feel comfortable taking too close a look at someone else's vehicle just to establish provenance. 

Research revealed that, in fact, there had been a marketing partnership between Toyota and Bandai Namco in 2013, but it was for a customized Auris hatchback, not a pickup, and it was nothing close to being as detailed and involved as this example.

Ultimately, I'm at a loss - the internet seems unaware of anything related to a Zeonic Toyota pickup truck, I didn't see any site links on the vehicle, and, as per my initial impression, to the casual observer it's just another branded pickup.  It may well be that it's just the property of a really serious Gundam fan, in which case all I can say is well done, sir or madam, full points for proudly flying your fandom flag - I look forward to your future work.

- Sid

* Discussion with Karli revealed that not everyone is familiar with the conventions of scale modeling.  Generally models are categorized by the ratio of model inches to real life inches.  For example, when I was young, I built a lot of Airfix 1:72 tank models, which meant that one inch on the model equaled 72 inches - six feet - on the original vehicle, making a 20 foot** Sherman tank about 3 1/4 inches long. 

** In the unlikely event that any WWII otaku stumble across this posting, I am aware of the minor variations in Sherman M4 and M4A sizing, with a range from 19 feet 2 inches to 20 feet 7 inches depending on the iteration. Twenty feet was simply a convenient compromise for mathematical purposes, no need to leave any angry comments.