I’m getting better at this backgammon thing. I still lose half the time, but I’m getting the hang of it. I do think xgammon cheats, because it comes up with just the right role to do damage far too often to be chance, but broadly speaking, I’m holding my own. I cannot access Facebook onContinue reading “Getting Better”
Author Archives: Allyn Gibson
Hunt Valley Sunset
Boldly Going Where No CoCo Has Gone Before
It is the year 2025. I am playing Mike Mayfield’s original 1972 Star Trek game in a TRS-80 Color Computer 3 (released 1986) emulator on my Linux Mint Debian Edition machine. I did not have a CoCo 3. I wanted a CoCo 3. I had a CoCo 2, and I loved it. My first computerContinue reading “Boldly Going Where No CoCo Has Gone Before”
A Last Anniversary
Facebook memories reminded me this morning that today, February 1st, is the anniversary of the founding of Diamond Comic Distributors in 1982. I hadn’t yet turned nine. There were photos in my memories of the 40th-anniversary in 2022, when the office was essentially closed due to COVID… …and of the gift we received for theContinue reading “A Last Anniversary”
Two Weeks into Bankruptcy Life
“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” I’ve been quoting this bit of dialogue from The Hunt for Red October like a mantra recently. No, not in regards to the second Trump administration, which finds new and even more depraved waysContinue reading “Two Weeks into Bankruptcy Life”
A Warm January Day
Today was the first day with temperatures above freezing in about a week and a half. I drove over to the state park overlooking the Susquehanna to get some photos of the river, the bridges, and the hills beyond Columbia before the snow started to seriously melt. It was a nice drive. The road throughContinue reading “A Warm January Day”
On a Bright, Hawaiian Mets Shirt
I am not a fan of the New York Mets — the pain of 1969, years before I was born, is still too near — but as a student of history, I am pained on their behalf by this ad that I saw on Facebook yesterday. The Mets. 1962. Shea Stadium. Set aside the factContinue reading “On a Bright, Hawaiian Mets Shirt”
Empathy Is Not a Sin
A deacon of a church in Utah weighs in on the prayer service at the National Cathedral to mark the inauguration of convicted felon Donald Trump as president of the United States where Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde exhorted the president to show mercy on migrants and the LGBTQ community. Let me reiterate the Community NoteContinue reading “Empathy Is Not a Sin”
Random Screenshots from My Travels
I take screenshots of things I see while surfing the web. On my phone, on my desktop. Doesn’t matter. “Oh, that’s interesting/amusing/weird/useful.” I take a screenshot, because I might want to come back to it later. Of course, then I never do. And the result is a folder full of screenshots on my hard drive,Continue reading “Random Screenshots from My Travels”
Diamond’s Bankruptcy and My Future
Tuesday, Diamond Comic Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. For almost eighteen years–212 issues, counting the unpublished (though finished) May 2020 COVID issue–I’ve been the copywriter on Diamond’s monthly PREVIEWS catalog, though that only scratches the surface of what I do. I wear many, many hats at Diamond, and I have joked my businessContinue reading “Diamond’s Bankruptcy and My Future”