Still alive

Sorry for the lack of posting, folks. Real world health issues with my dad have sapped my urge to blog as of late. I do have two posts in my drafts that I'm going to try and finish sometime this week, so there will hopefully be some new content on here soon. It's unfortunate that I haven't been able to post because I've read quite a bit of SF this year. I'm currently at ten books, which is five less than last year, but I haven't been pushing myself to hit a total number like previous years. Still, I'm still chugging along and aim to add at least a couple of more books to that number before the year's out. Maybe even before the end of the month.

There's ch-ch-changes coming to Rayguns and Space Suits

Via Wookieepedia.

So I've been meaning to post this for a while and just hadn't gotten around to it just now. After five years and not enough posts, I've decided to bring about major changes to this blog. I've been feeling lately that while RSS is a science fiction blog, it hasn't really been science fiction blog. Oh sure, I'll post a trailer for an upcoming movie or a picture of something sci-fi related, but there's been no true focus on the genre in a long time, if ever, so that's why I've decided to refocus Rayguns and Space Suits as a fanzine dedicated to talking about and covering the science fiction genre to the best of my abilities. With that, comes a major change: No more Star Trek. I created a fan blog for the series last month called Strange New Worlds where all future Star Trek content will go. I did this largely because it felt like RSS was in danger of becoming a de facto fan blog, which is something I didn't want.

So what will you see on here? broadly, anything that is science fiction but isn't Star Trek. More specifically, I plan on writing about sci-fi books I'm reading, thoughts on the different subgenres, news, and more. I know that Rayguns and Space Suits will never match the stature of other, much more famous fanzines like File 770, but I still feel like it's something worth doing.

If anybody has any thoughts or suggestions, then please leave them in the comments below.

PSA: Google's giving away 2 extra gigs of storage for doing a security check on your Google account

Google did this last year and it's a ridiculously easy way of adding extra space if you use Drive, Picasa, or Photos. Basically, all you need to do is go to your account, scroll down to Security Checkup and click on Get Started. Once you finish the checkup (which takes all of a few seconds), the 2 gigs are added automatically.

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/take-security-checkup-on-safer-internet.html

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-get-2gb-free-on-google-drive/

On a related note, I just checked to see how much space I have now and I'm currently using all of 118 megabytes (or 0.61%) out of 19 gigabytes. Clearly, I needed that extra 2 gigabytes. :P

And that makes 100,000 hits

Thanks, everybody!

Goddamn, I haven't posted in a long time

Since November 16th, yikes! I haven't been doing much blogging lately, for some reason. I do have stuff in mind, I just have to get motivated to post it.

How have you been?

Never mind the Trek blog

Ran out of steam and ideas, even though I planned to write quite a few posts. Oh well, I've imported the few posts that I did make, so let's pretend it never happened. :P

Just FYI, I created a Trek blog

And it has the greatest, most fantastical name of all time that will absolutely blow your minds. Ready? The Trek Blog. Holy shit, I know right?

But joking aside, I'm not abandoning this blog at all. I just created that other blog because I really like Star Trek and I plan to do an absolute shitload of posts without flooding this one and turning Rayguns into a de facto Trek Blog.

I plan on expanding and posting about a lot more scifi shows on here than I have before. I've been fairly myopic about what scifi I post and I want to change that. Expect posts about Babylon 5, the Stargates (all of them), Star Wars, military science fiction, Battlestar Galactica, and more.

Here, have a cat picture.

(via)

Cha-cha-cha-changes

Recently, I've been dwelling on what to do with this blog after steadily losing interest in science fiction, so after much thought and deliberation, I've finally decided that I'm going to convert this blog over to my newfound passions: Korean pop music, My Little Pony, and Taylor Swift! I hope you all stick around and enjoy future posts as much as I will.










Haha, I'm just jerking your chains. God, can you even imagine? Hey, what's with...okay guys, put the pitchforks and torches away.

In any event, I am going to be making some changes to this blog. I'm still going to post about science fiction, because that shit is awesome, but my interest in science and technology is being renewed and so I plan on posting about that stuff too. I may not fully grok it, but I still dig it. I'll also be giving my thoughts on the future of the human race: space travel, colonization, cybernetics, etc. Another thing you'll be seeing on here is retro technology. Over the past few days, I've been getting more and more interested in technology of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, as well as the scientific and technological culture that existed back then, so don't be surprised if you see geeking out over old electronic calculators, computers, and whatnot.

Now for what is easily the biggest potential change, a new name. I've never been a big fan of the Rayguns and Space Suits name, I only chose it because I didn't think this blog would be around a year and a half later. Plus, I want a name that reflects my interest in science fiction, as well as all of the stuff I mentioned in the above paragraph. Unfortunately, I can't think of a new name, so I'm opening the floor up for suggestions. Otherwise, I might just leave the name be.

I am now 30. These birthdays seem to be an annual thing and I have no idea how you turn that feature off.

Though, if you ask me, it's more a bug than a feature.

Thoughts for those injured and dead in Boston

<3

Welp, so much for Google Reader.

Because in case you haven't heard - or rather, seen their little pop up notice - Google's shutting down the RSS reader in July. They claim that it's because the number of people using Reader is "declining" and that they're trying to reduce the overall number of products they have. Dumb reasons, if you ask me. If Reader was in decline, then why not simply redesign it to make it more attractive to both old and new users and give it just a tenth of the promotion that Google Plus, Chrome, and other products receive? As for the latter; nobody told Google to go and create twenty million things that no one was going to use.

Pulling the plug on something that a lot of people still use just because it isn't as popular as it used to be is just ridiculous. If other companies followed that line of thought, then no one would have a landline, because AT&T and the other phone companies would ditch it because of "declining use".

It also makes me question the value of using any of Google's other products, like Plus and their Play store. Are those going to go the way of Reader if they decline too? They're not giving both current and potential new users much incentive.

Anyway, if you're looking for a replace, CNET has a list of five free ones. I'm trying out Feedly and it looks nice and you don't even have to register an account to use it. Unfortunately, it's being swamped because of the announcement and CNET's article, so patience is a virtue.

[Updated] Is Google Reader and/or Blogger messing up for anyone else?

Because they both seem to be going through some sort of mental breakdown for me. With Reader, things that I've already read - sometimes days ago - are appearing on the front dash as "new" items. Going to the folders or the subscriptions themselves of course show that they've been read already. Another bit of an oddity is that feeds I've unsubscribed from (again, sometimes days or even weeks ago) are reappearing like ghosts! I have no idea if I should contact Google or the Ghostbusters for that one, LOL.

Blogger, meanwhile, is doing something similar on its dashboard, showing "new" posts from earlier today, even if they've been succeeded by newer posts.

I may have to perform an exorcism, folks, LMAO.

Edit: Looks like the Techpriests have been successful. Blogger cleared up at some point after this post and it looks like Google Reader is running normally again.

Which of course means that it will now proceed to mess up epically. WELP.

One year strong

I've been anticipating the first year anniversary of this blog for weeks and I almost forgot about it! Yes, one year ago today, I created Rayguns and Space Suits so that my "main" blog (at the time) wouldn't be taken over by all the scifi posts I had in mind, as well as a nice counterpart to my fantasy blog, Swords, Dragons, and Nerds.

Then I deleted it because my enthusiasm suddenly left me, but would undelete it weeks later. Since then, I've managed to clock over 20,000 total pageviews, with about 100+ hits a day. Thirty people have chosen follow this blog, so clearly I must be doing something right!

Now, if you'd all be so kind as to don these red shirts, I need a landing party to explore this uncharted and mysterious planet...

Thanks, everybody!

Check out the poll over at Swords, Dragons, and Nerds

Running one to see what the new header should be at my fantasy blog. Check it out and vote on which picture should be next.

Minor refit

As you can see, I've replaced the banner with a new one: "John Harrison" from Star Trek Into Darkness, picture shameless snagged from Trek Collective. I've also made calibrations to made the post area and sidebar a little bit wider - from 1100px and 300px to 1250px and 310px, respectively. I was thinking of changing the colors and the background of the blog to something other than blacks and grays. I'm toying with the idea of doing an LCARS-ish color scheme for the sidebar, but it probably won't turn out well.

Oh, and the engineers have finally fixed the toilet in restroom 36B on deck 9, it will no longer randomly shoot water at your aft shuttlebay when you use it. As always, Room 101 is still off limits.

Holy crapicus! Rayguns and Space Suits broke 200 hits today!

The blog has been hitting over a 100 pageviews for the past several days, but a sudden spike in activity has pushed the counter well past 200 pageviews for today, a first! This is pretty encouraging, actually, as it means that I'm clearly doing something right. I've thought about making Rayguns and Space Suits my primary blog from time to time and if I can sustain and even grow the number of hits it receives daily, then I might very well.

Plus, I'm slowly recovering from my scifi book burnout that I've been afflicted with for the past several months, so that's good. I'm going to finish The Short Victorious War, then move on to either The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught or The Reality Dysfunction.

Thanks for reading my humble little scifi blog!

Edit: The counter stopped at 282 pageviews before resetting, but given that it resets at like seven something at night, I think it's safe to assume that I probably hit 300 or more before midnight. Woohoo!

Awesome new thing: Mecha Monday!

Because like a incontinent person, this blog needs some regularity, I'm creating a new weekly feature that (should) run every Monday: Mecha Monday! The mechs will come from various franchises such as Gundam, BattleTech, Macross/Robotech, and more.

And if I actually manage to keep this up for more than four weeks, I'll be amazed.

Welp, there's that.

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 65% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Geordi LaForge 50% Deanna Troi 50% Spock 42% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Chekov 30% Uhura 30% Data 30% Will Riker 30% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% Worf 20% Mr. Sulu 15% Mr. Scott 10% Beverly Crusher 10%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...

Not dead, just busy

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I found myself recruited by chaps representing the Rylan Star League to do battle with the Ko-Dan Empire. At least, that's what they claim; I don't remember the Gunstar looking like a windowless white van with "Free Candy" scribbled on the side. But whatever.

But in all seriousness, I took a break because I was feeling burned out from reading science fiction and fantasy. That's all I read and well, it was bound to frizzle my brain. But, I'm getting back into the saddle. Currently reading some Charles Dickens until I'm reading for some scifi. Been playing Starcraft, so that's helped a lot with getting me back into the mood.

100 posts!

Wooo! *throws some confetti* Par-tay! Okay, that pretty much blows the party budget. *ahem* So, here's a status report:

Hits: 5,945, over 2100 of which were from last month.
Followers: 23. I'm shocked.
Posts: According to Google Reader, about 5.1 a week. I'm going to try and ramp that up.

According to the stats, I've been received the most hits from TamsinP and Desert Scribe's blogs. The most popular post is the one about the Enterprise-F from Star Trek Online. The lion's share of my readership is from America and Chrome just narrowly edges out Firefox as the most used browser.

Now let's party like it's on sale for $19.99!