Welcome to 2018: New Website, New Feeds, New Annual Theme, and New Everything!
2018 has arrived, and it brings with it gifts a-plenty! We’ve left 2017 behind, strapped to a thermonuclear teddy bear bomb on a one-way trip to Hell. All its friends were quietly dispatched by an army of invisible badgernauts. In its wake, the Joyous Interdimensional Fleet of Happypants Space Wizards brought us a new year of new things. A new website (see the shiny!), a new annual theme, new podcast feeds, new design, and new everything. And we’re here to tell you all about how 2018 is going to be a year of ch-ch-changes and joy. So strap in, folks. This post is going to be a doozy! Here’s all the stuff in this post:
Guest Post: The Importance of Words by Jeffery Viles
Words are not just important, they are the key invention of Homo sapiens, which separates us by miles from the other animals here on planet earth. With our complex languages and hundreds of thousands of words, we describe things we can see and touch and things we only imagine. What is in front of us and what is not. The trick is to string words together in clear sentences that tell a story, an imaginative vision, or a descriptive picture. For me, the challenge is to use surprising and creative language within those sentences to catch the reader’s attention — to make the effort an entertainment for both writer and reader. Lots of species communicate non-verbally. Humpback whales sing to each other, lions roar meaningfully, gorillas thump their chests, birds trill away. But these and other animal communications are only basic modes of signaling. No other species is equipped to form words which can describe, hurt, make pictures, elate, curse, relay emotions, instruct, excite, and all the other things that words can do. “But,” you ask, “aren’t we the only species that has sex just for fun and not necessarily to procreate? Doesn’t that also distinguish us from the other animals?” Tell that to the Bonobo monkeys. “But we use tools and have an opposable thumb.” Yes, we do. And so do Chimpanzees, our nearest relative.
Reminder: Site Changes This Weekend; Expect Weirdness
Hello! You may recall us mentioning that we plan to move our website over to our new host soon. We may even have mentioned that it would happen the weekend of New Year’s. Welp, that’s this weekend. At some point on Saturday (Dec. 30th), we’ll begin the transfer process from WordPress hosting to our new host. This process should be pretty quick, but we’re setting aside the entire weekend just in case there are any issues. Here’s what you should expect around these parts in the next couple weeks: The link to our website may not work for a short period of time (possibly as little as a few hours). When the site finally transfers over, you’ll notice some BIG changes. Our navigation will look quite different, and a lot of things may be a mess for a while. The main feed should continue to work just fine, so you shouldn’t miss anything. Just hang in there. We’ll get it all cleaned up before our new season starts. Once everything is cleaned up and in working order, we’ll issue another announcement on our main feed letting you know of all of the changes and what you can do to make sure you don’t miss anything (or how you can take advantage of all the new things). And that’s it. So expect some weirdness over the weekend and in the weeks to follow. And thanks for listening and reading in 2017!
Signal Boost #31: Wrapping Up the Year
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost31WrappingUpTheYear/Sandf–SignalBoost31–WrappingUpTheYear.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn our final podcast of the year, Shaun and Jen offer a quick wrap-up of all the things we loved about 2017. We share some of our favorite episodes, remind folks of our listener/reader survey, and offer up some last minute mini boosts to make 2017 just a little bit more joyful. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below):
344. Krampus: The Reckoning (2015) — A Special Holiday Torture Cinema "Adventure"
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode344HolidayTortureCinemaMeetsKrampusTheReckoning/Sandf-Episode344-HolidayTortureCinemaMeetsKrampusTheReckoning.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTang, overbites, and gratuitous boob shots, oh my! In this special Holiday edition of Torture Cinema, Shaun, Paul, Jen, Alex, and Becca mix too much alcohol with a really, truly terrible movie. This one definitely comes with some language and content warnings, because the team is just so very angry that they have to watch this. They discuss how a potentially interesting premise is utterly destroyed by an awful, convoluted script, terrible production values, and some of the worst acting that the state of Arizona has ever produced. The only reason we can come up with that anyone should ever watch this film is so they know how NOT to make a movie. Happy Holidays! We hope you enjoy the episode!
Signal Boost #30: Michelle Kan (No More Heroes) and Rachel Cordasco (SFinTranslation.com)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost30MichelleKanRachelCordasco/Sandf–SignalBoost30–MichelleKanRachelCordasco.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, Becca talks to Michelle Kan about her book, No More Heroes. They discuss what it meant for Michelle to write an #OwnVoices gender-fluid aro-ace character that included her ethnic heritage, issues with anxiety, and parkour! They also talk about how Michelle wrote No More Heroes during NaNoWriMo and how her film-making education helps her write. Then Rachel Cordasco, founder of SFinTranslation.com, joins Jen to talk about what she does at SF in Translation, what inspired her to create the site. They also discuss how much speculative fiction there really is in translation, what makes a good translation, and some of Rachel’s favorite translated works of 2017. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below):
