July 2021 Updates

Well, I’ve survived my brush with the 2021 heat dome so far. It certainly wasn’t fun. I’m never a big fan of hot temperatures, and I’m among the people who don’t have air conditioning in my house. Yet I’m well aware that what I experienced was only a brush. Many people are still suffering from the extreme temperatures, and summer is far from over. How are conditions at your current location? How are you coping with things?

Since it’s difficult for me to do in-depth research during hot weather, I’ve decided to only aim for one fully developed article a month until the weather cools down. That doesn’t mean I won’t be posting. In fact, I’ve decided to try something new! After I mentioned my distaste for the mini-series based (very badly) on James Gurney’s Dinotopia books, Tiege McCian encouraged me to give it a good thrashing in a review. I’m thinking I’ll give it a shot. Often, I strive for a relatively objective tone, so a chance to write up my unvarnished opinions—both positive and negative—sounds refreshing. I’ll still weave in some mythological content, of course, but it’ll be some lighter fare for me and hopefully for you as well. I’ll give it a couple tries, and you can tell me if it’s worth making a regular feature or not.

More immediately, another Quarterly Bestiary is coming up! The suggestions I got this year seemed to point to a theme of wee folk/little people, and this next topic is one the classics among that category. If you have any suggestions for creatures you’d like to see covered in this feature, please feel free to share them in comments here or on any post. Any beast is game, no matter how obscure or well-known.

I wish I had the power to balance the climate back to moderate for those of you experiencing hardship. I’ll bend my dreams that way, but I know this isn’t something mended by dreams alone. If you’re stopping by looking for distraction, however, I’ll share this ending scene from the 1983 Japanese film Antarctica in case it gives you a sense of cooling and hope. I’ve never seen the entirety of this rare film, but I have loved the gorgeous soundtrack from Vangelis as long as I can remember. Based on true events, this scene shows two researchers in Antarctica reuniting with dogs they thought lost forever.