Y’know, if the federal government was going to shut down over demands for compromise, I wish we’d at least gotten single-payer out of it.

And speaking of anti-social idiots, the Cal campus was evacuated last night after an explosion owing to thieves stealing copper grounding wires. Some buildings remain without power.

Today’s an unusually good cheap Kindle book day. Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s The Long Earth and The Long War, Laird Barron’s collection The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us, Chuck Wendig’s new novel Under the Empyrean Sky for $2 each, and Brett Talley’s That Which Should Not Be for $1. And RPG fans may be interested in the new Bundle of Holding, currently offering five PDFs for the influential over-the-top Hong Kong action movie RPG Feng Shui (this bundle is short-lived, with just two days left.)

Bryan Hitchcock played in my Monster of the Week game at Celesticon Labor Day weekend and had some kind things to say, which is gratifying ‘cause he’s a great MotW GM. (Both of us have GM-ed more than we’ve played and were pleased to be able to play for a change.)

Zed’s mystery was awesome, with a perfect mix of monster fighting and investigation. The conclusion was not a cookie-cutter monster slaying. The local setting added to the realism, and Zed kept it tight with some intense NPCs and great Keeper moves.

It’s October 1, and that can only mean one thing. I’m finally going to listen to the audiobook of Roger Zelazny reading his final book, A Night in the Lonesome October, whose 31 chapters each span one night.