While in Fussen, Germany, we visited Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, which were the homes of Mad King Ludwig. The history is fascinating. It’s well worth the side trip to see these castles, which were built in the 1870s. Personally, I liked Hohenschwangau better. You learn more about Ludwig’s family and it’s more leisurely and interesting. They kind of rush you through Neuschwanstein.

Here’s a tip for visiting the castles: You will have to take a 40-minute walk up a mountain to get to Neuschwanstein Castle. It’s quite a hike, although my 5-year-old was able to do it. There are horse-drawn carriages that go up the hill, which may be a better option, especially if you have trouble walking. Either way, you have to factor going up the hill and back down into your visiting time, so make sure you think about that when planning your trip.

(Also, reserve tickets online or get there first thing in the morning. The tours sell out fast.)

Hey, it’s Neuschwanstein on a hill!

And there’s Hohenschwangau. Let’s go there first.

Hohenschwangau is fantastic.

Look at the views!

And this lion statue.

Too bad they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside. Oh well time for a break.

Let’s eat a schneeball, a snowball, which is really a donut ball.

Aw, those horses are kissing.

Now for a walk up the Alps.

That was hard, but here we are. Up close, Neuschwanstein is less fairytale, more scary fortress.

Too bad we couldn’t take pictures inside. Oh well.

Here’s another view with Hohenschwangau in the distance.

And the countryside. Time to hurry down the mountain so we can catch our bus. Thanks, castles.

Next up, Salzburg.

This summer we went to Germany and Austria for vacation. It was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. It was also really long, so I’ll split it up in a few posts and try to touch upon the highlights. First up, general Germany. We went to Munich, Fussen, and Andechs. While there, we:

Went to many beer halls.

Looked at the scenery.

Ate sausages, especially weisswurst:

Walked around towns.

Looked at art.

Sat in meadows.

Admired the Alps.

Wore out our son.

Visited a 900-year-old monastery, where we also drank enormous beers:

In short, Germany was great.

Next up, castles!

I have a new article in The Atlantic asking Why Aren’t There More Women Working in Audio? Here’s an excerpt:

In 2000, the Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) women in audio committee—which is now, tellingly, defunct—loosely estimated that 5 percent of those working in the field were female. A 2016 survey by AES found 7 percent of its members were women, though that number is incomplete because participants could opt out of reporting their gender. According to Women’s Audio Mission (WAM), a nonprofit that trains women for sound careers, that number is probably lower. With men holding the vast majority of technical jobs in audio, it follows that virtually all the music we hear—on the radio, over headphones, or in a live venue—has been shaped by a man.

Read the rest here!

I wrote an article for The Smithsonian on Sammy Davis Jr. and interracial marriage.

Did you know the mob forced Davis into a sham marriage to a black woman after he was caught dating Kim Novak? Or that his marriage to Swedish actress May Britt was so controversial that JFK uninvited him to the 1960 inauguration? Or that he was friends and a supporter of Martin Luther King Jr.?

Check out Hollywood Loved Sammy Davis Jr Until He Dated a White Movie Star

Here’s Sammy as a little kid, dancing and eating a sandwich:

I’m so pleased to be part of Salomé’s July issue. My very short story is called Deluge. Here’s the first two lines:

The woman’s personality wouldn’t stay inside her. She vomited it into the corner of the literary gathering, a gush flowing out of her and behind the ship-shaped bar.

Read the rest here.

Kyle has a new book coming out! It’s called Linux Hardening in Hostile Networks: Server Security from TLS to Tor.

It’s about computer security. How do you protect computer networks from hackers and other unwanted snoops?

Kyle knows how. He’s so smart. The book is out on July 28th.

I have a book review up on KQED on Isadora by Amelia Gray. It’s about Isadora Duncan. Excerpt:

Fun fact: Isadora Duncan and Jack London were contemporaries. Both were born in San Francisco, in 1877 and 1876, respectively. Both experienced poverty-stricken childhoods in Oakland and went on to make definitive marks on their art forms — London in fiction, Duncan in dance. Both lived dramatic lives full of travel, alcohol, and socialist politics.

And both died young — London in 1916 at age 40, from kidney failure; Duncan in 1927 at age 49, famously in a car accident. The long red scarf she was wearing tangled in the hubcap of a moving car. Her neck was broken.

Read the rest here.

This has been a busy year so far. I planted a garden, went on many hikes, watched Laura Marling perform, saw a parade, and attended a lobster and rose tasting, where I eavesdropped on rich people arguing about servicing their Audis. I learned that an Audi oil change costs $100, but the service agreement is $700, so if you’re only going to keep the car for three years, it’s better to pay for the oil change out of pocket. However, the other rich people argued, what if your Audi is a lemon? Then you could be out thousands. What then, huh?

I also took several small trips. I went to Monterey, visited the snow in Tahoe, and wrote in a cabin in the redwoods. But the best thing we did was take a spontaneous trip to Sequoia National Park.

I mistakenly thought that sequoias looked like coastal redwoods. Not at all. They are orange, for one thing. Their bark is flat, scratchy, and brittle and spongy at the same time. Imagine a bunch of giant orange trees on top of a huge granite mountain, and that’s Sequoia National Park. Pictures:

Kyle by sequoias

Looking up at one of the trees.

We came upon this cute family holding hands around the tree.

General Sherman, one of the biggest trees in the world.

Ranger holding up a pine cone

We also climbed to the top of this:

That’s Morro Rock. There was a staircase going up to the top. It looked like this:

Here are some views from the top:

Gideon also climbed the rock. I was proud of him. Here we are as a family, at the top. This was right at the moment Gideon started acting squirrely and scared us by flopping around.

No one died.

I have an article in the Smithsonian on how How Beatrix Potter Invented Character Merchandising. Excerpt:

Beatrix Potter is known for her gentle children’s books and beautiful illustrations. But the sweet stories of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and others helped hide a savvy mind for business—and an author who was among the first to realize that her readers could help build a business empire.

Read the rest here.

My short story Murmur is up on Every Day Fiction. It’s about a ghost. Excerpt:

She came in with the rain, through an open window. It was the house of a young family. The ghost, whose name had been Amaya, gazed curiously at their cleanliness, their food-in-bar-form, and the bright newness of everything they owned. She watched the mother string grapes onto skewers and then paste chocolate chips on one end with icing, the eyes of a long green snake. When the children came home from school, they ate the snakes as snacks. The mother said the grapes were healthy. Grapes had been so expensive when Amaya was alive that she hadn’t tasted them until she was an adult.

Read the rest here.