Zaphod and Ford

or
Lister and Holly
or
Castor and Pollux
or
Crockett and Tubbs :)
or
Bill and Ted
or
Vincent and Theo.

What would you name them? Not just random names, either, you need to pick two that go together.

Yahoo! Picks

I've gotten about twelve e-mail submissions for fifty word fiction today. I've only had nineteen in the last two months, so I knew something was going on. I went to StatCounter to see where all the people heard of me, and found this.

Pretty cool, huh? Thanks, Yahoo.

Busy

Too.
Busy.
To.
Write.

Might have a visitor on Wednesday. If so will post photos.

Note to CW Murphy: I still can't get my Odeo Syncr to work. Staff told me problems fixed, but nah. Any ideas appreciated.

I exagerrate, but this is going to take way more time than I thought to put together. Damn my perfectionistic streak. I'm being extra careful, and someone will point out at least three errors on the day that I present. Unclenching. . . . . . . now.

Work

In the midst of cramming about a week's worth of work into two days, I sigh, wipe my brow and think "What the hell is wrong with me?" or something to that effect.

So, to entertain you, a few links.

Animator Nina Paley did this cartoon about conspicuous consumerism, and also this one about the role of Sita in the Ramayana, told in old songs from the 20's. What a style.

Mind Hacks, when you want to think about thinking.

A comic called Orneryboy, by Michael Lalonde.

And Stay Free.

My Niece

My niece came to visit from July 4th through July 8th, and then from July 11 through July 13th. She's a great kid. I asked her what pseudonym she'd prefer, and she said Zin. That's her web name, and it's on the website she designed using html. (!) I asked her if we could use a less Pokemon kind of name, and she said no, not really.

We spent some time with my sister Chloe in the West, and also some time with my sister Jenny down the street. Zin loves to swim and draw and read. She takes after her father, who doesn't spend much time with her. She spends her days and nights at my house when she comes. Possibly because I'm the one who doesn't have to go to work during the summer, but possibly not.

Everytime she visits I take her to the grocery with me to buy the things she'd like to eat. Her favorite food, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, ends up in my house more times than not, but she didn't want any soda or Captain Crunch. We swam and visited relatives and ate a lot, and on one of the days we made a book. Zin also spent lots of time drawing on my digital drawing tablet. She's currently writing a comic, and created a character for it called Angel, which you can see above.

Occupied

I've been checking out Odeo, a new service for subscribing to podcasts. I can't seem to get part of it to work, but that's probably user error. I still don't understand some of the features and terms, but I'm working on that, because it's such a cool thing in this era of mega-corporate-conglomerate radio stations. Radio Stations that play the same songs over and over and censor music and have the same lame DJ's do the same lame jokes every day.

If you're really into music, Melleners at Vexed and Glorious has some great links and downloads. I go there every couple of days to download some new music.

I'm supposed to teach the art teachers when school starts soon. I'll be presenting Basic Tech and Computer Graphics, and since I don't like to prepare I'm avoiding working on that. I've posted some new drawings and paintings on my other blog, Distilled. Procrastination, how I love to indulge thee.

And, if you haven't heard, some New York woman fired her nanny. For almost blogging about her. The ensuing controversy favors the blogger. You can read about it at majikthise, Making Light, Bitch PhD. The nanny contributes to the comments at Bitch PhD.

Highlights of my niece's visit on the way. Some of her drawings too. She's very talented.

fifty word fiction

I've been linked on someone else's site recently (Thanks, Jeffrey!), so I've been getting more submissions to fifty word fiction. I got four just yesterday, so take a look.

There's a site called Language is a Virus with some cool things on it too.

A Game of Thrones

I'm still in the middle of this world. This is why I don't read fiction during the school year. I've been spending every moment wrapped up in these characters, and some of them really suck. I think that's one of the signs of a good author. They can make you really hate someone.

If any of you haven't started to read this, I recommend that you do. The first pages of the first book take some patience, but after that, you might be as hooked as I am.

Short Takes

PATRIOT ACT


About a year ago I'm driving across town to have dinner with my parents. There's this canary yellow Hummer H2 in front of me. You know those little national flags you see on diplomatic vehicles? Guy in the Hummer has four of 'em. On every corner of the vehicle. Little flappin' Murkan flags. On the back of the Hummer is a giant Murkan flag decal; it covers up a good portion of the rear of the vehicle. So I'm following this guy, snickering to myself, thinkin' "geeze, got enough flags?" Just as I'm about to take a right turn to my parents' street, I snap the guy a smart salute. A salute that looked like this:









Awesome thing is, the guy salutes me back. Properly.

I Blame . . .

I know I haven't posted recently. Although Bear's trying to pick up the slack, he's a bit slow.

My niece came to town to visit. So it's her fault. Then, I started to read a book by George R R Martin. So it's his fault. We had to go visit my sister Chloe in the midcities which takes an hour each way. So it's her fault.

There will be a full recap of activities at some point. Right now we're in the middle of creating a sketchbook for her. She's thirteen, loves to draw and has an amazing imagination. She doesn't like boys yet, has no interest in shopping, and doesn't own a cell phone. And, she does things the first time you ask her. Mostly.

I may post her drawings too, but I have to ask her first. And I'm hoping to post some photos of her first handmade book too.

Guest Post: 4th of July Salute!

Like many Murkans in our godly and humble land we---by "we" I mean me, Kate and Kate's niece---celebrated 4th of July the traditional way: we watched shit blow up. And it was real good. Oh the rocket's red glare and the bombs a-burstin' in air... Why, it just makes my little soldier positively turgid with patriotic fervor! When I think of all the souls that made the "ultimate sacrifice" so I can watch a splendid Murkan spectacle of shit blowin' up... Well, you'll hafta excuse me. I'm getting misty eyed just thinking about it.

Rather than drive to the fireworks we decided we'd ride a bike trail to the show, which was at a nearby sports field. (Sorry 'bout the bike thing. I know riding bikes is très Surrender Monkey, but my Freedom SUV... tristement, n'existe pas.) Anyway, adjacent to Maison d'apathie is a quite serviceable, if little used, bike trail that winds its way through an enchanted forest of high voltage power line pylons. 'Round here we call it "Power Line Park." It's really quite scenic. And the low thrum of the power lines is magnificent on a warm July night. It's a little like crickets. Giant, humming mechanical crickets. With mandible-mounted rail guns. OK, not so much. It's much more like the sound of the planet's burgeoning carbon debt. But I digress; that's genuine fossil fuel-fired freedom juice flowin' down them power lines, and that's all ya need to know. Back to the bike ride.

We made our way down Power Line Park at around nine o' clock. There were little gaggles of people sprawled around the pylons---no doubt greatly enjoying the humid, ninety degree night air and soothing buzz of the power lines. We soon arrived at a cross street leading to the field proper. Since traffic was pretty heavy at the cross street we decided to camp out at the end of the bike path. Several minutes later the blowing up of shit real good commenced. As shit blowed up in purty colors I reflected upon what it means to be a Murkan.

I couldn't really think of anything, but that was OK 'cause some upstanding, full-blooded fellow Murkans behind us were thoughtful enough to treat everyone to their scratchy boom box recordings of Murka's finest patriotic songs. As tinny strains of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" crackled though the air, my thoughts about the significance of being a contemporary Murkan fell into place.

Naturally, I reflected on Dear Leader's bold and well-planned war for Eyeraki freedom. My heart swelled near to bursting with nationalistic pride as I considered the foresight and wisdom that went into this wonderful crusade extension of God's great gift of liberty. Truly, our Dear Leader is a tool--of providence. For the life of me I can't help but think back to the day Dear Leader announced, way back in 2003, that the Mission was, indeed, Accomplished. Gentle readers, I even teared up a little when I reminisced how our troops were greeted as liberators, and were showered with rose petals and candies. Of course, I also considered the not-at-all unimpressive number of Eyeraki civilians and brave Murkan servicemen Dear Leader sent to the bosom of the Almighty! If this isn't evidence that Dear Leader truly embraces the culture of life... well, I just don't know what is. All those precious snowflakes landing on the golden lap of the Lord. Glory!

Now I don't really know if these ruminations of mine shed much light on the contemporary Murkan experience... but I do know this: it was one helluva show. And we sure blowed some shit up real good, didn't we?

God bless the USA!

*cross-posted at Ours d'Apathie