Dog Ear
May 8, 2019
won’t say who said this (they, alone, will know the bitter salty tears I wept) but a friend told me that he’d played my interactive fiction StoreyMinus a few times and went “Meh”. That’s a tough nut to swallow, if you are into swallowing nuts. I mean, how many hundred hours have a spent coding this monster? For those who don’t know about it (which, outside of my friend, is pretty much everone on Earth), StoreyMinus is my interactive fiction written with the Squiffy game driver. It involves a fictional character in some sort of situation in the tunnels and […]
May 1, 2019
had a great insight on Don Quixote today, a little curiosity I read. On the ride home, I considered it. I lay on the couch to sip wine, pop peanuts and let the idea stew while watching dumb anime. And then the two little creatures found me. As you might have seen on my general blog, we’ve adapted two kitties, Chinki and Ritz. They are adorable family members, each as big as your hand, who came up to see what Daddy was up to and to get their cold little noses into everything. Picked up a couple of ribbon toys […]
April 27, 2019
was supposed to get $100,000 after taxes. Yes, my company was offering an early buyout and I put in for it. I’m near retirement (or ReTyrement) and I was ready to bolt. Activated the offer, waited for five weeks, then found out that my company was not genuine on this. Hardly anyone at all got it. Bait and switch. Well, shit. So today I was in a scrum call, listening to everyone grab the conversation string in a heated argument, making their points with long-winded reasoning, just double-lung blowouts of dialog. I started doing what I usually do, figuring out […]
April 18, 2019
ou might have noticed (please, someone notice) that my site has been pretty quiet as of late. The reason for this was my www-based ancient Joomla webpage had been hacked (again). It first came to my attention when the astronomy site booted off one of my blogs, claiming I had malware. But then my wife chirped up, saying she’d seen it too. Maybe you did – the whole survey results thing you’d first click through via my links? Once I mentioned this, everyone I knew said, “Yes, I thought that was something you did.” Please, I’d rather mug you with […]
March 21, 2019
s there an echo in here? No, actually, this blog is about… dog earring. Just noticed it today – I’m reading an adventure yard from Douglas Preston, Tyrannosaur Canyon. The thing is, if you open the cover, you’ll see the Maya Books and Music pencil notification in the front – yeah, I bought it used, $3.50. I love Maya’s, a groovy little bookshop in Sanford, and will generally pick up a couple of covers just to help support them. So this thing is a foster book. Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch with a glass of wine, getting […]
March 21, 2019
Priced to move! Was $2.99, now 99 cents! Bargain prices! These sound like things Mason Trellis might say in moving Egyptian Grain in Early ReTyrement. Well, in this case, life imitates art. I’ve been thinking that a couple of bucks was probably too much for my eBook, especially two years (has it been this long?) since it was posted up on Kindle and Nook. I’ve heard of people who give their books away for free (to get following) or jack their prices around (to get ranking). I don’t know how to do this – I’m a writer (meaning I think […]
March 6, 2019
n amazing thing in the elevator yesterday. It was a long day at work, very frustrating. I was an hour late getting out, it was raining and I still needed to go all the way across town for a train ops session that would last until 11pm. Long day. While on the elevator, two guys from the middle floors of the building got on, one an office worker, the other a maintenance guy (complete with a ladder over his shoulder). And they were continuing their conversation from their lobby. The salaryman: “Yeah, I loved it. As a hunter, it really […]
February 28, 2019
ometimes (particularly when traveling) I end up with a couple of reviews in the can, waiting for Sunday Review posting. That’s a good feeling. But sometimes, I end up with a “slow” book. Right now I’m reading a religious book about God and such. It’s a sell, that’s one thing. But it’s also one where I need to pay attention to the points. Outside of fiction (where I go into my groove and read for pleasure), non-fiction (please, no debating this classification) is pretty slow. I’m not reading about Sam Spade breaking heads quick and getting even quicker answers. I’m […]
February 20, 2019
kay, so I’m literally not sure what I can say about this. I mentioned that I dropped out of Powers of the Earth because of the pro-libertarian/anti-everyone-else take. I didn’t particularly enjoy being a straw-man in this tale. And then there is Without Warning, an Audio Book I’m listening to right now. In general, it’s a bit Anti-Muslim (literally a “you’ll miss us when we’re gone” kinda book, to be reviewed soon). The only reason I’m sticking with it is that I really do want to know why American was vaporized. Yes, so I’ve been getting battered around the head […]
February 7, 2019
just started a new SciFi series a friend of mine sent me for Christmas. When I pursued the back cover, I noted all the libertarian praise. Guns and dogs and freedom comments. A fatigue fell over me. I’ve read a couple of libertarian books before and, without exception, they are always the same. A buff, handsome entrepreneur, heavy with bitter backstories and loaded for bear, decides to make a stand against a mass of people so liberally unlikable that it brings tears to your eyes. If you’ve ever enjoyed socialist privilege, even to the point of checking out a library […]