ETHEREAL CODE

Still Alive Kirk My Old Friend

2011-11-23T20:28:00.002-05:00

Still alive and still thinking that blogging is not a terrible idea. I've been posting at this blog for 8 years. It's never been the most popular blog but has outlasted so many that someday some eager young thing will contact me to ask me "WHAT WAS IT REALLY LIKE" to do something as creakingly ancient as BLOGGING.

'Tender Young Shoots' March 2010 Issue

2010-03-26T12:11:00.003-04:00

Rumble Magazine releases it's March 2010 issue. Compact fiction by Chloe Caldwell, Len Kuntz, Alyssa Martino, and Abi Wyatt. Also, J.A. Tyler reviews Words by Andy Devine.

Hilarious discussion at HTML Giant about who is the best rapper. Embarrassing for those revealed to be douchebags. As for me it's all about the ice.

December 2009 Issue Of Rumble Magazine

2009-12-17T11:26:00.005-05:00

"Rumble Magazine wishes you a Merry Christmas. Rumble Magazine focuses on Kristina Born’s One Hour Of Television.

In this issue: Digitized fiction by Thomas Bonfiglio, Merle Drown, Lalo Espejo, Joy Lanzendorfer, Neila Mezynski, Jonathan Ullyot, and xTx. A 3-Part interview with Blake Butler, Kristina Born, and Shane Jones, a review of One Hour Of Television, both by J.A. Tyler."

This issue is super sweet in my opinion. Enjoy.

Man Posts To Own Blog

2009-12-08T14:23:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted here in a while. I've had nothing to say, really, and I've been busy with Rumble Magazine and traveling to the great state of Wisconsin to see my brother get married to a nice girl who will bake potatoes for him. This occurred in Bayfield and was cold but beautiful and I liked it.

Nothing published recently but someday I will write something and have it published if you really want me to. I'm serious I'll do it.

Craig Snyder @ Wigleaf, GWI, & TNA

2009-09-22T12:23:00.004-04:00

Some recent publications of my ultra short stories: Girls With Insurance has risen from the dead and kindly revived Totalitarian Dance Party. GWI has also taken Janie. The New Absurdist has included my short Lindsay Lohan in TNA Anthology 3 and Wigleaf has published Death City.

Shoplifting From American Apparel

2009-08-20T11:51:00.003-04:00

Tao Lin has a novella coming out on September 15 called Shoplifting From American Apparel. More info and early reviews here.

I've read good and bad things about this book but being familiar with Tao's writing I think it will be worth checking out.

Gene Morgan's Twitter Feed Press

2009-07-27T12:16:00.007-04:00

Gene Morgan has started an ingenious new press utilizing the Twitter app. So far he has published 3 or 4 things, two of which I like very much. I know others are writing novels via Twitter but this is the first publishing venture that I know of.

You can find it here.

It's super neat. Nice job, Gene.

Rumble Magazine 5th Anniversary Issue

2009-07-08T10:44:00.003-04:00

It has been 5 years since we started Rumble, the web magazine of microscopic fiction and poetry. Our new issue will celebrate this fact by being ultra mega awesome, or whatever. It's due out in about a week, so check it out and become impressed by its awesomeness and lovely, crinkly edges.

New Rumble Magazine, May 2009 Issue

2009-05-24T15:38:00.006-04:00

The newest issue of Rumble is online now. New fiction by Michael Doherty, Paul Lynch, David Miller, Meg Pokrass, and Wayne Scheer. Poetry by Ricky Garni and Dennis Mahagin. Assuming I am not killed in a horrible car crash we will celebrate 5 years of Rumble in July. Feels pretty good. I have no free t-shirts to give away, in case you were wondering.

The newest issue of Absurdist Monthly Review is also available for download. I had nothing to do with that. But it's good, very good.

Action Plan! @ Bewildering Stories

2009-03-30T09:47:00.006-04:00

A very short something called Action Plan! is published at Bewildering Stories. It's been rejected a few times by editors who didn't like it. I always liked it. It contains very detailed instructions. Follow them to the letter.

New Rumble Magazine, March 2009

2009-03-03T11:26:00.003-05:00

The new issue of Rumble Magazine is online with stories by Lydia Copeland, Marylou Fusco, Ellen Lindquist, Brandi Wells, and xTx, plus a poem by Jon Bennett and a review of Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs by Ellen Kennedy.

It's pretty good.

I'm working on a new design and "skinning" the site with multiple style sheets.

I'm thinking about adding a Helvetica skin.

Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs by Ellen Kennedy

2009-02-23T12:06:00.007-05:00

This new book of prose-poetry is available now from Muumuu House, an independent publisher. Some of the work in this book has been published previously online or on Ellen's blog. The book is reasonably priced at $12 dollars. You can find more information here. A page of reviews can be found here.

I'm happy for Ellen, and hope the publication of her book will make her happy. I think it will. I am waiting to receive a copy. Once I have received the copy and read it, and fondled it a bit, I will write a review and publish it at Rumble. Ellen has a rare talent and your money would be better spent buying this book than some dvd with stupid car explosions in it.

The Unusually Destructive Ladybug Is Published; Hurt Feelings Caused By Dicey Brown Magazine Are Discussed

2009-02-08T14:28:00.008-05:00

My story The Unusually Destructive Ladybug has been published over at juked. This was the story dicey brown magazine failed to publish. This failure led me to declare prejudice against dicey brown magazine for a period of one year, as previously noted.

The publication of The Unusually Destructive Ladybug is a good thing. This has not lessened hurt feelings caused by dicey brown magazine but has helped me to regain composure. I am okay now.

Electric Obama Boogaloo

2009-01-09T09:53:00.008-05:00

I am now prejudiced against Dicey Brown Magazine because they accepted one of my stories many months ago but have failed to publish it or answer my e-mail. I do not hate them because people are flawed but I will maintain a small grudge against them for a period of one year.

I am waiting for Ellen Kennedy's new book to be published but I will not pre-order it because of extreme poverty.

I have purchased Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo for 3.99 but have not watched it. I am waiting for "the right moment". I have downloaded the soundtrack to the movie, possibly illegally. It is "the bomb".

Back to THE OBAMA:

I would like to see Obama say "stop killing Palestinian women and children" to the Israelis even though he is not president yet. I would like to see Obama go to the Cowardly Lion and say "give me courage" and then go and say that. Maybe he is not saying that because he doesn't have enough courage.

It's just a fucking theory, people.

Obama Says Bush Is Still The Decider

2008-11-16T13:34:00.011-05:00

President Bush is still "The Decider" for two more months. This means he gets to decide things, like about wars and things, for a little while longer.

Obama declared "I am not the president." and "There is only one president."

Personally I am happy about Pre-President Obama, except for a couple details. A few weeks ago I sent away for a free Obama pin and never got it. Recently I just signed up to receive a free Obama sticker and am looking forward to not receiving it as well. I am very selfish and I want my free stuff, but Obama won't send me my stuff.

And the Obama campaign is still asking me for money.

They will send you a Obama poster if you send them the money. They want the money to "help with the transition". That's cool. Whatever. I wonder if they would consider sending some money to poor people to help with their mother-fucking transition from poor and suicidal to poor and apathetic.

Look, I'm not knocking Obama. Well maybe a little. I remember during the campaign I used to hear him say "we need to help the middle class" like the middle class had leprosy or something. This was the Clinton strategic mantra and it worked for Obama as well. But, Dude, I think that poor people could seriously use some money. Like money for food and shit, and clothes and shelter.

BULLETIN FOR OBAMA: Poor people STILL exist!

2ND BULLETIN FOR OBAMA: All black people in America used to be really, really poor! Many still are, despite Compassionate Conservatism.

Well that's all for now. I personally feel maybe 10% more hopeful about America right now. I feel a strong psychic hunch that we, as a country, may kill 20% fewer innocent civilians in 2009. I even think it is possible that President Obama may actually mention poor people, some time in the far distant future.

On the day we all get our rocket packs.

and Muumuu House

2008-10-15T11:45:00.016-04:00

Two great new websites have appeared.

There are no Manatees on these websites.

These websites are "non-gay" but not "anti-gay"

This is a hot picture of a young Sarah Palin.

She is "fresh" and "midwestern"

<HTML GIANT> is the internet literature magazine blog of the future. The posts are very "apt" and of interest to writers and publishers. This month they are "talking shit" about people and magazines. The content is "entertaining and informative". My favorite articles so far are Jimmy Chen's Against HTML, Giants, and HTMLGiant and Sam Pink's All Internet Writers Are Fucking Pussies. There is seriously funny shit at <HTML GIANT>. There are some graphic descriptions of genitalia.

Muumuu House is a new small press created by Tao Lin. The website, like <HTML GIANT>, is "aesthetically pleasing" and easy on the eyes, with little graphic distraction. The thing I like best about Muumuu House so far is the two new Ellen Kennedy stories, and the promise of a poetry chapbook from Ellen early next year.

Both sites are "damn fine" and "smell nice" and may possibly have "street cred" with Matthew McConaughey.

New Episodes Of Animal Cops Are Needed

2008-07-22T14:42:00.009-04:00

I watch a lot of Animal Cops on TV, because I like it when they rescue fucked up animals and then make them better. I like it when the animals get better and are happy and get adopted by people who are not cruel to animals.

But now I have watched too many episodes of Animal Cops and there are no new Animal Copsepisodes and I have to stop watching Animal Cops for a while. Maybe I should watch Animal Precinct. Maybe.

Something I notice about Animal Cops is that almost all the people who get arrested for animal cruelty are poor and black, or just black. I wish they would show some rich white people getting arrested, and maybe beaten about the head and shoulders, just to balance things out.

Sometimes the people are white. The white people are usually poor too.

That is depressing and animal cruelty is depressing.

I am thinking about a new format for Animal Cops. The new format would be this: The Animal Cops would train the rescued animals to go back to their former owners and kick them in the nuts or something.

I would also like to see more manatees. There are never any manatees on Animal Cops even though manatees are getting pounded. People in speedboats keep running over them and the Animal Cops should do something. So far they have not done anything about this. This is something that should be looked into.

Update: There will be more Animal Cops.

Maybe there will be Manatee Cops.

Elimae Robots

2008-05-29T12:50:00.010-04:00

Two more stories that contain robots or references to robots but do not feature robots have been published at elimae. You can find them here. These are good robot stories but will not achieve the level of greatness I wished for.

I want to write more robot stories because publishers like stories with robots in them, if the robots are interesting in some way, or if someone smashes them.

I also liked this. I felt good after reading it, like maybe I could become a better person if I tried really hard.

Robot image by Rosie Robinson.

Wigleaf's Top 50 [very] Short Fictions Of 2008

2008-05-20T14:18:00.003-04:00

My short fiction Two Robots made the list. I am happy about this because I did not know about it. It was a nice surprise but there's no money involved in case you are wondering if there was.

There isn't.

Jai Britton's story Mass Media, a story we published in Rumble, was included on the long shortlist, as was Gene Morgan's short Steak and Lobster and other stories by people whose names I recognize.

Two new robots stories are published this month in elimae, which published many stories appearing on both lists.

New Incredibly Tiny Literature

2008-05-03T14:32:00.004-04:00

The new issue of Rumble is online today. Features stories by returning authors Wayne Sullins and Luis C. Berriozabal, plus new fiction by Matt Marinovich and Merle Drown. You will become a better person after reading these stories.

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis as a Flash Movie

Micro Fiction is the new black

Wigleaf is very short fiction. Flash Fiction Online wants to pay you. That's pretty fucking incredible if you ask me. Sorry about the use of the word fuck but I was just so fucking amazed.

Battlestar Galactica Ripped Me Off; Starbuck Still Hot Though

2008-04-06T15:09:00.014-04:00

No Spoilers, Bitches!

After advertising their season premiere like 10 billion times in the past month, I was expecting giant shitloads of action and Cylon killing from Battlestar Galactica. Instead (gigantic ripoff) more scenes with stupid Baltar and people arguing with Starbuck about some stupid shit. Why would anyone argue with Starbuck? She's right about everything, all the time, end of story, and is insanely hot, and will kick your ass before making love to you (if you are very lucky, which you are not).

I was like, whatever. I was pretty sad.

Maybe the next episode will be better. They set me up with a tremendous cliff-hanger at season's end last year. I mean, I'm so pissed now. If you feel sorry for me you should go on the world wide web and download hot pictures of Starbuck and send them to me with encouraging captions like "don't worry about it" and "I can't believe how hot Starbuck is". That might help but probably not. I can't see how anything could help at this point.

They have cliff-hanged my ass.

I, Blogger

2008-03-07T13:28:00.002-05:00

Yes, I retain the ability to blog though I have not done it for a while. I don't know why. It's not necessary to explain. I have a small number of things to say. Tao Lin wrote a story with Lindsay Lohan in it even though he should have known I wrote my own story with Lindsay Lohan in it but have been dissatisfied with it. I am not angry.

Bear Parade published a new book and it's called Eat When You Feel Sad by Zachary German. I am surprised they published another book so soon. I have not read it yet. I just glanced at it and then did other things. I will read it soon.

Rumble has not been updated in a while. I have been sick, or not feeling well. I feel bad about it but will get to work on it soon. I hope not too many people are angry with me.

I am angry that the sci-fi channel is not showing more Dr. Who episodes, and cannot even find out when more Dr. Who episodes will be on. It is frustrating. It is also making me kind of sad but not too sad. I will probably get over it.

Rise Of The Mentards & Flower Boy in Juked #5

2008-01-22T14:55:00.000-05:00

I have achieved inclusion into juked #5 print anthology. I have achieved a satisfactory level of coherence and non-boredom with my short story Rise Of The Mentards & Flower Boy.

I have been invited to the Luna Park Review launch party, which is also a kind of launch for juked #5, but cannot attend.

Too bad, because Tao Lin and Claudia Smith will be doing readings. They both write real good and I like what they write.

There are parts of Flower Boy I really like. Other parts are sketchy. If you buy juked #5 you can read the whole story, plus other things like poetry and an interview with Claudia which might be interesting.

Small Pale Humans

2007-12-10T17:47:00.000-05:00

Bear Parade has published small pale humans by Daniel Spinks. I read the book and enjoyed it. I thought about going through drive-throughs while reading it, and what marriage would be like. I will go back and read the book again very soon. small pale humans is composed of very small chapters or stories. All the characters in the stories are humans, no animals (maybe an animal somewhere. I can't remember. The main characters are human). This book uses very simple straightforward language. You will find this book very easy to read.

Nothing. Cold.

2007-11-28T16:34:00.000-05:00

Nothing to say about Thanksgiving, football, al-quada, president bush, writing, web design, comics, TV, stuff, animals, neighbors, friends, relatives, the web, instant messaging, g-mail, smoothies, batman, rodents, emotions, laundry, toast, juveniles, pink juveniles, nothing.

Cold. It's very cold.

Glowie Excerpt

2007-11-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

This is an excerpt from an unfinished piece called Glowie. When I started it I thought it could be good but now I don't know. Probably not. It is not being what I wanted it to be. It has become too gay, maybe.

Poems

Glowie stands in front of the mirror in her bedroom on Sunday morning. Rays of sunlight are spreading and touching her skin. She takes off her slip and lets it fall to the floor. She stares at her reflection, sees a thin white body and flat chest. Traces the line of ribs and hipbones with her index finger. The sun brightens and gives her skin more color, a sort of milky pink.

"Skeleton girl," Glowie says. "You are like paper. You are made of smoke."

She goes to her dresser and pulls out clean blue jeans and a white t-shirt and underwear but no bra. She gets dressed and combs her hair and paints her fingernails with sparkly silver nail polish and lays down on her bed and waits for the nail polish to dry.

Maizie bursts into the room and runs around the bed and jumps on the bed and laughs and Glowie sits up. Maizie takes the brush and starts brushing Glowie's hair.

"You have the best hair," Maizie announces. "It's like gold."

"It's too flat and thin," Glowie says.

"No no no," Maizie says. "It's perfect."

Maizie finishes brushing Glowie's hair and tosses the brush onto the dresser and stands up and starts jumping on the bed and pretending to fall on Glowie, who shrieks.

Maizie collapses on the bed and lays next to Glowie and holds her hand.

"You tired today?" Maizie asks. "You gonna write any poems today?"

"Yes," Glowie says.

"Sarah and me are going rollerskating," Maizie tells her. "You wanna come? There's gonna be a DJ and hot boys. I'm learning to skate backwards. It's hard."

"No," Glowie says. "Thanks."

Maizie leans over and kisses her on the neck. "Bye then," she says. "You want me to bring you back some cotton candy? Pink or Blue?"

"Pink," Glowie says. "The blue stains my teeth."

"Okay," Maizie says. "Later, okay?"

"Later," Glowie says.

After Maizie leaves Glowie goes to her desk and sits down and opens a drawer and takes out some sheets of very pale blue paper and a pen. She straightens the sheets of paper until they are perfectly square and sits with her fists against her cheeks, concentrating.

She picks up the pen.

She writes a ten word poem. The poem takes one hour to write.

The poem contains the phrases "my urgent fists" and "the panicked bees".

Glowie reads the poem 3 times. She decides it is finished.

She draws three small fireflies in the upper right corner of the sheet and signs her name in cursive. She opens the drawer and places it carefully on top of a stack of slightly curled sheets containing many other ten word poems. She wipes tiny beads of sweat from her upper lip. She puts the rest of the paper and the pen back in the drawer and goes over and lays face down on her bed and listens to muffled traffic sounds outside her window and falls asleep. A little while later her mother comes into the room quietly and takes a comforter out of an oak chest at the foot of the bed and covers her with it and leaves.

Gillian Laub

2007-11-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

The photography of Gillian Laub.

Her new book Testimony features photographs of Israelis hurt by Palestinian suicide bombers. More photographs by Gillian Laub can be found in this gallery. Links via Boldtype.Com

Zygote Print #4

2007-11-01T11:05:00.000-04:00

I have a small piece in Zygote Print #4. My payment was one copy of Zygote Print #4. I am happy to be in Zygote Print #4 but I wish my payment was more. I am happy with my payment but I wish it was more so I could be happier. My story is right next to some poems by Luis C. Berriozabal who is my friend and who we have published in Rumble from time to time. Luis, I am happy about this.

Ellen Kennedy

2007-10-25T13:07:00.000-04:00

Ellen Kennedy has written a new book and is selling it. I wonder if it will be as good as her old book. I don't see how it could but maybe. I used to wonder if she was real but now I don't anymore. I've totally moved on.

Ellen is beautiful and shy and possibly real. I don't know if she's a nice person or not. She might be nice or possibly evil in some hidden way I will never discover. I wrote something with the words "ellen kennedy" in the title and here it is.

This is to celebrate Ellen's new book!

you should ask ellen kennedy

I'm writing some stuff, a story or something, or a monograph. I'm writing electronically on my keyboard. It's a very nice day outside but I'm inside. I decide to stay inside until I can see shadows falling. Then I will go outside and play in the shadows and make shadow puppets and watch children riding bikes and laughing and falling off bikes.

An orangutan smashes my window. An orangutan climbs in through jagged glass teeth. He leans over my shoulder and looks at my stuff and laughs and says:

"Why are you trying to write ellen kennedy stories?"

I look up at the orangutan. The orangutan has parasites on him.

"I'm not trying to write ellen kennedy stories," I say. "I'm trying to write minimalist stories. You should ask ellen kennedy why she's trying to write minimalist stories and minimalist prose poems, and why she's mysteriously absent from the world wide web just when the world wide web needs ellen kennedy the most. You should ask ellen kennedy why. You should say, the world wide web is hurting and needs ellen kennedy. You should say, please write more stories about cute animals and vegan food and poetic violence towards cute animals, and people being lonely and living in small apartments and going to vegan food co-ops."

The orangutan looks at me.

The orangutan says "do you have fresh fruit?" and I say "no."

I have only meat and raisins and no fresh fruit. I have no fruit juice.

The orangutan is defeated and leaves.

I work on the monograph for a while. I go away for one hour and return and look at the monograph. I delete the monograph and open a fresh document and stare at it.

I stop doing that. I start thinking about the orangutan and wondering whether the orangutan may be a very small Irish man with hyper-thyroidism, or some kind of wolf boy from Mexico. I saw something on PBS about that and it was good.

I open my Opera browser.

I Google ellen kennedy and see there are no new entries on ellen kennedy.

I Google Hamsters and Vegans and ellen kennedy.

New Absurdist Anthology

2007-10-22T16:16:00.000-04:00

The Web Death New Absurdist Anthology is completed and ready for download at Bust Down The Doors. This is a free download. I have a story in it. The story is under the pseudonym headsfromspace because I use that name at The New Absurdist.

Shrug Magazine

2007-10-02T13:11:00.000-04:00

Shrug Magazine published a story of mine called The Martians Are Coming. The story is not about Martians, but about other things. Shrug Magazine is unique and nice-looking. I am happy to be published there. You can find my story on this page. Thanks for reading.

I sent the same story to Night Train but forgot I did it. They sent me an e-mail. They did not accept or reject the story. They thanked me for my submission, and for reading Night Train. That was nice of them. They did not publish my story. I would have preferred if they had said: we are not publishing your story. It is not good. Or something like that.

Night Train is a good magazine. They publish good stories and poems.

Antigirl

2007-10-01T16:40:00.000-04:00

This is Antigirl’s Warholesque collection of Jayne.

It is very good. I like it a lot, a whole bunch.

I recently met another girl online.

She writes at editred.

She is nice too.

Jelly Bomb

2007-09-20T12:35:00.000-04:00

I was riding my bike to town, to the university, and the Sumac was blood red, and it was cold and misty. I saw a dead smushed chipmunk on the road. It looked like a jelly bomb. I was sad. I thought, what is the point if everything dies? Then I thought, don't think about this.

We Mean It, Man

2007-09-18T14:54:00.001-04:00

The Sex Pistols are back with reissues, a 30th Anniversary concert, and are pistol-whipped by cell degeneration. Sid Vicious is not back. He is dead.

CSS :Target and :Focus demos

2007-09-15T16:57:00.000-04:00

I built some new demos and uploaded them to the site today. They are basically about revealing hidden content without javascript, pure CSS styling.

They don't work too good in Opera or Internet Explorer. There is one hover demo that will work in those browsers. Firefox loves these demos. They are probably useless to you though.

I built another useless demo treating the html, body, and head elements like blocks. Opera and Firefox, no IE. Probably Safari. Maybe.

Spook Country

2007-08-17T14:02:00.000-04:00

William Gibson's Spook Country is out this month. I am a rabid Gibson fan. I was disappointed by Pattern Recognition. It was well written, but not set in the future, where I like Gibson novels to be set. Some links to Spook Country stuff are below.

A gallery of the various covers used on Spook Country in the U.S. and U.K.

The Spook Country weblog. It's British!

Original proposal for the novel Spook Country via Boing Boing.

A William Gibson interview conducted by Amazon.Com here.

Psychic Girls @ Zygote

2007-08-10T16:41:00.000-04:00

An excerpt from The Ultraphone called Psychic Girls Not Lesbians has been published at Zygote.

There will be a Web Death 2007 New Absurdist Anthology. I think you always knew it would happen one day.

What I Want To Say To Lindsay Wagner

2007-08-06T12:26:00.000-04:00

I always liked you Lindsay Wagner, and said you were hot.

I don't care how hot the new Bionic Woman is. That doesn't matter. You are the Bionic Woman, and you will always be the Bionic Woman.

You were Jaime Summers. That was a good fake name for you.

I will always remember how hot you looked when you were running, bionically.

If I get the money I will buy Bionic Woman DVDs.

* * * * *

Note: Someone else feels the same way.

Micro Fiction: Lindsay Lohan

2007-07-31T14:27:00.001-04:00

Excerpt from Lindsay Lohan story:

¶ When Lindsay Lohan is very old she will wear a mask. The atmosphere will be all jacked with carbon and plastic, and tiny robots the size of one big molecule, and everyone will have to wear those masks or they will die.

¶ She will give an interview for People Magazine and talk about how she wanted Princess Diaries and went to her agent and said "get me Princess Diaries" but her agent told her "you will never get Princess Diaries" so she got mad and fired him. Lindsay will reveal how she stalked Ann Hathaway and took detailed notes on everywhere Ann Hathaway went and what she did, and how she kidnapped Ann Hathaway and tortured her by pricking her naked feet with pins held under a cigarette lighter flame.

¶ She told Ann Hathaway "never talk about this."

¶ The interview sells a lot of People Magazines. Lindsay gets famous again from all the publicity and people start thinking about Lindsay Lohan and yelling "Hey, Lindsay Lohan!" when they see her. She gets Child Avengers 2. She gets Princess Diaries 3 and plays the Julie Andrews part. She wins a People's Choice Award for Princess Diaries 3.

I still need to work on this some more.

* * * * *

A place called Six Sentences where you submit stories limited to six sentences. This is not the worst idea I ever heard of. Makes stories of about a paragraph. This is a site you might visit when looking to read good micro fiction.

Micro Fiction @ Night Train

2007-07-26T13:41:00.000-04:00

I ran across this at Night Train. I thought it was very good.

Gene talks shit about submitting his writing and being rejected.

I urge you to read bad teenage poetry and write a report on it, and send the report to me. I will write a review of your report and let you see the review, and maybe publish the review.

The World's Shortest novels can be read here and here and here.

The World's Worst Novelist is Amanda McKittrick Ros.

“Dear Lord, the day of eggs is here”

New Story @ Juked

2007-07-06T16:56:00.000-04:00

Hey Hey Missed You.

I have a new story up at juked.

It's called Two Robots. It is not a story about two robots rather it's two very short robot stories called Two Robots. You should probably read it and like it and e-mail me and tell me that you like it.

That is all. Go away now.

The Empty Head: Searches

2007-05-21T15:40:00.001-04:00

What fun it sometimes is to scroll the list of web page calls from my site and see what particular Google search has led to someone visiting one of my pages. Many times it is someone looking for porn, because I am the author of the flash fiction series The Evil Lesbians. But sometimes it's not.

Here is a partial list of recent searches and the web page called:

microdot hair:
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/microdot/microdot2.html

psychic rays:
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/psychic.html

two lesbians spits themselves in the face:
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/downloads/Lesbians.pdf

How big are Manta Rays babies (No. 2!):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/psychic.html

lesbians horns (number one in spanish!):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/downloads/Lesbians.pdf

rubber boy naked (No. 1!):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/psychic.html

cows in space:
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/downloads/Cows.pdf

ultraphone (No. 1, most often):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/ultra.html

"robots are watching you" (No. 1!):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/robots.html

evil lesbians (No. 3):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/downloads/Lesbians.pdf

giant robots attack city (No. 3):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/ultra.html

pretty lesbians (No. 3 and 4):
emptyhead.rumble.sy2.com/stories/lesbians.html

I think from this sampling you can see that many people are looking for naked pictures of lesbians. There are so many lesbian searches that I should probably get AdSense or something.

Kurt Vonnegut: So He Goes

2007-04-19T14:14:00.000-04:00

“Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt.”

Vonnegut.Com

CBC Interview (part 3-audio)
The Barnhouse Effect (audio)

New York Times article
The Smoking Vonnegut
Chess with Vonnegut (salon article)
Lecture at the Mark Twain House
In These Times | Vonnegut Writings

Photo Gallery (Indy Star)
Photo Gallery (Washington Post)
Photo Gallery (Ohio State)

Short Vonnegut Documentary (video)
Vonnegut on NOW (video interview)

Vonnegut links via Maud Newton
The Vonnegut Web
Vonnegut links at Wikipedia (bottom of page)

The Rumble Site Is Down

2007-03-20T16:21:00.000-04:00

But the moon is up.

Don't know why but suddenly Rumble is down and gone, with no explanation from my host. This also means that my personal sites are extinct, at least temporarily. All I can say to visitors is hold on, if you've reached me here I'll post details of what's happening.

Sometime in the FUTURE.

You can, of course, reach me at headsfromspace at gmail dot com.

- Craig Snyder, Rumble Editor

UPDATE 3/22: Rumble is back up.

American Spaceboy: At Elimae

2007-03-18T14:33:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from my absurdist micro novel American Spaceboy have been published in the march elimae. Here's the direct link. Enjoy, enjoy.

The Revengers

2007-03-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

An excerpt from my new work, The Revengers.

AWESOME POWERS OF THE PURPLE GOON

The hyper jet sat perched on spidery metal legs. Hot metal ticked as it cooled. It was the silent hour before dawn. The Revengers stood on a low hill overlooking a small but depressing industrial town in southern New Jersey. The town seemed dead. There was not a Starbucks to be seen. On the main street a red neon sign blinked on and off, buzzing and spitting electricity. It said "Jerry's Place" and "Good Food - Spirits". It was an invitation for alcoholics to come inside and drink alcohol, and to feel better about things in general, if they possibly could.

"Pretty shitty town," observed Bi-Polarman. "Not the sort of place I would have chosen for my secret underground headquarters, if I were the Anti-Justice League."

"It was probably quite different," said Rubber Woman. "Back in the day."

"Yes. Whatever. Who gives a shit?" said Mopy. He was so jittery it looked like he was trying to tap dance or something. He was beginning to emot dangerous levels of psychotic waves, so the others were standing a little apart from him to avoid being lobotomized or have their brainstems snapped off.

"Let's just do it," said the Purple Goon nervously. "Before I chicken out or wet my pants or something."

Bi-Polarman threw him an devastatingly sarcastic look, which was completely wasted because The Purple Goon wasn't looking.

"What is your power, anyway?" said Despairo, who was smoking a mentholated cigarette and trying to look tough. "I forget what your power is."

"It's mostly web design-based," explained The Purple Goon. "Like when people are looking at one of my web pages, I can feed them false information and stuff, and mess with their minds a little bit. But for infighting I use a short club."

"That's fantastic," said Bi-Polarman.

"Also I'm completely impervious to sarcasm," said The Purple Goon.

The Schismatic Man stood on the very edge of the hill, apparently lost in thought and looking as though he had a lonely destiny to fulfill. It was, perhaps, a destiny none of the others could understand but definitely respected him for having. Their hearts were so crammed full of admiration for The Schismatic Man there was precious little room for blood sometimes.

"Okay," he said. "It's time."

Opera: Accessing Hidden Content

2007-02-14T16:41:00.000-05:00

I made (what I thought was) a simple demo yesterday. I had constructed this page a while ago but the design leaves a lot to be desired. So I build this demo after a mild brainstorm. IE and Firefox handle it as expected though in Fox 1.5 the content jumps a bit. Unexpectedly my Opera 9 browser refuses to display the content. Maybe it's my copy or my computer, who knows? Not me. I expected no problems from Opera but got plenty.

Any ideas, CSS Masters? There must be something. Comment or e-mail me at headsfromspace at gmail dot com.

Did you know Opera supports the CSS 3 list-style-type: box? It does, for some reason. And for some reason I made the List Body demo which as far as I know, only displays properly in Opera. Here is a screenshot I took. Practical uses of this demo? None. Value of this demo? None.

Opera: 100% Border Corners

2007-02-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

Oh, hello. Yes, it's been a while. Very crispy outside today.

Opera can do things few other browsers can do. I use it a lot to test different aspects of CSS design. Here is a page that won't do too well in most browsers, but Opera renders it quite well:

Opera: 100% Border Corners

An alternative page for Firefox is rendered with a defined pixel-width for the borders. I think I got the idea from this page.

Micro Fiction: American Spaceboy

2007-02-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've been publishing what I call a Micro Novel, in installments, over at The New Absurdist called American Spaceboy

The link is to Chapter One, and all the chapters are linked. Just follow the links at the bottom of each page to go to the next. It's that easy.

Did you know that Firefox supports the ::selection pseudo element? Well, it doesn't really, but it kinda does with it's proprietary ::-moz-selection. See Roger Johansson's blog post about CSS 3 selectors for more info.

CSS: Bullet

2006-12-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

I've been working on some pages to demonstrate CSS Typography techniques. Most of them are harmless enough. Here is the first, a simple CSS Bullet. A second is Goodnight, Moon. I'll post more by and by. For now, a lot of them work well in Firefox and Opera but are destroyed in Internet Explorer, because they use some fixed positioning and pseudo elements to generate visual text effects.

Much inspiration from CSS: Destroy!

Peanuts Characters transformed as Marvel Superheroes. This one is an adaptation of the cover of Amazing Spiderman #50. Here is the metafilter post. The link to the site where the artwork resides won't work anymore.

Conan O' Brien as THE MOLECULAR MAN!

And to all the Bloggers typing away in their lonely rooms: I wish you a Merry, Merry Christmas, and a New Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System that will treat you very gently, and will not require many, many patches in the coming months of 2007, and beyond...

Seeing Red

2006-12-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

Seeing Red via Netdiver

Type, Eurostyle: The European Type Design Directory

I can't get enough of this. I really can't. Scared of Santa via Metafilter

Ultraphone Update!

2006-12-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

Can't get enough ULTRAPHONE? I just received an e-mail from John Gilly, the man who sent me the picture of the ULTRAPHONE, which turns out to be a kind of early CB radio. Here's the content of his second e-mail:

Craig,

The pic of the Ultraphone was part of a PowerPoint presentation that was done for the Rochester Amateur Radio Association on the history of VHF radio operation. The actual Ultraphone is an exhibit in the Antique Wireless Association Museum in East Bloomfield N.Y. It was essentially the predecessor of the modern CB radio. At one time (pre- WW2) there was a UHF frequency allocation for the citizens radio service. It was up around 450MHz (where, ironically, the little FRS walkie talkies are today). At that time everything operated on tubes and was AM instead of FM. There was no channelization so two users had to "dial around" to "find" each other on the air. An even earlier version of the Ultraphone was the Abbot TR-4 "Ultra-High Frequency Receiver/Transmitter" (pic attached) manufactured on the planet Cleveland in the galaxy Ohio (as Devo would say). I found your site (and read some of the short fiction) when I "Googled" Ultraphone on the web.

This is one of the reasons I am so fond of the world wide web: (There is no Internet anymore, people. Anything you view on a web page is part of the world wide web, not the Internet, which technically may still exist, but if it does, it is a very small phenomena) The rich, wide fields of (sometimes useless, but interesting) DATA!

Ultraphones Throughout History!

2006-12-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

Who knew? Before I invented the ULTRAPHONE, there were ULTRAPHONES a plenty! I still don't know what the first image represents, though it was sent to me, unsolicited, by someone who apparently works for Kodak.

I did not know this: There were German and French record labels with the names Ultraphone and/or Ultraphon, but a search has revealed little information besides graphics. A close up of an ULTRAPHON records jacket.

The ULTRAPHONE gramaphone. It looks kinda cool.

Website of the modern Russian ULTRAPHONE. Definitely NOT as cool as classic ULTRAPHONES. Probably contains KGB listening devices.

The Evil Lesbians: Free E-book Download

2006-10-27T12:03:00.000-04:00

I've completed work on two free E-book downloads of my Flash Fiction. The first is the The Evil Lesbians. It contains The Evil Lesbians, Daughter of Lesbos, and Chad of the Lesbians. The second is The Space Cows, and includes all 6 Space Cow stories. If possible, please enjoy them.

Sun Ra and Batman

2006-10-24T14:20:00.000-04:00

"In 1966, a toy company in Newark, New Jersey released a children's record called Batman and Robin to cash in on the popular Adam West TV series of the same name. The music on the LP was credited to "The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale," but in fact the band was one of the greatest uncredited session combos of all time, including the core of Sun Ra's Arkestra and Al Kooper's Blues Project."

Article and Download links via metafilter

Also a crazy version of the Batman Theme by Sheena and the Rokkets — Crank Yankers Batman — The 1968 animated Batman and Robin theme.

Kerouac's Beat Generation

2006-10-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

"It has been said that the late Jack Kerouac "woke up famous" in 1957 on the morning the New York Times published a glowing review of his landmark novel On the Road, and you can't blame him for trying to capitalize on the enormous public curiosity about this new Bohemia. That year he also wrote Beat Generation (Thunder?s Mouth Press), a three-act play; it was never produced and sat undiscovered in his agent's files until 2004."

Kerouac's Beat Generation

What I Know

2006-10-24T12:54:00.000-04:00

"I know that Human Being and Fish can co-exist peacefully"

This will make you squirm

Dr. Seuss Went To War

2006-09-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

That Theodore Geisel sure was some crazy creative son of a bitch. Take a look at a few of his war propaganda and political cartoons. A bit more here, and several versions of the Grinch Song here, which is the frosting.

Via Girls Are Pretty comes Stacey Nightmare, a sometimes active and extremely funny weblog. Seriously, webheads, some really great writing here.

Douglas Adam's surreal documentary about hypertext and related technologies called Hyperland. And guess what? My favorite doctor stars in it.

Reasons For Not Posting Much In The Last Lunar Cycle

2006-09-25T15:53:00.000-04:00

The comic art of James Jean

R E A S O N S: Because I haven't felt like it. Because I'm gearing up for Halloween. Certain people have been torturing cats and that made me feel blue. I have finger cancer and dammit, it hurts. Also, certain people have deleted my link from their blogs and I am sad. Various other reasons. But most of all because I've single-handedly dragged the internet kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and am weary.

Every episode of The Simpsons online via metafilter and a very fine piece of micro fiction.

Haruki Murakami Stories Online

2006-08-24T11:55:00.000-04:00

A basic and probably incomplete list of online stories by the renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. I read his collection of stories titled After The Quake and followed up by reading a couple of his novels. It's easy to get hooked on his style of writing and the straightforward way he presents his characters. Now's your chance to try some without having to lay out any money, or even bother to go to the library, which you really should do you lazy American.

Because libraries are cool.

On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning

On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl: Hypertext Version

Tony Takitani

Pinball

The Seventh Man

The Blind Willow and the Sleeping Woman

A long way from stuffed cabbage

A Perfect Day for Kangaroos

Hunting Knife

Chance Traveler

Hanalei Bay: Part One

Hanalei Bay: Part Two

The Rise and Fall of the Tongariyaki

Safari And The :First-Letter

2006-08-16T16:16:00.000-04:00

Here's something I found out the hard way, after scratching my head and saying "Ah Duh...Du-oh!" about a million times. The Safari browser hates it when you try to use :first-letter styling and combine it with some type of text-transforming. Absolutely hates it. For those of who who anticipate taking advantage of this CSS pseudo element it is something to keep in mind. Style the :first-letter all you want, but DON'T apply text-transform to the PARENT ELEMENT. I mean it. For me it resulted in an undeclared and undesired transforming of the 2nd letter as well. And there is really not much on the web to clue you into this fact.

Isn't that strange? You'd think a major bug like this would be well-documented. It isn't. But don't take my word for it. Do a Google Search and see what you can find. I'd be very surprised if you found something as straightforward and helpful as this post.

Sez Vonnegut

2006-07-06T18:53:00.000-04:00

This is the Vonnegut List! Found via a nifty little tool called the Google Image Ripper.

Type in a subject. Rip your subject multiple times for more images. You can rip for different sizes too!

K e w l.

Some Electronic Fiction links of note:

Ghost Girl :: Hotel :: Kluge :: Born Magazine

Absurdist Monthly Review

2006-06-29T19:06:00.000-04:00

Growing out of the ground-breaking interactive fiction experiments at The New Absurdist website, the Absurdist Monthly Review is a downloadable monthly publication featuring reviews of new Absurdist fiction, articles on the history of Absurdist writing, experimental writing techniques, and Absurdist literary theory.

This new publication is the brainchild of the Polycarp Kusch, mysterious man-about-town and the creator and owner of The New Absurdist, an interactive literary site and web experiment that has been running for more than 5 years. The site doubles as a publisher of new Absurdist fiction and an interactive critique where writers and readers can comment on the short stories, normally of micro or flash fiction length.

Are you new to Absurdist Fiction? Or have you enjoyed the works of Franz Kafka, Daniil Kharms, and Nikolai Gogol (among others)? Either way, this resource is a massive wake-up call loudly proclaiming that Absurdism is alive and well and living in the 21st Century.

Download your copy today!

Hiroshi And Aqua Cats

2006-06-20T19:56:00.000-04:00

Outstanding Cyberpunk Quote!

They sprawled on the floor in front of the old woman's half-lidded
eyes. She slipped her arms in side his loose kimono. "Shaper," she said, "I want your genetics. All over me."

Her warm hand caressed his groin. He did what she said.

-Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling

I love that part where she says I want your genetics all over me. That really warms my blast shield. And you love it too, don't you?

Yes, I am a published author. Yellow Dog at elimae

And I totally have the techno skills to publish myself whenever I feel like it. I am that powerful. Read Psychic Girls vs. Manta Rays

Micro Fiction: Rumble 14 Online

2006-06-14T15:15:00.000-04:00

The new issue of rumble is now online. Why not read some Micro Fiction today?

Slipstream Writing • A new article on Micro Fiction by Matt Bell • As a free image search engine Yotophoto kicks some major ass • Breaking Notepad.

Kurt Vonnegut is arguably America's greatest living novelist. Watch an interview with him from last year, and listen to him read excerpts from his works at the PBS Now website.

A little CSS demo called Circuits. Best viewed in Firefox and maybe Safari.

The Micro Fiction mini site: Updated

2006-06-10T16:51:00.000-04:00

I Can't Believe It's Not Quotes!

"We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert."
J. Robert Oppenheimer

"You toyed with my heart like it was a toy heart."
Lisa Simpson

I've finished updating the very small Micro Fiction mini site. It's four pages of links to various resources, sites, and examples of Micro and Flash fiction. Do you have a link I should know about? Then send it in, please.

Dead but worth a click: 100 Words or Les Nessman.
Not dead: The First Line.

THE ULTRAPHONE: Now With Images

2006-06-07T13:19:00.000-04:00

I've been receiving lots of penis oil spams lately. How about you?

A new version of The Ultraphone with images is now online. Same story text, different CSS. Some comments on The Ultraphone.

Flash Fiction: THE ULTRAPHONE

2006-06-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

I've posted a new piece of Flash Fiction to my site. It's called The Ultraphone and if you like giant robots, Psychic Girls, atom bombs, and John Wayne you might just like this story.

A second Flash written in 2003 has been posted as well. It's called Tranquil Girl

Micro Fiction: The Vampire Robots

2006-05-24T11:34:00.000-04:00

S t i l l a l i v e. I know I haven't posted for a while. Haven't had much to say, really. But here's something of perhaps mild interest to some: An amateurish rendering of my old story The Vampire Robots, done as a flash movie by some very nice person who noticed it.

Stu has a great new demo. So sweet.

Erasure is a process by which you can take any text and from it, create a poem. Via the ever-sweet and complex Michelle

I would like to recommend (once again) the very fine hypertext writing site of Fireland which is Josh Allen's site. On the web for many years, the site features fine writing and excellent web design. I always go there when I need to remember what writing for the web is all about. Redesign completed!

Krazy Korners examples for download

2006-04-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

Krazy Korners is a CSS method for creating rounded and bordered boxes without images. Currently there are at least a couple of methods to create rounded boxes: Stu's method, which styles <b> tags to produce the effect, and the Nifty Corners method, or some variant thereof, which utilizes efficient Javascript to insert the tags on the fly. Both are good methods, and I've been playing around with them for a while.

The other day I made up a couple of very simple templates using the Krazy Korners method and am making them available for download here. I've also put one example online for people to look at. These are not for CSS experts but for beginners or those with moderate knowledge who are looking for ideas. If you use them please at least link back to Stu's site, though a link back to Ethereal Code or The Empty Head would be nice too.

rumble ~ THE micro fiction e-zine

2006-04-25T17:11:00.000-04:00

The newest issue of rumble is now online.

Little known fact of history: Abraham Lincoln fighting a duel? via metafilter. Here's one that I somehow missed: Stu Nicholl's very clever 100% Background forces your web page background image to resize as your page does. Many possiblities here, though you might want to use it on a div instead of your whole page.

Oh Boy. I just tried the new Yahoo Mail Beta and it's horrible. How to get it? Just switch your general preference to something like YahooUK and go back to your mailbox. You'll be asked if you'd like to try it. Go ahead. You'll find out that it's not only slow but full of huge ads that that clog your browser and make you feel like you're using SnailMail again. p.s. It's UGLY too.

My verdict? IT STINKS.

The Mystery of Enoch Root

2006-04-20T14:47:00.000-04:00

People who have waded through, or devoured, as the case may be, the ponderous Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson may, like yours truly, have noticed a number of loose ends and unanswered questions after finishing the final volume. Many of them have to do with the mysterious character Enoch Root, whose first appearance was in the novel Cryptonomicon.

Many of the questions revolve around the exact nature of the character. Is he human? Is he immortal? Is he some sort of angelic being? And why, why, why are we not given the answers to these questions after reading approximately 2500+ pages!!! After a spur-of-the-moment web search I discovered this page and this page and finally this page, all three of which provide some food for thought but no definitive answers, the revealing of which is left to the author—should he decide to write future novels involving this frustratingly intriquing character.

For those of you who don't know, The Baroque Cycle is an ingenius look at the birth of modern science, as well as modern monetary and political systems, and is set in the late 1600's and early 1700's. The three volumes are written as novels, but can be better classified as one stupendously huge, rambling novel involving many real historical characters, including Sir Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibniz. And yes, I AM re-reading the trilogy.

The Perfect Internet

2006-04-19T12:31:00.000-04:00

What are YOU doing here?

So the perfect internet, as I imagine it, when in the still watches of the night I hear, or think I hear, the Rats of Death scrabbling underneath my bed and swapping sections of yesterdays New York Times...

Anyway.

ONE: Anytime you are interacting with someone online there should be a link you can click that will tell you all about this person: everything stupid or thoughtless, or wise they have ever written online, links to their websites, a dorky picture of them in high school, the number of sexual partners they have betrayed or abandoned in empty railroad yards at midnight, etc. This will VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE the endless posturing and ego-puffing we wade through, which is just kind of sad anyway.

TWO: Web space would be FREE! and doled out by a quasi-governmental agency which the real government would BE FORBIDDEN to interfere with for ever and ever, much in the way it's forbidden to interfere with ENRON. Bandwidth is cheap. Let's get it together, people.

THREE: When someone says something really stupid or evil or hurtful online, asshole-detecting robots index it and rank it, and put a link to it on a website similar to del.icio.us so everyone can ridicule them and shake their virtual fingers at them, and swamp their message boards with comments indicating, in one way or the other, what a lot of growing up they have to do, and how they shouldn't be allowed to have sex with anyone for a long time, on account of how they don't seem to really understand anything important about LOVE.

FOUR: Lonely or misunderstood people who get online late at night, and have no friends, should get invitations from sympathy-robots directing them to message boards where they will fussed over and generally made to feel better about things, if that is humanely possible.

FIVE: Everyone should be made to feel important, somehow, someway, at least once, even if they haven't done or said or created anything worth mentioning, just because it's a good thing to do.

There's probably a lot more, but I'm multi-tasking right now and my neurons are rather scattered.

The Tank Man

2006-04-18T11:12:00.000-04:00

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/

I watched the program. The Chinese government is very evil, and has killed millions of its own citizens. The most heart-breaking part of the program occured when the famous picture of Tank Man confronting the tank was shown to a few students from Beijing University and none of them could identify the picture. I mean, can you freaking BELIEVE that? Very sad.

The Empty Head: New Content

2006-03-28T15:11:00.000-05:00

I've revised and uploaded a few pages from the old site, mostly micro fiction stories like Gun Girl and A Madonna Suddenly. Not a big deal. They were never very good stories. You can find them all here.

Good News, Everybody! Dali Krab Day is almost here!

Bill Wray

2006-03-21T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Cartoon and Comic Book art of Bill Wray whose incredible animation art on the Ren and Stimpy Show has always blown my mind.

V for Vendetta: Moore is Less

2006-03-16T15:33:00.000-05:00

V for Vendetta is a well written and illustrated comic originally published in UK's Warrior Magazine in installments until DC Comics picked up the ball. The thing was eventually graphically-novelized, and became a huge popular success at a time when the term Graphic Novel was virtually unknown.

However, V's creator Alan Moore has refused to have anything to do with the movie version. U want linkee? High quality gallery of the original DC Comic Book covers plus a scanned piece of original art plus a huge FACTOID PAGE about Alan Moore.

Furious Boy: A Micro Fiction

2006-03-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

Furious Boy flexed his stringy muscles valiantly but the psycho grip of his deluded collegues was unbreakable! Sweat ran down the buttons of his spine, soaking his costume. This would never do. He stared into glassy eyes and a hooded, vacant madness. The Puppetmaster's work.

So he HAS returned. Damn.

Gripping his glowing sapphire power ring he shivered, a cold anger washing through his mighty loins. This was what it meant to be a member of the Justice Patrol, he thought. To always know that the Puppetmaster was responsible for everything.

"Strontium Woman! Elastic Lad! What the hell's the matter with you?"

"Furious Boy!"

Grinning horribly they dragged him into the airlock, their bodies jerking like Spazoids as cosmic-powered muscles fought the chemical strings that bound them...

Tomorrow's Episode: Food Poisoning at Burger King.

The Gormenghast Novels

2006-03-14T13:32:00.000-05:00

There are few things more hateful than paying 30 bucks for a paperback book, especially when you THOUGHT you were buying a beautiful sleek hardcover. Some of these things would include genocide, lack of empathy, hate, etc. Buying The Gormenghast Novels in this unwieldy, poorly-bound edition may have been the best choice, however, as the volume contains critical essays and information on the author, Mervyn Peake, a writer, poet, and illustrator whose reputation has risen considerably since his death in 1968.

The trilogy, along with the novella Boy In Darkness, tell the story of Titus Groan, the 77th Earl of Groan, as he grows to manhood in the strange and isolated world of Gormenghast Castle. A lot of thoughtful people hate these novels for their plodding pace and intensely layered descriptive passages. Personally I'm finding myself enjoying them, 300 pages into the first novel, Titus Groan. Why? I think it's because Peake was successful in creating a compellingly real world for his readers. Dickensian characters, violent plots, a buttload of obsessive-compulsive behaviors, these novels will please if given a chance. Definitely a unique creation that has defied all attempts at classification, though the word "Gothic" has often been applied.

Birmingham News: Civil Rights Era Photos

2006-03-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

Some of the hundreds of rediscovered Civil Rights era photographs have been made available online after the forgotten negatives lay for decades in a storeroom at the Birmingham News in Birmingham, Alabama.

Tiny Bubbles

2006-02-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

Michelle used to have a blog called Life In The Present. It's gone now, for some reason. But I tracked down her current blog for two reasons. One: she is an interesting and clever writer. Two: she is cute. I may be going out on a limb here but I sometimes think cute is almost as important as clever writing.

The web can be a lonely place. It may be affecting my judgment somewhat. Still...

The Olympics: Torino 2006 I am watching countless hours of coverage, and enjoying it. You may ask why. The answer is because it is a singular event, the gathering in one place of many of the world's greatest athletes. This is big fun for me. I am not a typical sports nut but I love watching great PERFORMANCE. The snowboarding was like, totally awesome. I am also totally into all downhill skiing events. Hockey is fun to watch. Plus women's figure skating, of course. Curling I haven't figured out yet. But maybe someday I will.

CSS: Destroy back online

2006-02-09T12:38:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite experimental sites, CSS: Destroy, is back online after a mysterious disapearance of many months. This sites is still one of the few (along with Stu Nicholl's CSS Playground) that pushes the envelope of CSS possibilities with practical demos and explanations. Soooo good to see it back. You should go there.

A new CSS site is here and it's name is Liquid Design. It has examples of liquid or elastic layouts and websites to examine. A good idea and one that's come along at the right time. The design world gets a little more accessible...

Strangeminds.Com

2006-01-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

Just back from a visit to one of my favorite writing sites, Strangeminds.Com. Favorite in a notorious way I guess. It's been a well populated site for years but visitors have slacked off in the past few months. But hey, visit anyway and contribute a story, a thought, a criticism...

Very beautiful haunting photographs at Chromasia. Great design too.
Link via de.icio.us

Water towers that look like something else

One of my Micro Fiction stories has been published over at Zygote. Won't you please take a moment and read The Metrosexual? I know you will and thank you in advance. You are so nice.

Download Microsoft Core Fonts

2006-01-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

Although the Microsoft Core Fonts are no longer available as a free download at the Microsoft Site they are available through links on the Archive.Org preserved version of the same page. I found out this interesting fact through an old Blogging.Biz post while searching for a free download of the Andale Mono font. It seems the downloads are still available through Microsoft, you just have to know where to look.

Interesting, ain't it? Some coders like the Andale Mono font so this post might be of interest to them. The downloads are self-extracting .exe files.

The New Absurdist

2006-01-10T16:51:00.000-05:00

Wow it's 2006 [!] and I have a feeling it's going to be a great year (for rich fat white americans) and I'm really looking forward to living it.

Important web news: The New Absurdist is a modest but persistant Micro Fiction site I often visit, and have been a part of for some time. What you do there is you read, upload, and comment on Absurdist Fiction. The interactive part has been redesigned and you should check it out. Me? I'm already there.

In CSS news, the Web Standards Group mailing list of I N S A N E L Y useful links now has a home. Over at web-graphics the top 20 web design bookmarks of 2005. Hint: they are good ones, especially the Worn Type technique. For all us non-Photoshop owners.

Lovecraft Online, and more!

2005-12-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

The complete works of H.P. Lovecraft online. A list of 100 Best English Language Novels from 1923 - the present. One piece of speculative fiction every day for a year at 365 Tomorrows. Kubrick2001: The Space Odyssey Explained. How could I forget this one? Almost daily Micro Fiction online at the Girls Are Pretty weblog.

Links via del.icio.us

Tiny Glittering Snowflakes

2005-12-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

...are dancing in the air even though there are no clouds in the sky. It is mind-manglingly cold and nobody likes it outside, especially the animals although they cannot complain for obvious reasons.

I've been reading the collected works of Flannery O'Conner and have had about enough of it, having read the two novels and about a dozen of her short stories. An excellent writer, but you have to be willing to plunge yourself into a world where just about everyone is insane, fed on corrupted biblical teachings, and ends up killing someone. But good, very good writing...

Also Sarah Vowell who I've seen on TV and heard on NPR. I just finished The Partly Cloudy Patriot and liked it so much I picked up Take The Canolli and I think I'll munch it up pretty quick. Tight writing + good humor + REAL historical anecdotes!

You have my permission to check out my recently published Micro Fiction story Totalitarian Dance Party at Girls With Insurance.

Link Wray - Godfather of Rock

2005-11-30T15:11:00.000-05:00

One of the most talented and influential rock musicians of all time died on November 5, 2005 at his home in Denmark. His name was Link Wray and he is the acknowledged inventor of the Powerchord. Perhaps his most famous song was "rumble", a early rock instrumental showcasing his growing talents. Although he wasn't as well known as Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis, his influence was just as great. He toured for a number of years with a band known as The Wraymen, and in fact was still playing concerts at the time of his death. If you are a fan of Roots Rock you need to go out and get one of his CD's.

If you haven't heard his stuff you can download a few mp3s of some of his classics here. Also, check out the Link Wray obituary and tribute page at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame website. Listen to an audio interview with Link from a Fresh Air program in 1997.

Painting Iraq: Steve Mumford

2005-11-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

I saw a segment on the NEWS HOUR about this guy who is an artist and painter. He's gone to Iraq several times to draw scenes of life during the war. Definitely a unique way to view it all from an artist's perspective. You can view portfolios of his Baghdad Journals here.

Css:Focus

2005-11-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

I've been working on an experimental page to showcase Micro Fiction. It utilizes the :focus pseudo-class to display hidden content, and although it's got a few bugs to work out it's an interesting way to present short text stories. Check it out over at The Empty Head.

A couple of new del.icio.us type link aggregators out there today. The first one, called Diggdot, looks kind of promising. The second one is called TorrentSpy and although it has a flashier interface I think it has a ways to go as far as usefulness is concerned.

Forgotten Children

2005-11-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

Source: Kirwan Studios

Sometimes I Google a word or phrase just to see what I come up with. Todays phrase is Forgotten Children: A child's letter to Santa the forgotten children of Afghanistan the forgotten children of Romania Lost Futures: Our Forgotten Children picture from Uganda Chinese handicapped children not available the Chernobyl Children's project and an image of Romanian Orphans underground the Forgotten rural poor children of America and the Street Children of Bombay. And finally the Czechoslovakian man who educated Jewish Children during the Nazi occupation.

The Micro Fiction mini site

2005-11-15T18:39:00.000-05:00

I am building a mini site dedicated to Micro Fiction. Although there is a fine site that talks about very short fiction, I wanted something specific to Micro Fiction so...The Micro Fiction mini site is being born as we speak.

Today I read The Ten Evilest Blogging Hacks and found it to be extremely funny and useful. You will too. Grappa is a cool online tool for making tracing graphics. Just follow the directions and hit the print screen button, then paste it into Paint or another graphics program. I recommend saving as a .png file. There is also a white version.

Useless but amusing: An image created by averaging 100's of Playboy Centerfolds. And for the non-goyim Jewlicious is a sweet concept.

Micro Fiction: A Hypertext

2005-11-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

I've just completed a Hypertext for one of our authors at rumble called End Fraction. For those of you who don't know, Hypertexts are web-based stories that are non-linear in nature and enhanced by the use of Javascript, Flash, images, and creative linking of text. I had a lot of fun doing it. Why not take a look?

"For two weeks, the White House's talking-point monkeys in the press and Congress had been dismissing Patrick Fitzgerald's leak investigation as much ado about nothing except politics and as an exoneration of everyone except Mr. Libby. Now the American people have rendered their verdict: they're not buying it."

—excerpt from We Do Not Torture Source: Spitting Image

Speaking of web fiction, on online story by Cyberpunk master Bruce Sterling called We See Things Differently and a new, possibly interesting interactive story-construction site called Glypho. Curious but strangely addictive: Overheard in New York. Sci-Fi freaks and others will like Coverpop, an interactive display of cover images from Sci-Fi pulps, among other things...

Like Spring Rain

2005-11-07T16:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I couldn't stand the old template for the blog anymore. Not that it was terrible but it just wasn't good enough. I'm putting up this new template; it may be just temporary, but the old colors were depressing me; this is a little better.

Did the U.S. military use White Phosphorus as a chemical weapon during the attack on Fallujah? I saw this debate on Democracy Now and you can read the transcript and judge for yourselves. Also, a photo gallery from the italian news organization that filmed the documentary Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre.

Nearly Nice: A page of links to beautiful CSS-styled websites. A newly unveiled plaque marks the location of the first Sex Pistols gig at Central Saint Martins School of Art in London, England. Awesome! Boycotting Yahoo because of an incident involving human rights abuses

I recently read The Lovely Bones even though I'm not much into modern fiction. I thought it was going to be horrible but turned out to be a highly readable novel, well worth my time. I am currently working my way with some glee through The Corrections.

Michael Brown's E-mails

2005-11-03T15:53:00.000-05:00

The photo above is from Neueurform's Gallery A link to Former FEMA director Michael Brown's e-mails during the Katrina Crisis, in PDF format. Simpson's World: A list of all the made-up, invented, and garbled Simpsons phrases [neologisms], along with their definitions and origins at Wikipedia

Nice: Pia Frauss' Fonts

Free sIFR fonts

2005-10-31T16:01:00.001-05:00

sIFR is a free web design tool for replacing text with Flash text images. It is useful for displaying fonts that aren't generally on a Mac or Microsoft computer. One of the difficulties of using this technique is that you may not be able to create your own fonts, if you lack a Flash editor. I'm posting links to three sites where you can download already converted .SWF files to use in your sIFR headings:

sIFR Vault has been recommended as a good resource.
Fontsmack has over 100 free sIFR fonts.
Sifr Fonts has a growing font library.
Isarie's Blog hosts a huge library of almost 300 sIFR fonts.

Micro Fiction

2005-10-26T14:26:00.000-04:00

I have been writing Micro Fiction for a while now. People often use the terms "Micro Fiction" and "Flash Fiction" to refer to the same thing: Ultra-short stripped to the bone fiction. Here are some of the top Micro Fiction search links:

Micro Stories article at Story South
The Micro Fiction Anthology
Definition at Word Spy
Anatomy of a Micro Fiction
The Essentials of Micro Fiction
Short Shorts: A Resource
Micro Fiction Guidelines by Jerome Stern

Ghost Whisperer

2005-10-24T17:11:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have watched it a number of times. Here is what I think:

The Husband: Too damn understanding. Why won't he just die? The show would be much better...What's the deal with the huge fake eyelashes? They suck. Get rid of them because they make you look stupid...Get a hairstyle. I mean, COME ON! The bangs are not working...You look much better with your hair tied back...Everybody watching this show must cry a lot...Man there are so many feel-good moments in this show...It must make lonely old people miss just about EVERYBODY...Ghosts appearing everywhere: Cool! Flashbacks to childhood: Cool! Overall rating: 4 of 5 stars because of the ghosts and pretty pretty girl...Recommendations: kill the husband. He knows too much.

Video Quote:

Well we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley."
-Pleasantville

More Experimental CSS

2005-10-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

I've uploaded a couple of new demos to my my website. One is called Mozilla Flavored Popups and requires Firefox to get the full effect. The other one is In Your Monkey Suit and requires a CSS-compliant browser [ NOT Internet Explorer ] to view the effects. It's inspired by a page at the now offline CSS Destroy! website. No new techniques here, just some variations.

Update: I've added a version of In Your Monkey Suit for
Internet Explorer

Unearthing Unknown Monk

2005-10-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

Last night I listened to a recording of the Thelonious Monk quartet with John Coltrane made in 1957 at Carnegie Hall by Voice of America but never broadcast. Jazz enthusiasts are pretty psyched about this recording, which captured not only two short 25 minute sessions by Monk's quartet, but also featured sets by Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, and Sonny Rollins. The Monk sets were recently released on Blue Note. The recording quality is quite good; both Monk and Coltrane sound great.

Source: NPR.Org

Flotsam: Microsoft vs. The Borg