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Microfiction Monday: Goat

Time again for Microfiction Monday, where an image paints 140 characters or fewer.

After viewing the test footage, studio executives decided to replace the goat with a coyote, and to move production to the Southwest.

Microfiction Monday

Welcome to Microfiction Monday, where a picture paints 140 characters, or even fewer.

Linda’s new song, “Judy, Judy (Stepped in Doodie),” was soon followed by the a capella, “My Lute, at the Bottom of the Lake.”

Still More Microfiction

This is Microfiction Monday, where a picture paints 140 characters, or even fewer.

Larry looked like a swan, flew like a swan, and honked like a swan, but his Duck upbringing was a social obstacle.

More Microfiction

Let’s try another Microfiction Monday exercise.

Everyone else saw only a dowdy fiberglass rabbit, bound to Earth by a thick steel spring. But Selena saw her ticket to the stars.

Tremors

Earthquakes are not that unusual here in Southern California. However, having this many at once is rather unusual.

A pretty big quake hit Mexico at about 3:45 this afternoon. The effects were felt all the way up here. Even now, almost two hours later, we are still feeling not just aftershocks, but other quakes, though they have been nothing like the first quake.

The San Diego fire department says that there were no significant injuries, but there have been scattered accounts of structural damage. There have also been reports of power outages and people stuck in elevators in Mexicali. I’m sure the damage was much worse further south of the border, though fortunately the epicenter was out in the middle of the wilderness, according to Google Maps.

It’s probably fortunate that the quakes happened as a swarm. If all the energy had been released at once, this might have been the prophesied Big One.

Update:

Seriously? Seriously?

The Rabbit of Easter

Easter has always seemed to be something of an odd holiday to me. Children are made to dye hard-boiled eggs. Then someone hides the eggs and the children must hunt for them. Meanwhile, a magical rabbit brings baskets full of shredded green cellophane and mass-produced candies for the children to feast on.

From the theme of eggs and rabbits, one might be led to deduce that the holiday is a celebration of springtime and fertility. But there’s also the whole end of Lent and the memorial of Jesus’ execution and empty tomb. It’s all very confusing.

But imagine how confusing it must be to someone who doesn’t speak the language or even practice the religion. There is a story from a book by David Sedaris that’s become what I think of when I think of Easter. Here, he reads it aloud.

Now Reading – April 3

Now Reading: Star Trek: Vanguard: Precipice by David Mack.

Just Finished: Eyes of the Calculor by Sean McMullen.

I decided to read Eyes of the Calculor because I enjoyed the first book of the Greatwinter series, Souls in the Great Machine. A fresh new setting, two thousand years after an apocalyptic war, and the coming of Greatwinter. Unable to use electrical devices or to live near the ocean due to the mysterious Call, humanity adapts with wind- or pedal-driven trains, a sunlight-powered mirror signaling network, and the Calculor: a new type of computer composed of a network of people.

The next book in the series, The Miocene Arrow moves a few old characters to a new location, this one featuring a feudal society whose rulers duel one another in simple flying machines. The second book captivated my interest slightly less than the first.

When I saw the third book, Eyes of the Calculor, in the bookstore, I figured I’d give it a try, based on the previous two books. In this book, we return to the setting of the first book: the great library of Libris. Suddenly, an electrical Calculor bursts into flames, and the Call stops completely. We then set these interesting events aside in order to begin following a handful of new characters.

Sometimes it seems to me as though some writers will write lots of disconnected scenes and try to glue them together into a story. There’s nothing wrong with this as long as the narrative flows and the characters behave consistently throughout the story. On the other hand, if it seems like the only thing consistent among some of the scenes are the names of the characters, then it becomes a little tiresome. It felt to me as though the author had written a bunch of material for a different book, and then, for whatever reason, adapted it to fit into this book. This may or may not have actually been the case, but it bothered me nonetheless.

Don’t get me wrong— it’s not what I’d call a bad book. It was just not quite what I had expected.

The Electronic Replicant

Microfiction Monday: Goat

Microfiction Monday

Still More Microfiction

More Microfiction

Tremors

The Rabbit of Easter

Now Reading – April 3

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