Poem: "Nitwits"

This poem came out of the October 18, 2011 bonus fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from my_partner_doug.  It has been sponsored by zianuray.  You can find more Monster House poems through the Serial Poetry page.

( Read more... )

Poem: "Nitwits"

This poem came out of the October 18, 2011 bonus fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from my_partner_doug.  It has been sponsored by zianuray.  You can find more Monster House poems through the Serial Poetry page.

( Read more... )

Poem: "Nitwits"

This poem came out of the October 18, 2011 bonus fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from my_partner_doug.  It has been sponsored by zianuray.  You can find more Monster House poems through the Serial Poetry page.

( Read more... )

Poem: "Nitwits"

This poem came out of the October 18, 2011 bonus fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from my_partner_doug.  It has been sponsored by zianuray.  You can find more Monster House poems through the Serial Poetry page.

( Read more... )

Happy Pi Day!

It's 3-14 which means today is Pi Day. This is my favorite artifact, the Pi plate.

Wildlife Photos

 Baby elephant.

Smashwords Win

Smashwords will once again be able to publish and sell all types of books that are legal, including through PayPal.  This removes banks, credit card companies, and other money handlers from deciding what people are allowed to publish and read, buy and sell.  Huzzah!

Among the Asexuals

Here's a great article about asexuality and some of the social challenges.

Mountain of Books

Discarded books become nature sculptures.

Silenced Songs

There's a long history of censorship of songs about drugs, especially the Spanish narcocorridos.  Now, I'm not a fan of censorship in general.  But if your society is so broken that one of the most effective ways to make enough money to live on  is to sell illegal drugs, you really have no grounds to complain when people do that and talk about doing that.  Because, you know, people generally want to survive and all the mainstream societies now have decided that money is necessary for that.  So blaming singers for creating cultural material that reflects the culture is just pathetic.  (This applies to Mexico and the United States and various other places.)  However, there's a cool book about narcocorridos, so you can read that.

I've actually written something along these lines myself, although it happens to be free verse rather than lyrical poetry.  "This Bittersweet Weed" (74 lines, $37) from the December 2011 Poetry Fishbowl deals with aliens discovering chocolate, which has various interesting effects on different species.  And then the Earth is saved by drug lords, who know how to handle political upheavals over drugs.  That's narcocorrido  territory.  I'm sure the censors would hate it.  But in my writing, anybody  can be a hero and you just never know who might turn out to have the one crucial skill to solve the problem at hand. 

Silenced Songs

There's a long history of censorship of songs about drugs, especially the Spanish narcocorridos.  Now, I'm not a fan of censorship in general.  But if your society is so broken that one of the most effective ways to make enough money to live on  is to sell illegal drugs, you really have no grounds to complain when people do that and talk about doing that.  Because, you know, people generally want to survive and all the mainstream societies now have decided that money is necessary for that.  So blaming singers for creating cultural material that reflects the culture is just pathetic.  (This applies to Mexico and the United States and various other places.)  However, there's a cool book about narcocorridos, so you can read that.

I've actually written something along these lines myself, although it happens to be free verse rather than lyrical poetry.  "This Bittersweet Weed" (74 lines, $37) from the December 2011 Poetry Fishbowl deals with aliens discovering chocolate, which has various interesting effects on different species.  And then the Earth is saved by drug lords, who know how to handle political upheavals over drugs.  That's narcocorrido  territory.  I'm sure the censors would hate it.  But in my writing, anybody  can be a hero and you just never know who might turn out to have the one crucial skill to solve the problem at hand. 

Silenced Songs

There's a long history of censorship of songs about drugs, especially the Spanish narcocorridos.  Now, I'm not a fan of censorship in general.  But if your society is so broken that one of the most effective ways to make enough money to live on  is to sell illegal drugs, you really have no grounds to complain when people do that and talk about doing that.  Because, you know, people generally want to survive and all the mainstream societies now have decided that money is necessary for that.  So blaming singers for creating cultural material that reflects the culture is just pathetic.  (This applies to Mexico and the United States and various other places.)  However, there's a cool book about narcocorridos, so you can read that.

I've actually written something along these lines myself, although it happens to be free verse rather than lyrical poetry.  "This Bittersweet Weed" (74 lines, $37) from the December 2011 Poetry Fishbowl deals with aliens discovering chocolate, which has various interesting effects on different species.  And then the Earth is saved by drug lords, who know how to handle political upheavals over drugs.  That's narcocorrido  territory.  I'm sure the censors would hate it.  But in my writing, anybody  can be a hero and you just never know who might turn out to have the one crucial skill to solve the problem at hand. 

Silenced Songs

There's a long history of censorship of songs about drugs, especially the Spanish narcocorridos.  Now, I'm not a fan of censorship in general.  But if your society is so broken that one of the most effective ways to make enough money to live on  is to sell illegal drugs, you really have no grounds to complain when people do that and talk about doing that.  Because, you know, people generally want to survive and all the mainstream societies now have decided that money is necessary for that.  So blaming singers for creating cultural material that reflects the culture is just pathetic.  (This applies to Mexico and the United States and various other places.)  However, there's a cool book about narcocorridos, so you can read that.

I've actually written something along these lines myself, although it happens to be free verse rather than lyrical poetry.  "This Bittersweet Weed" (74 lines, $37) from the December 2011 Poetry Fishbowl deals with aliens discovering chocolate, which has various interesting effects on different species.  And then the Earth is saved by drug lords, who know how to handle political upheavals over drugs.  That's narcocorrido  territory.  I'm sure the censors would hate it.  But in my writing, anybody  can be a hero and you just never know who might turn out to have the one crucial skill to solve the problem at hand. 

Hard Things

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently?

Hard Things

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently?

Hard Things

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently?

Hard Things

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently?