A Far Out Fantastic Site

Well, everybody, finally it's all taken care of. I finally got the software reinstalled that I needed along with some compatibility software that was required in order to post the final part to my short story. I know many of you waited for this for a long time, and I apologise for the long delay. But since I'm back on track pretty much, I'll have a new blog entry here each Wednesday again, occasionally others on additional days of the week. You may want to skim through the two earlier parts of the story, Parts I and II , so you can fit this final installment into context better and more easily. As I said, it's been a long time. Until next week . . . The Puppet Show (Part III) by Steven Rose, Jr. # The wind never came back. There was no moon nor any stars that night. None of the lights in Woodvale ever came on. While Manuel wandered blindly throughout the blackness of the town hoping to run into a relative or acquaintance (but never even running into a stranger), he sli...

Hey, everybody! Well I finally got my laptop back and it's working good as new. However, the techs who worked on it were not able to recover my MS Word and so I wasn't able to convert "The Puppet" show successfully. When I would try to open it up with Notepad or Wordpad it would open revealing alien characters--no, not alien characters as in sci fi story characters, alien characters as in unfamiliar code due to the file not being compatible enough. But do not fear, do not frown! I have software on its way that can fix the problem and therefore reinstall my MS Word. So I'll have part three of the story posted as soon as possible. So hang tight; don't let the bummer bugs bite! In the meantime . . . I saw Tron: the Legacy just before Christmas sometime. It was so out'a sight! I wasn't aware until I saw it that it wasn't a remake of but a sequel to the 1980s original. Unfortunately I didn't have time to look for a copy of the the orig...

I apologize everybody, but there is going to be another delay in the posting of my short story. My computer somehow contracted a virus and so it's at the mad computer doctor being worked on. I hope to have her back by the end of this week or early next week (realistically speaking). I hope you all have been having a great time during these holidays, and if I don't get my computer back until next year (don't be alarmed because, remember, next year is only in a few days!) then I wish you a Happy New Year now! Using the public library's computer doesn't give me much time to do my normal work on my blog, so it may be a few days before you hear back from me. Take care!

I want to apologize once again for this late posting of the second part to my story. It was supposed to have posted yesterday on top of already posting late. I actually did set it to post and the program indicated that it was up on the blog displaying to the public. However, as I said, I've been having problems with my laptop. But I think the real problem may be with extra online traffic due to holiday online shoppers. And I don't blame anybody who shops online when you can buy things at much lower prices than in the actual stores; the recession may be declining but, unfortunately, many of us are still feeling the after effects of it. Hopefully that will all change soon. Hope is an essential theme this time of year and so that's what we have to remember to do, is hope for the best. But here is part two of my short story, "The Puppet Show". The final part will come next week, and unless there will be a problem with New Year's Eve online traffic or such, ...

Hello, everybody. This will be a very short blog entry and, no, I haven't forgotten about the second part to "The Puppet" show. (If you missed part one you can see it at this link here .) I'm sorry, but I've been delayed all day today by technical errors on both my computers (desktop and laptop). It's really taken me out; you don't want to have seen what kind of mood I've been in today. I will have part two of "The Puppet Show" posted tomorrow afternoon (which, theoretically, is later on today since it's long past the witching hour, and so it's 2:44 Thursday morning as I write this). Once again, my apologies greatly.

For the next two to three weeks I will be posting one of my short stories. Although it is a short story, it may be considered long for some of you readers especially if you won't think I'm the greatest fiction writer, let alone science fiction/fantasy writer, you've ever read. This is a blog post and so typically blog posts are short, or if not short, not long. So I'm posting segments of the following story, one segment a week for the next two to three weeks. Although this is not a Christmas/Holiday story, I chose to post it in particular because it has some themes that may be said to go with Christmas, particular toys which the title implies. Plus there's a little bit of a fairy tale theme to it which holiday stories such as the Nut Cracker fall under. There's even a little bit of a package scene; see if you can find it and consider it my Christmas/Holiday gift to you guys and gals. In fact, consider the whole story my Holiday gift to you; you get it fo...

Last week’s Sacramento News and Review contains an article about a war protest that occurred a couple weekends ago at the Sacramento Central Library. But it wasn’t so much a protest against a real war than it was a war game. The article states that the activist groups Veterans for Peace and Grandmothers for Peace protested the video gaming event Nerd Fest’s Call of Duty tournament. According to the article, the protesters felt that Call of Duty was encouraging war and violence. But the game has an M (“Mature”) rating and so is limited to the 17 and older crowd in its sales and at its tournaments such as Nerd Fest’s, as the article indicates. That, at least to an extent, solves the problem of influence on minors. However, according to SN&R , what the protesters were really speaking against was the library, a place of educational and intellectual activity, promoting the game and in so doing promoting war and violence. Therefore they were saying that the tournament ...