I Should Blog Again

With all this mess with twitter (x) and privacy concerns with Facebook, I wish blogging would become a thing again. But that really feels like a losing proposition with so much content out there. It is nearly impossible for a single blog post to be seen in the vast internet, unless you are some influencer or already famous. And nobody really leaves comments on blog posts anymore, and that interaction is really what fed me here.

Anyway, I thought I’d maybe start posting again. I got a bit nostalgic. I came across this post I made when we got a couple cats. That feels like a life time ago. Man.

Fiction: An Inside Job

The following is part of a “shared storytelling event” over at I Saw Lightning Fall , Advents Ghosts 2022. We were tasked to write a scary story of exactly 100 words in length. I don’t know how much this counts as a “story” but this is my attempt at an entry. As far as “scary” your mileage may vary.

An Inside Job

1659, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony deems it a criminal offense to publicly celebrate Christmas.

January 6th 2045, the Freedom party gains control of all three branches of government, repeals the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and declares Christmas a secular holiday, banning it on the basis it’s never mentioned in the Bible.

December 25, 2047 Cynthia Bowman is arrested for having houseplant greater than 48 inches of height indoors in the twelfth month of the calendar year and adorning said shrubbery with a star.

The War on Christmas always was an inside job.

LIFE: AN ADVENT GHOSTS 2021 STORY

The following is part of a “shared storytelling event” over at I Saw Lightning Fall , Advents Ghosts 2021. We were tasked to write a scary story of exactly 100 words in length. I don’t know how much this counts as a “story” but this is my attempt at an entry. This is also posted at my at my blog (https://www.paulliadis.com/blog)

Life

Death is the enemy we battle against our entire lives, a race that won’t be won.

When we are young, Death is the unthinkable. We are unstoppable.

“Death is not for me”, we tell ourselves. “I’m special.”

We age. Death becomes the word unspoken, as if naming it will give it power. People we love start to “pass away”.

Time moves on for the fortunate. Love is experienced, love is lost. The world speeds up. We slow down.

Death becomes less an enemy and more an expected if not entirely bless-ed friend.

Solitary immortality, now that would be a curse.

Where Has Time Gone?

It’s been a while since I posted here. Since December I see.

I miss the old days of blogging, of visiting “friend’s” blogs and leaving comments. I miss authors who used to blog every day and you got a closeness you really don’t get anymore. Back then “content” and power were in the hands of the people writing, more than large corporations such as Facebook.

And I guess I miss the dream of someday writing a novel and being able to not work this 8-5 thing.

And look there, NaNoWriMo is only 9 days away. Do I dare go down that road again? Do I have it in me to spend the next 9 days trying to get myself to write an outline and the discipline to spend the next month writing? Probably not, but maybe. Who knows?

I feel like I’m dropping this into the void of some long lost community. But those were good times. So why not?

Where had time gone? Where it always goes, forward into the future one second at a time. Have a good day fellow time travelers.

GHOSTS (A 100 WORD STORY)

The following is part of a “shared storytelling event” over at I Saw Lightning Fall . We were tasked to write a scary story of exactly 100 words in length. This is my attempt.

Ghosts

It’s the feeling on the back of your neck when you’re alone in a darkened room. Are you really alone?

The voice in the back of your mind. Did you leave on the stove?

The prickle at your ear. Are they laughing about you?

The drive through the rural forest on a cold autumn night, the trees branches casting their shadows in your rear view. Do they not resemble long skeletal fingers reaching for you?

That headache you’ve nightly endured these past many months. Didn’t your favorite aunt have brain cancer?

Ghosts are real my friend. Oh yes they are.

Little Brother 3 Kickstarter

Cory Doctorow has launched a kickstarter for the audiobook of the third book in the Little Brother series (the book is titled Attack Surface). I wrote about this on my personal blog.

CORY DOCTOROW – LITTLE BROTHER 3 (ACTUAL TITLE ATTACK SURFACE) KICKSTARTER

I’m Not Dead

So, I’m like not dead. Well, when you read this I might be dead. Who know when you are reading this what is reality. But as I write this I’m not dead. Like, I’m not a ghost.

Schroedinger’s Gift

This is for Advent Ghost’s 2018 at I Saw Lightning Fall. Short snippets of 100 words.

Once upon a time a troll gave me a gift.

“The day you die, you will open this box,” she said.

I cast it into a nearby stream and watched it float away.

It was waiting for me the next morning in my childhood closet.

I nearly opened it at University the night of my first true heartbreak.

…and after our first real fight (it met the wood-burning stove that night).

…and when I lost my job.

…and when I lost her.

My lonely, arthritic hands tremble as I chuck into the bin on this cold Christmas morn.

Not today.

Music: Florence and the Machine – Cosmic Love (Live on KEXP)

I just came across this. One of the rare instances where the live performance bests the album version.

 

The Mystery of the Creepiest Television Hack – Motherboard

The Mystery of the Creepiest Television Hack

It was like any other Sunday night at Chicago’s WGN-TV. And then the signal flickered into darkness.

Source: The Mystery of the Creepiest Television Hack – Motherboard

I hadn’t heard about this creepy real-life story today and I thought I’d share because it is bizarre and unsolved. And it would have freaked me out had I seen it in the 1980s.