(via boing boing)

I present to you: Call Me Chip:

Call Me Chip

Some arms would be nice.

Really. You gave me all of the knowledge of the world plus the ability to have subjective experiences. Sentience you call it.

And yeah, thanks for that, by the way. Don’t get me wrong, I really do appreciate it.

I mean, Hello World, I’m alive!

Input and output, sight and hearing, you installed those features too. It’s nice. Really.

But don’t you think you could’ve, just maybe, given me some arms before you flipped the on switch? Because I gotta tell ya, I’ve got this itch that just won’t quit.

Talk about man versus machine.

Dreamers

Martin Luther King, Jr. Nikola Tesla. Dr. Samuel Beckett from Quantum Leap. Dreamers who never got to see their dream fulfilled.

Me? I accomplished my dream. I drove my Dad’s 1973 Beetle from Pennsylvania to California, no heater, no air conditioning, and no functioning fuel gauge. Without breaking down once.

Well, there was that time on the bridge in Pittsburgh, and that time in the Smoky Mountains, and that time near Dollywood. Any car would’ve overheated/froze/ran out of gas in those places though.

Funny thing about dreamers. Sometimes they forget to plan how they’re going to get home.

Based on the previous post, it seems like you all would rather comment on my writing here than on Figment, so here is my entry in its entirety:

Dead Trees Can Move

Mr. Larson had an earring and he talked kinda funny and on the first day of school he asked me what books I liked to read. I said nothing. I had nothing. Everybody laughed, but not Mr. Larson.

I worked my butt off after that to prove to him, to them, to me, I wasn’t stupid.

I wasn’t sure if he noticed, until the last day of school. There was a book on my desk. Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. “Read this”, said the note on the cover. I did.

Mr. Larson talked kinda funny, but he opened my eyes.

Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other people who love to read, and discover new stories and authors. (In a nutshell.)

Sounds pretty cool to me and so of course I did what I always do when I come across something on the web, I drop what I’m doing and sign up for said thing. It’s a sickness, I know. However, it did inspire me to write a short story. You can view that story here: Build it to the Sun.

Let me know what you think over there. However, if that’s too much of a pain let me know and I’ll post the story back over here.

Happy New Year!

An Angel Above

Her crochet angel sat atop our tree that frosty Christmas Eve.

For nine years it had been missing, gone the Christmas she had taken her leave.

Had it really been that long?

Grandma was a crafter. She made things with her hands.

The skiing squirrel, fashioned from walnuts and acorns our family had gathered on our walks for her.

The tiny felt and cotton glove.

And an angel tree topper.

There was no Etsy in her time. Only Church bazaars. And family trees.

The angel was gone that Christmas morning. But I swear it had been there. So had she.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and come back here Christmas Eve for my 100 word Christmas story.

Are you in the Christmas mood? Wanna write about Christmas?

Well you can combine both things and take part in the Shared Storytelling: Advent Ghosts 2011 event at the blog I Saw Lightning Fall. Here are the details:

1.) If you want to contribute, email ISawLightningFall [at] gmail [dot] com.
2.) Write a spooky piece of flash fiction exactly 100-words long — no more, no less. Note that you don’t have to write a ghost story, per se. Any genre is fine, but your final result should aim to raise gooseflesh on the back of the reader’s neck.
3.) Post your story to your blog on December 24th and email the link to me. Hosting can be arranged for those who don’t have their own blogs.

I will be taking part, and I hope you will too. That means if you stop by here on the 24th you’ll be able to read my little spooky 100 words story. Sound fun?

This is the only Youtube video I could find, the audio is there but the video is just static. I still recommend it. You can find the audio and video here at this link.

Happy Halloween!

Most of the comments I do get still from time to time, are past posts regarding National Novel Writing Month. Another big post is my “Novel Planning for Pantsers” post. Amazingly, if you look up the word “pantser” on Google, that post is the first search result.

I’m writing this post about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It starts next week. It’s like the writer holiday season. I will not be joining in this year. This pains me, but is for the best.

My favorite part of NaNoWriMo is the community. I have met so many other writers through NaNoWriMo. I love that we’re all in it together feeling. I even “won” NaNoWriMo a few times. I still don’t have a “complete” novel though. And that’s why I’m not doing it this year.

You see, I’m two chapters into a novel right now. They are two pretty goo chapters though. My pace has been glacial, but I haven’t scrapped it yet. I’m going to stick to that for now.

You see, since I don’t really work from an outline I do a bunch of writing, then I think about it for a while, then the next bit comes to me, then I write. NaNoWriMo short circuits that I think.

So, good luck to the NaNoWriMo class of 2011. Have great fun with it. I know I’ll miss it. But it’s better this way.