L’esprit d’escalier

I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at ficlets since someone* talked them up a long while back. But, damn. Writing a short story that’s limited not just to 1,024 words, but to a mere 1,024 characters…

It’s a challenge, especially for me.

But eventually a phrase came to me, and a bit of a scene, and I thought I might be able to make something out of it. I poked at it and tweaked it until it worked (or so I think), and clicked publish before I could chicken out.

So, if you’re curious (begin self-plug): “The Sound of Thunder Heard Remote” is herein linked. (end self-plug)

I don’t know how often I’ll churn these things out; there are longer projects I’d like to stop neglecting. But I think this one turned out okay.

*Scalzi, most likely – as with many other good things, I found his off of Making Light before he stopped writing them.

I’ve been wanting to do it for years. Finally sucked it up and went through with it.

More here.

Because I thought it would amuse him, and because cannibals share some similar dietary preferences with zombies, I sent Marty a quiz I spied over in John Scalzi’s Whateverettes section.

It turns out he could feed 12 zombies cannibals.

Sadly…

Created by OnePlusYou

Yeah. I can feed one more cannibal than Marty can.

This is not okay with me. Not ruined-my-day not okay, mind you. Just more of an “ugh.” And, coming on the heels of seeing a particularly horrible picture my coworker managed to sneak of me at conference, I have a new goal.

11 cannibals or less by July.

To hell with “I want to lose 20 pounds.” I want to starve two cannibals.

Listen to me.

Listen.

I won’t steer you wrong. 

Some of you watch Battlestar Galactica, and this is for you.  I’ve plugged Jacob before.  I’m doing it again.  If you’re not reading his recaps over at Television Without Pity, you are missing out.  Those recaps are love letters to the show, to the story, and reading his reviews feels like sitting down with a friend, discussing the show over beer or coffee.

He recapped Doctor Who for the first two seasons, before TWOP took it off the list of active things.  (And yes, I am re-reading the recaps from the end of season two, because I just know something here in season four is going to break my heart all over again, and I’m not sure I can actually watch  “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday” right now.)

I know, I’ve probably said it all before.  But I wouldn’t send you there if it wasn’t totally worth it.

I’ve been poking about with several themes over the last few days. The old purple one was a theme I picked out on my laptop when I was away at a trade show. The color looked much lighter on my laptop screen. When I got home and saw just how very dark the purple really was, I knew it couldn’t stay.

But damn, am I picky. I spent idle moments here and there looking for something better, but nothing truly inspiring ever caught my eye.

This weekend, I decided it was time to stop wibbling and find a new theme. I’ve lost count of just how many I’ve tried on for size. Several of them looked really, really good in their preview state, but when I viewed them with my content, oh, ick.

Here’s my favorite of the lot so far, but be warned – it could easily change. I like the three-column style, the font, and the old-fashioned-ish look. I realize that my subtitle has wandered off for a vacation (“beware, geekery within,” that is), and I’m not quite sure how to put it back without messing a lot of other things up. There’s a CSS book mocking me from my bookshelves; I could probably figure it out, but it might not be too pretty.

I do intend to make ye olde blogge look more visually interesting. Whether or not this theme allows for that remains to be seen.

So, bear with me a little longer – I might still be messing with themes and layouts now and then. Comments and suggestions welcome. This may be my wee corner of the intarwebz, but you’re a guest here. I’d like your stay to be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

Okay, I’ll admit it:  for about thirty seconds, the Gmail Custom Time announcement got me, until I remembered the date.  Look, in my defense, you can backdate blog posts with some software, so why not be able to stick a fake sent date on emails (aside from all the rest of the header info between your email and the recipients’ calling you a liar, that is)?  But, I figured it out quickly - at least I got it well before they mentioned the e-flux capacitor.

But this… if Fafblog’s return is an April Fool’s Day hoax, I will cry.