Original Audio: "Despair" by H.P. Lovecraft

Free for your ghoulish pleasure, another Forbidden Dragon recording, hosted by the Archive.

This is a live reading of the poem "Despair" by H.P. Lovecraft.

Tell your friends, and rejoice.

Lady of the Ice

In other volunteering news, I'm back into my Gutenberg project. What project, you say? See? It's been that long you forgot.

I never forgot it, but insane things have been happening, so it, pretty much, wasn't. Insanity hasn't stopped, but my need to do something positive...that's amped. Way amped.

So we're picking away at it again. I've just past 75% of my transcription of James De Mille's novel _The Lady of the Ice_.
Yea public domain! Canadian author public domain. Weeeeeeee!

When it's done, it will donated to Project Gutenberg. One more book, preserved and free.

Ralan Returns

Yep, my stint as his stand in is over.

I know, I know, you're weeping in your custard.

Cheer up! You can all report to him the myriad of ways Cameron and I screwed up. Nah, I kid.

He already knows.

Seriously, it was a little crazy, like I expected, but it was great to help the community, a pleasure and an honour. Ralan is fine man with an irreplaceable site, and it takes far more work than you know to do what he does. Let me nag you again to head over there and donate.

Yes, cash eludes you. Understood. But time and information are frickin priceless. Share what you know. Send in those tips!

Evolution of Dance

The Evolution of Dance will totally make you bust a move.

Oh, Grow Up

As I lay there, writhing and screaming, I couldn't help but wish I could see the doctor again. So I could punch him in the mouth.

We drove hours to see a stomach specialist on Tuesday. I wasn't expecting much, of course.

The problem isn't my stomach, but it is one of the symptoms--the one where I can't eat or drink anything, and I'm screaming, both from pain and just desperately wanting to throw up all the time. I let myself get talked into seeing him, on the theory that if I could get symptom relief I might actually live to get the tumour out.

It seemed like a plan.

I should add here that I've been advised that while my appointment for the consult on that is in September, there's no certainty they'll agree to surgery, and if they do, a TWO YEAR WAIT is common.

That is...not a plan.

But back to the stomach specialist. He refused to listen to any of my symptoms, and instead gave me a long lecture on how I don't need treatment and need to just accept my body.

I thought I'd share with you some gems of the medical community, taken from that lecture.

This is the state of medicine today:


"You're gaining weight."

(--Actually, I've lost 12 pounds, but, hey, what do objective facts matter?)


"It doesn't matter what you eat, as long as you get calories."

(--Really? Why ever was I concerned about malnutrition, just because I'm only managing to gag down a muffin a day, period. Silly me. I thought it was important to get 1500 calories or so, and that I eat things like dairy, and, oh yeah, fruit and veggies and protein and stuff.)


"You're fine, or you wouldn't have any hair."

(--I was totally unaware this was major tool of diagnosis. Vin Diesel? That guy is corpse!)


"Have you tried acupuncture? What about green tea? My wife swears by it."

(--Actually, I used to drink mint green tea, because I like the taste of it. But I haven't eaten any since, you know, trying to chew or swallow anything makes me retch. Also, while I am sure it is a lovely drink, I admit, I don't think it cures tumours. My lack of faith astounds me.)


This has been your total lack of hope update.

Original Photography: 'At the Hop'

Original Photography: 'Sleep Sea'

Publication: 'Flesh'

My short story, "Flesh", is now live at Down in the Cellar.

Original Photography: 'Cliffs'

Ralan, in LARP

In less blood and guts news, the more observant writers among you may have noticed that, having completed the grueling training, I'm one of Ralan's doppelgangers.

Yes, he is taking a well deserved break, and it takes a whole mad crew to replace him. Savvy?

Sorry. I've been watching Pirates (the first), pretty much over and over. I love pirates, and better, Johnny Depp just makes me happy.

Anyway, I'm glad to volunteer and be useful, feeling useful is especially excellent right now, but I am disappointed in the spam. Oh, there's a hardy amount of it, to be sure, but it's not very creative.

If you have to be evil, at least be good at it, have fun with it, go all Iago and have people praise your genius even as they hate your weaselly black guts.

So remember, Ralan isn't just where you get your market tips, it's where you give it, so head on over there and help out. The writing community needs you. It's like gossip for the good of humanity...

Email

To anyone who has attempted contact by blog email:

Due to a prolonged and insane spam attack, I had my 'alt contact' spam filters set to 'just nuke anything spamtastic'.

If you sent me mail, and didn't hear back, it was because yahoo called you spamtastic and your missive was consigned to instant radioactive grit.

On a trial basis, I have just adjusted the spam filters, to allow for a safe word in your subject header that will let you to slide by like melted butter. That safe word is by the 'alt contact' in the panel over there =>

Please control your giddy excitement.

That is all.


UPDATE: We have killed email. Killed it dead. Forever. Aside from the spamalicious, we were still getting lots of scary and depressing hate mail for our volunteer efforts in preserving classic literature. That is not a worthy use of electrons.