tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321301162024-03-07T16:35:17.797-08:00Rants, Mumblings and Insane BlatherA site dedicated to blather, rants, mumbling and blather.Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.comBlogger260125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-58838969830060262882013-07-08T14:44:00.000-07:002013-07-08T14:44:16.052-07:00Puppet: Agent!I have published another short story in the Puppet universe called Puppet: Agent. As usual, it is available from Smashwords by clicking the image or you can go directly there via https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/334024
The cover image is Cover photo “Secret Agent Man” by Jack Zalium. His site is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaiban/with/6998898690/ and you can find Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-47484376704897384602012-12-05T18:53:00.000-08:002012-12-05T19:05:34.251-08:00Puppet: Defender!
Yes after endless nanoseconds of waiting the sequel to the incredible Puppet is finally here! You can pick up a copy of this free book at smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/262462
You can also visit my author page here
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/what0607
Note the amazing cover image by Noah Katz. You can find more of his work at
http://Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-38718968427197825902012-09-12T17:34:00.002-07:002012-09-14T01:15:08.114-07:00Smashing Words
This is a shameless plug for a short story I just wrote and published on smashwords.com called "Puppet." You can check it out via https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/234868 My author page is https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/what0607 The primary reason for my using smashwords is that you get several different formats: PDF, kindle, etc. when you publish via Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-63985302787326989552011-07-16T19:45:00.000-07:002011-07-16T19:46:38.191-07:00BYBS: The Gregory Brothers
There are definite advantages to being shallow.
One of them is that you are easily amused.
For example, some people might consider a video that was created by taking another video where a girl discusses how much she loves cats and set to a pop song to be rather pointless. But then, none of these people read this blog. On the other hand, very few people read this blog period.
AtWhateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-48041900374934132212011-06-26T20:11:00.000-07:002011-06-26T20:14:14.652-07:00BYBS: Cheeseburger
Image from TheCulinaryGeek Flickr
In keeping with a simple "things in life" theme (read, out of ideas), this posting is about the joy of eating Gelato while watching the river. Hmmm. OK, so I don't read my own titles. This post is actually about the joy of eating a cheeseburger while looking at the river.
Image by Angela de Março
Well, I really did have Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-58616876382578058472011-06-19T14:59:00.000-07:002011-06-19T15:01:03.075-07:00BYBS: Cat Rambo/Fantasy Magazine
Image from Fantasy Magazine
This week's BYBS goes to (wait for it!) Fantasy Magazine and in particular a short story called the "Immortality Game" by Cat Rambo. Yes, that's the name that she apparently goes by. No, don't ask me. What does someone who calls themselves "Cat Rambo" look like, you ask? Well, here is a pic from her site:
Image from Cat Rambo's site.
Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-38506635706800437602011-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:002011-06-12T08:00:06.088-07:00BYBS: SMOSH
They make such a cute couple (image from Smosh.com)
Smosh, specifically smosh.com, is a couple of guys who make hilarious videos such as "Vader and Me." The first video of theirs that I saw was "Mortal Kombat," a strange and yet silly spoof of an old video game. My all time favorite is probably their "Pokemon" video which spoofs (you guessed it) Pokemon.
But their skill does not Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-51573426992075330452011-06-05T08:36:00.000-07:002011-06-05T09:29:03.229-07:00BYBS: Stupid JavaScript TricksThis week I learned something about working with JavaScript that made me happy enough that I'm going to blog about it.
Rather than trying to explain this in some way that makes sense, I'm going to use the short version. This will not confuse any readers because a) I don't have any and b) anyone who stumbles upon this blog must already be a JavaScript gawd.
OK, so suppose you are using Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-79232877944062597562011-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:002011-05-29T08:00:06.763-07:00BYBS: A Deepness in the Sky
Image from Wikipedia
This week's BYBS is about the book A Deepness in the Sky by a favorite author of mine named Venor Vinge. The book takes place in the same universe as A Fire Upon the Deep and is about two groups that are interested in trading with a culture that only becomes active once every 200 years or so.
The "good guys" are an outfit called the Qeng Ho, who have an Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-29680774856268216802011-05-18T18:54:00.000-07:002011-05-18T19:07:05.474-07:00BYBS: TWIV HIV Episode
Well, at least one word in this week's title isn't an acronym or abbreviation.
At any rate, this posting is about a very cool episode of This Week in Virology (TWIV); in particular it is about HIV and some recent discoveries. From what I could gather from this episode...
HIV is a retrovirus, meaning that it becomes part of the host's DNA when it infects them.
Highly Active Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-87541384462514847982011-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:002011-05-08T08:00:03.758-07:00BYBS: Argh...and I Thought of it FirstNow I'm running with the "in" crowd.
I was just searching on the web for "argh" and I came across a post by Neil Gaiman. For those of you who don't know Neil, well...neither do I actually. But nevertheless, since he co-opted my favorite phrase, I think that it's only fitting that I should be able to call him by his first name.
Now where was I?
Oh yes, you see, I was using "argh" Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-38041592310615238302011-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:002011-05-01T08:00:04.161-07:00BYBS:The Works of Steven Brust
The Man in Black. Image from Wikipedia
Steven Brust writes a swords & sorcery series about a fellow named Vlad Taltos. Vlad, and his wisecracking lizard sidekick Loiosh, go about on various adventures through the world of Dragerea. One of the reasons I like the books in the Taltos series is that Dragerea seems like a well thought-out place with its own rules and history Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-31099403284202727352011-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:002011-04-25T17:30:09.871-07:00BYBS: Blood Music
One of my favorite books of all time has to be Greg Bear's Blood Music. It's about a guy who creates computers using cells, observing that cells have all the parts you would need to make a computer: DNA could be used as storage, various organelles could be used as processor parts, etc. The cells can infect people and, well, that's what the book is about.
This is one of the books Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-4078858363604340722011-04-17T08:00:00.000-07:002011-04-21T17:51:05.122-07:00BYBS: Bacteriophages
The structure of a typical tailed bacteriophage. Image from Wikipedia.
Bacteriophages, or just phages as their friends call them, are viruses that infect bacteria. As such, they can be used in place of antibiotics for infections that have become resistant to the antibio. Due to a fundamental difference in the way that human and bacterial cells work, the viruses do not infectWhateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-38319240230922546922011-04-11T01:52:00.000-07:002011-04-11T16:52:43.711-07:00BYBS: Fresh Air at SeaThis past week a ran into a couple of podcasts that were both on NPR's Fresh Air; one was titled "Sex, Drugs and Sea Slime" while the other was called "Moby-Duck".
The NPR story on the wild and slimy life of undersea critters can be found via this link, while the story on Moby-Duck can be found to via this link.
The pictures lead to links where the books can be obtained on Amazon.
The titleWhateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-74532198052205329532011-04-03T18:09:00.000-07:002011-04-03T18:09:35.871-07:00Microbe Power Grids
I recently found this article from the cool, super cool, way cool geobactor web site. It details about how microorganisms work together to transmit electricity from the bottom of a pile of mud to the top of the pile.
Yes, mud.
Why are you looking at me that way?
At any rate, I think this is uber-cool because it shows again how those little fellers can surprise us by doing stuff Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-2115241139535101082011-03-27T14:57:00.000-07:002011-03-27T14:58:01.959-07:00Still Blathering
mitchell!
Just because I haven't posted in 3 or 4 months does not mean that I have abandoned this blog. Granted, it's a very goon sign that I have, but it is not definitive proof.
Never the less, I still have more to blather about, so I'm going to keep...blathering. Or something.
At any rate, the wonderfully positive thing for this week is Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-71176639198746824022010-11-29T18:02:00.000-08:002010-11-29T18:04:00.697-08:00BYBS: Thanksgiving
Image from PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies
Let's get one thing straight: I have a lot to be thankful for.
Roight?
Roight!
This means that, by singling out one thing, I am in no way diminishing my appreciation of the other things.
Well, actually, I am.
This is not the point you're looking for.
I can go about my post.
Move along!
At any rate, I want to single out a cheesy computer game and a Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-34008294135139120122010-11-22T05:45:00.000-08:002010-11-22T05:45:24.294-08:00BYBS: Discourse
picture by smannion@flickr.com
I'm a member of a book club and we just got finished discussing a book I had recommended. Normally, I am (ahem) somewhat less than thorough with respect to reading the book beforehand. This time, since I was the one who was supposed to lead the discussion, I felt more of an imperative to be prepared. I'm not a big fan of using stress to bring Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-44625781670626295662010-11-14T18:11:00.000-08:002010-11-14T18:11:59.750-08:00BYBS: Presentations
A more interesting talk than the one I gave. Photo by andyp uk
This weekend I got a call from a friend because he heard about a presentation I am going to give in a few months. The nice thing about this was that I had not mustered the motivation to keep in touch and this whole presentation business got it done for me. So something good came of doing the presentation.
Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-75114807963745442952010-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:002010-10-31T10:06:01.587-07:00BYBS: A Decent Red
Image from the Chateau Julian site
While I might not be able to pick out a really good wine from a flock of mediocre ones, I can (hopefully) tell utter swill from something decent. I found this red for the unassuming price of $12 which seems pretty reasonable to me.
As an aside, I am very aware of all the trouble that alcohol can cause. This post is not so much in praise of Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-57952827543244228082010-10-25T05:37:00.000-07:002010-10-25T05:39:16.937-07:00BYBS: A Beautiful Fall Day
Photo by Dru! at Flickr
There are days where it feels like the weather is trying to say "it's great to be alive!" I had one of these this past week and while the scenery was not as nice as this, it was inspiring. I find it somewhat odd and yet encouraging that a sour grape like myself can find inspiration from the world.Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-38750746177524083932010-10-17T11:35:00.000-07:002010-10-17T11:35:24.062-07:00BYBS: Google Chrome Developer Tools
Developer tools displaying the JavaScript for Yahoo!
Since I have a complete lack of ideas for this week (note that I'm not talkin about good ideas, those waved bye-bye to me a long time ago) I decided to blog about something that I use every day. In particular, the JavaScript debugger that Google created with their chrome browser.
I know, I know, you are now shouting at your monitorWhateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-18390972869482444782010-10-11T14:41:00.000-07:002010-10-11T14:45:09.327-07:00BYBS: Zombies
I know when it's my turn to be torn apart by zombies I will want people tophotograph the event.
Photo by Laughing Squid
As with many people who happen upon a scene of flesh eating zombies who are about to turn someone into a Big Mac, my first thought was "Hey! Maybe I can make this into a blog posting!" OK, so maybe that might not be most people's first thought, but up there in Whateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32130116.post-39206477568301238342010-10-03T07:21:00.000-07:002010-10-03T07:31:20.613-07:00BYBS: Dogs
We think they're cute and they're thinking "You're next!"
Image by diegodacal@flickr.com
Filed under one of those things that I’m glad about but that make no sense are dogs. They are critters that seem to delight in the presence of people no matter what mood you are in. Being my lazy self, I don’t have a pet, but I have recently visited some people that do so I can take advantage of theirsWhateverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761685971297189784noreply@blogger.com1