Once upon a time, I created a Page on Facemuck. It was just a place to share my origami. It was nice, people liked it. It was like a cozy, sunny room with an open door. I could come and go as I pleased. But this was Facemuck, land of the whore and home of…
A brief screed and pronunciation guide for science fiction names, in particular those of the inhabitants of Ann McCaffrey’s Pern. This material is intended for those who think they speak English :p The greatest danger in pronunciation of “strange” names is our perceptual habits. Skimming carelessly over an unfamiliar combination of letters can result in…
Beneath the Moon I slept as it rose full. It was Midsummer’s Eve, and I was young; Unformed, untutored, but I felt its pull. In a dream, that night, an ancient tale was sung: A Goddess who upon occasion sought Her long-dead lover; her unfettered might Disguised in mortal form, her spell so wrought That…
I am a file hoarder.I have files that were created or downloaded nearly twenty years ago, when I had little drive space and my only option for backup storage was floppies. Over the years a few have been lost, and some have been permanently deleted because they outlived their usefulness and had no sentimental value….
A Parable of Privacy and Security Once upon a time there was a a country ruled by a blind giant. In the beginning, he seemed to be a kind ruler. His subjects were contented and happy. Neighboring kingdoms readily allied with his. Since most of the people thought that he had their best interests at…
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Apophenia “Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined by neurologist Klaus Conrad and defined as the ‘unmotivated seeing of connections.’” One evening, a good many years ago, I was exercising — just a sort of free-form dance — in the living room, with…
Dear Minions of the Insane Monopoly; My check for the current amount due is enclosed. Please also accept my sincere disgust for your cavalier treatment of an honest, reliable paying customer. For several years I have enjoyed the convenience of paying my bill online. Lately, it has changed from a convenience to a growing annoyance….
I love small things. Looking at origami furniture models, I thought how fun it would be to assemble a paper suite for Borrowers. But out of all the chest-of-drawers type models available, I found none that I really wanted to fold. Either they were fussily complex, or not proportioned right. So I took paper in…
I was sitting at my computer (where else), hopping between Twitter and other things. Music suddenly started playing out of nowhere, loud and clear. I went all WTF and looked for the source. With four workspaces, four browsers and a few other windows open…woof. On my way down through my cyberspace mansion, I closed the…
A Short Tale of Betrayal I have built a reputation for honest work and trustworthiness. People rely on me to help them recover their passwords, rescue locked email accounts, salvage their lost files, clean up and speed up their computers. Last Friday, I was fired from a job I held for nearly ten years. Seems…