Is There A Flash Anonymous?

Recently I have become hooked on writing Flash, or Short-Short, stories. Ranging from 50 to 1000 words, can be typed in only a few minutes, but trust me, it can take much longer to develop them. I have come up with background info, situations, and history that will probably never see print, but it helps me create the story. I remember one story I wrote last week, where a characters brother died. In my head, the battle in which he was mortaly wounded, his trip home, and his final breath happened, but in the story, it only has a few sentances.

Flash has been gaining popularity recently. There are alot of theories, but I think it is for the same reason I write them. I can develop the story while at work, get home and finalize stuff while eating lunch and taking a shower, sit down and write it. A fully developed story in less then 12 hours.

Why is this important to me? Beecause I have come up with easily half a million pages worth of stories, but due to ADHD and general laziness, I rarely get much work done on them. I have stuff that I came up with in 6th grade (1992) started in 2000, and still haven't finished. The worst part is the fact that some of this stuff is basicly short stories! So any time I can take a story from concept to final product in (theoreticly) less then a day, it is a good thing.

So why do I think I am addicted to it? I am watching a show on catacombs on the Travel Channel right now, and I already have story ideas for 2 of the catacombs they showed. One of them is pretty much done. I want to do some research and develope some background info, but the story itself is basicly done. The other one gave me a few ideas, I just need to pick one and develope it further.

Considering how quickly the ideas came to me, and instead of using it in a larger story, my first thought was to turn it into a Flash story, I think I have a problem.

But if I do, then I don't think I want help :)


A good article on Flash Stories can be found here



Update: Yep, I need help. While doing research into the history of the Paris Catacombs, I came up with a few more stories that have nothing to do with the catacombs, but were inspired by them.

Ride Report--April 26, 2006

I went riding today, like I said I was going to. I didn't ride to work this morning, simply because it is hard to work up the energy needed to ride to work at 3 in the morning. It's only a few minute ride, but it is still at 3 in the morning and I am usualy operating on little sleep.

It was a beutifull day for riding. It was 60 degrees out, with just a bit of a breeze. I had some errands to run, so I grabbed my pack and hopped on my bike. After a stop at Walmart, I headed to Subway and got lunch. I then rode UP through one of the biggest municiple parks in the country.

That's right. An out of shape guy with bad knees and a bike that doesn't shift worth a crap rode up the steep road going through one of the biggest city owned parks in the country! I have friends who are in better shape, have bikes that shift well, and ride a couple times a week who arn't willing to do that.

Good thing I am too stupid to realize that I shouldn't be doing dumb stuff like this.

I was accualy really proud of myself. I only had to walk the bike about 500 feet, and about 50 of that was when my chain jumped off the gears and I had to walk it to a safe place to fix it.

After that I sat by the "Lake" and ate my sub. We call it a lake, but I was able to walk across it. The sludge at the bottom came to just below my knees and the water was only up to my arm pits. I am 6'3", so that should give you some idea how bad it is. I accualy splashed some water from my water bottle into the lake and increased the amount of fresh water in it by about a million percent.

After that I road up another hill (yes I am in insane, thank you for asking) and then road home. Except for some cramps that developed while at Walmart, which were a minor annoyance through out the whole trip it wasn't to bad. My legs accualy hurt more now then they did then. Got to love adrenaline.

The total ride was about 10 miles, with about 5 lbs of stuff in my pack. Not a bad days ride. I contemplated going further, but while I was at Walmart I bought Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children (great movie by the way. Check out a my comments on the game journal for more info.) and I wanted to watch it, so I went home, took a shower, grabed some ice cream, and watched the movie.

That's right. Ice cream! The sugar and the milk help you recover faster. I don't know how, but my dad said it, we tried it, and it worked, so I'm not questioning it.

I doubt I will be riding tomarrow though. I think I wills till be pretty sore, byt I hope to get back into the saddle on Friday :) I am accualy thinking about torturing myself like this once a week, because it was kind of fun. I'll have to see how I do tomarrow.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to drink a few glasses of milk (drink some right before going to bed and it will help reduce stiffness the next day) and go to bed.


On a side note, I weighted myself on Monday while I was at work (we had a weight lost contest after New Years, but the scale is still there so people can check if they are still keeping off the weight) and I weighted 245 lbs. It should be interesting to see if I lost any today :)

Finally, A Good Lawyer

Check This out. Saw it while reading Gwadzilla's blog. Like I said, finally a good lawyer. When the time comes to throw all lawyers into the sun, I say we keep this one.

Thank You Daylight SavingTime

Saw this on Go Clipless (here is the full article.)

Next year DST starts three weeks sooner and ends one week later. About time.

I know Daylight Saving Time started a few weeks ago, but I am excited about this. It means we will have an extra hour of daylight for an extra month, and anything that allows me to be in the sadle more is a good thing, regardles of how often I take advantage of it. Infact, to celebrate, I am going to ride my bike to work tomarrow, come home, eat, change into my biking cloths, and ride :)

Bush Seeks To Ease Gas Pressure

Earlier today, President Bush announced a series of steps to help lower gas prices in the US. These include halting deposits into the strategic petroleum reserve and ordering an investigation into possible price gouging.

This resulted in an 8 cent price drop for gas to be delivered in June (to $2.10 per gallon)

This is good, but there are still some problems, the main one being the fact that it will be the same as the investigations last year. Gas prices will drop some temporaraly, but in the long term, nothing will come of it.

I'm sick of this. I'm riding my bike from now on, as often as I can.

Illegal Transportation Of A Corpse

Saw this on Dom's Wierd News, and I had to comment on this part.

"The corpse was on the back seat without a seat belt, which in this case didn't really matter. But it was covered up with clothing. It is a misdemeanour."

Apparently it is perfectly legal to transport a naked corpse in Germany.

Another Of Life's Great Questions

Ok, unlike the last edition of Life's Great Questions, this one is accualy serious.

I asm fasinated by World War 2. I don't know why. Maybe it is because of the importance of aerial combat. Maybe it is because of the epic scope of the war. Or maybe it is because Hitler was the closest thing to a comic book/saterday morning cartoon supervillian the world has ever seen.

Regardles of the reason WW2 fasinates me, there is one thing I have always wondered. Why is it called the Nazi party? The real name is National Socialist German Workers Party, which doesn't have a Z in it. Is it based on the German spelling or pernuciation? Is it some German thing I don't understand? The world may never know.



Update: Ok, I'm an idiot. I should have checked Wikipedia before posting. According to the article (Found here) it is a pernunciation thing. Here is the part where they talk about it.

The term Nazi is a short form of the German word Nationalsozialist shortened to two syllables, and spelled with -zi, because the ti syllable is pronounced [tsi] in German.

Now if I can just figure out the mystery of the peanut butter cookies

A Perfect World

Today Spike is showing a Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal marathon, because "In a perfect world" these "Action Gods" would face eachother, so they are giving us the next best thing. (Note the stuff in quotes is from the accual commercials.)

In a perfect world, Bruce Lee would come back from the dead, grab Jet Li and Jackie Chan, take out Seagal and Van Damme with his pinkie, and then go hunting for Chuck Norris. He wouldn't realy need Jet Li or Jackie Chan, they would just be there to watch the master at work

Moussaoui Must Not Die

The Defense has closed their case in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. They of course are trying to get a life sentance for him, as opposed to a death sentance. Most of America probobly hopes they fail. After all, this guy is supposed to have been one of the hijackers responsible for 9/11. But the worst thing we can do is exicute him, because that is what he wants.

The best thing they can do is give him life. Put him in a maximum security prison. Not in the general population though. the other convicts would kill him. Put him in solitary for the rest of his life, and give him just enough rope to hang him self. to ad insult to injury, "Accidently" serve him some pork chops from time to time, but forget to pick up the knife when you pick up the plates.eventualy he will go crazy and want to kill himself.

I am sure the Quran says suicide is bad, pluse it would mean he wouldn't die a martyr, which is something he desperatly wants. That would be the worst punishment possible.

Must Contain Joy

Check out what I found on Wikipedia, in an article on The Tick

According to tvshowsondvd.com, Disney Home Video may release the Tick animated series on DVD by the end of 2006 alongside another cult classic, Darkwing Duck. There is presently no information on whether such a release would be unedited or not.

Darkwing Duck and The Tick, both available by the end of the year! The only way I could be happier is if they were to release the rest of the seasons of Gargoyles and if they were to release Freakazoid on DVD.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to fire up my emulators and play the Darkwing Duck and Tick video games. Those, plus the fact that ABC Family will hopefully tide me over until then.


Update--While I was checking out tvshowsondvd.com, I found out that Darkwing Duck, The Tick, and Tale Spin, will be coming out in late August.

Bring On The Biking Goodness

Around Christmas time, I was out at the farm reading Velo News and I mentioned to my dad that I was thinking about subscribing to it. He said that he had an offer for a free subscription with a renewal. He renewed his subscription early and told them to send me the free subscription.

That was it for several months. In Febuary I got my first issue. Unfortunatly that was all I got, until Monday. I opened my mail box to find a new issue! It gets better though. When I left for work this morning, I realised that I hadn't gotten the mail yesterday, so I figured I would check it on my way out the door. I opened the mailbox and found the Mountain Bike Season Preview issue inside :) It gets even better though. When I got home, I checked the mail to find yet another issue, this time the one with the cover story about Floyd Landis wining the Paris-Nice race.

Needless to say, I will be busy for a while :)

Saw this over at The Other Side Of Kim and figured I would give it a try. (Here are his results.)

Go to Wikipedia and look up your birth day (excluding the year). List three neat facts, two births and one death in your blog, including the year.

Here is what I got for my birthday, September 1.

Events: I chose 4, because I couldn't pick just 3.
5509 BC - The world was created, according to the Byzantine Empire.

1875 - A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband.

1939 - World War II: Nazi Germany attacks Poland, beginning the war. (See Polish September Campaign.)

1985 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.


Births
1923 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (d. 1969)

1950 - Dr. Phil, American television talk show host

Deaths
1988 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)

1999 - W. Richard Stevens, Author of Unix Network Programming and several books and IETF RFC documents (b. 1951)

Taking A Stand

I just got out of the shower (well, I didn't just get oout. I dried off and put on cloths first.) While I was in the shower, I started thinking about riding and I decided that I was going to take a stand against high gas prices by riding my bike to work as much as possible. It doesn't cost much. I spend about $10 a week on gas, which is enough for me to go back and forth to work, church, the Fiend, and Walmart during the week (if I go out to the farm, I usualy have to spend more, but not much.) It's not much, but I have a plan.

I plan on putting $10 a week away, hidding it somewhere in my aparment. When I have $100, I will use it to get something for my bike, a new seat, new wheels, a new jersey, whatever. Anything that's left will go into my savings account. $40 a month isn't much compared to the billions we spend a year on gas, but it is $40 that they won't be getting.

I'm also thinking of starting a Critical Mass type ride to raise awareness of biking, Might not make much differance at first, but you never know. Of nothing else, it should help find other riders.

Gass prices are too high. In January I read that the prices then were where they should be if oil was about $90 a barrel. It was closer to $60 at the time. There is no reason for the prices to be as high as they are, and this is my way of taking a stand against them. Join me, and we just might change the world.

First Ride Of The Season

Just got back from my first ride of the season. I mean literaly just got back. I took off my jersey shows, and knee brace, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, sat down, and now I am typing this.

I have ridden before this, but it was mostly just for transportation purposes. going to the coffee shop or work. This was the first ride for accual training perposes.

It wasn't a hard ride. Just around town. I don't have the new computer on my roadie, but I drove the route in my truck before and it is about 6 miles. I didn't push myself, so it took about 24 minutes.

I had tried to ride earlier this year. In fact I had been hoping to get my first ride in for about a month now. I blame Discovery, History, and National Geographic channels for my inability to get out. Stupid stations keep playing shows that interest me!. Fortunatly today didn't have anything that interested me, so I was able to get out.

I did notice some things that I need to fix on the roadie. I realy need to raise the seat. My knees, which are bad to begin with, bend too much while I am sitting. I also need to fix the front gear cable. It broke last fall. I bout some new ones, but I never got around to changing them. I also need to finaly replace the tires. they are the ones that were on it when I got the thing about two years ago, and they weren't in great shape then.

As for the ride, it wasn't bad. normaly I take these short rides to work on stuff I want to post or stories I am working on. This time it was just about getting out, feeling the with in my face and the sun on my skin. I knees hurt and my breathing and heart rate were increased when I first started out, but after a few minutes in the saddle, they were back to almost normal. My breathing was a bit heavier, heart rate was a few beats per minute higher, and my knees hurt a bit more, but 5 months with out any serious ridding and a few extra pounds put on during the winter will do that. Hopefully I can keep riding everyday and I will be back to the same condition I was in last November, when I did my last serious ride., by this time next week.

Mother Nature must have been reading my mind though,and was trying to make me change it because it got realy windy and started couding up while I was out there. Tomarrow the Fiend is open all day, instead of closing at 2 like they did today, so I plan on getting my Mountain Bike out of the bike shop in the basement and hitting the trails in the park. Hopefully I will be able to post a ride report tomarrow. All I know is that it will have to be realy nasty out to stop me :)

"But Gringos Go Home Is An Order, So You Must Use?"

The correct answer is "The Imperitive!"

If you haven't seen The Life Of Brian, you wouldn't get it.

But you don't have to be a Monty Python fan to get this joke, which I found on Evolution Right, who found it on World Net Daily. (Before you say anything, the Evolution part is a personal evolution on the part of the blogger, not the "we evolved from a pile of goo" type.)

Marchers say gringos,not illegals, have to go

Yep, that's right. Some nutjob protesters have gotten it in their mind that this is their native land, and that white boys like me are the ones who shouldn't be here. Just ignore the fact that 1.) About 99.9% of the people who are saying this are desended from Spanish settilers, and 2.) This was never their land. This land belonged to the Native American's before us white boys came here. Click here for more on what these nutjobs think.

I'm not saying that the Europeans did everything right when they got here. History clearly shows that we didn't. We treated the Native Americans like crap. We treated the African Americans like crap. But to say we took this country from the Mexicans is just dumb.

Maybe some good will come from this. Maybe some Natives will organize a counter protest with signs saying "We were here first."

Missing Link?

The other day scientists announced that they had found a missing link in the evolution from fish to land animal, and quite frankly I thought it was a good article. It was very funny.

I know that I'm probobly going to get some coments about this, so I want to state my position up front. Yes, I am a creationist. But even if I weren't a creationist, I would have a problem with this "missing link"

The first thing that sent up flairs is that, in one print article I read, it said that they had been looking for a creature that maches the discription of the one they found since 1999. Ironicly they found what they were looking for. If this is not true, then I apologize, but if it is true, I am guessing that they were running low on funding and had to find something to get more money.

I'm guessing that they just threw some stuff together and called it a new species. for example, in the Washington Post article it says that this thing had "ribs heavy enough to support its body on dry land.", but there are no rib svisible in the pics. also, the head looks too big for the body (there was a pic in the Star Tribune that showed this better. I will try to get a copy of it.)

so is this a missing link? I would say no, but like the exsistance of UFOs, Loc Ness Monster, and Bigfoot, I am perfectly willing admit that I am wrong if undeniable proof is discovered. Until then, I will continue to believe that Evolution did not happen, and that this creature is not a missing link.

the pic comes from A Lie A Day