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A Rouf Chowdhury, Chairman of Bank Asia Limited, handing over a cheque of Tk.10m to Professor Dr. MA Rakib, President of National Heart Foundation, Sylhet for set up a post CCU unit of its hospital at National Heart Foundation head office in the city on Tuesday. National Prof. Brigadier (Retd) A Malik, Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, Chairman, Fund-Raising Committee of the hospital, Md. Arfan Ali, Managing Director, Mohd. Safwan Choudhury, Vice-Chairman, Rumee A Hossain, M Shahjahan Bhuiyan and M Irfan Syed, Directors of the bank were also present.

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A Rouf Chowdhury, Chairman of Bank Asia Limited, handing over a cheque of Tk.10m to Professor Dr. MA Rakib, President of National Heart Foundation, Sylhet for set up a post CCU unit of its hospital at National Heart Foundation head office in the city on T

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Editorial »

Govt can`t pay for losing jute mills

 A LEADING daily reported Sunday that the Textiles and Jute Ministry has demanded to the Finance Ministry for allocating Tk 800 crore in loan so that it can pay workers and employees of state-owned jute mills the allowances that remained overdue for years. The jute industry is a losing concern ...

Sports »

National senior Table Tennis begins tomorrow

The 37th National senior Table Tennis Championship will be beginning on Tuesday (October 24) at Shaheed Tajuddin Wooden Floor gymnasium in the city with the participation of 45 teams. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the six-day meet as chief guest. A total of 240 players - 180 ...

Sports »

Steffi Graf (left) and Andre Agassi arrive for the David Foster Foundation 30th Anniversary Miracle Gala and Concert, in Vancouver, British Columbia on Saturday.

Entertainment »

Shraddha Kapoor sprains her foot due to exertion

Shraddha Kapoor who has been on a rigorous shooting schedule for her next film Saaho along with the Bahubali actor Prabhas, injured her ankle due to over exertion. The actress is also simultaneously prepping up for the Saina Nehwal biopic besides shooting for Saaho in Hyderabad. Shraddha recently uploaded a ...

City »

Speakers at a press conference organised by Citizens for Good Governance in DRU auditorium on Sunday in protest against proposal for the cancellation of pledge by poll candidates.

International »

ISIS` end `in sight`, says Trump after historic Raqa victory

AFP, Washington :US President Donald Trump said Saturday a transition can soon begin to set conditions for lasting peace in Syria now that the end of the ISIS "caliphate is in sight" with the fall of Raqa.The United States and its allies will support diplomatic negotiations "that end the violence, ...

Editorial »

Rains halt life: City fathers cannot cope, govt too happy with lies of success

WATERLOGGING has long been an inevitable part of our urban scenario that causes immense suffering to the city dwellers almost all the year round. After torrential rain, most parts of Dhaka, Chittagong, and other major cities go under knee-to-waist-deep water for several hours to few days. Despite, pouring millions of ...

Sports »

Injury ends Tamim's SA tour

Left handed opener Tamim Iqbal has been ruled out of the South Africa tour after aggravating a thigh injury. The 28-year-old opener is expected to return home tomorrow (Sunday) and will not be part of third ODI and the upcoming two-match T20Is series. The dashing opener sustained the injury to ...

Entertainment »

Have Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif fallen back in love?

They're one of the most loved on-screen couples of our times. Ever since Salman Khan introduced Katrina Kaif to Bollywood, his influence on her career has been immense. He's always looked after her and she's always sought advice from him. Even though either of them never made it public, it ...

Entertainment »

What happened when Aaradhya Bachchan met Rekha?

The Ambani's love throwing 'em lavish parties at their Mumbai residence Antilla. And off late, they've been throwing one party after another for our Bollywood celebs. Be it Ganpati or Diwali… the best of Bollywood heads to South Mumbai for the lavish festivities.  A tad late but an insider present ...

City »

International »

UN has `tremendous potential` under new leadership: Trump

AP, Washington :President Donald Trump said Friday that the United Nations has "tremendous potential" but has been underutilized in recent years.Trump praised U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has led the 193-member world organization since January, during an Oval Office meeting. It was their first extended meeting.The White House said the ...

Football »

Giroud`s overhead kick gives Arsenal 1-0 win at Red Star

Agency :Olivier Giroud scored late in the second half for Arsenal to maintain its perfect Europa League campaign with a 1-0 win over 10-man Red Star Belgrade on Thursday.Five minutes after Milan Rodic was sent off for a second yellow card, Giroud struck with an overhead kick five minutes before ...

Entertainment »

Ali Fazal and Shriya Pilgaonkar come together for Web Series

Shriya Pilgaonkar who was appreciated for her Hindi film debut as Shahrukh Khan’s love interest in Fan and for her viral short film Jai Mata Di, is now going to be seen in a web show called Mirzapur produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani for a global online platform ...

Editorial »

Flood victims yet to get enough support

GOVERNMENT and aid agencies have provided emergency relief for flood victims but not sufficient to settle flood victims as per media reports quoting Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) researchers who tried to figure out the distribution system in the Haor areas. Over 37 lakh people were affected in the floods ...

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About Jogles123

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  1. Donor?:no I just can't afford it Age: 22 Do you have a headset: Yes i do Do you have, or will get TS3: yes Have you been banned from our server? (If so why?): nope have read and understood the whitelisted Civ rules (View-able on the map screen in-game): read thouroughly Why do you want to be Whitelisted?: I wanna be whitelisted because I eventualy want to be a security contractor A brief description about yourself (Your play style): I love to play arma and I find the aspect of joining a security force interesting as i am a real life security guard Do you understand that any breach of your jobs rules could cause you to be un-whitelisted without warning: yes I do

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“Happily Ever After” Fireworks debut to be live streamed for remote fans

We’re a few nights away from a major transformation of Magic Kingdom’s night time fireworks show. “Happily Ever After” will debut on Friday May 12 as just the third nighttime spectacular to ever light the sky at the park. If you can’t physically be there for the debut performance, Disney will be hosting a live stream for you to watch online.

Visit the Disney Parks Blog starting around 8:55pm ET and look for a fresh blog post. The livestream will start just a few minutes before the actual show begins to find the feed. They’ll also throw in a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of “Happily Ever After.”

Disney has already released this video showing how the show’s creators ready the Magic Kingdom for the new show, including a sneak peek filmed during one of the tests.

Since Disney has been running late night tests of the new show, video and photos have started to leak out. I’m going to withhold final judgement until I see it myself this weekend, but all signs are pointing toward it being a great new show.

If you do plan to go in person this weekend, pack water (it’s going to be super hot) and patience. Disney is expecting huge crowds to witness the new show. Will I see you there?

Previously: Early tests for Happily Ever After fireworks and more behind-the-scenes video of score being recorded.

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2 thoughts on ““Happily Ever After” Fireworks debut to be live streamed for remote fans

  1. Pingback: Final performance of Wishes fireworks at the Magic Kingdom is tomorrow night | The Disney Blog

  2. Jeff

    Just wondering with all the wild fires around and temps that are hot and dry, why would Disney not take the initiative to postpone the new fireworks show? That’s all Disney needs is to be blamed for adding to the huge amount of out of control fires that plague Florida.
    No state mandated ban yet?

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Living Free..!

I have closed my Facebook account (well deactivated- they are hoping that you will return and will resort to emotional blackmail to try to ensure this.. Robyn will miss you...Danielle will miss you.. etc). This has been a great relief to me as I feel it is one step too far in the degeneration of human communication. (Whoops being a bit militant here- I am hormonal so you shall have to forgive and  maybe also give me cake and icecream) ok maybe not that bad but I don't like the cynical targeted marketing on the side. The insular selfish quality makes me uneasy-for some reason- I should love that side of things! But at least in rabbiting on in a blog or discussing on a forum I am forced to be creative rather than just tick a box- here is my personality I "like" the following things. It seems to reduce us all to the level of 14 year olds raving about the latest Ke$ha song(oh no don't get me started) and consenting to further bombardment of advertising for things we don't really want or need. I don't like the fact that none of our info is really secure, it sort of gives me the feeling that I am owned by Facebook. And lastly 2 million new users sign up every week and it made me feel too conformist "Baa I joined Facebook, Baa, I got an iPhone, Baa I am wearing what is in fashion and bought far too many owl ornaments" (Ok some of the owls are cute but you go onto Etsy and type Owl into the search I dare you- were are suffering from Owl saturation here soon we will reach Peak Owl! That was a pun you see on Peak oil which is bad- even though is sounds good). So no Facebook for me. If you would like to read another rant against Facebook I recommend reading this by Tom Hodgkinson whose works I have been reading lately and does raise some interesting points in his books- although he is rather more enamoured with smoking, alcohol and ukuleles than I am.
We are slightly at the mercy of seasonal income having our own business but I don't think we could go back to full time work for someone else- not in the same soul crushing working for the Government way we used to, we are too addicted to the flexible lifestyle we have. I wouldn't give up that much of my time for meaningless work for any money- it is not fulfilling and not enriching and your life can just slip away before you know it. money spent on trinkets and alcohol etc to try to make up for the fact your life is being sold pointlessly. well that's one perspective anyway.
Working full time in an unfulfilling pointless endeavour whether it be call centre or Public Service can be so draining that you find your creativity stifled and your motivation sapped so you find yourself too tired to cook good food, too apathetic to enjoy your garden and experiment and create. well that's what we have found anyway- I suppose it must suit some people or it just wouldn't be the done thing!
If it sounds like you have the same empty feeling from working full time at an unfulfilling job I thoroughly; recommend reading Tom Hodgkinson books, they really touched a nerve with me!

In the mean time I have been harvesting some volunteer potatoes, eating purple podded peas, experimenting with kefir, finding doors people have thrown away (the right size for our house with lovely brass and ceramic hooks as well!) making random Christmas things (a stocking and a choir of angels made out of gumnuts- crude but I hope endearing!) not being able to control our "spirited" "interactive" children (read between the euphemisms there) and being thankful for my life.

we had a great riverside picnic for our Sir talks A lots fourth birthday with a cake made out of what was on hand- a surplus of eggs and a pint of low fat cream (can't be whipped) which was on special- this turned out to be a chocolate pavlova topped with vanilla bean creme patissiere. Absolutely wonderful and I will make it again!

  1. I'm considering deleting my facebook too, I don't really speak to my so called 'friends' on their anyway and I was offered the option of 'friending' my 11 year old daughter the other day when we had specifically told her she wasn't allowed an account! She had told them she was 18! ARGH! So I don't really think it's a good thing,especially when people seem to live their lives through it rrather than as you say having to be creative and actually saying something rather than ticking an I like box.
    You pavlova looks delicious too, I've never tried on before, but I might have to give it a go.

  2. Oh no! Your cheeky daughter! I hope when my boys are older that Facebook will have just blown over. I think there are so many more productive ways to waste time online than facebook, like forums and recipes and hunting for bargains!
    My Pavlova was a bit flat because I didn't cook it for long enough the first time and it kind of sighed and flattened out before I realised it had to go back in to the oven but i will know for next time!

  3. Yes I'm a government worker and my life is just going too fast for me. I feel I don't have time to smell the sea air. It's soul destroying and my goodness is being striped away as I become another bitching sour robot.

    Playing with Ebay, working a couple of hours a week for an online travel company, do a bit of babysitting and toying with a market stall, all in the hope of finding a solution.

    I hardly ever jump on my Facebook - maybe once a month. I find it invasive. But I like the old nostalgic photos people put up.

  4. Yes don't let it happen to you! Get out- people ike you thrive outside of the government jobs- I can't imagine how I actually did it. Be all eco-Frugal makes it s much easier to survive (well) without the awful *hah* career!


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Sunday, April 7, 2013

"I am a terrible Housewife" or "Why I Need a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner"

I vacuumed today. That should be all I need to write on the matter. Clean the crap off the floor right? I hear other people do it several times a week. No drama. I hear other people MOVE furniture to do it, SEVERAL times a WEEK. I have no Idea how they do this.

Sometimes I wonder if I am cursed by the bad housewife fairy (a tad melodramatic?) maybe I should get more practice?(kill me please).
I hear that other people don't regard a quick vacuum as being an epic journey you have to gird your loins for (off topic I have been wondering; what are your girding with? Is it like a a weightlifting belt to stop you getting a hernia? If so I think I need to do this prior to vacuuming).
I have a pretty small house, it is on a few insane levels as it has been weirdly extended many times in it's hundred odd years  (and I bet they were odd) of existence but it is small. I have a reasonable vacuum cleaner. It's an older Dyson. It works. It lives in the shed which is really inconvenient but it does more work out there. It's an obstacle "OOOOH no I have to go to the shed to get the vacuum cleaner... ooooh nooooo I will have to bake a cake instead of vacuuming then!"

A few months ago the head stopped working, the brushes wouldn't stay down so it didn't work as a multi-floor tool. ok, we ordered a new one.

Then after dragging the vacuum out of the shed and attaching the new tool and bumping around corners angrily (more on this later) I was wondering why there was no dirt being sucked up "OH HO!" I said "OH HO Mr Dyson, where's your no loss of suction now? HA!" (I really do talk to the vacuum cleaner  I think it is my nemesis, Moriarty to my Holmes) I could feel there was not really any suction so I started to disasemble it to see if there was a sock in it or something. No sock but a ball of hair fluff and things I knew had been there for many years. the size of a teacup poodle I swear. Ok so old Moriarty was doing quite well considering this beast living inside.

Only problem is that once the fluff beast was removed I couldn't push the damn thing around. The suction was TOO STRONG  "GAH!!! lose some suction goddam you!!" I changed the setting on the tool to make the brushes go up, then down but no joy, even with my full weight behind it.
OK so I take the new tool off and check it, no fluff beasts, the action works fine but hair has bound around the brush bit so tightly that it forms an airtight suction on the hard floor. Try to remove hair but it is too tight. Baby in carrier on the front starts fussing. I am all sweaty and red in the face and frustrated, there are F-bombs everywhere. But eventually it was done.

 So now we move forward in time to today. I found a motorhead (dun dun dunnnnnnaaaananana the ACE of Spades- not really just an attachment). I Attached it and I could push the vacuum cleaner! It was sucking up dirt! Hooray and Hallelujah! OH FOR GOD'S SAKE It is stuck on a chair and won't go any further. Now it is stuck on the corner of the wall, now the bin and now it has fallen over. Ah. Ah indeed. Now the motorhead has stopped spinning because my long hair has bound it up and I need to use scissors to free it. I have covered approximately two square metres. This is going to be a looooong vacuuming journey.

Please make some reassuring noises at me. Is this everyone's regular experience with housework? Is it this much of a battle?
 I dream about robot vacuum cleaners. They might take over the world but they are welcome to it. I have been entering competitions everywhere to try to win one. I have been reading reviews. I am envious of those who have monetized their blogging and worked hard enough on it to be given the whirring beasties to review. Let it be known I have read your reviews and I am so the target market.

Does anyone have experiences with robotic vacuum cleaners, good or bad I would love to hear your thoughts (preferably before my house needs cleaning again so you have until school pickup time I guess!)

  1. I had one, loved it, it went into my daughter's room, got tangled on wires and fucking died. Another reason to hate Telstra, Bigpond refused to give me an address to send it to to get it fixed. Never, ever buy ANYTHING that Bigpond has on special would be my advice because they do not have ANY after sales service and once they have your money do not give a damn.

    Robot cleaners do not replace vacuuming entirely, they don't get the corners and they are not as strong as a big old vacuum, but absolutely my whole house looked cleaner when my robot was still working I loved it and it cut my vacuuming down dramatically. Just for the record I will ABSOLUTELY do a sponsored post if someone will give me new robotic vacuum cleaner!

  2. Ha ha we are wannabe sellouts! I tell you what though it would get a good workout at my place!

  3. Alison- what brand did you have?

  4. Hang on, it's lying upside down in a sad little heap in the corner still. It's a Debot. A dead, dead Debot. Sigh.


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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

one softie listing today..

i am feeling anxious to list all of the softies i have made. i usually list them as i finish them.. so i decided to list one today. this is alexander. isn't he cute with those big eyes? he is made with a gray yarn with green and purple flecks. he wears a little green felt bow tie.. hope he find a nice home!

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Book Review

By: Lauren Kate

Everything in Luce's life has been off since the accident in the cabin. She's always had to deal with the shadows and was on medication for a while because of them, but now she is being forced to attend a reform school, Sword & Cross. There, she is virtually cut off from everything she knows and cares about, her best friend and her family.She tries to fit in the school, make new friends, but all her efforts are distracted by a guy she's never met before but swears she's seen him before. She doesn't know why she can't stop thinking about him, why she's so attracted to his mystery. Luce has to be careful; though unaware, she is just a pawn in a battle of biblical proportions, fated to fall for the one she can't have forever.
I was reccomended this book by a friend at work since she knew I was a fan of paranormal romance. This wasn't the best book I've read from the genre but it wasn't, by any means, the worst. Angels are by far my favorite of the paranormal genre especially when it comes to star-crossed lovers.

The pace of the book was slow at times but it seemed like there was always some sort of action going on to keep me turning the pages. It's a pretty long book (about 450 pages) and the majority of the answers were given to us at the last 100 pages or so and even then we were still left wondering what the heck was going on. [ hello sequel ]

I wasn't really a fan of Luce as a character. She got on my nerves, and although throughout the book she is mentioned as to being a very smart girl she seemed to take FOREVER to understand the tinest bit of information and lacked the ability to think for herself.

I also was not impressed with the character development. I barely have any idea what Daniel looks like or what type of person he is. The same went for Luce's description. She has short black hair because she had to cut her long hair off so its in a "edgy style" really? Come on!

However, the good news is that I really liked the story, and I decided to give the second book a shot so hopefully things pick up, the character development leaps off the page, or I won't be giving the third book a chance.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Elizabeth Regina Carrier

Police are searching for Elizabeth Regina Carrier, a fugitive wanted for nine charges of felony theft with bonds totaling $175,000.

In a press release, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office described Carrier as a "serial felony shoplifter" and explained that she is suspected to be part of a shoplifting ring operating in the county.

Carrier, AKA "Regina," is 32 years old, weighs 160 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes and has a tattoo of a rose on the right side of her neck.


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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

I really wish I could say I had fun for Halloween but I can't. I really wish I could say I am happy right now, but I can't. It has been forever since I felt this horrible feeling of just BLAH. Sad thing is I don't even know what the hell happened. And you are all probably wondering what on earth I am talking about.... but I can't say. I feel like I just got hit by a truck going 100mph and all he hit was my heart. Sounds nice right? Nope.

But my entire Halloween wasn't horrible..... I went to our family halloween party on Saturday night and had a good time. We took lots of pictures, ate yummy food and played cornhole oh yeah and froze.

Sunday mom cooked a really yummy lunch and had my sister and nieces over. I thought they were pretty darn cute so I took their pictures.

After lunch I went to the pumpkin patch with my friend Jen so I could get a pumpkin to carve. I got a gross pumpkin but it still turned out cute. By the way I should mention I had never carved a pumpkin until Sunday night.

Check out this huge crazy truck we saw when we got there!

Yellow pumpkin?? WHAT!

You can take the girl out the country but you can't take the country out the girl! haha

She is seriously turning out to be a really great friend to me... crazy part is I have known her like 3 weeks. I believe God puts people in your life at just the right times.....

Here are 3 of the pumpkins. I didn't get the 4th one in there for some odd reason. Mine is the one on the bottom. He looks kinda scary but hey not too bad for my first time right?

I hope you guys had a great weekend and a wonderful Halloween.

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Saturday, 12 January 2013

Prince Mikael, still missing

The latest reports from the south offer no clues as to the whereabouts of the missing Prince Mikael. Meanwhile, two scouts looking for the Prince have been found dead.

Mitink Seafoam and Katili Forgeburn sent word by messenger raven yesterday that they were following up a rumour of the Prince being sighted deep within the Wilder Hills, but overnight a local hunter found their bodies burned and mutilated by their campfire. It is not known if beasts, bandits or something worse was responsible for the murders.

Additional scouts have been despatched from Red River Folly. The Royal Castle's official line is that they remain hopeful the Prince will be found. It is not known if the Prince is aware of his mother's death. With the funeral procession planned for Monday, the search has taken on an additional urgency in the hope that the Prince might be able to bid his mother a final goodbye.

With an assassin on the loose, the looming threat of a diplomatic breakdown between Abevorn and its neighbours, and the Royal house in mourning, the ongoing hunt for the Prince is a worrying burden on the kingdom's resource and of course must be taking its toll on our grieving King.

While things are uneasy I can only recommend that everyone keeps a tool or two well sharpened and inside the house. Just in case. I know I sleep better with my weapons by the bed. And in my bed. And in both hands while in bed. And sometimes I just sleep better not sleeping and keeping a watchful on the door instead.

By Rush Grathrock

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Once Upon A Time...

...there was a young girl who didn't think she liked to read all that much. She would much rather play ball outside or bike up the steep hills of her small home town. But when she became a woman and had a baby (which settled her down a bit) she found herself desiring the thing that she so often neglected. And thus began her love of reading.

WELL, there you have a short synopsis of my life. Except for the fact that I don't get that much time to read even now. And it is probably a stretch to say that I LOVE to read. I should say I LOVE to read a good book. I have very little enthusiasm for a poor book. Or a boring book. Or one that takes too long to get interesting. But I am surprised at myself at how much I am reading now in comparison to the whole of my life (not counting required reading assignments, of course). Thus needing the narrative intro to move on to the real reason of the post:

I just finished this book. It is the Prequel to Anne of Green Gables: the first 11 years of her life. The book starts out before Anne is even born with her beautiful parents. Although I will not be giving my "acclaimed" opinion of the book...since I am no critic...I would like to say, if you are out there, and you are an ANNE OF GREEN GABLES lover...YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!!! (look here for a noteable writeup) I heard about it while at our Barnes & Nobles story time with Drew. While talking to my friend/worker K. she mentioned this book she was currently reading. She pulled it off the shelf and I held it in my hands and stared at the cover. I couldn't believe it was in my hands. It was fresh off the press and it was their last copy on the shelf (probably a total scam to get, ME, to buy their books!!!). So I bought it. And I went home that night and started to read it. I just finished the 300+ page book. It wasn't perfect. There was a tiny bit of language I thought was unnecessary. There was a lot of heavy and sad parts with Anne being an orphan and all. In the beginning, I thought, how neat. The "next generation" can start with this and get the whole story. But, I dare say, I am not sure that this book would be appropriate for such young readers. At least it seems to be geared toward older readers already in love with Anne. But that is my humble opinion. This new author does, however, do a great job of intertwining the Anne we know so well and blossoms her from babyhood into the imaginative and strong 11 year old we see in the beginning of Green Gables. I think it is brilliant. To have to work backwards and not lose anything or add too much. Oops, I guess I gave my opinion anyway. Well, there's one thing I am quite sure of. There won't be a movie. (That is stricktly my opinion). I dare say not even makeup could create Meagan Follows to look like a 6 year old. Oh well. Some things are better left to the imagination.

Happy reading.

p.s. I have this happy memory I just have to share. When my dear friend, stephanie, was moving away at the end of our freshman year of high school, I spent a lot of time over at her house while they were packing up. One time, I sat down at her piano with the sheet music Anne's Theme and Steph pulled out her violin (I did not even know she played the violin) and we screeched and plucked away at that song in probably the worst duet known to mankind. But it was great. Our song that we played in our way. We were...are...bosom friends. I am so thankful for all my bosom friends, that just understand. No matter how well, or not, you sound.

Leah (Parrish) Millan said...

Wait a second... Stephanie plays the violin??! =)

I am definately an Anne lover, so I'll have to see about getting my hands on that book... I wonder if they are going to make a movie =)

Hope you all are doing well. And thanks so much for all that cupcake info.. I havn't written back because my juno is doing bad things to my computer and I'm not opening it very often.

Love ya!

Stephanie (Wolynes) Steinbart said...

Ok, PLAY the violin is really not an accurate statement! What horrific sounds! Amazingly enough, I remember that day very clearly in my mind's eye. That was about 15 years ago or so!
Thanks for always listening to my sounds and loving me despite of it all!
Hey - they ARE making a movie of that book. About a year ago, auditions were held around America, looking for the young Anne. We had a family friend who auditioned. Never heard any more about it though. They called the movie, Anne the prequel.

The Stamper Story said...

ok- are you a writer? you ARE a writer. When there is something that touches your heart you communicate it so well! Keep writing. I'll keep reading.

Erin Neiner said...

LEAH: I know you are a total romantic and I think you would appreciate this book! And sorry about your juno fun! :(

STEPH: you made my night!!! I am SO EXCITED they are making a movie. Thanks for the info...I'll definitely keep my eyes open! Let me know if you here anything!

BETH: it's funny, becuase I am SO NOT A least I couldn't be professionaly or anything. But there is something that comes over me when, like you said, something touches my heart, and it is as if my pen cannot write my thoughts fast enough. Your words encouraged me though, to at least keep on journaling in my blogging. I SO often hide behind pictures! :)

Momma Val said...

Hi! I just found your blog. I never knew about this book. Thanks! I am not much of a reader of fiction, but I'd read this!


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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Mike Hudson, The Vandog Traveller Has Everything He Needs And Very Little He Doesn't...

Mike Hudson aka The Vandog Traveller has everything he needs and very little he doesn't.
Like all of us, all he needs is enough and unlike most of us, enough is all he has.
He's one smart young man.
Like many, he longed to escape the monotony of work and everyday routines, the rat race for wont of a better phrase, and have a life filled with travel and adventure.
Some are able to do this. Some aren't.
Mike was.
He knew that if he dreamed it, he could do it and in 2013, quit his job as a systems engineer, gave away most of his worldly possessions and set about converting a rundown, ten year old van into a wonderful tiny home on wheels.
Congratulations Vandog Traveller.
You will inspire many...

  1. "Enough is enough, so easy to say & so hard to do.

  2. He has even been able to squeeze a toilet and shower in...

  3. You have found a kindred soul in Vandog, Keith.
    Especially significant that he is so young.

  4. Good for him. It just takes one decision so why don't I? Pip


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Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Parts Swap

Jason came around on Sunday night to return my chain guard he borrowed to take his XS Chop for RWC.  Unfortunately it didn't fit due to the rear shocks having been modified.  It has been konged at the back and the shock are really short and at quite an angle.  It has also been raked out at the front.

When he arrive it was on the back of the truck for me to see.

It's had a color change I saw it in burgundy paint. Above is the original blue. The frame has been this way for some 20-30yrs and had no problems. Here is what mist RWC inspector had to say
took it for roadworthy today, they hit it hard.
1. nuts on sides of headlight to be smooth?
2.front upper brake line loose. (fair enough)
3.lower brake hose dont meet standards. (fair enough)
4.slight movement in handlebars (rubber mounted if i tighten anymore ill snap a bolt)
5.left hand hand grip loose. (fair enough)
6.positive cable insurcure. (fair enough)
7.indicator tell tail light missing. (easy fix)
8.vass engineers report for rake, rear guard mods, and mounting of fuel tank, vass engineers report is a one from a certified vic roads engineer, for those that dont live in vic.

Here's the part that confuses me, ring one of there certified engineers explained the situation he said is rake under 550 i said yes, is rear modifyed behind the shocks I said yes, he tells me dont bother just take it to another rw tester.
So I rang another engineer from there list he said it does need one. (paint cleaned of welds inspected etc,etc depending on which one you take it to) makes it hard when you get different answers from engineers of there own list. Well at least they didnt get me for the split pin I forgot to put back in the front axle.

So I referred him to my RWC guy and he has done a heap of XS that I know of and is familiar with older bikes. May be better, may not.

I also pulled out the old seat I had with the custom made base off Blacky.

We chucked it on and it fit almost perfect. The line of the seat matched the line of the konged frame. Only it sat 40mm high as the back was sitting on the fender. However if you cut a radius out of the back 40mm deep it would sit flush all around. This    A. looks much more stock   B. Makes the mods less attention focusing   C. Hides the wiring under the seat, & seals the elec box.  D, Hopefully makes it easier to RWC.
Didn't really want to get rid of it as I plan to keep Blacky's stock frame and only have the original seat to Goldy, The Naked Lady didn't come with one it had a solo seat fitted.

Anyway Jason offered to trade the seat for a set of ⅞ Bars he had bought around for me to look at.
He had brought four sets around two that he wanted for his project and two he was willing to trade a set of.   One was a set of 6 bends. Not your normal ones as they were in two pieces and had a cross brace, the end of each bar becoming it's own riser. The cross brace was a clamp on and allowed you to rotate the bars around on the tree to different widths.  Real 70s man!! I don't like the look of these, but i was certainly surprised at how comfy they were when mocked up on my bike!! Gave a nice riding position kinda layed back and the arm/wrist position was very natural.  If I didn't find the look so wierd I'd have a set tomorrow.

Original six bend pull backs

Second set were square welded mini apes. These had an engraved spiral along the entire bars and looked funky. On my bike these looked good and fit me well.

I ended up holding on to the next two to choose one for the trade.

Not sure what the differance between 'Z' bars and 'W' bars are I think it has to do with the angles of the upright section being 90Deg or less????

Looking for someone to give me a period correct answer on this one.  They seem to use 'Z' bars universally now for all of them.

According to Prof.
Z & W bars...  Getting apes in the early years was not always easy or cheap and they often only came in one size.  Solution?  Get some tube and your welder and make your own.  Much easier than trying to bend tube.  W Bars bring your hand grips to a nice comfortable angle (back and down) and release pressure on your wrists .  Drag bars, T bars and Z bars being flatter are less comfortable than a good set of W's.
This would make the one above W bars but I found the opposite the put pressure on the wrist, and the engraved ones Z bars as they were flatter and more comfortable for me.

The ones above have a nicer shape than the engraved ones aesthetically but the sharp downward angle of the pull back, has a drawback in the wrist position.  It either need to be on 20' risers, or the bars need to lean way forward.

Having done some net surfing that is how they seem to be run on bikes.  Although these are still much flatter.

Here you can see the awkward angle (as on this sweet shovel), which puts a serious kink in your wrists.

The others are window bars and would need 1"risers, not a bad feel but quite narrow, I'm not 100% on the lane splitter look or on how it would handle.  The other bar in the shot is a 1 bend prison bar I made that feels real nice but don't think it would suit this bike really.
Anyway even those these bars are in little less than average condition, ⅞, and not exactly what I am looking for. I wanted to help out a brother and agreed to trade my seat for a set.   At least it gives me options and a reference point for making some up out of the 1" & ⅞" Stainless I have.

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Christmas excitement!

That's right! I'm excited about Christmas in July! I've got something in the works for photos/Christmas cards that I think everyone is going to really love. Basically all you'll have left to do is stamp and address your envelopes if you use me for the rest :) I realize it's far too early to really advertise it yet, but keep your eye out. By reading this blog you are SO ahead of the game!

And don't forget to check occasionally too.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A Thousand and One Pictures

We went to the lake for the Fourth of July and I took a ton of pictures. It's my favorite place in the world. Here's why:

i'm on a BOAT!

She drives the boat.

She's a fish... loves "mimmin" (swimming)

we love Cheetos at the lake!
trying to blow up her own floaties

We were at the 4th of July picnic, wondering WHERE Daddy, George and John Ellis were. We were starting to worry when we looked down the cove and saw them floating down to us. With a tube full of beer. Hilarious.

At the Fiddler's Jamboree they have amazing food. Pictured here are a funnel cake and footlong corndog. I myself had a fried snickers. That's right.

Hagen and Grace enjoyed turkey legs. MMM good.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

It's been awhile

There has been so much going on that blogging has NOT been going on. Here is a quick overview...

I returned from Boston Tuesday evening after a 5-day trip with Hagen and John Ellis. He was shooting some of their friends' wedding and asked me to come along! We made a great team. I hope to post some of those photos soon. We toured all around and even got to catch a lunch with our dear cousins Will and Jenny Stegall (who are hard to catch!!) We stayed several nights at our cousins Emalee and Mark Holmes apartment, which I highly recommend. It smells like someone just baked snickerdoodles and the sheets are so soft. It also just happens to be beautiful and the nicest house on the street. It's probably not nice for THEM to brag about their crib, but I can! Here are a few Boston pics that I really liked.

Peter is on the prowl for a PE job in our fair city. He will still lack 2 classes, which he will finish in December, but that's making it a little hard. He's pushing hard and looking for aide positions in good systems until then. He's doing a few soccer camps and generally helping me and taking classes.

Pierce is spunky. I know that people use that word to describe their kids often, but it's really the perfect word. She can be fiesty and have a little temper, but is also the sweetest thing. She hates to make you sad, as soon as she realizes that she has, and will give you a hug. Basically a hug is her leaning her head on you. We have had 2 incidents lately that involved her stomping on animals. We will have to break her of that this week because we head to the lake with FOUR dogs tomorrow!! She love love LOVES her cousin Isaac. Here they are playing while I was off traveling.

I hope you all have a happy Fourth of July. I know we will. War Eagle America.


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Punk Releases Year-End Top 10 List of Favorite Bands He’s In

PHILADELPHIA — While many mark the end of another year with champagne and tipsy renditions of ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ Philadelphia punks know the year isn’t truly over until local polymath Chris Morton releases his annual ranking of the 10 best bands of which he is a member.

Morton, a multi-instrumentalist attributed to at least 38 area bands listed as either active or “on hiatus,” claimed the list started out of necessity. “I was getting pulled in so many different directions, and I can only focus on 15 or so projects at a time,” he said. “I had to figure out where to aim my creative juices.”

His year-end review has a guaranteed, built-in audience of bandmates who keep close tabs on the rankings.

‘I wish I didn’t care about his dumb list,” said Meghan Girard, guitarist for Wendybird, one of Morton’s six cowpunk bands, “but I can’t say it doesn’t disappoint me that we didn’t make the list this year — especially since we had a pretty decent two-week tour together.”

Portmanteau, Morton’s oldest band, reportedly squeaked in at number 10, with the trallpunk band Snapped Angus just ahead at a close nine. Disemboweled Landlords (garage punk), Singin’ In The Pain (hardcore), and Kosher Kubrick (art punk) round out the bottom five.

“5th place is going to be a controversial pick,” said Morton, taking a slight break to build suspense, “because Chortle Whore is really just a parody of my anarcho-punk band, Roam Chompsky. Chortle is just a fun group to play with — Roam takes themselves way too seriously. So Chortle Whore takes it.”

Coming in 4th was the synth punk/rapcore outfit Process Of Elimination, with another surprise pick in gypsy punk band Shank Sinatra & The Shorn Women in 3rd. However, Morton’s powerviolence trio Deep Vein Thrombosis, which held the crown three years running, was dethroned by Formal Fallacy, a skate punk band created by Morton in the fall of 2015.

“This was the hardest year yet. All of my bands are amazing,” posted Morton in the comments section below his original post, “and I want to give an Honorable Mention to my boys in Nocturnal Evictions! I may have only been in the band for just under a month before you kicked me out, but damn you guys were good for that one month!”

Morton is planning to take a few weeks off to record a solo album and begin his next list, “Bands I’m Looking Forward to Starting In 2017.”

Article by Dan Kozuh @k0zuh. Photo by Kat Chish.

Like us on Facebook and keep up with all the latest Hard Times news.


text:
The Haus

Friday, March 28, 2003

We're getting a new home network built here, since Eeyore got herself a swanky new PC to play with. We couldn't run standard cabling to her PC, so we fired up a wireless network. This stuff works pretty well, I'm very surprised. I'm wondering what kind of performance Quake 3 will get over wireless :-)

The Master comments: Update! We've been running the new network for two days now. This is awesome. File transfers run local, without transiting to RR's network first, things run REALLY fast. We're getting 11 mb/sec on the wireless, and this router is blocking all of the garbage that used to rain on my PCs like tropical storms in the Gulf. The only things I don't like are the maintenance required to keep a wireless network secure, and ICQ file transfers seem to be really wonky. These are small problems compared to the fun I could have had running cat-5 through this apartment. The day I own a house, that sucker is going to be wired cat-5 EVERYWHERE.

J.t.Qbe comments: One of the first things I did when we moved into our house last summer was to get a run of cat5 between the basement and my upstairs office: I'm not yet sold on the security of wireless. In Qbe news, I got DSL a few weeks ago and it's working out pretty well. We moved from cable TV to satellite and cable modem to DSL, and are saving at least $35 a month over the cable company's continually rising rates.

The Master comments: I'm completely unsold on wireless security, which is why I intend to change settings relatively often to make things difficult. The nicest thing about our wireless is we're in an industrial park area, so there's a ton of wireless in the air that's a lot more attractive than ours. And I'm paranoid in the extreme.

NWN Linux Client: Beta Three

Bioware has released a third beta of the Neverwinter Nights Linux client. This one contains the following fixes:

I've been spending far too much time playing that game now that it works in Linux. I'm very pleased with the client so far.

Thursday, March 27, 2003

SDL Workaround

I also managed to isolate a problem between XFree86 4.3 and libSDL. When I play a game that uses SDL for graphics (such as UT2K3, Neverwinter Nights, LBreakout2) at a resolution other than my desktop resolution, the refresh rate on my monitor would get screwed up. In my case, the refresh rate is too slow. One person on the NWN forums even said that the bug caused the refresh rate to go too high for his monitor, which could damage it. At any rate, the solution is to use ctrl/alt/- to change your desktop resolution to that of the game you are playing. That way, there are no mode changes so the refresh rates don't get messed up. I posted about this on the libSDL list, so hopefully it can get fixed.

At first, some thought this was an NWN bug, but I found the same problem in UT2K3. I narrowed it down to SDL when I discovered that Quake III and Return to Castle Wolfenstein could change resolutions just fine.

WineX Workaround

I figured out a way to get Transgaming's WineX to work with Mandrake 9.1's glibc 2.3.1. I registered with Transgaming so I could get Jedi Knight II to work. Whenever I would try to run WineX a second time, it would complain that there was no such file or directory as ~/.transgaming/wineserver-skyron/socket. After testing a few things and perusing Transgaming's forums, I found that if I issue this command before I try to run WineX, it will work:

rm -rf ~/.transgaming/wineserver-skyron/

You will have to replace skyron with whatever your box's host name is. It's a pain, but at least it works. They are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. Crossover is trying to fix their plugin too, but they estimated it will take them over two months! I don't know what glibc 2.3 changed but it had BETTER be worth it since it breaks so much stuff.

No Old News

Recent Headlines

January 5, 2015: It Returns!
August 10, 2007: SCO SUCKS IT DOWN!
July 5, 2007: Slackware 12.0 Released
May 20, 2007: PhpBB 3.0 RC 1 Released
February 2, 2007: DOOM3 1.31 Patch

January 27, 2007: Join the World Community Grid
January 17, 2007: Flash Player 9 for Linux
December 30, 2006: Darkness over Daggerford 1.2
December 19, 2006: Pocket Tunes 4.0 Released
December 9, 2006: WRT54G 1.01.1 Firmware OK with Linux/Mac

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).


text:
The Haus

Friday, December 19, 2003

Make Something Unreal: Phase #1 Winners

Epic announced the winners of phase one of their $1 million Make Something Unreal competition for Unreal Tournament 2003. I'm going to have to check out some of the winners, if I can get them to install in Linux with a minimum of headaches.

NFL Week #15 Final

Oops! I forgot to do this earlier in the week. This past weekend, I ended up 14-2 while Eeyore was 13-3. Year-to-date that makes me 149-75 (.665) while she is 146-78 (.652). Only two weeks left! By way of comparison, right now I am only trailing two of the seven ESPN experts.

My Fightin' Wombats did end up losing. Even though I had a substantially better regular-season record this year, I went no further in the playoffs. It was a bad time for my defense to lay an egg.

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Linux Kernel 2.6.0 Released!

Yes kids, it's true! Linus has officially released the 2.6.0 kernel. Get it from (be gentle, they are getting Slashdotted right now. You can also check the changelog. I like the summary of the changelog which was posted on Slashdot, which I reproduce in all its glory:

But if you really want a ultra-summed-up explination, 2.6 has 63.8% more kickassedness than 2.4 does. That and ALSA support built in.

Preach on! This document lists everything you will need to know to upgrade your 2.4.x kernel to 2.6.x.

WineX 3.2.1 Released

Transgaming has released WineX 3.2.1, a bugfix update to their popular gaming-oriented fork of WINE (an "open-source implementation of the Windows API"). You can read the changelog to see all the fun fixes.

Pondering the Imponderable

What am I doing up at almost 1 A.M.? Four words: Hordes of the Underdark. Before bed, here's a couple of news blurbs to hold you over until tomorrow, including one doozy . . .

Past Two Days' News

Recent Headlines

January 5, 2015: It Returns!
August 10, 2007: SCO SUCKS IT DOWN!
July 5, 2007: Slackware 12.0 Released
May 20, 2007: PhpBB 3.0 RC 1 Released
February 2, 2007: DOOM3 1.31 Patch

January 27, 2007: Join the World Community Grid
January 17, 2007: Flash Player 9 for Linux
December 30, 2006: Darkness over Daggerford 1.2
December 19, 2006: Pocket Tunes 4.0 Released
December 9, 2006: WRT54G 1.01.1 Firmware OK with Linux/Mac

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).


text:
Chicago train operator may have ‘dozed off’

Investigators believe the operator of a subway train that derailed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Monday fell asleep at the controls, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Chicago “L” train blew through a bumper at the end of the tracks at the station for O’Hare, which is the second busiest airport in the U.S.

The train ended up halfway up an escalator leading to the airport terminal.

The president of the union for Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) employees said the driver of the train has admitted she was fatigued.

“I can confirm that she was extremely tired,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 President Robert Kelly said, according to the paper.

“Indications are she might have dozed off,” Kelly continued.

The Chicago 'L' subway is the third busiest public transit system in the U.S. with an average of weekday ridership of 734,900, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The Chicago subway is only surpassed by the New York City subway and Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail in U.S. transit ridership.

The nickname 'L' is a reference to the fact that most of the Chicago transit system's downtown tracks being elevated, but the station at O'Hare is located underground.

The Chicago train derailment resulted in injuries to more than thirty passengers who were on board the train when it left the tracks.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Monday that is investigating the accident.


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Sunday, October 23, 2016

Reviews for the Week of October 24, 2016

NOTE: Please see bottom of main page for submission info. Thank you.

SHOCKER by Armand Rosamilia and Frank Edler (2016 Rymfire Books / 130 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Manny "Dirty" Sanchez is placed in the cell of Vito "The Shocker" Shocketti at Rahway State Penitentiary in NJ. Currently on his 20th year of a life sentence, Vito wonders if his young new cell mate is a spy for the police or a genuine criminal. He slowly gains his trust and trades food for stories about his violent and crazy past, most of which took place in the 1980s around the NJ heavy metal scene.

It turns out Vito had been raised by nuns at an orphanage (one who was his aunt). But he ended up getting thrown out after he was caught having sex with a young nun in a confessional booth at the age of 13, and has since been on the streets.

Most of SHOCKER is Vito telling Manny his crazy past hi-jinks, which include him being controlled by a statue of the Baby Jesus he had seen while at the orphanage. The statue shows up all through the story, commanding him to kill and have sex with all kinds of metal heads down the Jersey Shore and around some iconic former NJ rock clubs. Reader be warned this is some real "guy" humor, and if you weren't a metalhead in the 80s some of it may go right over your head.

But for those of us who grew up in this scene, there are a lot of references and situations that are hilarious despite the authors' twisted take on them. I did find it funny that a guy as tough and crazy as Vito Shocketti would be a fan of such wimpy bands as DANGER DANGER and BON JOVI, but hey, in the 80s I guess even the toughest dude would listen to such crap if it meant getting down some girl's pants, which here is our protagonist's main goal in life. Funny also is the anti-Staten Island commentary, which I (as a Staten Islander) actually found hilarious, as what is said here is practically the same thing we Noo Yawkers used to say about the Jersey metalheads! Ah, to be back in the 80s once again...

In the end, Vito finds out who Dirty Sanchez really is, and, guided by the Baby Jesus, are off on an adventure to be continued in the second part of this planned trilogy.

SHOCKER is a wicked fun read, especially for metalheads or anyone interested in the 80s metal club scene. The authors blend horror, humor, and some really bizarre situations to make this jailhouse thriller a real blast of trashy goodness.

I'm looking forward to the recently released SHOCKER 2: LOVE GUN...

-Nick Cato

REJECTED FOR CONTENT 3 AND 4 edited by Jim Goforth (2015/2016 J. Ellington Ashton Press / approx 300 pp each / trade paperback & eBook)

Then there’s those awkward moments when your co-worker makes a big disapproving speech about some regular mass-market paperback crime thriller she found in the bookshelf just out in the common room, and how a book like this shouldn’t BE here in this facility, it’s all full of rape and violence … and you’re sitting there reading the third of the REJECTED FOR CONTENT anthologies …

Well, I figured at that point I might as well go for broke and read the third AND the fourth and review them both in one mondo equivalent of binge-watching. So, I did. Yes, my brain feels all dirty (or, dirtier; let’s be realistic here, it was far from spotless when I started).

Made for a whooooooole lot of nasty, let me tell you! The lineup of authors alone should be a warning of the level of hardcore grossness you’re getting yourself into; K. Trap Jones, Amanda Lyons, Stephen Kozeniewski, the Sisters of Slaughter, T.S. Woolard, John Ledger …

I had a feeling I’d be in for a rough time of it, narrowing down my top picks to mention in this review, but, here we go!

“What’s In A Name” by Toneye Eyenot starts off the Vicious Vengeance of RFC 3 with the atrocity-meter cranked to maxx, no holds barred, as a grieving father seeks revenge for the unthinkable. It certainly sets the tone for the rest of the book! If you can make it through this one, you’ll probably be okay. Maybe.

Other faves from that volume: Ian McClellan’s “Justice,” a soul-shredder with nuances of Jack Ketchum; Lisa Dabrowski’s short-sweet-beautiful poem “Alabaster Skin;” the disturbingly sexy “In The Black Room, We Are Not Allowed To Speak,” by Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason; “Waist Deep” by Matthew Weber; and Ash Hartwell’s “Care Plan 13.”

The subtitle of RFC 4 is Highway to Hell (pictured above), with the theme of highways, be they metaphorical or literal ... the journey, the transition, the travel ... when it isn't so much where you're going as how you get there.

I think the creepiest of Vol. 4's offerings is "Miss_Vertebrae" by Eric LaRocca, though as something of a fastidious crazy-cat-lady in training myself, I can't deny a certain affection for "Little Miss Persnickety Jayne" by Mark Woods. I also got a sick kick out of the Last-House-on-the-Left vibe in William Bradley's "S.O.A.P;" Brian Glossup delivers an unlikely team-up adventure in "Hit N Run;" "The First Cut" by T.S. Woolard, shows turnabout isn't always fair play; and a deadly dose of revenge porn stars in James H. Longmore's "Snuffed: Fifty Shades of F*cked Up."

As a fun bonus, one trademark of the RFC series is the little 'rejection letters' included at the ends of the stories. Whether the real deal or not, one can't help but smirk and snicker at the notion of some unsuspecting slushpile reader or editor getting a surprise eyeful of these fiendish offerings.

-Christine Morgan

IT CAME FROM ANOMALY FLATS by Clayton Smith (2016 Dapper Press / 182 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Okay, I picked this book up on a whim while trolling the new Horror releases on Amazon. It immediately caught my interest for two reasons (aside from the fact it’s a new Horror collection and I’m naturally a big sucker for a good ole’ short horror story). One, the beautifully violent and horrific cover art sporting these massive green tentacles, a stereotypical suburban soccer mom, and large, shiny daggers, and, two, the intriguing book description.

The author introduces us to a recurring setting that takes place in this strange and horrific place found within all nine stories, Anomaly Flats. It’s this little cyber town of doom and horror, if you will. Think green ooze, rotting corpses, strange creatures, UFOs, black magic and pink laser beams meets short horror stories of yesteryear. A couple of my personal favorites were "The Time Capsule,' a story about time travel to kick things off.  'Aberration,' a fun romp through an abandoned minor league baseball field, while father and son spend some not so quality time together bonding over potential jail time, or even worse, DEATH! 'The Invitation,' a skillfully innovative take on the classic haunted house tale, one where the reader may be in more danger than they realize before beginning the story in the first place. Not to mention haunted by a witch, you say? Yes, please.

Recommended for fans of Horror, Dark, and Science Fiction alike.

-Jon R. Meyers

STRANDED by Bracken MacLeod (2016 Tor / 300 pp / hardcover, eBook, audiobook)

On their way to bring supplies to an oil rig near the north pole, the crew of the 'Artic Promise' start experiencing weird occurences: it seems the ice has frozen their ship in place, their radio equipment stops working (despite not being broken), and as far as the eye can see it appears the whole ocean has frozen solid. Among the colorful cast of crewman is Noah Cabot, a low man on the totem pole, who is constantly treated unfairly by his father-in-law William Brewster. The two have a difficuly history, which is revealed in pieces over the coarse of the story.

With the threat of running out of food and water, the crew decides to travel on foot to a mysterious mountain of snow, which they believe could be the oil rig. It turns out to be another ship frozen in place, and to his utter shock, Noah finds a fellow deckhand from his own ship onboard...a friend who died a year earlier.

STRANDED is a suspense-filled thriller dealing with dopplegangers, shadow people, and a supernatural element that blends believably into the happenings. Comparisons to John Carpenter's THE THING come to mind, but to me more so SURVIVE, the 1976 film dealing with the true tagedy of a rugby team who fought for survival in the Andes mountains after their plane crashed. MacLeod takes this type of survival tale and twists it in a way all his own, highlighted by some dazzling prose from the very first page.

If you're an agoraphobic, this one will mess with your mind on a few levels, and even if you're not this is a creepy-as-it-gets novel that will surely get under your frostbitten skin.

-Nick Cato

I MISS THE WORLD by Violet LeVoit (to be released 11/18/16 by Publisher: King Shot Press / trade paperback)

I read this one start to finish with hardly any breaks. Luckily, though I read it at work, that was a night the residents all slept through; if they'd been up and around and needy and making me actually, y'know, do my job, we might've had some disputes. I did NOT want to be interrupted.

From the opening scene, something so visual, so archetypal, so ultimately Los Angeles -- a naked blonde poised to leap from the roof of a plastic surgery clinic -- the reader is inexorably drawn into a world where nothing is what it seems. Where appearances are one thing, appearances, face-value, facades, rose-tinted glasses and sepia-tinted reminiscence ... but where even deception itself is deceiving.

The first half or so of the book, I was riding a nostalgia wave so intense I had to remind myself to breathe. Maybe a long, rambling conversation about memories of Grandma's house wouldn't have that effect on everyone, but it hit me right in some emotional nerve cluster, a soul-ar plexus if you will.

Yes, okay, there was the jumper at the beginning, and one might've anticipated that story, her story, to be the central plot, but it proves to be only an incidental moment as a sister and brother meet in a Hollywood cemetery for the abovementioned long conversation. Which also covers the intricacies of screenwriting and casting, various movie-making and silver-screen history, and deep personal issues.

It's like listening in on a painful, intimate disclosure, compelling and addictive. And, gradually, in the briefest tap and lightest brushing of disquiet, you start picking up on other things ... indications that something is VERY wrong here, that something BAD has happened, or has been done, or is being done, or going to be ... teasing curiosity.
And then, oh wow. And then oh wow. After I read it, I had to contact the author because "wow" was pretty much all my stunned mind could manage.

You know that feeling when the bottom drops out from under? If you watched something like Sixth Sense or Unbreakable before knowing the spoilers, that feeling of jawdrop when you suddenly GOT it? The goosebumps, the stunned blinking, the tingling hollow cold rushing sensation right behind your sternum? THAT feeling?

That happens in this book. More than once. It is masterful, it is beautiful and awful, it is sweepingly and breathtakingly artistic, the impact of seeing some great natural wonder or work of art for the first time.

As I was reeling from it, awash in the awe, feeling dazed and vulnerable, the book then took a shrieking hard left into utter horror, and blew my mind like a dandelion puff.

-Christine Morgan

LAKE LURKERS by MP Johnson (2016 Severed Press / 80 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Okay, here’s the latest from author MP Johnson and Severed Press. And what do we have here? LAKE LURKERS is a strange little horror romp that takes place in a wealthy subdivision in Minneapolis. Tess is tired of living in a trashy, cramped one bedroom apartment. She has no room for activities and barely any amenities after issues with closing on her first property. She saves up everything she has and buys a mansion with more room and comfort than one could possibly imagine.

Although, there’s a catch: she's in a relationship and she lets her boyfriend, Randall move in, too. He’s annoying. He shreds metal riffs through loud guitar amps and doesn’t give Tess her much desired personal space in her castle. But, this isn’t the only issue Tess is being confronted with. No, there’s a secret lingering in the basement. A secret the previous owners failed to disclose in writing. It isn’t until discovering a black, oily slime in the backroom in her basement that Tess realizes she has other fish to fry (pun intended). People are dying outside, being pulled into the lake in front of her new big, beautiful house. Even the dumb cops are dying as they search for the answers needed to solve the big mystery. What are these slimy, black tentacle things made of pink brain meat? And why do they have so many teeth? And where in God’s name are they even coming from?

The extremely talented and versatile MP Johnson, takes us on a hard hitting, fast bullet flying, heavy metal guitar slinging, action-packed adventure, while Tess plans for the biggest, baddest, and not to mention most expensive rager of all-time, as she puts an end to the blazing madness lurking from the lake across the street.

-Jon R. Meyers

PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS by Shane McKenzie (2016 Blood Bound Books / 202 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Parents of young children, approximately how many repeat viewings of Elsa's Winter Wonderland Sing-Along or something does it take before the average adult ends up gibbering in the corner? Because, whatever the number, I fear the McKenzie household must have far surpassed it by now, and Shane was hardly an average adult to start with.

His previous book, MONSTERS DON'T CRY, was only a talking animal and a couple musical numbers away from being a classic (if warped, violent, depraved, and sexed-up) take on the basic, Disney Princess formula. Evidently, that still wasn't enough to get it out of his system, and the result is Pretty Pretty Princess.

In this storybook realm of scattered kingdoms divided by the dread Dark Wilderness, tradition demands every princess be locked away in a monster-guarded tower or dungeon, only to be married off to whichever bold knight rescues her. This doesn't always go well for the princess. Sometimes, it means years of solitude and captivity, malnutrition, and neglect.

One man is out to change the system: our 'hero,' Prince Francis. Shunned by his own royal parents for being more interested in peaceful pursuits, burdened with a less-than-macho reputation, with a tendency to spontaneously burst into song, he travels around -- accompanied by Gavin, a foul-mouthed base-natured talking pig -- in hopes of convincing princesses they deserve better treatment.

His big opportunity arrives when he ends up accidentally recruiting a bunch of mercenary warriors who intend to help him rescue the most legendarily beautiful of princesses, held lo these past twenty years by the terrible Goblin-Dragon.

To his surprise, he succeeds. But, far from any happily-ever-after, he finds his troubles are only beginning.

It is crass, vulgar, obscene, outrageous, offensive, lewd, crude, tacky, and generally about the wrongest most messed-up fairy tale since what Anne Rice did to Sleeping Beauty.

Which isn't to say it's porn; while there's sex and loads of jokes about and references thereto, they're rather far from erotic. There's also more groin injuries than a Jackass marathon, more poop and potty humor than several seasons of South Park, and a whole lot of gleeful gory carnage.

-Christine Morgan

THE NIGHT CYCLIST by Stephen Graham Jones (2016 TOR / 32 pp / eBook)

THE NIGHT CYCLIST was originally published online and recently brought to our reading pleasure as a Kindle Short on Amazon, where I decided to check it out as I was looking for something quick and short to read. This beautifully written story is told in first person and it's rather short, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t pack a literary punch: it does.

Not being a huge fan of the author’s longer works as of yet, I have found that I do enjoy some of his shorter stories, this title no exception and is probably amongst my favorite that I've read. The author successfully manages to develop a couple of strong characters with a common interest; cycling. The main character, Bunny, a bachelor chef who has had countless failed relationships; one after another, is in for the ride of his life. He enjoys the nights’ sky on his rides to and from work, with his knife set strapped around his upper body, reminding him of the past when he was part of the team. Some of the most useful life lessons he’d ever learned came from his respected mentor in competition bicycling, Coach. The darker segments of the story begin to unfold when he stumbles across two dead bodies on his ride home from work, but he’s not the only one in town that’s been cooking. He decides to leave the bodies alone, lying there, as most bystanders would, in hopes, that someone else calls in and notifies the authorities, in which, a young gal does when she stumbles upon the scene.

When Bunny goes home and flips on the television he rewatches the true horror unfold, but something catches his eye in the footage. When he goes back out to see what he thought it was with his own two eyes, the author introduces us to a mysterious bicyclist, one Bunny can’t believe is able to do things on his bicycle much older than his, and what’s that smell? Immediately we get a sense of strong mystery and dread and begin to connect the strange characters to the corpses found in the creek. What were they doing and why? Well, you’ll just have to read it and find out for yourself. The secret may be worth killing for.
Recommended to fans of Short Stories, Dark, Horror, and Weird Fiction alike.

-Jon R. Meyers

CHASING GHOSTS by Glenn Rolfe (2016 Sinister Grin Press / 144 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

This is a sneaky kind of book ... it starts off like it might be the classic small-town coming-of-age tale, boys on an adventure, uncovering dark secrets and creepy local history ... but the boys disappear, and the focus skip-jumps from there over to a band on their way to a gig at a weekend cabin party, with no idea what's lurking in the woods.

Meanwhile, the parents of one of the missing boys were having troubles of their own even beforehand, and this loss might be the last straw. The father, Derek, takes off on his bike, undecided if he's going to see his girlfriend, get drunk, look for his son, or what. He also ends up at the party, after an unsettling encounter with a lurking stranger by the road.

For most of those in attendance, it's an evening of booze, sex, music, and other recreational pursuits. For others, it's torture, mutilation, murder, and worse, at the hands of an inbred backwoods clan. Fairly standard stuff of its type, but entertainingly told, the interactions and banter among many of the characters are fun, and the ending makes for a nice surprise.

-Christine Morgan

SILENT SCREAMS by Josh Strnad (to be released 10/31/26 by Serpent and Dove)

The introduction to this anthology of 26 tales differentiates between two types of horror, the 'safe' (because we know it's fictional and can therefore keep a comfortable detachment) and the other kind (from which it isn't so easy to distance our psyches), and indicated this was a book of the latter sort.

Therefore, I was expecting a bunch of psychological horror, real-world plausible stuff, human monsters, killers, abuse, cruelty, the could-happens ... and found myself surprised by the number of them featuring more fantastical elements. Not necessarily a bad thing, just, also not necessarily matching that initial set-up. Anyway, fantastical elements aside, the emotions and experiences are what counts, and those were satisfyingly effective.

This time, I ended up with two tied-for-top fave picks. One is Igor Teper's "The Untelepathic Man," an unusual exploration of disability and difference, understanding. empathy, and society. Imagine being the only person in your community lacking a vital skill or major sense; what would that be like for you? What would it be like for everyone around you?

The other tied-for-fave is "The Words That Bite" by Frederick Obermeyer, an unusual apocalypse for everyone who ever got tired of the old 'sticks and stones' adage, in which the full destructive potential of words get unleashed, and what you say really can come back to bite you.

Other standouts include Helen Catan-Prugl's "The Lady in the Billboard," "Tyrant's Fall" by Andrew M. Seddon, "Moretta" by Aurora Torchia, "My Secret Thorns" by Rebecca Birch, and Chantal Boudreau's "Hand."

I also really liked Garth Upshaw's clever twist on some tropes in "Franks," though it ended much too soon; I'd definitely want to read more or longer works set in that world.

All in all, a nice variety, many more hits than misses as far as I'm concerned. Some new names to watch out for, too. Definitely worth a look.

-Christine Morgan

HALLOWEEN ORGY MASSACRE by Jeff O'Brien (2015 Riot Forge Studios / 136 pp / trade paperback)

Here is another fine example of it-is-what-it-says ... the title promises a Halloween Orgy Massacre, and you'd better believe that's exactly what you get. But, if you're thinking along the lines of standard slasher spree fare, you'll be in for more than a few surprises; things here go quite a ways off those rails.

I mean, we got weird goo-spewing toothy alien monsters here, we got cloyingly cute childrens' show characters, a scantily clad barbarian babe-mage, one of the few times I've read anything with a prophecy / destiny Chosen One shtick without totally wanting to claw out my own brain.

And, yes, we got orgy massacre all over the place. Something's turning people into sex maniacs, or murdering and devouring them, or both.

At first, the day seems like a crazy dream come true for nerdish metalhead Will, when the popular gal he's been crushing on is suddenly throwing herself at him, and he's got a chance to show all the cool kids at the big Halloween party he's not such a loser after all.

Okay, yeah, there are other weird things going on in town, like whatever blew a hole in the roof of the store where he works, and some cloaked mystery woman following him around, but, priorities are priorities.

My only issue with the book is a minor nit-picky one, which is that although it's set in the 1980s, a few uses of more contemporary dialect and slang sneak in. But, like I said, minor and nit-picky; everything else is popcorn-crunching giggles and gore.

-Christine Morgan

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Reviews for the Week of October 10, 2016

NOTE: Please see bottom of main page for submission info. Thank you.

REANIMATRIX by Peter Rawlik (to be released 10/18/16 by Night Shade Books / 364 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I settled in to read this one. Something good, I felt confident, given what I've seen from Rawlik before, and in such regard I was not let down. Beyond that, I was thinking something kind of Bride-of-Frankenstein-ish, maybe, a sequel spinoff to the classic Reanimator, along those lines. What I got was so much more, it blew even my vague early expectations away.

This is far beyond a simple sequel. This is extrapolation and worldbuilding and interweaving of epic proportions. This is not just a who's who of the Mythos, but a who's who of the entire era, historical and literary and pop-fictional combined. It's fun, it's sly, it's clever. I was reminded of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, only minus the painfully forced feel, with better-written and more interesting, less-gimmicky characterization.

The story is primarily told in the form of journal entries from one Robert Peaslee, beginning shortly after the Great War. Originally from Arkham, his duties as part of a military security detail gradually morph into a semi-independent career of private investigation, paranormal troubleshooting, and general looking into the proverbial things-best-unknown.

During the course of his various pursuits, he becomes fascinated with a young lady named Megan Halsey-Griffith (a fascination made all the more interesting by the fact Robert isn't normally very keen on young ladies, so to speak). Her untimely death leads to his research into her family's enigmatic past -- deepening the frame narrative into diaries, letters, and accounts from other points of view -- and including some sordid glimpses into erotic underworlds and mysterious medical practices.

All this, of course, while also taking the reader on a grim and whimsical sight-seeing tour of Lovecraftiana, hitting several delightful touchstones along the way. My personal favorite moments, Chambersian heretic that I am, came early in the book (Chapter Two: The Sepia Prints).

But wait, you might be saying, this is called REANIMATRIX, isn't it about Herbert West and his infamous serum? Of course! That particular reagent, and its applications, provide the underlying drive for the plot, as various factions seek to control, duplicate, counter, or exploit its effects. There's plenty of reanimation to go around!

-Christine Morgan

A LONG DECEMBER by Richard Chizmar (to be released 10/31/16 by Subterranean Press / 520 pp / hardcover and eBook)

Chizmar's mammoth short story collection is everything you'd expect from a writer (and editor) who has been working with the best in the business for the past 25+ years through his magazine, Cemetery Dance. On display here are 35 of his career-spanning tales, most featuring clever twist endings, many are of the "quiet" horror variety, but that makes the stories with bursts of violence that much more effective.

Among my favorites are the title tale, A LONG DECEMBER, one of the longer pieces of the collection and an absolutely stunning serial killer/revenge story with an ending you won't see coming. Another serial killer is on the loose in THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES, a truly horrifying take on the subgenre.

In DITCH TREASURES, a highway maintenance man discovers something amazing in a roadside pond. To say any more will do you a huge disservice. In GRAND FINALE, a rich college student secretly films his bedroom antics, but he starts seeing gruesome images when he plays the tapes back. This would've made a killer episode of MASTERS OF HORROR or  TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE.

In one of Chizmar's best twists, a mother learns a wicked secret one of her kids is keeping in THE BOX, while THE SEASON OF GIVING delivers a heartbreaking look at child abuse set against a holiday background. DEVIL'S NIGHT deals with jealousy gone amuck (and features some of the collection's most memorable characters), and in what is arguably the most powerful story of the lot, an aging man's son turns to a mysterious stranger to help his father become immortal in HEROES.

Even in the three or four stories that didn't work for me, Chizmar was still able to keep my interest, so to say a 35-story collection didn't have a bad apple in the bunch is a rare occasion.

A LONG DECEMBER is an excellent read, and I'll surely be revisiting a couple of its stories. Chizmar provides some genuine scares and plenty of variety to keep any horror fan up late, buried between the pages. And with most stories here at a short length, compelling you to continue, it's easy to get lost in this author's dark world.

-Nick Cato

THE FISHERMAN by John Langan (2016 Word Horde / 282 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Alright. I had to sit on this one for a minute and let the black water soak in until I figured out how I really felt about it. There’s a lot going on in this book. One is probably not going to be able to tackle this in a single sitting. It’s slow. It’s dark. It’s deep.

John Langans’ haunting novel THE FISHERMAN is an excellent read with a mean lower gut punch to the abdomen. What we have here is a super dark, slow burning literary horror novel that bleeds darkness from all turns of the page. What’s to be expected inside? Black Magic, giant snakes, monsters, a mysterious lady corpse, an eerie man with giant hooks, and legend upon legend as the true story unfolds like an old fishing tale passed on from one fisherman to the next. In fact, there is such a tale. The tale of Der Fisher: The Fisherman, and his legacy that prevails out at his old stomping grounds—Dutchman’s Creek, a creek barely noticeable on a map

Langan is a great story teller. He shows us this within the first few pages, when the reader is instantly drawn into the author’s dark mindset. We are introduced to our main characters, Dan and Abe, whose lives are in absolute bloody shambles. They’re sad widows with tragic back stories, who are able to bond over their one and only true love who hasn’t up and died on them just yet: fishing. Their true nature and emotions unfold before your eyes as one of them tells the other of the mysterious and equally legendary creek. You can feel their pain, their struggles, their sadness as the story goes on and their secrets are revealed to each other in ways one would probably not like to find out.

Reader beware: there is a story inside of a story here, and you may find yourself wanting to give up at times; don’t. Just stick it out. There’s a lot of history involved, as we go back in time to discover the true origins of the creek, and the many mysteries in the small town near it. It’s necessary for the story to unfold and the author will make it worth your time, as it allows some of the darker segments to hit that much harder.

Definitely recommended for fans of weird, horror, and dark fiction alike.

-Jon R. Meyers

WITH TOOTH AND CLAW by Jim Goforth (2015 J. Ellington Ashton Press / 192 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

Fellow devotees of the late, great Richard Laymon get bonus points with me, and by now Jim Goforth has racked up quite a few ... there's just something so satisfying about a good unabashed wallow in sex and blood and gore!

This collection of seven tales opens up with "Dead Tree Creepers," which is what basically amounts to Laymonesque comfort food. The mac-and-cheese of it, classic, hearty, gooey, and filling. A bunch of friends go camping in the woods, to drink and carouse, to score or try to, and to tell some spooky stories. One of which, that of the malevolent eyeball-gouging Creepers, turns out of course to be all too true.

Closing out the book is "Cavedwellers," which might on first blush seem to be a similar young-folks-meet-bad-ends-in-the-wilderness, set on and in a mountain as intrepid hikers get trapped while seeking shelter from a storm ... but then along come some surprises, far worse and weirder than any ordinary cave-monsters.

And what's in between these two? Oh, all sorts of fiendish nastiness! A sleazy jerk discovers a new night-spot where the dancers really take it off ... some brutes and bullies pick on the wrong target ... a pair of would-be thieves get more than they bargained for when they're hired to retrieve a mystery package ... a psychic's nightmares come too close to home ... the impending end of the world affects different people different ways.

So yeah, if, like me, you enjoy your hardcore horror up to the elbows in it, you should find plenty of wicked fodder here.

-Christine Morgan

RETURN OF THE OLD ONES: APOCALYPTIC LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR edited by Brian M. Sammons (to be released late 2016/early 2017 by Dark Regions Press / hardcover, deluxe numbered signed hardcover, trade paperback, & eBook / no page count as of this review)

Sammons (editor of several Lovecraftian anthologies) has put together a real winning team here, with stories set in three eras (before, during, and after the Old Ones return). While I like Lovecraft well enough, I'm not a huge fan of the countless "mythos" stories that have flooded the market over the past several years, but in this case they not only work, a few truly terrify.

Among my favorites in Section One ("In The Before Times") are Tim Curran's incredibly creepy SCRATCHING FROM THE OUTER DARKNESS, where a blind woman is given a vision of Cthulhu's return, Scott T. Goudsward's THE HIDDEN, as we follow a support group and an artist as they bring forth Cthulhu with the help of one of their member's late father's notes, and in one of the best of the anthology, THE GENTLEMAN CALLER by Lucy A. Snyder, where we meet a wheelchair bound deformed female dwarf, who works as a phone sex operator and is given an unusual necklace that allows her to travel into other people's bodies. How she inadvertently unleashes Cthulhu is unforgettable. I found every story in this first section (there are 4 more) to feature a chilling sense of impending doom, and each one unique from the other.

My favorites in Section Two ("Where Were You When The World Ended?") were Peter Rawlik's TIME FLIES, which is kind of like what the film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE would be like if done in a non-campy manner. It deals with possessing aliens who arrive to witness mankind's demise. Clever stuff. In Tim Waggoner's SORROW ROAD, a mother and her cancer-ridden 4 year-old son witness the arrival of the Old Ones in this heartbreaking yet terrifying entry that features Waggoner's dazzling prose and a weirdness level amped up to 11. And in William Meikle's THE CALL OF THE DEEP, Two UK soldiers are sent to the U.S. to guard scientists on a top secret mission to save the world from natural disasters and an invasion by millions of amphibious creatures. Meikle's tale features Cthulhu entering the world with more global devastation than I can ever remember reading before. Gleefully insane.

In the final section ("Life in the Shadow of Living Gods"), I particularly liked Christine Morgan's THE KEEPER OF MEMORY: long after the Old Ones have returned an old woman known as Mema teaches the young children about the world before the New Gods arrived. A haunting (and at times hilarious) monster mash, Morgan's ability to add humor to such a serious story (and overall anthology) is quite impressive. The book's final offering, STRANGERS DIE EVERY DAY by Cody Goodfellow. is a "mini-epic" dealing with Tobin Thrush, a man for hire living in an apocalyptic world where Cthulhu may be an idea more than an actual God. This blend of noir action centering around Thrush's search for a kidnapped girl is jam-packed with bizarre cults, gangs, and so much strangeness I couldn't read it fast enough. Easily the highlight of the anthology and a must read for fans of weird fiction, Goodfellow's tale is worth the price of admission on its own, and dare I say HPL himself would be envious.

RETURN OF THE OLD ONES is a great anthology with not a slow story in the mix. Each author has brought unique ideas and takes on the Mythos to the table and the result is a horrific end-times jamboree even those who don't care for Lovecraft will enjoy. A pleasant surprise all around.

-Nick Cato

CELEBRITY CHEF ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE by Jack Strange (2016 Kensington Gore Publishing / 268 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

As a fan of zombies, bizarro, and celebrity chefs -- seriously, it's cooking shows on pretty much every night at my house! -- the moment I learned about this book, I knew it would be exactly my kind of thing. And I was not disappointed! Well, right up until the guy ran over the cat. Then, I was not merely disappointed, I was distraught and more than a little aggravated.

But hey, it worked out! The guy was on his way to see his wacky inventor uncle, who claimed to have finally had a breakthrough on his raise-the-dead machine, and naturally they needed a test subject. So, the cat came back. Albeit as a sex-crazed flesh-eating bundle of ginger-furred murder ...

Both wacky uncle and Robert, the cat-runner-overer, sort of fail to notice that part. Besides, they've got bigger plans. Robert works for a television network and has the bright idea of bringing back deceased celebrity chef Floyd Rampant to host reruns of his old show. What could go wrong?

Well, as the title would suggest, quite a bit. Even celebrity chefs come back as sex-crazed flesh-eaters, though of course, there are certain professional standards to uphold. And with hundreds of the world's best about to descend upon Chef-Con, the time is right for Chef Rampant to expand his culinary empire.

What follows is a riotous series of blood-drenched, pan-seared, deglazed screwball antics, hopping willy-nilly among various POV characters -- the chefs themselves, the cop trying to solve the case, a restaurant worker who can't convince anyone of the truth, innocent and/or hapless victims, government officials trying to spin the burgeoning disaster, and (yay!) Henderson the cat. Two thumbs up, those thumbs lightly-braised with a spinal fluid reduction, served over a bed of kidney risotto and topped with a poached eye.

-Christine Morgan

THE FORTY-TWO by Ed Kurtz (2014 New Pulp Press / 366 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

This book's another great example of the blurred overlap between crime fiction, thriller, and horror. It covers them all, and it covers them well, while also being a nostalgic hearkening-back to an iconic piece of Americana even people who weren't alive then or never went there have absorbed by cultural osmosis.

New York. Times Square. The late 1970s, the heyday of sleazy nightlife, strip clubs, smut shops, sex, drugs, and movie theaters. Oh so many movie theaters, catering to a wide range of tastes, as long as most of those tastes are of the low-brow, low-budget variety. Adult movies, kung-fu movies, biker movies, exploitation flicks ...

And Charley's favorite, horror movies. Bad ones. The schlockier and gorier and bloodier, the better. He loves 'em. Can't get enough. Until the night he ends up sort of holding hands with an attractive stranger in the dark. He spends the rest of the show mulling over possible chat-up lines, but when the lights come up, he realizes that the girl beside him is dead. Stabbed in her seat while they sat there.

Suddenly, Charley's got all the blood and gore he could want ... only, this is real life, and he doesn't want it. Yet he can't put the incident behind him. He can't walk away. He needs to know who this mystery girl was, who killed her, why she had to die.

His bumbling efforts at investigation very quickly get him in way over his head. People trying to kill him, more people around him getting killed, secrets, lies, conspiracies, murder, money, hookers, drugs, cautionary beatings, and more.

No spoilers, though! You'll just have to read it. Written in a style that celebrates its grainy, grimy, graphic, transgressive, vivid Technicolor subject matter, it's a definite experience, gripping and exciting, sordid and tragic. This book about movies should go full-circle and become a movie, but I don't know if current movies could do it true justice.

-Christine Morgan

BAD APPLES 3 (2016 Corpus Press / 242 pp / trade paperback & eBook)

I love Halloween; it's my favorite holiday by far. So, when given a whole anthology of Halloween tales, you'd better believe I was as eager as a kid setting out, plastic pumpkin-bucket in hand.

This particular trick-or-treat excursion didn't cover many houses; there are only seven stories in all making up the book. But, they aren't just a meager assortment of small candies. These are the full-size bars you'll want to hide from your mom before she 'confiscates' them for your own good.

First up is "Belle Souffrance," by Adam and Evans Light, a darkly haunting ballet of torment and revenge, with several particularly memorable black-humor-hilariously disturbing moments.

It's followed by John McNee's "Chocolate-Covered Eyeball," which takes your classic candy-store scenes like in Harry Potter and Willie Wonka, and turns them inside-out by way of EC comics.

"October's End" by Craig Saunders goes more a Twilight Zone route, with the subtle old-school feel of bent reality and inescapable nightmares.

In Gregor Xane's "The Uncle Taffy's Girl," you suspect right from the beginning that this party is going to go badly for the hapless dude hoping to get laid. And it does, but in surprising, unexpected ways.

Speaking of hapless people and parties, that's what's on Charli's mind as she boards the bus in "Last Stop" by Edward Lorn. Only, a pumpkin-faced psycho with murder on his mind has other plans.

"Body of Christ" by Mark Matthews is my favorite of the bunch, probably because it's just so deeply messed up on so many levels.

Jason Parent's "Pulp" wraps things up with a chaotic homage to the genre as a whole, packed with name-nods and references at the school horror-film-club's costume party.
All in all, fun reading for the spirit of the season; what better time to go bobbing for apples?

-Christine Morgan


text:
Antoinette, Mandarin Gallery

It's a little-known fact that dessert specialist Antoinette also serves up a worthwhile brunch. They've recently refreshed their menu, and while signature mainstays like their egg-cellent egg gratin have been retained, they've added a couple of newbies that are absolutely smashing. Best of all, their breakfast eggs are available all-day, all-week.

The Fried Eggs with Ratatouille ($16.50), choc-a-bloc with tomatoes, onions, zucchini and peppers, was sided by silky ribbons of serrano ham, crusty levain bread and balsamic-dressed mesclun.

The L'oeufs en Meurette ($17.50) was a duo of poached eggs swimming in a delicate red wine sauce littered with bacon lardons, sauteed mushrooms, and pearl onions. Toasty levain bread were on hand to mop up every last bit of the sauce, while the house salad lent a piquant contrast.

The Wagyu Agnolotti ($28) of pasta pockets stuffed with ricotta, blanketed in a wagyu beef ragout and showered with parmigiano shavings, was rustic and hearty.

333A Orchard Road
Mandarin Gallery #02-33
Tel: 68369209
Open daily from 11am to 10pm
Website: antoinette.com.sg

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Saturday, 1 April 2017

Third and Final Working Session Day of the Seminar

All good things must come to an end, and so has the XI Seminar for Legal Advisors of the Armed Forces.

On Friday, the final day went under the theme New Military Technologies and the Law. It was chared by Brigadier-General Professor Dr. Paul Ducheine (National Defence University; The Netherlands).
Brigadier-General Professor Dr. Paul Ducheine. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

First speaker of the day was Marika Ericson (lecturer and PhD candidate, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on the topic of the Swedish experiences in regards of the interplay between domestic law and international law, and the institutional responsibilities.
Ms Ericson emphasized that the weakest point in cyber security is that technology is developed based on everything but security. Moreover, is cyberattacks a challange to the dichotomy of war and peace? Do we need a third paradigm?
Marika Ericson. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson
Colonel Gary Corn (Staff Judge Advocate, US Cyber Command; USA) gave a presentation on Navigating Grey Zone Challenges in and through Cypberspace. COL Corn also pointed out the difficulty of categorizing a cyberattack as an armed attack or as an action in peace time. He emphasized that before taking countermeasures to a cyberattack, states have to analyze what authority it has, and that states need to have justification in interantional law in order to take action. He also stressed the necessity of defining whether the cyberattack breached any interanational laws or was lawful.
Colonel Gary Corn. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson
The Seminar continued with a presentation from Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss (Senior Lecturer in international law, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on Human Enhancement Technologies: Solider 2.0 – Miliatry Human Enhancement & International Law. As Dr. Harrison Dinniss clarified, the human enhancement applies to the idea of Captain America rather than the Terminator, that is, not robots. She talked about three major developments in human enhancement: biochemical, cybernetics and prostheses. We are upgrading people. Giving them abilities what is beyond what is considered “normal”.
Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

Dr. Bill Boothby (Associate Fellow Geneva Centre for Security Policy, UK) spoke of autonomous weapons and some of the problems with the concept of "person in the loop" in regards of remotely polited aircrafts. The loop consists of two links: the uplink from the operator to the aircraft through which instructions are given; and the downlink from the aircraft to the centre giving information to the operator - who gives instructions to the aircraft.
Dr. Bill Boothby. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

The Seminar ended with a closing dinner.


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The Last Gentlemen Podcast

This week's episode features SiriusXM's Rude Jude and the grossest story about a man going down on a lady you might ever hear in your life. We also have some Audio evidence that might make you look at a hockey celebrity in a different light, and A Bitcoin expert, will tell you how you can literally grow actual money. All this and much more

Direct download: TLGCryptoCut.mp3
Category:Comedy -- posted at: 11:26am EDT