Downing Station

It’s been far too long since I’ve participated in a 500 Club writing prompt. The writing’s clunky, and story is, well… I’ll let you decide. I’m presenting it as I wrote it. Only a spell check was used. I need to get back into the flow of writing daily, and these prompts are always a great source for getting things going.

Downing Station

In an ideal world, Rollie would’ve flung rockets into space. This wasn’t an ideal world. Far from it. Instead he sat at his terminal and watched the sky, his monitor a window to his expanse of sky.

No one else watched the same sector. It was his, and his alone.

He pushed his dark-rimmed glasses back up his nose and exhales a sigh of extreme boredom. The number to the side of the screen as blinked the same number for over an hour now: 17-0.

He thought about the change in technology since he’d started work here. Joysticks and keyboards. Then a track pad replaced the joystick. Soon touch screens replaced those. Track screens begat touch screens. Despite the monitor being able to “know” where Rollie was looking, they still required him to hit a button to launch. That was until the next batch of software eliminated false launches. Now all he had to do was look at the screen.

Rollie was sure they didn’t even need someone to man the launchers anymore. It was the perfect deterrent.

A soft, unassuming beep brought his attention back to the screen. A black dot enter the bottom-left portion of his sector followed by a white pluming contrail. As he stared at the object, the screen zoomed in on the head of the plume. A solo jumper. Looked like a converted 2052 model. He could see a vibration in the left wing that could have been a fatal flaw if he made it to the stratosphere.

A red box blinked and locked in on the jumper. A bright red line shot through his screen, intersected the 2052, and Rollie watched as flaming debris rained down and off his screen. The number changed.

18-0.

“Nice work Rollie.” The disembodied voice responded. He gave his expected thanks.

“We the people thank you even in our misguided attempts.”

Misguided indeed.

He should be flinging his fellow man far from the hell hole of a rock. Help them reach the out stretches of space. Not pull their leash.

Every citizen is required to yearly operate the Downing Station. A yearly reminder of what will happen if they try to leave.

How is the planet to get better if we all just leave it? We need to clean up our own messes. It would be irresponsible to spread our bad habits. We must change before we can expand.

The mantra of the Planetary CEO burns in his ears like the brand on his hand.

He chose to work here on a daily basis for several reasons. Selflessly he thought it might reduce the amount of other needing to be subjugated to this. Selfishly, he hoped it would show him away to get around it. The only insights he got were from the system upgrades. Unfortunately, the upgrades showed only the holes that were just patched. As hard as he tried, he could find the loop-hole, bug, or work-around before the system did and corrected.

A soft, unassuming beep brought his attention back to the screen.

Infinite Update Loop

Just a quick update here.

For the last three months my laptop has been less than useful. I’ve had paper weights more functional. I had all but given up on it.

Just this week I’ve been able to upgrade the RAM. It’s working wonders. Harvey (my laptop) might not ever be the slick machine I bought over six years ago, but with this relatively cheap fix, he’s once again running.

Funny thing happens when you don’t use your computer for several months. Microsoft releases over a hundred updates. Seriously. The first time I powered up with the new hardware, I had 118 updates ready to be installed.

Now it’s two days later and I’m still getting updates. It seems like the most recent updates could only occur after the previous updates were installed. And don’t forget all the reboots in between. Here I am trying to get in my first real writing session in a long time, and I’m forced to reboot every fifteen minutes. It’s hard enough to hold a coherent thought long enough to type it out. Add in a Time Out every few minutes, and I’m ready to rip out my hair.

To end on something positive, I did get a free muffin and drink at my local Paradise Bakery. A no-cost writing trip is always a good one. It also looks like the updates are finally done. Not a single one during my little rant. Guess it’s time to get back to work.

Look for frequent updates from me as well. I have stuff and things to share.

From This To That

I had a thought today. How a person’s path changes over the course of his or her lifetime. Sometimes it’s negligible. Like the nerdy kid in Chemistry that becomes a Chemist. Obvious, I know.

Then I think about people who throw you for a loop. Maybe that cool chic that always smoked behind the bleachers turned out to some high-stakes money broker-type person. Or, a class valedictorian becomes a high-priced assassin.

Here’s a real-world example: Bon Scott

An Aussie pop star, here singing backup for The Valentines in the late 60′s on a rather well-known cover:

Here he is again in February of 1980, just ten days before his death. This time he’s leading a wider known little band called AC/DC:

The styles are so totally different. What caused the flip? Was the voice in AC/DC more his style, or the bubblegum pop music? I know which I prefer, but I don’t think that really matters. What matters is the story.

When Point A and Point B doesn’t look like they should connect, I want to know why they do. That’s the heart of the story for me.

Bad Bad Bad

I just read this and was compelled to share. I had no idea this was going on and now have something new to worry about. Well, at least until the next thing comes around.

Click the link and check it out.

Worse Than Pirating.

I will add that I don’t think DRM has anything to do with it.

Will Dragon Keeper Keep Your Attention?

I had intended to do another Halfway Through Book Review for Robin Hobb’s book, Dragon Keeper. I didn’t for two reasons. One, it took me so long to get through the book, I felt it would’ve taken too long to get a proper Update out. And second, there wasn’t a decent halfway through point. More on that later.

Dragon Keeper is the first of a scheduled four books based in the world Robin Hobb created in her Live Ship Traders Trilogy (which in turn was first created in her Farseer Trilogy). Don’t worry, it is not necessary to read the previous works to understand the current trilogy. There are several references that Hobb fans will get (including myself), but without making a new reader feel like they’re being left out. Although admittedly, it will ruin the ending of The Live Ship Traders and The Tawny Man Trilogies if you read these first. With that in mind, if you’re currently reading Live Ship Traders or The Tawny Man Trilogy, please know that my brief summary to follow, will contain spoilers.

You’ve been warned.

This series revolves around a group of newly born dragons, all of which are horribly deformed and underdeveloped. The towns people who were left to care for the dragons find the task too daunting once the dragon, Tintaglia, who had bartered the deal in exchange for her protection, has abandoned the land and her deformed kin. Since she no longer protected their boarders, the towns people have devised a plan to move the malformed dragons to a new, far off location.

The book follows five main characters. Alise, trying to escape a loveless marriage joins the dragon keepers as a self-proclaimed dragon expert. Sedric accompanies Alise as her escort/chaperon, but has plans of his own. Captain Leftrin, owns the barge Tarman in which he’s used stolen wizardwood (i.e., a dragon cocoon) to build, and is carrying the supplies for the dragons and their keepers on their trek to find their new home. Thymara was born in the Rain Wilds and heavily marked by them. Instead of leaving her for dead like a good Rain Wilder should have, her father brings her back home and raises her. Society looks down on her for living, so it comes to no surprise that she chooses to be a dragon keeper to escape that life. And finally we have Sintara. Sintara is a one of the malformed dragons. She, like the other dragons, carry memories of previous dragons and knows how they are lacking. They should be treated better than kings and queens, and not like cattle. Put simply, she’s queen bitch and all should be revered to suffer her.

Shoo. That was a lot to get out.

Here’s the upside. Robin Hobb creates a well imagined world. The characters are fleshed out to a fault, and the jungles of the Rain Wilds came alive in my head. It’s always a pleasure to read a master of this craft work their magic.

Now the downside.

The book is WAY TOO LONG. Before I had mentioned how there wasn’t a decent halfway point in the book. In fact, the whole book reads as a first act. The book is nothing but the introduction to the characters. I’m sure it was to show motive for the things they were doing, but come on. The entire book could’ve been scaled down to five chapters. Ten max. (Update: after reading this Reddit Q&A, I definitely think she overwrote it.)

I might not have minded all this extra character development if I had felt a connection to any one of the characters. I did not. Captain Leftrin, for me, was likable, but lacked any definition. He really doesn’t do any thing except try to win the affections of a married woman. The rest I really could not have cared less about.

Let’s not forget about the action. It’s hard to forget only because you can’t forget something that doesn’t happen. For the most part, all the struggles in this book are internal. No battles. No duels. No common fantasy tropes. I imagine more things will happen in books to come, but as it stands, it reads solely as a prelude.

So what does this mean? Do I finish the series? Do I swear off Robin Hobb?

First off, just because this one book didn’t reach me like her others, doesn’t mean I’ll swear her off. I’m very much likely to pick up the second book… eventually. The writing is still great. Just because I didn’t connect with the characters doesn’t mean that you won’t.

More Oddities

Since my last post, I’ve been noticing more oddities in my life. I say “noticing” because I can’t honestly say they’ve never happened before. They might have flown under my radar. I can be blissfully unobservant when I want to be.

First thing.

Found a scorpion in my house. I guess that’s not highly unusual for my neighborhood, but in the last five or so years I’ve lived there, not one tiny venom crawler showed its ugly little claws. What makes this weird is its timing. Just two days before I finished the final draft on a short story that involved just such a creature. Had me considering to write a story about winning the lottery.

Thing two:

I got out of the house last week to do some writing at a coffee shop close to home. At the side door I was greeted by a whitish cat, noticeably pregnant. No big deal. For the next several hours that cat watched me through the glass door. It might have been unnerving if it stared at me with hatred in its eyes. It didn’t. Really, I was halfway tempted to let it in. It got kind of cold that night. Which is odd coming from me. I’m much more a dog person.

And finally.

Just yesterday I was enjoying a lazy day with my family at home when I started to hear birds. I mean lots and lots of birds. I guess you could say it sounded like an aviary, but I was put more in mind Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Here’s a short video I took capturing the moment:

Did you hear that? There were no open windows or doors. And, yes. That was my little girl noticing the birdies, too. Obviously she was more excited about it. She’s never seen an Alfred Hitchcock film.

All three happened in less than a week’s time. Are the oddities ramping up? I’ll let you know as they happen. Maybe we’ll notice a trend.

Craving the Unexpected

The new year is finally here. To some, it’s the final year, mainly the crazy excitable type. For others it will be business as usual, mainly the dull hum-drum type. Me, well, I’m looking for more. I’m ready for things to happen, not end, and I won’t be happy with the same-old-same-old.

Do you believe in signs? Symbols that randomly occur in your everyday life that could possibly mean something more than just the run-of-the-mill coincidental oddity. That might mean I’d have to be comfortable with some unseen force screwing with me. Be it God, Goddess, Universe, or Belly Lint.

Regardless, in the last month I’ve seen decidedly strange things. I’ve already told you about the red ball. It was odd, yet comforting. Something as innocent and playful as that could dance and twirl harmlessly through dense morning traffic. Not innocence lost, but innocence delighting in its own being.

Then on New Year’s Day, I had another, shall we say, sighting. First, for the those who don’t know me as well, let me tell you that I live in the city. A city in the middle of a heat-sweltering desert. And in that city, I am centrally located. There are a few mountains close by, but of the ugly rock and cactus variety.

Now where was I? Oh, yes. I was carting my family back home after our final Christmas celebration. That’s right, Christmas on New Year’s. It was well after dark and things were pretty quiet on the roads. On a side street, just before really getting into traffic an animal decided to cross the road, right in front of me. Was it a cat? A dog? No.

It was a raccoon!

Never before outside of television and film have I ever seen a raccoon, let alone in the middle of the city. Everyone in the car saw it. The raccoon crossed the road into someone’s yard and disappeared into the bushes. In a city where I thought I’d seen it all, she throws this at me.

How cool is that?

Then just yesterday on the way to work again, I passed a truck hauling a horse trailer. Not out of the ordinary. There are plenty of horses even here in the desert. A I was passing it, a white and tawny snout stuck out from the side of the trailer, its lips pursing the chill morning air. It looked like it was blowing kisses at the passing cars.

Granted this last isn’t as out of the ordinary as the first two, but it still held that off quality I’ve been noticing lately. And maybe that’s it. Maybe I’ve been noticing things more lately.

After that first weird encounter with the ball on the road, I must have become more aware of my surroundings. Possibly searching for more of the off and interesting. In a way I feel like the fatties in Wall-E when they finally get distracted away from their video screens and notice the pool for the first time.

Sometimes I forget that it’s a weird world, and I’m glad I get these little reminders. Is it a sign of what’s to come this next year? I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s got my attention.

Red Ball in the Road

My drive to work takes me thirty minutes on average. I drive against rush hour traffic. So no big deal, really. I turn on the radio or plug in an audiobook for the ride, and the next thing I know, I’m at work.

Today was a little bit different. The transfer from one freeway to the next went as normal. Turn signal. Merge. Next turn, seven miles.

Cue the red ball.

It dances around the white Ford Explorer in front of me, lightly bounces on the dotted white line and careens into the next lane as I fly by at seventy-plus miles an hour. My rearview mirror confirms that, indeed, I did see a red  bouncy ball playing with the cars in traffic on the west-bound 101. No one slowed for it, nor swerved. Though big, it was harmless, so no compensation was given.

For the rest of the drive, and morning, that red ball continued to bounce through my thoughts. Even while writing this post, I can see the shine of the rising sun glinting off its red surface. An oddity in an otherwise typical morning commute.

It made me happy.

Not happy in the sense of seeing your two-year old covered in a pile of puppies, saying I love you Daddy. Or a winning the lottery kind of happy. So maybe more of a contentment. A peace of mind that comes with knowing that strange things can happen and the world still moves on.

I guess it should come to no surprise that I like this same kind of element in the stories I write. That little bit of odd that even though it’s out of place, still fits. The offness is what lingers. The literary aftertaste that haunts well after the words are put down. The red ball in the road.

I’m curious to know. Have you had red ball in the road moments? Or, is there a certain something you crave find in your stories (outside the obvious, like good storytelling)? I’d like to hear them.

It’s Candy Time!

We’ve almost made it through the holidays. Overall, I have to say mine was a pleasant one. We managed to somehow eliminate the majority of the stress normally involved and just enjoyed ourselves. Our kids had a great time.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pinwheels

I tried again to make some candy, possibly making it a holiday staple now. I tweaked the recipe from last year, cutting back on the heavy cream, using a different peanut butter, and adding dark chocolate. Not bad. And that’s not just me saying so. The fact that the double batch I made this year is going twice as fast, says it for me. It still needs some tweaking, though. I’ll have to make it several more times before I think I’ll be satisfied with it. Still, that won’t stop me from eating a big portion of every batch.

Coming into the new year, I hope to be posting more here. I know my wife and I are planning to buy a new home later in the year, and I’ll no doubt need a place to vent all that I’m going through. I also plan to do more with my writing. First and fore most… actually writing.

So here’s to the year behind and a raised glass to the year ahead. It is what we’ll make it. So let’s make it one worth telling the grandkids about.

Good Luck!

And well wishes to everyone tackling NaNoWriMo. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try, but never able to make the time commitment.