Heartshot Wins!

I just found out today that "Heartshot" won the best short film award at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon.  I had been more than happy with what the cast and crew had done with my short story, and it's great to see that other people feel the same way.  The film is going to be submitted to other festivals, and when the submissions are finished I'll put up a link so everyone who wants to view the (30 minute) film can do so on-line.  

In the meantime, we've got a very realistic, life-sized dead unicorn for sale.  If you need one of these (and who doesn't?) just let me know and I'll put you in touch with the right people. 

Changing Stations

I've changed from Soundclick to ReverbNation for audio files.  New tunes as well as the ones I had on Soundclick can now be found here. 

7500 Miles

I hit 7500 miles on the good ol' Schwinn Airdyne early this week, and it seems to be holding up real well.  It's time to adjust the chains again and fortunately someone figured out how to do this and posted it on the net.  Schwinn gives you no instructions at all on this, and the process isn't exactly intuitive even though it isn't difficult once you figure it out.

About the only complaint I have is the lower chain guard, the one by the pedals.  This should have been powder coated (or made of fiberglass, etc.) so it wouldn't rust.  Oh, and the tapered bolts that hold the pedals on:  a real pain in the neck to remove or install, and you need to remove these if you're refinishing the lower chain guard or removing the chain. 

Since we moved to Lafayette in December, I've been riding ten miles a day, five days a week.  I generally hit ten miles between 50 and 52 minutes and while I don't really know how accurate the Schwinn computer is, I figure the time is right on and the distance is fairly close to the read-out.  Now I need to find a gym for weight training and flexibility.  I miss the free use of the high school gym and weight room back in Warren County, but there must be a gym around here were a 70-year-old guy with no piercings, ink or Spandex wouldn't feel too out of place. 

Llama Llaughs

There's just something likable about llamas.  And while I know this is the worst sort of anthropomorphism, they have always seemed to me to be gently amused by the world around them.  Perhaps llamas are secret Zen masters.

My friends Vickie and Scott at Dawn of Promise Farm raise llamas, and here are several in my "Llama Llaughs" series that has been inspired (if that's the right word) by their photos.  Vickie and Scott have been most kind about my attempts at humor, and I'm hoping the llamas feel the same way, too.

The Original Google

Long before there was the search engine, or even the unwriteable number (ten to the tenth to the one hundredth power) there was the original Google, Barney.  Barney was the creation of cartoonist Billy DeBeck who came up with the comic strip character in 1919.  Not too longer after that, the strip was in 900 news papers in 21 countries, and was even the subject of a hit recording.

Sparkplug, Barney's horse, is always seen wearing a blanket; I don't know if Sparkplug was particularly cold-blooded or DeBeck just wasn't into horse anatomy.  And while I'm pretty old, I'm not old enough to recall the Barney Google strip but can definitely recall another DeBeck character, the moonshining, low-lander shooting hillbilly Snuffy Smith. 

Joining the 21st Century

Now that we're living in the city with street lights, paved roads, real honest-to-goodness high speed internet and the like, I decided to buy an e-book reader.  I got a Nook from Barnes and Noble; the version that allows for HD color as well as black and white text, will connect to the net and do all sorts of interesting and possibly useful things.  I can't really see that the Nook is better than Amazon's Kindle, but the guy at B&N actually knew something about the product he was selling and was glad to answer my questions.  Yeah, I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper on-line, but now I've got a real, live human being as a contact if I ever have problems or questions.  That, to me at least, is worth more than a few bucks.

The Nook is easy enough to use, and seems to be easy on the eyes, too.  You can change screen brightness,  typefaces, font sizes, etc., etc.  Lots of books are available; some free and some from authors' websites as well as from sources like B&N and Amazon.  Best of all, some hard-to-find books by a couple of authors I like can be found at several places on the net, books that I otherwise couldn't find in even the largest new or used book stores.

Will I stop buying traditional paper books?  Not a chance.  I still like to hang out in book stores, and I'm not going to stop buying books.  But the e-book reader is a nice supplement to "real" books, and I sure wish I'd had one when I was working for the engineering company and traveling around North America with a briefcase full of books to keep me entertained while I waited for Podunk Airlines to get airborne.  Anything to do with airlines or doctors, you're gonna want something to read while you wait.

Catching Up With Cookie Day

What with moving and all, I've gotten a bit behind with the blog.  So here, for your enlightenment and amazement, are the usual suspects making cookies and some of their better (or at least stranger) efforts.  No, I have no idea what the bottom photo is, but I think it has something to do with making cookies while drinking Malbec.  Those South American wines will sneak up on you, sure enough.