F3 Breaking Tradition

            My plans for Halloween were always the same: to stay locked in my house and away from the supernatural crazies unleashed for the night. Unfortunately, for the past few years, Nikki always came by to upset those plans. She would come by dressed up, and drag me to her Halloween party or some other celebration. And, I had to admit, I didn’t mind so much with some of her costume choices. The dancing was fun, too.

A Pun Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

            So a couple of months back, a couple of teacher friends wanted to go out to lunch. The one literally asked, “What dates do you prefer?” Me, being me, jumped immediately on the internet to research different varieties of dates, so I could happily reply “I like Halawys, though Medjools will do in a pinch. I'm not much for Deglet Noors.”

M3 Halloween Mythology

            I’ve been doing some of the more familiar witches fairy tales as a segue between the fairy tales and Halloween, but now we’re here, the big dog itself. So, definitively, is Halloween a pagan or a Christian holiday? Yes.

            What, you want more? Okay, you asked for it.

F3 Economy

            Peter Flynn had been through marketplaces on dozens of stations and worlds, but he had never seen anything like a Consortium bazaar. Organized chaos was the only thing that came to mind. Thousands of people milled about. Instead of stalls, there were pits, each one surrounded by a pressing mass of people all wanting to purchase their goods. But instead of physical goods, they bought markers, representations of those goods.

            “Explain it to me again,” Flynn asked Reese as they made their way to a pit promising the sale of cloth.

Skill & Knowledge Plateaus

            Long ago, I started monkeying around with Excel. And when I learned the vlookup formula, I thought I was an Excel master! I could rule the world with this knowledge . . . until I got a handle on the offset formula.

M3 Hansel & Gretel

            I can’t very well do fairy tales in October without doing the most popular tale with a witch. For this story, I use the 1857 final edition, but as a special bonus, you can see how the original 1812 version compares to the 1857 version of Hansel & Gretel.

F3 Midterms

            Alex dressed in his period costume, complete with curled wig and tricorn hat, and walked into the classroom. The students knew that the midterm was going to focus on the Revolutionary War and the Constitutional Convention, but they hadn’t been informed as to the format of the test. However, they were used to their professor dressing up and being eccentric, so none batted an eye at his appearance.

What It's Like in my Head

            I can’t speak for other writers, but I suspect many of them feel this way. By the way, the whole reason for this post was in thinking about the idea transplant rejection and the film Inside Out. See, writers have little people running around inside their heads, but we call them characters. And I’ve got a whole weird cast. And they keep getting weirder.

M3 The Little Mermaid

We’re stepping away from the Brothers Grimm to go play with Hans Christian Andersen and his tale of The Little Mermaid.

F3 Wagers

            My stomach growled, hopefully lost in the midst of everyone else’s growl. I just barely stopped from holding it. I wondered how those poker players on TV managed to go for so long without even budging. Trying to keep a straight face while starving was tough. After all, I had skipped breakfast.

Idea Transplant Rejection

            Ideas are like transplant organs. No, hear me out. I think I’m on to something, here. So we all know about Inception as a way to inspire someone to create an idea, but what about giving a fully formed idea to someone else, and having it take?

M3 Snow White

            The fairy tale that Disney started it all with.  I’m using the latest version of Snow White for this little breakdown.

F3 Fallen Hero

            “The Battle of Phantomhead is the standout moment in hostilities between the Imperium and the Alliance. Even for a space battle, the hostilities lasted for weeks as new ships kept arriving and ground forces were deployed. In the end, the Alliance triumphed, and with grateful thanks to all of the forces who served in that battle, but a few names always rise to the top when discussing Phantomhead: General Thaddeus Carter, Colonel Sonya Lyons, Colonel Lee Shen of the marines and Captain Aarushi Banik, Captain Pyotr Moscovich, Captain Peter Flynn of the navy.