The niece dragged her parents up here for a few days of visiting and after a full day of family-friendly activity — food and Fort Edmonton fun — Derek and I are opting to check out the premier of the new X-Files movie tonight, mere hours from this writing. I’m not exactly on the aliens-among-us bandwagon, but I’ll suspend my disbelief for an hour and a bit. It is fiction, after all. You may recall derek is (possibly) in the movie, and we spent [...]

The new X-Files movie comes out in a few days. And while this wouldn’t normally be a topic I discuss out on the blog, a few people have been privy to the info that Derek made an appearance as an extra. I suppose it’s as good as it gets when you’re a techie, but he actually showed up in some official movie still the other day, albeit as a side-view bit of background noise. Click the image for the full version and you’ll see [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… “This establishment is an importer of fine teas,” she says, “and none better on the High Street, I can assure you as much. We have tradition to uphold. We are perceived by the community in just such a way that deviation,” it is as if she plucks the word from the air with her fingers, drawing it down into her argument “is unacceptable.” “Certainly, certainly.” The man [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… “Eighty-four thousand people live in this little city, yet fewer than five hundred have been found worthy – be that worth of economic success or hereditary right – to own land. Are we so backwards that we have bestowed so much on so few? Are we so backwards that a mere fraction of our population is able to live beyond the indignity of stacked hovels spacious enough [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… “There is Grass here!” She is surprised. “But…” “It is contained. It has been here a very long time. One might almost say it has been tamed.” His hands are clasped, hung gently at about the height of his navel. “How?” She squats to examine it more closely. “Why?” “The Garden was once a powerful collective. We did what we pleased.” He is humble. “Those days have [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… I’d like to steal a boat and float down that river someday. I’d like to drift on out to the coast, passing direct from the city, nodding by the rolling grasslands, skirting under the boughs of trees grown too close along water, and wending a leisurely pace to somewhere new. Likely, if I was not stopped by the guards at the wall, or lugged alongside a trawler [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… The apprentice puzzles. “What do you see when you look into the night sky?” “I see nothing. I see perpetual darkness. I see a black void.” Thoughtful pause. “If there is nothing to see, why look?” “The first to arrive wrote of the absence of lights in our night sky. They yearned for something more than the nothingness we now know. Thus, they built the great lens.” [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… Flapps Bridge stands ancient and is half-sheeted in panels of colourfully oxidizing iron alloys that give it a pre-Tempest era aesthetic. The North Congress spans the breach between the low industrial lands surrounding the Dokyards and what is now the military regimental complex on the cliffs overlooking the city. Hoddall Pedway is a narrow rail in the shape of a grand arch, strung of modern alloys and [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… A squat block of quarried stone (one of thirty-eight) serves today as a table for a seller of (precisely) eight knobs of polished tin, four empty essence primers, eleven neatly tied bundles of steel blades, three cartons of powdered cinnamon, the dented left arm of a tinkerbot, sixteen hastily transplanted evergreen saplings in earthenware pots, a variety of used drinking vessels, a single brass fork, eleven draw-string [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… An airship should only touch ground when it is there she intends to stay. We built the city’s main passenger terminal with out hearts bent to the rigor of just that philosophy, a spiral structure of modern simplicity wending up nearly eight hundred spans into the sky. A mountain of a landmark to be seen from everywhere, even the largest of our dirigibles would find easy clearance [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… Toes hanging over the edge of the stone pier, his are hands tucked into his waistcoat pockets and a sour look is upon his face. “How far do the trawlers need to go these days?” “It is a four day journey to find enough fish.” The woman says. “You’ll find it a rare day to catch anything on the banks around the city. The river is nearly [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… “How deep?” “In most places, especially due to the softness of the ground approaching the river, we’ve built it down to precisely thirty-eight spans.” He says. “And the composition?” “Four spans of quarried stone blocks towards the outer wall, two fingers of sheeted wrought iron, and an inner wall of mortared bricks that adds another three spans to the width.” His voice betrays his pride. “I assure [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… Forever glaring down from four stories over the private gardens of the Chorus, the Coragutenk continues turning with a precision to credit its builders. An unseen manifest offers a perpetual pace, and allows that generations after its construction the monumental timepiece remains the standard for the whole city. Often machines that continue on, designed by tenkers who’s bones are long since turned to dust, allows superstition and [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… “I thought I knew her, that imperfect bulb of wrought iron mesh hung with the fancies of an unlikely dream. If she was any other ship, she would have been an hideous sight in my eyes. But suspended in the air as she was, angled struts brushing the tips of the trees and four taut cables anchoring her to the quarry below, she was forged elegance. I [...]

Fragments of something larger? Whatever. If it was supposed to make sense to you, you’d understand it… Along each side of the narrow street there are benches placed at gaps measuring roughly ten paces. Each bench is built from a single long and flat slab of stone quarried from a nearby source and supported by a shorter, narrower stone below. Viewed from any particular angle the upper stone overhangs the base and allows generous room for dangling feet. The stone has been worked smoothed, [...]

Arc the third story in my “year of the short-story” project. I was aiming for four. I’ve progressed on two. The year is nearly half through. The clock is ticking. Basement purge, to make way for an impending arrival of construction supplies that will turn a hollow cave of steel, wood, and concrete into a happy family hovel. Cook something interesting. We’re eating at home a lot more often, but we’ve fallen into the rut of tacos, spaghetti, chicken, burgers, repeat… Determine if I [...]

three… (the countdown to seven years!) Edward Lorenz is famous for having introduced the world to chaos theory, which holds that small differences in the initial conditions of a system can have outsized impacts on its functioning, a phenomenon sometimes called the “butterfly effect.” He died yesterday and thus my own chaos follows: posts in this blog: 1,332 days blogging: 2,554 percentage of readers who think I’m nuts: 86 number of categories in this blog: 102 number of tags in this blog: 201 hits [...]

9. My pirate coffee mug was broken upon arrival, but rather than shipping it back I glued it together and filled it with dirt and seeds, and set it in my window at work.  This morning there is definite sprouting going on. Yarr! 8. Claire has a new repertoire of tricks since I last wrote.  These include rolling over from her front to her back (as opposed to just laying there), grasping at fingers to pull herself to standing (as opposed to balancing once [...]

We’re all on the mend here after a few days of moderate (though merely annoying) head-colds, one of the souvenirs we brought back from Portland. (Alice will likely feel guilty ’cause I wrote that, but after her generous hospitality the least we could do is take some germs off her hands.) As far as Claire’s first illness, she got off fairly easy with only a slight cough and a couple interrupted nights of sleep. Despite a bit of a sore throat, I played my [...]

1) For those who are confused, this is a photo-per-day effort, and NOT a blog-post-per-day effort. As much as I know you enjoy reading my ramblings on a daily basis, logistically it ain’t gonna happen. Deal. 2) I finished reading JPod this weekend and thought I would catch up on the television version last night. My PVR neglected to record it. I am not impressed. I watched half a season of Extras instead. 3) Someone in my office bought a “Honey Cake” from the [...]

Tomorrow is the bear’s five month ‘birthday’ and my, how things change. For those who have not been picking up bits and pieces from other sources or random visits here is the official rundown. She: – sits for extended moments, not so much holding herself upright with any real core strength, but rather through combination of a kind of wobbly balancing act and propping herself up with her arms, all the while debating the choice between stability and sucking on her fingers. – recognizes [...]

December 31 Well, this is it. The last day in December, and with thirty successful entries behind me it’s time to look way back. This is New Years Eve, and one of the things about running a blog for over half a decade is that eventually things become habitual — repeatable — traditional, even. December 31 – Bumbo, The New Year’s Hangover Recovery Chair One of my favorite regulars has been the New Years Reflection Post, a collection of retrospective questions on the past [...]

December 26 … but only if you don’t find yourself waiting in line at a store or mall. Day 26: Cuddlin’ Cousins! 10. Nurse your sugar-hangover from eating too many Christmas goodies. 9. Spend two hours hooking up various electronics and explaining to technologically illiterate relatives how to use the gadgets you or someone else gave them. 8. Sample from the variety of coffees and/or teas you found in your stocking the day before. 7. Hide from the rest of the family with a [...]