Shepherding Succeed/default

More at succeedblog.org. Thanks to Sanden for the link.

I CAN HAZ VAKSEEN?/default

A 13-year-old Iowa cat has been infected with swine flu, veterinary and federal officials said Wednesday, and it is believed to be the first case of the H1N1 virus in a feline.

The domestic shorthaired cat was treated last week at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ames and has recovered, officials said. The virus also has been confirmed in two ferrets - one in Oregon and the other in Nebraska - but they died.

Translator Microbes for Your Eyes/default

The Tele Scouter is currently still a prototype, although NEC plans to start selling the system to businesses next year. The Japanese manufacturer admits that the device's translation capabilities are limited at the moment, so it will market the device as a wearable, hands-free data display. NEC envisages that it could be used by engineers and technicians to view user guides or manuals while installing and repairing hardware.

I was 140 characters before 140 characters was cool/default

The Learning Blog over at NY Times is reporting on a new Rick Moody story that will be published over a period of three days, exclusively via Twitter. Yes, this gets me a little indignant. No, there's no good reason why it should. Yes, there are plenty of other reasons, just none of them particularly rational. I don't have a patent on using Twitter to get short stories out there but, as far as I've been told, I was among the first to do it.

It didn't get me the sort of success Mr. Moody will likely enjoy, but it did get me a half-hour radio interview and some presumed future success based on that broadcast. The show, which doesn't appear to be archived online, invited me on specifically because of the 140 character stories I was cranking out, stating, "This week on Write on Radio, Rob Callahan joins us to talk about his novel Hellbound Snowballs, a collection of short stories, Damaged Goods, and an upcoming prose collection that is Twitter-based."



So I'm happy to have been a part of that sort of thing, perhaps even a trailblazer, and I haven't ruled the idea of reviving it out at some point. (I'd briefly entertained the idea of an ongoing serial in 140 character installments, but then I got pretty busy.) But I'm doing other stuff about which I'm more passionate now. Pre-production on this webcomic and the writing for l'etoile keep me in a near-constant state of writing, and the CONvergence storyslams and Nightmare Fuel podcasts are an opportunity to get other undersung writers' work out there to the ears of the masses. I like doing those and, until I can free up a little more time for a little more writing, I'll probably not be producing any regular new tweetfic.

Doctor Who, Macross Style/default

Rule 34, The Play/default

Saw a fun play last night about an inept sexual therapist who gathers all of his patients together for a big group session with an ulterior motive. Tonight, I write the review. For now, though, have a look at the website for the show.

There's a Little Monster In All of Us/default

Sanden Totten takes a look at the Black & White Baddies of another era on the MPR NewsQ. Personally, I never got over the old Universal monster movies I so enjoyed as a kid. There was Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Svengali, Dracula Meets Frankenstein, The Mummy vs. The Wolfman, Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy, and so on... This long, lost genre and its eighties-era revival via late night creature feature-style screenings on low budget UHF stations (of which Elvira's show is probably most famous) were my primary inspiration for starting up the Nightmare Fuel podcast. One of the many things I wanted to be as a kid was an unappreciated local actor who dressed up once a week in a Dracula costume, rose from a coffin and made bad puns when the film cut to commercial break. No, seriously. I did.

So the podcast doesn't actually require the coffin and costume. It doesn't necessarily rule them out either...

Zombie Survivial Guide Call-In/default

Neal Conan and Max Brooks playing it deadpan a few years back on Talk of the Nation, as they invited listeners to call in with their questions concerning the imminent zombie apocalypse: An all-too-often ignored threat is posed by a menace that seems more and more common at this time of year: the peril of zombie attack. We discuss how to prepare and defend yourself to ward off even the most determined of the undead. One virus reportedly has the ability to mutate the human brain, bring on death, and then reanimate its host -- with a hunger.

Dead Fetish Office/default

Halloween is nearly upon us and I'm certain there are those among you who are looking for zombie porn (mostly due to the search terms coming into my site, as noted below) so here. Don't say I never found you anything online. Go ahead, my little necrophiles, go and order yourself a nice, gorey pinup calendar.


Oh, and scroll through the rest of the pictures to get your leatherbabe/coffin fetish on, or see Heidi and some goats hanging out naked in the Alps, or all manner of creepy dog pictures. The one among them all that most intrigues me, though, is the Hot Mormon Muffins calendar. I chalk it up to the forbidden fruit effect. What can I say? I need help.

Not nearly as much as the most functional necrophile among you, but help nonetheless.

The Little Guy's Dilemma/default

From Alyssa Rosenberg: "I saw Chuck D. speak at Columbia College last year, and something he said has stayed with me. The entertainment industry thinks that New York and LA are where things get created and the rest of the country are just markets for consuming. It's funny because it's true, and sad, and hopefully changing as people make local work and build local audiences and use the web to connect with their audiences all over the world."