Fantasist's Scroll

Have you ever thought about your gave marker? Have you considered making a "statement" on it with a clever saying or quote or what have you? Then, have you ever considered having something other than marble or granite or any of the other more traditional materials?

Okay, so maybe you haven't thought about this, but the folks at Lundgren Monuments have. Really, when you consider it, a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.lundgrenmonuments.com/">glass tombstone</a> is a fairly innovative concept. I mean, in this age of trendy architecture and performance art, what could make more sense than a tombstone that stands out in a crowd? Either that, or it's my sick sense of humor that finds this amusing. After all, when I'm dead, will I really care what my tombstone looks like anymore?

Well, before I get too morose for a Friday, click the link and admire the pretty headstones. Really, they are cool and, after all, it is a Friday. The way some of my readers drink, we may not make it all out alive!

Ever wanted to write science-fiction and fantasy fiction but didn't know where to start?

Well, there's hope. While wasting time at work the other day, I found a free on-line course in writing science-fiction called, oddly enough, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.writesf.com/">Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy</a>. This website is an entire course on writing in the genre available for no charge via the web. They cover everything from the basics of fiction writing to world creation to... Well, just about everything that a begining writer might want to know about writing science fiction and fantasy literature. They even have some topics that go into more depth for those of us who've been banging away at it for a little bit.

It looks fairly good and comprehensive. Besides, the price is right: Free!

Yea! Genetically modified pets right off the shelf!

No, not those silly glowing fish, but something far more interesting. Straight to you from the future, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.genpets.com/index.php">Genpets, Bioengineered Buddies</a>! They come in seven different, color-coordinated tempraments right out of the package. Sadly, they have limited vocal capabilities and need specially designed food to carry on, but their almost total lack of excretion makes up for that. They come with a "freshness" indicator right on the blister-pack and will be available in one and three year life-expectancy models. They look a little more anthropomorphic for the average genetic ethicist, I'm sure, but kids will love 'em!

Now, before you freak out, this is not real. It is an art website showcasing some very interesting and thought-provoking sculptures. I have to admit, even though they creep me out, I'd probably buy one of these suckers should they ever be comercially available. I hope that doesn't send me straight to hell, but, well, I love science-fiction and this sort of thing has been the promise of sci-fi stories since I can remember. I'd love to see it available, just for the "cool" factor.
But, no matter how you feel about it, you have to admit, the site is thought provoking.

Today is the birthday of Robert Heinlein.
Mr. Heinlein was born on this day in 1907 in Butler, Missouri. He wrote numerous novels and collections of short stories. He is best known for his novel, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…; title="View product details at Amazon">Stranger in a Strange Land</a>, about a boy born during the first manned mission to Mars. It's filled with values from the 60's, including free love, new religions and "different" views on marriage. It was quite ground-breaking in its day and can still be startling to our modern, but still quite Puritanical, society. Heinlein called his books "speculative fiction" rather than "science fiction" because he liked to emphasized the idea that he was writing about things that could, possibly, come true. He tried to stick to only the scientific laws that we knew and their reasonable extrapolation. I think that's why his work stands the test of time.
So, go read some of his work today, in celebration of his birthday.

I love cartoons.

Some of you may have noticed that I'm a fan of rather unusual literature. I admit, I tend toward the fantastic, surreal and bizarre, but, hey, if it's getting published, I can't be the only one! One of my favorites, who I discovered in early High School, is <a title="View product details at Amazon" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code…. P. Lovecraft</a>. I started with <a title="View product details at Amazon" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=fantasistnet%26link_code… Tomb and Other Tales
</a> and moved on from there.

Well, there are a lot of fans out there and we all seem to have slightly skewed senses of humor. Often times, this results in very, very strange homage taking forms that the human mind can barely encompass. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.macguff.fr/goomi/unspeakable/vvlast.html">The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)</a> is one of those things. It's a parody of much of Lovecraft's work. It's also a very funny cartoon. Enjoy!

I mentioned this on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ryumaou.com/hoffman/netgeek/">my other blog</a>, but not here yet.  I've recently upgraded my blogs to the latest version of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wordpress.org">WordPress</a&gt;. Now, no one has probably noticed that, but I thought it was noteworthy. Well, if I did the upgrade right, no one noticed. Certainly, no one said anything if they did notice.

Mostly, it was a Very Good Thing to have upgraded, but there are some differences that still throw me off a bit. First, there's the whole new interface deal. It used to be that I had to deal with a pretty simple, text-only interface. Now, though, the whole thing has gone all WYSIWYG and it's totally throwing me off. Especially because it edits HTML natively. I'm getting used to it, but, still, I have to remember little details like not just hitting "enter" when I want a new line instead of a whole new section/paragraph. Secondly, the tools have really been improved. Linking and formating and everything else have been upgraded to match that slick new WYSIWYG interface, but they've added some HTML tools that they didn't have before. Or, if they had them, didn't showcase very well. Also improved is the preview section. Now, instead of just showing me a preview of the code in the post itself, WordPress previews the post as it would appear on the blog, with headers and footers and everything.
The one thing, so far, that I don't like is the way the new version updates the timestamp on the post. For the most part, it doesn't. Once you save a post as a draft, it takes a timestamp and seems to hold that until you manually change it. Other than that, though, I really adore the new version.

So, now you know. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Anyway, one of the reasons for the upgrade was because I was developing plugins for WordPress. I showed you one a couple of weeks ago, and now, you can get to other one from my other blog. <a title="Moonie, the moonphase plugin" target="_blank" href="http://www.ryumaou.com/hoffman/netgeek/?page_id=1027">Moonie</a&gt;, the name of the plugin, is a little dodad that let's you add the neat moonphase stuff to your WordPress blog. Now, after admiring it on my blog, you can have it for yourself. Enjoy!

Yes, actual castles that are actually for sale.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a beta for a "social shopping network" called Wists.  Now, to be honest, I have no freaking idea what that means, but I bring it up because I found it, via bOING bOING, when it coughed up a list of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wists.com/chateaux.html">castles for sale</a>. Yeah, real, genuine castles that people can buy, if they have the money.  Honestly, if I had the cash, or even the credit, I'd snap one of these suckers up just for the joy of living in a castle.

Anyway, it's Friday, and even shlubs like us deserve to dream a little, so go ahead, click the link.

So, I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress not too long ago so I could test a little project of mine.  Way back in the early days of blogging, when all these fancy programs were new and not so user friendly, I concieved of a beautiful way to present fiction to a large audience for free.  Well, okay, me and about a million other people, but, still, I had an artistic vision.  No, really!  My idea was to keep a journal in the manner and style of a character from a fictional world via a blog.  I saw it as a return to the roots of the novel which, in the early days, used things like journal entries and faux personal letters to tell a story.  Naturally, a blog would be a perfect way to do just that.
But, as a curmudgeon and creative person who was not content to just record something in the standard calendar, I set about trying to adapt the blog I was using to a new, fictional calendar.  Sadly, my first efforts met with very limited success, but, then I upgraded to the first version of WordPress and started learning a bit of PHP.  It wasn't long after that before I had a decent working plugin that would allow me to make my blog appear to be recorded in the calendar used for the Forgotten Realms setting by Wizards of the Coast, formerly TSR.  It took many, many cycles of development and testing before I was satisfied, but, I finally got something that I thought was worth sharing and, then, they did a major overhaul of WordPress.  So, I waited for all the bugs to get found and fixed.  And, I waited and waited and waited some more for good measure.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I actually found the time to upgrade to the latest version and test my plugin again.  A few minor corrections later, I had fixed all the quirks I could find and, so, without further ado, I present, for your wacky, fantasy blogging pleasure, the <a title="Dale Reckoning plugin for WordPress" href="http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/?page_id=586">Dale Reckoning plugin for WordPress</a>!

Use it in good health and enjoy!

Okay, the Slashdot effect should be over by now...

Yeah, I saw this on Slashdot, but it's so good I don't even feel guilty for putting it up as a Fun Friday link. "It" is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html">Akiyoshi's Illusion Page</a>. Well, actually, it's pages. Frankly, I've always been blown away by good optical illusions and this page is the best I've ever seen. Some of these suckers give me motion sickness!

Anyway, it's a cool link and it's Friday, so go check it out!

Tired of Latin?
At least, are you tired of using that classic "lorem ipsum" Latin text in your demos? Well, why not try <a target="_blank" href="http://www.duckisland.com/GreekMachine.asp">Geek Machine</a> next time! You can generate test text in styles including; Hillbilly, Marketing, Matrix, Metropolitan, Pseudo German, and Techno Babble. Some of them are really pretty good, too. Hey, at least it's a change from the tired, old Latin.
Now, if they'd only add in Lovecraftian or Tekumelani or, even, Nostrodamusian....

Okay, I dare you to use this on your next corporate development project. Just fill in some Techno Babble or Marketing speech and see who notices. Just make sure to do it on a Freaky Fun Friday!