Forward The Foundation

 Isaac Asimov wrote two prequels to the Foundation series in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I just read the first, Prelude to Foundation, a few weeks ago, and now I made my way through the second one, Forward the Foundation.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the last one better than this one. This one was fun, but it felt like it was too long. Lots of writers have that problem. Rish pretty much complains about this with every book he ever reads. With some writers, it's less of an issue than others. Asimov has a very old fashioned and stilted style of writing. Even though this was written in the 1990s, it still felt as though it came from the 1950s to me. It was still a good book, but it didn't keep me turning the pages nonstop until I finished it. I was able to take it slow and read only when I had the time for it.

I think there are more Foundation books that I haven't read. Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth were two sequels that Asimov wrote in the early 1980s. I think I'll have to eventually get to those ones as well...although, I think I might reread the original series first, because it's been about 25 years since I read them last, and I don't really remember how they went, so going on to read the sequels might be silly and worthless if I don't.

Cleaning Up The Slop

Back in the summer, Rish and I were talking about action figures...who have thought, right?...and Rish mentioned the ferry droid they had in the last episode of season one of the Mandalorian. They took an artoo unit, and added arms and legs to it so that it could row its way along in a boat. As we talked about it, Rish suddenly decided that he wanted that figure. He searched on eBay for a listing, but was discouraged to find that you could only find it available in the four-pack that they sold it in.

"I want to get it, but I don't want to get all the other droids that it comes with," he said.

Well, we left it at that and moved on with life, but then I got the idea that I should get Rish the droid for Christmas. He seemed really excited about it, but only became discouraged when there was no way to get it for a good price. However, I have these goofy aspirations of creating a space station populated with Star Wars figures, particularly droids. I'd love to have the other three droids. I'd love to have the ferry droid too, but the other three are fine. I could get the whole pack, send Rish the ferry droid, and keep the others. I could eat the leftovers, so to speak. I could clean up the slop.

So, that's what I did. I sent it to Rish, but by that time it was about six months later. I think his interest in the figure might have waned. He sent me this text when he got the package with the figure in it.

"Oh, no!" I thought. Does he not even remember that he wanted that figure? Does he not even remember that the figure exists? I wasn't sure how to answer his question.

Well, I don't know if it turned out to be a good present or not. At least he got it. That's better than it has been in other years. It's the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, due to that present idea, I now have several droids that I didn't have before. The first one is Goldy here:

He's got a good look. I like this one. Then there's this pastel-looking, Miami Dolphins fan one:

He's got a good look too. He'll be great on Ankletown. Lastly, there's this one:

This is R1. It's a security droid, I believe. This one is pretty big. He's as tall as a figure. Apparently, this robot flies. It comes with that stand, but when I photograph it, I'll have to use Photoshop to remove it so that it looks like it's flying.

Anyway, here are the three new droids that now roam the hypothetical hallways of Ankletown Station.

The Mad Titan Comes To Ankletown

When I was out with Rish last week, I got two things while we were out hitting toy stores. One was the rover Lego set that I talked about yesterday, the other one was this:

That's Thanos, the Mad Titan. He typically falls into a category of what they call the Cosmic Marvel characters, so he's exactly the kind of guy that should be on an inter-dimensional space station.

Here's what he looks like standing beside the regular figures of Ankletown.

He's taller, but the biggest difference is the fact that he's something like twice as wide as those guys. They look pretty good together if you ask me.

The glove comes off.

So, I could use the Infinity Gauntlet in some other way if I'd like.

I don't have any ideas for it, but who knows. Maybe I could just put it in the window of a pawn shop or something. Could be fun. Having a pawn shop, now that I think of it, could be a really fun idea, actually. I could constantly change out the item in the window, using the accessories of various figures. I'll have to see if I can't make that one of my first building I make.

Red Rover, Red Rover

While I was out of town to see my stepmother's funeral, I had a chance to hang out with Rish Outfield for a few hours. We did what we used to do all the time. We ate some breakfast together and then went around to a few Rosses, Walmarts, and Targets.

I have been avoiding that kind of stuff recently, staying far away from any Ross. I swore that I wouldn't buy anything further for Ankletown Station unless I first created a building for it. Of course, I broke that vow, but not too many times. It was mostly my wife's idea that we should start paying off all of our debts so that we could save up some money instead of just living as debt slaves for the rest of our lives that really got me to start eschewing the Rosses...that and the fact that Ross never had anything good anyway.

While out with Rish, I was still in that mode. I did get convinced to try a few things, though...and by convinced, I'm not talking about Rish doing the convincing, it was just my mind doing that. I only spent about six bucks, but I think they were good purchases. The first one was this:

This thing was a Lego set...one of those tiny Lego sets that they charge $3.99—actually, considering inflation, it's probably $4.99 now—however, it was on the clearance rack, and I got it for $2.50. I thought that it might be cool on Ankletown Station. Having some kind of rover as one of the droids that wanders the station seems great.

It doesn't look particularly Lego-ish. It looks more like an erector set, which is basically what the real rovers look like if you ask me. I like it. I think I'll name it Fred Rover. Fred Rover, Fred Rover, send Artoo right over. 

The real question was, how would this thing scale with the figures that I have for Ankletown Station? Well, once I got it assembled, I checked that. Here you go:

It's perfect, right? Just the right size. This thing is gonna be good...once I build something for it to populate. I'll get there someday. Someday, Jennifer. Someday.

Automat

My wife got tired of the cats waking us up at 6:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday morning. She gets up pretty early on weekdays, and feeds the cats on her way out the door. This managed to get them on a schedule...a schedule that didn't abate on weekends. We haven't had a decent night's sleep on the weekend in months.

She found an automatic feeder that you can set to dispense food at certain times of the day, and ordered that. We just got it set up the other day for the first time.

Jupiter was really hungry that day, and was begging for us to feed her early for hours. She didn't know that it was out of our hands now. She just kept rubbing against our legs, walking in front of us everywhere we tried to go, running to her food bowl each time we seemed to have noticed her presence, and meowing the most pitiful whining meow you've ever heard.

We were determined to be strong, however. It was set to dispense food when the time came, and we were going to let that thing take over. Then, on Saturday mornings, the cats could whine at it if they wanted to be fed early.

It did finally fill the bowl with food, and Jupiter was startled and worried about it. She stared nervously at it as it put more and more kibble into the bowl. When at last it seemed to be done, she ventured forward to figure out what had happened. There was food here, and she was hungry as hell, so she dug in. The feeder wasn't even quite done, and ejected another batch of kibble onto her nose, but she didn't care. She kept on scarfing. 

I'm hoping that my wife is right, and this thing is the answer. Maybe next Saturday, I won't awaken miserable and tired because of cats for once. Crossing my fingers.

The Sardine Fast Gets Subverted | Carnivore | Week 83 & 84 Roundup

I started out the week with a sardine fast. It was difficult, but I got some good results. Then came news I wasn't expecting. Things had changed significantly, and this week's report suddenly became a two-week report.

Anklecast 74 - The Elephant in the Room (Part 1)

I present to you "The Elephant in the Room." 

Louis trips and falls while trying to get ready for school in the morning. Instead of just hitting the carpet, he lands on something that until that moment was invisible to his eyes. It's an alien egg. Where did it come from? What is it doing here? Why can't anyone else see it? The answers will change his life forever.

As always, thanks to Kevin McCleod at incompetech.com for the music.

Find it on the podcast feed now. To download the episode, right click HERE. Or just click the play button below.

And, here are the links to the Amazon listings that I mentioned that I would post in the show notes:

Sunny - Sunny & Gray, Book One

Kingdom of Flies and Fireflies: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume One

A Battalion of Ideas: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume Two

Three Vampire Weekend: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume Three (the collection that contains "The Elephant in the Room").

Wizards and Angels: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume Four

Christmas Creatures: A Twisted Christmas Story Collection

The Elephant in the Room short story version

Clean Up Crew

It's well past New Year's Day, and I've still got all these Christmas decorations up in my study. To be fair, I had something come up, but I don't have that excuse anymore. It's time to clean them up and put them away.

Sadly, just the thought of it makes me want to never decorate for Christmas or any other holiday again.

How much do you think I could get for this stuff if I sold it on eBay?

Funeral Trip

I was out of town for a week, and was totally unprepared for the trip. It wasn't one I had been planning to take. After all, no one knows what day death will come to them, so there was no way to be prepared.

I went for my stepmother's funeral, which was nice, and I think she would have loved it.

It was also very hard, very emotional. It's so hard to say goodbye to anyone, even if they've lived to the ripe old age of 91. I'm going to really miss her. I guess, sooner or later, everyone will probably become an orphan. I lost my mom in 1990, my dad in 2019, and now my stepmom is gone too. The last one who would own up to being a parent for the likes of me. I guess it's time for me to be self-sufficient, eh? Hopefully, I've learned enough in my fifty years of life that I can manage from here on out. No backstop left anymore.

Speaking of being self-sufficient and in charge of my own self, I didn't write a dang thing the entire time I was on the trip. I even brought my keyboard with me, so that I could type stuff up on Google Docs. It was hectic and busy, and I used that as an excuse to take a vacation. Of course, as always happens when I do that, I don't feel like writing tonight either. I want to just keep drifting and slacking. I'll do my best not to let that take over. I've got goals for this year, and I gotta get going if I expect to achieve them. January is going to be a bad month, but I'll get going. Don't worry about me. I won't fall all the way off the wagon and find myself left behind and unable to catch up and jump back on.

The Empty Throne

I finished up my last book, and had nothing to jump into right away. I looked at Bernard Cornwell and found that the next audiobook in the Saxon Stories series didn't even have a wait. I could check it out immediately. So, I jumped in.

This one was funny. They started out with a bit of trickery. In the end of the last book, the hero of the book series seemed close to death, but I was pretty sure that he hadn't died. The book did end abruptly, though, so I thought maybe I had been mistaken. Cornwell started out the book with Uhtred's son as the point of view character. It seemed like maybe the torch was being passed for the rest of the series. Of course, it was a trick. I liked the trick a lot, though. Someday, I'll have to steal that. Fun stuff.

The book, as usual, was interesting and fun. It was easy to get through. The kind of book that made me become a reader in the first place, and I was happy to come back to it each time I got back in my car and the audiobook started up again. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I still recommend these books. Bernard Cornwell has yet to let me down.

I'll Miss You, Mom

In 1990, my mom died of cancer. She was 50 years old and I was only 15. It was very hard on my family. All of us kids had to accept more responsibility, including keeping an eye on ourselves now that our parent wasn't around to do something like that. My dad, I believe, had it hardest of us all. He had four kids at home, he still had all of the responsibilities to provide for them, but now also all the responsibilities of raising them up right all on his own.

For about four years, he struggled his way through this, barely scraping by and having little in the way of social or personal support. Then, in 1994, my oldest brother set my dad up with a woman that he'd met while living in North Carolina. My dad took a risk, and decided to marry this woman without really spending much time in any courting. Their positions on opposite coasts made it impossible to do that kind of thing, so he just decided, "Let's go for it."

That woman's name was Marilyn, and she became my stepmom. Things were difficult at first for us all. It took a while for us to come to grips with the situation and come to understand this new person who had arrived out of the blue and was now living in our house. She was from a very different culture than our laid back California lifestyle, and we bristled at a lot of the changes she wanted us to make. 

I was at the age that I was leaving the house anyway, so it was least difficult on me. I moved on to college, got married, and started my own life. Unlike some of my older brothers and sisters, though, I had lived at home while Dad was alone, and I'd seen how desperately miserable and lonely he'd been in those years, so if Marilyn made him happy, then I figured that anything was worth it.

Dad and Marilyn, despite the irregularity of their initial connection, managed to stick it out. They stayed together for the rest of Dad's life. He passed away back in 2019, and has to be one of the only people I've ever heard of to be married for 25 years to two different people. That seems impressive to me.

As the years went by, we all grew to love an appreciate Marilyn more and more. I tried to show her my love and appreciation whenever I could. She always used to send birthday cards to everyone, and she would sign them: Love, "Mom" Marilyn. I thought that was funny or odd at first, but eventually I found it tragic, and I made it a point to try to never call Marilyn by her name anymore. She wanted to be Mom, and in the end, she deserved to be called Mom. So, whenever we sent her a card, or I saw her, or we talked on the phone, I called her Mom, and I think she really responded to that, and appreciated it very much.

Mom, sadly, has been alone for five years now since Dad passed away. It was a sudden death. He had been fine one week, then got sick the next week, and was dead the next. So, their time together was almost completely joyful. I'm really glad that there wasn't a prolonged period of decline for them like what happened with my mother when she passed. Marilyn, who hadn't had a particularly joyful life up until she met Dad, got to have a wonderful ending.

Now, Mom has gone to join Dad on the other side. Yesterday morning at about 1:15 AM, she passed away. She tripped and fell a few days ago, hitting her head and causing cranial bleeding. That progressed until her body couldn't function any longer and it shut down for good. Like with Dad, it wasn't a prolonged period of decline or a particularly traumatic or painful one, so I'm grateful for that. 

I'm also very grateful to have had her in my life. She was very special to me. She was a character, as many southern folks are. I loved to listen to her talk. Her accent was fun and her personality was vibrant. Usually, all I could do was listen to her talk, because I could never get a word in edgewise anyway. I'm going to miss her a lot. She was a great replacement mother for me and has been a wonderful grandmother for my kids. I just feel honored to have been allowed to know her while I did. Thanks, Mom.

Year Ender 2

Okay, 2024 came to an end. I gave myself the goal of writing 400,000 words in 2024. I had to put in some serious effort to make it there over the last two months. Did I make it? Well, here is my final tally:

Yeah, baby! I killed it.  At the end of October, when my birthday came along, I was at 316,095. Which meant I needed to write 83,905 words in the last two months of the year. That was basically 40,000 per month. I really pushed myself, and got 44,220 in November, which turned out to be my best month ever. Then, I pushed myself even harder in December. I wrote several stories in the month, and even published all of them as well, and I came in 16,645 words over my limit. I killed it.

The trouble is, now I have to top it. How will I manage that? My previous best year ever was 304,474. I topped that by getting to 381,054. So, I pushed to top that, and finished up at 416,645. How far can I push it in 2025? Well, I'm going to do it. I have the plan. If you want to hear about it, check out my Patreon Address. That should be coming up in a week or two over on my Patreon page. See you there.

The Elephant In The Room (Part One)

Just to let you know, my story "The Elephant in the Room" is beginning to run over on The Anklecast. The first part of it was just posted on Patreon at a couple minutes before midnight last night. I managed to get it in just before the month came to an end. December can be crazy.

This is the story of a kid named Louis. Louis trips and falls while trying to get ready for school in the morning. Instead of just hitting the carpet, he lands on something that until that moment was invisible to his eyes. It's an alien egg. Where did it come from? What is it doing here? Why can't anybody else see it? The answers will change his life forever.

If you want to start listening right away, you can find it on Patreon. To become a member of the Patreon group, just follow this link over. Or any of the other links. I try to make sure you have plenty of links to click on. I wouldn't want you to have to hunt for too long to find one. I'll see you over there!