Tomorrow, the 25th, is my wife’s birthday. I won’t be around much. She won’t be getting any diamond rings as we’ve already celebrated this month by us both now having iPhones. But I will give her this, right now, from my heart:

Craving

But mostly I crave the simple love you give me in all moments throughout our prior and future lives within a universe that would be only dark if your eyes, lips, life, mind, smile, and world did not exist in it for all of eternity with me by your side wishing for you the most happiness that could ever be accomplished in this gloriously shining life that is much more glorious because you do love me and I know you do and I love you and always will because you are the light in my eyes, the craving of my soul, and the true meaning of my existence and I will forever be thankful to your mother for one thing: your birth.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

This is in response to the question asked in my forums by Queue:

If everyone on the planet stopped existing but you, but the world, in it’s current state, was left exactly the same, what would you do?

Well, the logical part of my brain has to look at this multiple ways:

• Electricity and running water would only be around for a couple of days, if that, as no one would be running the power plants. So generators would be the only option for electricity. Bottled water would be the only option for drinking water.
• The world’s wealth would be at my disposal, however I don’t know how to fly a plane or sail a boat. So I’d be landlocked and stuck in the American continents.
• I have no outdoor survival skills, so I’d also have to make do in the cities. But since that is the only source of easily gotten food, that’s perfectly okay¹.
• With no other computers having electricity, all communications would be gone. No Internet². No phone. But of course, no people, so I guess that doesn’t matter.
• And another problem: I would have no idea that the world is empty. Can’t communicate to find it out.

But that’s my logical mind. My logical mind pales in comparison to my emotional one. I am human after all. So I’ll answer that part with a narrative:

I wake up to an empty bed. However, this is a normal occurrence, as my wife always gets up before I do. That’s how we get our time to ourselves. She goes to bed before I do and wakes up before I do. So we always have about two hours on our own. I pick up my phone to check my e-mail, a normal part of my routine, but there’s no signal.

I smile at that thought and then pull the trigger.

Is that exactly how it will happen? I don’t know. Will I go crazy and kill myself? I don’t know. But it is a possibility. Lack of human companionship is deadly, no matter what material goods you have at your disposal.

1. I’m talking about canned goods and other foods that would last a long time without a refrigerator [«]
2. Means all those used cisco routers and millions of dollars worth of servers are useless [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 3 Comments »

I’ve yet again been inspired. This time by the Queue Three Networks and their review of my site.

I’ve owned the domain name phantomvoice.net for a long time (over 8 years) and it has been many things for me. But now it’s going to start housing all of my fiction and poetry. I’ve copied all of the fiction and poetry from this site over there. I’m keeping the copies here just for the sake of not having broken links. But form this point on, any poetry or fiction I write will be published over at Phantom Voice.

The reason for this decision was because I really wanted a place that focuses on my poetry and fiction. This blog does not do that. Phantom Voice will. So hopefully you’ll go check it out and read my older writing. I’ll be adding new stuff to it very soon.

Posted by Saphrym | 2 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

When last we left the family that was escaping from the aftermath of Katrina, they were near Texas. Ok. Not they. Us. We found a hotel. We got lucky. Sprint’s information randomly gave us a number for a motel off the main road that was one of those “pay-by-the-week” types of motels. You know the ones. Well, it was actually kind of nice. Had three beds and a kitchen area. We rented two rooms. If it wasn’t for this motel, we’d have not gotten a room until the middle of Texas. Again, we were lucky.

We spent the week in the motel and went back home. Well, to our house. Trees lined the roads like natural gravestones. Our house stood amidst the river of debris. So did the other houses. Our area just hadn’t been hit that hard. My in-laws, however, did not share our fate. Their oak tree fell into their house. It was a gigantic oak tree. It demolished the house. So they moved in with us.

Now imagine this: A 3 bedroom house with a family of 3 living in it. Then 9 people move in with that family. Are you starting to see the full picture? Sanity ran from the house as if it was on fire. Too many people.

So, we started looking for a new place to live. We had planned on doing so in about two years. Katrina moved up the plan by a year. Amidst the jobs in Los Angeles that we looked at, the possibility of Toronto, or even the possibility of maybe getting jobs within the Philadelphia school system, we chose Maysville.

(The End)

So there you have it. A shortened version of the story of Katrina as it happened to us. I’m working on a longer version. If this gets enough comments, maybe I’ll extend the version on the blog.

Posted by Saphrym | 2 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

I had no idea what an ademco was until I rented a house and got renter’s insurance out in the part of Louisiana where we lived. See, to lower the rates (tremendously by the way) you needed a security system. I never left my house unattended much. But this was the day after Katrina. It became a necessity.

The sun came back up the next day. The sweltering heat was felt throughout. Walking outside felt like walking through a waterfall. Louisiana is know for its humidity. That day was much worse. The other problem with heat and humidity is mosquitoes. They love that time of year. They also love human blood. Little tiny vampires with a penchant for sweaty bodies. We didn’t have screens on the windows or doors at the time (a lesson we learned from and remedied later) so our windows and doors had to stay closed to keep out the little bloodsuckers. That made it even hotter. There was me, my wife and daughter, my wife’s mother, brother, sister, great aunt, grandfather, two nephews, four dogs and a cat. We were all crowded in a house that had no electricity, unclean running water, and closed doors and windows. Sometimes we’d go outside and get in the van and turn it on for a bit to have air conditioner. But gas was a rarity, so we didn’t do it often. Ten people and four animals in a hot house just wasn’t working. Two of the adults were over 70. There were three kids under 7. They all had red, sweaty faces with no true relief to be found.

I checked the gas level on the van. We had half a tank. Same thing on the other vehicles. We had to get out. The storm hadn’t killed us, but that heat was about to finish the job. We all packed up, said a couple of prayers, and headed down the road passing empty gas station after empty gas station. After a few hours we were very low on gas and finally found a gas station with people. We waited in the mile long line. We finally pulled up and filled up the tanks with half-hearted smiles on our faces. The store was open, so we went in and got drinks and food, something we hadn’t had since the day before. It was nice and cool in the store. Some of us stood by the drink coolers for a while. We stayed there for about two hours, worried about the trip ahead. While sitting there, the last of the gas was sold. We had been lucky.

We packed up and headed off again. Everyone was cooled off. The vehicles had gas. It was time to find a hotel. We started this trip on the Eastern side of Louisiana. When night fell, we were almost in Texas.

(To Be Continued)

Posted by Saphrym | 7 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it. Continued from Part 1.

Oak. Before the storm there was an oak tree in front of my wife’s family’s house. It was a huge, beautiful oak tree that stretched out to touch the backyard. It stood there protecting the family. But they had come to our house not too long before Katrina showed up. They were riding out the storm where we lived. Hurricanes always skirted our city until Katrina. So they felt they would be safer with us. And they were. The old sentry had shallow roots just like the tree in front of our house. So while we were all cowering from Katrina’s wrath, that old oak tree was uprooted and fell within their house. We had no idea about this until the storm was over. In this story, it’s not over just yet.

The rain was now sandblasting the roads. They were shining from the moisture. But they also contained numerous tree body parts. Limbs all over the place. Pine cones dribbling down the road. These were sights normally seen in silly dreams. But this was a nightmare. If you listened carefully, you could hear the orchestra playing minor chords in the wind. Another >crack< shot my eyes upward and I saw a limb as big as our smallest tree falling straight down to the ground. It landed with a bass filled thump that would cause any audio system geek to shriek with envy. The cacophony of breaking branches and thumping limbs was a terrible beauty.

Then it was over. It stopped so suddenly I was sure it was only a lull. But it was over. The wind stopped blowing and the rain only trickled down, slowly stopping. We had survived the night. The hurricane couldn't hurt us anymore. Or so I thought. What I didn't know at the time is the aftermath of such a storm is much more frightening than the storm itself.

(To Be Continued)

Posted by Saphrym | 10 Comments »

Ever watched ants? They’re very interesting little insects. If you put a sugar cube a distance from their nest, one of them will go and find it. Then it’ll go back and tell the others, and then they’ll all swarm all over that sugar and take it back to the colony. It’s a very concerted effort, and it’s amazing to watch. However, they are ants. This kind of thing is their job. As a blogger, swarming for the same sugar cube is not your job.

Recently, WordPress 2.5 came out. Almost immediately, there were over 100 posts, if not more, announcing the release. When Entrecard changed their pricing system, the same thing happened. Those little nuggets of news were the sugar cubes and the bloggers rushed all over it. It’s great that you want people to know these things. It really is. But, and I’ll try and ask this as nicely as possible, don’t you think the people who read your blog that actually care about that information… don’t you think… they already know?! Heck, I got that neat little yellow stripe in my WordPress dashboard telling me to update. My price at Entrecard changed dramatically and the blog and forums told me all about it.

You want to know which blogs I read every day? The ones with original content. The ones that make me laugh (and not because they copied some comic strip from some other site.) The ones that make me have some form of emotions. The ones that tell me something I didn’t already know. If CNN already said it on their front page, it’s likely you don’t need to say it on yours.

Don’t get me wrong. When a celebrity dies and you want to pay tribute to them, that’s perfectly ok. If you want to do an opinion post on the latest headlines, I’ll be happy to read it. But if I see one more post that basically repeats what the news has been saying all day, I think I’ll… well… nothing too drastic… I’ll just stop reading that blog.

Now, see, snowflakes are awesome. Each and every one is different from all of the others in some way. That’s what you should be. In some small or big way, your posts need to be different than all the others. For example, if your blog is about WordPress and 2.5 has just launched, don’t tell me that it just launched, instead, tell me about the obscure new feature and the original way in which you managed to use it. Or another example, if the news announces that the world is about to be forced to go vegan, don’t tell me about the obvious stuff like food, tell me about the vegan shoes. That would be original, especially if you posted pictures of yourself standing on top of the bookshelf at the local library with a pair of them on. (No, I’m not trying to tell you that standing on top of a shelf at the local library is a good thing. I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m serious. Unless you’re changin’ a frickin’ lightbulb and have permission to do so, don’t go standing on the shelves at the library.)

Don’t be an ant. Be a snowflake… wearing vegan shoes and eating spaghetti with a spoon. Oh, and blogging about something original, which was the point of this post to begin with.

Posted by Saphrym | 27 Comments »

This is the true story of the storm that attacked Louisiana as seen from my eyes and the way I remember it.

I sat in a chair facing the open door to my house staring at our van parked in the driveway. Just three days before, I had been watching mechanics use their air tools on the van. The impact wrenches sounded like they were jack hammering holes into my van. But this… this was different. This was five or six limbs laying on the top of my van. Not little limbs that would break off during a normal storm, but thick limbs from the trees that surrounded our house.

The sky was a scary shade of gray with very small amounts of natural light allowing me to see it. The power was off on our street, so no safe, secure artificial light to block the true horror of that sky. The rain was not falling nearly as much as I thought it would be. This was a hurricane. “Where’s the water?” I asked myself. It’s not like we needed it. The wind was a fear unto itself. Trees in the distance bent over as if to tie their shoes. I listened as one very large tree cracked across the street. I watched as it fell on the power line behind the house directly in my sight. The boom made my chair vibrate.

“So this is a hurricane?” I had always wanted to see one for myself. Guess it was my curiosity. But now, I never wanted to see one again. Another tree fell. The next thought was my daughter. She was in the top bunk of her bunk bed, close to the ceiling. I imagined a tree falling and going through our roof to hurt her. I got up out of my chair and rushed into the room to have her move into our bedroom with my wife. After she quickly fell back asleep, I headed back to the door. Katrina was calling me, wanting to show me her strength, wanting me to bow to her power. I couldn’t help myself. I obliged her every whim.

>BOOM<

Another tree had fallen. This one was much closer, but I couldn’t see where it fell. I raced to the back door to look out. There it was. A pine tree. It had been beaten by the angry woman and was lying still about two meters from the back of our house. It’s bark was being ripped away by the harsh winds. I could almost hear it scream as it was being skinned alive.

>BOOM<

This one didn’t land in the back yard. So again, I rushed to the other side of the house. Lying there in front, about the same distance as the one in the back, was another victim of the storm. This one was oak. The wind forced it to lift its shallow roots out of the ground. But it would live for a while longer. Its roots would not go thirsty because the rain began to fall harder.

(To Be Continued - Comments will make it come sooner than later)

Posted by Saphrym | 12 Comments »

Yeah. I know. It’s a long title. But as everyone should have heard by now, Gary Gigax died on March 4th. Considering his impact on my life, I think he deserves a long title. And this being Sunday, it’s a perfect day to dedicate a post to him. See, I wanted to do something special, but couldn’t think of anything. So it’s taken me a while to do this.

As for the Sunday comment, well, here’s why:

When I was about 13 I was going to church in a small town in Louisiana. The preacher’s son would be in the sound room upstairs during the service and he invited me up there. Unbeknown to the crowd below, he’d bring his Dungeons and Dragons books with him and we’d sit there reading them during the service. I know. I know. “It’s sacrilegious!” But I was 13. There was no youth program. And to be quite honest, the preacher had a monotone voice. Mix that with the fact I was easily bored (and still am actually) and you find there was an excuse. Not a good one, but an excuse nonetheless. That was my beginnings with Dungeons and Dragons. Although that particular activity stopped, I never stopped reading the books. In high school I met friends who also played. That was the beginning of Jolt Cola, Pizza, and Weekend Gaming Sessions. I won’t go into the gritty details. At least not in this post.

So what is this tribute? And why page 1? Well, there used to be this thing on the old BBS systems (read as “before the Internet”) where we would post forum posts that were the beginnings of stories and people would come in and continue them. It was a form of roleplaying, but without the dice, pencils, and math. It tested your creativity and your writing skills. Well, that’s what I want to start here.

RULES

I’m going to start a story just below. I’m then going to tag a specific person to continue the story. The point here is to pick someone who you think can accomplish the goal and also keep the spirit of the story alive. You may want to ask the person before you tag them. Some people would call this a meme. I’m just going to call it fun. To each person who is tagged throughout this story, I ask that you put the page number in your title so everyone can keep track. I also ask that you put a link to the page before yours (in other words, the person who tagged you) so anyone who wants to read the story from the beginning can find their way. And last, but not least, when the person has written the continuation, please edit your post to contain a direct link to the next page. For example, when the person I’m tagging has written their part, I’ll edit the link at the bottom of this post to point directly to their page of the story.

I’m tagging Woobie.

THE STORY

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 |

“What did you just say?” asked Serol. He was a blonde man about in his late twenties. The scar below his right eye always seemed to twitch when he was excited, bad or good. It was twitching now. There was good reason.

“I said I’d rather not go back to Reindwood. I know you came to take me there. But King Cers and I don’t really get along. It’s a long story,” said the gleaming white sword in his hand.

“I don’t know anything about that story. What I’m having a problem dealing with is that you’re speaking in the first place,” said Serol.

“Well, when the King sent you on a quest for the ‘Sword of the Three Souls’ and offered you treasures beyond your wildest dreams, did you really expect me to be a plain sword?”

“No. I figured the cyclops guarding you didn’t just like you cause you were shiny, or he may have considering the intelligence level of a cyclops in general. But a talking sword?” asked Serol.

“For a man who has had conversations with dragons, or so the legends go, you’d think you’d be used to things like this,” said the sword.

“Dragons have mouths. You don’t,” said Serol as he blinked.

“Oh. So now you’re racist against beings without mouths. I see how it is,” the sword grew slightly brighter and with a red tint in the tip.

“Ok. Ok. No need to get angry. ‘Sword of the Three Souls’ is kind of a mouthful. What can I call you?” asked Serol.

CONTINUED BY Woobie.

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

Doing the MWF Read posts has helped me learn a few things by watching the traffic going out of my site from them. What I have learned is that sometimes a blurb is much better than a review.

Have you ever had a friend say something like, “Oh, by the way, I’m pregnant” or “Actually, she’s my sister” and then walk off and not explain? Remember how you ran after them to start asking questions because now your curiosity was on full force? That’s what a good blurb does.

When you write a review for a web site, it tends to tell the reader so much information that they make a decision based on the review as to whether or not to visit the site or not. However, a review can be biased, be missing information, etc. You might leave out some feature or item that would have gotten your reader to immediately visit the site. Or you might have added something that turned them off to it, but they would have liked it if they’d actually gone to see it. There are so many things that can go wrong in a review. The more words there are, the more of a chance you can make a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, reviews have their place and are quite important, but when you want as many people to click as possible, the blurb is the way to go.

Now, when I talk about this, I’m not talking about paid reviews and such. I’ll reserve my opinion on those for another post. I mean when you really want someone to visit a site of a friend or a post that you’d really like to share like I do with the MWF Read posts. This is where blurbs come in handy. For example:

“This site is really great. You should visit it.”

Does that one really get you? I think it’s something like “Absolutely marvelous!” or other such blurbs found on the back of novels that tell you absolutely nothing about the book and sound mostly like hot air. But, what about this one:

“The things that man can do with a can opener. I just can’t stop watching.”

Aren’t you wondering what “things” I’m talking about? Aren’t you curious enough that if there was a link there you’d click to at least see what “things” I’m talking about? Isn’t that something like how “By the way, I’m pregnant” sounds? So, in my opinion, a good blurb is one that gives a few details about the site but leaves you wanting more. Almost like a mixture of poetry and those parts of a television show right before a commercial: Say as much as you can in as few words as possible but make them want to find out the rest.

So tonight’s assignment is this: Write a blurb about the last site linked above you in the comments (usually found by clicking the name of the commenter). For the first person, that would be this site since no one else has commented yet. Be creative. Leave us wanting more. Make us want to click.

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »