Some Ibsen Plays

Alright, well, can you believe it? It's already Friday. That means I should have three short stories for you. I don't. Instead, I have something a little different to offer you this week. How about a couple of plays by Henrik Ibsen? I'm sure that had ought to work just as well. You may have heard of some of Ibsen's work already. His two most famous works are "A Doll's House" and "Peer Gynt." However, these are not the plays that I want to talk about tonight. Instead, I would rather focus on three other plays by Ibsen. Those are "Ghosts," "Hedda Gabler," and "John Gabriel Borkman."

Catching Up On Some Old Movies This Week

I've been slacking off on some of the reading I should be doing instead. But that's okay. In the meantime, I've been catching up with some classic crime movies. So far, I've watched Dirty Harry, Scarface, and The Godfather (I'm actually viewing The Godfather as I type this up).

Now, what I don't understand is how I've never gotten around to watching any of these before. I'm currently in my mid-twenties, and have only lately started to view these. Better later than never I suppose you could say, right?

I have some other movies lined up for later, but I want to get back to checking some of these books off my reading list. I'll be back next week with a book to tell you all about again. And be sure to come back for some links to a couple of short stories on Friday. I'll try to have some fun ones lined up again for you.

The Call of the Angry Oubliette

Can you believe I've been doing this for over a month already? I really can't. but that it's still going on shows me that I can stick to something if my mind is set on it. Anyways, I have some fun stories for you this week.

Wikinomics: The Business Model of the Future

Not so long ago, I finished reading Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. It's not at all a fiction book, but it takes a hard look at the direction many companies are going and where they will go in the future. The collaboration that comes from wikis and the open source community is changing the way business is run.

Tapscott and Williams offer four key principles that are needed in the future of business if it is to continue down the same route. They are being open, peering, sharing, and acting globally.

• Being open can mean a lot. It can mean being transparent and honest with your employees and clients. It could also mean being open source, or letting others use your "blueprints" (in a sense). Be inviting: open up the doors and let outsiders in. Don't close off your organization. Sometimes it's better to let in others in order to think outside of the box.
• Peering is all about horizontal organization. Tapscott and Williams see this as one of the largest changes to come in the future. Businesses are already becoming less hierarchal and working more laterally with other organizations.
• Sharing is a big one. There's that old saying: The more you give, the more you get. And this is true in the Information Age. The open source community is the golden standard.
• Acting globally means crossing borders, not only company borders, but also country. Working in a local area is great, but many times there are better offers elsewhere.

Along with this, they also show some companies who have lead by example. IBM, Boeing, Lego, and Second Life are just a few of the businesses mentioned in the book.

They have a new book out called MacroWikinomics. I haven't read it, but I have it sitting on my bookshelf. One of these days I'll get to it.

Kirks, Knives, and War

It looks like it's already Friday again, and as usual, I'm a little late in getting this posted. However, it's getting posted and that's better than nothing, right?  This week's stories include War 3.01 by Keith Brook, All the Young Kirks and Their Good Intentions by Helena Bell, and Edge of the Knife by H. Beam Piper. I've even got links for all of them. They're all very good, so be sure to take some time and enjoy them over the weekend.

Finally Finished with A Dance With Dragons

Earlier this week, I finished reading George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. This is another of those books that I started a while ago and have been reading off and on until recently when I just wanted to hurry up and finish it so I could move on to some other books. Not that it was bad or anything. It's an awesome book to be truthful. Th only problem is that it isn't quite suitable as a quick read. But that didn't stop me.

This book is the fifth in the series and is partly split up with the previous book, A Feast for Crows. Events in A Dance with Dragons mainly take place in the north (on the wall and elsewhere) and in the east (mainly surrounding Meereen and those choosing to venture there). There are some other places but not quite that many.

And Martin has risen the stakes even higher in this book. He's killed off some characters that we wish were still alive. He's kept some alive just to tantalize us (or that's what I like to think anyways). But most of all, he's bringing his story to it's big climax. And that I just can't wait for.

Some of the things he's done with the characters in this story are just superb. I love what he's done with one of the characters who he's brought back from the dead (well, not so much brought back as the character never really died, but we were lead to think it did in the previous book). And Cersei finally gets what she's been deserving. Go and pick up a copy the book to find out what happens.

How Many Miles to the Death and Rebirth of the Wub?

Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick -- Planet Stories

I haven't read a lot by Philip K. Dick (or PKD, as many of his fans call him), but I aim to read a lot more, especially after having read this story. This short tale really has it all. Well, by all I mean it has the ill tempered captain, the nervous crew who question to an extent what their captain says, and just a pinch of the otherworldly. The story starts out with the ship taking on some rations from an unspecified port. Dick mentions a few of the odd animals that the characters see, and the wub is among them. The wub looks a lot like a pig, and this makes the crew very happy. Now they have some food that can last them for a few months. But the wub starts to talk. He doesn't want to get eaten. However, the captain insists. I'll leave it there. It's not a long story, but it is worth the read.

The Death and Rebirth of Anne Bonny by Nancy Fulda -- Daily Science Fiction

There isn't really too much to say about this story. This tale is about how a girl loses her imagination and how it one day comes back to her. It's even shorter than Beyond Lies the Wub, so be sure to check it out. You don't want to miss it.

How Many Miles to Babylon by Megan Arkenberg -- Lightspeed Magazine

Darkness has descended on the Earth in this story, and now the main characters must survive through the creatures of the night. As the story alludes, they are on their way to Babylon, perhaps even by candlelight, as the old tune goes. They wonder if there are any other survivors. Perhaps there are. But they try to follow any signs they get. Check it out. It's a little darker than the other two, but it still has a kick of optimism to it.

Finished With Anthem Now

Earlier this week, I finished reading Anthem by Ayn Rand. It isn't quite as exciting as Ender's Game. However, I have been reading a lot of exciting, fast-paced books lately, so it was kind of nice to pick up Anthem and slow the pace down a little bit.

Schrödinger's Parting Weapon? No. Just Three Short Stories

Hello dear readers! It's Friday again, so you know what that means: another bunch of stories. All of these stories you can find online, so just click on the titles if you're interested in reading them and you'll be redirected to that story.

Ender's Game: The Last Quarter

Wow, I sort of got distracted to day and nearly forgot all about this. And I promised to post this today, and here's to hoping that it gets up in time.

Reading Ender's Game

Well, I said I wanted to post at least twice a week, and if you noticed, I nearly missed the second post this week. But I didn't miss it. Here it is. It's a little late because I was hoping to finish the book before writing about it. However, I don't think anyone would mind if I talked about it before I finished it, and then gave an update when finished.

Now, since you probably read this post's title, you will know already that I'm reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Actually, I only started reading it a couple of days ago, and already I'm three quarters of the way through the book, with less than fifty pages to go.

Toasters, Plugs, and Equations

It's Friday again, and you should know what that means. It's time to mull over a couple of short stories. Here are three that I have read in the last few weeks. Two of them have been published recently, and the the other one is a classic.

The Brave Little Toaster by Cory Doctorow -- Technology Review Science Fiction
(The written version of this story is only available in MIT's TRSF. If you would like to purchase it, click the link to Technology Review Science Fiction. However, an audio version read by Doctorow can be found on one of his podcasts, and can be listened to by clicking on the story title.)
In this story, Doctorow imagines how smart house technology could work in the future someday. All of the gadgets, and nearly everything else people will purchase anymore, will have chips in them and will be able to communicate with each other. The story begins with the main character buying a soda. However, it starts malfunctioning, so he tries to get rid of it. But none of the technology in his house can dispose it. So we are left with a question: what is he supposed to do with it? He puts it in the fridge, but the fridge refuses to hold it. He tries to put it in the oven, but the oven thinks it's dangerous. I forgot to mention this, but the story reads a lot like a Dr. Seuss tale, which also makes it all the more fun to read. Anyways, he tries everything, but nothing seems to work. Then he remembers his grandfather's old toaster. It's stupid, but perhaps it is the brightest piece of machinery in his whole house. It does what he tells it to do. He puts the soda can in there, and it ends up overheating. The main character gets arrested in the end, yet he still accomplished his goal.

Character Is What You Are by Michael R. Fletcher -- Daily Science Fiction
Fletcher set his story in the near future, and intellectual property is now one of the most protected things around. The main character and all of his fellow coworkers wear memory plugs at work so that they cannot take any of the company's secrets home with them. So, while wearing the plug, they can recall everything, however, when they take it out, everything associated with the plug goes as well. The strange thing that happens in this story is that while not plugged, the main character meets a woman and starts dating her. I guess that isn't so strange, so let me tell you the strange part: his best friend has been having an affair with that woman while they were plugged. But once they leave the office, they don't remember it. So the main character discusses everything with his friend, and once they put on the plugs, the friend becomes irate and starts to hate him. It's actually a very good story and it got me thinking about more stuff like that.

The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin -- Astounding Magazine
All of us face difficult decisions from time to time. And, put simply, that is exactly what Tom Godwin explored in this short story published nearly sixty years ago now. His main character, by duty of law, must kill a stowaway on his tiny ship, otherwise entry into the planet won't work. It is on his shoulders to do this. Kill the stowaway or kill everyone on the ship. The situation only gets muddier when he discovers who the illegal passenger is. It's a teenage girl on her way to see her brother, or so she thinks. I don't want to go further into detail on this story because it is well worth the read.

Doctors, Soldiers, and Cowboys. Oh My!

Like I promised not only yesterday, but also last week, here is the long awaited first post on a couple of short stories. Some you may have heard of already, while others may be new to you. I hope you can check out the ones you haven't heard of yet, and if you feel like being nostalgic, go ahead and drift back to the past with some of the older stories.

Today there will be three stories: Kurt Vonnegut's 2 B R 0 2 B, A Militant Peace by David Klecha and Tobias Buckell, and Cowboys of Carnostus by Timothy Miller. Vonnegut's story, of course, is the classic while the other two are more modern, being published in the last couple of months. If you click on the titles in the headings down below, you will be redirected to pages where you can find these stories to read for yourself.

Brave New... Frankenstein?

My New Year's Resolution was to publish two posts a week, and I plan on keeping that resolution. So here's this week's first. Not quite the short story post I promised last week. I should have that one up tomorrow, so be sure to come back and keep an eye out for it.

This week I am proud to say that I have finished reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, both of which I had been reading off and on over the last year. There's always something to distract you, and the stuff that you had in mind to do somehow gets stuck on the back-burner, sitting, forgotten for long periods of time.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "So what? You read Frankenstein and Brave New World. Who hasn't?" Well, I think the answer is a lot of people. Some might have to read it in high school, but I never had to. Unfortunately it was never on our curriculum. However, now that I have more time to myself, I have decided to jump into the classics and see what it is that I've been missing all that time. So let's stop yapping about it and jump in already

Spending a Year Delving into Short Stories

Back around Christmas, I stated that one of my New Year's resolutions was to leave at least two posts each week. I need one of them to be constant, something that is just normal and I can easily remember to post each week, and the other can be random and fun.

For the constant post, I have decided to leave some snippets and ideas roused up by some of the short stories I've been reading recently and will continue to read. There's a lot of them out there, which means there is a lot of catching up to do. I've been trying to read a good balance between newer stories (some of them the latest, most of them within the last year) and older works (from the old pulps). Some of them are really entertaining, others mess with your mind, and many are perfect petri dishes for sparks of inspiration. All we need to do is get out our microscopes and examine them a little bit.

And examine them is exactly what I have been trying to do lately, more or less, however, I am coming to believe that finding a public space to discuss some of these ideas may be more beneficial, not only for me but for you, the reader. Let's see if we can bounce some of the ideas back and forth amongst ourselves instead of in our own minds. It's good to reflect on your thoughts, but you don't want to dwell in your own head too long. That's when people start to go crazy. Well, sometimes anyways.

Just be sure to come back next week and check out what stories I've been reading. I'll try to have one recent story, one story from the past, and perhaps one wild card which can be either. Also, in case you may want to read the stories yourself, I'll leave links to wherever I found them.

Now, go and enjoy the beginning of the weekend.