a little snow?

a little snow?, originally uploaded by steve_tingle.

telephone line

telephone line, originally uploaded by steve_tingle.

iron skillet pork roast with potatoes

iron skillet pork roast with potatoes, originally uploaded by steve_tingle.

oops....

fireball pretty, originally uploaded by Focal Intent.

Charles got off work

at the Fishypiggy by the freeway offramp, out in the middle of nowhere....the usual cluster of filling stations and fast-food on the long section of desert interstate....well, it was desert before climate-change had started dumping more rain out here in the Mojave .....now it was pretty grassy, with lots of quick growing shrub.....Charles palmed open his old Fiat Jeepster, and the satdio came on when he punched the starter....more chaos down in Mexico, where things had been really nasty since the total meltdown of what had passed for government down there....millions more pushing over what was left of the border, into what was left of California Norte....Charles said "rock me", and the carbrain switched the station to Radio London, and some retroglam group started pounding a slick pulse through the sound panels integral to the roof and door .....Charles headed away from the lights of the freeway, off down the old two-lane towards the decaying buried habitat where the rent was dirt cheap....the old joke, dirt cheap underground habitat....he smiled a bit, and lit up a roach he had been saving....the stars were starting to come out....dimmer now than when he was little, as moisture, chemicals, and light-pollution pushed into the once clear desert air....he could see the verticals dropping down from the orbital industries, bright spots of flame falling towards the big spaceport that used to be Edwards.....but what the hell was with that one that was getting bigger and bigger....crap it looks like it's coming down over here, sixty miles away from the landing field.....something is fucked up here.....the 12 ton rocketship hits Earth with a mighty crash and a huge ball of flame, the sound rolling across the flat land, the light turning the dusk to dawn....Charles pulls off to the side of the road, and tells the car to call 911.....the dispatcher asks for the type of emergency, and Charles says..."Um, spaceship down, I guess."

Back around 2010

or whenever it was that they first started growing meat in vats, the early developers had already figured out that they could mix a little fish DNA in with pork or beef and get some omega3 oils into the product, to help with the bad fat deal. For quite a while the big companies tried to worm the vat meats into foodstuffs without talking about it too much, not wanting to be seen as pushing unnatural stuff into the consumer. But the MegaLunch conglomerate from China said what the hell, if you've got it, flaunt it....and they put a lot of money and clever ad work into the FishyPiggy franchise....you know, the cartoon half-pig, half-fish character with the simsoda cup in one hand, and the order of stem fries in the other, swimming into the 3DTV in your living room. I always thought the real clever part was mixing BBQ sauce with shrimp sauce and slathering that on all their sandwiches. "No animals harmed in our kitchens! No spuds either, our fries are 100% ersatz, as is everything we serve, you have FishyPiggy's promise!" Kids love FishyPiggy.

You can have my arrow

You can have my Bow!!, originally uploaded by Helena_Compton.

Grim Old Stone-Eye

grim old stone-eye waited by the ford

for the coming of the outlaw lord

and his riders from the marshlands

intent on raiding from the steads

their fair harvest

with the goodmen in their beds.

the cloud-wracked moon glimmered down

as the stalwarts heard the sound

of iron-shod hooves on frozen ground

and now they see the mounted horde

come riding forward

with spear and sword.

the war bows are bent with arrows notched

as the outlaw lord pauses by the brink

of the border stream

raising his blade to guide his men

on into the sleeping land

defended by stone-eye and his ken

hidden on the bank.

the lord begins to ford the brook

but is by a dozen iron-heads took

down to Hell all at once.

the men of the marsh

see how harsh

is the might of the men of the steads

and turn back from their venture

fleeing away into the deep night

their hearts full of fell fright.

In the Fairy Castle

Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, originally uploaded by lilDeMented.

the scholar from over the sea

was sitting with the older daughter of the house in the sun lit tower room, asking questions about the Iron Prince. He was fascinated by his story; taken at a young age from the castle of his father to be raised up to man hood on the Other Side....the land of the fey. And forty years later come back to assume the throne, looking like a youth of twenty years at best. Time moves more slowly on the Other Side. Here in the Uplands he was called High Prince Starbert, after his grandfather of that name. Well, that was the name struck into the coin, but the Sisters of the Temple called him by his fey name, Stone-Eye.

"How came he by the name Stone-Eye?" asked the scholar.

"When he was first brought before the Queen of the Fey as a lad, he did not seem at all abashed before the wonders of the Fairy Court; he stood quietly amid the glamour and beauty of the Crystal Hall, seemingly unimpressed. The Queen looked at him once, and bid Lord Sylvester, his sponsor, to take Stone-Eye and show him his chambers. Thus was he named in Fairy. Sylvester told me later that when the Prince heard how the Queen called him, he blinked once, and then smiled slightly, as he made a knee in response to the Queen's commands." replies the daughter.