The story below is a work of fiction. My gym reopened. Waiting in my car, in the parking lot. Should I go in. What if it’s a trap. Owners now lead a COVID-19 cult, worshipping a pestilence god only found in Dungeons & Dragons campaign manuals, luring human bodies back through their doors to trap … Story: Quarantine VI
I posted this about a decade ago here, but I never posted the actual text. I suppose it doesn’t matter that much but a part of me will feel restless until I actually do, especially I mentioned I would do it way back when. So here it is. It was inspired by something I had … Story: Eve’s Geometry
Here’s a bunch of photos of the haul from my friend Chris Francz, my half of the book trade we did. I wrote for his zine, Crucial Times, a while back, and I’ve always liked his art and writing. His Etsy store is here. I’ve only skimmed these for now, but I’ll dive into these … Photos: Chris Francz Books
This was a story I wrote some time ago for Discovery Christian Church, for a Christmas season service that focused on storytelling and art. The story was printed into a little booklet and sold after the service. The money went to a charity, I think. The art was done by one Kevin Rupert. One of … Story: A Native’s Story
Around Thanksgiving one year, Seth (Buzzgrinder editor) came up with the idea of “foodifying” band names, and the resulting graphics we used for the post are below. I did the Photoshop work to screw with the band logo’s, and most of the band name bastardizations were mine. Had a hard time figuring out who Lunches … Punny Band/Food Names
The story below is a work of fiction. One of three birds has been waking me up in the morning. Windows open–rude awakenings are my unjust reward, straight from the bosom of Mother Nature, for allowing her to get closer to me. Their calls are words. One says “Germany, Germany, Germany.” The other says “I … Story: Quarantine V
This is ambiguous for a reason. Those of you who hold the proper awareness and bias would be able to understand the details. The moving images we’re seeing seeing didn’t come out of nowhere. All the opposing sides were previously hedged away from each other by geography and a veneer of civility, which began to … How It Goes
Attack on Titan, Season 1 One of the only kinda-horror series that I can tolerate, and actually enjoy. The setup with the titans is pretty basic and not a lot is spent diving into their lore; most of this first season’s runtime exposes the structure of Paradis’ military and military police. Humanity here is not … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 8
I left this comment on a recent post over at Jill’s blog: I have a theory* that we’re not really designed to hold opinions on large-scale events and the players involved. It has nothing to do with level of intelligence, it’s really a curse of information technology (starting with the telegraph) combined with our natural … It’s Entertainment All the Way Down
Ed scanned a calendar he had on his wall: an ancient Hebrew calendar with the modern Gregorian calendar within it, for comparison’s sake. Interesting design, and for sure there are other ones like it if you search, and it lends itself easily to making it dynamic. It could be a website…as in, only a website—please, … Someone Should Make a Dynamic Ancient Hebrew Calendar
I created a page of all the stories I’ve posted here at jaydinitto.com—really just the “Story” category archive page. The default is to show an excerpt of the post on archive page, but I wanted to show the whole post content. Unfortunately, that’s not a option in the WordPress admin console, and WordPress’ miasma of … How to Show Full Posts on WordPress Archive Pages
The story below is a work of fiction. We went somewhere. It was a sort of fraternal hall with shopping. Perfectly healthy folks demeaning themselves with masks, hunching over their carts pathetically because standing up straight like a biped with proper lumbar curvatures was too much to ask. Heaven help them if they start smoking … Story: Quarantine IV
Edit: I retitled this as “Part 7.5” because I had two Part 7 review posts. I can’t count. 2012 Total apocalypse p0rn to cash in on the 2012 Mayan calendar nothingburger. Totally implausible equality fingerwagging speech near the end; dude would’ve been tossed off of a glacial cliff if it happened in the real world. … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 7.5
The story below is a work of fiction. It’s come to this. Did everything humanly possible in my matchbox apartment that I could do: meals for the week, wiped everything down, swept corners like those marines in Aliens, swept them again, ironed anything fabric, cleaned my computer of dust and questionable downloads. My phone. I … Story: Quarantine III
In Soviet Russia, glasses move you! The very last scene of Tarkovsky’s Stalker has Monkey reading a book while a voiceover (presumably) announces what she is reading, which is a poem. She then closes the book, looks at the three glasses atop the table next to her, then uses telekinesis to move the the glasses. … Stalker (1979) Final Scene Explanation
The story below is a work of fiction. He went on a date. It was illegal in 40 states, maybe theirs. She texted if he wanted her to wear a mask but he forgot to reply. She wore a headscarf but no not for religious reasons. Her family was from the Maghreb but she looked … Story: Quarantine II
This is a story I submitted to the 2020 Parsec Ink short story contest. It wasn’t accepted, obviously, so here it is, for free. Mrs. James Livermore’s lantern’s light gleamed pale orange onto the weary faces of little Liliana Livermore and her younger brother, Junior, upon their hasty approach to Mrs. Livermore and myself. The … Story: The Lesser Founts at Ilmarinton
This is who Disney hired to write the new “all female” Star Wars series. Here’s how to make a great Star Wars story: interesting characters with flaws and strengths, who change and learn things over the course of the film/series, crazy alien species and space creatures, flashy, acrobatic lightsaber duels, devious villains and undercover agents, … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 34
Going to read and re-read this until I go cross-eyed and hallucinate the omitted determiner in the title.
The topic of the Ship of Theseus experiment came up in the last few days, from two sources independent of each other. Why not post about it? My solution involves three different concepts of ships that exist simultaneously, which we will call Rose, Sina, and Maria. Ship Rose is the concept of Theseus’s ship as … Ship of Theseus Paradox Solution