Ed Parton Blog » Fun & Games

Steampunk My Hero

ed — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:37:58 +0000

STEAMPUNK: Defining the Indefinable

“STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man/baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot.” (Steampunk Bible , Jeff Vandermeer)

A hero is implied in the equation, but for those of us who love our romance, we also need to: + a heroine who refuses to be limited by her circumstances (or her corset) = a burgeoning panoply of books and stories that bust out of the familiar genre boundaries with airships and automatons and steam-based ray guns.

Robert Appleton had this to say about steampunk: “From westerns to pirates to magicians to automatons, we’re stretching the genre every which way. The commonalities—Victorian era mis-en-scene, hyper-advanced steam technology, a fun reimagining of history—are the main draws as always, but the genre’s such a Rorschach for authors (and readers) right now, it’s a case of pretty much anything goes.”

(The Way It Should Have Been, Carina Press Blog)

That means the author can take the reader through alternate realities, on a trip through time, or even out of this world. It ranges from the fun and whimsical to dark and dystopian. All we ask is that you a) don’t judge the books only by their covers (though some are smoking fun!) and b) don’t judge all steampunk books by any one book.

Guest post I found at Steampunk Novel Reaction by Pauline Baird Jones…

TipNut and the Big Picture

ed — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:45:26 +0000

Recent stumblings that are fun, interesting, or useful.

Tipnut – Thousands of Tips and Projects for you to enjoy.
Tipnut is a site where you can tips and projects about cleaning, DIY projects, food, household and health. It may not look like a repository of incredibly useful information but it is. Take a look at the recipes for homemade laundry detergent – I've used one of the powdered recipes and it's as good as anything I've purchased and costs much less.

Word and Tag Clouds: I love to create word clouds and tag clouds using random text.
The two I like and use most often are Tagul and Wordle.
It might look like useless fun, but the results can be used for logos, cards, t-shirts, and other items that use graphics.

CopyPasteCharacter is "….a web and iPhone application for copying the ‘hidden’ characters that comes with the computer’s typefaces, to be pasted into emails, tweets, text documents, forums and whatever else you might need to spice up with an extra ♔, ฿ or, ❒."
If you'd rather not insert special characters using your keyboard this is a great alternative.

Book of Odds is a site that brings you odds about everyday life.
If you like to know the probabilities of things you'll love this site.

The Big Picture is a photo blog that captures events around the world in pictures with brief but descriptive captions.

Purple horse stampede

ed — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:04:38 +0000

What one can dream, one can do. Effort. Gumption. The drive to create comes from our Creator. Even purple horses get their chance.

Lifehacker and Gizmodo got to go

ed — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 14:13:19 +0000

Some of the most interesting clicking on the web. You won’t be disappointed. Money Back Guarantee !

Burbia, Heckler spray and Gajitz

ed — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:17:24 +0000

Just can’t make this stuff up. Truth really is stranger than fiction. This mind blowing list of webpage goodness is sure to please your “ain’t gots nutin ta do” mood. Burbia

Cool Tools and Life Hacks

ed — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 19:14:53 +0000

Way too much information for me. This is the website I wish I had created. Life lessons, tools, asia, technium… more than you have time for in a month !

Robot Cupcakes and Halloween Pancakes

ed — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:04:33 +0000

October Halloween Pancakes? Robot Cupcakes…well they are both cakes and it IS October. Loads of really cool ideas and stuff to save for your grandkids.

Walking Tables, Call Box and DIY ideas

ed — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:01:00 +0000

Sounds really crazy, I know, but you won’t be disappointed at all. Do It Yourself (DIY) never got so good and you might even enjoy yourself.

Instructable Do It Yourself

boing boing.net weird

No April Fool's at CNN

ed — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:03:05 +0000

Greenwich Metric Time
Washington D.C.’s The Department of the Interior revealed that the USA would soon be converting to “metric time” along the same lines as Daylight Savings Time. Under the new system there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days.

Furthermore, seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays. The report included an interview with Director Pasthoure who praised the new time system. The Library of Congress was even shown sporting a new 10-hour metric clock face. Another source TelevisionAU.com shows a reporter posing with a smaller metric clock. CNN was swamped with numerous calls from viewers. One frustrated viewer wanted to know how he could convert his newly purchased digital clock to metric time.

The respected CNN news show anchors Nancy Grace and her partner Jane Valez Mitchell expressed strong opinions on their nightly news broadcasts. Others expressed their outrage.

Huge numbers of callers to their shows at CNN wanted to know how people were going to receive their pay and send their kids to school. “How many days are in a week?” To this the CNN host replied diplomatically, “place your trust in the United States and this will all work out.”

How It Should Have Ended Connie

ed — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:59:15 +0000

Happy Birthday CONNIE…

You have just GOT to go to this website for a visit ! You have to watch a commercial, but, ITS FREE !

how it should have ended.

This is absolutely HilAiriOuS ! Guaranteed not to disappoint.