I’ve been tied up running errands most of today (to the vet for $100 worth of cat food [hungry little pigs!], to the grocery store for, well, a lot more than $100 worth of human food [again, hungry little pig! oh, wait, that’s me…], to Rick’s to help him with a computer problem, and so on).  I’m only now finding an opportunity to sit down and have something for lunch.  And a beer.

The next “Washout Lane” entry is long and not very nice.  It’s a response to a comment from a long time ago, a comment from someone in Derek’s family.  The post is not very nice (which is why I never finished it in the first place).  More details will be included when it finally shows up.

I’ve started work on a short story (or, based on length, a novella, but does that word really apply online?) that will be entirely drafted here on my blog.  In fact, my first impression is to simply develop it for online presentation rather than planning to include it in something else down the road.  I don’t have a title for it yet.  It’s fiction (although I’m not sure you’d call it horror or suspense or science fiction or, well, something or other).  That’s not the point.  The point is I started this story a few days ago.  What I intend to do with it is post it as I draft it.  That means it will be a work in progress.  You may see discrepancies in the story (which happens often when writing something like this and which generally get corrected while the story develops), but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum if possible.

I have plans to write yet another short story for online presentation that will be, um, something else.  I’m not sure yet as it’s just starting to form and I’m not certain where I’m going with it.  More on that at a later time.

Oh hell… The truth is I have six short stories I’m working on right now that I hope to post here.  The stipulation is they will be posted if they develop into something worthwhile.  If they don’t go anywhere, they could end up entries in Washout Lane.  All of these are fictional as opposed to my normal drivel based on real life.  In most cases, I will draft the story offline before posting it, although that will not always be the case and some will be posted as I write them (meaning they won’t be as ‘clean’ as they should be).

I decided to kill the intelligent design serial.  That whole mess is moving too quickly for me to care.  It’s tied up in the courts, in the media, in the churches, and everywhere you look.  I’d rather spend my time doing other things than trying to keep up with dishonest religious folk who blindly deny the facts available to them (even going so far as to demand that evidence be hidden since it offends their sensibilities).  The old entries will stay as they are, but don’t expect anything new as part of the serial.

I’ve been trying (to remember) to use trackbacks in new posts if they reference old ones.  I thought it might help if someone stumbles upon (or returns to) something from way back when.  Instead of it just being orphaned out there despite newer content that references it, trackbacks add a comment that points to the new stuff.  Thus far I’ve not had much luck remembering to do it, and it may ultimately turn out to be too anal and too tedious for me to care.  We’ll see.

I’m really tired of spam.  I get more spam than regular e-mail (undoubtedly true for most people who have been on the internet for more than five minutes).  Regrettably, I can’t just delete everything in the spam box and be done with it.  I’ve discovered from time to time that legitimate messages are earmarked as garbage and relegated to the bottomless pit.  I don’t read every message that gets sucked into that black hole, but I do glance at them before wiping them out of existence.  It’s growing increasingly tedious.  I wish we’d enforce the death penalty for spammers (as long as we’re gonna be killin’ people).

On that note, I’m going to find something for lunch.  Surely the shopping idiot brought something home that’s edible…