# The Nowhere Pub

> Fiction, deep thoughts, and other ideas that refused to stay in my head


## Posts

- [Tales From The Pub - The Captain's Visit](https://nowherepub.site/tales-from-the-pub-the-captains-visit/): Captain Llewellyn Gavin Crayford — “Captain Crayford” to many, “Cap” or “Cap’n” to most of his crew, and “LG” to his friends — disembarked from his ship, Running Light, with a sigh. Most of his crew were already off the ship, glad to have some shore leave.
- [Tales From The Pub - An Introduction](https://nowherepub.site/the-nowhere-pub-an-introduction/): I was sure I had walked down this side street hundreds of times. How could I have never seen this pub before?
- [The Worry Stone](https://nowherepub.site/the-worry-stone/): My life fell apart when I was ten — and that night will stick with me forever. It was mid-summer and Mom and Dad wanted a weekend to themselves. I was spending it with my grandparents — Dad’s parents. We’d had a good time with a quiet day — just Grandma, Grandpa, and me.
- [The Mission](https://nowherepub.site/the-mission/): I stopped at the entrance counter, looking around and noting the guards and security cameras — just as I expected and knew would be here. The guard behind the counter looked up from his desk. “Yes? Can I help you, sir?”  
- [The Landing](https://nowherepub.site/the-landing/): Chief Elder Rubinku tumKeren, waist-long red hair braided and looped around his neck, stood by himself in the council chamber, his arms behind his back.
- [Perfection](https://nowherepub.site/perfection/): I know that’s overly cliched, but it was the absolute truth for both of us. I don’t recall, exactly, the very first time that I saw her. She was working at a local market as a cashier. The owner seemed to regularly rotate through pretty girls from the local school. 
- [Notes From A Friend](https://nowherepub.site/notes-from-a-friend/): He sat there, staring at the page, stunned by what he saw, thinking, “But … he’s been my best friend since college. This … This can’t be right.”
- [Nonna](https://nowherepub.site/nonna/): Nonna Torsdottir opened her eyes to the sound of the innkeeper loudly shoving plates and mugs around, seemingly with the sole purpose of waking her. There was a sliver of early sun shining through the just-opened door to the inn.
- [Just Another Summer Day](https://nowherepub.site/just-another-summer-day/): It was going to be a typical late July day. Rather than spending the whole summer stuck in day camp, Mom and Dad had offered that I could stay most of it at my grandparents’ house.
- [Strange Vacation](https://nowherepub.site/strange-vacation/): It had been a long day for Adrian Bridges. He considered, yet again, why he’d decided to take up auditing as a career. Sure, he enjoyed the few times when he’d found that one of the his clients’ employees was messing up with the record-keeping, but he had yet to have one where he could confront someone who was obviously embezzling from their company. 
- [Crying Is Allowed; Stopping Is Not](https://nowherepub.site/crying-is-allowed-stopping-is-not/): It’s now Friday of the “Vacation Week” I’d mentioned in my previous post (Taking a Vacation – No, really!). My son and I are in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, right at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The original plan was that he would be doing a lot of hiking while I’d just be relaxing at where we’re staying and doing a lot of reading. We also spent some time planning out what we’d be doing each day, mainly because he wanted to be sure he covered all of the hikes he wanted to do and still factored in any […]
- [Taking a Vacation – No, really!](https://nowherepub.site/taking-a-vacation-no-really/): It’s been far too long since I took a proper vacation. I won’t get into all (any) of the details as to “why”, but … suffice it to say, it’s been over a decade. That’s (been) changing this year, due mainly to changing circumstances. My new employer has a very … generous … PTO policy. This is largely due to it being an international company, based in the EU, so they need to hew to EU standards. And, rather than fine-tuning everything by location, they just have blanket policies. Now, because they are international, they also don’t really understand local holiday calendars […]
- [Feeding a Nostalgia Itch – Disappointment](https://nowherepub.site/nostalgia-itch-disappointment/): For the past few years, I’ve had a lingering itch in the back of my head to revisit the town where my grandparents (both long since deceased, with my grandfather passing a couple of decades before my grandmother) lived. I also lived there for a couple of years (when I was 8-10), but my mom and I visited regularly. Chester To put some logistics in place, they lived in Chester, New York, which I always described as “lower upstate New York”. Growing up, their house was a couple of minutes (by bicycle) away from planted fields, and the firehouse siren announced […]
- [It Seemed Like A Simple Question, Part 4 (End)](https://nowherepub.site/it-seemed-like-a-simple-question-part-4-end/): This post (and its companion pieces) is the result of an extended conversation with an AI research assistant that started somewhere entirely mundane and ended up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. It got heavy enough that I felt it was worth sharing — so, naturally, I worked with my research assistant to write it up. Make of that what you will. This series started here. You really want to start there. Trust me on this. … And Nobody Came Back We need to talk about something uncomfortable. Not “uncomfortable” in the way that a difficult conversation at work is uncomfortable, or the […]
- [It Seemed Like A Simple Question, Part 3](https://nowherepub.site/it-seemed-like-a-simple-question-part-3/): This post (and its companion pieces) is the result of an extended conversation with an AI research assistant that started somewhere entirely mundane and ended up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. It got heavy enough that I felt it was worth sharing — so, naturally, I worked with my research assistant to write it up. Make of that what you will. This series started here. You really want to start there. Trust me on this … All The Gods Have The Same Faces … Here’s something that should bother you more than it probably does. Take any major religious tradition from the […]
- [It Seemed Like A Simple Question, Part 2](https://nowherepub.site/it-seemed-like-a-simple-question-part-2/): This post (and its companion pieces) is the result of an extended conversation with an AI research assistant that started somewhere entirely mundane and ended up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. It got heavy enough that I felt it was worth sharing — so, naturally, I worked with my research assistant to write it up. Make of that what you will. This series started here. You really want to start there. Trust me on this. … The Evidence is Uncomfortable … In Part 1, a question about hair and nails led somewhere unexpected. Now let’s look at whether the evidence actually supports […]
- [It Seemed Like A Simple Question, Part 1](https://nowherepub.site/it-seemed-like-a-simple-question-part-1/): This post (and its companion pieces) is the result of an extended conversation with an AI research assistant that started somewhere entirely mundane and ended up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. It got heavy enough that I felt it was worth sharing — so, naturally, I worked with my research assistant to write it up. Make of that what you will. It Started With Hair … I have a habit — some might call it a problem — of asking questions that sound simple and turn out not to be. This particular rabbit hole started with what seemed like a straightforward observation: […]
- [AI Consciousness and Science Fiction](https://nowherepub.site/ai-consciousness-and-science-fiction/): I had an intriguing conversation with a Claude AI instance which, I think, touched on some interesting (at least to me) topics and left me with a desire to create a T-shirt … even if only for myself. Here is the text of the conversation. Warning – this is lengthy. The Threshold Question Earlier today, I saw a brief post regarding whether or not you (Claude) had achieved some level of “consciousness”. All other aspects aside (after all, as we’ve already talked about, I am somewhat treating you as the Mike to my Mike – or my Mannie), it instantly made […]
- [Saga of The Last Banana](https://nowherepub.site/saga-of-the-last-banana/): Back in my tweens, I lived in an apartment in New Jersey with my mom. We would often buy a bunch of bananas. They would then sit on the counter and, slowly, be eaten. Well, they’d mostly be eaten. I say “mostly” because, for whatever reason, the very last banana would. inevitably, sit there and become overripe and eventually get tossed in the trash (so we would feel comfortable with, then, buying another bunch of bananas the next time we went grocery shopping). This cycle repeated for quite some time (well over a year). Neither of us consciously and purposely avoided […]
- [The Detective's Tale](https://nowherepub.site/the-detectives-tale/): Darius Beckford glanced at the wall clock. Its hands moved – slowly, relentlessly. He pushed back from the desk, rubbed his eyes, and muttered under his breath. Hours spent staring at notes and evidence. Absolutely nothing. Realizing the day had gone nowhere, Beckford shoved the scattered papers back into the case file and snapped it closed. This damned murder case had landed on his desk because the train had stopped in his city. The engineer complained about the brakes. When the conductor went to check on the passengers, he found the body. Edward “Eddie” Carver had been a wealthy businessman. Where’d […]
- [The Chosen Ones' Tale](https://nowherepub.site/the-chosen-ones-tale/): Doran Terrell had heard many a tale of yore, of heroes past – saving various people and lands; but he’d never expected to be called to be one himself. That sort of thing never happened to simple fieldworkers from Clayshear. Except, he couldn’t say that any more. Yes, they had a dragon problem.The Count had sent out calls for someone – anyone – to slay the dragon. It was burning its way through the nearby wildlands, drawing ever closer, clearly expanding its domain. It didn’t seem open to any form of appeasement, not that the townsfolk could have scraped together more […]
- [Using AI As a Creative Partner](https://nowherepub.site/using-ai-as-a-creative-partner/): About a week ago, I proverbially kicked myself in the butt and decided I needed to get back to doing some writing. I’ve definitely wanted to develop more Pub Tales (it goes with the site, right?). Additionally, I’ve had an ongoing lingering desire to do more in the Kethyras set of stories. However, i’ve had more than a little bit of … call it “writer’s block“, as that’s probably the closest correct term. Specifically, I’ve wanted to write, but the ideas just haven’t really been forthcoming. This is, admittedly, an issue which has plagued me quite a bit. Once I can […]
- [Summer 2025 Anime – What I've Been Watching](https://nowherepub.site/summer-2025-anime-what-ive-been-watching/): What a surprise – running way late again … sigh Not even going to say much more than that, honestly. Obviously, the season (at this point) is coming to a close, so this is more the “What I’ve Watched”, but, in any event, here we are. Standard boilerplate: Quick Internal Links Continuing Shows Anne Shirley – The second cour of this series. Still enjoying it (mostly), as the story moves into Anne’s young adulthood. Summer Pockets – Oh. My. God… This show is just soooo good. Yeah, it’s an emotional gut punch (or more than one) per week, but it’s all […]
- [9/11 Is a Difficult Day For Me](https://nowherepub.site/9-11-is-a-difficult-day-for-me/): Somehow, this time of year always seems to sneak up on me. I wasn’t personally involved with any of th events of that day in 2001. My mother used to work in NYC, but had retired. I hadn’t worked in NYC since earlier that year, so I would have been safely ensconced in my office in Morristown, New Jersey. I say “would have been” for a very simple reason. I was entangled with something else at the time. See, my grandmother (my mother’s mother) – the only other close relative I had – had passed away the day before … on […]
- [Spring 2025 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/spring-2025-anime-what-im-watching/): Updated to finalize I’m going to try and get a jump on this and actually add shows here after I’ve watched the first episode or two. Theoretically, that will enable me to get the titles (and initial thoughts) here quickly. That is likely to mean, though, that I won’t have the music selections done, nor the “clear winners”. I’ll update those as the season progresses (and, maybe?, note up here what I’ve updated). If I can “stick the landing” on this, I might have to migrate to a “start of season” + “ongoing thoughts” style, but – who knows? In any […]
- [Winter 2024 Anime – What I Watched](https://nowherepub.site/winter-2024-anime-what-i-watched/): I know, I know … running horribly late again. I’d started writing this a few weeks into the season and then ran out of steam, so it sat for quite a while as a draft. Consequently, this is pretty much a recap of what I watched, rather than talking about it in the middle. Standard boilerplate: Quick Internal Links Continuing Shows Arifureta, S3 – The final few episodes of Arifureta spilled over into the Winter season. I’m a definite fan / enjoyer of the series, so I absolutely was here for it. There’s strong indications that there won’t be a season […]
- [Tyrklappi Oskarsdottir](https://nowherepub.site/tyrklappi-oskarsdottir/): In one of the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns I play in, my character Lhoris met an untimely and early demise – which is to say … he died. However, in a role-playing game like this (unlike in online games), you don’t just respawn back at a save point (like an inn). And, unlike solo games, you can’t just reload a save file. Nope, he’s dead. This meant I had to create (“roll”) a new character. In this campaign, we roll dice to built our character’s attributes. And for this one, the dice were fairly obvious about what character class (the type […]
- [Fall 2024 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/fall-2024-anime-what-im-watching/): I know, I know … running horribly late again. I’d started writing this a few weeks into the season and then ran out of steam, so it sat for quite a while as a draft. Unfortunately (?), you’ll probably be able to tell the stuff I wrote after I got back to it as those descriptions are, admittedly, much more terse and compact. (I decided to also flag these.) Note that the delay in writing about stuff isn’t, in and of itself, intended to be any indication of how much I like any particular series. it really was more about just […]
- [Pimumo](https://nowherepub.site/pimumo/): Interestingly (?), along with the Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’m in with my other character, Lhoris, I’m in a second one. This is a completely different group with different people. Consequently, I’m playing a new character. This character, Pimumo Longfoot, is a halfling (think “hobbit”, but not really a hobbit) fighter – classic “get up close to someone and beat them to death with a weapon” type of character. Since we’re using the “new” D&D rules (known by various labels, but for here, I’ll just call it 5E2024), the method for character creation has changed somewhat, and, beyond the basic ability […]
- [Summer 2024 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/summer-2024-anime-what-im-watching/): I know, I know … running horribly late again. I’d started writing this a few weeks into the season and then ran out of steam, so it sat for quite a while as a draft. Unfortunately (?), you’ll probably be able to tell the stuff I wrote after I got back to it as those descriptions are, admittedly, much more terse and compact. At least take the fact that I’m still watching those series as some indication of … something? Standard boilerplate: Quick Internal Links Continuing Shows Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF – According to most sources, this […]
- [Lhoris](https://nowherepub.site/lhoris/): I have recently started playing Dungeons & Dragons with some others. The character I have chosen to play is “multi-class,”. meaning they are able to use skills and abilities from more than one class in the game. (This comes with a handcap, in that multi-class characters progress slower, since they have to “feed” experience into both classes separately, and can’t “level-up” everything at the same time.) The character I am playing is a combination Monk / Sorcerer. Monks are a melee combat class – based on, as an example, the Shaolin monks (as portrayed in so many movies) – practitioners of […]
- [Artificial Intelligence or Just a Superpowered Spreadsheet?](https://nowherepub.site/artificial-intelligence-or-just-a-superpowered-spreadsheet/): Note: This had been sitting, unfinished, for about a month while I was trying to find a good banner image to go with it (or, failing that, possibly get one made). Both activities failed, so – just enjoy the post? Please? In a slight change of pace, I’m going to comment somewhat on a topic which many people seem to completely misunderstand … Artificial Intelligence or “AI” as it’s usually known. I’ve recently seen and heard lots and lots of jabbering and blathering on about how “AI is going to take over the world” and such – fueled, I’m sure, by […]
- [Spring 2024 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/spring-2024-anime-what-im-watching/): I know, I know – this one has been horribly delayed. I have no excuse beyond my own laziness. Some of the shows are well past their halfway mark, but I’m chugging along. I’m going to stick to something close to the format I used the last time (Winter 2024), with a couple of small changes: And I still have my Clear Winners list at the bottom. Standard boilerplate: Quick Internal Links Continuing Shows Delicious in Dungeon – The wacky food-driven view of the inside of a Dungeons & Dragons game is back. This cour, the story has gotten much more […]
- [I've Moved!!!](https://nowherepub.site/ive-moved/): No, no – I haven’t physically moved (unless you count puttering around my house – and you shouldn’t). Rather, I’ve moved electronically. Virtually? More specifically, while this is still the same Nowhere Pub you’ve been visiting before, just like the titular one, the door from the outside is in a different location. Lucky you, though! You’re a Regular, so you can always find the door, right? What ARE You Babbling About? For those who may be unaware, websites don’t just magically happen “in the cloud“. As someone once remarked, “‘Cloud’ just means using someone else’s computers.” And that’s the way most […]
- [Self-Selecting Communities](https://nowherepub.site/self-selecting-communities/): Originally, I was thinking of titling this, “You Know How To Do WHAT???”, but I realized there’s a slightly different tack I want to take on this. I’ll still start from that perspective, though, so hang on – there’s a convoluted path to get to that “self-selecting community” conclusion. You Know How To Do What??? Ok, it was too good a headline to completely throw away. I am the proud possessor of a pilot’s license; specifically a PP–ASEL license (Private Pilot – fixed-wing aircraft, Single-Engine, Land). This is as compared with, like, a helicopter or balloon, multi-engine, or a seaplane – […]
- [Nostalgia – Almost As Good As It Used To Be](https://nowherepub.site/nostalgia-almost-as-good-as-it-used-to-be/): Yesterday (Saturday), my high school alumni held an “all classes” reunion. Quite a few years ago, my class had a small one that I attended, and I’m aware many of the other classes also have held some. But, this time, they wanted to drag all of us together into a single room. As a bit of a surprise (for many, I think), we – Class of ’83 – had the biggest turn-out and representation … to the extent that we were able to fully occupy two whole tables at the venue. In pretty much all cases, it has been forty-one (41) […]
- [Winter 2024 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/winter-2024-anime-what-im-watching/): And, once again, it’s time to delve into the collection of this season’s anime. It’s a bit late into the season (already approaching the half-way point), but … what can I say? Been busy / distracted with a bunch of other stuff. I’ve divided them up into very general categories. Please note these are not necessarily the “official” categorizations for the shows. I leave that for other, more learned, folks to do. This is purely my own way of thinking of them. As always, the listing of the shows within each category does not indicate any sort of preference – it’s […]
- [Untimely Encounter in Kethyras (Redone)](https://nowherepub.site/untimely-encounter-in-kethyras-redone/): [Author’s Note – Based on some feedback / input. I did some major hack-and-slash-ing at the original version of this story (found here). Mostly, it’s a combination of structural reordering as well as slashing out some of the “Walls’o’infodump”ing which, in retrospect, I realize was way too much to toss in. It definitely reads better / cleaner, IMHO. Hope you enjoy the new one as much as I do!] Nonna Torsdottir had been traveling on foot for two Zephyrionths since her odd night’s stay at a caravan rest stop in the woods. That evening, talking with the old man who had […]
- [Cleaning House and Redecorating](https://nowherepub.site/cleaning-house-and-redecorating/): For a while, I’ve been annoyed by some of the quirks and foibles of the design of my site. I won’t get into the details of what I was annoyed about – it’s not important – but it’s been something nagging at the back of my head for a while. The basic source of the annoyance was, fundamentally, my own lack of knowledge and experience with WordPress when I started. Since, at the time, I was consumed by a whirlwind of writing I was doing / recovering from, I didn’t have the spare mental energy I could devote to learning WP […]
- [Tales From The Pub - The Adventurer's Tale](https://nowherepub.site/tales-from-the-pub-the-adventurers-tale/): The harsh blizzard was still blasting, even after returning to the valley from the summit of the mountain. Another flag planted and another story to share over brandy and cigars back in the Adventurers’ Club once he’d returned home. The blurry photographs of indistinct shaggy man-like shapes, garbed in mere fabric, hidden through the swirling snow would add to the mystery of the story he’d spin. Of course, he could never – and would never – reveal how it was one of the guides hauling his own pack into camp through the storm. After all, that might merely incite others from […]
- [Changing Myself](https://nowherepub.site/changing-myself/): In many ways, this is a follow-up post to Finding Profound Wisdom in Fiction. If you haven’t read that one yet, you really should as you probably won’t understand some of the basic ideas here otherwise. Note that this post really is discussing things I thought about and internalized approximately a decade and a half ago. Years Later … A couple of years after I read (and learned about) the concept of “Choose Again” (read the linked post above to really start to grok that one), I was having a bit of an … identity crisis. Not sure that’s the best […]
- [Other Fictional References](https://nowherepub.site/other-fictional-references/): First off – Yeah, it’s been a while since I posted anything. I wish I could say I’ve been busy, but that would be far from the truth. The reality is more a combination of an extreme lack of inspiration and a massive writer’s block of feeling like I just don’t have any ideas of something to write. I can’t even say this is a sign of either of those ending, but is, instead, a bit of a rant. In this case, it’s based on one of the anime series I’m watching this season, specifically, “Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions“. The Series […]
- [Fall 2023 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/fall-2023-anime-what-im-watching/): I realize I hadn’t included a “wrap-up” post for Summer ’23, but things hadn’t really changed from where they started. Mushoku Tensei was powerfully emotional and very good. (Who would’ve thought most of a season devoted to the main character figuring out, and then curing, his erectile dysfunction would be so well-written?) The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses was definitely my favorite rom-com, and The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today was slice-of-life gold! Moving on to this season, however … even limiting myself to just those shows available on CrunchyRoll (not plugging them; they’re just the subscription service I […]
- [Parenting Failure](https://nowherepub.site/parenting-failure/): Ok, so not really, but maybe just a tiny bit? One of the common activities of parents, at least throughout all of my early childhood, was the creation and assembly of photo albums as a method of documenting the early life of a child (even as a baby). The trope certainly is common enough in television and movies – the child brings a prospective spouse to meet a parent and one of the first things that happens is the parent drags out the potentially embarrassing photos of their child to show them off. Even I have a collection of photo albums […]
- [Cooking – "I Was Today Years Old…"](https://nowherepub.site/cooking-i-was-today-years-old/): Well, maybe it was a few days ago years old, but it’s still a very recent revelation, What Are You Talking About? I’ve been cooking for well over four decades. Yes, I’m in my mid-fifties now, but I am Gen X, and my “generation” learned skills when we were very young. So, of course, that included learning stove-top pots-and-pans cooking techniques when I was in my teens (at the latest). And, yes, that meant I was using a gas-flame stove while completely unsupervised. [No, I never burned down a house or set fire to anything other than what I was intentionally […]
- [Technology Can Be Frustrating (Updated)](https://nowherepub.site/technology-can-be-frustrating/): [See at bottom for update.] From my previous post regarding technology ahead of its time, I now jump to a current frustration. Within the last few weeks, I decided I wanted to migrate my “gaming PC” upstairs to be close to my new Macbook area (as described here). Yes, the Macbook is an absolute beast, but not many games have been adapted for Apple’s Silicon CPU (“Aren’t all semiconductor chips made from silicon?”), thus the opportunity for even mild entertainment (other than just watching a video of some sort) isn’t really all that vast. Enter “the gaming PC”. This was a […]
- [Technology Before Its Time](https://nowherepub.site/technology-before-its-time/): Most of this post, at least the background portion, harkens back to the early 1990s – to give you a reference timeframe. Several years after graduating college and a very brief interlude attempting to pursue a career in <REDACTED TO PREVENT EMBARRASSMENT>, I returned to a Systems Administration (sysadmin) role. This time, I was working (initially as a contractor and then converted to full-time directly) with AT&T – back when AT&T was still considered the major powerhouse in long-distance telecom. [This was also back when cell phones were a rarity and were larger than some women’s handbags – being often known, […]
- [Finding Profound Wisdom in Fiction](https://nowherepub.site/finding-profound-wisdom-in-fiction/): I never hide the intensity with which I have always read science fiction and fantasy. After all, I’ve been a voracious reader since I was ten years old. I’ve slowed down some lately, so I’m not consuming a novel a week like I was when I was in school, or regularly commuting by train but I still read at what I’m sure most others would consider a ridiculous pace. When I was much younger, I was a subscriber to what was known as the Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC). It was a subscription service which published special hardcover editions of science […]
- [What a Difference Bedding Makes?](https://nowherepub.site/what-a-difference-bedding-makes/): Preface: While I discuss some shopping activities here, I am making absolutely zero mention of the specific brands or any related details of what I purchased. I’m not trying to shill, nor to sell anything. This is merely a recap of my recent activities and what led to them. I had a recent (within the past week or so, interesting experience with my bed. [No, not that kind of experience – get your minds out of the gutter!] The Backstory To first set the stage, I’ve had the same bed (frame) for just over a decade. I purchased it as part […]
- [Summer 2023 Anime – What I'm (Probably) Watching](https://nowherepub.site/summer-2023-anime-what-im-probably-watching/): Wow … it’s actually been just about a year since I started this site. While it was originally intended as a way to showcase (or some other word to that effect) my creative writing skills (and the products thereof), I’ve veered a bit off-course. This has been, admittedly, due to my personal “muse” deciding to take an extended holiday. I do hope it returns at some point, as I truly did enjoy crafting a story. However, at the moment, I find myself without any sort of story to craft. I could just endlessly challenge myself, as it were, with writing prompts […]
- [My “Bathhouse Experience”](https://nowherepub.site/my-bathhouse-experience/): [Caution – This is a looooong post as I go into a bunch of details. So, you may want to come back here a few times to read more. You have been warned.] [Also, I started to write this on Thursday, July 6. 2023. It’s already past midnight and I haven’t quite finished yet, and will do so tomorrow. Don’t worry though – once this is posted, it really is all done. I’m including this to give you some indication of just how long post is.] The Background As I’ve made no effort to hide, I am a fan of anime […]
- [Gen-X Reborn?](https://nowherepub.site/gen-x-reborn/): I have two sons. I generally don’t talk about them here because, well – this is my page / these are my posts and this should not be about them. However, I am becoming increasingly more and more convinced my younger son, who I’ll refer to as Z, (currently 17) may well be (in some ways) a sort of … Gen-X Reborn. Rewinding A Bit First I was born in ’67, which puts me fairly solidly as a Gen-X’er. Unlike “most” Gen-X, though, my parents were not of the “Baby Boom” generation. Both of them were born pre-WW2. Additionally, unlike many […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings for MMOs – Final](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-final/): [This is the last part of a series of posts which started here: My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.] My Ultimate Realizations The title for this series was carefully chosen and, in retrospect, really does tend to “nail” exactly my overall thoughts regarding any and all of the MMOs I’ve ever played. [Note, I will not be providing links to any of the games I mention here, as there have been those scattered throughout as I’ve discussed each game.] The Good The amount of work and attention to detail (on […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part VI](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-vi/): [This is part of a series of posts which started here: My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.] Battle for Azeroth As I said in the last post on this topic, I had played all the way through the Legion expansion – including all of the raids, at least at LFR difficulty – and was looking forward to the next one – Battle for Azeroth! I must admit, though, that while I definitely remember enjoying playing the game, I don’t remember much about the expansion itself. I even needed to go […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part V](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-v/): [This is part of a series of posts which started here: My Love-Hate Relationships For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.] Building a New Main With my new PC up and running and me comfortably ensconced in my living room for gaming, it was time to sign up for World of Warcraft (again) and download it. As my old Warcraft account was from loooong ago, rather than trying to find it and resurrect it, it was truly easier to just start a new one. This, then, also meant I was starting without any characters. […]
- [Idea and Word Association-Spaghetti](https://nowherepub.site/idea-and-word-association-spaghetti/): “What the heck does that title mean, anyway?” Word Association I expect most people are familiar with the concept of “word association“, not just the game, but the idea that we have a tendency to link things together in our heads, such that “tugging” on one word brings with it, usually automatically and not necessarily intententionally, one or more other words which are usually “close” to it. Just as an example, take the word, Stop. Perhaps that triggered “sign” or “light” or maybe even (depending on your age and music tastes, “… in the name of love”). Any of those, or […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part IV](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-iv/): [This is part of a series of posts which started there: My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.] The Long Lull Having felt the need to turn tail and run back to High-Sec space in EVE Online, I was dispirited. I won’t say “broken“, but certainly much of the allure of online gaming had worn off for me, and I also “retreated” to solo (non-online) gaming for boredom relief. Fast forward several years in which, to put it mildly, “a lot of stuff happened“. And, then, one day, I found myself […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part III](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-iii/): [This is part of a series of posts which started here: My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.] Next Stop – Spreadsheets In Spaaace! The reference here is definitely an “If You Know, You Know” sort of thing. The game I went to, after World of Warcraft was none other than EVE Online. Based on my recollection of events that occurred while I was playing, I will speculate I started playing EVE in 2008-ish or so. Coming directly from Warcraft (with what amounted to an infinitely-customizable User Interface and all sorts […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part II](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-ii/): [You probably should read My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I first, if you haven’t already, just so you can get context on this one.] Jumping on the World of Warcraft Hype Train When we left off, dear reader, I had just decided to drop Puzzle Pirates (due to a lack of anyone playing who I knew / chatted with) and follow them to World of Warcraft. This version was what has now come to be known as “Vanilla”, which is to say, the very first public release of the game. The player level cap (the maximum level of advancement […]
- [My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I](https://nowherepub.site/my-love-hate-feelings-for-mmos-part-i/): I very much have a love-hate relationship with MMOs, and I’ve had one for well … far, far, far too long. It seems, typically, to be based around winding up feeling incredibly bored and then trying to find something to relieve that boredom (which typically involves all sorts of time-wasting – as MMOs tend to cause). Normalizing Terminology In general, almost all MMOs have common “concepts”, although usually different names for them. Where possible (and I remember or find it), I’ll provide the in-game term and reference the “normalized” one. [This is using the term “normalized” in the statistical sense of […]
- [Mystery Letters](https://nowherepub.site/mystery-letters/): Caitlin knocked at the front door of the house then caught herself and used the key to open the door. Even after a year of being back in the home she grew up in, some habits died slowly. The twenty-two year old woman looked around the entryway. She still remembered the day her parents had asked her to come back for what her mother had called “possibly an extended visit; we’ll explain once you’re here.” As she entered the kitchen at the rear of the first floor, she gazed lovingly at the table, well-worn with dings and scratches on the surface […]
- [The Portal – Response](https://nowherepub.site/the-portal-response/): I don’t normally write anything for a writing prompt, but I’ve been horribly unproductive and torn between simultaneously wanting to “create” something yet also having nothing banging around in my head that wanted to turn into words. So … in my down-time, I went hunting around and found this one. Prompt: A portal appears in an unlikely place. Where is this, what does it look like, and where does it lead? [Limit 2000 characters] I remember when it appeared. I was in the center of town, visiting my best friend Corey who worked at Dylan’s Hardware. Someone shouted from outside and […]
- [It's Been A While…](https://nowherepub.site/its-been-a-while/): Yeah, I know. I haven’t really added anything here because I’ve been in a serious lull / rut. As I’ve joked with a few people, after getting “Untimely Encounter in Kethyras” finished, my muse kinda checked out, saying “Welp, that’s one. I’m going on vacation. Back in a couple of years or something like that.” And that’s seriously sucked. On the up(?)-side, I’ve reached out to several people for some story brainstorming in my “Kethyras” setting as possible collaborators (no, I don’t mean that in an evil way … or maybe I do? Who’s to say?) for more Nonna & Helene […]
- [Spring 2023 Anime – What I'm Watching](https://nowherepub.site/spring-2023-anime-what-im-watching/): It’s that time again! Actually, it’s already past that time, as pretty much all of the Spring 2023 anime series have already had three or four weeks to get episodes in. To look at it on the positive side, though, this means that the “filtering” process has already run its course and I’m down to the shows I’m actually watching. As always, before presenting the list, I will remind everyone I watch anime through a Crunchyroll subscription (just mentioning this for relevance, not for advertising – which is why there’s no link there). Believe me, I know Oshi no Ko is […]
- [Forgot to "Toe" the Line](https://nowherepub.site/forgot-to-toe-the-line/): Yeah, really bad title pun. Couldn’t come up with anything good off the top of my head. Long story short – I am decently sure (like, 98+%) that, last night, I managed to fracture a toe on my left foot. (“Of my left foot”? Hmm… maybe just “one of my left toes” would be better… in any event, though …) While all five fingers have relatively specific naming, I’ve always been amused that toes don’t seem to have quite the same sort of common naming scheme. Yes, I’m sure that podiatrists and foot-fetishists everywhere just got a bit of a twinge […]
- [Untimely Encounter in Kethyras](https://nowherepub.site/untimely-encounter-in-kethyras/): Helene Fabry, full Quadrimage, recently past her twenty-first birthday, allowed a smile to touch the corner of her lips. The hood of her cloak was pushed back, as the early morning winds of Autumn blew from Kethyras Harbor through the city streets. The air was still gentle (not that she was unable to control it if she chose), and had not yet turned cold, wet and miserable. Her shining silver hair, somehow transformed from its original light blonde by her Awakening as a Mage, hung in loose curls to her shoulders. As was customary for most Mages, she wore long-sleeved tops […]
- [Doing a "Thing"](https://nowherepub.site/doing-a-thing/): So, I’m currently in the process of (as the header advertised) doing a “thing”. Yeah, yeah. “What the hell is this ‘thing’ you are doing?” This one needs a little bit of backstory (as, it seems, do most of the stuff I talk about, I guess?) so settle in. I need to rewind the calendar a tiny bit … specifically, all the way back to approximately 2012 or so. Wanting to Leave a Legacy I am, at this point in life, a single dad. I am divorced, and have two sons. My parents were both long-enough since deceased before my sons […]
- [Helene](https://nowherepub.site/helene/): [As promised … the next of what I am now calling the “Kethyras” stories. Enjoy!] [Updated Apr. 12, 2023: Reworked to somewhat “de-power” Helene. First version, she was, realistically, just too OP. See Superman Conundrum for more detail.] [Minor update Apr 18, 2023: Slight naming changes of Mage abilities for “future-prooofing.”] Helene Fabry, for most of her childhood, was an ordinary girl and treated as such — at least to the extent the youngest daughter of a minor Baron possibly could be. All the servant maids were kind to her and she was raised by her mother, the Baroness Audelia Fabry, […]
- [Superman Conundrum](https://nowherepub.site/superman-conundrum/): Whoops? … I have temporarily hidden the introduction story for Helene Fabry (the other main character in my Kethyras stories) because I realized — in the first pairing story — I had made a fatal flaw, as the author / creator. As the title indicates and suggests, it’s what I occasionally (internally) refer to as a “Superman Conundrum” or, when referring to a series of movies, the “Sequel Issue”. This is to say, if you have a character who is supremely powerful / gifted / talented / whatever … where do you go next? In order to make an interesting story […]
- [Kethyras Coming To Life](https://nowherepub.site/kethyras-coming-to-life/): Since I’d first come up with the idea of having a “Gray Mouser” to Nonna‘s “Fafhrd”, and had decided her pairing character was to be a magic-user of some sort, I’ve had the scene where the two first meet absolutely embedded in my mind. In some ways, it was quite funny. I had almost the entire scene in my head, including not just Helene’s reaction to “What the hell just happened???”, but also what would need to occur immediately after that. What I didn’t have a single solitary clue about, though, was why Helene’s reaction to that particular occurrence was what […]
- [Kethyras](https://nowherepub.site/kethyras/): “What an odd title…” is something I’m sure you’re thinking when you see this one. “What tf is ‘Kethyras’?” Well, dear readers, let me share with you, the meaning of this one. But first, an image. “Oh… it’s a … city?” Yes, this is an overview map of Kethyras, better known as The City of the Ascendant Moons. And All This Means … What? As I mentioned recently, I decided to (proverbially) “get off my arse” and start writing more about Nonna Torsdottir. [All right – to be honest, this actually involved a lot more of me sitting on said arse […]
- [Continuing the Nonna Story](https://nowherepub.site/continuing-the-nonna-story/): As I described as part of the original “Nonna” story, that was a written back-story for a new character I “rolled up” to play with a D&D group. After a few sessions, though, Things Happened™ (mostly real-life stuff intervening on everyone’s time), and we couldn’t really continue. However, I had somewhat grown fond of Nonna Torsdottir and wanted to do more with her (read: tell more stories about her). [Anyone who possibly had any other thoughts regarding what I meant there … please consider yourself *BONK*ed and banish yourself to the Horny Room™.] [I discussed this, somewhat, in my post “Another […]
- [Fare Thee Well, My Fairlady (Z)](https://nowherepub.site/fare-thee-well-my-fairlady-z/): [If you are here looking for details about the Fairlady Z, it has been sold. This is the story of how and why I bought it and my closing thoughts.] Permit me, dear reader, to weave you a tale. It is a story which commences with nostalgia and proceeds from there, through “The Search”, success, a period of tormenting delay, reaching the Prize, and thence descends into despair and torment, before, finally, stumbling to a deserved, but, perhaps, painful, ending. And … I’ve just been informed that my Poetic License has expired, so I must immediately Cease and Desist using such […]
- [Tales From The Pub - The Thief's Tale](https://nowherepub.site/the-thiefs-tale/): It was supposed to have been an easy job — sneak in to Bey Nakasoto’s mansion, grab a couple of jeweled necklaces from a cabinet in an unguarded room and then sneak out again, none the wiser. So Arturo Garcia had been extremely surprised to find someone had left an empty bucket in the middle of a darkened hallway … perfectly placed for him to accidentally kick and send tumbling down a flight of stairs. It was possible there were a couple of people sound asleep somewhere in the mansion who hadn’t heard the noise it made as it bounced around, […]
- [My College Physics Professor](https://nowherepub.site/my-college-physics-professor/): In a comment on someone else’s blog, I (very) recently mentioned my physics professor from college. I say that in the singular form because it was a small college and the Physics department was tiny. Including the department head, I believe there were three instructors in the entire department. I’m honestly not even sure if they even had a secretary while I attended. Before I started attending, I had already decided that one of my (three!!! yipe) majors would be Physics. Originally, I had been planning on only getting the credits required for a minor in it, but the “numbers” just […]
- [Tales From The Pub - A Tale of Curses](https://nowherepub.site/a-tale-of-curses/): In a shadowy alcove in a darkened and dimly lit pub, a humanoid figure sits at a small table and holds his wineglass by the stem. He tips the empty glass first one way and then the other as he contemplates the small flickering light which rests in the center of the table. This light, as with all the others in the pub is not a candle and he has never understood what it is, nor has he inquired as to its nature. It simply exists, as does the table he sits at, the chair he rests upon, the wineglass he […]
- [The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten (sort of?)](https://nowherepub.site/the-angel-next-door-spoils-me-rotten-sort-of/): This is, somewhat, the continuation of My History With Anime as promised. As I’d mentioned, I started to read quite a few LNs (Light Novels). Some, I’ve started because I saw the anime and wanted to read the source material. Indeed, there is a bit of an in-joke in the anime community that you can tell an anime has a light novel as its source because the title is lengthy, possibly absurd, and pretty much gives away the basic premise of the story. Just as a couple of (excessively?) silly examples (and, no, I’m not providing links for these – you […]
- [My History With Anime](https://nowherepub.site/my-history-with-anime/): Where It Started I don’t exactly try to hide that I am a … somewhat avid? … consumer of certain types of Japanese fiction in various forms. This started decades ago with anime. And even that started first with the Americanized stuff that was released just as “normal” cartoons. Think of things such as … say … Battle of the Planets (originally Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) and Star Blazers (originally Space Battleship Yamato). Since, at the time, I was also a regular customer at the New York Forbidden Planet store, I also regularly saw the Gundam and Mazinger and what-not models […]
- [Winter 2023 Anime](https://nowherepub.site/winter-2023-anime/): Yeah, I know I’m really late to the party for this one, and I haven’t exactly been doing much lately anyway. Unlike the few previous ones of these I’ve done, I’m just going to highlight a couple of shows that I’m watching as well as what my “winner” is. Why am I picking my own “winner”? Well… in previous seasons, I thought that Lycoris Recoil and Bocchi the Rock! were both fantastic shows and loved them to pieces … and it turned out I picked really well, so – might as well try again, right? The Intriguing In/Spectre (S2) – I […]
- [Tales From The Pub - The Emperor's Tale - Part II](https://nowherepub.site/the-emperors-tale-part-ii/): The Imperial Conference Room settled into a stunned silence as what had just been said sank into the thoughts of the Emperor, all of the highest-ranked military personnel, and other Imperial advisors. Vice-Admiral Kaydyn Rames began to sit down again, but before he completed the movement, a voice from the elevated throne at the head of the table stopped him. “Wait. Before you sit down again, let me make sure I fully understand what you’ve just said. Yes, I know I am infallible, but in this case, I wish to ensure that there are absolutely no misunderstandings. If I misrepresent anything […]
- [Tales From The Pub - The Emperor's Tale - Part I](https://nowherepub.site/the-emperors-tale-part-i/): Upon taking over ruling his first planet, Planetary Governor Brarol Trogawa evacuated the lightly-populated town of Vivcan. Once the population was completely gone, he had the entire town, except for one small and very nondescript building, completely leveled and razed. A two-meter-high wall was constructed around that building, placed 150 meters away from it in all directions, with a single lone gate in the wall opposite the entrance to the building.During the project to build this wall, multiple teams of construction crews were brought in as well as twice as many guards to ensure none went near the building in the […]
- [A House To Call Home](https://nowherepub.site/a-house-to-call-home/): He pulled into the driveway and saw that the realtor was already there, leaning against the door of her car, waiting for him. She smiled and walked over to his car as he parked, grabbed his jacket and stepped out. “Mr. Bradburn?” she said, holding out her hand. He nodded and shook her hand, starting to look around while she continued talking. “Amanda Williamson — Amanda.” “Please, call me Owen. I always feel weird when anyone calls me ‘Mr. Bradburn’. Makes me want to look around for my dad.” Amanda laughed. “All right, Owen. And I know the feeling. I’m glad […]
- [I Am "Big Sad"](https://nowherepub.site/i-am-big-sad/): A while back, I had posted about how I was seriously hyped about purchasing and importing a Japanese Nissan 300ZX. The car arrived two weeks ago (just about literally). Two days after it arrived, much to my surprise, it made it through customs and was delivered to a local mechanic (at my request). He reconnected the battery, put some fuel in the tank and … Grrrrrrowllllll. Via some … um … “extra-legal chicanery”, as of this past weekend, the car is now sitting in my driveway. [I am admitting absolutely nothing, but it is hypothetically possible that the car was driven, […]
- [Character Name Creativity](https://nowherepub.site/character-name-creativity/): One of the beautiful things about Scrivener is that it has a bunch of built-in tools to make some of the “creative” elements of writing just a touch easier. For example, it has a “Name Generator”, complete with a set of regional names if you want something which fits a particular … theme. Like want a Japanese name? Sure – it’ll pop out 20. Catalan? Or course, anything for you. However, one of the quirks of writing fantasy is a lot of the character names are very … on-point, so just having something semi-randomly giving you a list of perfectly normal […]
- [Junkyard God](https://nowherepub.site/junkyard-god/): Come forth, mortal! Know that you stand before one of the great gods of your existence! Which god? I could tell you my name, but for your flimsy body much of it is unpronounceable. On top of which, were you to utter my full name, you would call attention to yourself and it is not the sort of attention your mortal soul is capable of withstanding. For the moment, and to ease your troubled thoughts, you may simply call me “Carl”. And do not be fooled by the oversimplification of my name, for I am, indeed, one of the gods who […]
- [Pausing Tewei](https://nowherepub.site/pausing-tewei/): I don’t really want to, but … I have to. Right now, the scope of what I want to write for the book is conflicting heavily with what I currently feel … capable … of writing. I know enough to understand just how much I don’t know and, consequently, how feeble any attempt I make at giving a thorough look of “Life on Tewei” would feel. What’s worse, though, is that by trying to force myself to keep at it, even when I feel like I’m just slamming my head against a brick wall, all I’m doing is reinforcing failure and […]
- [Researching Tewei](https://nowherepub.site/researching-tewei/): I’ve hit a weird combination of an overall writer’s block and what I can only describe as a … research block. “What on earth is a ‘research block’?”, I can hear you questioning. [Ok, maybe you’re not questioning it, but humor me here, all right?] The vast majority of the story of Tewei is spent down on the surface of the planet itself, living with the main focus – the Neradaka Tribe. [I’m still not 100% sure that “tribe” is the correct terminology, but until I get any sense of what a better term might be, I’m sticking with it.] Given […]
- [New Life on Tewei](https://nowherepub.site/new-life-on-tewei/): Outside of one of the Birthing Huts, there is a small cluster of men keeping watch over another — younger than those waiting with him. That man, turned nineteen in the past year, stands apart, pacing back and forth in front of the hut. His red hair has grown long and the singular braid loops around his front, over his shoulders, held in place by the cord it is woven around. Just behind the huts, a stream gurgles in the crisp air of early autumn. Eight measured steps in one direction, pause, then turn, followed by another eight paces back. There […]
- ["I'm a writer!!!"](https://nowherepub.site/im-a-writer/): A couple of months or so ago, I stumbled across this gem of a meme… I really felt this one,as I had so recently (when I read it) needed to research the amount of time typically associated with healing from a stab wound. And then I started writing Tewei… Oh boy, oh boy — did I NOT understand what it means to seriously fall down the various rabbit holes of research topics. It started out with needing (for my own sanity — such as may be left of it) look up the rate of growth for human hair. [Approximately 6 inches […]
- [New Life on Tewei (fragment)](https://nowherepub.site/new-life-on-tewei-fragment/): [These are just the first two scenes of the first chapter. There’s more to come…] Outside of one of the Birthing Huts, there is a small cluster of men standing watch over the youngest of them. That man stands apart, pacing back and forth in front of the hut. His red hair has grown long and the singular braid loops around his front, over his shoulders, held by the cord it is woven around. Just behind the huts, a stream gurgles in the crisp air of early autumn. Eight measured steps in one direction, pause, then turn, followed by another eight […]
- [Flight Qualification](https://nowherepub.site/flight-qualification/): After unpacking his meager belongings and taking a brief read-through of the overview packet Veevers had handed to him, Cowell decided to take a short walk around and attempt to familiarize himself with the station. Even with Spacer Poole’s explanation of the layout, Cowell found himself consistently getting turned around and staring at a dead-end bulkhead or a transit tube that went the wrong way. Somehow, the interior design of this station didn’t match any of the other standard Ring-and-Spindle layouts he’d studied in the academy. On top of that, it seemed that everyone stationed there already knew where everything was, […]
- [Ass End of Nowhere](https://nowherepub.site/ass-end-of-nowhere/): [This is actually the second chapter.] Space flight occurs with three separate types of “propulsion” systems. The term propulsion isn’t necessarily valid for all three, however. The first has been around since some scientist decided to shove a controlled explosion at the back end of a long tube and watched it ascend into the clouds. That form is, of course, basic rocketry — using Newton’s Law to move something forward by doing a lot of pushing backwards. Rocketry, has some significant limitations. First, you need to bring fuel for the controlled explosions … typically, a ˆlot” of fuel. And that fuel […]
- [Another Beginning?](https://nowherepub.site/another-beginning/): [I’m amused as I realize I’m adding this post on October 31st … mere hours before November starts. Why is this amusing, you wonder? There’s this tiny thing … somewhat related to writing … which happens in November. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called NaNoWriMo, a.k.a., “National Novel Writing Month” — which typically takes place in November. The challenge is to generate a 50K word manuscript in the space of a month. I am not planning on actively participating in this, although, given my productivity if I get my teeth into something, it’s entirely possible I’d actually accomplish it.] One […]
- [Anime Thoughts: The Saga of Tanya the Evil](https://nowherepub.site/anime-thoughts-the-saga-of-tanya-the-evil/): I’ve been reading the light novels for “The Saga of Tanya the Evil” (just started Vol 4) … and there’s an … interesting little tidbit from the very beginning which seems to be very … ignored? … by a lot fo the readers of the series / watchers of the anime. The Empire (Tanya’s “side”, aka, the Germans) were originally the defenders. The Republic (France) and the Entente Alliance (Norwegian countries) attacked FIRST. Sure, the Empire then proceeded to counter-invade and capture Entente … and then, when Dacia (Austria-ish?) prepared to attack as well, they got trounced, etc. But – again […]
- [Anime Thoughts: Fall 2022 Season (Initial)](https://nowherepub.site/anime-thoughts-fall-2022-season-initial/): Yes, it’s that time again. Rather than going through with what I’ve started / dropped, though, let me just talk about the stuff that I’m pretty sure I’m watching for this season. But First … a micro-Rant Before I jump into that, I need to vent for just a moment. One of the … ostensibly positive things about the Crunchimation+Funiroll merge was that there’d be a broader collection of shows that they got to scoop up per-season, right? WRONG!!!! This season, Crunchimation got seriously boned on what they were able to grab licenses for. So much so, that I’m dowright miffed. […]
- [It's Alive!!!](https://nowherepub.site/its-alive/): The “It” in this case being, finally, my Mac Mini. It’s been a couple of weeks since I last mentioned this (in Computer Restituo Interruptus … or not?). The reality of what happened after that post is that the computer failed again. And, much to my surprise, the failure was similar to the first time — the hard drive (SSD, this time) seemed to fail. So, I took it back to the same place and asked them to try it again, and, this time, go ahead and install MacOS as well, so that I would at least have a “working” system […]
- [Anime Thoughts: Summer 2022 Season (Wrap-Up)](https://nowherepub.site/anime-thoughts-summer-2022-season-wrap-up/): Ok. Summer 2022 anime season is (mostly) over. I say mostly because there were a couple of late-starters which are still running for another episode or two, but I think it’s safe to say I’ve finalized my opinions on the shows that I’d started watching. So, for fun, I’m going to go back through my Initial list, at least for the ones that I didn’t drop straight-away, and give some final thoughts. [I’m not going to be providing links for all of the shows — those are still findable from my initial list.] Classroom of the Elite (Season 2) I liked […]
- [Acupuncture and Spinal Cord Injury - for me](https://nowherepub.site/acupuncture-and-spinal-cord-injury-for-me/): As those who are in my close social circle (well, maybe not so close – I’m generally fine with telling people) know, since mid-2015, I have a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). It wasn’t due to an accident or anything like that – just something congenital that I was born with and didn’t show up until I was in my late 40s. [For those who might be wondering, yes, I am still able to stand and walk, but I have some other issues and on-going effects that I won’t get into. One of those effects, though, is semi-constant spasms in my feet […]
- [Computer Restituo Interruptus ... or not?](https://nowherepub.site/computer-restituo-interruptus/): For those whose Latin is lacking (or non-existent), that is probably a rather butchered version of “Computer Restore Interrupted”. Let’s start with the Good News ™! Yesterday, I got my Mac Mini back and the SSD transplant was a success. It runs (hardware-wise) with no problems. Note the qualifier of “hardware-wise”… When I’d dropped it off (on Sunday), the tech had asked me which version of MacOS I wanted them to install. Figuring that I would just be doing a restore from Time Machine (MacOS’ built-in backup-and-restore utility), and it’s specifically designed to do a restoration to a blank disk, I […]
- [Computer ... Recoverable?](https://nowherepub.site/computer-recoverable/): As I was ranting about yesterday, my desktop Mac Mini failed and the only assistance that Apple was willing to offer was a burial. Maybe there would’ve been flowers and a choir, but from their perspective, it was dead and they didn’t want anything to do with it. After the mandated and necessary 2.3 minutes spent in grief and anger (and writing a lengthy rant about it), I started to more seriously research if there was, indeed, any way to actually fix the damn thing. Turns out, there’s actually a bunch of videos and such about replacing the hard drive in […]
- [Computer Failure](https://nowherepub.site/computer-failure/): As should be obvious from a quick read-through of my About Me, I am a computer guy, and have been so for just about my entire life. My very first computer, purchased as a present by my mother, was an Apple ][. I was 10 or 11 at the time. The next computer I owned was what is now known as a “PC” – which is to say, a computer built around an Intel ™ processor – the 8086. [Except, it wasn’t actually an Intel 8086. It was a cheaper Z80 V20 (edit from a friend who reminded me of the […]
- [What Happens Next?](https://nowherepub.site/what-happens-next/): I’ve hit a bit of a lull, as is probably apparent for anyone who might (casually?) be following what’s happening here. I’ve gotten past the initial massive effort of writing Rough Times in Osaka and have gotten it to “First Draft” status. Yeah, that’s a pretty big deal. But, now that it’s there … what do I do with it? Ok … first off, for the book — I know that I’d like to get some other eyes on it (aside from just those of my Research Assistant(s)). And I need other eyes which are able to be a bit more […]
- [You're Buying a What???](https://nowherepub.site/youre-buying-a-what/): Back in 1992, I bought a new car. It was one of the outright weirdest looking cars at the time, and possibly even in most of recent memory. It was the Nissan NX2000. Mine was white, not red. And, as you may be able to tell from the front end, it’s one of the absolutely weirdest-looking fronts. The first time I laid eyes on the one that would become mine, my first thought was “I didn’t realize it was going to be that ugly.” But then, I quickly got used to it. It has a bit of novelty. The 2000 model […]
- [What Was The Main Task Again?](https://nowherepub.site/what-was-the-main-task-again/): There’s an old joke that has been told many different times and in different manners, but it ultimately winds up at the punchline of, “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember the original mission was to drain the swamp.” Basically, it’s the situation where you started off planning to do one (simple) thing, but for a variety of reasons – all of which are beyond your control – lots of other stuff intrudes, either because the task was a lot more complicated than you thought it would be, or because there’s hurdles and obstacles being tossed […]
- [Book Cover Idea](https://nowherepub.site/book-cover-idea/): Every book needs a cover. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of pages with words bunched together. [Yeah, yeah, I’m sure there’s some definition of “book” that doesn’t include any details about a cover, but … work with me here, ok?] And the cover of most (modern) books isn’t just the title and what-not, but also has cover art. No matter what anyone says about “not judging a book by its cover”, trust me – it’s kinda what you (as a reader) do. If the cover art is drab and dull, if nothing else, I’m certainly less likely to even take a […]
- [Anime Thoughts: Summer 2022 Season (Initial)](https://nowherepub.site/anime-thoughts-summer-2022-season-initial/): I am a fan of anime. No, seriously, I'm a big fan. So, for the past few seasons, on a discord server with some friends, I've been posting my thoughts on what I'm watching (and / or started and dropped) for each season. Note - I subscribe to the streaming service CrunchyRoll (still not shilling!), but nothing else. This means that, much as I might like to, I can't comment on anything streaming on any of the other services - because I'm not watching them.
- [Anime Thoughts: "So I'm a Spider, So What?"](https://nowherepub.site/anime-thoughts-so-im-a-spider-so-what/): In a discord channel with some other folks I know, I did a big “info dump” (a.k.a. “wall-of-text”) on a Light Novel / Anime series titled (as you could guess from this post), “So I’m a Spider, So What?“. (The title, transliterated, is “Kumo Desu ga Nani Ka?”) I first watched it when season 1 of the anime came around. [It’s since had a second season and, unfortunately, is probably unlikely to get a third.] The story is a standard sort of “isekai” (translates as “other world”) story, where the main character (or characters) get, somehow, transferred to a world that […]
- [I Never Pick the Easy Answer](https://nowherepub.site/i-never-pick-the-easy-answer/): I realize that’s an odd title, and it doesn’t apply to everything. It’s more for the technology stuff. Most programming environments (languages, libraries, etc) have an … expected … way to do something. It’s what the original developers of that environment (both the ones who created the environment and the initial users of it) built and were comfortable with. And they came up with the answers that worked for them. If you wanted to do something that was extremely different, you were probably going to have some issues. This is where completely open environments shine. Probably one of the best modern […]
- ["Rules" For Pub Tales](https://nowherepub.site/rules-for-pub-tales/): I had asked some friends if they'd be interested in crafting Pub Tales to add to the collection.
- [Tales From The Pub - The Warriors' Tales](https://nowherepub.site/tales-from-the-pub-the-warriors-tales/): Glimsumm had been sitting at the bar for about five drinks. The pub wasn’t empty, but for his purposes, it might as well have been. He cared nothing for any of the other customers. 

## Pages

- [Okay, Fine. But Remember – You Asked For the Details](https://nowherepub.site/okay-fine/): Decided to chat with the kook in the corner, eh? Hope your mug is full. Settle in and I’ll regale you with some backstory, The Reading Life I’ve always been a reader. And I do mean ALWAYS. It started with comic books — which, in the early-to-mid 1970s, were not exactly considered serious literature by most people. My mother had a different view. When others would question why she was letting me read them (“It’s just pictures!”), she had a ready answer: “Because he’s actually reading them.” She understood something the critics didn’t. From comics, the jump to novels was inevitable […]
- [About Me](https://nowherepub.site/about-me/): Summary Contact Me The Short Version I’m Benjamin (“Ben”) Cohen — software architect and developer by trade, writer by inclination, and a person who has spent most of his life being the youngest and usually the smartest in whatever room he happened to be in. That last part sounds arrogant. It’s more complicated than that. I grew up literally crawling around IBM computer room floors — my mother was a Systems Engineer back when computers filled auditorium-sized rooms and required their own environmental systems. Computers were never mysterious to me; they were just furniture. I skipped two grades, graduated high school […]
- [What This Site Is About](https://nowherepub.site/what-this-site-is-about/): Welcome to The Nowhere Pub — a place that’s a little hard to find, and harder to describe. The site shares its name with one of the story collections living here, and that’s not entirely a coincidence. Like its fictional namesake, this is a place where different kinds of stories end up, where the clientele is eclectic, and where you’re never quite sure what you’ll find when you walk through the door. The Regular In The Corner The only voice you’ll encounter here is mine — the slightly unhinged regular who’ll talk your ear off about artificial intelligence, the nature of […]
- [Kethyras Stories](https://nowherepub.site/kethyras-stories/): Here are what I am now calling the “Kethyras Stories” or, perhaps, “Kethyras Chronicles”? I’ll figure it out one way or the other eventually. This set of stories started in what I can only describe as an “odd” place, much of which I already described in this post. Regardless of where it initially originated, it has turned into a set of stories which center around two main characters: Nonna Torsdottir, half-elf barbarian, and Helene Fabry, human elemental mage. Aside from their individual introductory stories (linked right there), my intent is most, if not all of their stories will take place in […]
- [Commissioned Artwork](https://nowherepub.site/commissioned-artwork/): I am going to start using at least some commissioned artwork on my site. Since I wind up needing to (unfortunately) somewhat “butcher” some of the images to make them fit in the appropriate locations, I wanted to have a way to show the original works off in all their glory. Images from Lucas Bunn All of these artworks are from Lucas Bunn, (bunnnw@gmail.com). He’s done great work on all of these and I’m so thrilled I was able to find him. For the Pub Tale, “The Thief’s Tale“, showing off what the three characters are having and some representation of […]
- [Tewei](https://nowherepub.site/tewei/): I’m kicking off another book (hopefully)! It actually is a complete coincidence that this happens on October 31, 2022. No, I’m not trying for a NaNoWriMo project, this really just worked out that way. As with “Rough Times in Osaka“, I hope you’ll join me on this journey — having a chance to look at what’s being generated in the process. Yes, this is the “Rough Draft” stage, so there’s still going to be a lot that changes and, no, you won’t get a chance to see what it looks like after the Rough Draft. I’m not going to track word-count […]
- [The Blog](https://nowherepub.site/the-blog/)
- [The Newsletter](https://nowherepub.site/the-newsletter/): Stay Updated With The Stories & Other Writings… Join my newsletter and get my best and latest short stories and other writings I know you will enjoy! No charge. No spam. Only love. ©2022 The Nowhere Pub
- [Welcome To The Nowhere Pub](https://nowherepub.site/): Come on in! Take a look around! Navigation The menu items are selectable (not just the drop-downs, but the items themselves which take you to the major sections of the site). Or you can browse the Drink Selections (Categories) in the sidebar. If you’d prefer to delve into some of the older posts (blog and otherwise), you’ll probably want to venture into The Cellar (Archives). The latest posts of all sorts are immediately below, or you can just go to The Blog to see everything reverse chronologically. Latest Posts Currently: Employed and writing when the muse insists
- [Contact Me](https://nowherepub.site/contact-me/): For getting in touch with me, there are a few options. There’s, of course, the tried-but-true email approach: ben@nowherepub.site. I also have a Discord server. Or, you can do it right here!
- [Rough Times in Osaka](https://nowherepub.site/rough-times-in-osaka-2/): Welcome, dear reader. Around the beginning of June 2022, after an interesting confluence of events, I had a flash of inspiration to write a novel – this novel. What you see here are the results (so far) of that effort. Rough Times in Osaka” is the gritty and somewhat violence-laden story of Hanako Kitamora, a young woman who is a yakuza collector for her family in Osaka, Japan. Her childhood damaged her ability to be a normal Japanese woman and prepared her for the life of brutality she turned to. Then, in her mid-twenties, an unintended and unexpected vacation leads to […]
- [Tales From The Pub](https://nowherepub.site/pub-tales/): Here are the stories of The Nowhere Pub, which I also think of as “Pub Tales”. The Nowhere Pub is an interesting place … if you can find it. What Is The Nowhere Pub? What is the Nowhere Pub? It is a multi-dimensional, cross time and space, pub. Try and conjure from the deepest recesses of your mind the darkest, seemingly most unfriendly, not-where-you-belong pub. Now magnify that several times. You might just come close to the interior of the Pub. There are tables scattered across the floor and around the edges of the room — which is barely visible. On each table […]
- [Collected Short Stories](https://nowherepub.site/collected-short-stories/): Here are the various individual short stories that I’ve written, none of which are connected to any others – so they are completely stand-alone. There’s no particular order to these other than (vaguely?) my recollection of the order in which I wrote them. Strange Vacation Notes From A Friend Just Another Summer Day The Mission The Worry Stone The Landing Perfection Nonna Junkyard God A House To Call Home Mystery Letters Lhoris
- [Posts as they happen](https://nowherepub.site/posts-as-they-happen/)
- [Rough Times in Osaka - Rough Draft](https://nowherepub.site/rough-times-in-osaka/): What you see here is the “work-in-progress”. The words here are damn close to something that could best be described as “word vomit”, as, for the most part, even I haven’t read them yet. Consequently, expect to find errors in spelling or punctuation and some parts that are horribly, awkwardly phrased. [My internal term is “rough draft”. Some time after they get reviewed by my assistant, I will do a re-read and clean things up to generate something I consider a “first draft”.] The aforementioned “word vomit” isn’t necessarily going up in sequential order. (One great feature of Scrivener is the […]

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