Browse: Page 14
By J. Timothy King on July 19, 2012
Links and things that I’ve run across recently.
You MUST Have an Opinion
I love Weird Al, but I’ll fight to the death your right not to care one way or the other!
The Onion told a heartbreaking story a whole month ago about one peaceable gentleman who was intimidated by his so-called friends into actually having an opinion on Weird Al.
Shocking! That this could happen in America!
Of course, if the story wasn’t about Weird Al, I wouldn’t have mentioned it at all, seeing as how big of a groupie I am.
The Higgs Boson Explained in Comic
Continue reading “Bits & Pieces 2012-07-19”
Posted in Bits & Pieces, Technology, Twitter | Tagged Ari Galper, Higgs Boson, Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek, Weird Al
By J. Timothy King on July 18, 2012
Ouch That's Gotta Hurt: If this photo isn't depressing, I don't know what is.
When I wrote this piece, I was not sure I was ready to talk about it. I had not even told the story to my Beloved yet. But, I thought, maybe writing about it would make it easier. That was over 5 months ago. Since then, I’ve told my Beloved part of the story, but this is the first time I’ve gone through it in any detail. I’m still not sure I’m ready to talk about it.
About a year before I met my Beloved, I totaled an almost-new Geo Prizm. I was much younger then, a young twenty-something carefree, still living with my parents. (That’s a different story, which I’ve queued to run this Friday.)
For the next twenty years, I never got into an accident. Continue reading “Accidents Will Happen: Picking Up and Moving On with Integrity”
Posted in Fear and Love, Inspiration, Stories, True Stories | Tagged car, car accidents, encouragement, integrity, mistakes
By J. Timothy King on July 17, 2012
Yes, I really needed an infusion of funny. And not just funny, but Haha! funny. And Dave Barry always makes me laugh. So sue me.
I don’t remember whither I got I’ll Mature When I’m Dead. Clearly some overstock source, as I wouldn’t have paid full price for it. Which has nothing to do with this particular book, but I don’t pay full price for any books anymore… The way I know it was overstock is a price sticker I found covering up part of the back-cover blurb, along with the beautiful black line someone had drawn along the book-block with a black magic marker.
This book has been criticized for being full of clichés. And it is. So what? It still makes me laugh.
I could have chosen a funny snippet from any part of the book, maybe from Dave’s eloquent defense of men, who clearly adore clichés, or his description of his daughter’s dance recital—a fatherhood ritual I was spared—or his comments on high tech or celebrities or Hollywood, taking care of man’s best friend or Judiaism for Christians. (If you been following this blog, you will understand why is that particular piece was so significant to me.) Continue reading “Teaser Tuesdays: I’ll Mature When I’m Dead (Dave Barry)”
Posted in Teaser Tuesdays | Tagged Dave Barry, I'll Mature When I'm Dead
By J. Timothy King on July 16, 2012
The kind of stories we read matters, because reading can affect who we are.
Although scientific research in this area is still young, I believe reading constructive, life-expanding fiction is an important component in a healthy lifestyle. That why when I write a story, I try to integrate 5 characteristics of life-expanding stories, which I believe promote 5 healthy reactions when you read them:
Continue reading “Delve Engage Seek Ask Hope”
Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged life, life-expanding
By J. Timothy King on July 13, 2012
As today is Friday the 13th, I was going to list of really stupid unlucky things that have happened to me (for real or not) on Friday the 13th. But then I figured out that I couldn’t come up with any. So either I don’t have unlucky things happen to me, or else my creativity is dissipating, which is unlucky enough, and so I don’t want to encourage any more of that!
So I came up with an alternate idea. Since I got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone—which is a different blog post—I’ve been experimenting with how to use it as a writer. And one of the things I do with it, which had faded from my life, is to listen to podcasts, especially while I’m on my daily walk.
Here are 13 podcasts from my Google Listen feeds that I think are worth listening to (in no particular order): Continue reading “13 Podcasts for Lucky Friday”
Posted in Fun | Tagged podcast
By J. Timothy King on July 12, 2012
Links and things that I’ve run across recently.
Are You a Twitter Bot?
I ran across this site while searching for statistics on Twitter bots: BotOrNot.net will take a Twitter username and predict, based on that user’s public timeline, whether he’s a bot or a human.
As it turns out, I’m a human—Phew! And so is Neil Shurley (ThatNeilGuy), of the blog This Week in World Robot Domination, so that’s comforting news. (I’d hate to think he was actually a saboteur whose raison d’être is to plant pro-robot agitprop into our resistance efforts!)
However, my fellow author Missy Frye is apparently a bot! Oy! As are Guy Kawasaki and Robert Scoble. Hmm.
So I’m beginning to doubt the statistic that 31% of Twitter users are “probably bot.” (However, 15% may be bots.)
Dominos, Dominos, Dominos
You may have heard of FlippyCat and his thousands and thousands of colored dominos. I had not, until one of my friends shared this video of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” made with over 7,000 dominos. The second attempt took about 11 hours total to build. Continue reading “Bits & Pieces 2012-07-12”
Posted in Bits & Pieces, Love and Relationships, Software Development, Technology, Twitter | Tagged Andrew Binstock, Angry Birds, BotOrNot.net, BPD, FlippyCat, Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, psychology, Shari Y. Manning, Starry Night, Stephen Fry, video, Vincent van Gogh, Vivienne Marsh |
By J. Timothy King on July 11, 2012
A couple weeks I posted a long, theological piece called “Running for God,” which I had expected would inspire controversy and boredom (though not necessarily in that order). Instead, I got some encouraging comments on it.
I had originally written the piece as my final essay for a Foundation theology course at MJTI that I had taken. But in the original essay, after I disagreed with Rick Warren, pushed for a physical salvation in the here-and-now (not just a spiritual one in the forever-after), stated that what we do in this life matters, and quoted Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on human distress and poverty, I went on to discuss faith and works in the context of postmissionary Messianic Judaism.
I now present that discussion. Continue reading “Running for God 2: Faith and Works”
Posted in Christianity, Religion | Tagged soteriology, spirituality |
By J. Timothy King on July 10, 2012
Another short e-book, “Laundry Day,” by mystery author Stacy Juba.
When Gregg accidentally discovers his neighbor’s lingerie collection drip-drying in her shower, he stares in fascination at a scene that looks like laundry day at the whorehouse. After his neighbor is found dead – strangled with her own fishnet stocking – the next victim might even be closer to home.
Actually, I found that the story is not a mystery in the traditional sense. Also not a character story (or at least not very strongly). Not a suspense story—well, not too much suspense, anyhow. Not a humorous story (unless you find other people’s embarrassing problems humorous), though with mildly humorous moments. Just a story. A cute read, with a bitter twist at the end. (Although on second thought, that’s a twist that Hitchock might’ve been proud of, and definitely makes the story re-readable.)
“Laundry Day” is a quick 2900 words, followed by The Stacy Juba Mystery Sampler, which includes short excerpts of the mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, Sink or Swim, and Dark Before Dawn. A good sampling of Stacy Juba’s work.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesdays: Laundry Day, a Short Story by Stacy Juba”
Posted in Teaser Tuesdays | Tagged Laundry Day, Stacy Juba
By J. Timothy King on July 9, 2012
So I started putting together some. I’m talking about those graphic e-card thingies with funny and/or touching and/or meaningless pictures and witty and/or insightful and/or opinionated sayings that everyone shares incessantly on Facebook. Sometimes these sayings are quotes of important people, and sometimes they’re just random sayings.
Seeing these on Facebook, it suddenly hit me, I should be on there! So I asked my Little One what she thought of the idea, and she bubbled, “That is such a kewl idea!”
So I decided to agree with her. I began putting together a series of e-posters, featuring funny and/or touching and/or meaningless pictures with witty, insightful, and sometimes opinionated sayings by the most important person in the universe, Me.
(Okay, that did sound a little narcissistic, didn’t it?)
I’ve been posting them on my Facebook fan page, one at a time. I’ll continue to do that, maybe a few per week, until my stock of witty and/or insightful and/or meaningless one-liners runs out.
For now, here’s a preview of my entire stock so far, which are quotes from Love through the Eyes of an Idiot. I’m publishing these all under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, so please download and share!
-TimK
[Images after the break. Click to view full-size.] Continue reading “My Little One Said e-Posters Were a Kewl Idea”
Posted in Books, Love through the Eyes of an Idiot | Tagged e-cards, e-posters
By J. Timothy King on July 6, 2012
You may have already heard, but since I don’t have anything better to post right now, I’ll tell you again.
The San Diego Fourth of July fireworks show this year malfunctioned, setting off the entire thing like a match in a fireworks factory, burning through the entire 18-minute display in about 20 seconds. I think I saw that in a stupid movie once, but this was for real. No one was hurt, as all the workers were following safety protocols and were protected inside their metal shelters. But the accident resulted in one hell of a show.
The punch line? And what makes this story relevant to this week’s software theme? According to the San Diego Union Tribune, a software glitch set off the 20-second boom fest. Ha! Software glitch!
(Video below the cut.) Continue reading “And This Is Why You Want to Be Careful around Explosives”
Posted in Fun | Tagged bugs, fireworks, San Diego, video
