Fun Stuff

Fiction Podcasts Part I – The Big 3

/ Shane / 2 Comments

I spend a lot of time listening to audio fiction. I mostly download full length audio books from the library, but it later I discovered that there are a lot of sites and podcasts out there that do weekly episodes of short fiction.

I have always enjoyed short fiction, but it seems to work especially well in this format. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to listen to a novel, but I can do a piece of short fiction in a day or two, maximum. There are advantages to each length, but I really have been enjoying getting in the car and anticipating a totally new story. It provides great variety.

Most of these have been going for a long time, so there are hundreds of episodes out there. So, you can go browse these sites yourself, or you can do what I did: go off one of the “best of” lists out there on the Internet. I’ve been using the lists over at Diabolical Plots (Get it? Plots? Diabolical Plots?) to get a run-down of where to start. Now certainly my tastes aren’t exactly the same, and I’m sure I’m missing out on some great stories, and on the other hand I don’t always love the stories selected, but it gives me a pretty good flavor of what’s going on there.

When it comes to speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and/or horror) podcasts, there are three that sort of stand out from the rest as being especially well known and high quality, one for each genre. I don’t think you can really go wrong with any of these, so just pick the appropriate one for the genre you like (or pick all three if you can’t choose, like I did). Again, all of these feature really good short fiction, which can be downloaded totally free. What’s not to love?

Escape Pod – Science Fiction (best of lists here and here).

My super, super condensed list of favorites include stories that vary from hilarious (Connie, Maybe, or The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake) to poignant and sad (Barnaby in Exile). Anybody who thinks science fiction can’t be moving should really check the last one out!

PodCastle – Fantasy (best of lists here and here).

This one really runs the gamut of fantasy, from the more traditional fantasy (Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz Go to War Again) to other, very dark fantasy (The Mermaid’s Tea Party). Note that fantasy here doesn’t necessarily mean traditional sword and sorcery, but many other things in between (take Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz up there…very interesting and non-traditional).

Pseudopod – Horror (best of here and here).

Horror is a genre that I just can’t help but come back to. I love it! So I have a lot of personal favorites here: Hometown Horrible, The Evil-Eater, Suicide Notes, Written by an Alien Mind, The Button Bin,  and Bottle Babies, to name a few. Particularly, you should stick with Hometown Horrible. It starts slow, but wow does it finish strong!

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I cover some of the smaller fiction podcasts!

If my children were song lyrics

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Evie – “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”

I think anyone who as met Evie would agree about this. She’s such a ray of light that it’s just not the same when she’s not there. She hits the room like a whirlwind of energy, and bubbliness, and sound. She can’t help but dominate any social situation.

Oliver – “In the midnight hour, [he] cried more, more, more! / With a rebel yell, [he] cried, more, more more! / More, more, more!”

This one is perhaps more literal, but I sing it to Oliver all the time. When he wants something – particularly food, but it could be more book, more mama, more anything – he just says, “MoreMoreMoreMore” in this rising and falling klaxon voice and he doesn’t stop until he gets whatever he wants. Oliver must bring out the hidden Billy Idol fan in me (I hate Billy Idol!), because we’ve also co-opted White Wedding into “Hey, little Mister…”

If Sara wrote this one about Oliver, she might pick something different, such as The Cure: “Why are you so far away? [he] said / and won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you?” The boy loves his mommy! Two inches is too far away, as far as he’s concerned.

I decided to extend this a little and do Sara too. This was a lot tougher, but I finally settled on some lyrics from Ben Folds:

Sara – “You’re really good at all that stuff / The nuts and bolts of living”

I’m not saying I couldn’t survive without Sara, but she is certainly the force that keeps me sort of upright and moving in the right direction. Whether it is finances, cooking, scheduling, being a responsible citizen of the Earth, or raising children, I think it can be said with great certainty that Sara is very good at the nuts and bolts of living.

That Horrible Invasive Species, the Camel

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Don’t you hate it when you get pests in your yard that you just can’t get rid of. So do the people of Australia. Especially when the pests are feral camels.

Apparently, camels were brought to Australia back in the day because of their obviously usefulness in crossing the outback. However, SUVs are even MORE useful for crossing the outback, so all the camels were set free. Now there are more than a million of them running loose, destroying the Australian eco-system.

But it’s not just the eco-system they’re busting up: thirsty camels will go after any source of water they can find, up to and including busting “pipes and air conditioning units off of walls, and smash[ing] up toilet systems”. Beware the camels!

Link via Sara, who had me at “feral camels”.

CDC recommends preparing for the zombie apocalypse

/ Shane / 1 Comment

The other day, the Center for Disease Control, more commonly known as the CDC, released a statement saying that Americans should be prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

I have to say, this validates everything. This isn’t just some crazy blogger out there, this is the CDC we’re talking about.  WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT WE DON’T KNOW??

Their blog has some good zombie apocalypse tips, such as “Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home”. They even have special badges to use on webpages:

I’m telling you man, when someone who knows from diseases like the CDC tells you to be prepared…a part of the U.S. government…it’s time to be on your toes!

Link via Barb (and many of my other informants in the Zombie Information Network).

Delicious Night

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We all know Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It’s a classic. The only thing that could make it better (you guessed it) is bacon!

Link via FailBlog.