Altivo Overo's Blog, page 8
March 19, 2020
Second half
The other part of that excerpt is now available on Khakidoggy's site: http://thevoice.dog/
The title of this episode is "All That Glitters."
Background: These two chapters are excerpted from a mystery novel entitled ARROW: A College Tail. I wrote most of it during National Novel Writing Month a few years back. The characters are as follow:
Francis - a raccoon, student, and a species dysphoric. He is gay, but not trans-sexual. Instead he identifies as a wolf trapped in a raccoon's body. In his composition class, he wrote an essay about that and had to read it aloud. You can imagine the derision (and sympathy) heaped upon him.
Jay - a wolf, a couple of years older than Francis. Also gay, but attracted to raccoons rather than his own species. You can see where this is heading. Jay invited Francis to join Alpha Eta Rho, a Greek letter society that is structured as a wolf pack (with Jay as alpha, of course.) Francis has accepted, taken a pledge, and received a brass token to carry as proof of membership.
Ernie - another raccoon, student, straight but open-minded, and Francis' room mate.
Win - a wolf, student, straight, and a friend (dare I say "wing-wolf") to Jay in his pursuit of Francis' attention and affection.
Also mentioned, Stefan Ulf, historic figure from the university, founder of the real Alpha Eta Rho group which had been a sort of speciesist organization that harassed deer and probably physically injured or killed several of them.
At the beginning of "Gibbous Moon Rising," Francis has had a nightmare in which he was visited by Stefan Ulf, a threatening black wolf, who directed him to go to a certain hollow tree and find an ugly claw like weapon concealed there. Francis was to use this to kill a deer in order to prove his loyalty to Alpha Eta Rho. Naturally, Francis awakens quite disturbed and tries to make sense of this nightmare. On his way to the library to look for information about Alpha Eta Rho and Ulf, he passes a police investigation of an apparent murder, and the victim's body is still lying there: a young buck deer. Now Francis fears that he himself has somehow committed this grisly deed, while hypnotized or sleepwalking. That's the point at which these excerpts begin.
The complete novel has never been released, but at Khakidoggy's urging, I am looking at the manuscript to see whether I can get it into shape and do something like that with it. Possibly an ebook, anyway.
Please enjoy the teasers. Comments or criticisms welcome.
comments
The title of this episode is "All That Glitters."
Background: These two chapters are excerpted from a mystery novel entitled ARROW: A College Tail. I wrote most of it during National Novel Writing Month a few years back. The characters are as follow:
Francis - a raccoon, student, and a species dysphoric. He is gay, but not trans-sexual. Instead he identifies as a wolf trapped in a raccoon's body. In his composition class, he wrote an essay about that and had to read it aloud. You can imagine the derision (and sympathy) heaped upon him.
Jay - a wolf, a couple of years older than Francis. Also gay, but attracted to raccoons rather than his own species. You can see where this is heading. Jay invited Francis to join Alpha Eta Rho, a Greek letter society that is structured as a wolf pack (with Jay as alpha, of course.) Francis has accepted, taken a pledge, and received a brass token to carry as proof of membership.
Ernie - another raccoon, student, straight but open-minded, and Francis' room mate.
Win - a wolf, student, straight, and a friend (dare I say "wing-wolf") to Jay in his pursuit of Francis' attention and affection.
Also mentioned, Stefan Ulf, historic figure from the university, founder of the real Alpha Eta Rho group which had been a sort of speciesist organization that harassed deer and probably physically injured or killed several of them.
At the beginning of "Gibbous Moon Rising," Francis has had a nightmare in which he was visited by Stefan Ulf, a threatening black wolf, who directed him to go to a certain hollow tree and find an ugly claw like weapon concealed there. Francis was to use this to kill a deer in order to prove his loyalty to Alpha Eta Rho. Naturally, Francis awakens quite disturbed and tries to make sense of this nightmare. On his way to the library to look for information about Alpha Eta Rho and Ulf, he passes a police investigation of an apparent murder, and the victim's body is still lying there: a young buck deer. Now Francis fears that he himself has somehow committed this grisly deed, while hypnotized or sleepwalking. That's the point at which these excerpts begin.
The complete novel has never been released, but at Khakidoggy's urging, I am looking at the manuscript to see whether I can get it into shape and do something like that with it. Possibly an ebook, anyway.
Please enjoy the teasers. Comments or criticisms welcome.
comments
March 18, 2020
New furry podcast site
Alex (Khakidoggy) decided last week that it would be a good idea to cheer folks up with some fun and happy stories during this stressful time. Accordingly, he has started "The Voice of Dog" at http://thevoice.dog/ and is reading furry stories aloud, one each day. An excerpt from one of my books is going up in two parts, today and tomorrow. Several other stories are already posted and you can see/hear them all on the site above.
If you use Spotify, the 'casts are available through them, but you can also listen to them right on the home site. Just scroll down to find the listing of available episodes.
Furry authors with stories they are willing to have read for general listening are invited to send them to Alex (khakidoggy@me.com) for his consideration. He asks for happy endings only, and length in the 2000 to 6000 word range. No payment, but you can provide an introductory text in which you may supply connections to anything you have available for sale as print/audio/ebook formats.
Alex is an excellent reader too. Check it out.
comments
If you use Spotify, the 'casts are available through them, but you can also listen to them right on the home site. Just scroll down to find the listing of available episodes.
Furry authors with stories they are willing to have read for general listening are invited to send them to Alex (khakidoggy@me.com) for his consideration. He asks for happy endings only, and length in the 2000 to 6000 word range. No payment, but you can provide an introductory text in which you may supply connections to anything you have available for sale as print/audio/ebook formats.
Alex is an excellent reader too. Check it out.
comments
January 6, 2020
Tiny zoology
Found this tiny guy frozen (or starved, more likely, and then frozen) on the floor of the boys' barn. Least shrew (Cryptotis parva I think) is one of the smallest, if not the smallest mammal in North America. The other possible species, the Pygmy shrew, is not usually found quite this far south. To be absolutely sure which, I'd have to count teeth, I believe.
Weather has not been that severe, but after the wet and difficult summer and a good freeze to the ground, a shrew's diet is likely pretty scarce. They need a lot of food, too, preferably live insects, grubs, and worms.
Sad that this one perished, but pleased to know we still have that kind of diversity in our wildlife here. The last time I saw one of these was in an advanced biology class in high school. That would have been, ummmm, 52 years ago, I think.
Edit: Miscalculation. it was 53 years ago. H.S. class of 1967 but I was only 17 years old at graduation, having skipped most of third grade.
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Weather has not been that severe, but after the wet and difficult summer and a good freeze to the ground, a shrew's diet is likely pretty scarce. They need a lot of food, too, preferably live insects, grubs, and worms.
Sad that this one perished, but pleased to know we still have that kind of diversity in our wildlife here. The last time I saw one of these was in an advanced biology class in high school. That would have been, ummmm, 52 years ago, I think.
Edit: Miscalculation. it was 53 years ago. H.S. class of 1967 but I was only 17 years old at graduation, having skipped most of third grade.
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December 29, 2019
Today's baking
Two challah loaves (Hanukkah is almost done)
And a cherry pie in a pear tree. (Well with apples in the cherries, actually.)
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And a cherry pie in a pear tree. (Well with apples in the cherries, actually.)
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December 23, 2019
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September 26, 2019
Nudge from the distant past
I graduated with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Michigan State University just under 50 years ago. The alumni association and university development people have long ago lost track of me after a half dozen address changes through that time. I never could afford to give them the kind of money they were asking for in any case.
Twelve years after graduation, by which time I was living in Chicago rather than Michigan, I got my first amateur radio license. Back when I was on campus, I never took any engineering classes or had any thoughts about radio licensing.
Today a letter arrived from the faculty sponsor of the MSU Amateur Radio Club, based in the engineering school. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year but their membership had dwindled down to just two students a couple of years ago. Through considerable effort, they managed to recruit a couple dozen new members and get them licensed. They are seeking funds for more recruitment and perhaps for some demonstrations or educational displays. This seemed like a good idea to me, and I will send them a small check.
However, I have some trouble figuring out how they even located me. The letter was addressed to me here at the farm, where I've been for the last 20 years, and it included my current call sign which is slightly different from the first one I received back in 1983. My name is common enough to have caused a lot of mistaken identifications over the years, and matching the entire list of alumni for half a century against the current FCC license registrations given only the names hardly seems a likely approach. How did they do it?
I sent an e-mail to the faculty sponsor hinting that I'd like to know what the process was. We'll see if he responds. Unfortunately, the club itself apparently describes its current activities only on facebook, so I'm not able to see much of that. I rejected facebook years ago and deleted my account with no plans to ever go back.
comments
Twelve years after graduation, by which time I was living in Chicago rather than Michigan, I got my first amateur radio license. Back when I was on campus, I never took any engineering classes or had any thoughts about radio licensing.
Today a letter arrived from the faculty sponsor of the MSU Amateur Radio Club, based in the engineering school. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year but their membership had dwindled down to just two students a couple of years ago. Through considerable effort, they managed to recruit a couple dozen new members and get them licensed. They are seeking funds for more recruitment and perhaps for some demonstrations or educational displays. This seemed like a good idea to me, and I will send them a small check.
However, I have some trouble figuring out how they even located me. The letter was addressed to me here at the farm, where I've been for the last 20 years, and it included my current call sign which is slightly different from the first one I received back in 1983. My name is common enough to have caused a lot of mistaken identifications over the years, and matching the entire list of alumni for half a century against the current FCC license registrations given only the names hardly seems a likely approach. How did they do it?
I sent an e-mail to the faculty sponsor hinting that I'd like to know what the process was. We'll see if he responds. Unfortunately, the club itself apparently describes its current activities only on facebook, so I'm not able to see much of that. I rejected facebook years ago and deleted my account with no plans to ever go back.
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September 22, 2019
And here's the temporary fix
Archie and Asher back in their yard, though giving occasional skeptical looks at the red portable fence panels. I guess the color is not suited to their highly developed taste.
Crunch!
Dead tree falls on the horse yard gate. Asher and Archie hardly looked up from eating their hay, but barn cat Delta rushed in to take credit for the "kill." We were eating breakfast (pumpkin pancakes, in fact) when it all happened right before our very eyes. Window in dining room faces the horse barns.
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September 18, 2019
U.S. health care rant
I have been fortunate in being isolated from the health care rip-offs by reasonably consistent good health and generally decent insurance. I read about horrible stuff in the papers all the time though: people dying because they can't afford insulin (a fairly inexpensive drug to produce) and school nurses unable to keep Epipen (emergency injectable epinephrine) on hand due to outrageous pricing by the producer for a product that costs about a dollar per unit to produce.
Apparently our government is so corrupt and utterly owned by big money corporations, nothing can be done about this. I think it's time for us to march on the Capitol with torches and pitchforks and throw a lot of corrupt politicians out on their fat asses.
My husband is supposed to carry an Epipen because he had a violent reaction to a bee sting a few years ago. Our doctor says it's a life and death choice for him. Last year when he tried to fill the prescription, he was quoted a price of $2200.00 for a two pack. (You can't buy a single one, they only come in twos.) He declined it.
This year the doc reiterated the importance and prescribed it again. We do have prescription coverage under Part D, and it isn't supposed to cost so much. Right. The pharmacy quoted the two pack at $375 this time. And that was for the "generic" version, which apparently is identical and made in the same factory but doesn't have the "Epipen" label on it.
I went to the insurance web site to look up the price that they say should be charged. They quote $90 when asked for "Epipen" and recommend the generic instead to "save $90." So I asked for the generic and was still quoted $90 for it. This is a "Tier 3" drug, so it is supposed to have a co-pay, but according to a different page on the same site, the co-pay should be only $30 if picked up at the participating pharmacy. The $90 is the maximum co-pay for using the mail order service.
So we called the doctor's office and told them about this. They sent the prescription to the pharmacy, I wanted to make sure we were talking about the exact same item. We were. They said it should be free, probably, and they are going to have someone call us about that.
So you have to scream and yell and jump up and down to get people to be honest, and nothing is done to correct that problem. I guess that's "business as usual" in the U.S. Disgusting, to say the least.
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Apparently our government is so corrupt and utterly owned by big money corporations, nothing can be done about this. I think it's time for us to march on the Capitol with torches and pitchforks and throw a lot of corrupt politicians out on their fat asses.
My husband is supposed to carry an Epipen because he had a violent reaction to a bee sting a few years ago. Our doctor says it's a life and death choice for him. Last year when he tried to fill the prescription, he was quoted a price of $2200.00 for a two pack. (You can't buy a single one, they only come in twos.) He declined it.
This year the doc reiterated the importance and prescribed it again. We do have prescription coverage under Part D, and it isn't supposed to cost so much. Right. The pharmacy quoted the two pack at $375 this time. And that was for the "generic" version, which apparently is identical and made in the same factory but doesn't have the "Epipen" label on it.
I went to the insurance web site to look up the price that they say should be charged. They quote $90 when asked for "Epipen" and recommend the generic instead to "save $90." So I asked for the generic and was still quoted $90 for it. This is a "Tier 3" drug, so it is supposed to have a co-pay, but according to a different page on the same site, the co-pay should be only $30 if picked up at the participating pharmacy. The $90 is the maximum co-pay for using the mail order service.
So we called the doctor's office and told them about this. They sent the prescription to the pharmacy, I wanted to make sure we were talking about the exact same item. We were. They said it should be free, probably, and they are going to have someone call us about that.
So you have to scream and yell and jump up and down to get people to be honest, and nothing is done to correct that problem. I guess that's "business as usual" in the U.S. Disgusting, to say the least.
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September 12, 2019
Be vewwy quiet. We'we hunting...
Puffballs. Calvatia gigantea to be precise. Edible if you get them before the slugs and insects tunnel into them.
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