David G. Shrock's Blog, page 6

October 4, 2013

Spine Poetry

After reading Margit’s spine poem, and also Setsu’s poem, I decided to give this a try. The game is to stack books to create a poem. The post, “Form for All: The Hidden Poetry in Books” explains the “Sorted Books” project by Nina Katchadourian.


Here is mine:


[image error]

Spine poetry, “Phantom Light”


Odd Hours

I am Half-Sick of Shadows

Phantom

Light

Just After Sunset

Stardust

About Time

Spook Country

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on October 04, 2013 15:23

September 26, 2013

The Oak in the Boneyard — #FridayFlash

listen to ‘The Oak in the Boneyard’ on Audioboo



Behind the house the lonely old oak tree stood like a sentinel in the night. Occasionally a raven or two would perch on a branch and squawk up a storm, but most nights the old tree quietly watched over a solitary slab gravestone. On rare clear nights Yasmine joined the oak in solemn thought. She’d sit there on the slab watching the moon rise. When there was a breeze, the oak would treat her with a fluttering chorus dropping a few red or yellow leaves onto her golden head.


One night, Yasmine arrived with a gift. The strongest branch gripped the end of the rope holding the hefty package full of nutrition. Yasmine opened the present and took her place reclining on the slab. The cool granite against her naked flesh pulled the heat of the day away. She enjoyed the quiet there in the field far from town. Most of all she loved moon-bathing. As the pale disc climbed into the sky, the oak parted branches letting moonlight through. The night air caressed her flesh and teased her hair.


Drops pattered the ground, and roots soaked everything up.


Yasmine imagined her late husband watching from the grave. His jealousy made her grin.


The old oak held onto the rope, but the load on the branch tested its resolve. Drinking in the nutrients, the tree grew stronger. The wind pushed, branches waved, and the rope twisted. Drops sprinkled the ground, the slab, and the soil again.


Hearing the oak moan, Yasmine opened her eyes and watched her lover swinging upside-down. Blood droplets splattered her chest and face filling her senses with delight, and the dangling body left a trail towards the trunk and back again. Her lover showered the soil. The oak had needed a good drink and already appeared a shade stronger.


She’d need to add another grave, a good start to her boneyard. It’s guardian, the oak, would soon be lonely no more.


________________________________________________________________


Find more #FridayFlash at FridayFlash.org

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 26, 2013 17:03

The Oak in the Boneyard

listen to ‘The Oak in the Boneyard’ on Audioboo



Behind the house the lonely old oak tree stood like a sentinel in the night. Occasionally a raven or two would perch on a branch and squawk up a storm, but most nights the old tree quietly watched over a solitary slab gravestone. On rare clear nights Yasmine joined the oak in solemn thought. She’d sit there on the slab watching the moon rise. When there was a breeze, the oak would treat her with a fluttering chorus dropping a few red or yellow leaves onto her golden head.


One night, Yasmine arrived with a gift. The strongest branch gripped the end of the rope holding the hefty package full of nutrition. Yasmine opened the present and took her place reclining on the slab. The cool granite against her naked flesh pulled the heat of the day away. She enjoyed the quiet there in the field far from town. Most of all she loved moon-bathing. As the pale disc climbed into the sky, the oak parted branches letting moonlight through. The night air caressed her flesh and teased her hair.


Drops pattered the ground, and roots soaked everything up.


Yasmine imagined her late husband watching from the grave. His jealousy made her grin.


The old oak held onto the rope, but the load on the branch tested its resolve. Drinking in the nutrients, the tree grew stronger. The wind pushed, branches waved, and the rope twisted. Drops sprinkled the ground, the slab, and the soil again.


Hearing the oak moan, Yasmine opened her eyes and watched her lover swinging upside-down. Blood droplets splattered her chest and face filling her senses with delight, and the dangling body left a trail towards the trunk and back again. Her lover showered the soil. The oak had needed a good drink and already appeared a shade stronger.


She’d need to add another grave, a good start to her boneyard. It’s guardian, the oak, would soon be lonely no more.


________________________________________________________________


Find more #FridayFlash at FridayFlash.org

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 26, 2013 17:03

September 19, 2013

Third Kiss — #FridayFlash

listen to ‘Third Kiss’ on Audioboo



Her name, Mary Jane, danced in my head. My first kiss felt like a warm breeze in evening twilight. Three days later, I stood beside her hospital bed. Influenza, the nurse said. Flu was bad that year, but I couldn’t help wondering if it was my kiss. Mary Jane slipped away that night.


Two years later, I met Sofie in the theater hall. My second kiss imprisoned me in bliss. She held my hand until the symphony melted into the night. On our second date, I attended Sofie’s funeral. Weak heart, her mother said. Nodding relatives agreed, but a question bled into me. Did my kiss invite the dead?


Nearing the end of our fourth date, Annabella held me tight. We danced on the sidewalk outside the diner. The cold night air turned threatening, but our embrace was armor. Annabella whispered a request. Trepidation stormed my head, and I nearly fell over. Her smile set me straight.


On my third kiss, I knew.


___________________________________________________________________


Follow #FridayFlash on Twitter or at fridayflash.org.


 

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 19, 2013 19:00

September 18, 2013

Book Review: Traitors by Carrie Clevenger

Traitors, a novella by Carrie Clevenger, is a Crooked Fang adventure available on Amazon Kindle and at Smashwords from Katarr Kanticles Press. If you haven’t tasted a Crooked Fang story before, this is a perfectly reasonable place to get acquainted with Xan and his world. Traitors picks up where the novel, Crooked Fang, left off if you’d rather start there. This novella is short enough to enjoy in one gulp with plenty of content to leave a lasting impression. Not for the young ones.


This story holds the same edge found in the blog serial and has grown with the author into a smooth ride like a restored muscle car with power when you need it. Xan introduces his world with a playful style touched by his dark-offbeat humor. I feel I’m right there with Xan at Pale Rider, a little drinking hole, and riding with him in his Camaro. It’s a fun ride, too. Xan keeps things lively even when picking music on the radio. The love that went into writing and editing Traitors bleeds through at every turn, a smooth ride winding through the Xan’s feelings for his friend, Nin, and rising over the peak into a blaze at the Traitors bar. Xan realizes there’s more to this mission, and the story leaves us with a taste of things to come.


I’ve enjoyed the other Crooked Fang stories by Carrie Clevenger, but Traitors has made me a fan. Thanks, Carrie, for sharing with us.


This review on GoodReads.


Follow @CarrieClevenger on Twitter.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 18, 2013 09:54

September 17, 2013

Dee Count v1.6

Dee Count updated to version 1.6 with new look for iOS 7 style and added support for scanning bar codes with the iPad camera. The layout is nearly the same, but flipping right and left sides of main workspace.



Note: “Scan Bar Codes” button requires iOS 7 and appears when on-screen keyboard is visible; external keyboard device is ejected.
updated manual on Scribd
Dee Count at the Apple App Store.

Dee Count is an inventory counting program targeted at those wanting to count and compare counts quickly using an iPad. Inventory management is not the primary goal.


DeeCountLandscape2

iOS 7 screen shot of updated layout


 Scanning Bar Codes with Camera

Scanning bar codes using the built-in iPad camera requires iOS 7. The “Scan Bar Codes” button appears when the on-screen keyboard is visible; your external keyboard device is not active. If you have an external keyboard device connected, eject the device and tap the add box.


Tapping the “Scan Bar Codes” button opens the camera view. When a bar code is detected, a blue line appears over it along with the detected code. Tap the camera view to add the code as a count.


DeeCountBarcodeBagFull


Note that scan success depends on the size and quality of the bar code. An external laser bar code scanner like Scanfob 2002 is recommended, but sometimes it’s nice to do a quick scan with the camera. A newer iPad with a camera having 1080p video support, newer than iPad 2, works best. The screen shots on this page were taken on an iPad 2, but notice the size of the bar codes. I had a much tougher time with smaller bar codes found on books or shoe boxes with the iPad 2. The iPad with Retina or iPad Mini work better.


DeeCountBarcode2Full


this test bar code is huge!

this test bar code is huge!


Dee Count camera bar code scanning supports UPC-A, EAN-13, code-128, and code-39. EAN-13 codes beginning with a zero will be automatically converted to UPC-A (leading zero ignored) much like many laser scanners to remain consistent.


Learn more about Dee Count on the software page, read the manual on Scribd, or look for Dee Count at the Apple App Store.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 17, 2013 15:20

July 5, 2013

Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale 2013

The Smashwords Summer/Winter sale runs until the end of July. Find ebooks from independent available in formats supporting many readers. My novel, Raven Memory, is a free download with code SW100.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on July 05, 2013 12:08

June 15, 2013

Office Chess Game

This game was played at the office where we made 2-5 moves per day at infrequent intervals during the month of April. It’s almost like playing chess by mail. The board sits at my desk giving me an advantage. This is the first time I’ve played the Scheveningen Variation of the Sicilian Defense opening. The Dragon Variation is familiar to me, and I became intrigued taking a different route. After the game, I looked up the opening in Modern Chess Openings 13 (DeFirmian and Korn, 1990) to learn more about. After the 6th move, we fall out of the main opening.


I played white. The game remained even, both sides taking a strong position in the middle, until the 16th move, shown below, where black castles. Stronger would have been to 16 … Nxe3 to weaken white’s hold over the middle.


[Event "Office game"] [Date "2013.04.25"] [White "Shrock"] [Black "O'Bryan"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. g4 Bb7 9. Qd2 Be7 10. O-O-O Nd7 11. g5 Nh5 12. Kb1 g6 13. Bh3 Rc8 14. a3 Ne5 15. f4 Nc4 16. Qd3 O-O 17. Nxe6 fxe6 18. Bxe6 Rf7 19. Nd5 Nxe3 20. Qxe3 Bxd5 21. Rxd5 Rc6 22. Bxf7+ Kxf7 23. f5 Bxg5? 24. fxg6 hxg6 25. Qxg5? Qxg5 26. Rxg5 Rc5 27. Rf1+ Kg7 28. h4 Nf6 29. Rxc5 dxc5 30. e5 Nd5 31. e6 Kh6 32. Rf7 Kh5 33. e7 1-0 your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard; alternatively your wordpress theme might suppress the html iframe tag from articles or excerpts

Both sides made mistakes later in the game. Black’s move 23 … Bxg5? was an expensive exchange giving up control of the center. White mixed up the order of exchanges on moves 25 and 26 moving Queen first instead of the Rook. White had the advantage, and black resigned.


The difficulty about playing a single move at a time during the work day is forgetting what one was thinking about previously. Of course, the game is for fun. It’s nice to take the mind away from a challenging problem or the usual routine for a few minutes. My chess experience is primarily in solving puzzles, so it’s great to play a game as well.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on June 15, 2013 10:05

June 9, 2013

Skyrim Action Screenshot Gallery

A selection of action shots captured from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim featuring Reisha, a vampire mage.



Reisha's first decapitation
Midnight stroll
Vampire wizardry
Thunderbolt
Swords and spells
Snow and blood
Witch hunting
Wizard slays warrior
Beheading on the run
Blood
Sword enchanted for extra shock.
Two-sword decapitation
Splatter

All screen captures are unaltered at 2560×1440 resolution with the game using the high-resolution texture pack and a modified settings file pushing draw distance beyond the normal limits as noted in my earlier post, “Skyrim Distance Drawing.”


Learn more about Reisha and playing a mage in my post, “Skyrim Mage.”

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on June 09, 2013 07:29

April 23, 2013

Social Media: Passion and Proofreading

Social media allows you to improve your brand by engaging with others. Staying connected with clients or reaching out to a new audience may mean writing newsletters, articles, brief posts, or profile summaries on sites. Even if your team commits a passionate effort into the finding the right words, forgetting to proofread risks damaging your marketing efforts.


Bad grammar risks destroying credibility and reputation.

Spotting too many mistakes, especially breaking simple rules like capitalizing the wrong letters, becomes distracting. The reader may believe the persons working for the brand do not care enough to write well and conclude they don’t care about quality or their clients. Imagine a Facebook post claiming quality services containing basic grammar errors, and the post refers potential clients to an overview page on the web where grammar mistakes abound. Poor grammar risks losing sales.


In the post, “Writing for Social Media: When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People” at GrammarChic.com the author states, “bad grammar not only hinders your social media marketing efforts, it has the ability to crush any credibility or authority you may have in your respective field” and simply, “no one wants to look like an idiot.”


Brad Hoover in “Good Grammar Should be Everyone’s Business” on Harvard Business Review writes about an informal study by his company, Grammarly, of LinkedIn profiles finding a correlation between good grammar and success.


Also on Harvard Business Review in “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Bad Grammar. Here’s Why.” Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, asserts that “good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet.” People judge others by their writing. Wiens’ observation is that people who make fewer mistakes in writing also make fewer mistakes in other work. Supporting his hiring practice he states, “programmers who pay attention to how they construct written language also tend to pay a lot more attention to how they code.” Also notice in the post Wiens mentions the basics like mistaking “to” for “too” or incorrectly using “it’s.”


Your post doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to show that you care.

When it comes to informal writing, readers are forgiving. A mistake in a brief post will likely go unnoticed. Forgiveness diminishes when errors outnumber sentences, or the message becomes difficult to understand. Proofreading a short newsletter may only take a minute. You know writing basics and how to find help. Your clients know this, too.


You are passionate about your brand. Show your passion by proofreading.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on April 23, 2013 05:37

David G. Shrock's Blog

David G. Shrock
David G. Shrock isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow David G. Shrock's blog with rss.