Why I have a blog...

Honestly?
Because not everybody wants my ruddy e-mail in their inbox, and this way more people will have access.

Essentially, I'm using this as a companion to two YahooGroups:
compositemolecules@yahoogroups.com [where only I post]
and
dead-horse@yahoogroups.com [where everybody else can post about the first one]

This way, I'll have some stuff out for people who aren't on the e-mail list to enjoy.

I use CompositeMolecules to test-drive various pieces of writing, commentaries, non-fiction pieces, etc.

And I'll be posting all of them here, as well.

So enjoy it, wherever you read it.

benjamin sTone
Freelance Agent of Chaos

First Arrivals

First, apologies to any who already got this. Not a terribly sincere apology, but you take what you can get.

In any event, thank you to those who have arrived already.

Beer and wine are on the card table in the corner.

There are also a whole bunch of Doritoes I bought for a buck twenty-five a bag from Big Lots. They promised me the low price was just because they were mislabeled. That's why they say FUCK OFF instead of COOL RANCH.

For you smokers, there are a couple of tin ashtrays nicked from a Hardees back in 1993.

Sorry the chairs aren't too comfortable just yet...

Oh, and you have to jiggle the handle on the toilet to get it to flush. And the cat tends to bite. Just leave her be.

Thanks for your patience...

benjamin sTone
Landlord of my Brain

-------------
benjamin says stuff: compositemolecules@yahoogroups.com
everybody else can talk: dead-horse@yahoogroups.com

BONUS MESSAGE!

For those of you who have made it here early, this should tide you over until more people arrive. I wrote this as an exercise in telling a good story longhand, using only one side of a sheet of paper. It's a few years old, but it still works, given its nature:

-------------------------------------------

    Mark was twenty-five when he discovered that he had been living his entire life in six dimensions. He had just gone through a particularly disastrous breakup, and while attempting to scoop his neon tetras from Susan's fish tank, he made an eerie discovery. After several near misses, his palm brushed against the fish, which promptly swam at and into his hand.
    Stunned, Mark grabbed a cup and -- as though passing a blessing -- waved his hand over the top, palm down, depositing the fish and a quantity of tank water from nowhere in particular.
    This was, Mark realized, almost cripplingly cool.
    He now knew his fate.
    He would become a Master Criminal™!
    He would walk through bank walls, hiding the gold in another dimension in his head; he would bewilder his pursuers by inverting their perceptions of color and shape; he would allow bullets to pass through him, and would cripple his enemies with nothing but thoughts of sour milk! Nobody could stop him! But, no...thievery was not the way...
    He would become a Super Hero™!
    He would stop criminals by passing a hand through their brain, rendering them unconscious; he would walk through crime scenes, psycho-magnetically attracting particles of hair and skin from the perpetrator; he would peer deep into the mind of the average white-collar thief and he would cripple his enemies with nothing but thoughts of how a dance club smells after 2 a.m.! Nobody could stop him!
    Mark opened his front door, smelling the blue sky for the first time, tasting the wind against his cheek, and hearing the future call his name.
    As he paused to reflect, Mark was promptly mauled by a neighbor's Doberman pinscher, learning a few moments too late that all dogs bite in seven dimensions.

-------------------------------------------

Yeah, yeah, I hear you.
I didn't promise they'd all be modern classics...
Just consider this a warm-up...

benjamin

---
benjamin talks at compositemolecules@yahoogroups.com
Everbody else can speak at dead-horse@yahoogroups.com
---

Keeping Me In Check

Brief thoughts of the morning:

    My fiancée, Sara, is good to me.
    I decided, last night, upon what I thought some good names for children were. Not that we’re having one, that is, we were just discussing it.

    Apparently “Laser Cannon Stone” is not a good choice.

    Same goes for “Giant Robot Stone.”

    But this is good. She keeps me much more balanced than I could possibly hope to be on my own.
    For example, I’m very fond of hypothetical situations, like “Sara, if I had a small, vestigial face on the side of my head, and it didn’t work, but it would cry real tears every time I was happy, or at inappropriate moments, like when I’m telling you I love you, would you still love me as much as you do now?”
    Sara does not like these, and wisely refuses to answer them.
    She also lets me watch snippets of kung-fu movies during the ten minutes before her TV shows start.
    And she bought me shelves for my toys, which I can look up from the computer and see as I write. Like now. LOOK OUT GODZILLA! KING GHIDORAH IS RIGHT THERE! Mind you, Pikachu is about four inches to his right, and a little Playmobil wizard about six inches to his left, but I feel these pose him far less of a threat.
    And there are, of course, more good things. But these are the things I think about on mornings before I go to work, on days when I won’t see her until 9pm.

    So, to summarize, Sara = good, naming your child “Extra Super Bonus” = bad.

benjamin

Tuesdays are weird

Music of the moment: Bjork singing the “Gloomy Sunday,” the “Hungarian Suicide Song”
Last movie I watched: “The Gin Game” with Mary Tyler Moore and Dick van Dyke
Books: “Lizard,” a collection of short stories by Banana Yoshimoto, and “The Weaponshops of Isher,” by A.E. van Vogt.

Everybody else can talk at: dead-horse@yahoogroups.com

News Story of the Day

I notice no scientists have come forth to debate that “Ice Cold” may not in fact be “cooler than being cool.”

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/17/polaroid.warns.reut/index.html

benjamin