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Ava Princess

By Ava

Once upon a time there was a princess named Ava, and she had sisters named Lily and Clara. Her mom and dad were thinking about a party for her. And then she went outside so her parents couldn't see her.

And then she decided to make a birthday cake for herself. And then there was a monster. That monster almost got her, but it was only a person.

It was one of her sisters. It was Clara. And Lily was a princess, so she went back into the castle, and she started writing. And then there was another thing that she wanted to add to it. Her sister was in the picture.

Princesses

Ava and Lily at a fall festival

By Ava

Once upon a time, there was a princess whose name was Ava. And then there was a horse. And then the horse had a prince on it. And then the prince told the princess how to do art. And then she already made art. And then she showed the prince her art project.

THE END

Updated Performance Against Seed Expectations

Some of you are probably familiar with the Performance Against Seed Expectations (PASE) metric used with the men's tournament brackets. In short, the metric takes into account how many games a seed is expected to win based on past performances since 1985 (the first year of the 64-team tournament). I use this metric to determine expected offensive statistical totals for the college basketball fantasy league that I run each March.

Gonna give you up? NEVER!

With the 10th anniversary of "The Developers" happening this year (right now, in fact!), I wanted to address a sensitive issue regarding Rick Astley.

I didn't invent the rickroll, at least, not directly.

Ten years

Ten years ago this month, I originally published "The Developers." It's weird to think it was that long ago, and even weirder to think that I started on the book 13 years ago, in 2002. While so much has changed with the Internet, the key tenets of the book seemingly still hold true:

1. The Internet is a social place.
2. Governments and corporations are always watching.

Then again, I guess these items are relevant in real-life situations as well. It's just much easier to track people (definitely as a group but also as individuals) online.

From the Archive

Figs are fun

figs are fun

It is really remarkable that after writing online stories for 25 years, I have a topic today that I’ve both never written about and something I know more about than almost anything else.

That thing is figs.

How did we get to this point? My uncle had a fig tree in his backyard, and we lived at his house 16 years ago. Coincidentally, my father-in-law also had fig trees, so when we bought a new house 14 years ago, we accepted a gift of a fig cutting and planted it in an auspicious backyard location.

Book review: "Jpod" by Douglas Coupland

Lately I've had a great string of luck in reading good books by good authors. Unfortunately, the string has run out. "Jpod" by Douglas Coupland is not-so-good book by a good author.

Spumoni Press Comic-Con book launch

Spumoni Press is pleased to announce another new book! Brad Samuelson, author of Gnonsense and illustrator of Corporate Ties, will be debuting his latest book, Change Log: Version 1.0, at this year's Baltimore Comic-Con, Sept 28-30 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Stop by his table (A224) to check out the book, as well as original art, free sketches, stickers and copies of Corporate Ties.

How to use your cellphone

Some people walk around with a cellphone like it is the actual meaning of life. "Cellphone, please tell me again your perspective of good versus evil." Oh wait, maybe the person was just talking to their philosophy classmate.

Anyway, I've come up with some simple tips that probably most of you won't agree with, but I think it would make the world much more livable.

Obama wallpaper

The day after the election, I had a chance to check out all of the front pages from around the world. It was remarkable how many international newspapers had Obama as the top story, and as expected, a number of U.S. papers devoted their entire front pages to election coverage. I created an Obama collage of the papers as a tribute to our next president. Feel free to use as a screensaver or desktop image!

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