Sometimes...
...Ya jus' gotta go to war in the unnerwear ya got on.
--Dolly
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Quote of the day...
90% of anything is showing up.
--Woody Allen
OK. I'm here. Now what?
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Hello/ello...
SAW SCOTT PELLEY (sic) in action for the first time tonight. (No, I don't watch 60 Minutes. Why would you ask?) (Interrupted NCIS. Wassup wit dat? If I'd wanted to watch Ted Baxter, I'd have tuned in Mary Tyler Moore.) But seriously, now: is there anybody in there? Is there anyone at home? Have you ever seen a more vacant newsbot?
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Tuesday Morning...
ON THE GLENN BECK radio show, the discussion reminded me of this quote from da Doll:
All helicopters are black after midnight.
Spread the word.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
40,000 (New Laws) In Gehenna...
BIRD DOG, AT Maggie's Farm asserts that A) there's no way to know and/or obey them all and that 2) we are therefor all criminals now.
We must demur.
There are only a very few criminals in this. They are under 1,000 in number, and comprise (albeit not exclusively) Congress and the President.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
When the Water Approaches the Gunwales...
SOMEBODY SAID RECENTLY follow the rats.
This is actually, possibly, not such a hot idea. America needs two, vital political poles to counter-balance one another. When one is so weakened by its own corruption that the other can walk all over it (as the Democrats have done for a long time), the country suffers. But it may be that the rampant corruption of the Democrat party -- due, I suspect, in large part to the unwillingness of the partisan legacy media to examine said corruption in any meaningful way -- has spread so far and metastasized so virulently that there is no way to save the corpus. Only palliatives can have any effect, and then only until the inevitable end.
And what may rise from the ashes might not be so pretty.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
You May Have Already Seen This...
ITEM ON INSTAPUNDIT but it bears repeating and promulgating as far and wide as can be. SOPA and the ProtectIP act are not meant to protect the creators of intellectual property from piracy. They are meant to protect the corporate buccaneers of IP from the depredations of their outraged customers. So, when the good guys -- however intermittently good they may be -- propose a political action, lovers of liberty should support them.
Let your congresscritters to let this abomination die aborning. And go buy stuff at the merchants standing up for your liberty.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
Which Demonstrates...
HOW THOROUGHLY and deliberately invidious political correctness is. And is meant to be.
And, one should remind all of you political ecumenists out there, is wholly a creature of the Left.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
Taxation == Theft. Theft == Murder...
THEREFOR TAXATION == MURDER Q.E.D. These are equivalencies I have discussed at some length here on BTB, as well as elsewhere. While the moral points are pretty much indisputable, nevertheless, some idiots continue to dispute them. Add to this short list this from Holly Lisle.
Many sages over the years have observed that, if you accept money from the government, you are, in effect, receiving stolen property. This stems from the question: when is it moral for the group to do that which the individual is forbidden? (Answer: never.) If it is impermissible for you to go door-to-door in your town and demand money at gunpoint, how is it proper for you to allow the state to do it on your behalf? This is why the suggestion as put forth, e.g., in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress that all government functions be funded exclusively by voluntary subscription is so damned apposite.
And, if you believe that the above Q&A is fallacious -- that government should be permitted to do things individuals are forbidden (with the possible exception of the initiation of the use of force -- on which I might quibble with Ms Lisle), then you are obviously against individual rights and liberty and are on the wrong side in this argument: by you, slavery and peonage are just ducky.
The point is raised most timely. This year, as last, we shall see many provisions of the Obamacare legislation put in motion. This is a piece -- nay, a potpourri, a kudzu -- of legislation founded on the principle that it is OK to enslave medical professionals and your neighbors to serve your convenience. Pardon the rest of us if we object.
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And, just to nuke a couple of potential arguments:
Taxation without representation. We has it. The entire Federal tax edifice is unconstitutional. It is enforce by forte main in an extra-legal system in which the principles of American jurisprudence are turned on their heads. Nor is there a patriotic duty to pay taxes at all in the first place, but most especially not for extra-legal expenditures. (Hint: very little done by Congress in the past 100 years -- the period soi disant -- scorn quotes -- "progressives" -- witter on about when they say We in the Right wish to roll back 100 years of progress. (A consummation devoutly, etc.) -- has been according to the Constitution and the limited, enumerated powers granted Congress in Article 1, Section 8, or the define restrictions and limits on congressional power in Article 1, Section 9. (Or, for that matter, the Bill of Rights.) The PATRIOT Act alone renders any congresscritter who did not vote against it in violation of his or her oath of office. Or McCain-Feingold. Or -- for that matter -- Obamacare.)
These things render all acts of the government illegitimate, which kind of moots the whole power to tax thing.
Second: Yes, it is your convenience. You cannot properly claim necessity in asking for a draw from the common burse in a matter in which you have failed to exercise sufficient prudence. You have not lain aside sufficient wherewithal to cover your debts, or made provision to amortize them over time, it therefore is a matter of your convenience that you require your neighbors to pay for your care, housing, feeding, clothing, education, transport, or any other thing that is part of a life.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
At Some Point It Must...
BECOME OBVIOUS TO both We in the Right and They on the Left that the problem here is not Left Government or Right Government, it is Government. Period.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
In Other Words...
FREE (OR ANONYMOUS FREE) SPEECH for everybody except those who say things we disagree with.
I generally support the stated aims of the EFF, but still and all, it is revelatory when a liberal organization -- or liberal members of organizatons -- show their true stripes.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
Everybody Should Know This...
A LARGE DOSE of Vitamin B complex (all items at minimum in excess of 100% of RDA) beats hair of the dog all hollow. Frex: Four drinks of Jim Beam*, the last one around midnight. Two B tablets before I started drinking. No hangover.
Slept 10 hours, but I don't think that's relevant.
Happy New Year.
*No, it's not epic. Didn't even get much of a buzz. Not the point. Without the B, there WOULD have been a hangover.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy 2012...
TO EVERYBODY!
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Funny, When it Comes to Copyright...
WE THE LITTLE PEOPLE are told not to assume anything. "If it's not yours, don't touch it," seems to sum up a reasonable stance on the issue.
But, when it comes to entertainment or publishing conglomerates, they're asking to be allowed to assume that they have rights not granted to them by the creator of a work?
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
No, sir! You are WRONG...
ORDINARILY I TRY TO STAY away from pissing matches, because -- check it out -- it keeps piss off your shoes. But still -- again, check it out -- someone is WRONG on the Internet.
Michael Z. Williamson engages in serial fallacy and that is some shit with which we cannot up put.
If a town uses public money (taxpayers) to put a religious display up at the holidays, it violates the First Amendment. The Courts have repeatedly said so, so no cry of, "Well, that's YOUR opinion!" enters into it. I don't want my tax money being used for any religious purpose, and I'm quite sure many religious people don't want to endorse other religions thereby. You could argue that as long as EVERYONE in town agrees, it's okay, but what happens to the one person who isn't happy? Of course, no one would single them out for harassment, right?
No. No. And No. Read the text.
First off, the First Amendment is a limit placed on Congress, and no other entity. It is the only one of the Amendments making up the Bill of Rights that does so. All of the others assert absolute and universal proscriptions on behavior that limits or infringes individual rights. Universal. No actor may infringe -- public or private. A property owner may deny you access, but if he does so because you choose to go armed, he is violating your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and -- as the actual text says -- the right "shall not be infringed." Not by Congress, or the States, or your city government, or your neighbor.
But the First Amendment starts out -- STARTS OUT -- "Congress shall make no law..." How stupid do you have to be to miss that part?
And, as I like to say, nowhere in there is the phrase "separation of church and state". However, there is a phrase, "...or free exercise thereof." Congress, being the sole legislative authority at the Federal level is enjoined from limiting the free exercise of religion. Funny how people keep missing that.
And, bitch, please: DO NOT try this "The courts have said so, thus it is engraven in stone." That's so stupid as to be the dictionary illustration of risible. Case law cannot trump the actual text of the law. If a law is wrong, it goes back to the legislature (elected by popular vote). Appointed jurists do not get to legislate. Says so right here on the side of the box. And, if you don't think courts can be wrong, I have two words for you: Dredd Scott.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Apologies for the Dearth of Free Ice Cream...
THIS WEEK It's back to day job on Tuesday, so I'm trying to get as many hours of daylight in on this field as I can. I'm plowing the novel, It's Dolly's Birthday, sowing behind the plow as we go.
The last few days, I've been feeling a bit like Tolkien's descriptions of writing on LOTR during WWII, I've struggled through the week, making sure progress, if not any great strides.
Current stats include:
- Total completed scenes sum to 48,185 words, of a goal of 75,000.
- By chapter count, I'm through Ch XI (of XXVII).
- There are six parts of the book planned. Ch XI falls at the end of Part III.
- So, depending on how you look at it, I'm either 40% done, half-done, or two-thirds done.
- I'm calling it half.
Compile at this state is off to the alphas for gut check. And we slave on.
Regular programming to return Tuesday.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
They Keep Getting it Wrong...
IT DOESN'T SEEM TO MATTER whether the speaker is a self-identified libertarian, conservative, moderate, or liberal, they all argue the question of nationalized or socialized medical financing (red herring term: health care insurance) from false premises. In an article currently making the rounds, Prof. Paul Rahe tries mightily to argue that this way or that way of making sure that free riders don't ride for free, pretending that is the central question in the debate, when it's not by a brazilian miles.
The point here is not who else (besides you) pays for your medical care, or whether or why somebody should be able to freeload, thus passing the cost to you. The point here is that the government has no place in the matter whatsoever.
If people are freeloading a system mandated by the government, that is not a bug in the specific program or policy. It is a fundamental flaw in the basic concept of public financing of anything from prostitution to recreational intoxicants to medical care to education. The two systems are separate and should be kept segregated for very good reason -- they corrupt one another."You got government in my commerce/you got commerce in my government" is not the "AHA" moment for a new candy bar, it's a recipe for civilizational disaster.
The principle here is that Congress does not have a mandate to legislate on the matter. It is therefor forbidden to speak and should Shut The Fuck Up and leave the people alone each to mind his own business by his own lights, needs, wants, and desires.
Freedom consists of the ability to tell Mrs Grundy to go piss up a rope. At the moment, the statists are playing the part of Mrs. Grundy. And micturate contra-gravitationally on the sisal cord is exactly the appropriate instruction they should be given by We the People.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Made Some Serious Progress...
THE OTHER DAY on It's Dolly's Birthday -- what was it? Monday? I lay down for a nap thinking, "I need to come up with 20 more scenes to fill out this plot and sub-plots." I woke up with an idea. I rushed to Scrivener and quickly roughed it all out.I ended up with 35 new scenes, a dynamite climax, and ties between and among a round half-dozen plot threads. Since then, I've been working to bring order back to my manuscript so I can see what I'm doing. When all was said and done, I'd added 5,000 new words of mostly notes to what had been 42,000 when I started. I then went through the story in Scrivener and moved scenes around so I had 27 chapters, each of 4-5 scenes, and everything was in an order that at least seemed to make sense. I've since determined that some of that order needs to change. I've also eliminated an entire subplot from the original Apocryphal story as being rather juvenile and not making a lot of sense. There may be a couple more of those. With that in mind, I've gone back over earlier scenes and firmed things up, such as the first gunfight between Drummond and Cally on the one side and the Elves on the other. I'm filling in exposition where it seems missing and cutting it when it seems to info-dumpy.
I doubt I'll ever be done moving scenes around. I know for sure I'm majorly unhappy with the pacing of the two main subplots -- Drummond's and Dolly's -- as they seem to progress at varying rates of speed, and I want to try to even that out a bit, if I can. And there are some other threads that have just been plunked down wherever and whose placement will have to be a matter for deeper consideration as we go along.
I still have hope that I might finish this before I have to go back to the day job next Tuesday, but I'm not enitrely sanguine about it. We'll just have to see.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Man! Amazon Has Everything...
JUST FOUND A KNOB for the '50s vintage copper-bottom cookware we use here at Casa d'Alger. If you need one.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Observation 21 (New Series)...
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Quote of the Day —or the Century...
The love of Government (aka Power) is the root of all evil.
--M. Simon at Classical Values.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas 2011...
Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirnius was governor of Syria. And all went to enroll themselves, every one to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to enroll himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child. And it came to pass while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds in the same country, abiding in the field and keeping watch by night over their flocks. And an angel of the Lord stood by them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of joy which shall be to all the people; for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign unto you; you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace among men in whom he is well pleased."
Merry Christmas to All Worldwide
from All of Us Here at Casa d'Alger
Mark & Toni,
Belle, Loki, Oliver,
Aqua, Sky, Jazz,
Karma,
Chester, Earnie, & Jane
Dolly & Drummond and the
Whole Cast of the Baby Troll Chronicles.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Caturday Post...
I'M SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING today. Writing writing. Not this cat waxing they call blogging. So this Caturday post is all pictures.
Karma cops some Z's amidst the chaos of Christmas.
Earnie and Loki catpile on the bed.
Earnie peers out the side window of the study at something between the houses.
Earnie looks out the front window. (Image flipped L-R.)
Jane, proud of her catch -- who's that at the door? (Cat equivalent of -- SQUIRREL!)
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Question of the Day...
HOW DO WE ARRANGE to have Nanny Bloomberg's crime ring, Mayors Against Illegal Guns prosecuted as a criminal conspiracy against civil rights?
Read item at Joe Huffman's blog.
Being as the Federal Constitution has the supremacy clause and all that, and the Federal Constitution guarantees an individual R2KBA, mayors of cities, towns, and hamlets have -- really -- nothing to say in the matter unless and until weapons are used to harm citizens -- in the commission of a crime. Otherwise, their actions amount to a civil rights violation, in prior restraint, and -- as such -- should net them jail time and ejection from office, not necessarily in that order.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
So Glad to See That GoDaddy...
HAS BACKED OFF its support for the execrable SOPA/Protect IP bills wending their ways through the House and Senate respectively. (Announcement here.) My domains are registered with GoDaddy and the cost and time-sink of having to transfer them to another registrar (after first having had to FIND another registrar that is both A) cheap and 2) anti-SOPA) is daunting. I'm glad to not have to face that.
It's a testament to the small-d democratic nature of the 'Net that such a movement can form, coalesce, and have its effect so quickly. Not sure if it's a shame or a blessing that Congress can't be moved so easily.
BTW, Reddit's chest-thumping is understandable, but not really on-point. Any large participatory site (e.g., SlashDot) could have had a similar effect. This one accrues to Reddit's good name on the ledger, but they shouldn't get up themselves too much. The whole power of the Net rests in its distributed and atomized nature. It's everybody, each acting individually in his own informed self-interest that makes the 'Net both so powerful and so unwieldy -- thus an unhandy tool for tyrants: something to be kept in mind.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Observation 20 (New Series)...
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Quote of the Day...
The argument is that forcing consumers to buy more efficient -- and far more expensive — bulbs will greatly reduce energy consumption, and in turn, air pollution and global warming.
Consider the above, then ask yourself this: "Why?"
Why do we want to reduce energy consumption? There surely is no shortage. "Eat all you want; we'll make more." Betting now that what we do today will run us out tomorrow is like betting on whale oil in 1840. We will have energy available to us until the heat death of the sun. If we don't, we deserve to die.
What's with air pollution? Any stats on petroleum consumption 1970 to today? Is our air cleaner over that period? Is it proven necessary to reduce the use of something in order to lessen its impact on the world? No. May we therefore taken it as a given that any proposals which seek to starve our economy for the sake of reduction of air pollution are, ab initio, made in bad faith, and suspicions of ulterior motives stipulated as probable?
And, finally, since global warming -- or, more correctly, catastrophic anthropogenic global warming -- has been most thoroughly falsisfied and debunked, may we again take it as given that any public policy proposals which use "global warming" as their casus belli do so in bad faith? And may, therefor, be dismissed out of hand?
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Apocrypha News...
YESTERDAY I WANTED TO get some work done on It's Dolly's Birthday. And I did, only not the kind I meant. Once I resigned myself to the loss of the day, I decided to format and upload the current official version of the Apocrypha story. It is now up and complete at the Apocrypha site. It's Dolly's Birthday.
This is -- except for a brief round of name and other changes to protect the innocent -- the original draft of the story, written serial fashion as posts to a Xena: Warrior Princess fan mailing list called The Center for Xena Studies. (Which is still active all these years later.) As I have edited the apologia on the Apocrypha pages to read, I am now thinking of these as merely the first drafts of the stories, rather than their being complete trunk stories, never to go any further.
But enough of the cat waxing (no matter how much the cats disagree), EARNIE GET OFF THE DAMNED KEYBOARD! (THAT'S RIGHT, GO HUMP KARMA). Friday I promise I will settle down and get some serious writing done.
Meantime, enjoy IDB, if you're so inclined.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Observation 19 (New Series)...
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Just a Pro Tip...
FOR THOSE DESIROUS of pretending to some semblance of literacy:
cache rhymes with stash and means a... well... stash.
cachet rhymes with sashay and means... well... something cool, or the sign of coolth.
OK? Savvy the diff? When you say "cashay" meaning a stash, you sound like a parvenu rube. When you write "cache," meaning "cachet," you... well, sound like a parvenu rube.
Capeesh?
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Sorry. I Must Have Missed the Clause...
IN THE SECOND AMENDMENT where it says, "except for knives little old ladies find scary". Could somebody point that out to me? Appears Tam has a similar puzzlitude.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
There Ought to Be a Law...
PEOPLE ARE FOREVER proposing constitutional amendments for stuff that really doesn't belong in the Constitution. That happens a lot here in Ohio, because we have an initiative process that makes it easier for the people to amend the state Constitution than to get a regular statute passed. And then there's that stupid Defense of Marriage Amendment. Ain't gonna happen. Doesn't matter wrong or right, it's just not, and it's none of the government's frigging business one way or another anyway. So just. Stop. It.
But here lately, there's been an awful lot of oath-breakin' goin' on out dair </senfoghornleghorn>. Take SOPA or the Protect IP act. As Mythbuster Adam Savage avers, avows, and asserts in Popular Mechanics, these bills aren't just unconstitutional, they are anticonstitutional.
And I'm thinking that, if there ever were a crying need for a constitutional amendment, this would be it: legislators who even propose, let alone pass bills that are unconstitutional ::coughmccainfeingold::cough:: and executives who sign them should face charges of treason. After all, such behavior is -- Deliberate or stupid, it doesn't matter, ignorance of the law is no excuse, right? -- tantamount to making war on the Constitution and thus on the People of the United States. Not cricket.
And they've been getting away with it for far too long because, at the end of the day, they've been allowed to forget who their bosses are.
We really, really, really need to remind them.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A Very Dolly XMas...
IN YEARS PAST I have serialized right here on BabyTrollBlog the entire Apocrypha story, A Very Dolly XMas, a light bit of fluff which, despite that, may be closest of the Apocrypha stories to the spirit in which they all were written, now 12 years ago.
These days, that may appear a bit overwrought.
However, the story is up at the Apocrypha site. And, as I also do every year at this time, I will reiterate my intent to get all 14 of the Apocrypha stories up there, as well as available for download in eBook format. As the old Zionist saying used to go, "Next Year in Jerusalem." Maybe 2012 will be the year when the whole Apocrypha will, once again, be hosted online on its very own, purpose-built web site.
Meantime, you can go and read this particular story of which I speaketh, right now. Ladies and germs, I give you: A Very Dolly XMas.
EN joy!
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Hmmm...
AT LUNCH TODAY the membership count was up to 155. At midnight, it was at 120. A lot of "Pending" members looked like they were gone -- as though those folk had signed up and then not responded to the confirmation email.
My purpose for this was two-fold. First, I wanted to expand the regular readership AND commentership of the blog. Of course, it would make a lot more sense for me to provide more content, more reliably, and of a higher quality as a means of boosting readership. And that's always my intent, but the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be weak. As I write this, I'm nodding and desperately need to get off to bed. The kittens are chaffering around the office. Earnie is jumping up on my lap, demanding cuddles and attention. I had a post earlier and might yet recover it. (It's on a topic about which I obsess somewhat, so is unlikely something I'll forget.) It's just that I'm too tired right now, when I've got a minute to blog.
But the second was to try to attract individuals who might be interested in reading a Dolly story -- maybe even people who haven't read one before. In that, it seems, I have succeeded. Now all I have to do is finish the story. With hope and a little bit of luck, I should have the draft finished before the New Year and off to my alpha(s). And to the betas shortly thereafter. Maybe New Year's weekend, I'll have a chance to sit down and draw up a cover. I have ideas, but none of them have gelled, yet.
So this is by way of thanking everyone who signed up. Please be patient. This will happen. Just your being there, lurking, waiting, is a powerful motivator to me to finish. Thank you.
Mark Philip Alger
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
