Quick Hitts

Sometimes it takes forever for someone to get the joke.
Update: The site is down.  You can find the same thing here.

This is an absolutely brilliant plan to fix California’s economy.  After inventing a pesticide that’s good for people, she’ll have farmers food on fruit trees and vegetable trees.  It will be free, except for paying the farmers, who have to pay rent, although their land should be free. . . Confused?  Just watch this and [...]

Just a reminder, in case you haven’t listened to my interview with PodioRacket, you can find it here.
Blood Witness has received a lot of attention and kudos, and this was a fun interview that got into some of the inspiration behind the book.  Check it out.

I recently received a link to the latest Nicotine Nazi handbook (PDF).  It provides detailed, step by step plan these spineless goobers can use to coerce Big Brother into to imposing their will on business owners.
I usually try to be witty and pithy in these columns, working in the clever metaphor or silly pun, but [...]

As an amateur chief I’m always looking for new ingredients to make my meals more interesting.
For instance, one of my favorite ingredients is bulgogi sauce, a meat marinade made with Korean pear. You won’t find it in the supermarket. You’ll have to go to a store that specializes in Asian food. I [...]

I’m about to start a novel that will have some complex characters and an intricate plot. After hearing writers sing the praises of Scrivener, which is a Mac only application, I’ve been looking for something that will do the same thing on a PC.
I’d like to be able to create an outline, [...]

The Eighteen Million Dollar Web Site.
This morning someone had one of those talking heads infotainment morning “news” shows on in another room, and I was half listening to a story about the stimulus bill.  Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on roadside signs telling us that millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on sign [...]

“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”  – Mark Twain (maybe)
With the advent of the internet we all have barrels full of bits that are nearly free.  Any person annoyed with any company can easily air their grievances to thousands of people.  This should inspire companies to do whatever they [...]

I’ll be doing an interview about Blood Witness on Podioracket this Thursday, June 9, from 9:00 – 10:30 PM (EST). If you’ve got any questions about the novel, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or cults in general, please join us.
Call (347) 996-3319 and join the conversation.  While it’s running you’ll be able to listen to it live on [...]

The teacher’s union is one of the biggest reasons US education sucks. They’ve made it  impossible to give a teacher a raise for being good at their job.  And it’s even more impossible to get rid of the bad ones.
In New York City over 700 teachers receive full pay ($70,000/year) for not teaching.  They’re all [...]

If you’re attacked in the UK and defend yourself with a gun you will spend more time in jail than your attacker.  As a result both criminals and decent people are arming themselves with the next best thing – knives.
Britain is even more of a nanny state than the US, so it’s not surprising that [...]