For the past little bit I’ve been working on a separate blog to showcase my creative fiction. Finding a name I thought suitable was one of the main setbacks. Originally, I was going to with “the alcove” as the blog’s title, and it was going to use the same template as From The Cookpot–except for a little sign that read “the Alcove” below the main logo. Well, I changed my mind on that.

I wanted something that was a little more unique and fit the sort of writing that I do. Of course, I’ve been working on my historical fiction piece that’s set in New Orleans during the War of 1812, but, let’s face it, I mainly write science-fiction infused with a touch of fantasy. So, I thought about it, and soon came up with “Beyond the Ray Gun”, which I think says it all.

Finding a template I liked, believe it or not, was actually rather easy. I was cruising around the various free themes websites out there for WordPress and I came across a rather attractive template nearly right away. Though, I did have to make some modifications as it wasn’t precisely “sci-fi”-looking.

For the longest time I’ve had a separate test blog up for the Alcove. I used it with the new theme template just to get an idea what things would be like before I actually went through with everything. That’s why the subdomain for the site is named accordingly. Of course, when I go to actually put the writing blog up it’ll have it’s own domain name.

One more day of vacation left, and then it’s time to go back to work. The interesting thing is that originally I was supposed be going back tomorrow, but–and they’ve been talking about don’t this for awhile now–the Newspaper has decided to go to a four-day, ten-hour work schedule. The reason is to make things easier on it’s employees by giving them one more day off a week, which mean’s one less week they need to spend driving to work, saving on gas. What’s the motivation for them there? It’s obvious: They can continue to pay the same wage, hopefully.

They don’t want to hear complaints on how little everybody already makes and how things have only gotten harder for them due to gas prices. It’s a smart move. I mean, people will still complain, but it should silence a few.

The thing is my third day off–and I’m lucky, because not everybody can have a day that is next to the weekend–is Monday. That’s why I’ll be off tomorrow as well. The problem is that I’ll have to come in an hour earlier so that I can still leave at my normal time–and that’s if I don’t take a lunch hour. If I eat at my desk I’ll be working from 9 AM till 7 PM; whereas I used to be at 10 AM till 7 PM. Of course, if I take a lunch hour, I’ll be there until 8 PM. Yikes! I already think thing suck when I have to eat dinner so damn late. I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and deal with it by bringing frozen dinners to work and keeping them in the small fridge. I’ll just have to eat them at 5 or so. That’s really the only thing I can think of; I damn sure don’t want to have to hurry up when I get home and find something to cram down my neck. Plus, I’d still be digesting that, which would give me restless sleep like I already have.

Three days off sure does sound nice, though.

While checking out the theme park industry news posted to screamscape.com, I came across an article on the New York Times’ website entitled A Good Old-Fashioned Thrill Ride. Apparently, one of Times’ reporters, a Cindy Price, went on a four-day trip round the picturesque state of Pennsylvania to ride 13 of the 15 operational wooden coasters found across its rolling landscape of quaint farmland and forests. Truthfully, I did know Pennsylvania was littered with wooden roller coasters–just didn’t know there were that many.

The article on the website is very informative and well-written. But, it’s the video that’s worth checking out if you’re a coaster fan. It primarily focuses on the latest and greatest wooden contraption just put up at Waldameer Park in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Ravine Flyer II as it’s called, is unique in that it goes over a four-lane highway. Also, it has several abrupt changes in direction as well as a 90-degree horizontal section–something new to a wooden coasters. And let’s not forget the two tunnels.

I’ve got to say the ride looks just awesome. Ravine Flyer II looks like one heck of a ride. But, let’s not forget coasters like Leap The Dips at Lake Mont Park in Altoona that is the world’s oldest operational roller coaster built in 1902!

I’m glad to see that Apple has had such a successful run over these past ten years; they’ve given, at least, Microsoft some competition. The Apple stock price, for example, at about $177 a share is proof of that. However, Apple is also one of the many companies that has turned to China for all of their manufacturing needs. I’m kind of on the fence here.

While I like Apple and their innovative products, I’m not so sure I like the game that they and many other corporations are playing these days. The people of China, a billion strong, are being taken advantage of, and American workers are suffering from it. Why pay an American worker five times (and more) of what a Chinese worker will accept? After all, use Americans want things nice and cheap (or should I say, affordable?), right?

Apple’s tag line on every product they sell is “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” I know that makes me feel better. Several top-paid designers at Apple’s Cupertino office are not going to loose their jobs anytime soon. Yep, I feel so much better now. In fact, I feel like buying more Apple products. Hmm…I do want one of those iPhones.

My point is that us Americans have been blind for so long. We shouldn’t truly be worried about China. No. We should be worried about corporations. The corporation, like has been the point of disgust and ridicule for so many science fiction writers over the years, truly is the one deciding the fate of the new global economy.

Whether capitalist or communist, it’s apparent: every country is fighting to lure multi-billion dollar corporations. It doesn’t matter if their American, German or Japanese companies, either. The global economy doesn’t really care, so long as it makes money, of course. Yet, knowing all this, I still can’t help from wanting a shiny new iPhone. But, Apple and the rest of them can’t fool me: they’re trying to take over the world. I just know it

All this week, thank God, I’m off on a much-deserved vacation from work. I’m trying not to even think about the place. Of course, now that I’m off, I can work on my stories. This morning I sketched out a few things in my head on how I’m going to handle my historical fiction. I haven’t written anything down yet, but I’m feeling good about a few new ideas that hatched. I know I can finish the damn thing if just put effort into it. Naturally, though, my want to create an awesome sci-fi story–possibly a space, ugh, opera that is A) completely different than Star Wars and B) even more outlandish–has resurfaced like the thing that nearly ate the Millennium Falcon in Empire Strikes Back.

I’ve got some interesting ideas already that I think are both A) original and B) good fun. But we’ll see what comes of it. Right now, I’m trying to focus on revamping my historical fiction piece, again. It’d be nice to make it as original as possible, too, you see. Besides, it’s more of a coming of age story, which is something I need to do before go onto bigger and badder things.

So far, though, I’ve just done some brainstorming, which, to be honest, is just fine with me. I’m not going to finish any of it in just one week’s time. It would be a miracle if I could. So, I’m just trying to relax. After my brainstorming today, for example, I went out to the grocery store and bought a few things I needed, then I visited my barber where I got my haircut and discussed the economy and stuff. Heh. I know, very exciting, huh?

Now, I’m kind of just hanging out here writing this. Hmm…maybe I’ll try to outline some of the ideas I had for the historical fiction. Let’s see here…Yep, I guess that’s what I’ll do.

Ghost Hunters International was back last night with a new episode. Now, don’t get wrong, I enjoy anything Ghost Hunters related–particularly the original show, and I thought the first season of the International version was all right–but this time round…I’m not sure. Was GHI worth waiting for? That’s a big: probably-not.

Everything seemed forced to me–or, to be more fair, everybody seemed to be on edge for some odd reason. On Ghost Hunters everyone is, generally, relaxed and focus on the investigation. But, here the GHI team seemed lacking something in the first investigation during the second season.

I’m glad to see that Dustin is back; he always had a good sense for ghost-hunting, though the visor (dude, honestly put that thing on right or get rid of it) needs to go. Also, Andy was, of course, back to his ol’ debunking tricks, which was fun to watch. And we got to see the latest tool in the Ghost Hunter’s arsenal: the hairdryer. Yes, it might sound odd at first, but, as Andy explained, when an object is exposed to heat, like say a table, it can often release various odors that might be trapped inside of it. And that’s what he was trying to do with the hairdryer. Awesome idea. Not sure I’d have come up with that one! Then again, I’m not a semi-professional ghost hunter, either.

Barry (or, Mr. Irish, according to Brian) brought along a new toy as well. I haven’t yet seen a video camera that captured light in both the infrared and UV spectrums at the same time. That was rather interesting, and it yielded some possible results. A ghost or two? Well, to be honest, from the picture it was hard to tell, although they were going with it as evidence. The twin spherical-faces just looked like a simple device-glitch artifacts to me. But, I could be wrong.

During the reveal, however, at the castle in New Zealand, Robb and Andy and the client were interrupted by a fire alarm. Coincidence? Perhaps. But, when the client mentioned it’s happened before, and that the alarm had been tripped by a break-glass lever and the glass wasn’t broken, that sort of gave a chill.

Anyway. The first GHI episode of the new season was all right, but it definitely wasn’t anything to rave about. There were some new techniques and tools used to be sure, of course. However, there was something, some tension between the team members that I couldn’t quite figure out. Oh, and there were subtitles thrown in where none were truly needed. Another mystery to me. Hmm…

I’m waiting for Ghost Hunters to come back on now Maybe it’ll be a little more fun. Wait! Let’s return Donna, Brian and Dustin back to the states. Man it’d be great to see the ol’ TAPS team complete again. Maybe that’s just me.

I was checking out the weekly news segment “The Body Odd” on MSNBC.com, which was about all sorts of creepy crawlies that can invade the Human body, and I found my way to the Wikipedia where I decided to look up some of the critters mentioned. Well, while I was there, I was on the page about “follicule mites”. Eventually, I ended up through several links to a page about poison-ivy.

Here’s where I had an old memory hit me. I’m extremely allergic to poison-ivy; once I had to be hospitalized because of it. So, I was on the page about it and it talked about severe reactions to it–”Urushiol-induced contact dermatitis” as it’s called. Anyhow. They had a picture of blisters and pustules on this guy’s arm, which is exactly what MY arms and legs looked like.

It was insane. I’ve been looking for a picture. And there it is! It’s easier to show somebody what it looked like than explain.

Gross, huh? I looked just like that for a week and a half before the steroids got rid of it–Yeah, steroids (well, a form of them) is what they use to treat severe reactions to poison-ivy and other such plants.

On Saturday, apparently, a 17-year-old was killed after being hit by a train on Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Over Georgia. The kid had climbed two six-foot-tall fences in order to get to the restricted area under the roller coaster–where several signs warn that the area is dangerous and off-limits). Apparently, from what is known at the moment, he and a friend were trying to take a shortcut into the park. Now, I’m sorry…

…but that is stupid; nobody should have died that day. A 17-year-old should know better. The real question is: where was the supervision? The young man was part of a church group. Now, I know a teenager–especially at that age–isn’t required to have supervision, but, obviously, this one needed it.

This is a case where the accident was completely avoidable. There were no mechanical malfunctions or operator error or any other such thing–only stupidity. And damn I hate saying something like that, especially when the person in question is gone form this Earth. Anyway. It is what it is. I feel sorry for the family that has to deal with this. It’s terrible.

It’s hard to be mad about this accident when you realize a person lost their life. I know Ron White says, “you can’t fix stupid”, and maybe that’s true, but we’ve all done stupid things in our lives; I know I have. Still…not sure I’d do this one…

Batman is not to blame, though, in any regard. It is what it is, too: a piece of heavy machinery. And with that comes a certain level of danger, obviously.