Unquiet Desperation

Chris and his wife get a new pasta-making attachment for the new Kitchen Aid mixer. While she’s away, Chris decides to try making pasta with no clue what he’s doing.

One of my favorite retellings of a classic tale is the John Aegard’s short story “The Great Old Pumpkin.” It’s the tale of Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, but instead of the childlike innocence engendered by the original Charles M. Schultz story, it has a Lovecraftian bent. Steve Eley did a reading of it for Escape Pod back in 2005, and I’m going to take advantage of the Creative Commons license and toss it into my feed this week.

As you are no doubt aware, I am the issue of solid Dutch stock‚ the prosperous Van Pelt family of St. Paul. Mine was a comfortable and happy childhood, and I spent much of it in the devoted service of the Great Old Pumpkin. For him, I cultivated an annual pumpkin patch. I also evangelized him in the community, relating the tale of how, every year on Hallowmas Eve, the day when the spiritual most strongly encroaches on the substantial, this mightiest of gourds would rise to revel across the world with the most sincere of his adorers. My neighbors were understandably skeptical; after all, not once had this superbeing ever chosen to grace my pumpkin patch or any other place in our town. I vowed that I would coax him into my backyard, and I set out in the manner of a learned man to discover how I might do this.

So, get out those Elder Signs and watch out for the fish-men…it’s story time.

And for more great stories, check out Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Pod Castle.

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photo credit: S.C. Axman

Chris Moody has just posted my interview for his PodioMedia Chat podcast. If you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on under the hood of Podiobooks.com, this is the show for you.



I’ve also put it in my own podcast feed. Listen below, or visit the PodioMedia Chat website for more information.

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Because we’re getting rid of a bunch of furniture for the move, my desk has gone away. I’m working in the living room, amidst the chaos. The following snippet is the sound of Getting Ready to Sell the House.

Needless to say, I love my headphones right now.

For more info on the move, check out my previous post on moving to Los Angeles.

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It’s been quiet both here and over at the Secret Lair. You’ve not seen me much on Twitter in the last three weeks. For all you know, I’ve vanished off the face of the planet.

Not so, good reader. There are two reasons for my silence. The first is that I’ve been traveling: went to the Google I/O conference in San Francisco then to Santa Monica for Codejam V at the Mahalo Mothership. For more about my views on how Google I/O went, check out the interview with me over at the Command Line Podcast.

The second is that we’ve decided to move to Los Angeles. This one…well…it’s huge. We’re looking to get the house on the market as soon as humanly possible, which means that we’ve been painting, patching, and handling all the stuff we’ve been putting off for a while. It’s a tough market out there for selling a house, and we’re hoping to have it done soon so that we can be in L.A. by Sept 1. Too optimistic? Maybe. So far, things have fallen into place every step of the way, and we’ve been incredibly lucky to have a our families and friends helping us out as we prepare. The insanity of all of this is the reason I’ve been off the interwebs for a bit. There’s simply not enough time in the day anymore.

For those of you who know the area, we’re looking to settle in Sherman Oaks. My good friend Nicole took me on a tour of the neighborhood while I was out there last week, and I really liked the feel of the place. If you know anyone looking to rent a three-bedroom house out there, hook me up.

Finally, I’m dropping a little something into my podcast feed this week. J.C. Hutchins interviewed me for his Ultracreatives series. We had a great time, and I think it’s my favorite interview to date. I got to talk about a number of things that I rarely touch on in my blog or the shows I produce, so it was a real treat.

More on the move as it develops. Otherwise…it’s good to be back.

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