Turns out it’s not only foot-fetishists with a thing for Marisol Nichols who swing past this site. I’ve been hit by wave after wave of increasingly sophisticated spam comments. It started off just being garbage link salad to what I assume are russian porn sites or similar, which are thankfully blocked by a handy little plug-in called Akismet. Can’t recommend it highly enough, the hard-working little bugger catches just about everything that hasn’t come over the transom via human hands.
Still, it’s interesting to look at the increasing verbosity of the spam, as it grows and learns, much like electronic sea monkeys. What started off as “Cheap Doxycycline!” and “Farmville cheats” has now grown into fake people who, while they may not quite pass the Turing Test, are definitely evidence that Skynet is here and is trying to make with the blog niceties.
Today’s top 3 philosophical spam moments:
1. “All men have an instinct for conflict. At least, all healthy men.”
2. “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
and today’s favourite #3. “The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth–that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.”
Word, Skynet. Word.
In other news, my Writers of the Future swag has arrived. At last my stonking huge trophy sits on the brag-shelf, and I’m looking for the perfect place to hang Seth J Rowanwood’s stunning picture of my story “The House of Nameless”. I am not surprised he took home the illustrator gong, it’s just gorgeous. Speaking of Seth, my talented polymath collaborator has a new story available in an e-anthology, which can be found here: http://www.sethjrowanwood.com/archives/601
Ah yes, was very good to get into this swag of goodies. The added bonus is that Toddler Fisch thoroughly enjoys the enormous box it all arrived in, and loves being ferried hither and yon in said box. Buggered if I know why we buy that kid toys 🙂
Horrorscope has just reviewed the first two issues of Jason Paulos’ retro-tastic comic “EEEK!”, which includes my story “The Harvest”, a comic script retrofitted from my prose short story “Rick Gets a Job”. Reviewer Shane Jiraiya Cummings says:
“While clearly inspired by (and some might say derivative of) works such as Soylent Green and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, “The Harvest” is the highlight of this issue. Rick’s motivations are powerful, offering the beacon of a sympathetic protagonist as the reader is led through a particularly dark story. The revelation at the end is grim and ultimately offers a payoff that is enlightening and frustrating at the same time. Well done to Fischer and Paulos on creating such a brilliant story together. On the strength of this story, hopefully the pair will collaborate again in the future.”
YESTERDAY, a news.com.au article incorrectly stated that the Star Trek starship USS Enterprise-E, otherwise known as model NNC-1701-E, was the successor to Captain Kirk’s original USS Enterprise.
It has since been brought to our attention that the NNC-1701-E in fact came two models after Captain Kirk retired and was under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard.
User “Your Mum’s Lunch” led the charge of those who correctly pointed out that after losing the original Enterprise to the Klingons, Captain Kirk was given the Excelsior Class Enterprise-B as a stop-gap measure until the refit of the Enterprise-A was completed.
Kirk’s last ship was the Ambassador Class Enterprise-C.
Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E were in fact, the first of the Galaxy Class models and were under the command of Captain Picard.
There were also some concerns about whether the incorrect use of the term “hyperspace” in describing warp drive technology may harm the original Star Trek concept, particularly the books.
News.com.au apologises unreservedly for the error.
There was no intention whatsoever to suggest Captain Kirk may have commanded the Galaxy Class Starships Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E.
Any damage to the Star Trek brand incurred by the use of the term “hyperspace” is regretful.
No malice was intended and a correction to the original article will be made.
We also agree that Patrick Stewart is a handsome man, a sentiment expressed by several readers.
Addendum – We’re also sorry for any errors in this apology.
These two books arrived in the post within a week or so of each other, and are welcome additions to my brag shelf at home. Both of these are reprint anthologies, with the added cool bonus that in both books, I get to share a TOC with fellow Writers of the Future winner Ian McHugh, as well as many other awesome folks. Have already devoured most of the Year’s Best and it’s a solid collection of stories, including Paul Haine’s amazing dystopia “Wives”.
Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol 5 contains “for want of a jesusman” (from Aurealis #42)
Award Winning Australian Writing 2010 contains “Busking” (from Midnight Echo #3)
