Found in Space

Over on Boing Boing they’re having a drabble (100-word fiction) contest on the theme “Found in Space”. Apparently one can win a computer. But more to the point, everyone who enters wins a useful writing exercise.

I don’t expect to win; there are a lot of strong entries, some of which I’d choose over mine, were I judging. (I deliberately didn’t read any of them before I composed my submission. Good thing, or I’d probably never have started.)

Read the full text of my story after the jump.

Update: The winner and runner-up have been announced. Congratulations to them, and to the surprisingly large number of other worthy submissions. Thanks to Rob Beschizza and to BoingBoing for running the contest. (Older updates moved to the end of the article.)

In Soviet Russia, Dragon Uses eBay to Buy You

DSC00218I’m allergic to “cute”, but the little fellow to the right doesn’t read that way. (Not cute; much fierce!) He was a steal on eBay, and came to me all the way from the former Soviet Union. This is the kind of global economy I can get behind: buying a one-of-a-kind item from the opposite side of the globe. (Don’t worry; I still support local dragon-sculptors whenever I can.)

He showed up in an actual, literal brown paper package tied up with string, too. More pictures after the cut.

Lego Dragon Necromancy

4083641006_275c427e65_oUsing the blackest of all dark rituals and a whole lot of expensive Danish plastic, Flickr user “necromancer7” from Seoul, Korea has brought this creature to terrifying un-life. You can see a number of other shots of this bone dragon (as well as other good stuff) on his photostream.

(Via Gizmodo.)

Linux on Zipit: Debian

This is a followup to my original article about using a general-purpose Linux distro on the Zipit Z2 messenger. In this post, I’ll discuss my experience installing Debian (specifically, Emdebian Grip) on the Zipit. This is a significant improvement over the previous process, as it means you can automatically upgrade and install new packages from an extensive repository of pre-compiled software. You can just “apt-get install whatever” instead of having to create a cross-development environment and compile everything yourself. Details after the jump.

A Dignity of Dragons

local copy; follow link in article text for original
local copy; follow link in article text for original

Dave Malki at Wondermark presents the Stoakes-Whibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns, and in so doing performs a valuable service for a worried public. So many confusing and embarassing errors might have been prevented through the timely use of Mr. Malki’s comprehensive and accurate reference.

(Via Making Light.)

ETA: Other dragon-related collective noun suggestions include flight, wing, weyr (from multiple sources), doom, blaze and horde. None of them appeal to the same degree as the definitive Stoakes-Whibley answer.