A lot would depend on my mood and state of my health. My ideal is the latter but my reality may be the former.

Overnight hike or just a day hike?

Quote by Mendalla
ven as I work on my fantasy tales, I am meditating on doing some space s-f.

Starting a story that kind of picks up on this, but focussing more on what is called military s-f or mil s-f for short. Think Heinlein's Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven's so-so movie version counts, too) or James Cameron's Aliens. Basically, soldiers in an s-f setting.

One wrinkle I am toying with is taking Star Wars' notion of a clone army but looking more at how a bioengineered super-soldier might actually be built beyond just cloning some ideal template. Agendered and asexual is one thing I am look at. There's no need for reproductive capability so why have sexual characteristics, sexual desire, or gender identity. They are soldiers, pure and simple. Neither male nor female. The ultimate enby, perhaps. Heightened senses, physical characteristics ideal for survival and combat, probably some embedded systems that interface with their equipment.

So what then happens, when a supersoldier built only for war finds themselves isolated from their army with the war largely lost? Could they have a life that is not about fighting and killing? Could such a being learn to love in any meaningful way, esp. a "normal" being? I mean with sex gone, romance is likely gone, too, but "love" in an agape sense of caring for others more broadly.

Those are the questions I am thinking of exploring.

Hunt - Hunk (a hunka burnin' love)

Listening to Black Symphony, the live album with orchestra by Dutch symphonic metal greats Within Temptation, and this song just hits me hard in the feels every time I hear it in any form. Sharon clearly has some emotions tied up in it.

Lights on normally though certain movies, like black and white horror classics, do play well in the dark. Which brings us to:

Black & white or colour?

Interesting. Didn't interact with Dreamcatcher much so no idea. Sad if he is gone. Seems like a nice guy from the interactions we have had.

Good morning! Hot and muggy where I am. For those Americans recovering from yesterday, and anyone else in need of caffeine, there's a full pot of Costa Rican dark roast waiting. Teapots have Earl Grey Cream and English Breakfast. Iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge along with assorted sodas.

Have a nice one and try to stay frosty.

Punt - Punk

Movie. I hate dancing and am terrible at it.

In a theater or just crash in front of the TV and stream it (or if you still do it, watch the DVD)?

Yep, it's that time again. New batch of themed submissions. Heavy on spec-fic (aka sf-f) but there's some other genres in there, too. We have, among many, redeeming bad horror tropes, cozy fantasy, Taco Bell (wha?), and post-apoc suspense and horror. Got a story idea and need a market? Or want to see what people are looking for in hopes of finding inspiration? Here you go:

» 48 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2023 (authorspublish.com)

Yeah, hot and muggy down here, too. I'm in the office today so I am actually freezing my ass off (HVAC in this building sucks big time). Thanks for getting things going, James.

Happy July 4, Americans! Let the fireworks being!

Tough one. I enjoy both, really. Natural History sounds good right now.

Join a guided tour or just wander and enjoy the exhibits?

Oh say can you see Canada! Yep we are in the neutral zone between national holidays in North America. Ours was Saturday, the Americans is tomorrow. Have a happy and safe July 4 my American friends!

Coffee today is a Nicaraguan dark roast. We have English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream in the teapots. It remains warm and muggy in my neck of the woods so iced tea and lemonade are ready in the fridge. Soda stock is inventoried and replenished.

Good morning and have good one, holiday or not!

Quote by AnnaMayZing
I am not overly familiar with this band but, as you see from the beginning of the video, their original singer, Nicole Bogner sadly became a member of the '27 Club' in 2012. I find it incredible that so many musicians have passed away at the young age of 27. Coincidence? I suppose so, but even so...

I am mostly familiar with the current lineup which has Clementine Delauney on female vocals and Michele Guatoli as the male vocalist. Terrific band. Their recent album Pirates (and their new live album Pirates Over Wacken) is a fave of mine. But, yeah, Nicole's passing is another one of those "way too young" stories. The band dedicated the album Ethera to her memory.

My new musical discovery right now is Blackbriar. It's a fairly new Dutch band with a marvelously talented singer and songwriter named Zora Cock as its lead. They are now signed to Nuclear Blast, the same label as Nightwish and some other metal greats, and this is from their upcoming first album of that deal.

Sausage. Bacon I like more on or in stuff these days rather than on its own.

Windows or Mac?

Our power lines are buried (it's a fairly new subdivision). One more thing for locates to worry about but reduces the risk of localized outages due to wind, ice, etc.

Good, well, afternoon here now. Still, I'll throw on a pot of coffee and some of that Canadian Breakfast tea in case anyone is in need of a boost. It's warm and muggy with showers here so also restocking the pitchers of unsweet iced tea and lemonade.

Neither. Hate the sport with the heat of a thousands exploding suns (well, the heat of a summer day in Southern Ontario, at least). But at least the golfer is doing something besides driving the golf cart, so that I guess.

Maple syrup or table syrup (on waffles, pancakes, etc.)?

Lead - Lend

Morning, folks. Thanks, James. That incident at my alma mater is a sad reflection of our times, I think. I did a BA there in 1984-88 and had classes in the building where it occurred.😢

Just cleaned the cars' interiors (finally, should have happened a month or two ago) and I am sweaty. First day of July and we are definitely getting July weather here. Supposed to hit 30C, feeling like 38 with the humidex.

So I am going to just crash with a Canadian breakfast tea and some of these (I cooked breakfast this morning 😊):

Quote by gillianleeza
They finally paved our road this afternoon. The whole thing makes no sense. The state is doing the paving, but the county has been replacing water lines, and the utilities are being put underground. Why would you pave roads that are still being dug into? Typical bureaucracy; no one talks to anyone else. Sigh...

Sigh. We are waiting to get our cable line buried. We only use it for Internet, not TV, but it's pretty vital since I work from home two days a week. Currently the poor thing is wending it's way through several trees. The holdup? Getting permits and locates done, even though locates were just done this spring for the work that severed my line in the first place. Gack!😠

Hi, gang. Sorry I've been scarce. Had a terrible night last night. Migraine most of yesterday and woke up in the wee hours with it worse than ever. Got up to take meds and fell asleep in my reading chair in the den. Then moved back to the bed, but by that point it was subsiding and I awoke an hour later than usual but feeling fine.

And then had a busy day with work.

But now it is a long weekend (yay!).

Quote by verbal
Enjoy the 4th everyone.

And the 1st! Though I guess The Bear is the only other Canuck on here, eh.

Half - Calf

Good cough hack choke morning! Smoky air here in Southwestern Ontario for a day or two. Nasty stuff. Could smell it quite strongly as I left the office yesterday.

Coffee today is a Jamaican Blue Mountain. Teas are English Breakfast and Lapsang Souchang (a smoked black tea in honour of the crappy air). Iced tea and lemonade are chillin'.

Oo, and when I went looking for that, I discovered that Scott Hoying of Pentatonix kicked off the summer with a new solo song and video.

This one:

Quote by AnnaMayZing

There has previously been mention here of Joni Mitchell. I am a fan of hers, and I am also a fan of Lissie, whose cover of Mitchell's Rivers is, in my humble opinion, superb.

Which reminds me, I saw a new video from Lissie go up recently and have not listened yet. She's been rather quiet of late so I was excited to see it go up (I subscribe to her channel).

Quote by ladysharon
She is really smart and has an aptitude for math, and wants to become a doctor.

That aptitude for math is big in this world. My son was found to be gifted in math and ended up as an engineer making a starting salary that had my jaw on the floor. But, yeah, first grade can be rough as it is without autism being in the picture so good vibes to you both. And nice to see around again.

And hi others. Knocked out the opening paragraphs of what might be a military s-f piece. We shall see if it goes anywhere. Think Starship Troopers or Aliens.

Quote by verbal

That was a great comp! Congrats to everyone who won, and everyone who entered, and anyone who has the courage to put words to paper and let others read them. It’s a creative leap of faith, and deserves celebration.

Might want to update your sig, eh, now that you have a new win under your belt.😉

Quote by Molly

Oh no, is my link not working for y'all?

Worked fine for me. Not sure why James reposted the list here.

I'll throw on my new special brew called Summer Beast (wonder where I got that from). A local roastery by a nearby lake put it together for me. Funny thing is, I never heard from them again after I picked it up...😨

Teas are Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey. Iced tea and lemonade are mixed up in their respective pitchers. Soda supply looks good.

Later, alligators.

Congratulations to the top three. It actually matches my picks almost perfectly. Maybe I should be a judge. 😉(yeah right, no one in their right mind wants that 🙄😳).

And congrats to the rest of the list. Wish we'd had more stories but it is a wonderful collection of monstrous mythical tales. From revisiting classics like Beowulf to modern monsters like possessed wind turbines, there's some quite original thinking in here.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Sharon and Floor, what a combination!

Nothing like two great voices getting together, eh.

Watched this band's set from Hellfest 2023 on the weekend. Amazing Mongolian folk metal.