Since I've been asked several tmes, the above image was designed and rendered entirely in KPT Bryce on a Macintosh II and a PowerMac 8500 by yors utrly. Minor Photoshop tweaks.

Around, sometimes. Not so much. But not so gone, neither.

http://www.last.fm/user/The_Custodian <-- what's on
what's waiting

Books
What I read. Opinions offered on request, or occasionally noded (see 'reviews' further down).

The Queue:
Line War (Polity/Ian Cormac) by Neal Asher (awaiting delivery) * Shadow of the Scorpion (Polity/Ian Cormac) by Neal Asher (awaiting delivery)

Recently Completed:
Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov * Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman * The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How To Build an Atomic Bomb by Robert Serber * The Demon and the City (Detective Inspector Chen) by Liz Williams * Deploying Rails Applications by Ezra Zygmuntowicz et. al. * The Sons of Heaven (The Company) by Kage Baker * Snake Agent (Detective Inspector Chen) by Liz Miller * A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce * Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell * Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov * The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar * The Heart of Valor (Confederation) by Tanya Huff * One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name * Stealing Light by Gary Gibson * Kop by Warren Hammond * Dying of the Light by George R.R. Martin * Looking Glass by James R. Strickland * The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez * Red Thunder by John Varley * Six Frigates by Ian Toll * Effendi by J.C. Grimwood * Interesting Times (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett * Judge by Karen Traviss * Small Favor (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher * Making Money (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett * Going Postal (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett * Echelon by Josh Conviser * Macbeth by William Shakespeare * Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons by Joseph Cirincione * The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald * The Mauritius Command (The Aubrey/Maturin Novels) by Patrick O'Brian * Matter by Iain M. Banks * Command Decision (Vatta's War) by Elizabeth Moon * The Merchant's War (Merchant Princes) by Charles Stross * Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber * The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook * Kitty And The Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn * Killswitch (Cassandra Kresnov) by Joel Shepherd

There are some amazing writers here, and naturally, there is some incredible writing. Here is some of it.

The future like a corpse in snow

Why there is no moloch13

REMFS

Things nobody tells you about the South Pole

The Astronaut Gets Lucky

Ed Stories

Happy Birthday from Planet Motherfucker

We Can Meet Her For You Wholesale: A Dreaming Girl's Singularity

The #7 Train Game

Psalms of the Convenience Store Clerk: Pump Three on the Fritz Again

Hurricane Creek

Two Stories of the Pistol

I am a robot.

2003.10.27: (I post a joke node titled Velcro Mittens in response to a discussion in the catbox about...well, you can guess.) Then:

2003.10.27 at 05:29 jessicapierce says re Velcro mittens: OKYOU TOTALLY GOT ME
2003.10.27 at 05:31 jessicapierce says re Velcro mittens: wtf is a cvelcro mittne
2003.10.27 at 05:32 jessicapierce says re Velcro mittens: uh. p.s. drunlk
(I explain)
2003.10.27 at 05:38 jessicapierce says holy crap that swodenrful, you could also use a velcro belt, just back her up to your belly & youer all set
2003.10.27 at 06:13 jessicapierce says dood thats so dirty i have to go to sleep now

Below the line: here for pride not presentation, works of mine. Read; but look elsewhere for education on the workings of the writer's craft, for here will you find only bits of textual wood, tossed aside for lack of heft and due in time to burn.

::Multi-node and related stories::

You may be here because you clicked a link in a fiction node that said 'More.' If so, this is your section. I have a few multipart pieces I'm working on, and rather than update bunches of nav templates at the bottom of each node, I'm going to have them point to here.

The Network Revenant
I must unfortunately remove the pieces of this story from E2 for the time being. There is a slight, teensy but non-zero chance of an attempt at marketing the whole thing coming to fruition, and it being available on E2 would cause problems for that. If this falls through, I will repost it.
p.s. drafts available for perusal on request.

The I Dunno What These Are New York Magician Series (as named by GhettoAardvark)

• Weak and desperate from decades of commuting the djinn would barter all for coffee and a friendly ear
• Old Country migratory observation with familial duty
• Lost and Found in Gunflight Metaphor
• Someone to Pull the Trigger
• Yet The Sun Still Rose
• I want to reach my hand into the dark and feel what reaches back
• A thousand winding stairs lead down before us
• Making islands to have new seashores
• Game mechanic
• There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard
• No Cure for Emptiness on East 14th
• The Draughtsman's Contract
• Gas pressure disequilibrium among the urban rejecta
• Huddled shoulders and bent backs, like so many shadows
• the slow creeping menace of masked justice along Manhattan depths
• Evolution unfolding in Queens, New York
• So there is death in my voice; what of it?
• every statue in town came to life, but they'd been watching long enough to know better than to ever move
• There was a man who lived a life of fire
• Death may be the only goal you ever achieve

The Angel Cycle
The Angel Cycle violates an astonishing number of Turkey City Lexicon commandments. I could weasel and say that this was because it was begun when I was very young and the need for consistent tone has done this, but I'd rather be honest and admit it's pure self-indulgence.

• Angel Making
• Angel Passing
• Angel's Tide
• Guardian of the Angel
  1. mass transit
  2. It's cold at the intersection, and all you feel is the wind
  3. Storytelling in the dark beneath the burning patrol of Angels
  4. Guardian of the Angel
  5. ...
• The Angel's Voice
  1. The Angel's Voice
  2. sic Transit gloria
  3. A Subterranean Leap of Vector Faith and The Glare of Electromagnetic Dreams
  4. You who would hear the sounds in air, touch the distant Silver
  5. Look inside girl, let the sound take you away
• Bullet Train

Working Title: Namedropping

1. Watchman's Stone
2. Transcendence through Anonymity
3. Interstitial Elevator
4. Singing Supraluminal
5. Press Space Two Continuum
6. Ceci n'est pas un homme, ce chasseur.
7. Downsiding the silvered plane
8. Retro burn for Molly Brown
9. Colocation Felicity
10. As the clocks were striking the hour
11. At midnight, all the secret agents
12. Time filled with encounters that leave no mark on us
13. Seeking solace in a city's corpse
14. Dreams Walking in Broad Daylight
15. All will be devoured within the jaws of terrible time
16. Tempus fugit non volit
17. I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still
18. A sailless ship drifts adown the stream freighted with hope and fear
19. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
20. A Fate turned sharply, Key in Lock
21. A Litany of mechanistic worship and prayers for safe return

flicker/mode

• flicker-download/01
• flicker-download/02
• flicker-download/03
• flicker-download/04
• flicker-download/05
• flicker-download/06
• flicker-download/07
• flicker-download/08
• ... (sigh)

I am pleased to claim the dubious honor (according to kthejoker) of the highest rep w/u in the database that does not have a C!. The joys of factual noding! -4/16/06

//fiction//

A Trembling in the Sun, the Tang of Iron on the Wind
beyond the veil of nothingness there exists a sea of poets, judges all
heady nights, radar ghosts and dead cosmonauts (SciFiQuest)
we have designed a circuit that takes risks (SciFiQuest)
Our eyes reflect the light of dead suns - how can you resist a nodeshell title like that?
Blackbody sails tacking into the flux
Death or the dawn- a shivery dream
Your Eyes Will Taste of the Flowers - another nodeshell, another shuddery dream.
The screams grow in green ice (Fearquest)
We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death (Fearquest)
Jet Fighter
Meek and obedient you follow the leader down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
Universal Destructor (SciFiQuest)
Site Survey (SciFiQuest)
Feeling Gravity's Pull (SciFiQuest)
Double Exposure (SciFiQuest)
Cain Enable (SciFiQuest)
Sun and Sea (SciFiQuest)
The Comsat Angels (SciFiQuest)
I blow minds for a living (SciFiQuest)
On the blink (SciFiQuest)
Seek and you shall find (SciFiQuest)
Transistor Mnemonic (SciFiQuest)
Thermodynamic Miracle (SciFiQuest)
One more robot learns to be something more than a machine. (SciFiQuest)
Supernova-lit
Dropwatch
Four o'Clock on the Backtalk Grid
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
interstate
No Ice
Tagteam (Fearquest)
darkwave
jitter
Consulting removals
Walking Man (and again)
Tinker's Damn
Autostrada
Sleepless
No Cow is Innocent
Alpha in her blood

//reviews//

Books:
Soon I Will be Invincible
Winter's Tale
Matter
The Dragon Never Sleeps
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Jennifer Government
Carlucci
Terran Trade Authority

Movies:
Iron Man
The Bourne Ultimatum
Casino Royale
The Prestige
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
X-Men: The Last Stand
Kontroll
Intacto
Night Watch
Stranger than Fiction
Northfork
The Sum of All Fears
Big Trouble in Little China
Gunslinger Girl
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Interstella 5555
Alphaville
Starship Troopers

Music:
Dirty Vegas

Consumables:
Woodford Reserve
Hoyo de Monterrey Dark Sumatra
El Rico Habano
Don Tomas Special Edition #300
Lagavulin
Serendipity

Usables:
BMW 540i
Aeron
Kyocera 7135
Toyota MR2
Triumph TR6
Squeezebox

//factuals//

dum-dum bullet
needle gun
TAEM
Atkinson Cycle engine
Global Positioning System
Mars Global Surveyor
Dwell time
Lanchester Systems and the Lanchester Laws of Combat
Tanks: A Brief History and Hunting Guide
Boeing 747
Wankel rotary engine
The Komsomolets accident

//analysis//

The Back Of The Envelope: An Example of Informal Military Analysis
The U.S. Military Campaign in Afghanistan
TWA Flight 800
Is Taiwan a part of China?
Probability of Kill (Pk)
Damage Expectancy
CEP

//moments//

The Ineluctable Modality of the Visible
And her legs went on forever, like staring up at infinity

Wick's Homenode Lists:

(List generated Tue Jun 10 18:38:27 2008 GMT by the Homenode List Generator. Goodness is the percentage of votes that are upvotes.)

5 Most Voted-Upon Writeups
10C! Strange things homeless people have said to me 1
3C! Why I hate chinks 2
7C! I want to napalm an area the size of Kansas and laugh at the inadequacy of the word "immolate" 3
1C! Spy satellites can't read your license plate 4
1C! Why I'm glad the space shuttle blew up 5

5 Least Voted-Upon Writeups
1 (tied) air-breathing
1 (tied) Zap gun
1 (tied) survivability
1 (tied) Recaro
1 (tied) Star Phone
1 (tied) prepo
1 (tied) Pell Station
1 (tied) semi-synchronous altitude
1 (tied) Josie Bauer
1 (tied) Stsho
1 (tied) Mentaglian Surge
1 (tied) Syldavia
1 (tied) TAEM 1C!
1 (tied) Advances in Toilet Technology

5 Highest Goodness Writeups
3C! Jacob's Ladder (tied) 1
5C! Global Positioning System (tied) 1
3C! reactive armor (tied) 1
2C! XB-70A Valkyrie (tied) 1
1C! Medical slang (tied) 1
2C! Star Wars (tied) 1
2C! TWA Flight 800 (tied) 1
4C! Needle gun (tied) 1
4C! Ming the Merciless (tied) 1
2C! Open Firmware (tied) 1
4C! Space Shuttle Terminal Count (tied) 1
1C! writing.com (tied) 1
7C! Russian Woodpecker (tied) 1
4C! Torchwood (tied) 1
5C! Law Enforcement in the United States (tied) 1
1C! Intacto (tied) 1
2C! Cobra Maneuver (tied) 1
2C! space shuttle (tied) 1
3C! Descending Sequence Nuclear Strike (tied) 1
7C! December 14, 2006 (tied) 1
1C! Powerbook G4 (tied) 1
1C! Nictitating membrane (tied) 1
3C! Scorched Earth (tied) 1
3C! Aeron (tied) 1
3C! Islay (tied) 1
How to build a character in fiction (tied) 1
2C! A-10 Thunderbolt II (tied) 1
5C! Diamondback Terrapin (tied) 1
1C! Women in the military (tied) 1
1C! Squeezebox (tied) 1
2C! Peregrine falcon (tied) 1
5C! Fissionable martini (tied) 1
5C! flashcube (tied) 1
2C! Krakatoa (tied) 1
Sam (tied) 1
1C! NORAD (tied) 1
2C! Acronyms and Abbreviations of the U.S. Military (tied) 1
3C! fallout (tied) 1
1C! ram accelerator (tied) 1
2C! Jane's Fighting Ships (tied) 1
4C! paper money (tied) 1
1C! Klemperer Rosette (tied) 1
1C! Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (tied) 1
2C! Venetian glass (tied) 1
2C! Boxer's Fracture (tied) 1
3C! ERGM (tied) 1
1C! spaced armor (tied) 1
1C! Schleiffen Plan (tied) 1
Trans-Atlantic abort landing (tied) 1
5C! How to have a Scotch Tasting (tied) 1
3C! bruxism (tied) 1
4C! slow flight (tied) 1
2C! speed brake (tied) 1
2C! Car Wars (tied) 1
2C! Flintlock (tied) 1
Horsepower (tied) 1
1C! mass driver (tied) 1
1C! Firestorm (tied) 1
2C! Flight 19 (tied) 1
1C! Blue Ice (tied) 1
2C! Reliability nines (tied) 1
2C! VTOL (tied) 1
4C! USS Oxford (tied) 1
3C! klieg lights (tied) 1
2C! paprika (tied) 1
4C! Robusto (tied) 1
Charles de Gaulle Airport (tied) 1
2C! electronic countermeasures (tied) 1
1C! P-47 Thunderbolt (tied) 1
4C! convoy (tied) 1
2C! RAH-66 Comanche (tied) 1
1C! Machinima (tied) 1
1C! Vectored Thrust (tied) 1
1C! T-72 (tied) 1
1C! infrastructure (tied) 1
1C! Siegfried Sassoon (tied) 1
Return To Launch Site (tied) 1
3C! de-icing (tied) 1
2C! The Dragon Never Sleeps (tied) 1
1C! rocket launcher (tied) 1
2C! paper bag (tied) 1
2C! tire swing (tied) 1
airburst (tied) 1
2C! Northfork (tied) 1
1C! Soyuz 29 (tied) 1
1C! KVM Switch (tied) 1
2C! Supergun (tied) 1
propellant (tied) 1
1C! Space Shuttle First Stage Ascent (tied) 1
2C! Jules Verne (tied) 1
5C! The Comsat Angels (tied) 1
1C! matter (tied) 1
4C! assault rifle (tied) 1
4C! stopwatch (tied) 1
1C! BMW I-Bus (tied) 1
1C! laser weapons (tied) 1
1C! Reverse Inclination basing (tied) 1
cigar punch (tied) 1
1C! autothrottle (tied) 1
1C! Operation Tumbler-Snapper (tied) 1
1C! Bag Balm (tied) 1
Gin and Tonic (tied) 1
1C! makin' love in microgravity (tied) 1
1C! convergence zone (tied) 1
1C! Pruitt-Igoe (tied) 1
2C! IBM 704 (tied) 1
3C! BAC TSR.2 (tied) 1
4C! flight deck (tied) 1
.45 GAP (tied) 1
1C! DECWriter (tied) 1
1C! Dynamic overpressure (tied) 1
1C! Bartholomew and the Oobleck (tied) 1
Hoyo de Monterrey Dark Sumatra (tied) 1
2C! NEACP (tied) 1
Cruise Missile (tied) 1
1C! diesel-electric (tied) 1
Early Bird (tied) 1
drop tank (tied) 1
Lexus (tied) 1
1C! Stirling Cycle (tied) 1
cigar savor (tied) 1
torque steer (tied) 1
1C! Killing Zoe (tied) 1
1C! rice and beans (tied) 1
1C! Differential GPS (tied) 1
1C! Canon Digital Elph/Powershot S100 (tied) 1
The Seven Lady Godivas (tied) 1
2C! revenue cutter (tied) 1
The Getty Center (tied) 1
1C! sonar (tied) 1
1C! The Back of the Envelope: Part II (tied) 1
1C! static overpressure (tied) 1
capability implies intent (tied) 1
Criticality-One (tied) 1
Phalanx CIWS (tied) 1
1C! Mach front (tied) 1
1C! capsela (tied) 1
3C! Mars Global Surveyor (tied) 1
2C! U-869 (tied) 1
1C! screen slip (tied) 1
1C! Tears of the Sun (tied) 1
2C! Department S (tied) 1
El Rico Habano (tied) 1
Ultima Ratio Regum (tied) 1
Galway Kinnell (tied) 1
Thomson and Thompson (tied) 1
Operation Upshot-Knothole (tied) 1
2C! Basel Capital Accord (tied) 1
Linksys (tied) 1
flame out (tied) 1
1C! KC-135 Tanker (tied) 1
TACAMO aircraft (tied) 1
base boost (tied) 1
1C! Pakistani Nuclear Policy (tied) 1
2C! Streetfinder GPS (tied) 1
beats (tied) 1
2C! The Fieldston School (tied) 1
Ed Headrick (tied) 1
1C! The Final Reflection (tied) 1
1C! Skycar (tied) 1
main battle tank (tied) 1
1C! Tintin Characters (tied) 1
ANFO (tied) 1
isolation raft (tied) 1
1C! Hardening (tied) 1
Inertial Measurement Unit (tied) 1
VIFF (tied) 1
1C! NEAR-Shoemaker (tied) 1
DSMAC (tied) 1
Competent Munition (tied) 1
1C! Ring laser gyro (tied) 1
1C! Musicosis (tied) 1
Orbiter (tied) 1
1C! Death and Resurrection in MMORPGs (tied) 1
1C! P-8 Maritime Multi-mission Aircraft (tied) 1
The Keep (tied) 1
1C! Gyrojet (tied) 1
warhead bus (tied) 1
1C! Orbital Maneuvering System (tied) 1
2C! Archer Mayor (tied) 1
Countervalue (tied) 1
1C! apple-control-reset (tied) 1
The Tripods Trilogy (tied) 1
Videophone (tied) 1
Throw-weight (tied) 1
dunk tank (tied) 1
2C! ASROC (tied) 1
AGM-154 JSOW (tied) 1
1C! Sync on Green (tied) 1
1C! surface combatant (tied) 1
Gentian Violet (tied) 1
attack sub (tied) 1
1C! ion engine (tied) 1
Cockup (tied) 1
Mars Polar Lander (tied) 1
1C! ballistic missile (tied) 1
IRBM (tied) 1
eating club (tied) 1
Xingu, Black Beer of the Amazon! (tied) 1
O Jerusalem! (tied) 1
1C! FASCAM (tied) 1
1C! Barnaby (tied) 1
transsonic (tied) 1
1C! Autostrada (tied) 1
1C! Civil Air Transports (tied) 1
Base burn (tied) 1
1C! VLS (tied) 1
laser rangefinder (tied) 1
massive retaliation (tied) 1
NCA (tied) 1
terminal defense (tied) 1
terminal guidance (tied) 1
laser designation (tied) 1
Mag-Lite (tied) 1
Thy fundement depeint (tied) 1
Counterforce (tied) 1
Exhaust Gas Recirculation (tied) 1
lithium deuteride (tied) 1
intake manifold (tied) 1
droud (tied) 1
Operation Wigwam (tied) 1
Consist (tied) 1
vaporetto (tied) 1
Orbital Transfer Vehicle (tied) 1
air defense (tied) 1
MARV (tied) 1
1C! boost phase intercept (tied) 1
fuselage (tied) 1
Bodmods (tied) 1
1C! subcutaneous PDA (tied) 1
lumbar support (tied) 1
KH-11 (tied) 1
submunition (tied) 1
1C! lases (tied) 1
General Alcazar (tied) 1
transceiver (tied) 1
1C! reset vector (tied) 1
Split Second (tied) 1
Stanislaw Ulam (tied) 1
2XL (tied) 1
OISC (tied) 1
Interdiction (tied) 1
Lightcraft (tied) 1
conformal fuel tanks (tied) 1
surface-to-surface missile (tied) 1
5-inch naval shell (tied) 1
orbital inclination (tied) 1
SRAM (tied) 1
locking differential (tied) 1
1C! Bitter Apple (tied) 1
Captor (tied) 1
Little Joe Cook (tied) 1
TRADOC (tied) 1
1C! Turbinia (tied) 1
the Dinky (tied) 1
base bleed (tied) 1
The Long Run (tied) 1
Riddley Walker (tied) 1
Smoothbore (tied) 1
commissioned (tied) 1
C3I (tied) 1
FLAGE missile interceptor (tied) 1
SLOC (tied) 1
COTS (tied) 1
ergotamine (tied) 1
colorspace (tied) 1
Flexible Flyer (tied) 1
Scaling (tied) 1
IR plume (tied) 1
1C! A litany of mechanistic worship and prayers for safe return (tied) 1
combat radius (tied) 1
State vector update (tied) 1
Pokhran (tied) 1
Venice - Plaza San Marco (tied) 1
ARAD (tied) 1
Jetcar (tied) 1
McSorley's (tied) 1
engine block (tied) 1
ADIZ (tied) 1
light tank (tied) 1
railway cars (tied) 1
KKV (tied) 1
ATACMS (tied) 1
1C! POMCUS (tied) 1
densepack (tied) 1
1C! Forward Air Controller (tied) 1
combustor (tied) 1
V/STOL (tied) 1
Pokhmelye (tied) 1
Tropical chocolate (tied) 1
McSorley's (tied) 1
engine block (tied) 1
ADIZ (tied) 1
light tank (tied) 1
railway cars (tied) 1
KKV (tied) 1
ATACMS (tied) 1
1C! POMCUS (tied) 1
densepack (tied) 1
1C! Forward Air Controller (tied) 1
combustor (tied) 1
V/STOL (tied) 1
Pokhmelye (tied) 1
Tropical chocolate (tied) 1
intact abort (tied) 1
Duality (tied) 1
Carlucci (tied) 1
cigar ring gauge (tied) 1
Zipcar (tied) 1
NBC System (tied) 1
hot-tank (tied) 1
DPO (tied) 1
Henry Hampton (tied) 1
copilot (tied) 1
King Azaz the Unabridged (tied) 1
CIC (tied) 1
Chanur Saga (tied) 1
ground pressure (tied) 1
Vipivka (tied) 1
SIPDE (tied) 1
ert (tied) 1
2C! mainspar (tied) 1
Arsenal of Democracy (tied) 1
GLCM (tied) 1
Production unit cost (tied) 1
STS-98 (tied) 1
Venice - Riva deglia Schiavone (tied) 1
Radar operating modes (tied) 1
pissing away (tied) 1
Tubulum (tied) 1
Mike Callahan (tied) 1
Knnn (tied) 1
Crocostimpy (tied) 1
gas jet (tied) 1
air-breathing (tied) 1
Zap gun (tied) 1
survivability (tied) 1
Recaro (tied) 1
Star Phone (tied) 1
semi-synchronous altitude (tied) 1
1C! TAEM (tied) 1

5 Lowest Goodness Writeups
1 Pain, Desiderata and the Wind
2 Josie Bauer
3 (tied) Love Formula
3 (tied) D'Angelos
5 Calendar Girl 1C!

5 Most Reputable Writeups
10C! Strange things homeless people have said to me 1
13C! Tanks: A Brief History and Hunting Guide 2
3C! sertraline 3
8C! Realizing just as the drunken brawl gets going that this time, *you* are the asshole 4
7C! Richard Nixon's Social Security Number 5

5 Least Reputable Writeups
1 Calendar Girl 1C!
2