Well, it looks like it's done snowing for the weekend, but it's too late to recover from a missed reading session.

I'm not terribly worried. We're still ahead of schedule compared to last year, but we're going to have one hell of a pile of stories to wade through come the first weekend in January.

Did do some pre-screening of stories yesterday. Nothing much to speak of yet, but I only read a fraction of the 50+ stories that are currently sitting in our slushpile. We'll get caught up pretty quick as long as the weather doesn't thwart us.

I've been spending a fair amount of time getting things going for Triangulation: End of the Rainbow. This has involved things such as getting a budget approved, getting the guidelines put together and online, scheduling the first sessions, etc.

Should have been posted on Dec 1. Actually, it should have been posted back in October (with a note that we won't be accepting submission until Dec 1).

But sometimes things come up, and stuff doesn't get done as quickly and easily as I'd like.

They're there now, though. So if you're a writer interested in selling short stories to a semi-pro market, have a look at the guidelines for the 2010 edition of Triangulation.

I'm excited to see what kind of stories people come up with!

I hate to shop. For a long time, I used to think it was just a personal thing, but I'm starting to think that's its really not my fault.

The other day I tripped over a song my Micah Wolf that impressed me so much that I decided to buy the CD. (remember CDs?)

Micah isn't quite Aerosmith, so finding someone who was selling his older album was a little difficult. Amazon had it, but I don't like Amazon, so I looked around a bit in the hopes that someone else would be selling it to no avail. So, back to Amazon.

I've been getting mystery calls on my cell phone for a few weeks now. I haven't answered them, assuming that if the call were important, the caller would leave a message. No messages were left.

Finally, today, I answered the call. Lucky for me, it was a criminal telemarketing scam. This gives me an opportunity to do my civic duty and warn everyone about this.

First off, the number the call came from was 612-808-5643. The company claims to be "Freedom Choice Financial".

Let's look at their crimes:

If you've written fiction and tried selling your work, you're familiar with the level of rejection that's involved. A hard-working author will spend years trying to sell a story, constantly getting rejection after rejection. Most of these rejections are of the "form" variety, which basically say "We aren't interested in buying this."

Some editors and publications, however, send personally written rejections -- ones that take a sentence or three to say why the story wasn't purchased.

They may have pushed me over the edge. They may have just made it so easy to steal that I can no longer resist.

I just heard an advertisement on the radio that some bank or another is offering "text message banking."

Thank you. I mean it. Thanks to everyone who tries to use this feature. I'm going to be taking your money now.

Really, when you leave it lying around on the ground in public, I'm not sure it's even theft any more.

I'm trying to imagine how text message banking could possibly be a good idea, and I'm drawing a blank. Good luck keeping your money, people.

With the availability of free database systems, such as the 20 MySQL forks, SQL light, and my favorite: PostgreSQL, a lot of people are trying to integrate RDBMS functionality into their software.

It's amazing to me how many of these people really shouldn't be doing this, or who should at least ask for some help from someone who understands a little bit about databases.

Let me paraphrase a conversation I saw on a mailing list recently:

It's ironic that Penny Arcade should address this issue only a day before I should come face to face with it in noteworthy fashion. In reality, I run up against it on a daily basis, but read on.

On Tuesday, I went to my biweekly writer's meeting, which was held this time at a Panera bread restaurant. We had reserved the room in advance for 7:00.

I'm a little behind, so you may already know about this. I'm sure all the fuss and excitement has filtered to you already. I mean, is there anyone who hasn't already seen the paparazzi photos of the release party?!

I'm talking, of course, about the publication of Triangulation: Dark Glass. Click on the link to go buy a copy. You won't be disappointed. You might find yourself overwhelmed with Miltons, though ... but that can't be helped.