Japanese buildings where nobody's ever home
Posted on 04.29.05 by Widge @ 6:11 pm

I don't know why I dig the hell out of pictures of abandoned buildings. But I do.

Found via Boing Boing.

Filed under: Writing Fodder
Comments: None


Painless Linkage
Posted on 04.29.05 by Widge @ 10:24 am

Been here for a while? Don't mind this post. I'm going to be handing out this URL to people this weekend and just in case I don't get a chance to change the layout so the links actually appear here to my left (your right), I thought I would put them here so as not to cause unrest.

To buy Mystics on the Road to Vanishing Point (a.k.a. the novel), click here.

To buy Magnificent Desolation (a.k.a. the short story book), click here.

Here's the other sites you can pummel yourself with:

Needcoffee.com (a.k.a. the crazy site)

Dark Blue Monstropolis (a.k.a. the sci-fi shared universe site)

Something Else (a.k.a. the short story site)

Okay, that's it. Everybody back to whatever it is they were doing.

Filed under: General BS
Comments: 1 Comment


Oh, look. A new Pope.
Posted on 04.19.05 by Widge @ 4:25 pm

Well, here's some fun.

The Large-Hatted One stated–before he got his new sombrero: "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism that has at its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

Is it just me, or is it ironic that the guy who now has a stranglehold on the spirituality of 1 billion+ people, (their number, as I understand it) and wants to maintain the orthodoxy of those 1 billion+ people, is bitching about, to paraphrase using his words, "the absolute rule of belief in non-absolutes?"

Well, what else can we expect the guy who now has that kind of absolute power–and an absolute power supposedly gifted to him by God–to say? Jeff Jarvis is right: the dinosaurs roar.

And people who don't need a go-between to talk to the Almighty respond with a yawn.

Update: As FutureWire called attention to, only 20% of American Catholics are sheep, at least in regards to following the teaching of the Large-Hatted One. Three-fourths prefer to think for themselves, schmuck. There is some comfort in this.

Filed under: General BS
Comments: None


I hope they were talking about the matches.
Posted on 04.18.05 by Widge @ 1:19 am

Here's some fun. Check out this bit from Ross Mayfield's blog. He was told that the limit on books you could carry on a plane was four now, and would be two later.

Now, as mentioned in the comments, there might be some confusion as to how many books of matches you're allowed to bring on a plane. But my initial thought was, of course, 'Ah-HA! They've figured it out! Information is the true weapon that can destroy us all! Books are dangerous! And anybody who reads that much is sure to be suspect! Unleash the hounds!'

But then, I came to my senses and realized if somebody these days was carrying books, they would probably be copies of The DaVinci Code.

If you think about it, no matter which way this story goes, we're doomed.

Found via Boing Boing.

Filed under: General BS
Comments: 1 Comment


Peter Gric
Posted on 04.16.05 by Widge @ 6:51 pm

His work can be found here. Excellent and surreal, it reminds me a lot of a dead project I worked on where a number of alien artifacts were involved.

Filed under: Writing Fodder
Comments: None


Makes 'Red Star' Look Like A Kid's Clubhouse
Posted on 04.15.05 by Widge @ 8:37 pm

For future reference, Unrealised Moscow, a gallery of building projects that never happened.

Neat reference material for creating a totalitarian world where they go apeshit extoling their own virtues (read: wealth and power) in stone.

Found via Boing Boing.

Filed under: General BS and Writing Fodder
Comments: 1 Comment


Look, Up in the Sky
Posted on 04.14.05 by Widge @ 1:06 am

These already play a role in DBM, but I just love this idea. Giant serene airships letting you download porn wirelessly from, as they say, an area the size of Texas. I love the future.

Found via Kurzweil AI.

Filed under: Dark Blue Monstropolis and Writing Fodder
Comments: None


Purgatory, Shotgun
Posted on 04.12.05 by Widge @ 3:31 am

Found a 3.5" diskette from 1995. Popped it in and bingo, a crapload of lyrics that I knew were around someplace but couldn't remember where they had ended up.

A lot of this stuff is crap, and there's a few gems amongst them. Most of them are…well, hell, you know the kind of stuff I write. Now imagine that with three musicians backing it up but even bleaker.

But then there was this, which stood out. I had forgotten this even existed.

purgatory, shotgun

i saw you driving that circus car
weaving all over the road
there was a thigh in your face & a knife in your ribs
& you needed a place to unload
so you saw my thumb & gave me a wink
& pulled over to the side
so i got in the back all folded in half
you said prepare for a bumpy ride

that was merely yesterday
but a lifetime just passed
we’re going the wrong way
& i think we’re low on gas

well your friend works the pedals while you try to steer
as i pop it into first
but there’s animals screaming underneath the hood
and we’re all of us dying of thirst

that was maybe yesterday
but the gas station just passed
i’m going the wrong way
and my lifetime’s done at last

January 24, 1995. What the hell was I thinking that day?

Filed under: Projects
Comments: None


Last Night, I Had a Dream
Posted on 04.09.05 by Widge @ 7:45 pm

In it, all the chickens whose wings I had eaten slathered with hot sauce came looking for me. And they wanted revenge.

And they showed up on my front lawn. And demanded I come out and answer to them for having consumed bits of their bodies.

I did come out. And I took one look at them and said, "Oh, there you are! I hate leaving a job unfinished."

Then I scooped them all up and rotisserie'd them in the back yard. I left one alive to spread the word of the fate of its armless fellows. And the ones I did not eat I put in the freezer for later.

That was a great dream.

Filed under: General BS
Comments: 1 Comment


Coming Out of the Cave
Posted on 04.09.05 by Widge @ 6:47 pm

Well, folks, if you live in North Alabama–where I was spawned–and you want to stop by and say howdy or even buy a book, then put April 30th on the calendar. That's a Saturday, and from 1pm to 3pm, I'll be at Shaver's Bookstore selling and signing copies of Magnificent Desolation as well as Mystics. They're at 2362 Whitesburg Drive in Huntsville.

I'm going to try and read a little bit since I figure you can at least get a small show with your book, but don't hold me to that. We're going to play it by ear. If you have any questions about how to get there or whatever, just ping me. Oh, and bring 99 of your closest friends. Thanks.

Filed under: General BS
Comments: None


previous posts »
John Robinson is a writer of prose, poetry and comics who also writes under the pseudonym of Widgett Walls.

Widgett Walls is the director of Needcoffee.com who also writes under the pseudonym of John Robinson.

Don't ask.


This is my latest book. Short stories written especially for you, or at least someone who reminded me a lot of you at the time.

Read it for free here. Or if you like paper, buy it here.

Then tell all your friends about it. Or all your enemies. I'm not particular either way.


Want a translation? Try these:

They're not perfect, but they'll do in a pinch.







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