fallslikesnow

Dear Reader ...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:47:00 +0000

In the interests of finding out if anyone is reading this blog, here's an offer.
Leave a comment with your name or pseudonym below and I will write a cutstomised blog entry about you filled with fabulous lies.

Staggering Professions of the FUTURE! #1 - the Forensic Sedimentologist

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:57:00 +0000

The agent walked down the loading ramp, his luggage rattling along behind on mesh wheels and his faery, part minder, part secretary, flitting about his head.
The mayor rushed up to him, flustered at having to greet someone so senior who's purpose was unknown to him.
"Welcome sir, welcome! May I say what a pleasure it is to see a representative of the Commonwealth after so many years. We have made a suite of rooms available to you ..."
"Enough of your obsequiousness mayor. My requirements were sent on ahead. I trust they have been fulfilled," said the agent in a voice gruff and stale from lack of use.
"We tried sir, but there is no offshore drilling capacity available here. Our industrial base is not yet sufficiently advanced. It will be decades before we have need of such technology."
"You have need of that technology now. I will have to stay until you can import the necessary industrial base - the Commonwealth will provide what is needed. I must have access to samples of deep sea floor sediments or this planet will be evacuated and sterilized."
The mayor stumbled to a halt in consternation.
"But, sir! What could possibly justify such an outcome? We are a quiet world, slowly earning our place at the table with the Great Planets. We have done no-one any harm!"
"You haven't. But evidence suggests that this is no natural world. That lurking in the depths of those beautiful oceans of yours are beings of vast age and unlimited enmity to humans. Do you truly believe that Earth was the only world infested with the Old Ones? Would you see a return of Cthulhu, a re-run of the rites that brought Nyarlathotep back from the screaming abyss?"
Stunned, the mayor stared at the agent in horror. The agent walked on, luggage and faery following close behind.

Warez

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:27:00 +0000

I've discovered "The Rose of Desire" on a warez site. I don't know whether to be appalled or flattered.

thatwhichfalls #14

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:37:00 +0000

That Which Falls Has Wings

by animabase from Korea, Republic of

"The War Against Memory": A Review - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:07:00 +0000

The short but action-packed history of video games contains certain seminal moments that, in retrospect at least, represented true changes in how this young art-form has developed. Think of the escalating brutality of the first level of DOOM!; the slow dawning of realisation of the sheer size of Hyrule Field; the gleeful simplicity of Katamari Damacy.

One such moment that stays with this reviewer is the opening of the game Myst -- a book falls through a dark void while a voice recites what seems to be a confession to something of which the player is incomprehending.

The opening of "The War Against Memory" evokes a similar feeling of desperate mystery. A figure sits at a desk, frantically scribbling disjointed facts (the population of Brazil in 1968; the location of a rural post-office in Nebraska; breakfast 11th May, 1998) onto pieces of paper, each of which he sets alight with a battered Zippo and drops in a trash can.

This mystery, however, (unlike many others in the game) is rapidly resolved. Felix Unes, the protagonist (to call him the hero would be to mis-use the word) is cursed with perfect recall. His memory of everything he has sensed or thought is perfect in every detail. For those of us entering the mnemonic haze of middle age this might seem a blessing but the voice-over makes it clear that a life lived in the undiscriminating glare of an eidetic memory is blighted, the natural high and low points of a life lived and recalled in the normal way are flattened by total recall and memory ceases to have the topography that gives life meaning. More than anything else Felix deires to lose this gift, the irony being that as a child he sought it with a dedication that he now can no longer credit.

In a cunningly wrought and beautifully rendered flashback we see the young Felix discover a book on the ancient "Art of Memory" from which he learns to construct his own memory palace -- a collection of familiar environments in which memories can be placed and recalled at will, given enough dedication, something which Felix appears to have had in spades.

And we see the consequences of the trap into which he has walked -- every moment is always compared to the perfect knowledge of a moment that has passed, leaching life of its savour in a cloud of memories of memories of memories.

So we see Felix attempt, futilely, to eradicate memories by writing them down and burning them. We also see the inside of his memory palace for the first time -- unlike the classical versions that used cathedrals or libraries as their locations, young Felix chose to use a shopping mall, memories compulsively associated with objects in the stores almost as soon as they are formed. The burning serves only to highlight the memory objects in the mall. It does not erase them.

We then see Felix buy, on impulse, a strange amulet (seen on the box art) at a mysterious small antique store. Typically of the game it is unclear if this transaction takes place in the memory mall or in reality. While wearing this amulet he begins to see terrifying flame edged shadows around the heads of people he meets, shadows that appear to be animated by some purpose and which appear to be feeding on something that the people exude.

Associated with these fragments of darkness he sees frozen images of other lives and slowly he realises that he is seeing the process of forgetting. The bat-like creatures are devouring memories but they will not come anywhere near Felix himself.

This leads into the central game mechanic, where Felix, on seeing one of these attacks of forgetting, can rush up close to the person being mnemonically cleansed and snatch the memory eaters out of the air, causing them to momentarily turn on him and eat some morsel of his own memory. After each of these events a small portion of his memory mall turns dark.

The mystery that deepens as the game progresses is one of forgetting rather than the cliched revelation from a state of amnesia more often seen in video games.

Felix forgets more and more and as he does so the images that are left behind in his memory palace change and become more significant, become imbued with a totalised meaning that was not apparent when they were placed within a horde of quotidian remembrances.

[to be continued]

The Red Threads and the Green Man

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:36:00 +0000

My horror story set in medieval England, "The Red Threads and the Green Man", is available on the very excellent Kaleidotrope.

Xmas Freebies

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:55:00 +0000

The Rose of Desire, Bubbles - Two Fragments from the Shoal Wars,

In the Morning, in the Sudden Glow...

are all available for free at Amazon until the 25th. Download now or you will have to pay actual money for them!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:46:00 +0000

"In the Morning, in the Sudden Glow ..." is now available for free at Smashwords and for 99c at Amazon.

Sneak Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Above is a sneak glimpse of the probable cover for the sequel to Bubbles, called Jasmines.
Look for it at the end of this year or early the next.

Free Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:02:00 +0000

"The Rose of Desire" and "Bubbles" anthologies are available for free on Amazon right now!
You know you want them. Go get them.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rose-of-Desire-ebook/dp/B0060MK1P6/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

http://www.amazon.com/Bubbles-Fragments-Shoal-Wars-ebook/dp/B0061E1KDU/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

Astronaut Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:38:00 +0000

A long time ago
Men landed on the moon
Some said, "What's the point?"
But they were too soon

To say that those men
In their white and gray suits
Shouldn't have gone there
To stomp around in their big boots

No, to complete the mission
There is one last thing to do
We need to summon our forces
AND SEND A GIRL TO THE MOON!

She will need the correct toys
Buzz Lightyear or such-like
She'll need a white space-suit
To get around she'll need a bike

She'll go to astronaut school
Learn science and rocket-ships
How to bounce around in zero gee
Deal with space-chapped lips

Yes, to be a space girl would be
Lonely and glorious too
To plant a flag and look back
At Earth, that little stone of blue

Bubbles

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:41:00 +0000

I've uploaded another anthology to Amazon and Smashwords - Bubbles, two stories set in my Shoal Wars universe.

Bubbles - after the Earth has been destroyed by enigmatic aliens the remnants of humanity spiral towards civil war.

Jasmine – a pre-pubescent astronaut discovers the truth about her mission and vows revenge.

Available here.

The Rose of Desire Anthology

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:37:00 +0000

I've uploaded a short e-anthology to Amazon and Smashwords.

Three science fiction stories by Kenneth Burstall

Sea of Dreams - a deadly race for a weapon of enormous power aboard a dying starship

The Rose of Desire - vignettes of desire and transformation in the near to far future

RED - a nightmarish journey across a transformed Europe

It's free on Smashwords so I suggest that if you want it (and why wouldn't you?) click here.

Scary Book Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:03:00 +0000

There's a hippo in a tree
Looking down at you

There are cats on legs like buses
That want to chase you

There are bees like ferrets
That can barely buzz around you

There's a giant sea dog
It wants to grab and eat you

But they are afraid
Of you, with your green hair
Of you, with your red horns
Of you, with your sixteen legs
Of you, size of the moon

With your scary books in your arms

The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus #13

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:33:00 +0000

SECTION VII.

Know ye then, O Sons of Science, there are seven bodies, of which gold is the first, the most perfect, the king of them, and their head, which neither the earth can corrupt nor fire devastate, nor the water change, for its complexion is equalised, and its nature regulated with respect to heat, cold, and moisture; nor is there anything in it which is superfluous, therefore the philosophers do buoy up and magnify themselves init saying that this gold, in relation of other bodies. is, as the sun amongst the stars, more splendid in Light; and as, by the power of God, every vegetable and all the fruits of the earth are perfected, so gold by the same power sustainneth all.
For as dough without a ferment cannot be fermented so when thou sublimest the body and purifiest it, separating the uncleanness from it, thou wilt then conjoin and mix them together, and put in the ferment confecting the earth and water. Then will the Ixir ferment even as dough doth ferment. Think of this, and see how the ferment in this case doth change the former natures to another thing. Observe, also, that there is no ferment otherwise than from the dough itself.
Observe, moreover, that the ferment whitens the confection and hinders it from turning, and holds the tincture lest it should fly, and rejoice the bodies, and makes them intimately to join and to enter one into another, and this is the key of the philosophers and the end of their work: and by this science, bodies are meliorated, and the operation of them, God assisting, is consummate.
But, through negligence and a false opinion of the matter, the operation may be perverted, as a mass of leaven growing corrupt, or milk turned with rennet for cheese, and musk among aromatics.
The sure colour of the golden matter for the red, and the nature thereof, is not sweetness; therefore we make of them sericum - ie Ixir; and of them we make the enamel of which we have already without and with the king's seal we have tinged the clay, and in that have set the colour of heaven, which augments the sight of them that see.
The Stone, therefore is the most precious gold without spots, evenly tempered, which neither fire nor air, nor water, nor earth is able to corrupt for it is the Universal Ferment rectifying all things in a medium composition, whose complexion is yellow and a true citrine colour.
The gold of the wise, boiled and well digested with a fiery water, makes Ixir; for the gold of the wise is more heavy than lead, which in a temperate composition is a ferment Ixir, and contrariwise, in our intemperate composition, is the confusion of the whole. For the work begins from the vegetable, next from the animal, as in a hen's egg, in which is the greatest help, and our earth is gold, of all which we make sericum, which is the ferment Ixir.

finis

Sericum
Latin Noun
sēricum (genitive sēricī); n, second declension

Chinese goods, but especially silk

Wiktionary

                   ...the fever came,
          A punctual visitant, to shake this man,
          Disarmed his voice and fanned his yellow cheek
          Into a thousand colours; while he read,
          Or mused, his sword was haunted by his touch
          Continually, like an uneasy place                          160
          In his own body. 'Twas in truth an hour
          Of universal ferment; mildest men
          Were agitated, and commotions, strife
          Of passion and opinion, filled the walls
          Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds.
          The soil of common life was, at that time,
          Too hot to tread upon. Oft said I then,
          And not then only, "What a mockery this
          Of history, the past and that to come!
          Now do I feel how all men are deceived,                    170
          Reading of nations and their works, in faith,
          Faith given to vanity and emptiness;
          Oh! laughter for the page that would reflect
          To future times the face of what now is!"

THE PRELUDE

BOOK NINTH

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE

William Wordsworth

Star Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Summer, Tabby on a star
It's very hot, it's very far

From Mother Earth, a little blue dot
Getting home would cost a lot

From there a bus would take years
A rocket faster, but then who steers?

So Tabby, Summer on a star
Collect stardust in a jar

Build a house with a huge aircon
A big yard, they felt they'd won

Look up at night, you'll see them there
House of stardust, look close,a stair

Of moondust. Go up, be quiet, they may be asleep
It's a long way, it's very steep

Look, there in a bed, see you must
Girls made of stars like diamond dust

"Connect" takes off!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:31:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I got an email from the wonderful Phoenix Sullivan, editor of the e-anthology Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever in which my story Connect appeared. As an experiment Phoenix had uploaded Connect as a stand-alone story for free download to the Amazon kindle store. To my astonishment her email informed me that the story was being downloaded like crazy and was at number 600 and something in the free/kindle charts.
As of writing this, it is at #228.

If you are reading this post as a result of looking up my name after reading Connect, welcome!
I've uploaded three more stories to Amazon (see my author page, here,) at 99c each - however, both RED and The Rose of Desire are available on this blog if you do a quick search (in fact, The Rose of Desire is the post below this one).
If you enjoyed Connect (or if you didn't!) feel free to leave a comment or email me at the address below my picture to the right.

Summer Poem

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:20:00 +0000

When blue was red and orange pink
No-one here knew what to think

But Summer ran as fast as gray
To the King of Colour, she went to say

"You silly King, you over-slept, you
Better get up, red turned to blue!"

Bopped with a balloon he got out of bed
Had a shower, demanded to be fed

So Summer made an omlette with fuchsia eggs
Ran it to the King on orange legs

He ate, touched a finger to some toast
It turned pink to brown, it was the most

Amazing thing Summer had ever seen
Until she saw him turn purple back to green

Summer saved the day, all was mellow
But she kept a piece of sky that still was yellow

thatwhichfalls #13

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Theus v. United States, 611 F.3d 441, 446 (8th Cir. 2010). "Deficient performance is that which falls below the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases." Id. (quotation omitted).
BASS v. U.S.

The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus #12

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:25:00 +0000

SECTION VI.

It behoves thee to give thanks to God who has bestowed liberally of his bounty to the wise, who delivers us from misery and poverty. I am tempted and proven with the fullness of his substance and his probable wonders, and humbly pray God that whilst we live we may come to him. Remove thence, O Sons of Science, the unguents which we extract from fats, hair, verdigrease, tragacanth, and bones, which are written in the books of our fathers. But concerning the ointments which contain the tincture coagulate the fugitive, and adorn the sulphurs it behooves us to explain their disposition more at large ! and to unveil the Form, which is buried and hidden from other unguents; which is seen in disposition, but dwells in his own body, as fire in trees and stones, which by the most subtle art and ingenuity it behoves to extract without burning. And know that the Heaven is to be joined mediately with the Earth - but the Form is in a middle nature between tie heaven and earth, which is our water. But the water holds of all the first place which goes forth from this stone; but the second is gold; and the third is gold, only in a mean which is more noble than the water and the faeces. But in these are the smoke, the blackness and the death. It behoves us, therefore, to dry away the vapour from the water, to expel the blackness from the unguent, and death from the feces, and this by dissolution. By Which means we attain to the highest philosophy and secret of all hidden things.

Tragacanth is a natural gum obtained from the dried sap of several species of Middle Eastern legumes of the genus Astragalus, including A. adscendens, A. gummifer, A. brachycalyx,^[1]^[2] and A. tragacanthus. Some of these species are known collectively under the common names "goat's thorn" and "locoweed". The gum is sometimes called "shiraz gum" , "gum elect" or gum dragon. The name derives from tragos and akantha, which means in Greek "goat" and "thorn", respectively. Iran is the biggest producer of the best quality of this gum.
The gum is used in veg-tanned leatherworking as an edge slicking and burnishing compound and is occasionally used as a stiffener in textiles. It contains an alkaloid that has historically been used as a herbal remedy for such conditions as cough and diarrhea. As a mucilage or paste it has been used as a topical treatment for burns. It is used in pharmaceuticals and foods as an emulsifier, thickener, stabilizer, and texturant additive (code E413). Also, it is the traditional binder used in the making of artists' pastels,^[3] as it does not adhere to itself the same way other gums (such as gum arabic) do when dry. Gum tragacanth is also used to make a paste used in floral sugarcraft to create life-like flowers on wires used as decorations for cakes. It makes a paste which dries brittle in the air and can take colorings. It enables users to get a very fine, delicate finish to their work. Additionally, it has traditionally been used as an adhesive in the cigar rolling process used to secure the cap or "flag" leaf to the finished cigar body.^[4]
^Wikipedia

Pierre: (gloomily, sternly) It can only mean that our fair France will be driven to the blackness and the death of defeat bv the two-headed hawk of Prussia! Oh, curse these barbarians! Athalie, thou too must curse them, and it shall be as if the Virgin herself cursed!

Athalie: Ah, father, I who have been taught by my pere Arnot to love everything the sun shines upon—can I curse even Prussians? God's justice and His mercy do not need men's curses to sway the scales

Thw White Dove of France - Burt Teats

Rigs I Have Worked On #12 - Rowan Gorila IV

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 04:31:00 +0000

Rig Name:	Rowan Gorilla IV
Rig Manager:	Rowan
Rig Owner:	Rowan
Competitive Rig:	Yes
Rig Type:	Jackup
Jackup Type:	Independent Leg Cantilever
Rig Design:	LeTourneau Class 200-C Gorilla
Rated Water Depth:	450 ft
Drilling Depth:	30,000 ft

The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus #11

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:18:00 +0000

SECTION V.

MY SON, that which is born of the crow is the beginning of Art. Behold, how I have obscured matter treated of, by circumlocution, depriving thee of the light. Yet this dissolved, this joined, this nearest and furtherest off I have named to thee. Roast those things, therefore, and boil them in that which comes from the horse's belly for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days. Then will the Dragon eat his own wings and destroy himself; this being done, let it be put into a fiery furnace, which lute diligently, and observe that none of the spirit may escape.
And know that the periods of the earth are in the water, which let it be as long as until thou puttest the same upon it. The matter being thus melted and burned take the brain thereof and triturate it in most sharp vinegar, till it becomes obscured. This done, it lives in the putrefaction, let the dark clouds which were in it before it was killed be converted into its own body. Let this process be repeated, as I have described, let it again die, as I before said, and then it lives.
In the life and death thereof we work with the spirits, for as it dies by the taking away of the spirit, so it lives in the return and is revived and rejoices therein. Being arrived then at this knowledge, that which thou hast been searching for is made in the Affirmation, I have even related to thee the joyful signs, even that which doth fix the body. But these things, and how they attained to the knowledge of this secret, are given by our ancestors in figures and types; behold, they are dead; I have opened the riddle, and the book of knowledge is revealed, the hidden things I have uncovered, and have brought together the scattered truths within their boundary, and have conjoined many various forms -even I have associated the spirit. Take it as the gift of God.

Alsop 1964

Alsop, L.E., 1964: Spheroidal free periods of the Earth observed at eight stations around the world. Bull. Seismol. Soc. America, 54, 755-776.
Spectral peaks corresponding to the spheroidal free periods of oscillation of the earth exist in the spectra of eight seismograms written at stations in different, parts of the world shortly after the great Chilean earthquake of 22 May l960. These data have been combined with those previously reported by various authors to obtain a very precise phase velocity vs period curve for Rialeigh waves in the period range of 200 to 3200 seconds. The observed spectral amplitudes lend sonic support to the assumption of a moving source, but, they also indicate that the present theory is not accurate. The vertical motion is found to be symmetric with respect to reflections through the pole.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies

trit·u·rate (trch-rt)

tr.v. trit·u·rat·ed, trit·u·rat·ing, trit·u·rates

To rub, crush, grind, or pound into fine particles or a powder; pulverize.

n. (-r-t)

A triturated substance, especially a powdered drug.

[Late Latin trtrre, trtrt-, to thresh, from Latin trtra, a threshing, from trtus, past participle of terere, to thresh; see ter-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

tritu·ra·ble adj.

tritu·rator n.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/triturate

Rigs I Have Worked On #11 - Maersk Vinlander

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:52:00 +0000

The GSF Grand Banks is an Aker H3.2 semisubmerisble drill rig currently owned by Transocean (though the GSF refers to GlobalSanteFe). It was built in 1984 by St. John Shipbuilding, Canada. It was originally known as the Bow Drill 3 (1984-1988), which changed to Maersk Vinlander (1988-1998) and Glomar Grand Banks (1998-2004) before its' current moniker.
It has particular importance to the Newfoundland offshore industry, where it drills alongside the Henry Goodridge. It had drilled and located oil in the Hebron field in 1998, and more recently in the White Rose field. Currently, it is drilling for Husky on the North Amethyst project[1]

"Connect" now available for free!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:23:00 +0000

My story "Connect", originally part of the e-anthology "Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever", is now available on its own for free from Smashwords.

Connection #16 - Emperor John VIII Palaiologos to Vittore Pisano

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Burstall) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:26:00 +0000

John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Ίωάννης Η' Παλαιολόγος, Iōannēs VIII Palaiologos, 18 December 1392 – 31 October 1448), was the penultimate reigning Byzantine Emperor, ruling from 1425 to 1448.
Wikipedia

Repeatedly the court had discussed the question of making their cause a universal one by reuniting their church with the Roman Catholic. Preliminary negotiations had already taken place. Greek ambassadors had appeared at (he Council of Constance. Emperor Manuel had shown a certain zeal in the cause of union, but chiefly from political motives. Now John VIII. (Figs. 88 and 89) returned to the matter with the honest purpose of bringing it to a satisfactory conclusion. The emperor himself and a large retinue of clerics and theologians sailed to Venice, in 1438. Thence they went to Ferrara, where the anti-council of Eugenius IV. was sitting. But here no conclusion was reached. In Florence, however, whither the pope transferred the council on account of pestilence, the cause of union was furthered somewhat. Still, the nature of the case excluded a real understanding. The best that could be done was to set up a theological formula, which gave at least the appearance of unity by the scope it left for individual interpretation. On July 6, 1439, the solemn conclusion of the negotiations took place in the cathedral of Florence. In the

Fig. 88 —Copper medal of John VIII. Palaeologus. made by the Florentine artist, Vittore Pisano (1380-14.">5). (Berlin.) Legend, translated: "John, king and emperor of the Romans, the Palaeologus."

presence of Emperor John VIII. and Pope Eugenius IV., a formula agreed upon by the dignitaries of both churches was read in Greek and Latin and signed by all present. Mark, Bishop of Ephesus, alone objected to it. On his return to Constantinople, he found the zealous support of the fanatic population. Consequently, the compromise was not acknowledged and had no effect.
The age of the renaissance By Hans Prutz