Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

Cuz it needs to be said before you read any further:





Don't say I didn't warn you. Onward!

*** UPDATED JULY 8! ***

Okay, here we go!

School's out, vacations are getting started, yadda yadda yadda. We've had a few responses so far, so I figured it was time to gather those into a single location, in the hopes of enticing greater participation. Consider this the official place to throw down your pics, and I've pinned this entry to the top of the blog and will be updating as needed.

What's the plan? As I posted in an earlier entry:

It's getting ready to be summer vacation season. If you're reading this and plan to take one of my/our books with you to read, let's have some pictures! Give it to Mickey Mouse to hold up for a photo op. Lean it up against that sandcastle your kid's building on the beach in Panama City. Better yet, give it to the Hooter's waitress in Panama City. See if the guard outside Buckingham Palace will let you prop it up against his boot for a shot. Hand it to a booth babe at Comic-con. Make kradical pose with it at Shore Leave. If you live near something unique or unusual, let's see a shot with that. Go nuts. Extra points awarded for originality as well as sheer lunacy.

What we've got:

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From pooka_pest and her iPod:

Open Secrets

From alpinemaps, invoking a bit of nostalgia for my service days:

Glass Empires

Glass Empires, again

From scottpearson and his lovely daughter, Ella:

Open Secrets

Open Secrets, again

And again

(See more pics here.)

From actorz_inc:

Summon the Thunder

STT again

<-- this kind of thing will get me in trouble :)

From @computist on Twitter:

The Genesis Protocol

From julioangelortiz:

Open Secrets

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And in the special "PhotoManip-orama" Category:

From Jerad Formby, he of Trekcast.com's Hey, Star Trek! blog:

Oh, myyyyy ** Not safe for work!!! **

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If we get enough responses, we'll hold a poll to pick the best/favorite pic, and the owner will get some kind of prize.

Alrighty, then. Whatchoogot?

....here. Look at pics of my kids.


(Click to enlarge. Warning: Cuteness Ahead.)

Doug Drexler has posted some awesome pics and ruminations about working on the "Captain Proton" sets for various episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. Among the pics are shots of Proton's ship from various angles, which are worth the price of admission all by themselves:

The Drex Files: Captain Proton!

I may not be the biggest Voyager fan out there, but I absolutely love anything to do with Captain Proton. Raise your hands if you read the Proton piece(s) I did for Star Trek Magazine earlier in the year. Man, that was more fun than should be allowed by law.

Anyway, hang out at Doug's site for a while, and be sure to get a good loook around. The stuff he's posting there will make your little fanboy (or fangirl) mouth water.

We received the tentative panel/activities schedule for this weekend's Shore Leave convention. Looks like I'll be mildly busy throughout the weekend, but nothing too crazy. For those interested:

Friday

7pm-8:30pm - Charity Roast of Keith Decandido (kradical). The first-evah such activity at Shore Leave, join us as we skewer each other and, of course, Keith. In addition to Kevin and myself, the "roasters" include Kirsten Beyer, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, David Mack, and Marco Palmieri. As for what Kevin and I plan to say, well...we'll either bust some guts, or else they'll run us out of town with pitchforks. Either way, it beats sitting at home watching TV. - Hunt Room

10pm-??? - Meet the Pros. The big author book/program/body part signing party - Hunt/Valley Foyer

Saturday

1pm-2pm - Space Grunts: The Anthology - With Scott Pearson (scottpearson) and John Coffren. We'll be talking about the cute little anthology I put together earlier in the year, since we have a few participants on hand to yammer about it. - Salon E

4pm-5pm - Mere Anarchy: The Anthology - With Mike Barr, Howard Weinstein, Christopher Bennett, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Kevin Dilmore, Dave Galanter. We'll ruminate about the mini-series, as well as read a chapter (or a portion thereof) from our respective contributions. - Salon B

Sunday

10am-11am - Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows Anthology. With Marco Palmieri, Margaret Clark, Peter David, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Michael Jan Friedman, Jim Johnson, David Mack (infinitydog), and Kevin Dilmore. After the panelists finish introducing themselves, there should just be enough time left over to take a couple of questions. - Salon E

12pm-1pm - Classic Trek: What Gene Knew. With David Mack, Kevin Dilmore, and Margaret Clark. - Hunt Room

1pm-2pm - Post Destiny: Now What Does the Federation Do? With Margaret Clark, David Mack, and Christopher Bennett. Now that Dave Mack has beaten the Star Trek universe all to shit, what's left? Apparently, plans are afoot. Come and find out for yourself! - Hunt Room

I was alerted today that Counterstrike: The Last World War, Book II is now listed and available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Right now, Amazon lists it as being released on (or about) April 27, 2010, which means I should have plenty of copies on hand for next year's Starfest convention.

So, feel free to avail yourselves of that snazzy pre-order feature..... :)

2009 is half over, and gone with it are many of my goals and aspirations for writing progress at this point of the year.

( Complete June rundown behind the cut! )

Apparently, LoudTwitter has died. For those who don't know, it was an independent service which allowed any updates/comments you made from your Twitter account to be gathered up each day and posted to your blog.

Since LoudTwitter has apparently fallen victim to hardware troubles from which the site owner won't be recovering any time soon, it means my LJ will be (blessedly?) free of daily "TwitterLitter" updates.

And there was much rejoicing.....

I'm a bit late getting this posted, but here we go:

Long story short: We had a pretty fun time down in Tulsa.

Long story longer:

( The Long Story behind the cut! )


Many thanks to all the fine folks who worked their butts off to make Trek Expo a fun weekend for fans and guests alike. We appreciate your hospitality, hope we held up our end of the bargain, and wish you well until our paths cross again.

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 07:05 Yes, I laughed: RT @austinpangeeks They say celebrities die in threes. Leave it to Billy Mays to throw in one extra COMPLETELY FREE! #

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Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 00:24 @ericthies Works for me. Not like I was going to get to watch it anytime soon, anyway.... #
• 00:26 @computist Re: TGP at the bird refuge - Nice! #
• 00:30 New pic added to the "Where's My Book?" picture thread: daytonward.livejournal.com/381777.html. Where's yours? #
• 14:36 Trek Expo is kickin? in Tulsa! #
• 22:44 @computist Re: Not Ken - Ah. Well.....for me to change that, I need to know what to change it to.... :) #
• 22:47 @od0_ital Dude! Poster made it here. Your friends are awesome, as are you. Thanks very much! #
• 22:50 Trek Expo highlight: Meeting Richard Jefferies, brother of Matt Jefferies (designer of original USS Enterprise) & his lovely wife, Tina. #
• 22:51 @SciFi4Me Re: Open Secrets - Dude, that book sucks. Ass. #
• 23:40 @od0_ital Re: Stickers - All arrived safe and sound. Thanks again! #

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Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 07:03 The local news spends the first five minutes talking about Michael Jackson, whose KC connection is that he held a concert here...20 yrs ago. #
• 07:05 Note to local news stations: Checking in with what people are saying on Facebook and Twitter is not news. Do your jobs, please. #
• 07:57 #followfriday Comics folk: @LegendofBill @comicmix @dreamnasium @bobgreenberger @glennhauman. Who am I missing? #

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Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 09:03 @terpette Re: Shore Leave, and swag - Name your price, my dear. ;) #
• 09:11 @kevindilmore Driving across town to work, only to get to the door and realizing you left your access card(s) at home. #dayoffail #
• 09:52 @seattlegeekly Re: 300 sequel - I think my idea for a prequel - 299 - is a better way to go, but that's just me. #
• 13:53 It's time to play "Politician Press Conference Confession Bingo!" - daytonward.livejournal.com/391104.html #
• 13:55 Dear Potential Followers: Stop trying to help me make $15k a week without even trying. Just cut me a check and go away. #
• 14:43 Dear Sonic: When I can feel the grit on my teeth, you've added too much sugar to the sweet tea. FYI. #
• 14:58 .@terpette Re: Sonic Sweet Tea - I think I may have come down with spontaneous diabetes #
• 22:57 Yes, Twitter, my e-Mail address is valid. You may recall that I used it to log in about ten seconds ago. #
• 23:25 @Kwamster Re: Khan - Forget that. How does the crew of the Reliant not realize there's a whole planet missing from the Ceti Alpha system? #

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My e-Mail backlog tells me I've picked up a few friends during the past few days. I'm not sure what's attracting folks to me (Hey, I showered!), but to all o' youz, I say: "Welcome!"

If you're so inclined, drop a comment and tell me what brought you to my corner of Internet Idiocy. For those of you who've been around a bit and lurk in the shadows, consider yourself invited to give up a little 411, too.

Courtesy of the one and only popfiend!

Thanks to Governor Mark Sandford's trainwreck press conference from yesterday, the folks at SomethingPositive.net have come up with something to help us through what is fast becoming a rapidly-recurring sequence of events:

SomethingPositive.net: Political Press Confession Bingo!

My personal favorite: "I'd also like to apologize to my staff, but if they'd lied better then I wouldn't be in this situation so fuck them. Fuck them in the face."



I'm only pissed that I didn't think of something like this first.

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 08:54 All the whining about red-light cameras, and I never hear anything about this simple solution: DON'T RUN THE RED LIGHTS, DUMBASS!!!! #
• 10:34 Playing "Podcast Catchup" - listening to Trekcast Episode #33. www.trekcast.com #
• 16:43 Bad Prequel Ideas: 299 - The Spartans can't leave for Thermopylae without George, who's missing after a wild weekend in Athens #
• 20:32 It's after 8pm! Do you know where your governor is? daytonward.livejournal.com/390278.html #
• 20:34 Headin' to Tulsa, OK this weekend for Trek Expo! Read all about it: daytonward.livejournal.com/390410.html #
• 20:43 My oldest daughter, at the wise old age of Almost 3, can sing the words to the theme song from "The Big Bang Theory." Nice. :) #
• 21:14 It's summertime! Taking one of my books on vacation? Let's have a cool pic! daytonward.livejournal.com/381777.html #

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This coming weekend, Kevin and I will be author guests at the annual Trek Expo convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to the numerous guests who will be on hand, the big headliners this year are Leonard Nimoy on Saturday and Avery Brooks on Sunday, both of whom I hear are pretty famous dudes.

Also invited as author guests are Robin Wayne Bailey (robinbailey), who will be acting as MC, and Selina Rosen, founder of Yard Dog Press and the Bubbas of the Apocalypse anthologies, for which I have a confessed fetish. Both Robin and Selina were contributors to my recently released Space Grunts anthology, and we're hoping to have a few copies of those lying around, as well.

So far, our schedule is largely open, which means we'll be hanging out, hoping to sell and sign a few books, wandering the con floor, pestering the "real guests" and so on. Kevin and I also are scheduled for an hour or so on the main events stage, starting at 11am on Saturday. There's no telling what we'll do with that one, but it's possible poultry will play a role.

(Just seein' who's paying attention....)

So, if you're in the vicinity and/or planning to attend to the con, we hope to see you there!

Oh look, it's yet another politician making news by not being able to keep his dick in his pants:

Politico.com: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits affair

Setting aside the usual comments and jokes regarding the hypocrisy of yet another Republican...uh, sorry...elected official...getting caught in an affair while espousing family values and all that crap, my biggest question is: HOW THE FUCK DOES A GOVERNOR JUST DISAPPEAR FOR A WEEK, AND NOBODY KNOWS WHERE HE IS?

Why is it I can get 24-hour real-time updates on the most useless dregs of our society, to include what swimsuit they're wearing while they're on vacation or whether they're wearing panties when they climb out of a limo at some nightclub, but the governor of a state can just slip away without anyone noticing? What, do they not have cellphones in South Carolina? After the first day of him not answering the one the state gave him when he took office, shouldn't that have set off some kind of alarm at the state capitol?

By the way, who was supposed to be...you know...doing that governor-type shit while he was off tappin' ass? What if he'd had a heart attack down there in Argentina while he was in the saddle with his lady friend and working off his second dose of Viagra? Did he leave behind a DVD with his final instructions for the lieutenant governor when enough time had elasped and he was presumed dead, like Kirk did for Spock and McCoy in "The Tholian Web?"

Common sense would seem to dictate that it's unlikely no one knew where he was, and his staff has spent the last week stepping on their cranks as they try to cover for their boss. I mean, this guy can't even get his story straight with his own wife as to whether they're separated. I'm hoping to watch some heads roll over this one....

And while we're here, let me ask this: Who flies from the States to Argentina to get laid? Considering the hassles of modern-day airline travel, that must have been one fine honey pot to be dippin' into. Just sayin'.

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 06:55 Always nice to be recognized! RT RhiannonKCTV5 Two KC neighborhoods considered most dangerous in the nation! tr.im/pr3z #
• 06:56 I just can't bring myself to care about Jon&Kate. There's a whole new season of Big Brother starting up! (Twitter needs a roll-eyes icon.) #
• 11:12 @terpette Re: ethical fan behavior - I think signings are more fun with bosoms and Sharpies, but that's just me. #
• 11:16 @terpette Re: KC vs Baltimore - The piece didn't really show the entire list, but it sounds like you win. #

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Inspired by a rather...interesting...conversation from an e-Mail loop to which I subscribe. Simply asked: What's on your keyring?

Mine:



Starting with the fob/remote and working clockwise:

• Key to my truck
  
• House key (front door)
  
• House key (basement door)
  
• Work cabinets/desk key
  
• Hen House shopper card
  
• CVS Extra Care card
  
• Borders Rewards card
  
• P-38 can opener: aka "the John Wayne," "the Church Key," "the Most Awesome Little Bit of Military Engineering Known To Man." I carried this one on my dog tag chain for a lotta years. See here for more info.
  
• "Quark's Bar" key chain. The coolest nerdy bar ever.
  

Speaking of dog tags, I used to have one on the keychain, as well. Then, one day, it hit me that the frikkin' things have my SSN on them. Duh. So, I retired it along with the original set I was issued forever and a day ago.

Whatchoogot?