Jim Stitzel

Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of Words

Excerpts from Life

Hackers, and the Joy of Migrating Servers

Hackers, and the Joy of Migrating Servers

So, I've had hackers all up in my server the last few days. They have kept installing malware and making file changes to my websites I host on my server. And I've been going through and running regular scans and fixing the things they've mucked up. Problem is, they...

The Brain’s Faulty Circuits

The Brain’s Faulty Circuits

TW: frank discussion of suicidal ideation The last few days, possibly even the last couple of weeks, I've struggled with a suicidal ideation right around bedtime. I've written previously about the fact that mental unwellness creeps up on me at the end of the day while...

Leftover Grief

Leftover Grief

We would have been married 21 years this year. It’s a number that blows my mind, but it’s also one that makes me sad. It’s been eight years since we separated, seven since the divorce was finalized. And I still feel a bit of grief over what might have been. I don’t...

Fiction

The Key

The Key

The key didn't work. Which was confusing because he'd made the thing himself, and it had worked the first few times he'd used it. The keyhole in the back of her head hadn't changed. He was sure of that. But then, he was sure the key would still work, too, and it now...

Spawn

Spawn

The children were shocked. Literally. The bolt of electricity that ran through them should have killed them all. But these children were no ordinary children. They were the children of a demon. Their systems were overloaded, yes, but they were also turbocharged. Their...

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

The wind howls outside my bedroom window. A tree branch, swaying in the wind, raps against the glass, tck tcking in an irregular rhythm. There are voices in that tempest, voices that I can just barely make out. They speak to me of times long past, of errors made and...