Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
Cartographer
A little over a year ago, three authors on Ficly completed a collaborative short story that took about six months to complete. For those not familiar, Ficly is a flash fiction site where all stories must be 1000 characters or fewer. Any story may be sequeled or...
Age Gates
Everyone's seen them. You load the page for the latest viral video or the most recent update to your favorite web series, and the video player loads a screen similar to the one above. You have to provide the information requested to view the video, and you do so at...
Hiding Facebook’s App Ticker
Facebook has rolled yet another obnoxious feature with no user option to disable it -- the App Ticker. Apparently, some folks have seen it for a week or so now, but it only just showed up on my profile today. I've been using the wonderful Facebook Fixer script for the...
Fiction
Moonlight
It is night now, and moonlight pours through the one open window in the room. The moon outside is full, the light it casts bright and rich. Almost the moonbeam reaches the table. Almost it reaches the box. The moment he has been waiting for has very nearly arrived. He...
The Red Box
The box rests on a small, round table, perfectly centered on its rough surface. The man who purchased it stands across the room, leaning with one shoulder against the wall, staring at the box without really seeing it, lost in contemplation. Before him lies the prize...
Smoke Merchants
He winds his way through the chaos, trying to avoid bumping into anyone. Such a thing is nigh impossible here. But it hardly bothers him. Here, anonymity is paramount. Finally, he reaches a dark corner where two grey men sit. He sits across from them, aware of the...