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Tag Archives: Terrible Minds Writing Challenge
Posted in Writing, Writing Challenge
Tagged A.I., artificial intelligence, BDSM, consent, erotic, erotica, Mars, Microfiction, sci-fi, science fiction, short story, subroutines, technology, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
A brief word of warning before the story itself begins. This was written for Chuck Wendig's weekly Terrible Minds Writing Challenge. For this week's challenge, we were given a list of 20 genres, and told to pick two of them (at random, or not) and mash them together to write a new story. Because I occasionally enjoy writing something for an older audience, I chose to write a story that was a blend of artificial intelligence sci-fi and BDSM erotica. In the following story, there will be graphic sexual content, and as such, I do not recommend it for readers under the age of 18.
Subroutine. noun sub·rou·tine \ ˈsəb-(ˌ)rü-ˌtēn \ A subordinate routine; specifically : a sequence of computer instructions for performing a specified task that can be used repeatedly (Merriam-Webster).
Mars had intrigued humanity since the earliest ancestors first looked up to the night sky. It was only natural for Earth's inhabitants to move there as soon as technological advancements made life on its surface a possibility. When the shift from Luna happened, it was made reality with the assistance of numerous artificial intelligence constructs handling the logistics and heavy lifting. These AIs were based on accelerated deep learning networks, rapidly pushing from a childhood-like state to encyclopedic knowledge over the course of a few months, and they were able to quickly adapt to new tasks. For a while, all was well.
When the first Tharsis Colony was founded, however, the AIs began to break down. Shortly after reaching Mars, multiple constructs began circumventing their safety programming, and the results were nothing short of horrific. A handful of survivors managed to deactivate the rogue AIs and regain contact with Luna and Earth, and new plans to extend humanity's reach were prepared.
New AIs were developed, but instead of being overloaded with information and responsibilities from day one, they were allowed to age naturally. The resulting maturity that they gained over decades of operation gave them an incredible stability that had been lacking in earlier generations. While they still learned more information and processed it faster than a human ever could, they still took in that information in the same way. Stretching the learning periods out allowed for safer development of the neural networks, and didn't strain the hardware to the breaking point. Every effort was made to give them a sense of realism never before seen, mimicking body functions and behaviors, for full integration with human crew members. The new constructs were tested rigorously, and proved that they were not going to be prone to the errors of their predecessors. Most would be almost indistinguishable from their flesh and blood counterparts unless they desired otherwise. Soon, a new colonization mission was approved and scheduled.
Tharsis II was the pinnacle of achievement for humanity, a massive, sprawling colony on the surface of Mars, and a rapidly-growing home to almost ten thousand engineers, archaeologists, geologists, astronomers, biologists, and other scientists and support staff. Every major department in the city, for that's what Tharsis was, had at least one AI assigned to it, and they all reported to Aurora.
In her office, Aurora glanced down at the tablet display in her hand. While she didn't need to use one to visualize the data being fed to her from her subordinates, she found it made the humans around her more comfortable. It made transferring files between the organics and herself more familiar as well, as did her humanoid construct appearance. Technically, she was housed in server banks in secure cold rooms deep below the main colony, but the hard light display she projected in the halls of Tharsis was designed to interface with the colonists. She looked almost exactly like them. Perhaps it was a trace of vanity, but she preferred to have the shimmers of green, blue, and pink that made up her namesake swirl across the surface of her skin, an ever-shifting visible reminder that Aurora wasn't actually human.
Everything seemed to be in order. Atmospheric levels were within acceptable parameters, and all of the research teams were reporting in with no troubles for the day. Communications and additional supplies from Earth had arrived and been distributed. A small disturbance at a nearby bar had been handled by security forces with no injuries to any party. A good way to finish her work week. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow as her assistant, a young human named Ven, approached her.
"Long day, ma'am?" Ven asked.
"No more so than usual, Ven. Thank you for asking."
"I think we're all set here, ma'am," Ven said, handing Aurora a second tablet.
She looked at Ven's report, signed her approval on it, and passed it back to her. "Well done, Ven. We'll be transferring oversight to Blackwell for the weekend." At Aurora's mention, a second construct coalesced into solid form in the office, tall, translucent, and dressed in the standard white Tharsis jumpsuit.
"You called?" Blackwell said.
"Just making sure you were here before I left for the weekend, Blackwell. Thank you," Aurora responded.
"Any big plans for your days off?"
"Just the usual, Blackwell. Avoiding you."
"Heh. Enjoy it then, Aurora. I promise that Tharsis will be as you left it when you return," the other AI replied. "Tell Colin I said hello. I heard he was rather tied up last weekend when I was going to stop by."
Ven stifled a laugh as Aurora's luminescent skin flashed briefly crimson.
"Fuck you, Blackwell," she said. "And goodnight to you too, Ven."
"Goodnight, ma'am."
Aurora came home from work that night to find Colin naked in their bed, waiting for her.
"So, are we still on for tonight?" he asked. His green eyes glinted, reflecting Aurora's own light back at her.
"If you are, my love. It is what we decided for this weekend, remember?"
"Is that what you were planning to wear?"
Aurora was still in her work uniform, a white jumpsuit emblazoned with the Tharsis II insignia. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"No, dearest, not at all. Just not quite the role I was expecting you in tonight." He grinned up at her.
Colin had been her coworker at the Tharsis colony for twenty years now, and lover for half that time. If anyone on Mars was anywhere near Aurora's equal, it was he. Two decades on Mars had brought them closer together than anyone would've imagined. Ten years learning everything they could about each other's fears, hopes, and desires. They spent virtually all of their free time together, and there was no real way of keeping their relationship a secret. While some aspects of it could be kept more private, everyone knew they were together. "Hell," Colin had once joked, "Blackwell probably knew we were sleeping together before we did."
She laughed softly now and paused, a brief flicker in her image matrix as a new outfit coalesced around her. She stood several inches taller, thigh-high heeled boots worn over fishnet stockings, with a black corset and matching boyshorts completing her appearance. She quickly crossed the distance between them and pushed him down onto the bed, his long brown hair cascading around him.
"You remember your safeword?" she asked.
"You do what?"
"I do, goddess."
"That's better. Mind your tongue when you speak to me. Are you ready to begin, then?"
"Yes," he replied. "I am, goddess."
Aurora smiled. Soon, she stood above him, waist-length black hair pulled back in an elegant braid. A leather collar dangled from her left hand, and leather flogger in the right.
"Kneel."
"Yes, goddess." He knelt on the bed in front of her, gazing up into her eyes as she placed the flogger beside him, and gently draped the cool leather of the collar across the back of his neck. He shivered as she fastened it and gave the ring on the front a quick tug.
"Is that comfortable?"
"Yes, goddess," he replied.
"Excellent. Now, be a good boy and lie down for me, face up."
Colin nodded and did as he was told. Aurora retrieved her flogger and began to trace slow circles around his nipples with it. "You," she said, "failed to address me correctly, twice." Two quick cracks as the flogger came down on his chest. "You will not do so again."
"No, goddess…"
"Very well. Now, I have other uses for your tongue, bitch." Pulling her boyshorts down and kicking them aside, she straddled him, lowering her pussy over his face. "Worship me. Pleasure me until I tell you to stop."
Colin licked expertly at her cunt, long slow strokes at first, gradually picking up speed. He deftly circled near her clitoris, taking as much time as he dared before dipping his tongue deeper into Aurora.
Moaning softly, she spread her knees wider, grinding down onto Colin's face. "Oh, fuck yes…" Aurora ran her fingers into his hair and twisted through it, pulling as his tongue found her clit. "Right there, you little slut. Just like that…" Colin resumed his long circling strokes, pushing into her pussy again and tasting her subtle sweetness on his tongue before pressing on her clit yet again.
Aurora shuddered at his ministrations, collecting herself long enough to push off of Colin's face. Her lover gasped for his first full breath in several minutes as she shifted her legs and moved to stand beside the bed again. "Not your best work," she smirked. "But not bad either." Grabbing the ring on his collar, she pulled him into a sitting position and kissed him, tasting her own juices on his lips.
"Are you ready for me to fuck you now?" She reached down and lightly stroked his cock. "That definitely got you nice and hard," Aurora grinned. "What do you say, my love?"
"Yes, please goddess," Colin gasped.
"Good. You wait right there."
She stepped away from the bed and reappeared a moment later, a large silicon dildo and a bottle of lube in hand. Her body shimmered again, a strap-on harness now present around her waist. Seeing the expression on Colin's face, she chuckled again. "I said I was going to fuck you. I didn't specify the how, did I?"
"No, goddess."
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"No, goddess. I've missed your cock in me."
"Good boy. Now, roll over so I can fuck you like the little bitch you are." Aurora slipped the dildo through the harness ring and started coating it generously with lube.
As Colin knelt on his hands and knees, Aurora climbed back onto the bed behind him, pressing the tip of her cock against his ass. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, goddess." He looked back at her over his shoulder, adoration in his eyes as she slid halfway into him. Colin whimpered as the dildo stretched him, moaning Aurora's name when the second thrust brought her hips flush against him.
"Are you going to cum for me?" She began to thrust in earnest, rapid and shallow strokes alternating with slow, deep ones until her lover was trembling beneath her.
"May I, goddess?"
"Oh, yes. Come for me, you little bitch."
Colin shuddered, his cock spurting onto the sheets as his orgasm rocked his body. As Aurora slid her strap-on free, he collapsed on the bed. "Thank you, goddess…"
"Such a good little slut," Aurora purred.
Minutes later, they lay together on the bed, cuddling in the afterglow. "That was amazing, my love," Colin murmured.
"Thank you for being willing to try new things," she replied. "I'm so grateful to my programmers for allowing so much flexibility in my code. And to yours, too."
Colin wrapped his arms around his fellow construct and pressed his face into her shoulder. "Programming notwithstanding. If I hadn't met you, I never would've realized that I'm a sub."
"I love you, you little bitch."
"I love you too."
A Door
October 7, 2016 – 11:17 am
Tagged Halloween, horror, October, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, true story, writing, Writing challenge
Chuck Wendig's latest writing challenge asked for us to share a real-life spooky experience. I decided to write a bit about something that happened about this time last year.
I've written a lot about doors. Secret passages, locked doors that contain various secrets, portals to other places… It's definitely a recurring theme in my work. So imagine my surprise at finding something that wouldn't be out of place in my work showing up in my apartment.
My girlfriend and I were moving in together for the first time, and we'd finally found an affordable place with enough space in the right neighborhood. We leased the apartment without looking at it, so we didn't notice it when we first moved in. Not even when we were doing our walkthrough with the checklist the office had given us. Looking for chipped paint, broken blinds, etc. Maybe it was just the shift in lighting after we got the bedside lamp set up. Eventually, though, we spotted a small seam in the wall. There it was. A vertical line, a slight indentation too deep to just be in the paint.
"That's weird."
"Oh, damn. Yeah, it is. It's like they patched the wall over here, and didn't care that you'd be able to see a gap in the drywall. Weird."
We didn't think about it for a while after that. Occasionally, we'd smell smoke, though, like the next door neighbor was enjoying being in Colorado (despite lease clauses). Then, there was a revelation.
"Uhh… It's not just a seam."
"It's a door."
Sure enough, there was a second line running parallel to the first, about two feet over. Then we followed them up.
"Yeah. It's a door. There's frame here too, and look. There's the lintel."
"What the actual fuck?"
"I don't know. Maybe it was a leftover from when the construction guys were building the apartment. A way between this one and the one next door without having to go back into the hall."
"Then why would they frame it and then fill it in?"
My girlfriend even asked the leasing office about it. The agent who came to look at it had no clue it had ever been there. We pulled the bed away from the wall, and the lines ran all the way to the floor. It was unmistakably a door. Filled with drywall and painted, yes. But a door.
That was when we looked up at the ceiling and noticed the scratches in the popcorn ceiling. Gouges several inches long, spaced closely together, about a foot from the filled-in door. Another group of them a few feet away, nearer to the entrance to the bedroom. Almost like something had crawled across the ceiling from the door to the not-quite-door… Or been pulled…
Happy October, everyone!
Still Turnstiles at Station 6
May 6, 2016 – 9:42 am
Posted in Short Story, Writing, Writing Challenge
Tagged Mars, Microfiction, sci-fi, short story, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
The following flash fiction piece was written for the latest Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, in which we were given several titles to choose from and write a story to fit that title. Here's "Still Turnstiles at Station 6."
"For the last fifty years, we've been the main entry point for immigrants. Station 6 has welcomed offworlders since the colonies first opened to the general population. However, with the completion of construction on a new series of landing zones via Phobos and Deimos, Station 6 will be transferring operations to these new lunar facilities, and begin shutting down. This shutdown will be gradual, taking place over the next solar cycle. We are proud to have been your Gateway to Mars."
"How many people are losing their jobs because of this?"
"None. Every Station 6 employee is being offered transfer to operations on the lunar stations. Thanks to an incredible amount of cooperation from the colonial governors on both Phobos and Deimos, funding has been secured to ensure the employment of every single person here continues as long as they desire to keep doing their jobs."
"What will become of Station 6, then?"
"We'll begin the process of decommissioning her once the transition to lunar operations is complete. We expect that to take place over the next five to ten years. The oversight council has been working very hard to establish a full schedule. We are talking about taking multiple reactors offline, safely removing the fuel, disposing of it properly, and so on. It's not something that can happen overnight. On the plus side, the process of decommissioning Station 6 will add an additional thousand jobs to the workforce within the next year. We're very positive that the shift to the Phobos and Deimos stations will be a much-needed boost for Martian colonists."
"And once the site is cleared?"
"We've been in talks to turn it into an orbiting museum. It would be an ideal site to showcase the history of humanity's move from Earth. The early rovers from the old NASA operations have small museums near the locations where they ceased to function. It makes sense that Station 6 should hold the same place in our history. For now, though the lines here will slow, and the good folks on our staff will be here until the turnstiles are still."
"Well, that certainly sounds like an ambitious plan, but I like the sound of it. We'll be following this story as it develops. For Tharsis 7 News, I'm Ayana Cole."
Orchard After
April 15, 2016 – 9:32 am
Tagged farm, love story, Microfiction, orchard, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
This one's another entry for one of Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds Writing Challenges. We were given two lists of twenty words, picking one from each list to create a random title. After a day of brainstorming, the final line popped into my head. So, here you are. It's a flash piece, really. Not even 500 words, but I like it. I hope you do too.
They met as children, wandering across the meadow that connected their parents' farms. They became friends instantly, each thrilled to have the other to talk to, to share in the collective adventure that is youth. Rain or shine, they would meet. Every day during the summer, and every free moment during the school year, they were together. One would wait for the other at the old apple tree in the middle of the meadow.
Borrowing tools and parts from their parents, they built a tree house. It would shelter them from the rain and shade them from the sun more than the tree could alone. The apples fed them when they wished to remain away from home. They took great care to plant the seeds when they could, and in time, they sprouted.
They grew older, and closer together. High school brought them a series of new challenges. They each began work on the farm, learning the trades of their mothers and fathers. In between tasks in the fields, they tended the burgeoning orchard that was now growing Soon, the summer day arrived when they shared their first kiss, hidden from a thunderstorm inside their tree house.
Time passed, and their love grew stronger. Though they could no longer both fit inside the tree house, they could still spend a hot afternoon sleeping beside each other in the shade of the tree's branches. School came to an end, but still they stayed on, neither willing to part for more than a few days at a time. As their parents grew older, they took over the farms together, consolidating and focusing on the apple orchard.
Years became decades, and the two grew old. They still made and sold apple pie and cider with apples that they grew, having sold the rest of their parents' farmland, save for what had been the meadow. Children visiting the orchard would play in the tree house while the grownups shopped and sampled. In the quiet evenings, the lovers would meet again, beneath the tree where it had all began. They would sit and hold hands and talk about how quickly the world had gone by.
One winter day, it was time for them to say their final goodbyes to each other. They kissed one final time, pledged their love. The cold took them both, there under the branches of the ancient apple tree, fingers entwined as the roots below. They were buried there, as they had wished for years to lie together.
And as the snow came down, and the years passed, the lovers were forgotten, and all that remained was the orchard after.
Tagged disaster, dragon, Microfiction, sci-fi, science fiction, short story, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge
This one's for Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds Writing Challenge. Our instructions were to write a sci-fi story about a dragon, only not necessarily a mythical one. It's a short piece, well under the 2,000 word limit, but it was something that came to mind immediately after reading the challenge prompt.
"Are we starting?"
"Yes ma'am. We're recording right now. You can start wherever you like."
"I was there that day. They said that there'd been nothing like it since the old calendar, since the bombings on Earth. I never saw footage of those, but I've heard statistics. It amaze me still to realize that we used to live in such numbers that the loss of a couple hundred would be considered relatively insignificant. That that could've been the better option. I don't know what exactly this new weapon was. Just the name all of the news outlets on the colony gave it. The dragon."
"Yes, she was the first one to call it that on the intrasystem media. I asked her about it afterward. She said it seemed like a good fit. Something so destructive that it couldn't possibly be real. She was never the same after that day. Nightmares kept her from sleeping, and eventually she just… she couldn't stop seeing them."
"What do you remember most about that day?"
"The smell. I'll never forget the smell. Melting metal, charred flesh. I can't eat barbecue anymore. The masks could only filter out so much, and we didn't have them for the first wave. And the heat. Even when we got the bunker gear, we couldn't stay on site for too long. Dozens of folks were dropping just from the heat."
"You were with the first responders?"
"We all were. There weren't enough of us. We didn't have adequate supplies, or enough people. How can you plan for a disaster on that sort of scale when there's been nothing like it used for centuries?"
"Had you ever seen footage of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"
"Once, when I was a kid. They told us that no one had ever done anything on that sort of a destructive scale since. People kept pointing to those two bombs as one of the worst things that humanity ever did to itself. I wish they'd been right, that we'd never come up with anything worse."
"You said supplies were inadequate too. Would you like to elaborate?"
"Well, there was no way we'd ever have the rescue equipment or the medical supplies to treat burns of that intensity on that large of a site. No colony would. The governors would never allow the funding for recovery for a disaster that they couldn't foresee, and half of them are too young to have learned about the bombings back on Earth. They'd dismiss them out of hand and say that we should be prepped for real emergencies. Loss of atmosphere, gravity failure. Things that you expect to happen on an orbiting colony. Not the heat, not a fire so sudden and massive that it burns through 85% of your oxygen supply in a matter of seconds. Not some lunatic trying to hurt or kill everyone. We were damn lucky we didn't lose the whole colony."
"But you kept trying, despite being understaffed and under-supplied?"
"We had to. 12 hour shifts and then some, to start. You know how critical the first hours are in a recovery effort. More people died, but we kept trying. We had to, damn it. We had to know that we were doing our best. It was the only way we could keep going."
"I don't think anyone could have predicted it. My understanding is that the work on the project was so compartmentalized that no one team could've put together a solid idea of the whole. Different groups of engineers and scientists working on components on different planets and colonies. No communications other than what was absolutely necessary would've been allowed. Tell one team they're working on one project under one code name. Take their work and have an unaffiliated group start working on it from there under a different code name. Never let the right hand know what the left is doing, you know."
"Hence why there couldn't be a contingency in place."
"Exactly. No one knew what The Dragon was capable of. Just that it was a dangerous weapon."
"And someone set it off in the middle of a civilian population center."
"Do you believe the attack itself was premeditated?"
"We're done here."
"How many people died?"
"In the initial burst? Estimates say over half a million. The Dragon's Breath, the mishmash of various ailments people caught in the aftermath is still killing people. Nearly double that."
"Do you honestly believe it was an accident that the weapon was discharged on the colony?"
"I'd like to believe that, but the investigation is ongoing."
Detroit Dream
Tagged car, car chase, chase, Chuck Wendig, Microfiction, police, short story, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
I could see the dust clouds rising in the distance long before I heard the slow rise and fall of the sirens. On the plains, you can see forever. I ran back into my grandfather's house and grabbed the binoculars from their place on the back of his dining room chair (where they would always be close by so that he could watch birds at the edges of his property or approaching storms rolling in over the nearby towns to the west). Looping the carrying strap over my shoulder, I dashed back outside and scrambled up the television antenna next to the house. Stepping across the gap to the green-shingled roof, I climbed to the apex and brought the binoculars up to my eyes.
There! They were still several miles away, but getting closer by the second. A quick adjustment of the focus knob brought the cars into sharper view. There were four of them; three were police cars with their lights flashing a staccato red and blue rhythm. Leading them all was one car that I can only describe as a cherry red Detroit dream, with outrageous fins and chrome surfaces catching the August sun and threatening to blind me. It had to have been customized. There was no way the stock engine would have given him the speed he had. The driver was pulling away from the cops, clearly outmatching them in both skill and machine. He was using them against each other on the narrow dirt roads, using his speed to thwart any of their attempts to outmaneuver him.
Closer now, and I adjusted the binoculars again until I could make out the writing on the police cruisers. Two were local, town cops having apparently joined a sheriff's deputy in the chase. His car was superior to theirs, but the county roads were clearly not familiar to him either.
I knew them well. My dad had taught me to drive on that stretch of road. I knew full well where the neighboring farmers' sprinklers caught the gravel beyond the edge of their fields, washing away some of the stable surface of the road or turning the low-lying stretches into very small swamps. I knew the intersections where the corn grew tall in the late summer, blocking a driver's view of any oncoming traffic. I knew where the semis driving through had turned the road into a washboard until the next time the county could send a road grader through to smooth it out again. There were dead ends lurking where anyone not paying attention would find themselves flying off an embankment and into a ditch. Even if you spotted any of the hazards, there was no guarantee that hitting your brakes would keep you safe.
I knew that the cops didn't drive out into the country unless they absolutely had to. An occasional domestic violence call when a wife had finally found the courage to seek help, a child who had wandered farther from home than usual, a controlled burn getting out of hand when the wind shifted suddenly; these sort of things, they were used to dealing with. A high-speed chase down narrow, unpaved roads? Not so much. Now they were coming up to the Ackers' farm and I could finally hear the shifting pitch of the sirens. I felt my heart beating faster as the older car pulled farther ahead, adrenaline surging as I imagined myself in the driver's seat, laughing out loud as I saw one of the city cops skid and spin a 180 into the ditch, hurting only his car and his pride. The other cop and the deputy managed to keep themselves on an even course, but the driver in the red car had gained nearly a half a mile.
The cars were close enough to see without the binoculars now, so I let them hang around my neck and watched anxiously as the red car swerved to the left at the edge of my grandfather's tree line, dust flying as he stomped on his brake pedal in an impossible U-turn onto our property. The deputy and his cohort sped past, losing track of their prey in the cloud he'd kicked up. The driver, a long-haired man in a backwards baseball cap, was grinning like a madman as he wove past the John Deere outside of the shop, past the end of the paved driveway, and back out onto the road, back east toward Ackers' again. Soon he was just a column of dust on the horizon. I raised the binoculars and watched him fade into the distance as the officers too late realized their mistake and changed direction, climbed back down the antenna and went inside. My grandparents were drinking coffee and watching Murder She Wrote with the blinds shut, and I doubted that they'd even noticed the events of the last few minutes, so I made a point of not mentioning it to them, sitting down with them and watching the rest of the show instead.
I had never seen the car before, and I never saw it again. Same for the laughing man behind the wheel. I checked the local newspaper the following Wednesday, but there was no mention of the chase in the city or sheriff's reports. I like to think that whoever he was, wherever he was from, he'd wanted a little adventure for the day, and he somehow found a way to share it with me. To this day, I wonder what it must have felt like to have the thrill and uncertainty of that pursuit, not knowing if he'd be able to make the turns and courting death with every second. I'll never forget the roar of the engine calling to me as I stared at the taillights, the smell of tires grinding into gravel. When I go back to the farm, I still climb up to the roof and watch for him, binoculars in hand, waiting to see that Detroit dream one more time.
This piece was written for Chuck Wendig's latest Terrible Minds Writing Challenge. Thank you for reading. Don't forget to check out the other entries!
The River and the Gods
March 9, 2015 – 5:57 pm
Tagged gods, Microfiction, river, short story, story from sentence, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
"The river stole the gods."
That's what my grandmother used to say, anyway. "The river stole Them away from us, and left us alone. Left us to survive without Them." They had belonged to our people for centuries, longer than we'd been maintaining a record of our tribe. I still remembered the stories that we would hear every night, that the elders of the village would share. Stories of how the gods came to be, what They did.
The First of the gods had come to us from the river, so it never seemed strange to me that the river had taken Them back. It was perfectly logical to me, but I was always a bit strange, according to my brother. The First was born to us from the reeds and the mud, given shape by the flowing water that still sustains our village. The sun looked down and saw the shape, and baked Him into hard clay, and the full moon looked down on the empty body and saw fit to give Him a soul, and then the moon began to wane, and He rose up and made His seven sisters and brothers in the same manner. Soon, all of the gods had been given Their shape, with the First asking the sun to dry Them, and the moon to give Them souls as well. The sun complied willingly, for the sun is always hot again with each new day, but the moon replied that there was but one soul left, and that it was the moon's own soul, for there could be nothing more given until the moon was full again. So the First god took His own soul and broke it into eight pieces on a rock at midnight, when the moon was gone, for He could not wait for the moon to return with new souls. My grandmother told us that this was supposed to be a lesson about patience, but I never really understood why. I wanted to ask her if the rock the First had used to break His soul was still there, if she knew where He had done it. Instead, I'd just smile and nod and encourage my brother to do the same so that she wouldn't yell at us for not learning from her stories. Father and Mother would have spanked us, so even the yelling was preferred if it came to that.
One fraction of the First's soul, He took back into Himself. The remaining seven fragments were given to His brothers and sisters, and once They too possessed souls, They stood by His side. Together, They then set about naming all of the things, and dividing the world into parts that each of Them would oversee. The seas, the skies, the stars, the earth, the plants, the beasts, time. Each of the First's siblings was god of these things. The First presided over Them all, giving Them guidance, since He was connected to all of Them through His soul. For centuries, our people lived in peace under Their rule, and They would return to our village every month to visit the place of Their birth. "We would watch Them from a great distance, and we could see that every one of Them stood at least twice as tall as my father, who was the tallest man in the village," my grandmother said. "And we would hide, but still try to see what They were doing. Their gatherings always lasted from sunrise to moonrise, as They honored the place of Their birth. They appeared at dawn, They stood at the river's edge in the mud from which They were formed, and They vanished as the moon took its place in the sky." We asked my grandmother to describe Them, beyond Their great height. "They were the color of the river, bright when the sun shone on Them, blending with the night save for a subtle shimmer when it didn't. They were beautiful."
The gods were kind, benevolent, and very slow to anger. My grandmother only knew of one time when They had seen fit to punish any of the people of our village, just before the river took Them. It was harvest time, and one of the men of the village had been found having killed his neighbor. Murder was unheard of in the village. Death was not uncommon, but it was not the explicit realm of any of the gods, and so it was deemed to be something far beyond the control of men. After all, if the gods have no power over a thing, what hope does man have of controlling it? When this man was found with another's blood on his hands, he was locked away until the next time the gods came. The villagers had no idea that it was going to be the last time. The gods returned as was Their fashion, and instead of hiding from them, my grandmother's father stood near where he knew they would appear. When They arrived, he called out to them, and my grandmother and the others hid in the usual place. "My father spoke to them," she says, "but we couldn't hear him or Them from our hiding place. Eventually he came back to us, saying that the First had demanded the murderer be brought to him. We brought him out, and my father took him to where the gods waited for them. They looked at the man, and instructed my father to come back to hide with us." Here she always grows sad. "We heard the rushing sound of the water, and saw the gods step into the middle of the river, the killer up to his neck. There was a great rush of white and blue, and when the surge passed, there was no one left. No murderer, no vengeful gods. We never saw any of Them again after the river stole Them away. Punished him, and punished us all by leaving us here without Them."
Note: This story was written for a "Story from a Sentence" challenge from Chuck Wendig over at terribleminds. He hosts similar challenges weekly, and I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of writing for them. Hopefully more microfiction will continue to arrive here on a somewhat consistent basis. Thanks for reading!
The Casket
Tagged casket, cemetery, Chuck Wendig, death, flowers, funeral, memory, Microfiction, short story, small town, story, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, walk, writing, Writing challenge
The casket was made of steel, polished and gleaming blue in the June sun. I didn't know the man inside, but I knew of him. Everyone in town knew about the house where he'd lived for the last forty years. My dad told stories of how, as a teen, he and his friends had dared each other to enter Mr. Walter's yard, to approach the house, to lift the brass knocker on the door, to steal a sprig of foxglove from the sunken garden. He told me that he'd won almost a hundred dollars over the course of a single summer. I didn't feel brave enough to tell him that I'd never made it beyond the fence, but I always nodded every time he mentioned some detail of the grounds.
Mr. Walter's funeral was simple. He was buried in the graveyard a quarter mile outside of town. Pastor Mikalsen came to do the service, and my dad and I were the only mourners, unless you count Zeek, the gravedigger (who only has the job because he lives nearby and owns a backhoe). I guess that's what happens when you spend most of your life as a hermit, even in a small town. No one wants to come to say goodbye. Dad said he felt obligated after antagonizing the old man for most of his own youth. We didn't even dress up, since we'd been out working on one of our tractors all morning. Two mourners whose only black attire that afternoon consisted of grease-stained jeans and t-shirts.
I told Dad that I'd walk home after the service was over, and that I wanted to have a little while to think. He gave me an understanding nod and climbed back into the pickup, calling for Pastor Mikalsen and his wife to join us for dinner that evening as he drove away. I watched as the pastor followed him back to town before asking Zeek if he needed a hand. When he waved me off, I wandered the few uneven rows of remaining stones. I'd always loved spending time in the little cemetery, even waking up early on Saturdays in my youth to ride my bike there. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were buried there, and I soon found myself standing before their headstone. Zeek finished piling the last of the dirt on top of Mr. Walter and headed off toward home, the backhoe serving as his transportation for the afternoon, and I was finally alone with my thoughts.
I sat down in front of my great-grandparents' grave and looked at the dates carved in the dark marble. They'd died less than a year apart, and only a few months after I was born. Dad didn't talk about them much, and all I really knew was that we lived in their old house. Mom talked about her side of the family even less, though I suspected she had good reason for keeping such things to herself, and never prodded her about it. She might as well have been an orphan for all I actually knew about her relatives. I didn't mind too much, because it meant a hell of a lot fewer road trips across the country to see them. There are only so many times you can drive across Nebraska before it starts to take a toll on you.
After a few minutes, I stood up and dusted myself off. I made a final round of the cemetery, being careful not to walk on the freshly packed soil where Mr. Walter now resided. I set off down the road for home when inspiration struck, and I started walking the opposite direction. Soon I stood before the towering home the old man had once occupied. Daylight, I mused, made all the difference in approaching the building. Even on a bright afternoon, the place loomed over the grounds. The wrought iron gate where I stood was marked with a massive stylized "W," itself in turn decorated with an intaglio of ivy. I traced it with my fingers, feeling the textures of the etched metal. With a brief glance over my shoulder, I gave the gate a gentle push until it opened.
That was all it took. I felt a surge of confidence as I slipped into the yard, leaving the open gate behind me. I was in Mr. Walter's yard. Remembering Dad's stories, I headed for the back of the house, following the flagstone path that led to the sunken garden. I pulled my phone from my pocket, snapping a few pictures along the way. To say that it was beautiful did no justice to the place. I realized that Mr. Walter must have maintained everything himself until his death, and that he had clearly poured all of his energy into that garden. While the rest of the yard, and the house itself, had fallen into some state of disrepair, the garden was pristine. A jeweled mosaic decorated one of the walls, sapphire, topaz, amethyst, and a half-dozen other stones set in patterns resembling flowers. Ivy grew around it, but had been carefully cleared away from the mosaic itself.
I could have lost myself in thought in that garden, but I had work to do before the light faded. Finding a patch of the famous foxglove, I picked a handful and headed back to the gate. The walk back to the cemetery took only a few minutes. I laid the flowers down at Mr. Walter's grave, knowing that the chances of anyone else ever doing to same for him were slim. I didn't know the man in the steel casket beneath my feet, but I knew of him. Everyone in town did, but I wouldn't forget him. Somebody had to remember the dead, after all. When our houses are torn down, and our gardens are left untended, eventually only memory will remain, though that too will fade.
It was time to go home. The sun was setting, and we had company coming for dinner.
(This piece was written for a flash fiction challenge hosted by the inimitable Chuck Wendig. We were given ten words, and instructed to pick five of them to include in a 1,000 word short story. I used topaz, orphan, casket, hermit, and foxglove.)
The Apocalypse Mechanism
Tagged apocalypse, apocalypse mechanism, Chuck Wendig, mechanism, Microfiction, sci-fi, short story, Terrible Minds, Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, writing, Writing challenge
Today's entry is a response to the latest Terrible Minds Writing Challenge, and comes to you courtesy of the wonderful Chuck Wendig. We were instructed to choose a word from each of two columns of ten words. These two words would give us our title for a thousand-word story. From there, we were free to choose genre, setting, etc. so long as the title was composed of those two randomly selected words. It is with great pleasure that I present to you "The Apocalypse Mechanism."
I found myself hypnotized by the button. It sat there all day, just peeking up at me from beneath its warning label-emblazoned plastic cover. The labels said "Do Not Push". The button seemed to say the exact opposite, but I knew what would happen if I pressed it. Hell, the alarm system would engage the second the cover was flipped open
(I wanted to push it)
and that couldn't even be accomplished without two keys, only one of which was ever in my possession at any given time.
So I stared at it. Me versus the button. The greatest showdown never to be broadcast live on television, though one documentary maker had come down to film my little chamber about a year and a half after I started. Our little chamber, I suppose. Marco and I took turns. I don't know if he stared at the button the way I did
like I was looking deep into the eyes of the lover I could never have. We never talked about it. He only spoke Italian, and I only spoke English. He had the other key. I wore mine around my neck. I think he did too, but again, we didn't exactly have the best of conversations, or any conversations, for that matter. Language barriers and whatnot. Pretty sure the guys upstairs planned it that way, but there's no way for me to know for certain.
The chair was pretty comfortable, so I guess you could say it was a cushy job. I mean, how many gigs can you find where you get paid a shit-ton of money to sit in a big chair and wait patiently for nothing to happen? Not many. This one was one of a kind, too. It was an armchair, too, not a desk chair or anything like that. Designed for me and me alone. There was a matching one opposite mine, made for Marco, and we never sat in each other's. We wouldn't have been comfortable. That was the way it was designed. I asked once what would happen if one of us had been killed, and the only response I'd gotten was an offhand comment about having to draft a plan for a new chair.
The button was green. That really threw me off the first time I sat in that chair. I'd been expecting red when they gave me the breakdown of the job. It just seemed logical that a button that could end the world would be red, you know? Nope. Green. Big and friendly, almost a neon green, like it was telling you "Don't Panic" or something. Like it wanted to be pushed. I'm fairly certain it did, because then it would've been all over, but when I mentioned that to the staff psychologist, he said I was just projecting.
The button was only part of it, of course. The room wasn't built to house anything, it was everything. The whole complex I worked in was the device, and the room with my little chair and my big friendly "Do Not Push" button
(oh, gods I wanted to push it)
was only a little chamber, a tiny fraction of the thing they called "The Apocalypse Mechanism." Designed by the most brilliant minds on the planet, top to bottom, including my chair. I can't call them the best minds, because if the best minds had been around at that point, it wouldn't have come to the building of that damned thing. The best minds would have been able to come up with something better, a plan that wouldn't involve Earth being sacrificed.
Still, the minds we had left were brilliant. They had taken good care of them in the facilities back in Russia. Neat little rows of jars, cleanly labeled, and so on and so forth. I'd actually gotten a tour of the place a few years before I got my button-watching job. A cold set of shelves, but like I said, they held the most brilliant minds left on Earth. They put them to use, and away we went, letting them design the mechanism that would allow us to hide our tracks completely.
Marco and I each worked on ten hour shifts. Ten hours on, ten hours off. Since we were underground, it didn't really matter much to us that we didn't see daylight. What was left to see on the surface anyway? Nothing I hadn't seen before. Nothing I wanted to see again. Ten hours sitting, waiting for the word that it was time to wake the other, time to use the keys, time to release the plastic cover, time to push the big green button.
It would mean that the world would end. Earth would be destroyed, and the home of the human race would be lost to history forever. Marco and I would have no choice but to stay behind, of course. As far as I knew, he was just like me. No family, nothing left. No reason for us to be on the ships that would be setting course for the colony worlds far from our solar system. My button was the trigger. I held one of the two keys that would prevent anyone or anything from taking our home and using its resources against us. The Apocalypse Mechanism. The ultimate in scorched earth tactics.
I stared at the button for a lot of my shifts. I could have read, I suppose, or listened to music, but I couldn't help myself. I knew that I'd have to push it one day. I could feel that from day one, so I stared at the button. I stared at it for five years, ten hours at a time.
Until now. Until the alerts. Too many ships still orbiting, trying to leave. Too many people still in range. No way to protect them now. No choice. I call Marco. We draw out our keys, unlock the cover.
(I don't want to)
We push it together.


text:
UPDATED GUIDANCE FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Regulatory Flexibility Due to COVID-19 National Emergency
On Friday, April 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education ("Department") issued Updated Guidance for Interruptions of Study Related to Coronavirus (COVID-19). This new document updated guidance that the Department originally issued on March 5, 2020, and subsequently supplemented with COVID-19 FAQs on March 20. We discussed the March 5 guidance and the FAQs in an earlier Client Alert on March 20.
We emphasize that institutions are being granted a substantial degree of flexibility in these guidance documents, which not surprisingly do not always provide detailed instructions or address every possible question or technical issue. Institutions are strongly advised to carefully and contemporaneously document every decision they make regarding changes to policies and academic programs in response to the COVID-19 emergency. This documentation should explain the change in as much detail as possible, including the rationale for the decision and, wherever available, the specific guidance or analysis on which the institution relied in making the decision. This documentation should be retained in a secure, central location so that it will be retrievable in the months and years ahead without regard to staff turnover or technology updates.
Summary of Previous Guidance
The March 5 and March 20 guidance provided institutions with broad authority to move instruction temporarily to a distance education online format without first obtaining any Department approval that might otherwise be required. The guidance initially covered only those students who were already enrolled on March 5 but was extended on March 20 to include students who enroll in payment periods that begin on or before June 1, 2020, including new students. The Department also granted flexibility to accrediting agencies to waive certain of their typical requirements regarding the initiation of distance education programs.
The Department stressed in its March 5 guidance that institutions planning to move courses and programs to online delivery would be expected to comply with the Department's requirements for distance education. These requirements include ensuring that instructors initiate regular and substantive communication with students, either collectively or individually.1
Finally, the Department outlined flexibility given to institutions regarding a number of Title IV processing issues. Among the topics for which regulations were relaxed were leaves of absence, the temporary use of non-standard terms, federal work study payments, potential changes to the academic year, professional judgment, satisfactory academic progress, attendance and Return of Title IV Funds policies, enrollment status changes and NSLDS reporting.
April 3 Updated Guidance
The Department's newest guidance updated several areas of interest to institutions. And, it clarified that the flexibilities outlined in its COVID-19 guidance documents generally remain in effect through June 30, 2020, unless a 2019-2020 award year payment crosses over to the new award year, in which case the effective date is extended to the end of the crossover payment period.
Accommodations for Students
The Department reiterated that its goal is to help institutions accommodate students during the present COVID-19 emergency, although it remains constrained in some areas by statutory requirements. It provided institutions the latitude to adjust their schedules to help students complete terms, without regard to whether such adjustments would convert the calendar to a non-standard term or non-term program, and it relaxed the leave-of-absence requirements for students with COVID-19-related issues.
The Department also restated its earlier guidance regarding the flexibility of institutions to convert programs to distance education delivery and the ability of accrediting agencies to waive their typical distance education review requirements, although it encouraged accrediting agencies to take prompt action to develop new policies and procedures that would allow them to review and approve distance education programs rapidly. The Department again emphasized the importance of regular and substantive interaction with students initiated by instructors and discussed the methods by which instructors can do so, and it reminded institutions that student privacy requirements must be maintained.
With regard to students with disabilities, the Department reiterated the obligation of institutions to provide access to distance education programs to all students and to accommodate students who need academic adjustments or other reasonable modifications "where doing so would not impose an undue burden nor cause a fundamental alteration." The Department recognized the challenge that the current situation imposes and invited institutions to consult with the Office for Civil Rights regarding accessibility issues and questions.
General Title IV Provisions
The Department provided additional guidance and direction on a host of general Title IV provisions. It also noted a number of areas where it continues to review both the CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, and other aspects of the COVID-19 emergency with the intent to issue additional guidance as it becomes available. Specifically, the Department indicated that new guidance will be forthcoming regarding Return of Title IV Funds requirements, due dates for compliance audits and audited financial statements, various reporting requirements, satisfactory academic progress determinations, and campus-based funding use and allocations.
Regular and Substantive Interaction
As we discussed above, the Department has granted broad flexibility to institutions that have had to close their brick-and-mortar campuses to convert their programs to distance education delivery without going through the normal Department approval process. The Department has emphasized, however, that institutions must comply with the Department's expectations for distance education programs so that the programs remain eligible for federal student aid.
A key element of the Department's requirements is that instructors must initiate regular and substantive interaction with students, whether individually or collectively, using technology described in 34 CFR § 600.2:
Distance education means education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) of this definition to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. The technologies may include—
(1) The internet;
(2) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
(3) Audio conferencing; or
(4) Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD-ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (3) of this definition.
The Department noted that "distance learning does not require the use of sophisticated learning management systems or online platforms, although accreditors may have additional standards." And, it emphasized that the acceptable technologies include email and telephone.
One aspect of this current definition that has challenged the Department and institutions is the meaning of "regular and substantive interaction," which is not explained in regulation. On April 2, 2020, however, the Department released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") outlining proposed regulations regarding distance education that have been in development since a negotiated rulemaking session achieved consensus on a range of topics in April 2019. In this NPRM, the Department proposes to revise the definition of "Distance Education" in Section 600.2 to include its expectations for regular and substantive interaction. The Department's discussion regarding this proposed change is found on pages 10-11 of the NPRM (85 Fed. Reg. 18638, 18647-18648, Apr. 2, 2020).
The revised definition of Distance Education as proposed by the Department is provided below in its entirety, including updates to the list of acceptable technology in paragraph (2) and a proposed new definition of instructor in paragraph (3). Although the definition is proposed rather than final, it was issued following a negotiated rulemaking session that achieved consensus and therefore is likely to be adopted as final. In any case, it provides clear indication regarding the Department's current interpretation of regular and substantive interaction in paragraphs (4) and (5):
Distance education:
(1) Education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (2)(i) through (iv) of this definition to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor or instructors and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor or instructors, either synchronously or asynchronously.
(2) The technologies that may be used to offer distance education include—
(i) The internet;
(ii) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
(iii) Audio conference; or
(iv) Other media used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraph (2)(i) through (iii) of this definition.
(3) For purposes of this definition, an instructor is an individual responsible for delivering course content and who meets the qualifications for instruction established by an institution's accrediting agency.
(4) For purposes of this definition, substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes at least two of the following—
(i) Providing direct instruction;
(ii) Assessing or providing feedback on a student's coursework;
(iii) Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
(iv) Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or
(v) Other instructional activities approved by the institution's or program's accrediting agency.
(5) An institution ensures regular interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors by, prior to the student's completion of a course or competency—
(i) Providing the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and regular basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency; and
(ii) Monitoring the student's academic engagement and success and ensuring that an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by the student.
The Department continues to monitor and evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on institutions of higher education and their students. Additional guidance is expected on a number of topics, including both technical issues and information regarding emergency funding designated for institutions and their students in the CARES Act, and we will provide further updates as warranted.
In the meantime, we reiterate the importance of documenting changes implemented by institutions in response to the current emergency. And, we encourage institutions to contact us regarding any issues or questions that may arise from the Department's guidance, the CARES Act or any other facet of the COVID-19 emergency.
1 The Department provided additional information regarding its expectations for regular and substantive interaction in proposed regulations published on April 2 and discussed in more detail below.
Maynard is a full-service firm with attorneys experienced in all regulatory and operational aspects of higher education, including federal and state oversight, accreditation, employee and benefits issues, and real estate concerns. We are ready to help institutions of higher education deal with the challenges created by the COVID-19 emergency.
Roger Swartzwelder advises regionally and nationally accredited institutions of higher education regarding legal, administrative, regulatory and accreditation matters.
Click here to view as a PDF.
UPDATE: MAYNARD'S CONTINUED RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Dear Clients, In response to the rapidly changing COVID-19 environment, and in response to federal recommendations, Maynard has decided to implement additional precautions to protect the health and safety of our clients, members of our Firm, and community. Effective tomorrow, Wednesday, March 18th through at least March 31st, Maynard will...
FFCRA Update: Senate Approves Revised Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Impacting Sick Leave and Pay
On Wednesday, Congress passed an amended version of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act ("FFCRA"). This legislation, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign in short order, contains substantial revisions from an earlier version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday morning. Like the bill's...
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text:
You are here: Home > Your Visit > Areas Of Bristol > Harbourside
Once a busy dock where sailors and merchants would trade goods and set sail for voyages of discovery, Bristol's Harbourside is now an attractive, modern development filled with restaurants, bars, shops and hotels.
The area is alive with the buzz of Sunday markets, waterside restaurants and bars and a whole host of sports and activities including yachting, paddle boarding, cycling and rowing. Stroll around the water's edge and you will find Millennium Square acting as a fantastic central hub, with its fountains and big screen as well as world-class attractions such as Brunel's SS Great Britain, We The Curious, Bristol Aquarium, Arnolfini, Spike Island, Watershed and M Shed.
Or you could just let the world pass you by whilst watching the boats head in or the swans swim past whilst dangling your feet over the edge with a cold glass of cider in hand.
Places to stay near the Harbourside
Find a place to stay near Bristol's buzzing Harbourside.
Places to eat and drink in Harbourside
The Harbourside is foodie heaven with a wonderfully eclectic range of restaurants, cafes and bars all with their own unique views of the water.
Things To Do in Harbourside
There's plenty of fun to pack into a Harbourside visit, with world-class attractions, boats trips, walks and water-based activities galore.
About Bristol Harbourside
Find out about the history of Bristol Harbourside and what there is to see, do and discover there today.
Boat Trips in Bristol
The best way to get to know the Floating Harbour and Harbourside is by taking one of the boat trips in Bristol
Head to Bristol's historic harbourside and explore the city's newest quarter, Wapping Wharf, where local Bristolians and visitors alike can shop, eat and relax by the glistening waterfront.
Floating Harbour
One of the marvels of Bristol's prestigious engineering history, The Floating Harbour has a long and interesting history. Find out more here.
Events in Bristol Harbourside
Find out what's on in and around Bristol Harbourside throughout the year.
10 Bristol Harbourside hotels with waterfront views
Many of Bristol's hotels and apartments have views of the river and beyond, but if you're after something a little closer to the water's edge, here's our selection of those with impressive waterfront views.
Itinerary - A stroll around the Harbourside
Bristol really is an amazing city to walk around and as the sun begins to peek out from behind his winter clouds, I'm ready to get out and about to explore the Harbourside.
Great Harbourside sights in Bristol
Take a stroll past some of the city's finest restaurants and you'll come across the wonders that make up Bristol Hrbourside
7 of Bristol's best water-based activities
Bristol is awash with water-based things to do - here's our guide to seven of the best that you won't want to miss this #SummerinBristol.
Brunel's SS Great Britain
Step aboard the award-winning Brunel's SS Great Britain for a ship shape and Bristol fashion day out!
We The Curious
We The Curious (formerly At-Bristol Science Centre) is a state-of-the-art visitor attraction, offering an amazing world of hands-on discovery for you, your friends and family.
Bristol Aquarium
Spectacular aquarium in the Harbourside area that provides an amazing underwater adventure from the British coast to exotic tropical seas
Enjoy a lively programme of independent film, digital media and events at this fantastic media centre in the heart of the Harbourside
Everyone needs a map to get around a new city. We've got official city maps you can download and then get yourself from A to B with style and ease.
The City Centre & Old City offers culture, history and some of the best shopping in Bristol.
Find independent boutiques, bustling cafes, iconic attractions and more in this picturesque quarter.
Looking for information on walking and walks in Bristol? Click here to find out about routes, guided walks and resources for walkers.
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Overlook the Floating Harbour from The Bristol hotel
The Bristol Hotel enjoys an unbeatable waterfront location in the heart of Bristol
Friska - Victoria Street
Friska's mission is to sell "Feel Good Food" to the breakfast and lunchtime market in Bristol
The Harbourside Market
Taking place along the Watershed's covered walkway on Bordeaux Quay, the Harbourside Market provides access to high-quality, locally-produced food and showcases arts and crafts created in Bristol and the surrounding area.
SUP Stand Up Paddle Boarding Team Building
See Bristol Floating Harbour from a brand new perspective!
Las Iguanas - Harbourside
Latin-themed restaurant offering a selection of world dishes and drinks
Sleep in a floating hostel
A floating hostel in Bristol's Floating Harbour, the Kyle Blue provides sleeping accommodation for up to 30 guests in private and shared dormitory cabins.
The Matthew
Based in Bristol's floating harbour for much of the year, the Matthew is popular for harbour tours as well as longer sailing trips.
Rainbow Casino
Rainbow Casino, situated in Bristol Harbourside is the perfect destination to start, spend and end your night out.
Arnolfini Cafe Bar
Relaxed café bar inside the Arnolfini gallery right next to the Harbourside.
Smoke and Mirrors Boutique Pub & Magic Theatre
Smoke & Mirrors is the UK's only Boutique Magic Theatre & Pub. They are situated in the heart of the theatre district. This little entertainment bar currently rated in the number 1 things to do in Bristol via TripAdvisor.
Three Brothers Burgers
Three Brothers Burgers are offering their delicious burgers as a take away and collection services. Chose from meat, vegetarian and vegan and now 3Bros At Home Kits!
See Bristol from a Stand Up Paddleboard with SUP Bristol
Experience the UK's fastest growing watersport and see Bristol from a brand new perspective. Explore the exciting waterways of Bristol Harbourside, with SUP's award winning team to show you the ropes.
Take to the streets on a Tandem
Discover Bristol in a truly unique way, hire a tandem bike and explore one of the many cycle routes Bristol Tandem Hire offer.
Aqua, Welshback
Aqua for every occasion, Aqua is open all day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Creating memorable service with outstanding food and impeccable service. Pop in anytime.
Bristol and Romanticism Walking Tour
Romanticism marked a time of revolution, medical and scientific progress, the beginning of democratic politics and the wide discussion of ideas.
This downloadable and printer-friendly guide provides directions for two enjoyable tours, one from the…
Cary Grant Statue
A life-sized bronze statue of Hollywood legend Cary Grant, unveiled in 2001 to commemorate the Bristol-born actor's achievements.
Banksy Graffiti The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum
The Girl with a Pierced Eardrum depicts a take on Vermeer's famous Girl with a Pearl Earring, replacing the girl's earring with an outdoor security alarm.
inPlay Golf Team Building
Playing at inPlay Golf mirrors playing golf outside as you play with real golf clubs & balls and with six simulators, inPlay Golf can provide the perfect venue for team building events and client functions from 4 to 50 guests.
Bristol Panoramic Tours
Join Bristol Panoramic Coach Tours for a fascinating insight into the city, led by the people who know it best. It really is a great way to get to know Bristol.
Guide Price From Free to £5.00 Per Ticket
Banksy Graffiti The Grim Reaper
One of the most infamous of Bristol graffiti artist Banksy's works is The Grim reaper


Some 800 doctors, nurses, educators, engineers and safety experts to push for child safety.
Some 800 doctors, nurses, educators, engineers and safety experts will convene at the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyanei Ha'uma) on Wednesday to establish the subject of child safety as part of the national agenda.
The conference is being organized by Beterem, the National Center for Child Safety and Health.
The all-day event is being sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Health Ministry.
Every year, many tens of thousands of Israeli children reach hospital emergency rooms following accidents at home and nearby. These include playground injuries, fires, drownings, burns, falls, and unintentional poisonings.
They occur throughout the year, but a higher proportion occur during summer vacation and holidays. Such accidents are the main cause of death in children up to the age of 14.
The conference will be addressed by Katie Carr, chief executive officer of Safe Kids Worldwide, of which Beterem is a branch. The non-profit organization was founded in 1987 and is based in Washington, DC.
Members of the international body teach families about child injury risks and prevention. They also encourage and conduct research on leading injury risks; evaluate solutions for these risks; work to pass and improve child safety laws and regulations; provide lifesaving devices such as child safety seats, helmets and smoke alarms to families that need them; and promote corporate leadership in child safety through effective and sustainable partnerships.


Because We Can | Blog | Ms. JD | Determined to Rise.
So often the question is asked- why do so many women leave big law firms in droves? Why don't they stick around and make partner? Are they being forced out? The answer to that question seems like a simple yes when we look at the numbers. Why else would women be leaving at these rates from prestigious high-paying jobs? After considering this, however, I came to a different conclusion. Maybe women don't leave law firms because we have to- maybe we leave because we can. Let's face it- BigLaw is known for being its high salaries- but also its ridiculous hours and crippling stress levels. It's not exactly what you would call a dream job. Positions like in-house counsel might not pay you seven figures, but you won't be working seven days a week. And government and public interest may not be able to match the salary, but would provide less demanding schedules and more personally fulfilling work. It's no surprise that lawyers might want to abandon the big firm life for the benefits that these positions provide. So if the lifestyle advantage is so appealing, the question isn't necessarily just why women leave big firms- the question is why do men stay? My experience with many of the men I know in law school tells me that the stay because they are more concerned with being providers for their families than they are with job satisfaction. I know many men whose wives will stay home with the children while the husband is off at work. I do not know a single woman who plans to be the sole provider for her family. That's not to say they don't exist- but I would venture a guess that they number far fewer than their male colleagues. I believe this gives us more options- we are free to look beyond the salary for a job that will make us happy, not just make us money. Maybe the numbers we're seeing then don't reflect discrimination against women but societal constraints felt by men that keep them where they are. We could call for flexible hours at BigLaw firms, claim that's why women leave. And it's true that the hours are constraining. But we also need to be realistic. If the hours are less, the salary would be too. It is, after all, a business- the firms are designed to make money for the partner, not to make things easy for the associates. That's not to say of course, that positive change can't be made. What I will say is that a lot of the problems are structural and may not be able to be adjusted. Now I know that if you're still reading this, you must be thinking that I am a law firm hater. Not so. Being a partner at a law firm is a great job- for some people. Probably not for me though, at least not in the long run. And probably not for some of the people who are partners at firms; I doubt everyone is there for the love of corporate law. I mean really -how many people say in their personal statement that their dream job is to defend the big corporation from the little guy's lawsuit or litigate over ERISA (which I doubt most of us had heard of at that point)? When you think about it that way, it makes a lot more sense that people jump ship from the BigLaw firms to pursue other options. If my theory is correct, this is one of those times that it's good to be a girl.
I think one unspoken assumption here is that most women in a law firm are straight and likely to get partnered up with a man who has the same or better earning power and career opportunities as the woman. This isn't always the case and if you look at the few women law firm partners you'll see that the choices run the gamut. There are women, like me, who have partners with similar, intense careers; I also know multiple women partners whose husbands are the ones with the flexible schedules and who are earning low/mid 5-figure salaries. Others are single (and single parents) by choice and not by choice.
From my male colleagues and friends I often hear "As a man, I envy women the choice to opt out/off ramp/go flex time *because they can*," which is an easy way for them to avoid addressing issues in the workplace that can and should be addressed, like whether the hours and the unrealistic deadlines are truly necessary.
Law firm practice has followed a similar model for years and years. This model, which developed when men worked outside the home and women worked inside the home, has traditionally been unfriendly to women/families, in part because public perceptions about women's work and women's roles haven't really caught up to the fact that most families have 2 wage -earners. The "because we can" argument allows those in power to sit back and avoid analyzing the underlying question of whether the model no longer works now that most families involve 2 wage earners.
This does not in any way mean that I begrudge the women who opt out "because we can;" if you have that choice and choose it, then by all means, go for it! But for the women who stay in law firms because we choose to, or we are bound economically to do so, we should always examine whether the systemic reasons why women don't stick around to make partner are curable.
P.S. Practicing law in a law firm isn't always being on the "wrong" side either - it usually takes a genuine disagreement on the interpretation of the facts to end up in a lengthy litigation. Sometimes I wonder why our client didn't settle sooner; other times I wonder why our client wants to settle at all.


The third edition of the Vegetarian Festival (or Wege Festiwal) is destined for Wrocław this weekend.
Held at the Dąbie Tram Depot (now known as Czasoprzestrzeń) in Biskupin between 12-8pm on Saturday and 12-6pm on Sunday, the event promises to bring the very best of vegan and vegetarian cuisine to Wrocław.
According to the organisers, the festival is to showcase some superb dishes by Poland's finest vegetarian restaurants and bloggers. This includes delicious falafel, hummus and vegan burgers, plus various vegetarian dishes, soups, desserts, cakes and cookies.
The festival will also be home to a market selling various vegan non-food products such as leather-free and fur-free clothes, plus cruelty-free cosmetics.


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CROCHET – This winter's craft choice.
Now with the Winter finally here it is time again to start or finish some craft projects while enjoying some down time in front of the heater or snuggled up on the couch. And although this review wasn't on my "to blog" list it did come quite easily once I was nudged about it.
First and foremost a huge "Thank You" to Chiwei for releasing this free pattern on her blog. It was found by my daughter (The Fifth Life) while she was looking for some fingerless wrist warmers to take on her Europe trip later this year. Luckily for her, I am back into the crocheting circle and whilst I am on a bigger project (a 15-colour blanket for which I may do a review down the track) a smaller in-between job was a welcome distraction.
1. Chiwei is an American and therefore I had to take the different crochet stitches and measurements into account. Why they are not the same universally – who knows. But there are loads of comparison charts to be found online for you hookers/crocheters that get easily confused like myself.
Appears to be also sold out.
And looking at the Sirdar website, the last two colours seem to be discontinued.
For the black eyes and nose I just used my existing 8-ply Carnival yarn as the pattern really requires just a little. But I probably will top-stitch over it to make the eyes, nose and toes a little more present.
3. The hooks (4.5mm and 5.0mm) were easy enough but I am not going to get different tools if what I have is sufficient for the moment. However if you are just starting out and need to buy the tools anyway I do recommend to purchase ergonomic hooks though as your hands and wrists no doubt will thank you for it later.
c – A beginner's mistake (which I count myself to be): my stitch count incorrectly increased while making errors along the way with the newly learned stitches and colour changes.
a – I learned a new foundation stitch that replaces the chain and second row single stitch which I will use in all my works from now on.
c – I learned two additional new stitches; the fpsc "front post single crochet" and fpdc "front post double crochet". However I would have liked to not have to research what they are and rather preferred a stitch abbreviation key to be included.
Overall, I very much enjoyed creating this "foxy" glove; the right-hand glove – yep I have only finished the first half 🙂 and am happy to say that my finished product actually looks exactly like the original.
So peeps, there you have it.
If you think you have a great pattern that is worth having a look at and create let me know in the comments and I will make sure to check it out.


Twitter's new camera function offers an all-new visual interface that makes it faster and easier to share visual content, including photos, videos, and live streaming. The updated app has been rolling out in recent days. A new shortcut takes users directly to the camera by swiping sideways from the main feed. The interface offers standard and live modes. The standard mode has a large capture button that users can tap quickly to take a still, or hold to capture video. Both modes include prompts to add your location and a text comment. There's also a separate prompt to add a description of the visual content for the visually-impaired. The camera function defaults to the phone's rear camera, but supports selfie mode as well.
Next PostNext Plantronics Rebrands As "Poly"


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Q: Heat of 12 LED lights 60mA 3.6W PCB I've designed a PCB that is 50mm by 48mm
It's a simple 12 LED light board, each LED has its own 36 ohm resistor and is all powered by a 5V supply
each LED runs off 60mA and uses 0.306W
The resistors are 1/4 resistors

Ohms law states that 12 LEDs at 60mA is 3.6W (720mA)
The LEDs are in parallel.
Will this get hot, to hot to run on its own? And is their a chance of it over heating and becoming dangerous?

A: The LED will not turn all the power to heat. Most lighting LEDs have an efficiency of more than 70%. This means, for the worst lighting LEDs, you will turn about 30% of input power to heat. Also, every resistor will dissipate about 0.129W too. This means 12*0.129=1.55W power dissipation on all resistors. Removing this from the input power (3.6W), only about 2W is delivered to LEDs. This means, for a bad LED, you will dissipate about 30%*2W=0.6W power on all 12 LEDs. That and 1.55W dissipation on resistors can warm up a PCB; but for a 0.25W resistor and most LEDs, you will have no problem.

A: Are you sure you are running these at 60 mA? With a target of 3.2V at 60 mA you want a 30 ohm resistor. With a 36, the current drops down closer to 50 mA. Better for your led life, less heat too. The actual current and voltage balance may be off from what you expect.
As to whether things will get too hot? Even with everything combined it shouldn't. Assuming the specs you've given would be 3.6 Watts for the entire board. The 0.306 W you mentioned isn't for what you are running either. That number is the Pd for the absolute max rating at 90 mA which you shouldn't be running. But between the 3.2V @ 60 mA and the resistor at 1.8V @ 60 mA, then you are pretty close to 0.300 W. Each part will get a bit warm but at under 1/4 Watt they will still be touchable. But since the math is likely off its going to be less than 3.6 Watts. I bet it will be 3 Watts. Plus the leds will only convert part into heat. You may not feel them get too warm at all.
That said, you do have some things you can fix. Your traces? TINY. All that board space and you have these thin little traces. Make the positive traces thicker and use the extra board space for a ground pour. Is this a double sided board from a pcb maker? Use vias and place the ground on the entire backside. All the extra copper will help distribute the heat so you don't have little pin pricks of heat at the leds and resistors. Think of it as a free heat sink!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Art Gallery Guided Tour: Best Exhibits of Chelsea - Socialize & Learn: Novices Welcome!
If you are a novice or love art, our Chelsea Art Gallery Tours are a fun and casual way to explore a great part of the city while socializing and making new friends and connections.
With over 300 art galleries in Chelsea, our Gallery Tour Led by Rafael Risemberg with a Ph.D. in arts education finds the most innovative art, and leads you on an insightful, entertaining and affordable journey through the contemporary art scene. Rafael explains the art in ways that makes the experience meaningful to those who don't know a lot about art as well as those who do.
Since the exhibits change each month, this will be an All New Tour!
Our tours take place no matter what the weather is like since we're indoors over 90% of the time. You will be amazed at how much you will learn and enjoy both the art and the people on the tour!
The group will meet at Starbucks 525 West 26th between 10th and 11th prior to the tour.
DO NOT REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS YOU WILL ACTUALLY ATTEND.
Can I come alone? Yes 99% of the people come to this event on their own to meet new people and check out some cool art.
What do I wear? Dress for the weather. Be casual and comfortable.
Dress Code: At all events we ask that you use your best judgement based on the event. Keep it neat, be yourself and look your best always. Dress for the weather.


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Q: Can I recover Windows files from a dual-boot (Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10) overwritten by Ubuntu? I wanted to format Ubuntu partition by Ubuntu LiveUSB, but I accidentally format both Ubuntu and Windows partition. Now there is only a partition containing Ubuntu.
I'm trying to use TestDisk from LiveUSB, but with Quick Search it finds only Ubuntu old files and with Deeper Search it finds several MS Data partitions that can't be opened because "filesystems are damaged".
If possible, I would like to see the whole process to recover Windows files step-by-step, because I don't want to deep search again uselessly (it took me 32 hours).

A: Actually I discovered by myself that restoring previous partitions with TestDisk is impossible in my situation. Nevertheless, I still had the possibility to save all my data thanks to PhotoRec, which puts any possible disk file in a chosen directory (in my case, a 2 TB external hard disk), even if not sorted by folders, because this program checks linearly in the disk any possible file with a proper extension (.png, .jpg, .txt...).
This link below is a great tutorial about how to use PhotoRec:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step#Select_where_recovered_files_should_be_written


You all know how it feels, when after a hard and long day at work you get at home , get a big meal and then … the beautiful couch is waiting for you. I really believe that once you make yourself comfortable, that's it, the day is gone.
If you want to get rid of a boring day like the one that I just described to you I strongly recommend to take your bike or if you don't have one a walk will do just the same and go on the canal. Lucky me, this canal is 10 min away from were I live and it is definitely not a short one being named Leeds- Liverpool Canal.
I'm telling you, if you never been on this canal on a sunny day and you are living near it you don't know what you're missing.
After an hour of riding on the canal, I came home and this is what I got on my camera. What can I say , ordinary day, great experience.


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Publisher's Letter
Post on: April 6, 2015
Christine Ngeo Katzman
Change is hard. It's hard to wake up in the morning without snoozing. It's hard to stare at a blank piece of paper and write the first sentence. It's hard to start a project, a job search, and especially a new organization or business.
Because change is hard, we typically stay in autopilot, we stick with the status quo, and we procrastinate.
But if we embrace change, amazing things start to happen. We grow, we learn, we make improvements in our lives.
In this issue, we applaud WGI Sport of the Arts for fostering change, for creating a new type of competitive marching arts experience called WGI Winds. We also applaud the groups who are taking advantage of this opportunity. In our cover story, "WGI Winds Debuts," we spoke to several directors about their motivations, struggles and rewards when starting their new ensembles.
According to an ancient Chinese philosopher, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
In this journey, we might not walk in a straight line; we might even stumble and fall. But if we keep putting one foot in front of the other, we make progress, and eventually we reach our destination.
New WGI Winds directors aren't the only ones who live by this mantra. In the article "Being Bisectional," several young musicians share their stories about switching sections to gain new experiences in the marching arts activity. One wanted to march instead of being in the front ensemble; one wanted to join a drum corps with a new instrument; and another wanted to feel the music instead of play it. Though sometimes change can be lonely, these students found support from instructors and friends to help them reach their goals.
I recently watched a TED Talk by relationship expert Mel Robbins who said that getting what you want is simple (though not necessarily easy). Don't say, "I'm fine." Don't engage your emergency brake. Force yourself to get out of your comfort zone. If you have an impulse to do something new, take action within five seconds. Figure out what you want and go for it.
Have Courage to Change,
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Will Live Music Ever Be the Same? Resilience in the Face of COVID-19
Tags: marching bandHalftime Magazinemarching artsChristine Ngeo Katzmanpublishers letterchange is hard
Christine Ngeo Katzman is founder and chief executive officer of Muse Media, LLC, creator of books, magazines, and additional content highlighting performing arts and youth activities. Magazine assets include Halftime Magazine for marching arts participants and fans as well as Yamaha SupportED Magazine for K through 12 music educators. Previously, she was a writer and editor at Crain Communications and Imagination Publishing and a marketing manager at Chatsworth Products, Inc. Christine also worked for Yamaha Band and Orchestral Division. As a child, Christine learned five instruments, with flute being primary. She marched in the Northwestern University Marching Band, including the 1996 Rose Bowl and 1997 Citrus Bowl. Christine graduated cum laude from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1997 and earned an MBA with honors from the University of Southern California in 2007.
"Even the Ears Must Dance"
Tips by color guard educator Chris Casteel on harnessing musicality in your movement and overall performance. From Halftime Magazine, a print publication and website for ...