By jared.folkins
Filed in Life, story, writing
Tagged with closet, love, sacrifice, secret, skeleton, story, unconditional, undead, writing
August 31st, 2009 @ 6:24 am
“I have thought this for some time now. And I am confident that you will not be able to enable the heart in my chest. You will not sway me. Even should you reach out your skin-less hand and manually pump its beat, it will not last. For too much time has passed.” Her words fell on seemingly deaf ears, or rather, non-existent ones. For the flesh had long ago decayed from where they once had existed. Bones that were so pitted as to hold the color of dulled mercury. And the undead being stared at the girl, hollow skulled, sockets unblinking.
A flickering lone light, with a frayed string for a switch, illuminated the small room as it hung fastened to the ceiling. Worn shoes littered the floor. Clothing draped upon old metal hangers coated in dust and rot. Garments that held nothing of value for their former wearers, yet still acted as food for the moths. There were boxes stacked about whose contents held things of the past. Years were written along the sides, ordaining them with swift black sharpie. The undead thing reached down and pulled the top from one of the boxes; revealing a small black tablet inside; the kind that school children used in combination with chalk.
Read more
By jared.folkins
Filed in Database, Economy, OOP, PHP, Web Design
Tagged with bubble, county, data, Database, deschutes, hans, housing, power, rosling, set
August 30th, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
If you follow the link provided. It will take you to a brilliant video by Hans Rosling. My hope, is that anyone watching at least begins to understand the power of data. Maybe not the exact method to manipulate the stuff, but at least the desire to know more about it.
This video is quite timely for me. For I have thought long and hard about putting together a series of posts on data analysis. Particularly on the work I have done in looking at the Deschutes County Clerks Data.
For those of you who don’t know. In the fall of 2007 I created a program that went to the county website and would pull public records and sales data concerning housing. It would throw this data into a usable database. And I would use this data to educate family and friends on when our housing bubble was started, and how bad it really was.
I built a small website with this data, but stopped my work on it because of several complex reasons.
Anyway, if people are interested in how to analyze data, or would appreciate an ongoing conversation about it, let me know.
Lately I have been writing short stories and posting them online.
Why?
My family has always liked my stories. And I grew up in a no bull-shitin’ family. If it was good, it was good. And if it was bad, well it was bad. Plus, I have a hard time connecting with my Mom. I think we are just too alike. So because I enjoy writing and feel that I have a knack for it, I have taken to putting thoughts on digital paper again. To say “I love you” to those I have a hard time saying it to. And as a simple, yet effective therapy.
Really? Therapy?
Read more
“How you doin?” he asks me. Standing in the checkout line at the local grocery store.
“Just fine. How bout you?” I reply.
“Good as could be expected” he says.
The man is skinny and aged, staring at me through glasses with thick, scratched lenses. He is wearing a hat, blue jeans, and a cut-off purple t-shirt. A smile splits his face, revealing teeth that look like they have been put to a grinding stone. The size and color of small corn kernels. A 40 is set on the counter. And from the man’s swagger and the wreak of his breath, I assume that it is his. Rightly so.
Read more
