It dawned on me tonight after I finished reading yet another short fiction horror story. Horror is too broad of a category and is more often a miss than hit with me, and so I thought about what kind of horror stories I really like: ghost stories. I like haunted house stories too, though those are largely ghost stories, but I’m realizing that most anthologies and magazines of horror stories have quite a lot of stories that just don’t interest me at all, and yet even the oldest and most classic ghost stories still keep me coming back to read them. Maybe I need to find some modern ghost story anthologies.

Addendum: Upon further reflection I can add what I call “creature” stories to the list as well. This would include stories like Frankenstein, the Mummy, wolf-men, and Dracula. The more imaginative the monster/creature the better, which may be why Lovecraft is quite fun.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maybe I’m alone in this, or in the minority, but I cannot play any kind of horror video game (survival horror or FPS horror) when it’s bright and sunny outside. The juxtaposition is just too great. I have a small collection of horror video games I’m itching to play, and now that the October has arrived bringing with it dark clouds, grey skies, and the nearing of an end to this accursed Daylight Savings Time, I will have plenty of time to indulge myself in some zombies and monsters!

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

All stories have a climax, a high point. Most stories put this at the end, leaving only a little room to allow the reader to climb down off the metaphorical mountain. There is good reason for this: when the point the reader cares about is resolved, they lose interest. I cannot help but wonder how, or even if, that point was missed with the latest Batman movie (The Dark Knight). We just got back from seeing the movie and I thought the movie was over and wrapped up a good 20 minutes (or more, I didn’t check my watch) than it actually was. I spent that last bit just sitting there wondering why the movie was still playing and how I could have misread the signals. I’m not sure I did; either the climax came too soon, or I assigned too much importance to a minor plot point.

Did this ruin the movie for me? I’m not sure. It did leave me with a very different experience than with the first movie, and I will need to re-watch it in order to really judge it, now that I know how to watch it. I will have to conclude that for a first-time watcher who knows a little about the Batman universe, I thought the story was over before the director did, and that is probably not a good sign as far as I’m concerned.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m starting a new job in a week and a half; it’s a work-from-home programming gig, and I’ll likely never meet my other co-workers face-to-face. It is a distributed office with people on three different countries. Early this week I received and email from my future-boss and he asked that I submit a two paragraph bio, presumably to be shared with the rest of the company so they might get to know me better.

So I’ve been trying to figure out just what to say in only two paragraphs, and trying to decide just how long I’ll make my paragraphs. Not to sound too pompous but like most people I’m rather more complex than just two paragraphs. I have three major passions in my life, a small handful of hobbies, and thirty-one years of personal history that may or may not be relevant. I’m at a loss for what to say in only two paragraphs.

Oh well. I guess this means they won’t get to know me very well from my bio. Maybe it won’t matter. After all, they will only read my words and hear my voice (or snores, as I’m sure to have some early morning meetings).

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Somewhere it has been mentioned that a step in improving oneself as a programmer is to make a list of programmers you admire and — that’s where I stop. I have been so terribly under-exposed to programmers, let alone good programmers, that I have been working in a near-vacuum the past dozen years. I’ve seen and maintained my fair share of bad code; in fact among my friends we constantly try to steal the “I have the worst code-base to maintain” award. I know what bad code looks like. What I don’t have exposure to is good code, and good programmers.

There are good programmers out there, ones far better than I, and I want to find some. I would love to work alongside at least one before I retire from this industry. My only question now is who are these programmers and how can I be exposed to their work? I’m open to suggestions.

Posted by Seth Croston Barber at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)