An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
We got sushi takeout, and my elderly cat—who has grown accustomed to sharing a little of the salmon with me—got overly pushy and stepped in the soy sauce.
So I gave her a whole lecture about how she had GONE TOO FAR and cats who step in the soy sauce don’t get any salmon…
And then I gave her some salmon.
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in The Voice of Dog, August 2021
“Here, let me carry those,” Lt. Vonn woofed to the team of scientists packing a crate with electronic devices that looked like funny mechanical spiders, sprouting metal legs in every direction.
The scientists — an orange tabby cat wearing techno-focal goggles, an arctic fox android, and a very striking brown cat with leopard spots — finished arranging the last few mechanical spiders, closed the top over them, and stepped back from the heavy crate gratefully. Lt. Vonn stood a head and shoulders taller than all three of them — even the spotted cat, who was unusually tall for a cat. Continue reading “Crystal Fusion”
I now have eight max level characters in World of Warcraft!
With multiple weeks, probably, before the max level goes up!
This is clearly a very important accomplishment. Oh, they’re all different classes. I’m gonna have a lot of leveling to do when the expansion comes out to maintain this…
It came up that the younger child didn’t remember the Square One song about Roman numerals, so even though it’s way past bedtime, everything had to stop until they’d seen “The Mathematics of Love,” “Anti-Hero,” and “Nine, Nine, Nine.”
Square One may have been the best show ever made.
My kid’s English teacher, who my kid adores, praised their work and talked about holding them to a higher standard because she could see they were capable of so much.
So now every time the kid tries to work on English, they freeze, worried their work won’t be brilliant enough. Continue reading “The Double-Edged Sword of Capability”
by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Tri-Galactic Trek, November 2021
A cat with ghost-white fur walked into the lumo-bay, the sleeves of his Tri-Galactic Navy uniform pushed up above his elbows and a bucket of electronic tools hanging from one paw.
The blue grid lines of the lumo-projectors usually sketched out regular, hexagonal patterns on the dark lumo-bay walls when it was not in operation. Right now, they looked more like drunk squiggles. Continue reading “Ensign Mewly”
I have a top level mage in World of Warcraft!!!
I tried to level up a mage yeeeeeears ago and was thwarted by how squishy they are, so this feels like a big triumph.
Along with my warlock, rogue, hunter, druid, and shaman, this makes for six top level characters! I expect to have a top level priest and demon hunter too soon. Continue reading “Tidbits from Screens”
That feeling when you’re trying to help your kid write an essay on Ozymandias, but instead end up comparing the essay — which is not yet written — to the top half of Ozymandias (ie. gone)… except also Merlin, because it’s in the future instead of the past…
I am very helpful. Continue reading “Tidbits from a Reality That’s Evolving Into Crabs”
A decade ago, my Halloween costume was Cookie Monster, and I liked that fuzzy jacket so much, it’s become my standard winter coat.
I also have a cozy green scarf shaped like a dragon. So when it’s really cold, I end up dressing like Cookie Monster choking on a noodle dragon.
by Mary E. Lowd
A Deep Sky Anchor Original, November 2022
A tiny metal object jumped through Lea’s open window, drawing her attention away from the Animorphs book she’d been reading. She put down the borrowed e-reader from her mom on the bed and went over to investigate.
Lea hadn’t seen the object very well — it had been moving too fast. Just a blur really. But it had reflected the sunlight, shining like a quarter thrown into a fountain, outshining all the pennies around it. So, she wondered if it might be valuable. Continue reading “Flerble Gerbil was a Hologram”