*BOOM* *click* *click* *THUD* *THUD*
Suddenly Barker was roused very quickly from his sleep as 10 tonnes of solid snow/ice fell on him from far above.
Barker, having spend the night under the southern citadel, looked straight up at the new gaping hole in the mountain citadels floor, covering his eyes with his paws as suddenly an ever increasing brightness filled the cavern, reflecting and deflecting of the varying surfaces of ice around him.
After hours of circling the locksmiths abode scanning for the latest secret entrance, Peri finally dove for the slightest of cracks that had just now presented itself becoming ever wider as the former royal falcon made his approach, before disappearing completely once Peri was inside.  Allen was known for playing games with his secret entrances, but this one had taken Peri much much longer than normal,  and this fact ruffled his feathers even more than usual.
Continue reading Final Pickup
Just finished uploading and transfering all my completed  “Lost Penguin Series” short stories  I began writing 7 or more years ago.   Who knows now that i’ve built me a website maybe i’ll get more finished
see menu link above or click the link below
http://vaughantaylor.com/category/my-writing/lostpenguin-series/
For the First time in my life, I found myself the inconsiderate one,
Generally its me, who has to put up with my friends, Inconsiderate behavior (ie smoking around me (I donât smoke), inviting me to something basically just to use me as a chauffeur or the worst one âexpecting me to participate in drinking games with a communal cup, just because everyone else there isâ. 1st off I hardly drink and then only the light stuff, secondly Iâm driving home afterwards, and thirdly âa shared cupâ thatâs just so amazingly unhygienic.
Up till this point in my life, Iâve always considered myself the sane/considerate one, however one evening that all changed. Iâve always known Iâm a bit or grump when iâm tired âwho isnâtâ and that I tend to rant on an on a bit about trivial things at times, but Iâd never noticed myself being truly inconsiderate before this particular outing. worst of all, I didnât pick up on it right away.
I have no excuse, I was extremely out of what I consider to be âmy characterâ on this day.
Sure Iâd had a pint of beer before hand, and the heat of summer was getting to me. (erratic sleep, less appetite, not drinking enough water etc).
But nothing I consider a valid excuse for the way I behaved/acted with my friend that day.
So I started looking at other potential causes.
1. Learning to Lead: Perhaps I was being too assertive, My friend if anything is both shyer and more reserved than me, so for a change I found myself in a âalphaâ /lead role. This year trying to learn how to lead for the first time has and still is quite challenging. (apparently if you donât want too remain a single guy all your life, at some point your going to have to learn to lead, women expect it.)
2. Problem Solving/Correcting All My life Iâve enjoyed solving puzzles, problems as well as pointing out glaring errors or things that donât add up. Generally I am helping someone or at-least not doing anyone any harm with my observations (ie pointing out an error in a piece of writing or art) âperhaps I was too criticalâ.
Confidence: Another thing Iâve been working on in the later half of this year, for a similar reason to leadership. With increased confidence I am finding it easier to express an opinion, especially those contrary to ones just raised, however it appears this comes with unforeseen and previously unseen drawbacks.
Diet Change: for the first 26 years of my life Iâve kept an abysmal diet, I struggle to put on weight, so was always skinny but now I found myself wanting to gain weight âmuscle mostlyâ so have changed my diet drastically and begun exercising for that reason.
Subconsciously now I somehow feel âsuperiorâ to people that donât exercise or eat properly and then complain how they canât do or wear certain things because of the their figure or level of fitness. âWas this life overhaul making me less sympathetic to worries of people that didnât ? (ie: me for 26 yearsâ) Yes I believe it was ânow that I realized just how easy it wasâ I expected everyone to do it at some level and this fact scares me.
âCurse the Zimbabweansâ thought Zac folding his three of a kind.
The year was 3045 and surprisingly the game of poker still remained a mystery to those that played it.
The latest Global recession and biggest since the early 21st century, had begun to have a profound impact on every nation on the planet, bar one.
2945 was the year it all began, centuries after the death of Mugabe and mere weeks after the introduction of the then world Record âtrillion Dollar noteâ,the Zimbabweans just happened to stumble upon the one raw mineral that could save the planet from itâs apparently inevitable extinction.
A rare celery seed that when soaked in olive oil over time and in a sufficient volume produced a gas capable of canceling-out the effects of the green house gases that had been corroding the planet.
Overnight this discovery had rescinded their status as the worldâs poorest nation and by the end of the decade had made every single member of there resident population a multi-zillionaire.
Today it occurred to me .
The advent of Social Media in this information age, has actually hamstrung me and many people like me with less than fully developed social skills that would otherwise be obtained through networking via traditional methods. This lack translates to a lack of confidence which in turn prevents us meeting people in the traditional way (at a bar, club, even through a friend).
Donât get me wrong iâm not a total sociophobe, Iâm the captain of my works touch team and play social soccer once a week with the guys, so once I get to know people or am in a familiar place or situation iâm as sociable as the next guy.
But take me out of this environment, I become as unsociable as the NZ minister for education discussing the resounding success that is Novopay.
While the advent of social media is not solely to blame, it has become a large component of my everyday commâs, ahead of phone calls, e-mail and even SMS now days.
New Long Term Goal: Break Social Network strangle hold.
What comes next, what am I supposed to do, should I be close to my life goals or far far away still.
When does the next stage of my life begin, will I find love, when do I make the decision that sets me off on the next predetermined path in my life.
Who am I supposed to be, am I supposed to be me or someone much much different, am I Vashau Taslet, Vaughan Taylor. Who made me me, can anyone make you, You!
Am I just one of many seemingly unique ornaments of the human race.
How do I achieve my potential, how does one define potential, have I fulfilled my potential, or does much more lie waiting within, yet to be discovered.
Where do I go from here, is this up to me, does where I was born, grew up and learnt to love, really matter at all.
The Future is near, the future is far, one thing thatâs certain is Iâll be a part of it, though How long for,Where Iâll be and What Iâll attain,from the fruits of this future, and that of the past shall determine Who Iâll become, and How I will be remembered.
Splat!, Splat!, Splat!
âNot Again!â
âWhat am i doing wrong?â thought Zandros the Demi-god as he watched in real-time as yet another of his creature creations committed mass suicide off the continents lone cliff.
âWhy do they do it?â
Invoking pause, Zandros considered the final barrier to his graduation from the Academy of Deities.
Zandros had to come up with a template for a new space-faring race, capable of colonizing a regular sized Galaxy within three millenniums, else like many whoâd failed before him, spend the rest of eternity panel-beating asteroids or having to man the interstellar star-wash.
Not relishing the thought of polishing an infinite number of stars, Zandros was expectantly desperate to clear this final hurdle to full godhood.
Rewinding the scene in front of him, Zandros returned to the task at hand.
Trying to turn a race akin to that off fanatical Lemmings during the peak of migration season, into a well coordinated and entrepreneurial planet colonizing empire.
âCould it be done?â