The big picture As anyone who's been paying attention knows, censorship by the major progressive tech companies has been ramping up of late. Alex Jones and his ventures were recently deplatformed fairly

(Update at bottom) Earlier tonight, on my first working use of SteemPress, I discovered that the plugin developers @howo and @fredrikaa hardcoded themselves a 10% cut of the rewards from my post. Each

This is not an original story, but my rendition of a modern parable. I first read a simpler version of this tale years ago on a software development blog (possibly Coding Horror, but I'm not certain),

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 After three days of twelve hour shifts---punishment detail, he was sure---MacNeil was bored silly. What was there to guard at a destroyed house?

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Orion drifted in black, but briefly. The world snapped back into focus, and he found himself sitting in a leather office chair, the Thompson submachine

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 The woman's pulse was very slow, and she didn't seem to notice the men standing over her, trying to rouse her. "I guess we'll just have to carry her,"

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2 The burst from the Thompson Orion's host held shattered the silence in the cavern, and Orion saw the sword-wielding cultist fall back, sword flying through the crowd

The previous installments: Part 1 "Get. The. Hell. Off!" Orion tried to throw the weapon away, but his hand wouldn't open. All he managed to do was lose his balance and fall to one knee on the

Orion Spendlove took a deep breath and shoved open the door to his grandfather's home. The alarm pad next to the front door beeped at him, and he fumbled through his notebook to find the deactivation code.

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 Lucas cracked a green glowstick to illuminate the big room at least a little bit. He was covering the door

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 "What the fuck!" Lucas yelled at Dare, who had hastily raised a barrier of earth as cover in the road. Dare

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 Lucas dropped flat as the creature launched the enormous arrow at him, and cringed as it whistled by, tearing the air like

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 There was only one medallion left that showed Dare anything but darkness as he scryed. He focused intensely on it, willing it to show

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 Lucas had taken the time to strip the hard plates out of his armor before advancing deeper into the underground complex, so he was unusually

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 "Got anything yet?" First Lieutenant Andrew Cortland yelled back at Philip Dare. The wizard was sitting in the seat behind the platoon leader,

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 A swell of skittering feet and chittering noises reached his ears after just a few steps. A few seconds later the grenade drowned the noise out for a few

Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2 0113 Unnamed road Tal Afar district, Iraq "Listen up," the 1st Platoon, Charlie Company platoon sergeant addressed his men over the radio. "I know it

Previous installments: Part 1 Lucas ate cold MRE beef stew by feel in the dark and thought. Two guys with a wounded buddy who was still unconscious, alone in Indian country... things were very bad. What

"Another fucking bug hunt," Lucas muttered under his breath, crouching over the remains of the creature his anti-personnel mine had splattered across the tunnel floor. "What?" his team

In a previous life I was a soldier, then a scientist. I fought in Iraq, then mined gold in Alaska. Nowadays, I'm a full stack software developer specializing in micro apps and I write fiction on the side.