Mary Poppins remixed into awesome song called "What I Likes." It will make you happy.

Ever felt like a balloon animal in a cactus field? Then this charming video is for you!

Via Neatorama

I stayed in Mountain Home, ID last night. Right down the road from the rapping weathermen.

Here's the Cru city gates video #cru13.

Here's a video that explains a little bit about what Krista and I do in Cru now. I wrote the script for this, after several meetings with our leadership and a lot of help from a variety of people. Simple Bulldog and Chris DeGarmo spearheaded getting this thing made, but the real hero of the whole video is certainly Cheryl Boyd, who kept us all on track and put up with a lot of harassing from each of us.

Enjoy.

Cru City Gates from Cru City on Vimeo.

Man of Steel -- How it should have ended.

It's my birthday today, and I'll do whatever I want.

Like show you the "How it should have ended" for Man of Steel, which made me really happy, made me laugh and reminded me that Superman is still awesome.



Also, I'm not going to say "spoiler warning" because it's my birthday and I don't have to.

And I'm going to use dangling participles all day. If I want to.

You are invited to hang out with me for my birthday tomorrow #cru13

Also there might be elephants.

For MY BIRTHDAY tomorrow, we will host a POPSICLE party at our home RAMS VILLAGE EAST L121 from 3:30 to 5. All are welcome. If you are reading this you are not only invited, but it would be a great honor if you were able to join us.

Please RSVP on this blog post, on facebook, twitter or G+. This will allow us to purchase the vast number of popsicles that will be necessary for a celebration of this magnitude.

Another free short story from @mattmikalatos on the Dark Expanse game site

Last week you got to read my short fantasy story Portal Worlds and Your Child at Daily Science Fiction.

This week you get the science fiction story A Small and Secret Freedom on the Dark Expanse website. It's the story of a theocratic society that decides to do an intervention with the alien race that used to enslave them.

Dark Expanse is a real time, massive multiple-player online strategy game in which you try to rule the universe. I've been playing it for a while in preparation for writing for the game, and I've been enjoying it. I've colonized about 12 planets and all is going well, except this 20 year old named "Blood Bones and Gold" keeps sending terrorists and subversives to harass a few of my planets.

This week I'll be with Cru at CSU #cru13

Hi friends,

You may have noticed the absolute lack of Internet Activity from me the last few weeks. I've been huddled in meetings, helping plan the bi-annual Cru staff meeting in Fort Collins, Colorado. There will be about 5,000 of us together for the next week. A lot of my tweets and posts this week will likely be related to that conference.

Some of you may enjoy being a part of that. You can see our basic schedule here, and much of the time will be livecast at that same link. We have a lot of great speakers coming in, too. If there's a certain speaker you're excited about leave me a comment and I'll make sure to let you know when they're speaking.

Meetings start tomorrow morning at 9 Mountain time.

My friend Sunish shared this quote with me this morning. #cru13

“You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

If you're a blogger/author with Cru, be sure to come to this event on Monday. I'll be there. #Cru13

A free short story from Matt Mikalatos and @dailySF

Those who have read The Sword of Six Worlds already know that I love stories about children who stumble into other worlds and embark on amazing adventures.

But what about their parents? 

Here's a story for anyone who loves a child who occasionally disappears to distant, magical places.

Portal Worlds and Your Child: 

A Parent's Guide (With Examples).

If you enjoy the story, please share it!

And, as always, your comments are welcome here or at the Daily Science Fiction site.

Portlandia "Bicycle rights." It's funny because it's true.

I know I've been quiet. I'm working in Colorado all summer and by the time I get home from work I am exhausted. So I haven't been keeping you updated as much as I would like.

I'm missing Portland, though. So here's a little Portlandia clip to keep you happy.

Welcome Daily Science Fiction readers!

Hey there --

I'm guessing some of you are dropping in today because you received a copy of my story "Portal Worlds and Your Child: A Parent's Guide" from Daily Science Fiction last night.

Welcome!

I'm a huge fan of DSF and honored to have my story appear there.

If you enjoyed that story, you'll probably like my novel, The Sword of Six Worlds.

Sword is a traditional portal fantasy that I wrote for my three daughters. From the back of the book:

Validus Smith has three goals. Stay alive. Save the world. Finish her homework.

For centuries the paladins protected the Earth from a creeping darkness known as the Blight. That all changed when a new enemy destroyed the paladins, plunging the free worlds into danger. Validus Smith—an ordinary girl in an ordinary town—is next in line to become the paladin. Untrained, unsure of her destiny, and hunted by monstrous forces, she must recover the fabled Sword of Six Worlds, the only weapon capable of defeating the Blight. The Sword, however, is not on Earth, but in a strange fantasy world connected to her own. In an unfamiliar world of monsters, talking animals and living rocks, can an ordinary girl like Validus survive?

In any case, welcome to the site. Your comments on "Portal Worlds and Your Child" are welcome, along with any questions you may have or whatever. I'll be coming around to comment on the DSF Facebook page and so on eventually, as well.

Glad to have you here!

What if Shakespeare had written Star Wars?

Methinks thou wouldst hie thee to a theatre were this on the screen of silver.

The impossible "literacy tests" from the 1960s, designed to prevent black people from voting

I can't believe this. I mean, I believe it, but I'd prefer not to.

You can check out the entire test here.