marylowd – Page 113 – Deep Sky Anchor

Gost Cat

Gost Cat This is my favorite example so far of an AI trying to write text while I was working with it.

The cat ghost looks so hopeful and maybe a little pleased with itself, like it hopes you’re proud of how well it tried to spell “ghost.”

Waking Up in the Genie Shop

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Daily Science Fiction, January 2018

“You came to us as a female amphibioid and paid us to change you into a male canid. You’re a Heffen now, one of the most common species here on Crossroads Station.”

Sloanee opened her eyes and felt her heart racing. What was she doing? Lying down? She was on the lam. She should be running or hiding. Nowhere was safe from the royal guards pursuing her. Queen Doripauli and her army of photosynthetic tumbleweed-like aliens would stop at nothing to catch and punish the amphibioid who had betrayed them.

Betrayed her. Continue reading “Waking Up in the Genie Shop”

Home Remodeling

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Daily Science Fiction, March 2020

“This spaceship doesn’t want to attract attention. I can tell it’s doing its best to look like the set from a thirty-year-old sitcom… after thirty years of gathering dust.”

A spaceship crashed down at the end of my street this morning. Its inertial dampeners and camouflage shield must still be in working order, because it looked like nothing more than a parabola of blue light followed by a puffy white clump of cumulonimbus cloud streaking down from the sky. After the crash, the puffy cloud dissipated with the morning fog, leaving behind a boxy, non-descript, ranch-style house, painted a bland shade of tan. The paint is even peeling. Sure, the lot at the end of the street had been an empty field all winter long, but somehow people have a way of forgetting that. Continue reading “Home Remodeling”

Evoker, Take Two

I… accidentally made my dragon a Horde character and didn’t notice until I got to Orgrimmar…

*sobs*

Well, I briefly had nine max level characters in Warcraft… Continue reading “Evoker, Take Two”

Of Irrational Fears and Responsibilities

I’m helping my kid work on schoolwork today instead of making a dragon character in World of Warcraft, and I keep feeling this irrational fear that if I don’t hurry, somehow all the new dragon characters will get taken.

A Parable of Cat Paws, Soy Sauce, and Salmon

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.

Crystal Fusion

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in The Voice of Dog, August 2021

“Yet she found herself speechless, staring at the crystal facets, mesmerized by the way the light played over them, winking and shining at her as if the light itself were a lifeform trying to catch her attention.”

“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”

All Maxed Out: A Very Temporary Accomplishment

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…

Square One Songs

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.

The Double-Edged Sword of Capability

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”