Really, we have moved - visit the new site

Our new address is http://www.observingcasually.com/

Seriously - we have moved

I'm noticing that this site is still getting some traffic. This site is no longer being updated, as we have moved to http://www.observingcasually.com/. If you want to see new articles, you need to visit the new site!

We're moving!

A friend offered to host my blog on his server space. That means that I will be jumping ship from blogger and landing on my own domain at www.ObservingCasually.com

Please update your bookmarks/favorites accordingly. If you are currently subscribing via RSS (and very few of you are), you will have to resubscribe from the new site.

I have also decided on a schedule for the blog:

Monday: Sports
Tuesday: News
Wednesday: Wildcard (anything goes)
Thursday: People, places, historical events
Friday: Fiction Friday
Weekend: Wildcard

I will certainly miss a few days along the way, but this should give you a better idea of what to expect.

I do appreciate Blogger getting me off the ground with this blog. Blogger has a pretty easy learning curve, and it is definitely a good tool for beginners.

Fiction friday: The tale of the wolf

Warning: this is a very serious departure from some of my past writing. This story depicts rape and murder. If you find this to be disturbing, please skip today's article.

This story is NOT appropriate for children.

The tale of the wolf

The wolf was at the top of the food chain. He had stalked his prey for three weeks. He knew her habits better than she knew them. He could have moved in for the kill sooner, but sometimes it was fun to watch.

At the precise time as she had in the past, she broke away from her flock and entered the lush green field of the killing ground. The wolf moved slowly from his lair and followed her into the death zone.

The wolf was wrong. He was not at the top of the food chain. As the wolf closed in on his prey, he was becoming the hunted. The lion surveyed the killing ground. As the wolf pursued his prey, the lion slowly moved into position to capture the wolf.

The girl always took the shortcut through the woods to get back to the dorms. Her friends told her that it was dangerous, especially at night. The girl was not afraid. She had been taking this shortcut for nearly three years, and she knew the woods better than anyone else.

The girl should have listened to her friends. On this particular night, she was not alone in the woods. As she broke into the small clearing in the middle of the woods, she sensed that she was not alone. The wolf pounced on her and forced her to the ground. The girl screamed, but the forest drowned out her screams.

The wolf’s excitement had been building toward this moment, and he was immediately ready. He forced himself upon her, enjoying immense pleasure at the same time that her screams embodied the incredible physical and emotional pain. He finished quickly, and the girl lay on the ground, unable to move. The wolf pulled out his knife. With one strong, swift motion, he plunged it into her torso, finding her heart immediately. As the girl’s life quickly ebbed away, the wolf felt immense power.

The lion watched the full encounter. He waited until he was certain that the wolf had experienced an ultimate high. Then the lion moved quickly into the clearing. The wolf sensed danger and turned, but it was too late. The lion forced his own knife deep into the chest of the wolf, and the wolf was dead before he realized the extent of the danger.

The lion dipped the tip of his finger into the wolf’s blood, and then mixed it with the girl’s blood. As he licked his finger, he could feel the life force of both of them entering his body.

***

Note: I will be storing my fiction pieces on a separate blog - Write Triangle. I will continue to post the Fiction Friday stories on The Casual Observer, but will archive these stories, as well as stories I have written in the past, and future stories that might not make it onto TCO, on Write Triangle. Using a separate blog allows me allow easier access for those readers who only care about the fiction.

Pardon my dust - at this point, only The Tale of the Wolf is on Write Triangle. I will try to get other stories onto the site in the upcoming weeks.

Give me back my food

This is a 2-fer Thursday - 2 posts for the price of one. We won't have these every week, but every now and then, I'll do one. After you read this article, scroll down to read the Sporting News post.

I was startled the other night when I realized that my box of corn dogs contained only five dogs. In the past, it had always contained six. Since I am in the habit of eating three corn dogs at once, this was a traumatic turn of events.

All across the consumer landscape, changes are afoot. The manufacturers are in a difficult position. On one hand, many of them are seeing steep increases in costs. On the other hand, they are hesitant to raise prices in this economy and lose customers to competitors who don’t change prices.

Caught in this bind, the companies have gotten creative. Many companies are retaining the same physical dimensions of the package, but reducing the quantity of the product. It’s not just corn dogs, either. Grab your jar of peanut better and flip it upside down. See that – the bottom is concave! Fun size candy bars? They have gotten even smaller – many of them are narrower than they have been in the past.

Even the Girl Scouts have are going this – you’re getting one less ounce in your box of cookies. Pay attention to the food you're buying and you'll see other examples of content downsizing.

Some people might shrug this off and see it as an effective involuntary weight loss program. Not me – I’m a thin person and I need my food to make sure I don’t blow away in the wind.

Companies - if you need to raise the price, raise the price. An extra fifty cents in the grocery store will be a lot less annoying to me that noticing one fewer corn dog when I open the box.