The Writings of Frank

Stuff here is all done by me (except for the collaborative stuff). For parodies, songs, jokes, and things like that that I didn't create, check out the Humor Archives.

This is the fun stuff; look here for my research/technical publications.

Stories

Memory Mask

I went to Ireland. The first day there, after a red-eye flight, I was sitting in a restaurant, a bit disoriented and jet-lagged, and to top it off, I had been sick about 24-hours earlier, but all that seemed to be just a distant memory. Or was it? It put me in a mood to ponder memory and identity. Later, when I felt creative but discovered my laptop computer didn't fit the UK-adapter plug, I decided to use paper and pen and generate a short story. It's a 15-page PDF and includes Razia who previously appeared in The Great Debate. (Nov 2011).

Bolt From the Blue

On occasion, I'll encounter some small item that amuses me. Often a picture, or in this case, a story comes from it, which is by far larger than the original joke. The inspiration occured during a phone conversation with Tania about doors and locks. On the other hand, I think I might have Felton come back in some other stories. (Sep 2001).

525,600 Hits
525,600 Hits (Version 2, minor changes)

New Year's Eve 1999, I was in Columbus, talking with friends about random ideas and thoughts and the core of this story was born. But it sat around for almost a year. Late in 2000, I was talking with Rob Stauffer about story ideas, and we discussed this and the different twists and ways to tell it. It would have been easy to cast the story with an Arnold-like character saying some clever quip while saving the world just before the clock struck midnight, but that wasn't the idea. Neither was the technology behind it. The thing I found most interesting was going inside the main charcter's head. It's not quite complete, and I left a few notes at the end, but what the hell... (Feb 2001)

Ever Have One of Those Days?

Elsewhere, I've mentioned that I'm a high-tech luddite. So yes, I have an answering machine, and yes, I check it remotely. I had a thought that amused me one day as I was calling home. (Aug 2000)

(The Man With) All The Time In The World

This is one I think turned out pretty well. I've always been fond of time travel. On the other hand, this story was the reason 525,600 hits become a character study. (Dec 1999)

Frank Songs and Parodies

The Librarian (from Poe's "The Raven")

A friend, who is a librarian, described an Edgar Allen Poe experience of being attacked by a raven in the parking lot one the way to work. It was just too cool. Her boss is "The Imposter" and in Norse Mythology, Odin would send two ravens out every day to fly over the world, gather news of the day and report it back to him. I have a lot more respect for the original poem now. I wanted to draw illustrations, but my quick sketches showed I'd need at least 14. So instead, I just used my very rough pencil sketches, and then used In-Design to make the rest of it look nice. Note that it is a PDF file. (7/04)

Chiller (sung to the tune of "Thriller")

Summer was upon us in Columbus and the air conditioners couldn't keep up. Someone posted a message about how the "chillers" requied maintenance and would be down for a day or two. At that point, the beat from "Thriller" kept running through my mind. The words quickly followed. (May 1995)

Screens Are Buring (sung to the tune of "Beds Are Burning")

There was some problem with the screen savers and concern about "burning" the screens. The lab also might have been somewhat warm. (Apr 1995)

Ode to an Advisor Absent (sung to the tune of "Who Can It Be Now?")

I had an appointment with my advisor. We had a mis-communication. I was knocking at his door, but no one was there. ... Or was there? Images of the Men At Work video ran through my head. (Apr 1993)

I Want My FTP (sung to the tune of "Money For Nothing")

I believe this was a rejected entry for rec.humor.funny. Note the pun of "ls -straits" (ls => dir => Dire). I don't recall who gave me the first three lines. (Mar 1993)

Under the Board (sung to the tune of "Under the Bridge")

I took my General Exams for my PhD, one of the major stepping stones. It requires a lot of studying and preperation. Part is written and part is oral. I was standing in the conference room, in front of the white board early in the morning, about an hour before "the ordeal" started, feeling a bit out of place, a bit by myself. No one was in the building, as I walked through the halls. Although no drugs were involved, I felt some resonance with the tone of the song "Under the Bridge." I did wind up passing the test though there were points when it was a bit grueling. (Dec 1992)

The Prep Center Blues (original song, generic blues style)

I had a vocal chord nodule, back in the summer of 1992 which had to be surgically removed. A week or so before, I had to go to "the prep center" so they could take some x-rays, do blood work, EKG, and stuff like that. While none of it was particularly bad, I'm not terribly fond of it. I needed a creative avenue to express myself. The blues seemed appropriate. And I have had full use of my voice since then. (Jun 1992)

Radar Range (sung to the tune of "Radar Love")

I was helping my friend Golden move. As I was carrying his microwave oven, it occurred to me how they first used to be called "radar ranges." Almost immediately, the song rhythm started going through my head. I was in a Weird Al mood, so I ran with it (the song, not the microwave). (Feb 1992)

Notes, Messages, Amusements, and other Brief Writings

Nipple Confusion!!

Relatively short, mail message. Friends Timothy and Katherine had a baby. They mentioned about how their daughter Clara had a bought of nipple confusion. The concept amused me greatly. So I ran with it. (Feb 2004)

Star Trek Parody

Relatively short, mail message. A group of my friends decided to see the new Star Trek film ("Nemesis") on opening night. I bought tickets for the eight of us a day early. I was going to send a quick note off reporting on the success, but then my mind starting thinking of how this might play out as a typical Next Generation scenario. Once loosed, it's kind of hard to reign in my imagination. (Dec 2002)

Math Problem

Short, mail-message. A friend from undergrad was getting married and a lot of mail was going back and forth between the UM group about hotels, where, when, how to split it up, etc. I finally had to weigh-in with a comment. I figured a "simple" explanation of how to solve it would end the discussion. It did...I think there was a stunned silence. Perhaps I've been in academia too long. (May 2002)

Lucid Dream

Non-fiction. My dreams tend to be really boring. It's all rather sad and pathetic, I know. Surreal things happen when I'm awake. I'll dream about parking a car, or playing a CD, or tying my shoes. Once, I was able to wrest control of my dream away from, well, me. All I can say is: man that sucked... (Dec 2001)

Whoopie Cushion

Non-fiction. Some friends had a birthday party for their son. This is just a description of the events. But it still amuses me. (Apr 2000)

He's on First

I was talking to Rob Stauffer about flying. Suddenly he became Lou Costello and I was Bud Abbott. Sometimes you just have to run with these things. This is pretty much the actual conversation, as opposed to the Cheese Shop one. (May 2000)

Bog Frog

Short. My parents live in Florida. So do amphibians. Remember to keep the lid down. (Feb 2000)

Snow Balls

Non-fiction. This was a mail message describing an unfortunate incident when "horseplay" broke out during ultimate frisbee out in the snow. At least I can laugh about it. (Feb 2000? 1999?)

DNS Drinking Game

This was a mail message describing the rules for the DNS (Domain Name Server) Drinking Game, after I noticed just how hard it is to find a domain name on the Internet that's not already taken. (April 2000)

The Great Debate

I went to a conference in Lafayette, LA and was getting a bit bored, so I decided to give myself a little challenge: to write a complete short story in one sitting (about 40 minutes). Certainly it's pretty easy to figure out where I came up with some of the background setting. I think it turned out OK and I like the Razia character (I made up the name, and then checked if it exists afterwards...there have been some cool Razia's out there) and may try to use her at some other point in time. (October 1998)

East Hill Cheese Flying Shop Club

All I wanted to do was fly a plane. He had 6, no one was flying at the time. Yet somehow, it turned into a Monty Python Skit. Sure, there's writer's embellishments to make it funnier, but the essentials are there. If you want an actual amusing flying club conversation, look at this one. (Jan 1998)

Vegetable Slaughter

Perhaps I shouldn't admit this, living in Ithaca and all, but I'm an omnivore. I consume all things on, along, or hanging out near, the food chain. Sometimes I'll go stretches on a mostly vegetarian diet, sometimes carnivore (hey, sometimes saprophyte, just to be different...). Anyway, a friend had just recently become vegetarian and was going through that initial, evangelical "are you going to eat that?!?" stage which prompted me to write an exposé on the truth behind salads. (Feb 1992)

Seuss Car

My car had problems. I took it in. Turns out a mouse had decided to use it as a warm, winter home, and have a quick snack on my spark plug cables before he would head off to work every morning. This seemed more like something out of Dr. Seuss, and thus, rather than bitch about it, I decided to write it up in the appropriate style. Note: Fear not, the mouse was never injured, being long gone before I ever started up the car. And apparently, he didn't care for the taste of new wires, as the problem didn't recur. (Jan 1991)

Collaborative Work

In addition, I've done some tag-team writing with Pierce.

He's kept them in his archives of original humor.

The Tale of the Mysterious Intrigue

Pierce and I stike again! This time, it's a classic English parlor mystery. A number of unlikely guests at the late Lord Farnsworth's mansion trying to sort out who did the unsavory deed and why. It's finally complete. See if you can figure it out.

In addition, I wrote a PHP script to make it easier for me to add new web pages as we add parts to the story. The text is broken into 30 parts. (January 2005)

A Wild Hare

Our next effort (and it's been a while). Sure, it involves a backwoods hick, but there is no sex in this. Purely violence. We wanted to give it a science-fiction/mystery theme, so the comedy is also turned way down. As usual, we don't really know where the story goes or how each other will react to the next installment. There are some fun parts to it and besides, it's the only story of ours that has a picture to go along with it. I WANT to make a web-based adventure game out of it (and I put together a few initial pieces here). It's a long tale (140K, 2600 lines). (Jun 2000)

The Squeeze or The Return of Mr. Gumps

This was one in which Pierce and I discussed the basic idea and then we each wrote our own take on it. What can I say, I like my version better. Look on his web site for his version. It's comedy, no sex or violence, just some bathroom humor (literally). (May 1997)

Slush Brown

A twisted version of Snow White. I believe the full working title was "Slush Brown and the Seven Perverts." Sick and twisted sex, no violence. I believe we were trying to out-do (out gross, out we're-both-twisted-and-sick-fucks) each other. A drawing existed at some point in time, but I haven't unearthed it and scanned it in. Be warned. (870 lines, just under 47K.) (??? 199?)

Mayberry BFD

This is our magnum opus, or more appropriately, our magnum Opie. Little violence, mostly sex, as Pierce and I tried to out-do each other. The idea of combining the The Andy Griffith Show and The Beverly Hillbillies allowed us to have quite a number of rich, well developed characters that we could completely corrupt. The initial idea occurred probably 6 years earlier, back at OSU, when Pierce and I spontaneously created the first scene that had Granny in it. As we wrote it, we actually both gave the other the chance to write that scene, since the initial part of it had been in our heads for so long. It is quite long though (114K, 2200 lines). Be warned. (Feb 1997)

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