Articles written by Austin Vail

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About me - Austin Vail

Hi!

I'm a long-term IT professional currently concentrated on SUN Solaris systems administration. Other interests include freelance writing (fiction and nonfiction), playing guitar and motorcycles. I live with Lydia, a PC and network expert, in the Colorado

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Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Romance: 18 of 178

The street shone in the late spring drizzle. Sodium lamps reflected from overhead. He walked with head bowed, collar turned up, a gloved hand cupping a Marlboro cigarette against the rain. His steel-toed work boots strode forward in a blues shuffle rhythm, not hurried, not without aim. Water dripped from his oiled canvas wes...
Politics, News & Issues > Party Politics & Ideology Is George W. Bush a true conservative?: 1 of 5

Let me first define what a true conservative is before determining whether or not President Bush is one. One common misunderstanding is that true conservatives are supposed to be for small government. This is too general of a statement that fits better to libertarians than to conservatives. True conservatives are fine with a...
Autos > Driving & Safety Driving safety from motorcyclist's perspective: 1 of 3

The best drivers on the road also ride motorcycles in traffic, or did so at one time. Part of the reason is the Darwin syndrome, where foolish motorcycle riders tend to eliminate themselves from the species in dramatic and violent crashes, oftentimes before reproducing. This in turn helps eliminate the foolish genetic materi...
Politics, News & Issues > Energy Issues What are alternative transportation fuels?: 3 of 7

Only one source of energy exists in this universe, and that is nuclear energy in the form of fusion, mostly. That's the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium, the process that makes our sunshine and starlight, maybe not moonshine, but certainly a shining moon. All other energy forms that we use for transportation come origina...
Computers & Technology > Computers & Technology (Other) Maintaining the home datacenter: 1 of 1

People are working from home offices more than ever before in this 21st century technical world. The lessons learned in corporate datacenters during the last twenty years of the last century are valuable to the home worker to ensure the highest level of availability, and thus productivity, for the employer. In turn, this hig...
Arts & Humanities > Writing Resources Resources on learning to read like a pro: 1 of 1

Reading seems such a common thing, doesn't it? We all know how to read, so why read any book about reading other than those that we encountered in grade school? Two books on this subject, How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren, and Reading like a Writer by Prose address the premise that most people don't know how to read ...
Arts & Humanities > American Literature Book reviews: The Road to Memphis: 1 of 1

The Road to Memphis Mildred D. Taylor Puffin, 1992, reissue edition ISBN-10: 0140360778 ISBN-13: 978-0140360776 Black American Literature Cassie Logan is a teenaged Black woman growing up in the segregated South of 1941. She tells this story from her point of view, a story shot full of danger as she, her older brother Stacey...
Arts & Humanities > American Literature Book reviews: Monster, by Walter Dean Myers: 1 of 1

Sixteen-year old Steve Harmon is in prison and awaits his trial on felony murder charges regarding a botched holdup (turned murder) of a local store in his Harlem neighborhood. Prison is an extremely bad experience for the young Black man, as are his movements from jail to the courthouse. Guards taunt him about the possibili...
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips How to effectively revise your writing: 7 of 12

For long works such as a nonfiction book or novel, I find that my usual proofreader becomes sick of the subject matter or story after the second or third time through. Since she is also my spouse, I've had to figure out how to proof my own revisions, since before someone accepts the work for publication, I'm always revising ...
Entertainment > Musical Instruments Portable power for guitar: 2 of 3

Portable amplification of a classical acoustic/electric (A/E) guitar was my problem. I had landed a street musician gig for a little tourist town nearby, ten bucks an hour and tips. Not a bad deal, but the streets are noisy. My classical A/E needed to be plugged in, but where? The streets had no power outlets and I didn't wa...