In the previous installment, we saw our brave protagonist pre-commit to a regular release cycle, but then he dropped off the face of the Earth to wrestle with… well, something. I’m sure there was a good reason he stopped blogging after starting again after the longest break he had taken since the beginning of his blogging career (there wasn’t).

But lo! Here our tragic anti-hero comes stumbling from a cave, covered in akrasia and regret! No matter his filthy state: he has a leaf to turn, and no wind is going to flick around that large a leaf (even Hurricane Sandy didn’t do anything to it), so he might as well start building up his spindly coding arms so he can do non-epiphenomenal tasks again.

His first task is announcing a public, regular release schedule, so he can hold himself to it and have people ridicule him when he fails miserably. But surprise! He has already set one out, but in private (which kind of defeats the purpose), where each week will bring a deadline for a different sort of project, rotating among programming, musical, engineering, and visually artistic projects. In fact, he embarked on this schedule last week, but he doesn’t know this. Shall we find out what has been released, and what is being released, and what shall be released? Stay tuned for not one, but two posts in quick succession…

PS. What the hell is this “Toljari” business? Well, it’s a corruption of the lojban Toljgari, and if you’ve been following my github, you’ll notice that I’ve been naming an awful lot of projects after lojban lujvo. Nothing to be alarmed about yet, do make sure I’m not terminally geeking out when I start typing out my blog posts in Lojban though. And the cycle part is partially inspired from Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, which is a pretty cool name, and why shouldn’t I have something epic in my life?

One of my friends floated the writing of a serial fairy tale to his Facebook (which was met with much enthusiasm) which he was publicly announcing so it would actually get started, and I got a 30 minute story idea too good to not write down (or too terrible to mention, depending on how you like your puns). So without further ado:

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It would have been a wonderful day for flying; well, if she weren't out for revenge.

Stupid humans.

Didn't know why they had a liking towards prehensile appendages, and he didn't care while it was restricted to an awkward affinity for feline costumes, but this time their obsession had gone too far. So far, her original concern for the fact that humans had managed to find an Akrasian agent, much less came upon him unawares, was almost incessantly drowned by the smoldering vengeance stirred in her heart. See, it hadn't even lit yet. But that's the level of animosity held exclusively for persons that had altered his anatomy in her sleep. Yes, limb theft.

Unforgivable.

The fact that the fragile kingdom of Akraisa had to be protected at all costs would only justify the slaughter of the hapless humans, and despite the huge difference in scale that disadvantaged him, the outcome was never in doubt. True, she'd bump up his kill count only a little bit, but that was acceptable for a personal vendetta like this.

One more gust of wind past her membranes, and one more updraft, and the humans were in sight. There. That one. The one with the spectacles.

Drawing his sword, she thought about the poor bastards below. They would never see it coming.

He folded back her wings, and dov...wait, a swordsman. The human had already drawn, staring right at him.

Fury enveloped her, as he hurtled down. An armed human complicated things, but it was a trivial matter.

After all, the human had her tail.