Moggy\’s Tuna Manual is finally PUBLISHED
I’m real relieved that “Moggy’s Tuna Manual” is finally published, and here is the link:
Unlike the other series, “Blip on the Radar” and “Helicopters and Humans”, MTM was written with Tuna Pilots in mind. Having said that, I’ve often been surprised how many ‘armchair’ helicopter pilots (with no helicopter experience) have emailed to say they both followed and enjoyed it. My brother is prepping two books of “blip on the Radar” short stories, for publishing, hopefully, soon. Enjoy…!
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Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 08:34:39
Kentucky Fried God – New Cyberportal
Posted 6/10/2013 Kentucky Fried God – New Cyberportal
One of the issues we ran into, as the site grew steadily bigger, was the fact that people would say they were visiting for the aviation stories, but were having to dig around to find them amongst all the other stuff. Like trying to buy a mango and being inundated with pickles. In order to help with that, and enhance visitors’ enjoyment of the site, we set up a cyber portal with a list of hyperlinks to the aviation/ flying stories. We started off calling it narrowly WWW.TUNABOATHELICOPTERS.ORG (you will find us on Facebook as well) (please “like” us!) and then we also started using the more general domain WWW.CHOPPERSTORIES.COM
That is because people wrote in saying they thought it was “only tuna boat stories” when in fact we also deal with Oil and gas Offshore Flying, Law Enforcement, and EMS stories. It worked. People liked it, and said so. Everything is collected together conveniently in one place.
So how about “God” stories? Spiritual? Seeking? In the broadest sense? It seemed sensible to start collecting those stories also into one convenient cyber portal, with the same m.o. of hyperlinks pointing directly to the story concerned. I named it (mischievously) “Kentucky Fried God – Spiritual Fast Food” after two of my scribbles, “Kentucky Fried God-in-a-BOX #1” and “Kentucky Fried God-in-a-Box #2”. I mean no disrespect, it’s just a gentle dig at the way everybody wants “fast” and “quick” on the one hand in (drive in, drive out) and also it was a dig at the tendency I have noticed for so many “religious” people to carry THEIR God around in a small box. To be opened, and shown off, when it suits them.
The domain names associated with this cyber portal are:
NEWWRITERSHARBORHARBOR.COM
They are brand new. I hope you will enjoy our scribbles.
Peace
Francis
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Posted on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 10:27:02
WWW.HELISTORIAS.COM – Spanish translation
Posted 6/10/2013 WWW.HELISTORIAS.COM
I have received a lot of interest over the years from Spanish speaking helicopter pilots, who expressed a wish to read our stories in Spanish. My own Spanish is too basic for that, but we do have a volunteer!
WWW.HELISTORIAS.COM is now up and running, and you will see it is meant to be a cloned copy of WWW.CHOPPERSTORIES.COM also known as WWWW.TUNABOATHELICOPTERS.ORG
I’m looking forward to it. It will be neat being able to seriously brush up my Spanish.
It’s still under construction, and it will take a while to translate all that blarney, but I’m excited to see it happening. If YOU are fluent in Spanish and you would like to help… yes, please!
Francis
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Posted on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 10:04:13
Dealing with emotionally intense stories
It’s not easy at all to deal, as a writer, with emotionally intense stories.
Both Katie and T.Clifford have recently made the effort, and I strongly recommend both stories:
Katie: Mr Willard’s going home (part 1)
and:
T.Clifford: Of Dignity and Despair
The trick is to avoid over-doing or under-doing the sentiment. There is a fine balance, and the risk is coldness or cynicism on the one hand, and overwhelming, gushing sentimentalism on the other. Either extreme detracts from the essential sensitivity and true feeling that we are trying to portray.
I think both these efforts are admirable, and I warmly encourage encores.
How about you?
Posted on Friday, August 24, 2012 at 13:18:08
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New Domain Name Coming
8/11/2012
There is a new domain name coming our way. It will be www.helicopterstories.com
We keep everything we have already. This is IN ADDITION to what we have now. It will point to a cyberportal (like www.tunaboathelicopters.org) with hyperlinks.
It will take a little while to set it all up…
Francis
Posted on Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 12:38:11
New genre added: “Sci-Fi”
I added a new “genre” to cover Science Fiction. “Sci-Fi”
Posted on Friday, August 10, 2012 at 01:45:43
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“Families” software TEST
We’re moving along with more software to play with.
If you check the “Families” tab, you will see more capability there.
The idea is:
- by default, new members join the “Main Family”. You can stay there, or, if you wish, you can look and see if there is another family you might like to join.
Right now, the only other choices are “Vicious Writers” and “The Clumsy Investor”. - A “description” needs to be available for each family. What it does, areas of interest, etc. That has not been done yet.
- Then there is the option to “join” that family.
- There is a special discussion board specifically for that Family.
- Special rules and options can be set at the discretion of the Family Moderator.
- You can publish work only to that Family, or to the whole website.
Have a play with it, see what you think. We’ll just keep working on it.
There are going to be problems, and we’ll just try and idnetify them all one at a time, and fix ’em.
Posted on Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 15:40:49
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code modification #019 TEST
9/6/2011
Hiya. It never stops. Modifying and upgrading. Code modification #019 is up for testing. At the bottom of the main page are numbers 1-2-3-4-etc. This is meant to help you scroll back through time to previous posts. It seems to work just fine, except the main post (top post) repeats on every page. (We will change that) It’s nice when you just miss reading a story, because of new posts. Now you can simply go back a page or two. Let me know your thoughts!
Posted on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 16:52:36
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Welcome, Vicious Writers
7/26/11
Welcome Vicious Writers!
A warm welcome to Damian, Reese, Laura, Lexy, dizzy izzy, Electrode, whoamI, Aileen Maltese, Legion, alternativeb and HoorayforUnderdog.
That’s some great talent dropping by to support us. All of you are able to post articles and comments straight away.
I’m discussing some ideas with our coders. Feel free to email me with your suggestions.
We are thinking of adding a label “Families” on the Main Page, between “Contact” and “our Friends”. Click on that, then a drop-down box opens up. It shows all the families so far, including “Vicious Writers”. Click on that, it would take you to the “Vicious Writers” menu.
Now, what options should that menu give you?
I reckon at least these:
A) option to join the “Vicious Writers” family. Damian will be the leader. And he can appoint another moderator if he chooses.
B) option to see the profiles of members of the family.
C) “private” family discussion board, accessible to family members only.
D) Links to family members “personal writing studios”.
SOME of this software has already been written a while ago, but not fully tested yet.
Francis
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Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 17:46:36
Main Page Art Work Project
7/26/11
Main Page Art Work Project
That anchor on the main page was meant to be just a temporary banner. Somehow, it has lasted 4 years.
I’m looking for ideas to jazz that up a bit. I have a vague idea of some Art Work featuring a clipper ship, sailing across the Ocean, with the odd palm tree and sunset floating about the place.
I’m wide open to INPUT….
Francis
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Posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 18:41:40
User and Password problems
UPDATE: Here’s the sequence of events for new members….
The following are the steps with the new registration:
- user registers
- They get an email and click to activate their account and send email to admin to activate their account as well
- Admin approves the user account.
(This attempts to cut off the “bots” and the automated porn programs.)
Francis
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The glitch is that NEW members are getting the run-about on signing in with their user name and passwords. The old members don’t have the problem, so it’s a glitch with the software update. What happens is that you log in with your user name and password (case sensitive) and it tells you they are not correct, but that you can try recovering your account. You try that, and it doesn’t work either. Frustrating, I’m sure. It’s being worked on as we speak. meanwhile, you can always email me and let me know if you’re having that same problem. I check the Admin inbox, or just email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com
4/25/2011
Keep the faith! We’ll fix it yet.
Francis
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UPDATE: Here’s the sequence of events for new members….
Basically following are the steps with the new registration:
- user registers
- They get an email and click to activate their account and send email to admin to activate their account as well
- Admin goes to forum and approves the user account.
Posted on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 10:50:27
Some New Member software hickups
4/23/2011
What’s working just fine is posting stories, and inserting images, YouTube videos, hyperlinks and audio recordings. Once you are IN to the site, everything works great. I’ve posted hundreds of stories, images and YouTube videos with no problem.
However. What’s lately causing us migraine headaches is the “New Member” joining procedure. What’s going on is that we are totally flooded out by new member applications (almost a thousand) which are mostly automated “bot” computer garbage programs. These programs are capable of not only automatically joining a site, but also -repeatedly- posting the same old porn, hyperlinks and bizarre doodles. Of course, these bogus applications swamp the legitimate “real human” users.
We’re working with the coders to try and sort this out. Meanwhile, feel free to email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com
WE WANT NEW MEMBERS. REAL, LIVE HUMAN BODIES. COME AND JOIN US.
Francis
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Posted on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 05:11:11
A New Face to Writers Harbor
4/15/2011
A New Face to Writers Harbor
As you can see, we have a new appearance to the Harbor, and that is part of a steady trickle of improvements. More than anything else we would like the Harbor to provide reading and writing pleasure for all. That means a continuing effort to make it user friendly, efficient, and versatile.
As always, email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com anytime with suggestions.
Francis
Posted on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 18:44:55
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Hacker attack 3/21/2011
3/21/2011
Friends
Looks like we have had a malicious hacker attack on the site, with some major files being mysteriously deleted.
We are attempting to restore from backups. It ain’t easy.
Oh well…
Francis
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Posted on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 18:33:04
Site Navigation re-vamp
12/25/2010
Happy Christmas!
The site has been up for the best part of three years now. During which time we have quietly developed a lot of capability WITHIN each post. Images, fonts, colours, YouTube videos, series function, hyperlinks, it all works well.
Two other domains are embedded (“hosted”) within “writers harbor. ORG” (www.tunaboathelicopters.org and www.myoilyfinger.org)and that is all working just fine as well. If you have your own domain, you can embed it within the site as well if you wish, to take advantage of the site’s features and tools.
We have had thousands of visitors, and some stories have been downloaded (“hits”) thousands of times.
There are hundreds and thousands of writers’ web sites out there, some of which last a long time, others of which suddenly disappear. I’ve not pushed real hard for members at all cost. It’s nice to grow, but the site already works well, and I’m not panic stricken about not having thousands of members. Some sites push for membership like demented road warriors. But sooner or later, the reason becomes clear: intrusive pop up advertisements everywhere. I gave up on “MySpace” when I couldn’t find the page controls anymore. It was that cluttered with advertising garbage. Here on Writers Harbor, we just soldier quietly on.
I’m turning my attention now to “site navigation”.
We are looking at ways to make it easier for new members and visitors to “explore” the site. That will mean some serious beta testing, and -probably- an upgraded opening page.
That which a writer (or reader) does within the story page, is well developed, works good, and is streets ahead of many other sites. However, the overall site navigation for newbies, is a bit complicated.
We’re working on it.
As always, you can contact me anytime at francismeyrick@yahoo.com
I wish everybody a safe 2011. Life is not always good, but it is always interesting. And there are always good people around, the trick is just to recognize them from the two-faced, devious back stabbers that also abound.
In terms of Politics and Economics, 2011 and beyond looks scary.
In terms of Life, Death and the Universe, nothing is radically different. We are still the same, small, insignificant, limited creatures that inhabit a remote speck of dust called Earth.
Carl Sagan had it right.
Francis