Rattled Mind

This week’s story was inspired by a story I read about how the British government was turning towards incentives to encourage their population to lead a healthier lifestyle. The reason, rising healthcare costs. That story combined with our wont for smart watches, step counters, and big brother lead to the writing of…

Yes, another pandemic inspired story. It was the only thing going on at the time. Welcome to the Rattled Mind podcast. The title comes from modifying COVID. There was a post going around social media at the time that COVID stood for Chinese Origin Virus. I forget what the ID meant, and it doesn’t matter. The post was inaccurate.

Obviously, once you have listened to this story, you will know the inspiration for it was the pandemic. This story was first published to my blog in the spring of 2020. It was all pandemic that year.

The inspiration for this story is clearly laid out at the end of the story, so I won’t spoil it by revealing it here. What I can tell you is, life is…Not Fair

The opening scene of this story is true about this writer. I don’t think we will ever travel faster than light, or back in time. Since neither space nor time really exists, they cannot be traveled. However, until I am proven wrong, you can't prove a negative.

This like many of these stories was published to my blog about seven years ago, and the inspiration becomes fuzzy. I do know it was about the time I came to realize what an absolute waste of human resources, this thing called war. Don’t get me wrong, if I was called up to fight, I would. But the capital nations have spent to prevent war…battle ships, missiles, bombs! That capital probably outstrip...

When this story was written, Zombies were everywhere. Weekly TV series, movies, and zombie crawls. It was ridiculous. Maybe they are a big thing still, I just moved to a place where it’s not as prevalent. What I do know is, I was not a fan, until it occurred to me, what if they were not the living dead.

Have you ever, in the heat of the moment, silently wished something horrible on someone you would never do so verbally?

This story is the result of me having time to think and formulate possible causes to the ills that face us as a race. The human race, not one of our many groups. As I considered why it seemed we were fraught with so many genetic ailments, this story came to be.

This week’s episode was inspired by how dependent we have become on our phone, i.e., devices. There is also this move among Americans to become more dependent on the state. This is not something new, but if combined with devices, we get…

I don’t remember what phase of flight training it was, or the instructor, but he said something that stuck with me through all these years. “No amount of technology can be implemented into these aircraft to make them idiot proof.” Meaning that training was paramount. That being said, the constant push to make vehicles idiot proof isn’t working. Now, lets toss in the recent explosion of AI, and we...

This story is a spin-off of Box Elder which you can find here on Spotify. I took inspiration for this story partially from watching the construction of the Mall of America. That combined with what the place would be like post-apocalyptic led to Castle All-O-Rica.

This story was inspired so many years ago. I always thought it would be cool if the horns on the Vikings helmet were real, tore at flesh when tackling. The workings of a young mind.

The inspiration for this story comes from a long line of poor decisions throughout my life. I was lamenting as to whether a parent can make you a better decision maker, then I remembered the Magic Eight Ball.

I mulled the concept for this short story over in my ahem, rattled mind for a long time until I came up with a setting. I am really not sure what the original inspiration was. Maybe it was my own experience with circuses as a kid. Real circuses, with animals, clowns, and yes, even lions. Not sure such a thing even exists anymore.

The inspiration for this story comes from the current human condition. Yes, this story was published to my website in the spring of 2019, but not much has changed since then. We are becoming more reliant on technology, delivery services, social media, and the health care system to sustain us, entertain us, and act as our social interaction. And this was written before the whole COVID thing.

If you have read the bible, the Old Testament, not the New Testament stuff your church makes you read, people lived to be hundreds of years old. That is, until one of our ancestors pissed off God and he took that away from us, along with adding pain to childbirth. Special shout out to our ancestors for effing shit up. Somewhere in the strange workings of my mind, I connected this concept with wate...

I am not sure if the inspiration for this short was inspired by me telling my wife, “If you run off, I will never date again.” Or, if it was an old 80’s bad science fiction movie called Cherry 2000. Look it up, it’s worth a laugh, to bad 2017 came and went. Maybe both those things were a combined inspiration. That along with the fact that I have lost love that could never be replaced. Hope you enj...

Alternative Universe is about…well, alternative universes. And how they might be used to live dual lives, experiencing a life you wished you had not let go, or a path you wished you’d chosen. What would be the consequences of using such a place? Hope you enjoy.

I published this story on my website about five years ago, so the inspiration is a bit fuzzy. As a person who lives with a mountain of regret, the do-over was likely the inspiration. That, combined with my belief system, or lack thereof.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. -...

The inspiration for this short comes from my day job. I work in IT. Too often we think we are more important than we really are. As a result, there is a saying we put forth frequently. So much so, it inspired this story. Hope you enjoy.

The inspiration for this story is one of the most controversial topics in American society. Maybe others, but I don’t follow the debate in other countries. I personally recognize that making abortion illegal will not prevent it from happening. However, I will follow that up by stating that taking the life of an innocent child is wrong. This is an intro, and not a place to debate the issue. With th...

One of my instructors in Army flight school once stated, no amount of technology can make an aircraft idiot proof. I think that is our biggest issue in today’s aviation world. We are relying way too much on technology to save our skins. This story was inspired by the Boing 737 Max fiasco. It is true, I am a Boing fan, and bristle a little when someone says something negative about the company. But...

Upon hearing this flash fiction story, the inspiration will be easy to decipher. Back in 2019 there seems to be a lot of celebrity deaths. This was obviously before the Kobe Briant tragedy the killed “ nine others. ” It bothered me that these people got so much attention while everyday people who were real hero’s garnered little to no attention. Think of all the vets dying alone in VA hospitals, o...