Building the Dream

February 26, 2026 Leave a comment

Two men share a dream.
To escape the air stream.
Together they start to build.
Gathering parts to be milled.

With a screwdriver, hammer, and wrench.
Building each part on the bench.
On to the carts to be wheeled.
Strung along the field.

Looking over their notes.
They assemble it with screws and bolts.
Connecting it all to the hull.
With each problem rolling around in their skulls.

Fusion reactor and Ion engines are in.
Then they attach the fins.
Wiring the controls in the cockpit.
They make everything fit.

Once a pile of junk.
Now something to get them out of their funk.
Seeing before their eyes.
The craft that will reach beyond the skies.

Strapped in their seats.
A new adventure they will meet.
When they started people would scoff.
But now it’s the countdown to blastoff.

Higher and higher they go.
Leaving behind them their woes.
Everything feels right.
Forward into the eternal night.

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Sci-Fi Sports

February 24, 2026 Leave a comment

I do a lot sci-fi world building and have a few sports created for it. The first game was called Floatball. It is a game played in zero-gee. It has rules are a combination of water polo and team handball. It takes place in a large room that is totally enclosed. Beginning of each period and after each goal is a face-off/jump ball where one player is on the ceiling and the other on the floor. The ball is between them and would push off and try to tip the ball to one of your teammates. There is also bars players can grab to stop or change directions.

The other other sport I have is called Scapela and is played by one of my alien races called the Elvari. There is a scoop similar to Jai Alia strapped to one hand. The ball is hard like a lacrosse ball. Played on a hard court with a goal that is on a pole that can be scored at in 360 degree. There are also rebound broads in key spots on the side lines.

The last game is called Hover Hockey. Instead of ice it is replaced with cris crossing mag rails. Players have special shoes that let them “skate”. The puck also hovers as well. Not sure if I am going to have goalies or not.

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Hot as Ice

February 23, 2026 Leave a comment

By Bill Horst-Kotter

Grab my stick and hit the ice.

My skates are sharp and it feels nice.

Passed the blue line and grabbed the puck.

Toward the goal with some luck.

Deke the goalie because he’s a rookie.

And flick the puck where mama hides the cookies.

For the kids on the streets to the stars on the ice.

Hockey is the game that I like.

Howe, Orr, and Gretsky make the game great.

It all started when I saw my first game when I was eight. 

To all the hot shots that rush the net.

Today is the day your match has been met.

I love it when you scorers try to get close.

Because I am the guy that makes your shots a joke.

I will use my body to be a wall

So the goal light won’t answer your call.

I make opposing teams’ stars look like guacamole.

Because I am the guy they call the goalie.

For the kids in the streets to the stars on the ice.

Hockey is the game that I like.

Hasek, Roy, and Plante made the game great.

Me loving this game was a matter of fate.

I am the guy that makes the stars shine.

Because I protect him when it’s game time.

Check him into the boards hard.

And I am the one that will make you see stars.

Drop the gloves and fist fly like lightning.

Then the linesmen gave me five minutes for fighting.

In the box, hanging my head in shame.

But I’m the goon so I get all the blame.

For the kids on the streets to the stars on the ice.

Hockey is the game that I like.

Probert, Ray, and McSorley made the game great.

So head to your local arena before it’s too late.

This was my attempt to make a rap song about ice hockey.

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Sci-fi flags

December 29, 2017

One of my interests is heraldry and vexillology (the study of flags).  Also as a sci-fi and RPG fan, I thought I show you a few flags that I made for a setting I am working on.

First is the Terran Confederation.

This represents the main human empire in the galaxy with its capital world of Earth.  The midnight blue background is to represent outer space with the yellow sun to be the Sun and the blue circle cross is an astrological system of Earth the home of the human race.  I have thought about olive branches in yellow around it or other objects.  Or just to change it have 4 pointed stars around it to represent the planets in the confederation.

Second is the Compact of New Zion.

This is a splinter group of humanity started by ultra-conservative Christians.  The background is black to represent space with a white and yellow cross over it.  The white is the purity of their faith and the yellow is the light of God over the darkness.  I was also thinking of adding some other Christian imagery, but it would make it too complicated.

The third is the Republic of New Texas.

This one was just a fun what if people from Texas set up an independent Texas on another planet.  So I took the Flag of Texas and change it to have 3 stripes(red, white, red) instead of 2(white, red).

I plan on having more like an Islamic splinter, some political factions, and alien flags.

 

 

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#nerdworldproblems

December 24, 2017

I am working on an owncloud cloud server on a Raspberry Pi.  It has been frustrating.  That’s where I came up with the hashtag #nerdworldproblems, because it is.

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Boredom is an Invisible Prison

December 8, 2017

Boredom is an Invisible Prison

 

I am BORED!

 

Yes I tell you that.

Shout it out loud.

From the top of hill, roof and lung.

 

I am BORED!

 

Stuck here at this desk.

Mind just turning into jello.

Staring into two flat screens of mediocrity.

 

I am BORED!

 

Waiting for the time is right.

Run to the exit of my predicament

To escape this blight of mental inactivity.

 

I am BORED!

 

But I just need to wait.

I can hold on for a little bit.

I will be free at last.

 

I am bored.

 

Not so loud as before.

Quiet as I work?

Doing something to let the minutes go by fast.

 

I am bored?

 

My jailors are just freed me.

I get outside the gate.

Jumping up and down like my life is great.

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Die -=ShoEboX=-, Die

December 8, 2017

Die -=ShoEboX=-, Die

By Bill Horst-Kotter (Screaming his lungs out)

I see you prancing on the stage

Better if you are locked in a cage

It is much better that way

Bound and gagged with nothing to say

Die Shoebox, Die

You big annoying guy!

Die..Die..Die

The dead Ramones don’t like your songs

And Frank Zappa thinks you’re wrong

If I had a couple hundred bucks

I’d get Pac-Man to chomp on your guts

Die Shoebox, Die

You big annoying guy!

Die…Die…Die

I trying to do Synthpunk

But this arrangement really sucks

I guess I am really jealous of him

Thinking I was better on a whim

Die Bill, Die

You dumb annoying guy

Die…Die…Die

Die…Die…Die

Die…Die..Dieeeee

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Mockumentary Madness

June 10, 2017

I had a crazy idea for a mockumentary called Chairs of Fire.  It’s where The Fast and the Furious meets Murderball.  Where people bound in power wheelchairs have them modified for underground street racing.  I know it is crazy.

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Tao of politics

February 18, 2017

Taoism is symbolized by the Yin-Yang.  A joining of opposite forces in a swirling pattern, the positive and the negative, but there also is a dot of the opposite in each.  A positive in the negative and a negative in the positive.  Why would these dots be there?  From what little I know about the Tao it is to represent something bad can come out of something good and something good can come out of something bad.  Sounds a little paradoxical, but let me explain my logic.

Something bad come out of something good?  That would be hubris or the saying no good deed goes unpunished.  Examples would be the anti-abortion movement.  They believe they are fighting the good fight because they are saving babies, but they don’t figure in other factors.  They don’t think about the mother’s life or the baby was conceived by rape or incest.  Other examples are the Reagan revolution where cutting government programs will help the people because money will trickle down, thou it never will.

Something good come out of something bad?  That would be non-violent revolutions like the color revolutions like the Yellow Revolution in the Philippines around 1986 that took Marcos out of power or the Bulldozer Revolution in Yugoslavia in 2000.

Now lets look at the USA with the current political climate.  Since Donald Trump taking office has made some historically bad decisions.  I believe in his mind he is doing something good only it is doing something bad.  From something bad the people are rising up to stop him.  I am glad this is being done from day one because this is the good that is coming out of something bad.  This is USA’s color revolution.

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It is about the dash

January 14, 2017

If you ever have looked at my last name I have a dash or hyphen in it.  If you ever had questions about how it got there, I am going to tell you.  It is a clerical error when my great-great grandparents were getting U.S. citizenship in 1874 at Cortland, NY.  Originally the name was spelled Horstkötter and when getting citizenship it got changed to Horst-Kotter.

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