MICHAEL ROSS AULT
Bio
I began writing at age 13. Short stories, novellas, poetry, and essays. I did journals while at sea on submarines. I wrote technical books for a decade before I went back to fiction. I love writing, photography, wood working, blacksmithing
Stories (35/0)
Personal Responsibility
Since taking up scuba diving as a hobby I pay a lot of attention to diving accidents and near misses, always striving to improve my dive skills so I don’t become a statistic. Many of these accidents begin with typical behavior I would expect from teenagers; dares, trying to do things beyond your skill level, just doing dumb things. The scuba accidents that happen because of equipment failure are few and far between and can usually be traced back to improper maintenance or knowledge of operation. Of course, accidents caused by health issues also occur, but that is beyond the scope of this blog.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Journal
God and Technology
Many times I have been asked how as a technologist/scientist I can believe in God. It is as if these people believe you cannot be a thinking person and also believe in a higher power. Now, this is not to say I am one of the folks who think every word in the Bible (Old and New Testament) is the gospel truth (no pun intended.) Like I said, I am a thinking Christian, as such I question everything and look for confirmation of those things that can be confirmed. Of course with religion, as in all things in science and lay areas, eventually you reach a point where it is either believe or not believe and I chose to believe.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Journal
Glue
Glue Mike Ault, Copyright Jan 4, 2007 A 2007 a happening at a Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia got me thinking. You see, they had a very expensive sculpture, entitled “Spaceship Earth” that collapsed because it was created with the wrong kind of glue. Seems almost a parallel to our current situation on Earth, doesn’t it? Have we created the world community with the wrong kind of glue?
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Journal
Before I drift off to sleep
It is amazing the things that come to mind just as you are drifting off to sleep. Old memories, new thoughts, the answer to that annoying question. I guess it shows that the mind is continuously at work processing things that we see and hear, sometimes long after we have stopped thinking about them on the surface.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Journal
An open letter to graduates
At this time of your life, upon the graduation, you will be taking your first full stides into the adult world. It is perhaps the most exciting and the scariest moment of your life when you receive that piece of paper declaring to the world “Here is a graduate, world get ready for them!”
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Motivation
Night Hunt
Checking the clock I see it is time to go, the game camera had showed me the approximate time to expect the night visitors at the trap. Donning my camo coveralls, down filled vest, hat and gloves, I grab the AR15 with the night vision scope that hangs by the door and insert a fully loaded magazine, after cycling a round into the chamber I safe it and putting the strap over my right shoulder, exit the cabin. The wind is cold, knifing into my exposed skin, I ponder going back in for my camo balaclava but I won’t be out more than an hour or two so I decide to man-up and just take it. The crunch of the gravel in the driveway seems over loud when the wind drops to nothing. I can hear the long grass rustling as the last of wind stirs it. The trail to the clearing where the trap is set is clear in the weak light from the porch light behind me and the star filled sky, there is no moon tonight.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Earth
Viability of Green Energy Solutions
Green energy solutions work, on a limited scale. Solar, Wind, Biomass, Hydro-electric are all proven technologies. However, they each have limits to their use. Before committing to these technologies as the solution, we must understand their innate limitations.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Earth
Lahith's Song
Lanith cracked the femur of the deer and sucked the warm rich morrow with satisfaction. Dropping the broken bone in the pile with the others she felt replete, ready for another week or more of tending her eggs in her mountainlair. Her feeling of contentment vanished, with a deep growl she realized something was wrong, that tickling of awareness, that seed of life she could feel from her three eggs had diminished by one, something was wrong! With a running leap she spread her huge wings and with a cracking upward surge she was airborne, nearly blowing over small trees with her wings back draft. She circled to gain altitude then did a flat glide. Aided with massive thrusts of her wings back to her lair. Halfway back she recoiled in flight as if struck by unseen forces, the second awareness had gone out, like a dying fire, she renewed her flight, striving to get home before that last flicker could go out.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Fiction
With a Whimper
The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Begrimed, nailed shut, with ragged layers of silver duct tape sealing the edges, it was the only window. Starting clear, over the months becoming grime encrusted while the clouds cried out the polluted ash from the atmosphere. Not that there was anything to see from his apartment, just the ruins of downtown Atlanta. She cared for him through the illness, forsaking a holiday in Cancun to carry bed pans, help with fever and try to get him to eat. The bastard had gone and died just when Yellowstone blew, leaving her sealed in his tomb. She dragged him out into the hall, bundled him into the elevator and sent it to the ground floor before rushing back in and sealing the apartment.
By MICHAEL ROSS AULTabout a year ago in Earth