tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77784191152363994482024-03-16T11:52:47.493-07:00Jonathan DalarUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-86309655517800734402013-10-15T15:09:00.001-07:002013-10-15T21:35:51.101-07:00Vampires, Imagined and Historical<b>Much of the modern lore of vampires originates from a place called Transylvania,</b> in part, due to the literary influence of Bram Stoker's original masterpiece, <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Complete-Original-Forgotten-Books/dp/1605060038/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381856030&sr=8-3&keywords=dracula+bram+stoker" target="_blank">Dracula</a></b>. While many people know that, fewer know exactly where this is, and the history surrounding it.<br />
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Transylvania is located in what is now Romania, just to the west of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe. The earliest mention of it as a political entity was in the 11th century, when it was a province under the Kingdom of Hungary. It has also been a part of the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Kingdom of Romania.<br />
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The region of Transylvania is a temperate plateau, bordered on several sides by the Carpathian Mountains, and most well known for farmlands and castles, many of which have been the inspiration for literary works such as Dracula. In German and a number of Eastern European languages, the region's name translates to English as "seven cities" or "seven fortresses," a tribute to the colonization of the area by Saxons in the 12th century.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Brovel7z5Ss/Ul1ttRfBTdI/AAAAAAAAB9g/Bu0533MgeZs/s1600/Varkapu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Brovel7z5Ss/Ul1ttRfBTdI/AAAAAAAAB9g/Bu0533MgeZs/s640/Varkapu.jpg" width="506" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Hunyad Castle, Transylvania, Romania, © Wikipedia user <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Koponya25&action=edit&redlink=1">Koponya25</a></span> </td></tr>
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<b>While Bram Stoker's novel has influenced much of the English-speaking world's view of Transylvania</b>, stories from the region itself influenced Stoker to write it in the first place. A Hungarian writer friend of Stoker's, Arminius Vámbéry, is said to have shared with him much of the Eastern European folklore, legends, and mythology that formed the basis for the original manuscript of Dracula.<br />
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The name Dracula comes from the historical figure Vlad III, Voivode of Wallachia. His actual name was <i>Wladislaus Dragwlya</i>, of the House of "<i>Drăculești</i>," or translated, Vlad III Dracula. He was the son of Vlad II Dracul, the patronymic whence the name Dracula originated.<br />
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Dubbed "Vlad the Impaler" after his death in late 1476 or early 1477, he was both hero and villain, depending on source of the tales about him. In Romania, he was revered for his protection and defense of the country; to his enemies, he was a terrifying conqueror known for torturing and executing those he defeated in the cruelest of ways.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_kSDSzirRvM/Ul2ZxK2wefI/AAAAAAAAB-U/1GqZtu_-xM8/s1600/Vlad_Tepes_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_kSDSzirRvM/Ul2ZxK2wefI/AAAAAAAAB-U/1GqZtu_-xM8/s640/Vlad_Tepes_002.jpg" width="518" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Vlad Ţepeş, the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia, anonymous, 16th Century, Public Domain</span></td></tr>
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<b>Folklore involving the dead is quite common, and is the source of much of the vampire lore of today.</b> One tale that may have been related to Stoker by his friend Arminius Vámbéry is the tale of <b><a href="http://www.kurir-info.rs/kurir-pronasao-prvog-srpskog-vampira-clanak-127522" target="_blank">Petar Blagojević</a></b>, an 18th century peasant from the town of Kisilova (now Kiseljevo), in northeastern Serbia. Petar died in 1725. His death was followed shortly by the deaths of a number of other villagers, each who died rather quickly after short, mysterious illnesses. A large number of people died in the village the year Petar died, including over thirty children. The survivors traced these deaths directly back to Petar as those who died claimed on their deathbeds to have been visited by him.<br />
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Most of the residents in the tiny village don't care to relate the tale. To them, it's a stigma on the town that drives others away. But some talk, if asked nicely enough. As the story goes, the night it all started was dark and ominous, heavy with fog. Nine people died in a span of just eight days, each claiming on his deathbed to have been visited by Petar, who had been the first to die. Before they died, each victim said that Petar had come to their beds and had choked them during the night. Petar's wife also claimed he had visited her in a dream, asking for shoes. Other accounts say that Petar's son was brutally murdered after refusing to give him food when he came back to visit. The mysterious deaths continued.<br />
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Village authorities finally ordered Petar exhumed, a full two months after his death. He was allegedly found in the opened grave, still partially alive. He had not rotted as a corpse should have; he was still lifelike, his lips still with fresh blood in them. The villagers were so frightened by this that they demanded action be taken, even against the wishes of the local Austrian official. They pulled Petar from the grave, stabbed his heart with a sharpened stick, and then for good measure, burned his body at the stake.<br />
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After Petar's death and the successive deaths of many more in the village, rumors of what was happening there spread to officials in the local Austrian government in Beograd. Frombald, the Imperial Austrian head of the locality released a report to the Viennese newspaper, documenting <b><a href="http://www.rts.rs/page/magazine/sr/story/511/Zanimljivosti/1224482/Ko+je+bio+prvi+pravi+srpski+vampir.html" target="_blank">the first recorded instance of vampires in Europe</a></b>. And at the request of Frombald, the Austrian military government dispatched a consignment of men to determine whether there were real vampires there, and if so, to determine if it signified the start of a vampire epidemic.<br />
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Ultimately, the Austrian commission could not make a determination, but that didn't stop the spread of rumors and tales of spreading, nor did it stop people from taking preventive measures against an outbreak of vampires, real or imagined. Other such stories exist of vampires in the area at that time. In each, the bodies of the dead were said to have looked alive, with fresh blood, and newly grown fingernails and hair. A rash of such incidents of "vampire eradication" spread, where the newly dead were exhumed from their graves, staked in the heart, and burned.<br />
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Even today, the legend remains in the village. Many of the younger generation are leaving, whether because of the tales or just to find work elsewhere, it's hard to say. But the village is dying. Few but the oldest denizens are left. They remain, as does Petar Blagojević, who is still said to haunt the area. A curse has even originated from the village: <i>"Dabogda te Pera posetio!"</i> - "May Peter visit you!"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uD3zw-28pAk/Ul2QrRK-F1I/AAAAAAAAB9w/kDww4vl-Jj8/s1600/Wiertz_burial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uD3zw-28pAk/Ul2QrRK-F1I/AAAAAAAAB9w/kDww4vl-Jj8/s640/Wiertz_burial.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Premature Burial, by Antoine Wiertz, Public Domain</span></td></tr>
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<b>But is there scientific evidence vampires existed?</b> Maybe. A while back in Poland, archaeologists found <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/10174137/Polish-archaeologists-unearth-vampire-grave.html" target="_blank">"vampire graves"</a></b> on a construction site. The remains buried there were decapitated, and their heads placed on their legs to ensure they stayed dead. This finding is in line with the older, broader definition of vampires from the Middle Ages, but as with the story of Petar Blagojević, we find little in the way of empirical data.<br />
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In the field of medicine, there are a couple of interesting maladies that share symptoms with the more common legends of vampires. <b><a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/porphyria.html" target="_blank">Porphyria</a></b> is one such malady, a genetic disorder that causes blisters, itching, and swelling of the skin when exposed to sunlight. Other medical conditions which might lend themselves to such legends are <b><a href="http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Catatonia-and-Catalepsy.htm#" target="_blank">catalepsy and catatonia</a></b>, which cause states of unresponsiveness, something that without adequate medical training or facilities available could be mistaken for death. Again, nothing that would indicate evidence of actual vampirism, but possible evidence explaining the root causes of such tales and superstitions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAeLfRd_aNU/Ul2YrZvCsEI/AAAAAAAAB-M/AWWZDhb-67s/s1600/Burne-Jones-le-Vampire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAeLfRd_aNU/Ul2YrZvCsEI/AAAAAAAAB-M/AWWZDhb-67s/s640/Burne-Jones-le-Vampire.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Vampire, by Philip Burne-Jones, 1897, Public Domain</span></td></tr>
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<b>So while there is no solid evidence supporting vampirism, the folklore remains.</b> The story of Peter Blagojević <b><a href="http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Srbija/Sava-Savanovic-josh-cheka-da-postane-brend.lt.html" target="_blank">and others like it</a></b> are quite common, and aren't confined to lore from Eastern Europe or the Balkans. Vampire stories are rife throughout Western Europe, the Americas, and the rest of the world. In fact, there are versions of the vampire found in almost every culture on Earth.<br />
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As with many such legends, most can be traced back to old wives' tales which attempt to put the inexplicable into terms which could be coped with, as strange as such terms may sound now. Many of the signs of life as reported in these vampire tales can be explained by modern medicine as the signs of <i>rigor mortis</i>, or other common effects of death in a body.<br />
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But just as importantly, all such legends aren't likely to be completely disproved, leaving room for that one minute sliver of doubt in the mind, that one single thought in the back of the subconscious that allows us, every great once in a while, to believe they are true.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Quick note: several of the links in this post are in Serbian-Croatian, which is fine if you can understand them. For those who can't, I suggest dropping the Internet addresses for them into Google and clicking on the "Translate this page" link. It'll provide a rather shitty auto-translation that should get the job done for you.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-62984119371450942462013-09-13T12:44:00.000-07:002013-09-13T12:59:33.537-07:00Friday the 13th!<div>
<b>Happy Friday the 13th, everybody!</b></div>
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Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13, and friggatriskaidekaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. Those are big words for paranoia based solely on superstition and rumor. A majority of people know about being superstition of the number and date, but what isn't known is why we are superstitious of them in the first place.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Friday the 13th, © Jonathan Dalar</span></td></tr>
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<b>Friday the 13th is a fairly common occurrence.</b> There is at least one in every calendar year, and we can't go more than 14 months in a row without one: either July to September the year before a leap year and leap year, or August to October between the following two years after leap year. In fact, it can happen up to three times a year. After today, it'll happen in December and again next June. And if you're planning ahead - ahem, really far ahead - you can check out all the months <b><a href="http://researchmaniacs.com/HolidayCalendar/FridayThe13thDates.html" target="_blank">when Friday the 13th occurs</a></b> until the year 2100.<br />
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Some theories point to <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110513-friday-the-13th-superstitions-triskaidekaphobia/" target="_blank"><b>Either Norse mythology or Christian tradition</b></a> for a possible origin. Norse mythology tells a tale of a dinner party in Valhalla, where 12 gods were in attendance. Loki, the 13th and uninvited guest, walked in and caused a day of chaos and bad luck by tricking the blind god Hoder into shooting Baldur with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. And according to some belief, it stems from the Bible. According to biblical writings, Jesus had 12 apostles, a perfect number. The 13th guest at the Last Supper was Judas, the man who betrayed him to the Sanhedrin priests with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver. Both versions share similar concepts, and a similar accounting of events.</div>
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<b>The earliest written link between the superstition and the date was in 1869</b>, in Henry Sutherland Edwards's <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/unlucky-for-some-13-notable-deaths-on-friday-the-13th-8814708.html" target="_blank">biography of composer Gioachino Rossini</a></b>, who died on Friday the 13th. Edwards wrote of Rossini, "He was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that one Friday 13th of November he died." Ironically, however, <b><a href="http://www.lifeinitaly.com/heritage/superstition.asp" target="_blank">the number 13 is considered lucky</a></b> by older Italians. There, it's the number 17 that's considered the unlucky one. Seems there might be conflicting stories there, eh?</div>
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<b>Much has been made of accident rates on Friday the 13th</b>, and <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9202364/Friday-the-13th-really-is-unlucky-medics-concluded.html" target="_blank">according to some researchers</a></b>, there just might be something to that notion. The research was admittedly "too small to allow meaningful analysis," but it did show a staggering 52% increase in accidents in the particular region of England studied between 1989 and 1992. And the Brits are not alone in suggesting this link between accidents and Friday the 13th. <b><a href="http://www.injurytriallawyer.com/blog/is-there-a-greater-risk-of-automobile-accidents-on-friday-the-13th.cfm" target="_blank">A similar German study</a></b> showed a 60% increase in accidents on that particular date. While it appears a further, in-depth study should probably be done on the subject to say for sure, I wouldn't go all Mario Andretti on the Interstate today. Any day, really, but especially today. And if you are adventurous enough, and looking for somewhere exotic to go, you could board <b><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/09/13/friday-13th-would-board-flight-666-to-hel-finnair-flight-tackles-airline-taboos/" target="_blank">Flight 666 to HEL</a></b>. I hear it's popular on a day like today.</div>
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So what should you do? Well, you do what you have to. And you settle in this evening for a marathon viewing of <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080761/" target="_blank">Friday the 13th</a></b>, the classic movie series that scared the bejeebus out of my generation when we were growing up. I remember the first time I watched the film. I was in high school, and I sneaked into the school library after hours with a girl to watch the movie. It really wasn't all that scary until she grabbed my arm and screamed. After that, I was a little jumpy. Don't laugh; you would be too.</div>
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<b>Whatever happens today, don't worry.</b> It's just a date, just a number, with no real supernatural power attached to it. Its power derives simply from the superstition we allow it. It's not like today is any different than any other day, where something terrifying will come up behind you suddenly, when you least expect it, and snatch you fr</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-62930805409372355062013-06-11T11:51:00.001-07:002013-06-11T18:28:44.245-07:002013 F/SF Movies on the To-See List<b>Those who know me know I rarely go to the theater for movies anymore.</b> There's hardly any point. Unless the film is an epic, sweeping visual masterpiece, it's not worth the arm and leg for tickets, artery-clogging butter popcorn, gallon o' soft drink, and junior mints. Especially when I can watch it in the comfort of our family room on a large screen, eat whatever I wish, and maybe even enjoy a couple of Pacific Northwest microbrews with it. And I don't sit there all movie wishing I could crack a shoe over the heads of the teenie boppers constantly texting and talking in front of me.<br />
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Besides, spending all that cash on a gamble that Hollywood will actually invest more in plot and well-rounded characters instead of cool visual effects and explosions isn't exactly a safe bet. And if there's one thing that turns me off quicker than anything else, it's a poor story disguised with glitz and plot Spackle, but let's not get me going off on that tangent!<br />
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This year, however, there are a few fine films that appear worth the price of hassle and admission, just to see them on a larger-than-life screen. And they're movies I really don't want to have to wait a few months more to see. Sure, you can bet on the danger of glossing over important story elements with special effects, but sometimes it's worth risking it to get the full effect. There are three in particular I'm looking forward to, three that I have read the books to already, and in some cases several times. So let's discuss.<br />
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<b>The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.</b><br />
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Part One had its strengths and weaknesses. Gravity certainly wasn't the cruel mistress in the movie that she is in real life, but there were better parts throughout too. I didn't especially like the fact they stretched a rather short novel into three epic movies, and the stretching shows at times, but it's still interesting and visually stimulating enough to be enjoyable. On the whole, it seems to fit well with the LOTR trilogy, especially in terms of feel and visuals, which it was supposed to do, and Jackson seems to be doing fair justice to the story.<br />
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They are <b><a href="http://screencrush.com/the-hobbit-2-desolation-of-smaug-evangeline-lilly-tauriel/" target="_blank">adding new characters</a></b> to the film that weren't in the book. I'm really not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, there's so much more added to the story already, that extra characters, especially ones that hopefully round the story out a little better, are probably a good thing. But they're not staying as true to Tolkien's work as I'd have liked to see.<br />
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They teased Smaug during the first one, but never really showed more than a fleeting glimpse. In the second round, Bilbo meets him, up close and personal, so he should get plenty of screen time. I'm certainly looking forward to that. I mean, the whole story centers around this magnificent dragon. Isn't that what people are going to the movie to see?<br />
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It opens in the United States on December 13, 2013. You can visit the <b><a href="http://www.thehobbit.com/index.html" target="_blank">official Hobbit website</a></b> for more hobbitsy stuff from Middle Earth.<br />
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<b>The Hunger Games: Catching Fire</b><br />
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Sure, this is a young adult series, and we're all grown-ups here, but remember:<br />
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This is a great series, intellectually. It makes you think, makes you mull over situations you ordinarily wouldn't give a second thought to. The series may be criticized for not having an entirely original concept, but no story is ever completely original. With most stories, one can find another, earlier story that mirrors it almost exactly. This one is original enough, and provides a very fresh twist on one of the more interesting dystopian fiction tropes.<br />
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The first movie held up well in comparison to the books. My daughter also read the books before we went to see the first movie, so it was a neat experience to have someone to talk to about the differences, and what we liked and didn't like about each. That usually doesn't happen for me. We had a great literary discussion that bored the hell out of the rest of the family.</div>
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It will be interesting to see where this series goes from here. The stakes are higher, and the danger greater. Without giving away too many spoilers, the books left something to be desired with some readers because of the way they turned out. I thought it ended quite well, though, and I'll be watching closely to see if they pull any punches with the movies, as they so often tend to do. Hollywood evidently thinks moviegoers are a weaker, more dim-witted breed than book readers. Often they're the same people, so what gives?<br />
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It opens in the United States on November 22, 2013. You can visit the <b><a href="http://www.catchingfiremovie.com/index.html" target="_blank">official Hunger Games website</a></b> for more Capitol directives regarding Panem.<br />
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<b>Ender's Game</b><br />
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The book, no matter what one might think of the author, was fantastic. The immediate sequel, Ender's Shadow, was even better, in my opinion, but only because we got to see the behind-the-scenes action that tied the whole story together better, and from a better narrator.<br />
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The movie, we're told, will be much different than the book. It really has to be, which is one of the reasons it's taken so long to be translated from the written page to the silver screen. And I'm okay with that. The movie version of a book doesn't have to be the identical story for it to be a good story. They're two different storytelling mediums, and one often can do things the other can't. Sometimes there is merit in producing two very different versions of the same story to take advantage of the strengths of each storytelling medium.<br />
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One of the things I already like about the movie was the casting, which is a key difference between the movie and the book. The actors are older - in their early teens, as opposed to around six - but appear to be well suited to the characters they are portraying. That's an important aspect of a movie based on a book. While the reader has to conjure an image of the characters in the mind's eye, a movie can give a thousand-word description in a single frame. The problem lies when the characters in our mind's eye look nothing like their counterparts on the screen, because the producers failed to come up with the right actors.<br />
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It opens in the United States on November 1, 2013. You can visit the <b><a href="http://www.if-sentinel.com/" target="_blank">official Ender's Game website</a></b> for more tech from the International Fleet.<br />
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<b>There are a number of other movies I'm looking forward to this summer.</b> These are but three of the ones I'm most anxious to see. Others include <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/" target="_blank">Elysium</a></b>, <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483013/" target="_blank">Oblivion</a></b>, and <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/" target="_blank">World War Z</a></b>. What speculative fiction movies are you most looking forward to seeing this year?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-69563232462361876002013-06-03T20:12:00.000-07:002013-06-27T22:59:14.107-07:00I, For One, Welcome our New Robot Overlords<b>Remember when robots were these stiff, unresponsive automatons,</b> that performed rudimentary, programmed tasks, and the thought of any higher intelligence response was the stuff of science fiction movies? Well, that's all changed, and more quickly than we might have imagined. Several breakthroughs and advances in robotics have made that science fiction movie pipe dream look a whole lot more like reality. Here are five really cool videos that illustrate how far we've come recently.<br />
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<b>Robots can be controlled by human thoughts.</b> Through means of a brain-computer interface, a human is able to instruct the robot to complete tasks just by thinking. We've recently seen robotic prostheses designed which reacted to human thought, via the surrounding muscle. Now we're doing it from a computer interface wired directly to the brain.</div>
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<b>Robots anticipate human actions and act accordingly.</b> They are no longer programmed to simply act, but are now learning to be reactionary, to "think" for themselves, based on a dynamic environment. The ability to adjust to changing surroundings is key to real-world adaptations for robotics.<br />
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<b>Current robotic technology is becoming better and faster than before.</b> Where just a few years ago, getting legged robot to walk was a major breakthrough, we're now setting speed records. The faster a robot can travel, and the more agile it becomes, the better able it can function. This guy ain't called "Cheetah" for nothing.<br />
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<b>Robots are getting stronger and more agile.</b> Remember these guys, the "Big Dog," or "Alpha Dog" robots? The <b><a href="http://jonathandalar.blogspot.com/2012/01/ten-coolest-advances-in-robotics.html" target="_blank">nightmare fuel I shared</a></b> a while ago? Yea, I just thought you might like to revisit them, 'cause they're bad-ass beasts, and they're only getting better. And there are more of them, too. A whole army of them!<br />
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<b>Robots are being taught intrinsic motivation, or artificial curiosity.</b> Similar to how children learn, robots are being trained via behavior reinforcement learning. They learn by processing their environment into different types of behavioral modules, as seen through video cameras, and translating that into movement data. This creates a usable representation of its environment, along with learned behavior associated with goal-oriented functions.<br />
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<b>This may seem like the Terminator's Skynet to more than a few of you.</b> Hard to imagine otherwise staring down those big Alpha Dog robots coming at you at almost thirty miles an hour, especially when you imagine they've also melded reactive behavior and a usable translation of their environment to their skill sets. To paraphrase that <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKbFb6TPVEA" target="_blank">classic Simpson's line</a>:</b> I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. And so should you.<br />
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Luckily, scientists are all working to create peaceful robots, of course, which is why we see advances like prosthetic limbs, and cute robot boxing toys. The days where everyone is able to drum up the cash for a giant warrior dog robot are well in the future. But one can always dream, right?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-76522538234028929572013-04-22T09:48:00.000-07:002013-04-22T11:44:01.170-07:00It Ain't your Baby no More<b>In the wake of the Boston terror attacks at the marathon the other day, some strange twists developed that gave me pause for thought.</b> And they were strange - and I believe important - enough for me to break from tradition and share my thoughts on them with readers here.<br />
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Shortly after the attacks and their aftermath, musician and performer <b><a href="http://amandapalmer.net/" target="_blank">Amanda Palmer</a></b>, as you may have seen, wrote and posted a poem to her blog titled <b><a href="http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20130421" target="_blank">"a poem for dzhokhar."</a></b> Based on the title, I can only assume it's dedicated to the suspected terrorist pinned down and arrested after several days of absolute madness in Boston. A title is, after all, supposed to be "a descriptive name, caption, or heading" for a book, poem, etc.<br />
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Not surprising (at least to me) was the incredible backlash she faced as soon as she published the poem to the blog. Reactions varied between mild concern over the poem's title and content, to "are you fucking kidding me?" Ms. Palmer seemed to think it astonishing that people would think she was writing about him, and even had to defend the poem and try to explain what she really meant writing it. She even came out and stated verbatim "the you isn't him," even as it appeared so to me and many other readers. Many of her fans have come to her rescue too, stating quite emphatically that those who reacted negatively to the poem just didn't understand it.<br />
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I don't often discuss politically-related stuff on Twitter, or blog about it here, but felt compelled enough to comment. That instantly drew me into conversation with someone I can only assume was one of her fans who promptly informed me that if I couldn't get the true meaning of the poem, I'd best butt out of the conversation and leave it to the adults. We had a somewhat civil discussion following that about the intent and meaning of the poem, for what it's worth. But it really got me thinking about what a story becomes to author and to reader. And therein lies the key to a very interesting literary concept, folks. It's not one often talked about, but it's very vital to the relationship between authors and readers. That concept is this:<br />
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<b>Once the author or artist publishes something, its interpretation is no longer theirs, but the readers'.</b> They have done their part to form something which they hope best conveys their thoughts to the audience, but once it is published, the interpretation no longer belongs to them. In other words, it ain't your baby no more.<br />
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Of course, the author(s) and/or publisher(s) still hold the copyright to the work. That is an important distinction, separate from what I'm talking about here. They still have control over further creative edits, as well as the sale, production, and reproduction of the work. That is a vital component of literature and art. What they don't own is the imagery of the story itself, the reader's experience of it.<br />
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I've seen, time and again, literary agents give advice to authors, and one such piece of advice that has stuck with me is this: <b>if you have to explain your writing to someone, you have failed as an writer.</b> It's your job to form the words in such a way as to best convey ideas and imagery from your mind to the readers'. If that image is jumbled en route from your mind to theirs, then you have failed in that job.<br />
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There is an entire sub-set of the publishing industry built around interpreting plot points and meanings behind literary works, in the form of Cliffs Notes and other such cheat sheets and guides. We take classes on literature and art, read all manner of written works, and then sit around and commend each other on how well we've understood and interpreted the author's true meaning behind the words. We practically throw our shoulders out of joint patting ourselves on the back because we got the "true" meaning behind what the author wrote.<br />
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And a lot of it is bullshit. While there is merit in understanding the meanings behind art and literature, and while there is often intended meaning behind such works, those works are by their very nature subjective. This means they're completely subject to the readers' points of view, not the author's. The imagery in the reader's mind's eye belongs only to the reader. The accuracy in which it is conveyed from author to reader is because of the author's talent in writing, not the reader's in understanding. And just as important, the lack of accuracy in transferal also belongs to the author and not the reader.<br />
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In my head are very vivid pictures of a world quite different from ours, a world that started with the image of a lone gunslinger heading out across a dry and dusty wasteland. Now <b><a href="http://www.stephenking.com/index.html" target="_blank">Stephen King</a></b> did a tremendous job creating those images in my head, and I'd bet they're fairly similar to what he had in mind when he wrote the story. That's a tribute to how well he did his job as an author. But no matter how well he wrote, my images of that world will be far different from his, because when I read those books, that part of the story became mine.<br />
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Ms. Palmer is a songwriter and musician who has been in the business for a while. She's married to the incredibly talented author <b><a href="http://www.neilgaiman.com/" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman</a></b>. Together, that's a ton of artistic and literary talent and experience. I'm sure she's fully aware of this concept. When her stated intent behind the poem clashes with such a large number of its readers, that tells me she failed to convey her intent to them. At least I hope so, because the alternative is worrisome.<br />
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I'm not here to speculate on her motives for writing such a piece, although by publishing it, she leaves the option to do so fully in her readers' hands. I have to think that if it's a sort of "sympathy for the devil" piece, it didn't work very well at all. There are many pieces of literature throughout history that have themes of empathy for antagonistic characters. Vladimir Nabokov's character Humbert Humbert in the novel <i>Lolita</i> is a fine example. As a reader, you come to hate him in the end, even as you understand him. Author <b><a href="http://joehillfiction.com/" target="_blank">Joe Hill</a></b> wrote one of the best such examples I can think of in recent history with his novel <i>Horns</i>. His character Ig Parrish is quite obviously an antagonist written as a protagonist - essentially the devil himself, and yet we find ourselves rooting for him. That's a hard thing to pull off in a book. And yet it works incredibly well, because it isn't merely a story glorifying a very bad guy, but one that distinctly highlights the clash between good and evil in all of us.<br />
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<b>So why do I feel that Ms. Palmer's poem didn't work very well in that regard?</b> Because while allegedly writing it to appeal to the compassionate or empathetic side of human kind, she linked it specifically to a man who planned and prepared for weeks in advance, deliberately placed a bomb down behind an eight-year-old boy, and then walked away smiling as shrapnel ripped through that boy and hundreds of other victims. The horror was still vivid and immediate in the mind's eye because most of America watched as he did it, a few short days before. To link that imagery, that callous lack of regard for the lives of others to the thought that we're somehow all connected, all human, completely boggled my mind. There is a reason we call such acts <b><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inhuman" target="_blank">"inhuman,"</a></b> and it's because they are decidedly <i>not</i> within the bounds of normal human behavior, not suited for human beings. It's no wonder - and should be no wonder to Ms. Palmer - the poem has received such vitriol and negative criticism.<br />
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So to those who criticize detractors because we "just don't get it," just stop. Just fuckin' stop. You're insulting our intelligence by suggesting we can't grasp the "real" meaning behind it, and you're denigrating our humanity by insinuating we aren't willing or able to empathize with a terrorist who killed innocent life in cold blood. If Ms. Palmer wants to write something that makes half her readers think she is glorifying a terrorist, fine, it's her prerogative. If it does something for some folks, that's fine too. But don't try to invalidate others' views of the poem or argue they don't get the meaning, because <b>it ain't her baby no more.</b><br />
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Update: the Twitter user with which I conversed on this topic has since deleted all related tweets, leaving only my replies as evidence.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-39846979094395191582013-03-14T14:14:00.002-07:002013-03-14T14:24:31.342-07:00Life on Mars<b>No, we haven't discovered life on Mars.</b> Yet. But hopes are high, as the rover Curiosity and earlier rovers have confirmed the Red Planet does indeed have signs of conditions that would have supported life there at one time. It may be a matter of time before we discover the proof we're looking for. Until then we can only speculate. But instead of speculating if it had life, let's try and look at what kind of life it might have had.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://pixabay.com/p-11608/?no_redirect" target="_blank">Public Domain image</a></span></td></tr>
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One of the first things we need to determine is the temperature and climate necessary for life. It is in what some consider to be the <b><a href="http://www.universetoday.com/100683/habitable-earth-like-exoplanets-might-be-closer-than-we-think/" target="_blank">Habitable Zone</a></b>. But since Mars is half again further from the sun than Earth, it's a lot colder, and one of the trickier parts of this problem is creating a convincing climate model at any time in its history that produces conditions above freezing. The temperatures on Mars are estimated by infrared thermal mapper data at between 81 °F and −225 °F. And while life can exist in conditions below freezing, it does prove problematic, especially if there was no warmer time for them to evolve and adapt to less than optimal conditions. Being able to support life and being favorable for life are two vastly different things.<br />
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We have seen signs which <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080929.html" target="_blank">point to the presence of water</a></b> there in the past. We've seen clouds in Mars' atmosphere, and seen snow falling. Finding water-formed minerals including calcium carbonite, hematite, jarosite, and goethite on its surface also points to larger quantities of water at some time in its history. As water is a basic component of life as we know it, these are big steps toward confirming the presence of life there.<br />
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<b>Just the hint of water is hardly an ideal situation for life.</b> About <a href="http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">70% of Earth is covered with water</a>. About <b><a href="http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=sourcedetails&id=165610" target="_blank">226,000 forms of life on Earth</a></b> live in our lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans. Life is dependent on water, and far more than just having trace amounts of it around. So how would Mars have gotten that amount of water?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/redplanet2/slide_10.html" target="_blank">Size of Tharsis Volcanoes, by the Lunar and Planetary Institute</a></span></td></tr>
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Some scientists theorize that the Tharsis Montes, a volcanic bulge containing the largest volcanoes in the solar system, is large enough to have caused changes to the climate of the entire planet. Since these volcanoes are so huge - the tallest has a whopping summit elevation of 59,000 feet - they could have spewed enough water vapor and carbon dioxide to create a much thicker and warmer atmosphere in a series of eruptions. Some estimate the amount of gasses released into the atmosphere could have given Mars a thicker atmosphere than Earth's. And because of the size of this bulge, it's theorized it has affected the spin axis and changed geographic locations of the planet's poles. Based on the picture above, it's not hard to understand why.<br />
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The Mars of today and the Mars of eons ago could look drastically different. What is now frozen desert wastelands could have once been fertile plains and forests, and the cradle of life such as we have never seen on Earth. Would life on Mars have been that dissimilar to Earth's? We can probably assume the evolution of carbon-based life forms, but from there all bets are off.<br />
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Throughout Earth's history, the predominant phylum has changed several times. Fossil records indicate mammals weren't always the top dog. At one point plants, fish, amphibians, and dinosaurs were all top forms of life here. At one point, so were arthropods.<br />
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<b>What if a similar phylum to Earth's <i>arthropoda</i> became dominant?</b> We know from experience they can be very successful, and it's not hard to imagine a Martian landscape covered in giant bugs. Spiders, ants, scorpions, and the like are quite successful in arid lands and severe climates, and cockroaches live goddamn anywhere they want. It wouldn't be the first time someone envisioned bugs living on Mars.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Camel Spider © by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsmoorman/1355290298/sizes/z/in/photostream/" target="_blank">Scott</a></span></td></tr>
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Life on Mars could also be on a much different scale than Earth's. While larger life is more impressive and makes for better stories, my bet would be on smaller life. It's easier to imagine them surviving on less water and in more hazardous climates. Larger animals require so much more to be right in their environments, from food sources to temperatures to available space, that it's hard to see them surviving on a planet more hostile and extreme than our own. But given enough time, and assuming you believe in <b><a href="http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/default.htm" target="_blank">the theories of evolution</a></b>, it's not hard to visualize a society of intelligent arthropods, at a fraction of our own size, living comfortably in the lands of ancient Mars.<br />
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One would, however, assume a completely different evolutionary chain to have happened in the event of life on Mars. Even a small change in environment can produce drastically different results. It's not hard to see where life on Mars would have taken a very different turn from that on Earth.<br />
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<b>Mars and Earth are more alike than we might think.</b> While many find it easy to picture something quite alien and different from life here, the reality is that Mars is not that dissimilar to Earth. The image below compares an outcrop of rocks on Earth with a similar outcrop on Mars. Can you tell which is which? You can visit NASA's <a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4721" target="_blank"><b>Mars Exploration Program</b></a> website to find out. You got it wrong, didn't you?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4721" target="_blank">Rock Outcrops on Mars and Earth, by NASA</a></span></td></tr>
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Certain functions and structures are the easiest and simplest ways of doing things, and that's critical to evolution. Many different types of animals all have the same basic components, primarily because that's the best way to do things. Plants all function in basically the same way. And they most likely will on Mars too, because the basic foundation for life - the chemicals and elements that make up the structure of Mars - is the same as that of Earth.<br />
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So it would be no surprise to find life there. It may be a matter of time and effort. Chances are, if we do discover life, it won't be little green men, but rather little green microbes. It won't be nearly as exciting from a layman's point of view, but for science it will be a discovery of monumental proportions. One thing is for sure: <b><a href="http://www.raybradbury.com/books/martianchronicles-hc.html" target="_blank">Ray Bradbury</a></b> would have been excited beyond belief to know there really was once life on Mars.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-33892143360350248222013-02-15T09:11:00.000-08:002013-06-24T07:10:48.087-07:00Doomsday!Doomsday scenarios are bread and butter for the speculative fiction aficionado, and one of the more common of these is the meteor strike. Instant chaos, instant destruction, and the world is transformed into a completely different place. In light of this morning's <a href="http://io9.com/5984483/a-meteor-just-exploded-over-russia" target="_blank"><b>Russian meteor strike</b></a>, I think it fitting to compile thoughts on this subject and share them here.<br />
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First, let's put this into perspective. This Russian meteor was a bolide, or in layman's terms an air-burst, meaning most of it broke up on impact with Earth's atmosphere. It was reportedly about 10 tons, or roughly the size of a dump truck, and <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html" target="_blank"><b>according to NASA</b></a>, is totally unrelated to the asteroid 2012 DA14 passing through Earth's atmosphere today. It was traveling in the opposite direction, and thus was not a part of any debris traveling in the asteroid's wake. It was also traveling at 10-20 miles a second.<br />
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It exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, east of the Ural Mountains, and just over a thousand miles due east of Moscow. It's a city of about 1.1 million people, and almost a thousand of them so far have sought medical attention as a result of the meteor, mostly those injured by shattered glass and building debris from the sonic boom.<br />
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For a better understanding of the effects of a bolide explosion, watch this next video. I recommend cranking your speakers to full volume to get the full effect. (No, don't do that - it's friggin' loud! Understandably, it also contains a lot of swearing in Russian.)<br />
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This pales in comparison to the meteor that struck the Tunguska area of Siberia in 1908. That one was the largest recorded impact event in history, and struck with the force of a 5.0 earthquake as measured on the Richter scale. The Tunguska meteor is also largely considered to be a bolide, meaning most of it didn't even hit the ground. Even so, it flattened everything within an area 830 square miles wide, with a blast estimated at between 10-15 megatons of TNT, or about 1,000 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.<br />
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So how did we not see this most recent one coming? How did it escape attention until it impacted our atmosphere, far too late for any warnings or advisories? Well, <b><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/02/15/russian-meteorite-why-didnt-scientists-see-it-coming/" target="_blank">scientists say size</a></b> has a lot to do with it. Space is a pretty big place to look for something the size of a dump truck. That, and if it's coming at us from the direction of the sun, rather than from dark space, it could be very difficult to see even if we were looking for it.<br />
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These events of course fuel our imagination, and propelled by the media's infatuation with hyperbole, can lend themselves to some pretty interesting speculation. It's not hard to imagine the chaos and destruction involved with a meteor or series of meteors that actually impact the earth.<br />
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The more of these events that happen, and are inevitably filmed and recorded from every possible angle, the more we understand them. We see firsthand accounts of their destruction, and hear how they affected common people.<br />
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Just imagine for a moment that the 2012 DA14 asteroid that passes by Earth today was actually on a trajectory to impact Earth. The Russian meteor earlier was a dump truck-sized rock of about 10 tons; Astroid 2012 DA14 is about 190,000 tons, and 160 feet long. That seems gigantic, but the size and speed of it would put it lower than the lowest estimates of the one that struck over Tunguska in 1908, with the kinetic energy of only about 3.5 megatons of TNT.<br />
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So we're safe. For now. But there's still hope, doomsdayers. Asteroids of this size are expected to hit Earth about every 1,200 years. Better get your affairs in order. The year 3108 is just around the corner!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-69864293772618889652013-01-04T10:51:00.000-08:002013-01-04T10:51:08.594-08:00The Next Big ThingI was tagged by <a href="http://www.lukewalkerwriter.com/2012/11/the-next-big-thing.html#comment-form"><b>Luke Walker</b></a> in his The Next Big Thing blog post chain. It's taken me a little while to respond, because well, I wasn't sure I was interested in writing about stuff I was writing. I don't post a lot of what I do, because I don't feel it's right for me to do it. If it's not edited and published, it's probably not my best work, and I don't want to present it until then. This is a bit different, with more of an interview style to it, so I decided to play along. Here goes:<br />
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<b>1) What is the working title of your next book?</b><br />
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The Chiaroscuro Portrait. And I so hope that title sticks. They say titles are changed 60% of the time in publishing, which is a pretty decent amount of the time. I have stories whose titles I know will be changed, and that's perfectly acceptable. This one I hope sticks, because it's a really cool title, and it fits the story so very well.<br />
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<b>2) Where did the idea come from for the book?</b><br />
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Heh! It came from a doxycycline-fueled nightmare in Afghanistan a number of years ago. Doxy is an antimalarial medicine and was required for us there at the time. It's said to cause stomach unrest and weird dreams. I got none of the stomach unrest and all of the weird dreams, all the time. Lots of folks get their stories from dreams. That's not really earth-shattering. This dream was so wickedly weird that I awoke in a cold sweat, powered on the laptop and pounded a 500-word summary before I forgot what I dreamed. And then I got ready and went out to grind out a long workday just like always. I wrote the rest of the story during that deployment.<br />
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<b>3) What genre does your book fall under?</b><br />
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Young Adult horror. I originally wrote it as adult fiction, but the characters' ages, coupled with the issues they faced in the story, really suit it better for young adult. And with the move to darker YA titles nowadays, it seems like perfect timing.<br />
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<b>4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie version?</b><br />
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You know, a lot of people describe their books as making great movies, or being perfect for the silver screen, but I don't think this one would. While it could probably be adapted to a decent movie script, I think unlike some of the other stuff I've written, this story is better told in printed form. If pushed, I'd have to say I'd like to see brand new actors take on the roles for it. I believe a story in film is a little cleaner if the audience isn't watching the performance of their favorite actors and actresses, but rather concentrating on the story itself.<br />
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<b>5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?</b><br />
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After his childhood crush comes back to life, Toby must learn how Julie can escape the hellish memories of death, and what it will cost.<br />
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<b>6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?</b><br />
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I am currently seeking representation for it. While the lure of higher royalties in self-publishing is tempting, and while it would be edited and proofed professionally in either case, I feel it's still a better option to go the traditional route with this novel, especially at this point in my career. I don't think I'd be doing the story justice otherwise. I don't tend to view literary agents as "gatekeepers" as some authors do, but rather as those who offer ladders in the difficult climb to the top of publishing. Sure, you can climb the cliff on your own, and a few have made it just fine on their own. But most don't, and even though there are only so many ladders to go around, they provide a huge advantage. Besides, if you're doing what it takes to impress an agent to accept your manuscript, you've already taken the first steps to enticing editors and publishers, and by proxy, future readers.<br />
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<b>7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?</b><br />
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The first draft went rather quickly. Three months, I think. Of course, with adequate time to write, and a story that practically wrote itself, it wasn't that hard to do. Since then, I've edited it a number of times, and it's gained and lost a considerable amount from the original.<br />
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<b>8 ) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?</b><br />
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I'm a little ashamed to say that's a tough call. I'm not by nature an aficionado of young adult literature, although I am reading more in the category now that the girl prodigy is reading it profusely. The fact that this story is young adult is rather coincidental, really. I like horror, and in that respect, it reminds me a little of Stephen King's Carrie, but without the "documentary" feel. Some of the themes are the same, with young protagonists in social environs that they're not really all that equipped to handle yet. It also has some darker parts that deal with certain taboo subjects like death, religion, and the like. It's quite a different story, of course, and ostracism isn't key to the plot, but there are similarities in how it feels. I would be lucky to have it see a fraction of Carrie's success!<br />
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<b>9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?</b><br />
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The dream I had was the only real inspiration I had or needed. The title was a bit trickier. The story didn't actually have a title for the longest while. I had inspiration, an image of what I wanted, but no title. I wanted to convey the concept of following eyes, of a portrait painting being almost alive in its detail and realism. And then I came across the chiaroscuro method of painting, the use of strong contrasts of light and dark to give a picture a three-dimensional feel and pop it off the canvas. That concept plays rather well into the story.<br />
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<b>10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?</b><br />
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I like the relationship between the two main protagonists in the story, and how things are much different in retrospect than they were at face value before. There's more honesty after the events that form the basis of the story, something not really probable with teenagers facing normal social situations. The self-consciousness and inexperience Toby has as a teen facing his lifelong crush is rather poignant at times, and lends well to the story. I also set the story in a small town outside Spokane, Washington, near where I grew up. It's a fictional town, but anyone who grew up in the Palouse country wheat fields of Eastern Washington would recognize it as any number of the small towns there.<br />
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No one else comes to mind when thinking of who to tag for follow-on posts of their own, so if you've got something burning, feel free to take this and run with it. Let me know and I'll edit this with a link.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-5761663029376389902012-10-31T09:25:00.000-07:002013-06-24T07:16:12.752-07:00Zombies!<b>It's Halloween, folks, and that means it's Zombie Preparedness Day.</b> They're coming. They'll be at your door tonight. Will you be ready?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Zombie Walk 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; line-height: 115%;">©</span> <a href="http://www.sics.se/~piak/Photo/Studies/Zombies/" target="_blank">Katja Sarijeva and Piak</a></span></td></tr>
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Zombies have largely been myths and legends over the years. People have disregarded them as nothing more than fictional mayhem, a fun little scare to conjure during the late autumn months when the pumpkins ripen and the corn is ready to eat.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: right;">Zombie Walk 2009 </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 11px; text-align: right;">©</span><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: right;"> </span><a href="http://www.sics.se/~piak/Photo/Studies/Zombies/" style="font-size: x-small; text-align: right;" target="_blank">Katja Sarijeva and Piak</a></td></tr>
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But we're now finally taking them seriously. We're preparing for them. In fact, today in San Diego, hundreds of Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, police, firefighters and folks from other disaster response organizations will conduct <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/check-out-how-law-enforcement-is-prepping-for-a-potential-zombie-apocalypse/" target="_blank"><b>Zombie Apocalypse Training</b></a>. That's right - real life training for a zombie apocalypse. Their goal is to train for preparedness in the case of a natural or man-made disaster. Or, you know, a zombie outbreak.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NgDDoIDLHt4/UJFOWWZV3GI/AAAAAAAABcM/6OdnBHpVlFc/s1600/Zombie+Walk+2009-7+by+Katja+Sarijeva+and+Piak.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NgDDoIDLHt4/UJFOWWZV3GI/AAAAAAAABcM/6OdnBHpVlFc/s640/Zombie+Walk+2009-7+by+Katja+Sarijeva+and+Piak.jpeg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: right;">Zombie Walk 200 9 </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 11px; text-align: right;">©</span><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: right;"> </span><a href="http://www.sics.se/~piak/Photo/Studies/Zombies/" style="font-size: x-small; text-align: right;" target="_blank">Katja Sarijeva and Piak</a></td></tr>
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<b>So what makes a zombie tick?</b> Why do they act the way they do? They're slow, shambling, stumbling; they're after your brains. But why? Steven Schlozman, MD, an assistant medical professor at Harvard Medical School explains:<br />
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Well, that was comforting. Or disturbing. Whichever. If it helps prepare you in any way for the impending apocalypse, I have done my job, and I'm proud of that. Helping humanity through troubling times. That's my job. That and occasionally scaring the bejeezus out of folks.<br />
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<b>But how did zombies get that way?</b> We've heard of zombies for centuries. There has to be some kernel of truth behind the legends, some ghost of reality that caused people to repeat these stories and perpetuate the myths. Let's go to Haiti to find out:<br />
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Again, a bit disturbing. But on Halloween, that's a good thing, right? I think so. In fact, what's the holiday without a whole lot of gore and a little terror, anyway? If you aren't scared at least once today, you're not living.<br />
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We plan on getting scared. Plenty. We have a list of great horror movies lined up for tonight, including some pretty good zombie flicks like <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/" target="_blank">Zombieland</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/" target="_blank">Shaun of the Dead</a></b>. Yea, we like a little comedy with our horror around these parts.<br />
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How about you?<br />
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<b>Update:</b> The House of Dalar was in full zombie mode last night. Those little trick-or-treaters really earned their candy, let me tell you!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-12529380374114925412012-10-03T11:21:00.000-07:002012-10-03T16:45:58.397-07:00Banned BooksThis week, September 30 - October 6, 2012, is <b><a href="http://bannedbooksweek.org/" target="_blank">Banned Books Week</a></b>, so what better time to take a look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments" target="_blank"><b>books that have been banned</b></a> over the years in various countries? I'll select a few examples, and discuss a bit about why they were banned. Should be not only fun, but hopefully insightful.<br />
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Several classic science fiction novels have been banned in various countries, including some of the most iconic examples of the genre: <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-Eighty-Four-Centennial-George-Orwell/dp/0452284236/" target="_blank">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Farm-George-Orwell/dp/1412811902/" target="_blank">Animal Farm</a></b>, both by George Orwell; <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brave-World-P-S-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0061767646/" target="_blank">Brave New World</a></b>, by Aldous Huxley; and <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Mary-Shelley/dp/1613821670/" target="_blank">Frankenstein</a></b>, by Mary Shelley. Those are some pretty heavy hitters, and books that are now on many educational reading lists. But why were they banned?<br />
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Brave New World was supposedly banned in Ireland for "references of sexual promiscuity," and in fact many books in many different countries were banned for similar reasons, including Frankenstein. Obscenity seems to be a common theme for those pushing to ban certain books, and one does not have to look very far to find examples of books banned for obscenity as recently as this year.<br />
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I get the obscenity angle, the push to keep society (and children, of course) as Puritan as possible. Many countries, the United Kingdom and America especially, have been quite prudish regarding this sort of thing. But while it's understandable to shield those not mature enough to handle certain situations from them, it's another altogether to push an agenda of morality on a country's citizenry. Banning something on moral grounds indicates not only mistrust in people to make rational decisions based on the content for themselves, but also behavior that stifles the ability to learn rational decision-making. After all, if one is shielded from anything deemed inappropriate, how can they learn the process of identifying it as such for themselves? "Because I said so" works well with toddlers. They have limited experience with making sound decisions. But once a person matures to the point where they are supposed to make decisions on their own, that is no longer a viable reason.<br />
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George Orwell's works have been banned for much more obvious reasons: they are outright political satire, and were banned because of their criticism of communism and corruption in government. Stalin knew Nineteen Eighty-Four was a clear jab at him and his leadership, and enacted a ban on the book throughout the U.S.S.R that continued through 1990, when it was edited and re-released.<br />
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These are clear cases of the suppression of free speech, and key indicators of those governments' stances toward that basic human right. Interestingly, communist-led countries were not the only ones to ban Orwell's books. Allied forces banned Animal Farm during parts of World War II because of its critical look at the U.S.S.R., and was deemed too "controversial" to print during wartime.<br />
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Many other books have been banned for any number of reasons, with "subversive material," "hate literature," "insulting material," and "unflattering portrayal" of individuals, religions, governments, or populations cited as reasons. Books as old as the Bible and as innocuous as dictionaries have been banned. Generally, it appears that if a book contains anything someone somewhere would find objectionable, it's going to get banned.<br />
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And that's a shame. A book may not be tasteful or politically correct. It may be lewd, inappropriate, or offensive. It may even be downright vile or provocative. And none of that matters. It's still just a book. Words. Nothing in any book should exempt the actions of a human being, capable of making conscious choice to commit those actions.<br />
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We've seen this tested recently, with the <b><a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2012-09-27/africa/world_africa_libya-consulate-attack_1_benghazi-attack-benghazi-consulate-consulate-attack" target="_blank">terror attacks in Benghazi</a></b>, supposedly <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/12/us-usa-libya-pastor-military-idUSBRE88B1C320120912" target="_blank">linked to outrage over an amateur movie</a></b>. We've seen calls to limit offensive or provocative speech. Will common sense prevail, or as <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Novel-Ray-Bradbury/dp/1451673310/" target="_blank">Fahrenheit 451</a></b> alluded to, will they one day come for our books in an effort to suppress dissent, quell unrest, or create the illusion of peace and prosperity?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-14735499982159189442012-09-18T09:03:00.002-07:002013-06-11T16:09:36.874-07:00Book Review: Brave New World<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ve0F1bG1B3Q/UFiMCmtCV6I/AAAAAAAABOM/xbUmHz88pR8/s1600/Book+Review+-+Brave+New+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ve0F1bG1B3Q/UFiMCmtCV6I/AAAAAAAABOM/xbUmHz88pR8/s320/Book+Review+-+Brave+New+World.jpg" width="213" /></a><b>Aldous Huxley's science fiction masterpiece Brave New World</b> is set <b><a href="http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/a-timeline-of-future-events" target="_blank">further in the future</a></b> than many such stories, reaching clear to the year 2540 AD, or "632 A.F.," as it calls the year. It's one of the earlier "utopian" novels, and in my humble opinion one of the best. Of course, that opinion is <b><a href="http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/" target="_blank">shared by many</a></b> lovers of literature, so it probably counts for something. It's sometimes referred to as "dystopian" fiction, but is more a negative look at a false utopia rather than the portrayal of a dystopian society.<br />
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Huxley was already a well-established satirist when he wrote the book, which probably attributes to the impact it's had on society. Satire needs an honest, critical look at a topic, something it shares with well written science fiction, and Brave New World is a great example of this. It's less obvious now, so removed from the year 1931 when it was written, but the world of the future with its sociological, political, and economic changes certainly resonated with then-current world events. In fact, the names of all the book's characters were taken from influential and well-known figures of the time. Many, such as Lenin, Trotsky, Mussolini, and Hoover are still widely recognized historical figures.<br />
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One of the best gauges of a novel is whether it passes the test of time, and Brave New World does. Many of the topics addressed throughout the book are still important and controversial today. Mass production was a relatively new concept at the time Huxley wrote it, but the book's critical look at consumerism and affinity for material goods is as relevant today as it was then. Religion as we understand it is almost nonexistent in the book, with Henry Ford as the only real deity remaining, another nod to the effects of consumerism. Vestiges of traditional religion remain, but are fragmented and few, with many modified to reflect a purely secular society. Similarly, the concepts of family and individualism are ghosts of what we know them as today.<br />
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Another interesting look at societal issues is Huxley's application of genetic modification. The structure of DNA wasn't yet explored when he wrote the book, but he did an excellent job of describing artificial selection of traits and qualities that we see today. His breeding and conditioning system is eerily similar to today's cloning and stem cell research. Such a thing is common with breeding domestic animals, but becomes far more controversial when humans are brought into the discussion. Huxley's stark look at human castes, where humans are born into distinct, predetermined roles, from the privileged "Alpha" literati to the mindless worker drone "Gammas," "Deltas," and "Epsilons," is as relevant to this discussion today as it was then.<br />
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There are dark undertones of ostracism and segregation throughout the book, as we learn of the splintered fragments of civilization who live outside the bounds of the established World State. The obvious differences between those of normal society and the character of John the Savage are larger than simple appearance and culture. There is a fundamental difference in thought between the two, which is something that drives both plot and narrative. "Savages" are outcasts, and are thought of as lesser beings as compared to those in the "brave new world," but when John comes to visit, he only accentuates the hollowness and lack of substance in their utopian society.<br />
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More than just a dissertation on societal issues, this book is a critical look at real world problems that arise from an exploding population and the constant need to ever improve and expand the concept of humanity, while feeding our insatiable desire for materialism and comfort. In fact, it's been argued this novel is a <b><a href="http://www.anorak.co.uk/359349/the-consumer/books/huxley-vs-orwell-the-comic-inspired-by-neil-postmans-amusing-ourselves-to-death.html/" target="_blank">better prognosticator of future dystopia</a></b> than Orwell's 1984. It is a must-read for not only science fiction lovers, but for all members of society.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-42704850789736642102012-08-23T13:38:00.000-07:002013-06-24T07:18:25.349-07:00Mission To Mars!As you've probably heard by now, NASA's newest six-wheeled rover Curiosity landed on Mars this month. No small feat. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and didn't. Instead of disappointment at what might have been, we have an awesome robotic machine tearing up the Red Planet's soil, taking samples, pictures, and data of all sorts. Outstanding!<br />
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<b>Curiosity was launched from Earth on the Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle on November 26, 2011.</b> It landed in the Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, after traveling 354 million miles to get there. Not only did it make it there, it landed within a mile and a half of its target landing spot, which is a damn fine bit of accuracy for something that far away. Curiosity is scheduled to explore the planet for at least 687 Earth days, or one Martian year, and cover a distance of 3.1 by 12 mi miles. It's nuclear powered, and has the fuel to function for about four Earth years, so we may see more of it than just what's planned.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle © by </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Official US Air Force</a></span>
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<b>I've put together some links and resources to follow Curiosity's mission there.</b> <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/" target="_blank"><b>NASA</b></a> (Twitter handle <b><a href="https://twitter.com/NASA" target="_blank">@NASA</a></b>) is the ultimate source of all things Curiosity, but not the only one. The <b><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">NASA Jet Propulsion Lab</a></b> (Twitter handle <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAJPL" target="_blank"><b>@NASAJPL</b></a>) manages most of the robotic missions exploring Earth, the solar system and the universe, including this one to Mars. Curiosity itself shares a lot of information, with the Twitter handle <a href="https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">@MarsCuriosity</a>, on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b>, and on <b><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/114515182489078459006/posts" target="_blank">Google +</a></b>. Of course, it's not live tweeting and posting from Mars, but don't tell it that.<br />
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It has already sent back some amazing footage, including the <b><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/hd-curiosity-landing/" target="_blank">hair-raising decent</a></b> onto the surface of Mars, and the first <b><a href="http://www.360pano.eu/show/?id=731" target="_blank">360 degree panoramic shot</a></b> of the surface. Even more amazing is seeing ourselves from the perspective of another planet.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Earth From Mars </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; line-height: 115%;">©</span><span style="text-align: start;"> </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a>
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NASA named Curiosity's landing site on Mars for the late science fiction author Ray Bradbury, calling it the Bradbury Landing Site. If only he could have seen it happen. Bradbury was hugely instrumental in sparking and nurturing our interest in the Red Planet. I think he would have loved to see these wonderful pictures sent back from the planet he wrote so much about.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Wall of Gale Crater © </span><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16052" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</a></span>
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<b>So what's in store for Curiosity in the future?</b> Well, besides the beautiful pictures of the Martian landscape and the view from there into our galaxy, we can expect quite a bit more. Its mission is to <b><a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/overview/" target="_blank">explore the planet's "habitability,"</a></b> to determine if it ever had an environment that could sustain life. Most of this research will be conducted with soil analysis, studying rocks, soils, and Martian geology to understand chemical composition and forms of carbon there. This will help assess what the environment was like there in the past, and could lead to the discovery of life there. At the very least, it should tell us if life on Mars was ever even a possibility.<br />
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In addition to exploring the geological and mineralogical composition of the surface and near-surface, it will study and catalog the organic carbon compounds and chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur) on Mars, giving us an understanding of the biological processes that have happened there. It will also study the atmospheric evolution processes from the present state and distribution of any water and carbon dioxide it finds there. This will go a long ways toward determining if there was ever life on Mars.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Wiggle in the Gravel © </span><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16087" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span>
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Curiosity is much larger than the previous rovers we've sent there. It also has over ten times the mass of scientific instruments they had, so its capacity for learning and discovery are far greater than ever before. It has more missions than they did, and more capacity to send its findings back to its home planet. Until the next mission is launched in 2016, it's our best shot at discovering life on Mars.<br />
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<b>So is there life there?</b> Was there ever? Were the conditions ever right for it? Some folks think so. In fact, some think life on Earth actually originated from Mars. With Curiosity, we may soon find out the answers to those questions and many more.<br />
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Update: Found a wonderful film/animation of how Spirit and Opportunity got to Mars. Well worth a view, preferably full-screen.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-29826537711262517522012-08-02T14:31:00.000-07:002012-08-02T14:33:22.818-07:00Who Wants To Live Forever?<b>An awful lot has been said throughout history on the subject of immortality.</b> Religions of all denominations proclaim eternal life as the successor to death. Spanish explorer and conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon was obsessed with it. Humans for millennia have been trying to achieve it. And it's a major theme in speculative fiction, from <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula" target="_blank">Dracula</a></b> to <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203/" target="_blank">Highlander</a></b>.<br />
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Immortals come in a number of varieties: deities, vampires, ghosts, zombies, alien races, observers, and even humans who, through science or magic, have escaped the grasp of death. Some forms portray immortality as gruesome; tales of warning perhaps. Some laud it as the holy grail of all life. And all make us question our own feelings when faced with such a possibility.<br />
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A recent <b><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/07/human-immortality-could-be-possible-by-2045-say-russian-scientists.html" target="_blank">news article</a></b> - where Russian scientist Dmitry Itskov is working to create a humanoid robot, capable of housing artificial brains which contain a person's complete consciousness - got me to thinking about this subject. This project, if successful, would allow the human consciousness to escape the body before death, and live on forever in the body of an avatar. Some of our wildest science fiction could soon become reality.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Da Vinci Vitruvian man</span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">, © </span><a href="http://www.lucnix.be/main.php" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">Luc Viatour</a><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> (CC BY-SA 3.0)</span></span>
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Aside from the initial knee-jerk reaction of not wanting to die, it's an interesting quandary. One could quite realistically choose to avoid death, but could one choose to give up that borrowed time later on? There are many ethical and moral questions to be pondered here besides simple immortality. What about things like human relationships and sex? Since a venture of this nature is so incredibly expensive, what of the implications of Itskov suggesting that such cybernetic immortality can be exchanged for a price? At what point does one's intellect and contributions to society factor into the equation? And when will the ability to choose potential immortals be bought and paid for? Almost immediately after implementation, one would assume.<br />
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And while many people jump at the idea of living forever, many others are repulsed by the idea. The thought of always being around, outliving anyone you ever cared about, watching as those around you die off one by one is something they'd rather not face. To those of this opinion, it's a horror - a curse, not a blessing at all.<br />
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<b>I intend to live forever. So far, so good.<br /><br />- Steven Wright</b><br />
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That's my opinion on the matter too. While death is said to be the last great adventure, I'm not quite ready to give up adventuring where I am just yet. I'm having far too much fun. I don't think, even after pondering it as long as I have, that I'd be too disappointed with immortality. I think I'd kind of like it. After all, it'd give those "back in the day" stories some real meat, wouldn't it?<br />
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A lot of this argument centers around quality of life. "I wouldn't want to outlive my usefulness, my ability to really get out and live!" we opine from the comfortable sanctuary of the couch. We say this, while hiding the fact that not only haven't we been anywhere or seen anything special in longer than we care to admit. We love the adventurer, the world traveler, the guy who gets into these fantastic, chaotic situations around the world, but we only love it because we can watch from the safety of our own little world.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, serif;">A symbolic gravestone in Foulden Churchyard, </span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, serif;">© Copyright </span><a href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/6638" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL dct:creator" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, serif;" title="View profile" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#">Walter Baxter</a> </span></td></tr>
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And it seems the main argument is that we'd have to sit around for all eternity watching our loved ones die, but really, that happens even now. And we continue to live and move on, as does the circle of life. We're constantly making new friends, losing track of some of the old ones. Would immortality really change this pattern? I don't think it would.<br />
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<b>So how about you?</b> How does Itskov's possibility of cybernetic immortality strike you? Is it the coolest idea ever? A nightmare too horrible to consider? Some combination of nightmare and dream?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-1837746937093318942012-07-18T11:08:00.000-07:002013-08-20T10:36:35.360-07:00Writing Advice from the MastersSo there's a lot of writing advice out there. A lot of it's great. Some of it stinks. I've even thrown my two amateur cents into the ring from time to time, whether good, bad or otherwise. It all has some merit, though, when weighed with a grain of salt or two. After all, many great authors differ <b><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/semicolons-a-love-story/" target="_blank">greatly with the advice they give</a></b> on writing. And one can still learn from mistakes and bad advice, just as they can from the good.<br />
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On that note, I thought it fitting to compile some advice clips from the masters of the craft, those to whom we look to as the ultimate experts of the trade. Here are ten authors talking about various aspects of storytelling. Enjoy and learn as I did.<br />
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<b>Ray Bradbury</b> on writing persistently:<br />
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The most interesting part of this is how he would send short story after short story out, and wait for the rejections. This is something I've done countless times, and at about the same ages. Always the rejections. I looked forward to them, to each one, hopefully with some tidbit of personal advice upon which to learn and grow. I have close to 300 of them from short stories alone, most collected during my teens and early twenties, tucked away as mementos to perseverance and to giving my heart and soul to writing. Most of the time between then and now has been spent writing, honing, perfecting; not trying to get published. I've been too often in parts of the world where it was just not conducive to querying. It's always been on my mind, even in places as foreign as Afghanistan, as quite a few rejections will testify to.<br />
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<b>Elmore Leonard</b> on hard work, characters, descriptions, and rhythm in writing:<br />
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"I made myself get up at five o'clock every morning to write fiction. I had a rule that I had to begin writing, get into whatever the scene was, before I could put the coffee on. If I hadn't done that, I don't think I'd be sitting here today." That is a pretty powerful impetus for sitting down on your ass and cranking the words out. Probably makes most of us, even the more successful ones, a little chagrined, more eager to jump back into a story again. He's absolutely dead on - at least in my case - about writing four pages for every one quality page. Writing is rewriting. The one thing I can't agree with is writing longhand. I've done it before, and just can't stand it. Give me a good ol' word processor every day of the week. That way I can go back and change a word mid-stroke when I realize it wasn't the best choice to use.<br />
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<b>Stephen King</b> on writing short stories:<br />
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So interesting his view on why people don't read short stories as much anymore. He attributes it to laziness, which is probably a large percentage of the truth. The other percentage, I think, is the way stories are promulgated to the public. We aren't satisfied with a single peek at something. We have to have more. Even a movie or a single book isn't enough. We have to have trilogies and series and goddamn sagas! Let it never end! And yet a short story does just that. It's like the one night stand of literature, that fleeting kiss in the night, never to be continued, but only remembered for its fiery brevity. I absolutely love short stories. And in today's world of short attention span theater, and fear of commitment, I don't know how the short story isn't more popular than it is.<br />
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<b>Kurt Vonnegut</b> on writing short stories:<br />
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Short, sweet advice, just like a short story. But it's some of the best advice I've ever heard. And the thing is, all these words of wisdom are just as applicable to writing novels as they are to shorter works. We see professionals in the literary business talking about how stories just don't start fast enough, that there's too much pre-story or world building, or character development happening before the actual story starts. Vonnegut's advice on starting the story as close to the end as possible is just as good in these cases as it is for a piece of flash fiction. Start with the action, make your characters want something, and then take it away from them.<br />
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<b>Neil Gaiman</b> with advice for new writers:<br />
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His advice, apart from going out and actually living and seeing the world is spot on. If you want to write, you have to write. The elves aren't going to magic your book into finished form. You're not going to get a sudden epiphany one day and churn out a book, slavering over an old fashioned typewriter like the classics. You're not friggin' Snoopy, sitting on your doghouse, pecking out that great work of literature without a flaw. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to write absolute crap. God knows I have. And you'll learn from it. You'll edit like there's no tomorrow, and when you're done, the finished product will look nothing like what you started with. And it's all because you wrote, and wrote, and wrote. And wrote some more.<br />
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<b>Margaret Weiss</b> talks with <b>R.A. Salvatore</b> on collaboration and how gaming affects fantasy books:<br />
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The most interesting part of this interview for me is hearing about collaboration. A story of any size is very personal; it's probably one of the most intimately personal pieces of creativity there is, and sharing that with anyone can create some complex and often problematic issues. It appears that one of the reasons why Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman have been so successful writing fantasy together is the way they have worked together. Each person has specific tasks and goals, each a certain chunk of the story they are responsible for. With less overlap, there is less a chance that the artistic vision of one author will clash with that of the other.<br />
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<b>Louis L'Amour</b> talks about historical accuracy and research in writing:<br />
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One thing he mentions later in this interview is his trademark lack of profanity. While he grew up in among a very rough crowd, he never saw the need for it. He didn't feel it was appropriate to use profanity, and that using it was often a crutch for a "lack of real skill". While I'll sprinkle my stories with profanity where necessary, L'Amour has a very good point - one shouldn't have to use it at all to get the point across. In the end, I'd opine that it's fine if used as a part of one's style; not if used as a crutch.<br />
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<b>Chuck Palahniuk</b> with a succinct analogy on writer's block:<br />
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Slightly crude or not, his point is made. And that's really the thing. Many writers advise one to write every day, to write nonstop. But Palahniuk's advice is simpler: if you don't have anything to write, there's no sense trying to force it out. But I think it goes deeper than that, and is something that is nuanced in what he says here. Many writers have tons of great ideas, filling their heads and overflowing onto the written page, whether they like it or not. But they don't have those ideas without living, without gaining experiences, because those experiences are what feed the ideas necessary to write.<br />
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<b>Garrison Keillor</b> with some advice to writers:<br />
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"Get out of the house," he says, and he's right, because writing isn't just about the author. In fact, I'd argue it's exactly the opposite. Writing has almost nothing to do with the writer, and everything to do with the reader. It's the reader's experience that brings a book to life, not the writer's. If you don't go out and experience life, relate to others, stay tuned to what's happening in the world, you'll end up writing a bunch of self-absorbed pretentious crap that nobody wants to read.<br />
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<b>John Irving</b> with encouragement to new writers:<br />
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It's tougher today than ever before to break through in this industry. The competition is not only an increasingly larger number of writers, but it's also tougher. The talent pool is larger. But that shouldn't mean discouragement. Rather it should be incentive to work all that much harder. It takes a lot to really produce a quality work of art, no matter the medium, and the higher the competition level, the better the best work is going to be.<br />
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Watching these videos, we get rather common themes from them. Write often. Read a lot. Get out there and live. Persevere. Write a variety of genres and lengths. Experiment. But over all, write, write, write. And then write some more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-43380216453443895342012-07-03T10:54:00.000-07:002012-07-03T10:54:40.819-07:00Finding One's VoiceI find it odd, this thing called voice. I read quite a wide variety of authors, both classic and contemporary, and with the good ones, no matter the genre, voice is always king.<br />
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Fellow Pacific Northwest native <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Robbins/e/B000APVAHM" target="_blank"><b>Tom Robbins</b></a>, of which I've spoken before, has one of the most distinguishable voices there is. His voice is magnificent! It rises from whatever depths necessary to envelop the reader with pearls of wisdom, still wrapped in the gooey funk of the underdeep. He grabs the reader by the stack and swivels, and woos you face to face with his wisdom and wit, whether you like it or not. He's the only author I know who shatters George Carlin's plea on writing:<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Casual';">The only story I know of where clouds are important was Noah’s Ark!</span></b><br />
<br /><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Casual';">- George Carlin</span></b><br />
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Tom Robbins does better than that. "A rank of ample black clouds had been double-parked along the western horizon like limousines at a mobster’s funeral. Rather suddenly now, they wheeled away from the long green curb and congregated overhead, where, like overweight yet still athletic Harlem Globetrotters, they bobbed and weaved, passing lightning bolts trickily among themselves while the wind whistled 'Sweet Georgia Brown,'" he writes in <i>Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates</i>. And in another novel, I forget which at the moment, he describes clouds as "nuns having a pillow fight".<br />
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That's voice, folks, pure voice. Few others can equal that ability to trick images to leap into our minds from a few carefully placed words on a page. None can mimic that exact cadence and poetry he employs. And even if he's just talking about the weather - something writers are constantly advised not to do - you want to keep on reading.<br />
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<b>Robbins isn't alone in displaying a unique, discernible voice.</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King/e/B000AQ0842/" target="_blank">Stephen King</a></b> has a voice. So much so that people called him out on his pseudonym Richard Bachman, because after a few novels they had it figured out, just by the sound of the voice. His voice is one of the things that sets him apart from other authors, and one of the main reasons I believe he's had so much success.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/David-Eddings/e/B000AQ3E7A/" target="_blank">David Eddings</a></b> had a unique voice as well. So much so that one could easily identify the author just by reading a few passages of his character's dialogue. His dry, sardonic humor seeped into his characters so well that it made them easily recognizable and made them react in familiar manners when faced with obstacles in the plot.</div>
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And that, I think, is one of the problems of having such a distinctive voice. All authors put so much of themselves into their work that it shows through in every character, every passage of narration. But by doing that, they give it a sense of sameness, of consistency. And while this is good for the overall tone of the book, it has a tendency, as we've seen with some of Eddings' writing, to give all the characters a similar voice. And if they all sound the same, it's hard to make them unique.<br />
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<b>A certain adaptation to character is needed.</b><br />
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It would be nice to have a certain way of adapting to whatever voice was needed at the time, a kind of Joss Whedon's <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-HD/dp/B0044I5HDY/" target="_blank">Dollhouse</a></b> way of slipping into a character and making it your own. To create characters with a sort of schizophrenia, allowing completely different personalities to seep into each. This is why perhaps, a pool of writers such as in a television series allows a more diverse group of characters. It's easier for different writers to focus on different characters, instead of pouring themselves into each one.<br />
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And it seems some characters lend themselves more easily to voice than others. I have one in particular who is so insistent on being an individual that he stands out easily from the others. He's less subtle, I guess, which helps. He's a little harder to write because he's over the top a bit, and yet I don't want him to come across as too much so. It would create too much of a caricature out of him, when what I really need is just the emotional energy he provides.<br />
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<b>I think a distinctive voice comes down to two things, and both stem from copious amounts of writing.</b><br />
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The first is experience, simple time spend pounding the words into story. The more you do that, the more your voice begins to take shape and the less it imitates your sources of inspiration. You begin to see how to hone your writing, to delete excess words, identify overused words, and craft tighter sentences. All of this lends to your voice, making it more distinct and more identifiable as yours.<br />
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The second thing necessary is an understanding of your characters. The more a writer knows about a character, the more distinctive their voice becomes. When they're loosely shelled out, with vague goals and moods, they're harder to define. They have no substance, no value behind what they do and say; they're simply doing or saying those things to advance the plot. When that happens, they fall short as believable characters.<br />
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<b>In the end, it's just hard work.</b><br />
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It takes time to hone one's voice. Time spent cloistered away from living companionship, lost with those who live only in your own mind. It takes hours and days and months and years sitting there, crafting words, blowing them up, and crafting them all over again. Even a cursory look at the great writers will show that they put their devotion to writing above all else. They prioritized it, even when they had to work other jobs to put food on the table.<br />
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They say it takes 10,000 hours of doing anything to master it. I think I've easily surpassed that mark, probably years ago. But I think that's just the first tiny step in the longer journey of honing one's voice and mastery of storytelling. There is always much room for improvement, and still so very much to learn.</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-16115581931182922492012-06-19T13:16:00.001-07:002013-04-27T00:14:14.936-07:00The Art of Profanity<b>Let's talk a bit about dirty words.</b> It's been on my mind lately, especially after a #kidlit chat on Twitter regarding swearing. It's an interesting - and often polarizing - topic. It's one quite fascinating to me. Of note, be advised this post contains quite a few, so if you're squeamish or you aren't really old or mature enough for the higher caliber words, please see your way to the door. This is a discussion for sensibly minded adults.<br />
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<b>"Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'Be fruitful and multiply,' but not in those words."</b><br />
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<b><br />- Woody Allen</b></div>
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That quote shows - not tells - a scene far more effectively than if it were written exactly how it happened. We know in one sentence what Allen actually said. We know he swore at the guy, even though he mentioned nothing about swearing. It's a great example of how to create a mental image of the profanity without saying anything bad at all. Masterfully done. If Allen had said he'd told the guy to go fuck himself, it wouldn't have been funny, and furthermore the scene would have been instantly rendered mundane and forgettable - just some guy yelling profanities after a car crash.<br />
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<b>So very obviously, we often don't need to swear to get our point across.</b> Many times the point is made even better without profanity. Actor John Ratzenberger, best known for his role of Cliff Clavin in Cheers, reportedly once said about a project, "There are times over different projects when I've asked the writers why people are swearing for no good reason. I tell them that it would be funnier if there weren't these swear words." That's true. Cussing for cussing's sake is stupid. Sometimes less is more.</div>
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But sometimes it's not. Sometimes we need a larger shock to the system. Sometimes our intention is not humor as in the quote above, but rather horror, or revulsion, or any number of the baser emotions. And sometimes the "dirty" words are just the best damn tools for the job.<br />
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Consider the scene in <i>Planes, Trains and Automobiles</i>, where Steve Martin's character, after a horrible debacle trying to find a nonexistent rental car and a journey from the middle of nowhere, across highways and even a runway, returns to the agency counter and has to deal with a smarmy agent who has no desire to help him at all. Watch:<br />
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<b>If it wasn't for that barrage of eff-bombs, this scene would have been nothing. </b><br />
It would have been a forgettable part of the movie that pushed the plot along, and tried perhaps unsuccessfully to endear us to Martin's character and his plight. The swearing not only personalizes his problems to the viewer, but also positions the dialog to enable him to tell her how much he doesn't appreciate the way her company treated him. It also sets the scene up perfectly for that succinct and very vital punchline: "You're fucked." Without it, the scene falls limp, destined to be forgotten with every other harried airport/car rental/bus station/train station scene out there. It doesn't, precisely because of the obscenities. Could the scene have been rewritten to conform to "PG" standards? Certainly. Would it have been as funny and memorable? Hell no!<br />
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Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey) in Full Metal Jacket would not have been nearly the character he was if not for his colorful language. Without the carefully constructed obscenities, the character of Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface would have been just another two-bit gangster. Profanity was one of the traits that made both those characters living, breathing people instead of cardboard cutouts. The use of colorful vocabulary is not vital to round out every character, but for those it was.</div>
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<b>"Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate."</b><div>
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<b>- Bertrand Russell</b></div>
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Obscenity is what we make it. A word is only as inflammatory as people take it to be, and that varies from circle to circle. One person may interpret a word very differently than another person. And obscenity can be starkly different culture to culture. Swearing in most Eastern European cultures is fairly acceptable, and most Slavic languages have a wide range of very colorful swear words. In many parts of Asia, however, it is not. Many Asian and Pacific languages don't even have a direct translation of some of the more vulgar terms.<br />
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Really, dirty words are just "dirty"; no word is inherently a dirty word because they're all just words. Though to some we assign more value than others, giving them varying degrees of power and influence. They're given power by those who use them in certain ways, and have power taken away by others who use them differently. If a word offends, it's because of the experiences and prejudices of the reader or listener that it does.<br />
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<b>"Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of taste."</b><div>
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<b>- Cyril Connelly</b></div>
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This quote serves to show that profanity is a vital part of language. Like garlic, it adds spice, and like garlic, a little usually goes a long way. There's a fine line between use and over use of any word, and this is particularly the case with words that aren't acceptable vernacular in all parts of society. The more inflammatory the word, the more punch that word delivers, but only if used right. If used wrong, it has the opposite effect, which is a bad thing.<br />
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Another aspect of vulgarity is its propensity to lend itself to unique and imaginative forms. Run of the mill profanity is mundane, and as a result, often falls into the category I mentioned above, "cussing for cussing's sake". You can take it out and subtract nothing from plot, scene, atmosphere, or character. The imaginative stuff you can't. Describing someone as an ass-clown, or saying they were engaged in some kind of asshattery or another, evokes images which can't easily be explained with other words. Saying "tomfoolery" instead of "asshattery" isn't quite the same. It's too innocuous, too innocent. Saying they were juveniles engaged in delinquent behavior is similar, but not nearly the same. Not by a long shot. It may convey meaning, but it does shit-all for the tone. And inventive swearing makes for the best insults, by far.<br />
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Don't get me wrong; this type of colorful wordsmithing can be done without the use of profanity. <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Robbins/e/B000APVAHM" target="_blank">Tom Robbins</a></b>, one of my favorite authors, applies colorful, imaginative forms to all his writing, but it is truly an art to do it the way he does. Not many can imitate him successfully, and profanity often does in one word what takes a paragraph of polite words to do.<br />
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Use, of course, varies between not only characters, but authors themselves. When you get to know a writer, you start figuring out what you're going to get when you read their books. You understand the words they use, how they use them, and how they work for that author. Consider<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><b><a href="http://terribleminds.com/" target="_blank">Chuck Wendig</a></b><span style="background-color: white;">, </span>an author who wields curse words like a samurai wields a katana. It's largely because of his irreverent love of profanity, and dark, twisted writing style that his books are so great to read. Constant swearing works for him, and quite well. It doesn't for everyone, and if it doesn't work for someone, then trying to force it will probably end badly.<br />
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<b>No matter if certain words are off limits for you, whether uncouth, blasphemous, racial, or otherwise obscene, they all have a purpose. </b> As long as they serve their intended purpose, they're a necessary part of a story, even the "dirty" ones. I think so anyway, but that's just one idiot's opinion.<br />
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Thoughts?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-21698827914985738992012-05-25T07:50:00.000-07:002012-05-25T07:50:09.806-07:00Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoStY2M-N2DNV6JqO9w9Nzxg6yaVSl4vTUjPbUpkaQ7x-YyTSNDR658POcNCxbTfJtQLtxXTsaoOIr8eok0FoTEAgdsw9R41h75rb1TxX3ybneI6DNaTh6B-Fzb7pHX58rVhZKVuEOBmU/s1600/Slaughterhouse-five+by+Kurt+Vonnegut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoStY2M-N2DNV6JqO9w9Nzxg6yaVSl4vTUjPbUpkaQ7x-YyTSNDR658POcNCxbTfJtQLtxXTsaoOIr8eok0FoTEAgdsw9R41h75rb1TxX3ybneI6DNaTh6B-Fzb7pHX58rVhZKVuEOBmU/s400/Slaughterhouse-five+by+Kurt+Vonnegut.jpg" width="260" /></a>Kurt Vonnegut's best known work is part war memoir, part dark comedy, and part science fiction. None of those genres make the book what it is. Stellar writing, satire, and a voice like no other are what make this book one of the finest pieces of literature ever to be penned, and Vonnegut one of the finest novelists to put pen to paper.<br />
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The books' plot is jangled and fragmented, and follows a quite nonlinear narrative. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, jumps around from one point in his life to the next, without real pattern or reason. He has become "unstuck in time". He's quite fatalistic, resigned to his fate, and simply along for the ride much of the time. He is so not because of any negativity, but because he's seen his death and he knows why it happens. There is nothing he can do to prevent it and he knows this.<br />
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We follow him as he jumps between life on the planet Tralfamadore (where he was kidnapped by aliens, thus unsticking him in time), to Dresden, Germany during World War II, to his life before the war and after it with his wife and son. The jumps are at random, but allow him to have a realistic view on his own life and death without becoming pessimistic.<br />
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The plot is merely secondary to the reading experience, though. What shines through is Vonnegut's ability to tell a story. I think one of the paragraphs that shows that ability the most is how he describes a minor character near the end of the book. He doesn't write a word about how she looks, but he doesn't need to. When he writes that she is "a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies," the image in the reader's mind is crystal clear. He has no need to enhance an image of her using any physical descriptions because she is already fully formed in the reader's mind. With a single sentence, he accomplishes what most authors need several paragraphs to do.<br />
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And this is common throughout the book. Many times he never really says what is going on directly, but rather talks about how a character relates to it. And every time, the reader gets a clear vision of what is going on, without actually reading it.<br />
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The book has an intimate feel to it, as though Vonnegut is sharing an inside secret with only a single reader. At several points in the book, he breaks the fourth wall and explains that he was there when a particular thing happened, inviting us to believe the whole as recounted memoir, and not just scattered incidents serving as inspiration for a work of fiction. It makes it that much more believable, even when he explains that the alien Tralfamadorians can see in four dimensions, and have already seen every instant of history, past and future.<br />
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It's an interesting look at a wide array of colorful, interesting characters, more a study on human nature and personal interactions than classic story line. It's a look into behaviors, and into our very souls. We find ourselves drawn into the story not only for the plot and characters, but the way Vonnegut puts words together. All authors have the same words to use. Kurt Vonnegut was better than most at arranging them in a pleasing manner.<br />
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So it goes.<br />
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It's available on <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-A-Novel-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337878256&sr=1-1">Amazon</a></b>, should you somehow not have it in your collection.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-17406438348723868592012-05-18T13:04:00.001-07:002012-05-18T13:15:50.137-07:00I Forgot my PhoneIt's a pretty common phrase nowadays: "I forgot my phone." Hear it quite often, as a matter of fact. Everyone has cellphones, everyone's life is practically tied to them, and they're little, often misplaced, items. Along with that phrase, you'll also hear ones like "my phone died," or even "I lost my phone." Happens all the time.<br />
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The technology is on the way to make those phrases obsolete, to throw them right in with "I would have called, but I didn't have a quarter," "I couldn't get a hold of you because your phone was busy," "I couldn't find a pay phone," and "I can't find the number because I don't have a phone book."<br />
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Pictured below, what we use today to write messages, take pictures, watch videos, read books, buy items, pay bills, retrieve information, and play games. Among other things, such as actually talking to someone located elsewhere.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YGJgIQzYFro/T7apSSs7ljI/AAAAAAAAA8I/AiCibM-mcMk/s1600/Ramsbury+Telephone+Box+by+Chris+Downer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YGJgIQzYFro/T7apSSs7ljI/AAAAAAAAA8I/AiCibM-mcMk/s640/Ramsbury+Telephone+Box+by+Chris+Downer.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ramsbury: telephone box, <span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; line-height: 115%;">© </span>Chris Downer</span></td></tr>
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I think the end result will be a merging of several technologies, the first of which is "<a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017111557.htm" target="_blank"><b>wearable, depth-sensing perception</b></a>." We're also seeing more of these sorts of advances with <b><a href="http://www.digitology.ie/2009/09/augmented-reality-contact-lenses.html" target="_blank">contact lenses supporting alternate reality</a></b>. Soon the two will merge, creating the first non-device-centric communication ability.<br />
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The next data point in this progression is implantation. It's bound to happen. We're seeing how this can be integrated with <b><a href="http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/accommodating-iols.htm" target="_blank">surgically implanted intraocular lenses</a></b>. Now imagine this, but fused with cellular phone, Internet, and GPS technology. You'd quite literally have the virtual world available in front of you at all times. Your phone would be with you at all times, because it would be a part of you, accessible with the touch of an imaginary button.<br />
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Of course, not everyone likes that. Many would love to be able to escape from connection, to disappear into the woods on an extended camping trip, or go on vacation, without the need for a constant link to home, work, friends, or family. Like it or not, we're connected, and that connection will only get stronger.<br />
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It's the future of communications, the forefront of the virtual world. The only question is, how soon will it get here? How soon will that connection fuse with us, allowing us to skip the devices and connect on our own? Do we even want that? And if we don't, how long will it be before we do want it?<br />
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I'd guess not long at all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-17255470744339735722012-05-02T18:43:00.000-07:002012-05-04T11:01:47.154-07:00The Great Amazon KDP Select ExperimentI'm doing a bit of an experiment. What's new, really? <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Separate-Worlds-ebook/dp/B0074U3LTQ" target="_blank">Separate Worlds</a></b> has always been a bit of experimental fun. It's told from two perspectives, it's a novella in a world of novels, and I threw it to the wolves in an attempt to learn the brave new world of self-publishing. In that regard, I already consider it a success. It's hardly a bestseller, hardly selling well at all. After all, exposure is everything; just ask Snooki. At least my book's coherent. But I feel I learned more than if I'd taken the money it cost to publish it and spent it on a college course on self-publication.<br />
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And it's still a learning experience, still teaching me things about the business that I'll use, no matter if I self-publish again or not. There are so many things to be learned about this business, and pecking out words in solitary hardly scratches the surface.<br />
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Marketing is one aspect many authors lack experience and expertise in. It's not their forté; slinging words onto the page and conjuring images in readers' minds are. But in spite of that - and more and more in today's publishing age - they have to learn it.<br />
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And that's where programs like Amazon's <b><a href="https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect" target="_blank">KDP Select</a></b> come in. Foremost, it's a marketing ploy by Amazon, a way to gather more attention to their products and sell them. If you're an author, with books available for purchase online, that means it's your marketing ploy as well.<br />
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Essentially, when an author enrolls a book in the program, they allow Amazon to lend it to Amazon Prime members for free, while making a small percentage of the monthly fund allocated for it. Using numbers from their FAQ page - not mine; I wish I had such numbers - we see that:<br />
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<b>"... if the monthly fund amount is $500,000, the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 300,000, and if your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 0.5% (1,500/300,000 = 0.5%), or $2,500 for that month."</b><br />
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Now, it would be fantastic, downright amazing to reach numbers even close to that, but I'm going to assume the book won't be nearly that popular. Its success is bound by the number of people who see it and choose to borrow it, and there we come back to that pesky exposure thing. It will be an interesting experiment, though, and at worst it will offer my book for free to a large number of readers, who will hopefully find a great little story, a great escape from this world through a portal into another, at least for a while.<br />
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It's <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Separate-Worlds-ebook/dp/B0074U3LTQ" target="_blank">exclusively on Amazon</a></b> for the duration of this program, as exclusivity to the Kindle is one of the stipulations of the program. Enjoy, spread the word, share it with friends. In fact, please consider writing a review on it. You can also spread the word by tweeting or sharing the following blurb:<br />
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Separate Worlds, by Jonathan Dalar. When worlds collide, perspective can mean the difference between life and death: <a href="http://t.co/U34O8NQT">http://goo.gl/fb/ohzLf</a><br />
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Hopefully I'll have some positive results to pass along in a few months.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-32702180229388524652012-04-20T13:30:00.000-07:002013-06-03T14:36:16.279-07:00Ten Technological Advances of the FutureThere are a ton of cool technological advances out there, with seemingly hundreds more every day. Every time I turn around, I'm amazed by what I see. Our knowledge of what's possible scientifically is expanding at an exponential rate. What was impossible yesterday becomes a reality tomorrow.<br />
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So in light of that, here are a few fun ideas, things we need to develop from the infant technology we have already discovered. They're concepts we will likely see at some point in the future. The technology is already sound; all we have to figure out is the logistics.<br />
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<b>MagLev Transit</b><br />
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MagLev is magnetic levitation, the science of levitating something by using magnets. Now, imagine that as a full-sized locomotive, pulling cars filled with passengers, merchandise, foodstuffs, natural resources, you name it. Japan is already working hard on this technology, creating bullet trains that have achieved speeds of over 581 KPH. This could easily take over as a viable way of moving people place to place in the future, and could replace air travel for many domestic destinations.<br />
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<b>3D Printing</b><br />
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We've seen the advent of 3D printing using a specially engineered composite material to create semi-functional objects, accurate to within 40 microns, or smaller than the width of a human hair. We've seen it expanded to include 3D metal printing, where metal powder is layered into the form needed and then forged at high temperatures. It's grown to include everything from ceramics to chocolates. The next step seems to be identifying a process that's cost-effective for mass use. Just think of how this could change the dynamics of merchandise as we know it, how we purchase what we need. And as soon as we make the leap to printing food items and human organs, it will completely renovate the business of living.<br />
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<b>Augmented Reality</b><br />
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We've seen this in its infancy already. Mobile virtual information available upon need. Augmenting such things as eye glasses and phones with this information. In the future, saturation is the key: the ability to reach any and all information needed instantly. Couple this with technology below, and we'll have the ability to integrate the virtual world seamlessly with ourselves.<br />
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<b>Nanotechnology</b><br />
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Nanotechnology now allows us to view things on a scale smaller than that of the microscopic, down to the level of single atoms. We're already working on nanoengineering, designed to create anything atom by atom, as small as imaginable. In just a few years, we could be able to create fully functional engines, electrical circuits, and complex machines, the size of just a few molecules. Imagine doctors with the ability to inject a camera into your blood stream and send it completely through your body, even through capillaries, looking for diseases or other health issues. Imagine the ability to create specially adapted devices allowing us to remove tumors, cancerous cells, etc., all without cutting a patient open.<br />
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<b>Wireless Power</b><br />
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This is not a new concept. Nikola Tesla imagined the technology around a century ago. And we're finally seeing practical applications. You can buy wireless phone chargers, where you can charge your phone without actually plugging it into the source of power. The next step is unplugging completely, providing wireless power around the globe, allowing us to unplug for good.<br />
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<b>Mind-Controlled Bionics</b><br />
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It's already possible. It's already been done. And the ceiling doesn't have to end with recreated body parts. Integrating these prosthetic appendages permanently into the human body is the first step, but from there, this technology can be adapted and expanded to exploration and discovery, controlling machines to go where humans can't, and yet controlling them as though they were extensions of our own bodies.<br />
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<b>Invisibility</b><br />
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It's the stuff of science fiction, the Holy Grail of science, but it's getting a lot closer to reality than fiction with recent technological advances. Although this appears at first blush to have more military and government applications, it's something that would benefit many areas of society in practical application.<br />
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<b>Holograms</b><br />
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The applications for this go beyond business meetings and teleconferencing. Think of this in educational terms, where students could go beyond seeing an illustration of something in a textbook to actually seeing it, actively participating in something, no matter where they were. And the prospect of this as a logical evolution of entertainment is pretty exciting too. If you thought 3D changed movies, just watch as this sort of technology replaces it.<br />
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<b>Force Fields</b><br />
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This has more applications than just space travel. Sure, the immediate evolution is that to protect astronauts, but here on earth it could be just as effective, and advances could provide the ability to more effectively protect against radiation.<br />
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<b>Machine Translation</b><br />
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Although this is showcased in a military setting, the possibilities of it are endless. From here, it's quite possible we'll see this technology grow smaller, and even embedded or implanted in us, creating the ability to speak in one language and be understood in another. In the future, it may be entirely possible to go anywhere in the world and face no language barriers whatsoever.<br />
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Yea, folks, we live in some exciting times, and I'm stoked to be a part of them! What are your thoughts? How do you see these technologies adapted to our future?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-45750526481176585722012-04-09T17:56:00.000-07:002012-04-09T17:56:56.462-07:00Short and Sweet<div>Words: they say a picture is worth a thousand of them. Fair enough, but I think sometimes the exact opposite is true. Sometimes nothing can portray emotion as well as a few simple words. Consider the shortest story Ernest Hemingway ever wrote. As legend has it, he was once challenged to write a story in only six words. The result, as many know, is one of the most poignant, touching stories ever written. Hemingway himself is rumored to consider it his finest story ever:</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>For sale: baby shoes, never worn.</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>Wow. Adding more words wouldn't add anything else to that story. It wouldn't heighten the pain, the loss, one feels when reading that. More verbiage wouldn't add to the broken heart you know the mother, the whole family, suffered. Six words is enough to know they moved on, but only out of necessity. Six words is exactly enough to convey a punch to the gut.</div><div><br />
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</div>I think Hemingway would have scoffed at those who say 140 characters isn't enough to adequately express oneself on Twitter. I think he would have loved Twitter. I'd have followed him for sure. He was a master at saying exactly what he meant, and only that.<br />
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There's something to be said about brevity. It's partly why literary agents want only a one-page query. It's why we are told to hone, tighten, shorten, to turn the whole story into a synopsis. To create a few-paragraph back cover blurb, and then take that blurb and shorten it into an elevator pitch. Literary agent Rachelle Gardner has <b><a href="http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/07/your-verbal-pitch/" target="_blank">some excellent advice</a></b> on creating elevator pitches. Author David B. Coe <b><a href="http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/on-writing-and-publishing-refining-your-elevator-pitch/" target="_blank">shows us how</a></b> to pare a blurb down, trim it to the bare essentials, leaving nothing but a concise pitch line.<br />
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These are things every author needs to do, if nothing more than the ability they lend to edit the story itself, and make every word count. Kurt Vonnegut's advice on the matter was, "Every sentence must do one of two things, either reveal character or advance the plot." Elmore Leonard's was a little simpler: "I try to leave out the parts that people skip."<br />
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It isn't easy, but then again, no one who's written anything worth a damn ever said it was.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-28901224926241205432012-03-31T21:00:00.000-07:002012-03-31T21:00:48.892-07:00Touring the BlogsRecently, a couple of people have passed on blog awards to me, and I thought it was time to look into that subject a little deeper, and pass them along myself. I'm normally a little reserved about doing this thing myself, which is probably why I've put it off for so long.<br />
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There are a large number of blogs out there, and many that are helpful, entertaining, insightful, creative, or intriguing in some way or another. These awards are designed for the little blogs, to get them more attention. So, to that end, here are two more.<br />
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<b>The Versatile Blogger</b><br />
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Guilie, who maintains the blog <a href="http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>Quiet Laughter</b></a>, passed this one along to me, and I have been a little slow to pass it on myself because, well, 15 blogs is a lot of friggin' blogs! It's taken a while, but thank you again, Guilie.<br />
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The guidelines behind this one are threefold:<br />
<ul><li>Thank the awarder and link back to them</li>
<li>Share 7 things about myself</li>
<li>Pass this award to 15 blogs I've recently discovered</li>
</ul><div>The seven things about myself, well, that's easy. Seven non-incriminating ones? Yea, I can do that too. Here goes:</div><div><br />
</div><div>1. I once was nearly run over by Mario Andretti. True story. I was walking down the paddocks area at Laguna Seca Raceway with my dad and a couple of friends during the Indy race when he barreled up from behind on a moped. Dad hollered for me to watch out, and just in time. Let's just say it's a good think I have cat-like reflexes. And there's a damn good reason people use the expression "drive like Mario Andretti"! Bonus tidbit: I've also been around that track in the pace car. Very fast, and very fun!</div><div><br />
</div><div>2. I'm a beer snob. Four wonderful years of living in Southern Spain and touring around Europe completely ruined American mega-brews for me. There are so many fine styles around the world, but one of the best things about the Pacific Northwest is that it's the micro-brew capital of the world. Bonus tidbit: I can make a pretty decent micro-brew myself.</div><div><br />
</div><div>3. I am somewhat the expert on wilderness survival. As a young man living in Southwest Montana, my buddies and I used to go out camping in the woods. Day or night. No matter the weather. No matter the season. We never used a tent, never brought much food, if any, and would go for as long as jobs or school constraints would allow. We'd eat the animals and plants available there. And many's the time I remember waking up to a bright sunny winter morning as I peeked up through a tiny hole through a foot or more of snow on top of my sleeping bag. Bonus tidbit: I've touched a wild porcupine on the nose, out in the wild.</div><div><br />
</div><div>4. I'm a big sports fan. It's no surprise the Seattle Seahawks are my favorite team, but I'm a sucker for pretty much any sport. Hockey comes in a close second, with the Colorado Avalanche as my favorite NHL franchise - at least until Seattle finally gets a team again - but I'll watch pretty much anything. Baseball, racing, rugby, soccer, you name it. Bonus tidbit: I've been to several NFL Pro Bowls. Go for the experience, the activities, the autographs, the barbecue, not the game.</div><div><br />
</div><div>5. I like a variety of music, and it all depends on the mood I'm in. I'll listen to Rob Zombie one day and turn around the next and listen to Boots Randolph. The one stipulation is that each story I write has its own special soundtrack. That way the mood, the feel of each story is the same throughout. Bonus tidbit: I like a lot of foreign bands and singers. Much of what I listen to is not English.</div><div><br />
</div><div>6. I'm not a very big self-promoter. Weird, because I'm very outgoing and gregarious as a person. I have few very close personal friends, but a lot of casual ones, and enjoy meeting folks. I just don't like tooting my horn all that much. I'm sure that affects how well I'm able to get my work out there for folks to see, and I bet I could prove it too. Problem is, it's not all about that. Bonus tidbit: I'd love it if others promoted my writing, but this is probably as close as I'll ever come to asking.</div><div><br />
</div><div>7. I'm not a very serious guy. As much as I don't write the stuff, I love irreverent comedy. Love finely crafted humor. I just don't do it very well most of the time. And I've been told only about a tenth of the humorous things I say is actually funny. Bonus tidbit: that tenth thing is usually pure comedy gold, however!</div><div><br />
</div><div>And now for the fifteen blogs. I apologize if any have already been nominated for this, but I ain't checkin', and you can't make me. So here they are in no particular order:</div><div><br />
</div><div>1. <a href="http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><b>Let's Get Digital</b></a> - Author David Gaughran is now an established expert on the subject of self-publishing. He's written the book on it, quite literally, and is also a pretty damn good fiction writer himself.</div><div><br />
</div><div>2. <b><a href="http://unexcusedabsences.com/" target="_blank">Unexcused Absences</a></b> - World travelers and ski addicts Kent and Heather chronicle their meanderings, explorations and adventures as they do what most of the rest of us only wish we did.</div><div><br />
</div><div>3. <b><a href="http://lydiasharp.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Sharp Angle</a></b> - Young adult author Lydia Sharp is a prolific blogger, offering advice, tips, industry secrets, reviews and other assorted writing-related goodies on her blog.</div><div><br />
</div><div>4. <b><a href="http://seattlesportsnet.com/" target="_blank">Seattle Sportsnet</a></b> - Alex, fan of all things Seattle talks sports - Seahawks, M's, Huskies, and others - as well as a variety of other Pacific Northwest nonsense. Some of it's even pretty good!</div><div><br />
</div><div>5. <b><a href="http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bibliophile Stalker</a></b> - Author and science fiction afficionado Charles Tan links to an incredible amount of resources, information, and sites of interest on his blog. A definite must-follow for fans of the genre.</div><div><br />
</div><div>6. <b><a href="http://foiegrashotdog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Foie Gras Hot Dog</a></b> - Foodies and culinary explorers Ryan and Julie share recipes, food secrets, and accounts from the quest to find the perfect food for the perfect occasion.</div><div><br />
</div><div>7. <b><a href="http://davekriegsstrikebeard.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dave Krieg's Strike Beard</a></b> - Longtime Seahawks fan DKSB posts analysis, spouts fan opinion and rhetoric, and shares historical moments and achievements on the blog.</div><div><br />
</div><div>8. <b><a href="http://steamandink.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Steam & Ink</a></b> - Author C. J. Ivory runs a smart blog about Steampunk, Victoria Noir, among an assortment of musings, ramblings, reviews, and other fun stuff.</div><div><br />
</div><div>9. <b><a href="http://wisb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The World in the Satin Bag</a></b> - Science fiction author Shaun Duke blogs speculative fiction, writerly interests and other bits of interesting nonsense.</div><div><br />
</div><div>10. <b><a href="http://karincox.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Karin Cox's Blog</a></b> - Editor and author Karin Cox serves up lots of good advice on grammar, writing well, and tips for writers. She knows what she's talking about, folks!</div><div><br />
</div><div>11. <b><a href="http://seahawksdraftblog.com/" target="_blank">Seahawks Draft Blog</a></b> - Seahawks fan Rob Stanton provides analysis, scouting reports, opinion, mock drafts, and other related awesomeness on his blog.</div><div><br />
</div><div>12. <b><a href="http://minetweeps.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Minetweeps</a></b> - Author and Minecraft geek Roger Hoyt runs a new blog about adventuring in one of the most addictive time sinks known to man. Get your geek on!</div><div><br />
</div><div>13. <b><a href="http://fangirlintraining.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Fangirl In Training</a></b> - Fangirl Shelby blogs about baseball and a sundry other weird subjects. Pictures from numerous games, practices and events make this one an interesting read.</div><div><br />
</div><div>14. <b><a href="http://adventurewithoutend.com/" target="_blank">Adventure Without End</a></b> - Comedy author Tony James Slater blogs about... well, as he puts it, leading a life with no holds bared! Adrenalin, adventure, misadventure, yep, they're all there.</div><div><div><br />
</div></div><div>15. <b><a href="http://17power.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">17 Power</a></b> - Seahawks fanatics Brandon and Scott run this site, a great place to find analysis, information, and opinion on the team, as well as links to other Seahawk-centric sites and resources.<br />
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</div><div><b>The Liebster Award</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>J. W. Alden, who runs the blog <b><a href="http://www.authoralden.com/" target="_blank">Author Alden</a></b>, gave this one to me. This award is designed to honor smaller blogs which motivate and inspire us, those with under 200 followers. Thank you, J.W.!</div><div><br />
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</div><div>The guidelines for this one are simpler:</div><ul><li>Thank the person who nominated you on your blog and link back to them</li>
<li>Nominate up to 5 others for the award</li>
<li>Let them know by commenting on their blog</li>
</ul><div>So, for the five blogs I feel deserve this award, also in no particular order:</div><div><br />
</div><div>1. <b><a href="http://jetink.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">JetInk</a></b> - Author Jettica runs a number of blogs, but this one's about writing, characters, stories, and various other musings from the other side of the pond.</div><div><br />
</div><div>2. <b><a href="http://getthegirlkillthebaddies.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Die Laughing</a></b> - Author Luke Walker blogs about writing, book reviews, movies, horror, the publishing industry, as well as a variety of other subjects.</div><div><br />
</div><div>3. <b><a href="http://www.jamierubin.net/" target="_blank">Jamie Todd Rubin</a></b> - Science fiction writer Jamie Todd Rubin blogs all things science fiction and technology, as well as writing and other random musings.</div><div><br />
</div><div>4. <b><a href="http://shielawrites.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Writings, Workouts, and Were-Jaguars</a></b> - Author Shiela Calderón Blankemeier posts about writing, the query process, literary agents, and other essential bits of information for writers.</div><div><br />
</div><div>5. <b><a href="http://stephcrawfish.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Steph Crawford's Word Barn & Letter Emporium</a></b> - Author Stephanie Crawford talks writing, words, and other such interests on her blog.</div><div><br />
</div><div>And there we have it. A bunch of new blogs to run down and follow. You're welcome. And yes I am an author, running an author blog. No, not all these blogs are author blogs. Some of them, in fact, have a pretty good amount of traffic already. It doesn't matter. Broaden your horizons, because if we don't get out of our incestuousness little author circles, the world stays pretty small. And you're still welcome.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-46886682968680323372012-03-23T09:20:00.000-07:002012-06-01T08:08:40.753-07:00Fun with Words: A Wee Rant"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride.<br />
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Seems all the time I think similar thoughts, seeing people use words the wrong way. They're powerful things, words. Just a single one can make a huge impact on a story, a speech, a conversation. They can raise you up, and they can cut you right back down to size.</div>
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But words, like the character of Inigo Montoya stated so eloquently, do not always mean what one thinks they mean. We often use words wrong, for wide variety of reasons. And because we use them wrong, others learn them wrong and perpetuate their wrong use.</div>
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Now I'm not talking about words like "then vs. than", or the spectacular failure that seems to be our understanding of "their, there, and they're", or any other malapropism. I'm not even going to go there, because I don't want to get that worked up. I can do without the aneurysm. No, I'm talking about words we mistake the meaning for, those we think we're using correctly but aren't at all. It's irritating, because the more they're used wrong, the more their wrong use is perpetuated. And don't give me that lame "but language is always evolving" excuse. I know how languages work, thank you very much.</div>
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And by the way, a hearty thank you to Alanis Morissette, for the wonderful, unintentional lesson on the <a href="http://dragreduction.blogspot.com/2005/11/irony-vs-coincidence.html" target="_blank"><b>misuse of irony</b></a>. Irony. That's a very good place to start, don't you think?</div>
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<b>Irony</b>. i·ro·ny [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-] noun, plural -nies. Several of the dictionary definitions include: The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.<br />
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Good job there, Alanis. You very aptly described coincidence, not irony. And the misuse of it here isn't really ironic, either. It's unfortunate. It would be ironic if Ms. Morissette were an English teacher instead of a singer. As to the lyrics, hardly any are the least bit ironic. The fact you called the song Ironic however, is quite ironic.</div>
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If I was afraid of flying and died in a plane crash, that would be a coincidence that fulfilled my paranoia. If I was afraid of flying and took a bus because it was safer, only to die in a bus crash, that would be ironic. If I was an aircraft safety inspector and I died in a plane crash, that would be coincidental. If, as that aircraft safety inspector, I died in a plane crash in an attempt to show just how safe the plane was, after inspecting it myself, that would be irony.<br />
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<b>Literally</b>. lit·er·al·ly [lit-er-uh-lee] adverb. Dictionary definitions include: In the literal or strict sense. In a literal manner; word for word: to translate literally. Actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy.<br />
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Something literal is "word for word". It's the actual, really real definition of something. The way it in fact is. And it's used in place of the word "figuratively" more often than it's used correctly. Stop it. Literally, just stop it.</div>
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"I literally died laughing at that joke!" No, you didn't. You died figuratively. If you'd have literally died, I'd literally be on my way to the morgue with your cold corpse. Or the hospital. How much I liked you could quite literally affect my destination, if I was figuratively that cold-hearted.</div>
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And just now, I mentally threw a book at your face for saying that. Mentally. Figuratively. Not literally, because it would have been impossible to literally throw a book at you, seeing as you're not even in the same room as I. You could use the word "figuratively" in the example above. There's nothing wrong with that word. You could even say "I died laughing at that joke," without any modifier, because that would be simple - and obvious - hyperbole.</div>
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<b>Penultimate</b>. pe·nul·ti·mate [pi-nuhl-tuh-mit] adjective. Definitions: Next to the last. Of or pertaining to a penult, the next-to-last syllable of a word.</div>
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This word is often misused in sports. "They had the penultimate season!" No, they had the ultimate season. The team they beat in the final game had the penultimate season. Penultimate, in this context, isn't a grand accomplishment, eclipsing all others, it's the agony of defeat, ultimately failing after getting oh-so-close. The Seahawks won their penultimate game in the 2005 playoffs, resoundingly, only to become the penultimate team of that season.</div>
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<b>Proverbial</b>. pro·ver·bi·al [pruh-vur-bee-uhl] adjective. And the dictionary definitions: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a proverb. Expressed in a proverb or proverbs: proverbial wisdom. Of the nature of or resembling a proverb.<br />
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Again, used heavily in sports broadcasting. I don't know how many times I've heard about being on "proverbial cloud nine", or throwing the "proverbial perfect pass", or that "proverbial monkey on one's back". It's uttered about once a game, or race, or match from some broadcaster or another. We hear it all the time in television. And in movies. And it's wrong. "Idiomatic" is usually the word they're looking for. When they say the "proverbial perfect pass", what they really mean is the "quintessential pass".</div>
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"Cloud nine" does not come from a proverb. It's an idiom. And there are no proverbs that speak of throwing a touchdown, or making a daring pass on a race track, or any other sporting events for that matter. Jesus never spoke about making that hard-to-throw spiral. Aesop never recounted a tale about the awesomeness of being on the ninth cloud. And a "monkey on one's back" comes from nature, not parable. It comes from observing baby monkeys of many species, how they ride on their mothers backs, and don't come off, no matter how the mother jumps around. It's an idiom for something you just can't shake, no matter how hard you try.</div>
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<b>Myth</b>. myth [mith] noun. With dictionary definition: A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being, hero, or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature. An imaginary or fictitious thing or person.<br />
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We owe at least a little bit of the misuse on this one to the television show Mythbusters. Now don't get me wrong, it's a great show. I absolutely love it! But they're only sometimes busting myths. Sometimes it's just misconceptions. <a href="http://www.snopes.com/" target="_blank">Snopes.com</a> doesn't always bust myths either. Mostly they bust inaccurate perceptions and misconceptions, based on rumors and inaccurate information.</div>
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And those constant advertorials proclaiming to have the answers for the "10 Myths about Drinking Alcohol", or 10 Myths about Mental Illness", or whatever other misconceptions there are, aren't really myths either. There is, to my knowledge, no fictitious or imaginary being known for touting the dangers of that demon alcohol. Say it with me now, people: those are misconceptions, not myths. Dionysus was a myth. Pan was a myth. And those are the closest things you'll ever find if you're looking for myths about drinking.<br />
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<b>Sentient</b>. sen·tient [sen-shuhnt] adjective. Having the power of perception by the senses; conscious. Characterized by sensation and consciousness.<br />
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As a science fiction writer, this one strikes near and dear to my heart. We see and hear it all the time. "Ooo, a sentient being!" Well, no shit. There are a lot of sentient beings besides humans on the earth. In fact, our world is teeming with them. Your dog is sentient. He's self-aware; he knows he exists. He knows those are his own balls he's licking right now. That's why he's licking them: they're his, and he can lick them all day if he wants to.</div>
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And while sometimes yes, sentience is what someone means when they're talking about a self-aware machine, what they are often referring to is sapience. It comes from the same root as <i>homo sapiens</i>. <i>Sapiens</i>, meaning "to be wise", or "to have taste" in Latin, refers to an ability to make decisions based on wisdom, experience and judgment. Yes, it's very much human-like, a trait we humans share with almost nothing else on the planet. While some animals can learn, and associate certain events with others, higher deductive reasoning and judgment is peculiar to humans. At least until we let those mad scientists in the genetics labs go nuts. Kidding, folks, kidding. Only a few of us really want to see giant lab rats with super-human intelligence and cognitive reasoning.</div>
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<b>Nemesis</b>. nem·e·sis [nem-uh-sis] noun, plural -ses [-seez]. In classical mythology, the goddess of divine retribution. An agent or act of retribution or punishment. Something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc. An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.<br />
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A nemesis isn't just an antagonist or an enemy. He's not the bad guy the good guy defeats in the end. He's more than that. He's the one foe that knows and can exploit someone's Achilles' heel; the one thing they cannot conquer. A nemesis is the unbeatable, that agent of retribution which one cannot defeat. So chances are, unless the hero dies in the end, it's unlikely they met their nemesis for the last time. They were probably the antihero's nemesis instead. In fact, an "agent or act of retribution or punishment" sounds much more like the hero of most stories, meting out retribution to wrongdoers, instead of the villain.<br />
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Ok, I'm finished. That's all I can produce off the top of my head. I'm sure a few more examples will come raging to the forefront of my mind once I've posted this. Oh well, it's probably a big enough rant for now anyway. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-79742207677092327552012-03-15T10:36:00.001-07:002012-03-15T13:10:34.052-07:00Steve Hutchinson and the Deus ex MachinaOk. So everyone here probably already knows I'm a pretty big Seattle Seahawks fan. And by "pretty big", I don't mean in a <i>large-sized</i> sort of way. I mean it in an <i>I'm going to have to get a bigger closet for all my Seahawks gear when I buy another jersey</i> sort of way. I live and breathe Seahawks. Twenty-four friggin' hours a day. Drives the rest of the House of Dalar up the walls at times, especially the times when there's a game on. 'cept the boy. He's cool like that. I'm raising him well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Greatest Place on Earth, © Jonathan Dalar</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
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So when the news broke that left guard Steve Hutchinson <a href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/14/steve-hutchinson-visiting-the-seahawks/" target="_blank"><b>would be visiting the Seahawks</b></a>, I naturally assumed the Mayans were right about this whole "<a href="http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/2012-and-counting/" target="_blank"><b>world is ending in 2012</b></a>" thing. The writer in me took over, however, and the first thing I did was start to think about plot twists in a story. Well, no. Technically that was the second thing I did. I first checked the temperature in Hell. Astonishingly, snow was not in the forecast.<br />
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For those of you who are not following, I'll bring you up to speed with a little back story necessary to understand why this would be so improbable. Actually the back story is the story. The visit is simply the climax at the end.<br />
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Hutch is an absolute beast, a high-caliber player that tremendously impacts the success of a team. He's been to the Pro Bowl seven times, four of them with the Seahawks. They picked him with the 17th pick in the 2001 draft, and he quickly became a cog in one of the best offensive lines we've seen in the NFL. Between 2001 and 2006, he played beside Walter Jones, forming if not the best offensive line tandem in the game, certainly one of a select few great ones. He was tremendously valuable to the Seahawks, and a big part of their trip to <b><a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/series?series=seapit" target="_blank">Super Bowl XL</a>*</b> after the 2005 season. Ah, things were going well!<br />
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But then things went sour, and they did so quickly. In 2006, Hutch was scheduled to become a free agent. The Seahawks front office, then led by a somewhat discordant team of head coach Mike Holmgren and president and general manager Tim Ruskell, placed the Transition Tag on Hutch instead of the safer Franchise Tag. The move saved the team $500,000.00, but cost them the ability to secure his services for another year while they worked out a long-term contract.<br />
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The Minnesota Vikings were quick to take advantage of that situation, and offered him a huge <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_pill" target="_blank"><b>poison pill-laden contract</b></a>, at the time an unprecedented amount of money for his position. The poison pill was two-fold: first, the contract stipulated he had to be the highest paid lineman on the team (on the Vikings he would be; on the Seahawks, Walter Jones deservedly earned more), and second, he could play no more than a half a dozen games in Washington State (the Seahawks play eight home games a year). If either of these provisions were not followed, the entire $49 million contract was guaranteed. Of course, that made the contract impossible for the Seahawks to match. They took it to arbitration, but lost, and Hutch became a Viking.<br />
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It was a divorce straight from the script of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098621/" target="_blank"><b>The War of the Roses</b></a>. Hutch, frustrated with the Seahawks' dysfunctional front office, had very little nice to say about the split. Seahawks fans everywhere took affront. Hutch instantly became one of Seahawks fans' most hated players in the game. He was branded a traitor, and much worse. "It was all about the money!" "What a greedy, selfish bastard!" "Huck Futch!" The insults came hot and heavy, and sentiment regarding Hutch didn't really change, even as the years passed and memories faded. His money-grabbing move crippled the Seahawks' front line, triggering the team's sharp downward spiral just a season away from the Super Bowl. He took something away from us. Seahawks fans had every right to be pissed.<br />
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Or did we? Hindsight is 20/20, so they say, but we don't have the luxury of hindsight when we're in the middle of a story. We read it as it plays out, and react accordingly. But what we see isn't necessarily all that's going on behind the scenes, and it's only at the end that we start to figure out what's really going on. This has never been more true than with this story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Self, © beholder via Flikr</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
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We fans were still quite enamored at the time with Tim Ruskell. He'd come to the team at the beginning of the 2005 season, and a few key moves that year were what propelled them to their best season yet and a trip to the big dance. It appeared he was the mad genius, the final missing cog that brought the team to glory from a rather <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/football/article/Playoff-drought-provides-extra-incentive-for-Hawks-1163677.php" target="_blank"><b>dismal</b></a> and <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-02/news/mn-31565_1_los-angeles" target="_blank"><b>emotionally draining</b></a> past. "In Ruskell we trust" became many fans' byline, almost overnight.<br />
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In the years since, that façade has crumbled away, as decisions made then did the exact opposite of what we expected. The team plodded to back-to-back horrible seasons, mired as ineffective moves came back to haunt it. We've come to understand that there was far more dysfunction and discord in the front office than we realized. Ruskell, no longer the hero, was now judged by his track record, and it <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Ruskells-draft-history-hardly-screams-success-Tim-Ruskells-draft-picks-for-Seahawks-17083929" target="_blank"><b>wasn't a pretty record</b></a> at all. The decision to assign the Transition Tag to Hutchinson is viewed by many as his worst, the fatal blow that ripped the team from playoff contention and mired them once again in mediocrity.<br />
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Since those dark days, the team has had an entire reboot. An entire new front office was installed, and the team no longer has a single player from that magical 2005 season left. Not one. At least not until Steve Hutchinson re-signs. It's definitely not your daddy's "<a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawksblog/2016122841_same_old_seahaw.html" target="_blank"><b>Same Old Seahawks</b></a>".<br />
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Re-signing Hutchinson may be just what the team needs. He's older, but he's still a great player, and would make an outstanding mentor to the younger linemen on the team. As an emotionally involved fan, I'm split. I still vividly feel those feelings of betrayal and letdown when he scorned us for better pastures. It still hurts. But I also realize he'd be good for the team. This is not the same Seahawks team he left, and there's no reason to assign correlation to the old front office. Business is business in the NFL, and this is no different.<br />
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So how does this story apply to the concept of <i><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina" target="_blank">deus ex machina</a></b></i>? Simple: it's the perfect example of how to write a story and avoid having to use it. Thinking your plot through a little deeper allows you as a writer the ability to create wild, unexpected plot twists, without having to sideswipe your readers with something out of the blue, something that only serves to shove your plot in the direction you want it to go, but can't get your characters' actions to get it there.<br />
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So what if that bad guy wasn't really that bad a guy after all? What if actions earlier were done for completely different reasons and motivations than were assumed? Suddenly the dynamics of your plot shifts naturally, without the need for a character epiphany, or sudden change of heart, or mandate from an outside force. In Hutch's case, he isn't having an unexpected change of heart. He's not repenting, coming back to a team he spurned before. He's operating exactly the same way he always has. He's staying in character, making a move that's aligned in his best interests. This new front office is looking for a capable, talented guard, and he could well be the man for the job. It makes perfect sense now, even if such an ending would have been viewed as completely absurd halfway through the story.<br />
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I don't know about other Seahawks fans, but I think I'd be willing to root for him again in blue and green. The unlikely story will have come full circle. What was once thought impossible is now possible, because things weren't quite as we once thought they were. It's not exactly ironic, but it is about as unexpected a plot twist as one can imagine.<br />
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And is it just me, or is it poetic justice that it's all happening on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March" target="_blank"><b>Ides of March</b></a>?<br />
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Update: So we don't get our happy ending. He's <b><a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/61018/on-hutchinsons-decision-to-join-titans" target="_blank">accepted a three-year contract</a></b> with the Tennessee Titans, reuniting him with former teammate Matthew Hasselbeck, at least for now. Still, the sentiment stands. And of course, your story is your own. You can write the ending any damn way you please.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7778419115236399448.post-84371229879262260182012-03-09T13:28:00.000-08:002012-03-09T13:28:28.219-08:00Cooking up a Good Story<div style="text-align: center;"><b>*** Warning: the following post contains a lot of gratuitous food porn! ***</b></div><br />
The other day I was perusing Twitter, trying valiantly not to get sucked in for too long while taking a break from editing, when I saw a few tweets by literary agent Victoria Marini (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/LitAgentMarini" target="_blank"><b>@LitAgentMarini</b></a>), comparing book revisions to baking cookies. She's one of many literary agents I follow, and often has great advice. This is what she said:<br />
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<b>"Revision is not just addressing some comments in the margin. It's a lengthy, pensive process in which you look at your WHOLE work again. If you baked cookies and I said 'they're too light,' you wouldn't just add flour to the same left over dough. You'd make a new batch! Most of the recipe would stay the same, but you'd need to revisit the whole process to get the new batch right."</b><br />
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Great advice!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs (with wholesome nutritious filberts). © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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</div><div>And it got me thinking, which is rarely a good idea. It also got me hungry, which is never a good idea, but we'll get to that later on. Anyway, so many parallels between cooking and writing raced through my mind at reading that, I decided to share them here. Enjoy. And wipe that drool from your bottom lip.<br />
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</div><div><b>Don't leave it in the oven too long.</b> Nobody likes that hunk of meat that's been baking for an hour too long, and they certainly won't like your overcooked novel. It's overdone, dry, and nasty. If it drags on and on, it's going to bog down, and your readers will put it down at some point. And if it's dragged on long enough, they're not going to pick it back up because it isn't interesting anymore. It doesn't matter if you have complex, flawed, and interesting characters, or if your plot is wildly unpredictable and original, if it drags on too long, readers will lose interest. Cut it, trim it, season it, and pull it out of the oven at precisely the right time. Do it right, and you have a mouthwatering dish that readers won't be able to put down until they scrape the last crumbs and morsels from the plate.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Sauerbraten, with semmelknodel and rotkohl. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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<div><b>Know the proper measurements.</b> A dash is not a tablespoon. A pinch will not suffice when the recipe calls for a cup. There are limits, but you can get away with adding more or less of something, or using a suitable substitute. To a point. Similarly, an author can usually get away with an extra 20,000 words in an epic fantasy or science fiction story because of the world building, but when writing young adult, there is a much shorter word-count constraint to work with. There are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_count" target="_blank"><b>general word count boundaries</b></a> that are accepted by most in the industry, and they vary by genre. Words are not like bacon; they're like onions. There is a limit on the amount you can add to a story and still keep it palatable. Know the boundaries for the genre you're writing, and the lengths a literary agency or publishing house accepts; they're not always the same.</div><div><br />
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<b>Use the right ingredients.</b> There have been many great pieces of advice on creating realistic, believable characters, such as <b><a href="http://navigatingtheslushpile.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-madness-its-not-me-its-you.html" target="_blank">this helpful blog post</a></b> by literary agent Vickie Motter (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Vickie_Motter" target="_blank"><b>@Vickie_Motter</b></a>). Thing is, you have to put in the ingredients best suited to the dish (or character) you're creating. If you're making steak in an upscale New York restaurant, you're not going to use a low grade chuck or round cut. Conversely, if you're going for the flavors and textures of a greasy soup kitchen meal, you're not going to use cuts of Filet Mignon or Châteaubriand. It doesn't matter what you're making, but you have to use the ingredients that give it exactly the flavor, smell, and texture you're looking for. The ingredients for tacos come in a wide variety of shapes and tastes, but in the end, they still make tacos.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Crock pot chicken tinga tacos. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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<b>Create a brand and cater to that specific consumer base.</b> In a similar thought to the one above, a customer must be able to associate a specific product with a producer. People go to In-N-Out Burger, expecting delicious, no-frills burgers 'n fries, and that's what they find there. People buy a William Gibson novel expecting edgy, futuristic science fiction, and that's what he delivers. We want to get what we expect. If we don't know what to expect from something, we're more hesitant, especially if obtaining it costs us our hard-earned money. Creating a brand, and sticking to it, allows readers to readily identify whether or not they'll be interested in the book. And a brand can't be a smorgasbord. Trying to please all of the people all of the time never really works, especially with readers. It's possible to write in several genres, especially if they're closely related, but many authors who switch genres, or write in more than one, do so under a different pseudonym for a reason.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D4yBxLUvE_I/T1prlecdfII/AAAAAAAAAvE/ALIMwJuZBjQ/s1600/Now+I+give+you+everything.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D4yBxLUvE_I/T1prlecdfII/AAAAAAAAAvE/ALIMwJuZBjQ/s640/Now+I+give+you+everything.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Now I give you everything. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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<b>Understand and cater to known tastes.</b> There's a reason why certain foods are paired with specific beers and wines: the flavors work well together, complement each other. The same principle applies to books. There is a reason why things fall into categories like genres and sub-genres, and why those genres are standard lengths, with standard elements in them. A strong female main character works well in women's fiction. A larger-than-life hero works well in fantasy and stories with heavily action-oriented plots. For the same reasons lemon and rosemary go well with baked salmon, ornery dwarfs and mysterious elves go well with high fantasy. It just works. You don't always have to stick with the tried and true, as you'll see below, but stereotypes and standards exist for a reason. Understanding that will help you create an original story that still falls with the bounds of consumer taste.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QV2XUhAPf_A/T1pYy0JWHGI/AAAAAAAAAuM/aqqBLtcmadk/s1600/Cedar-planked+Alaskan+King+salmon,+ready+for+some+heat.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QV2XUhAPf_A/T1pYy0JWHGI/AAAAAAAAAuM/aqqBLtcmadk/s640/Cedar-planked+Alaskan+King+salmon,+ready+for+some+heat.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Cedar-planked Alaskan King salmon, ready for some heat. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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<b>Stick with a recipe.</b> People also want to know what they're getting when they buy something. If people are in the mood for prawns or crayfish, they're not going to look in the steak section of the menu to find it, and if they're in the mood for science fiction, they're not going to browse through romance books looking for it. Understanding elements common to the genre you're writing and sticking with them will create an identifiable, quantifiable work, something that can easily find its proper place on a bookshelf. If you identify your story as "more of a literary science fiction mystery, but with elements of romance and chick lit", a publisher is going to have a devil of a time finding a place on a bookshelf for it. And guess what - if they can't find a place for it on the shelf, readers won't find it there either.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AhH1BiknBCc/T1peINpVC_I/AAAAAAAAAuc/dF-wpQmHNMo/s1600/Crawdads,+no.+Crayfish,+no.+Crawfish,+yes.+Pot+pie.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AhH1BiknBCc/T1peINpVC_I/AAAAAAAAAuc/dF-wpQmHNMo/s640/Crawdads,+no.+Crayfish,+no.+Crawfish,+yes.+Pot+pie.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Crawdads, no. Crayfish, no. Crawfish, yes. Pot pie. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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<b>Experiment, but do so correctly.</b> Although I'm <i>quite</i> the adventurous foodie, I'm not an especially good cook. I experiment far too much, and usually my creations (using that term loosely here) end up mangled and often garbage-bound. Luckily I don't have to be. The wife is a supremely talented cook, and we eat quite well in the House of Dalar. It's good to push the envelope, though, try things a little outside the box. That's what gives us those new, exciting, discoveries that suddenly become the next big trend everyone tries frantically to copy before it becomes old. That's a great thing in both writing and food. But you gotta do it right. You can't just add ingredients without knowing what they'll do to a dish, and you can't play around with story elements, grammar, and perspective without knowing what you're doing either. A little tweak, a dash of daring, and suddenly your creation is refreshingly new and original. You can play around with a baked potato, but the main ingredient is still going to be a potato.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdn29UcziQs/T1pYhF7_xWI/AAAAAAAAAuE/K3p4myrNsXM/s1600/Potato+pav%C3%A9+w+bison+Texas+red+chili+and+smoked+cheddar.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdn29UcziQs/T1pYhF7_xWI/AAAAAAAAAuE/K3p4myrNsXM/s640/Potato+pav%C3%A9+w+bison+Texas+red+chili+and+smoked+cheddar.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Potato pavé w/ bison Texas red chili and smoked cheddar. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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Phew, that's a lot of food porn. You had forewarning. And now you're hungry; I know I am. I'm going to saunter down to the kitchen to wrangle up something to eat. And you can saunter on over to <a href="http://foiegrashotdog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>Foie Gras Hot Dog</b></a> and find the recipes where all these wonderful photos came from. It's run by my friends Julie and Ryan, a couple of great cooks, and adventurous foodies themselves. You can also follow them on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/FoieGrasHotDog" target="_blank"><b>@FoieGrasHotDog</b></a>).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UhD0Txf7o0/T1pe-szzxKI/AAAAAAAAAuk/vuWvCELfLm0/s1600/Papaquiles+(the+imaginary+friend+of+chilaquiles).+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UhD0Txf7o0/T1pe-szzxKI/AAAAAAAAAuk/vuWvCELfLm0/s640/Papaquiles+(the+imaginary+friend+of+chilaquiles).+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="427" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Papaquiles (the imaginary friend of chilaquiles). © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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By the way, one of their uniquely crafted recipes - <a href="http://foiegrashotdog.blogspot.com/2012/02/papaquiles.html" target="_blank"><b>Papaquiles</b></a> - is being served by the Today Food crew's food truck at this year's <a href="http://sxsw.com/" target="_blank"><b>SXSW Music Festival</b></a> in Austin, Texas, which starts today and runs through March 18th. If you're in the area, be sure to check it out!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yfs4wqzcng/T1pghxS0pOI/AAAAAAAAAu0/UU35Xufqsks/s1600/Grilled+peach+cobbler.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yfs4wqzcng/T1pghxS0pOI/AAAAAAAAAu0/UU35Xufqsks/s640/Grilled+peach+cobbler.+%C2%A9+Ryan+Schierling.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Grilled peach cobbler. © Ryan Schierling</span></td></tr>
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Oh, and dessert. Can't forget dessert.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2