just for fun – Page 16 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

DAFT PUUUNK!!

So a few days ago I discovered this French techno group called Daft Punk. They are freaking amazing! I’ve been listening to them nonstop ever since–and when I say non-stop, I mean it quite literally. Their music is so awesome, it blows my mind!

Take the stuff they’re doing for the new Tron movie, for example. When I listened to Derezzed for the first time, I was like “whoa.” I’m not really all that into techno, but that track really grabbed me (I actually prefer this edit, which is even more epic than the original). The highly compressed quality of the sound, the awesome industrial tone, the intensity and power behind it–immediately, I was like “this is good stuff.”

So then I looked a little more into Daft Punk, and I discovered some interesting things. Probably the most interesting is their image: as you can see from the picture, they wear these crazy robot helmets every time they’re in public. I guess it started because the two guys are kind of shy, or maybe because they wanted to distance their personal lives from their public persona–either way, you’ve got to admit, the concept is just freaking awesome. Robot DJs in leather and chrome FTW!

The more I found out about them, the awesomer it got. For example, did you know that they released a feature length anime to go along with one of their albums? That’s right–a feature length film, set to nothing but music. And what’s more, it’s science fiction!

Interstella 5555 is just about the cheesiest, awesomest sci fi you can get–it’s like it’s taken right out of the 70s, when Star Wars was the big new thing and space was still this magical place that everyone felt we were destined to go some day.

But the music–man, this isn’t the throbbing powerhouse kind of stuff they’re doing for Tron. This music has depth and emotion; it’s much more innocent, and resonates on a more personal level with me than their hardcore techno stuff–which, don’t get me wrong, I still like. It’s just that with their Discovery album (which became the basis for Interstella), I feel that I can listen to any song no matter what mood I’m in, and by the end of the track I’ll be smiling.

In short, Daft Punk is AMAZING. What more can I say? Squeeee! You should totally give their stuff a try. Maybe it’s not for you, but who knows–maybe you’ll be surprised. At least check out Interstella 5555, because it is awesome.

Man, I’ve watched and/or listened to this film maybe half a dozen times in the past four days, and it just doesn’t get old. Like so many other things, it makes me wish I’d grown up in the 70s and 80s, when science fiction was good. Even though it came out in 2003, Interstella 5555 just seems to channel the spirit of that time.

Anyhow, I’d better wrap this up before I get all fanboy crazy and start slathering at the mouth. But if you want to be the most amazing person on the planet, please!!! get me Interstella 5555 for Christmas! Are you reading this, Mom? And as for the rest of you, don’t worry–I’d be totally happy with any of their other albums, hint hint.

🙂 🙂 🙂

Dog dead workdays and killing your characters

This post is going to be super quick because I’m dead tired.

Due to power surges and computer glitches, I had to work overtime today and yesterday at the warehouse, so I really haven’t had time for anything except writing and a little socializing at Leading Edge. However, things are going well. I’ll get the extra hours off on Friday, which means a big chunk of free time to do whatever I want.

I broke 3k words today in Mercenary Savior. It was awesome. I love revision–taking something good and making it really shine. Just hit some major climaxes and killed off a side character, which is always exhilarating if you do it right.

As a footnote to that, I’m reading George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, and I just reached the part where he kills off the first major character. What’s more, he was my favorite character in the book so far!!! AAUGGH! Why, Mr. Martin? Why??? Yet I must confess, killing him was necessary to take the story to the next level of awesomeness <grumble>.

I’ve been thinking a lot about killing characters recently, and I figure the best way to do it is to recognize that everyone has to go sometime (in real life if not always in fantasy), and to write accordingly. We tend to ignore our own mortality, when really, there can be so much meaning to it. After all, to die for something is to make the ultimate sacrifice. If you make sure your characters die for a reason–either heroic or tragic (or both)–then I think that’s the key to make it work.

The Book Academy Conference at UVU was great; I’ll do a writeup on that soon, probably over the weekend. I probably won’t post the audio files, but if you want them, just email me and I’ll send you the link.

I’ve been waking up early each day this week, and it’s been great. I’m so much more productive in the morning, writing wise. It’s like a computer: when you first boot up, your desktop is so clean. With only the startup programs running in the background, everything feels uncluttered.

At the end of the day, though, it’s the exact opposite. You’ve got maybe a dozen applications running, and it’s all too easy to get distracted by switching from one to the other. What’s more, you just don’t have the energy to get things done.

The downside (if you can call it that) is that it’s only midnight and already I’m about to collapse. Oh well–guess I’ll just have to go to bed earlier.

In closing, let me leave you with this really weird, slightly disturbing anime clip I found on youtube of a vegetable committing seppuko. I guess it has something to do with the rest of the post, seeing as I went on a tangent about killing characters. Anyhow, this is the friendship among vegetables…

Gliese 581g: The first New Earth?

My friends, the revolution has begun.

Scientists from UC Santa Cruz announced today the discovery of Gliese 581g, the first planet discovered in the habitable zone of its star. Let me repeat: the first planet discovered in the habitable zone of its star.

In this habitable zone, temperatures are just right to support life as we know it here on Earth–that’s why it’s known as the “habitable zone.” Of course, there are several other conditions that need to be met before we can know whether the planet is truly habitable, but one of the most important criteria has already been met.

According to the report, this planet sounds like one of the rainbow worlds from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. It’s tidally locked to its star, which means that one side of the planet is always in day, while the other side is always in night. If life as we know it exists on this world, it’s probably limited to the narrow band of twilight between the extremely hot day zone and extremely cold night zone.

The scientists calculate that the planet is about three times as massive as Earth, which means that if it’s a rocky world (as opposed to an ocean world), gravity on the surface would be about 1.2 times that of Earth. The host star, Gliese 581, is only twenty lightyears from Earth–the 86th closest star to our solar system.

But the best part is that the scientists feel that there are many, many more worlds like this out there. They detected Gliese 581g using the radial velocity method, which uses the star’s wobble to detect the planets tugging on it. Typically, this method is only good for discovering “hot jupiters”–very massive gas giants in extremely tight orbits (sometimes with a period of only a few Earth days). However, by the fact that scientists were able to find a planet in the habitable zone using this method, they predict that similar Earth-like planets are extremely common.

That is so cool, I don’t know what to say other than “the revolution has begun.” And truly, it’s a revolution. When we start discovering hundreds of Earth-like planets, and find that several of them have conditions perfect for supporting life (or better yet, actual evidence of life present), it’s going to change everything about how we think of our place in the universe.

This is an incredibly exciting time to be alive! Now if only I could live long enough to join the first colonization mission to one of these worlds…

Bed intruder song بالعربي

I can’t believe I just did this.

An Arabic speaker asked, in a youtube comment, for a translation of the recent Antoine Dodson rapist song meme. Since I didn’t have anything better to do was already busy procrastinating, I went ahead and made a rough translation. Here it is:

ومن الواضح أن لدينا في لينكولن بارك مغتصب
انه يتسلق في شباككم انه يخطف اهلكم حتى
محاول ان يغتصبهم فتحتاجوا إلى إخفاءوا أطفالكم ، إخفاءوا زوجاتكم
وإخفاءوا أزواجكم لان ثم يغتصبون جميع الاشخاص هنا
أنت لست بحاجة إلى أن تأتي وتعترف ، سنبحث عنك
سنوجدك, سنوجدك
فيمكنك ان تسار وتقول ذلك ،يا وحش
عندنا تي–شيرتك وبصماتك الاصابع وخيرها
انت غبي كثير ,ولا غبي كثير, انجد
حصل الرجل بعيدا متارك وراءه أدلة
أنا تعرضت لهجوم من قبل احمق في المشاريع
غبي غبي غبي غبي

And if you’re not confused enough already, here’s the song:

Now excuse me while I start being productive for a change. Ahem.

Update on things

Revised the first chapter of Mercenary Savior today. I will probably revise it a couple more times before this draft is finished, but at least I’ve done it once.

For some reason, most of my alpha readers didn’t give me too many comments to work with. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but in practical terms it means I’m mostly on my own. Still waiting for some to get back to me, though.

Last week, I wrote the prologue, where as a young woman Danica returns to her home only to find her family massacred by hired thugs. It was…surprisingly dark. Charlie liked it, though, so that’s a good thing.

Charlie also complimented me on my prose, saying that it improves every time she reads something of mine. That’s a pleasant surprise, since I certainly don’t notice any difference–but then again, I’m so close to my own writing that improvement is hard to see. Good to know that my craft is getting better, not getting worse. Thanks!

Last week, I realized that I didn’t have any submissions out for Genesis Earth. None at all. I sent out a query on Saturday, but it was surprisingly difficult. Submitting is definitely not my strongest point; I really need to work on that.

In unrelated news, I’m flying home tomorrow to spend the week with my parents. I asked to come home for my birthday present; my mom’s health insurance through her work covers me until September, but only in Massachusetts. Since I haven’t had a dental checkup in years, I figured it would be good to get that done. Also, it’s a nice break and a chance to see my folks. I’m looking forward to it.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Oh! The Kepler Mission announced a press conference for Thursday to discuss “an intriguing star system” they recently discovered. Needless to say, I can hardly wait!

Also, no less than 6 fellow quarkies are moving in to my apartment complex this next semester. Six! And they’re all girls! If Baggins old place was Bag End, and his new place is Rivendell, our complex is freaking Minas Tirith. And we’re forming a dinner group, too! This next year is going to be awesome.

And that’s just about it for what’s new in my world. I came just shy of 4k in Mercenary Savior today, and I hope to keep that up (or do more) until I get a new job. For now, let me leave you with this EPIC chipophone presentation from lft. 8-bit music ftw!

What’s for lunch?

So a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life and start eating healthier. I figured the best way to do this was to experiment with Middle Eastern cuisine, because:

1) it’s healthy,
2) it’s cheap, and
3) it’s fun!

First, I made a batch of pita bread, using this recipe (with 2 tbs sugar instead of 1). Pita bread is way easy to make; just roll them out and toss in the oven for four or five minutes. After letting the dough rise, it usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to make a batch.

Pita bread is both cheap and tasty. A batch of pita bread roughly equals as much as a loaf of bread and costs considerably less (considering each ingredient by amount used). One thing I’ve found, though, is that pita bread doesn’t keep very well–after only a week, it starts getting moldy. This happens regardless of whether or not it’s refrigerated.

I’ve tried letting the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight to enrich the flavor, but I’ve found that doing that makes the final product drier and more crumbly. Besides, I can barely taste the difference. It takes a bit more time, but I prefer cooking it right after letting the dough rise, usually for 90 minutes to an hour.

Next, I made the hummus. Store bought hummus is ridiculously expensive, especially considering that you can make it yourself from relatively cheap ingredients found in any American grocery store. The one possible exception to that is the tahini, but you can still make a tasty batch of the stuff without it.

To make the hummus, I used:

one 2 lb bag of dried garbanzo beans (otherwise known as chick peas)
6-10 cloves of garlic
3-5 tbs lemon juice
1-2 cups water
2-3 tbs peanut butter
paprika, cumin, and salt to taste

I can’t say exactly how much of any ingredient I used because I eyeballed most of it. That’s generally the way I cook everything. Still, it turned out great!

I used dry beans instead of canned because I wanted to avoid the sodium. Plus, dried beans are way cheaper. I let them soak overnight (and found that they generally expand to 3 times their initial volume–plan on it!) and cooked them for about two hours–basically, until they were tender enough to mush apart between my fingers.

As an experiment, I substituted peanut butter for the tahini. Tahini is basically sesame seed butter, and it tastes almost the same as regular peanut butter. I found, though, that using too much peanut butter overpowers the flavor of the garbanzo beans and gives it a weird taste. In the future, I’ll probably skip the peanut butter (or add sesame oil–I wonder if that would work?).

To make hummus, you really need to have a good quality blender. I went to my brother-in-law’s parents and used theirs. Of course, I left them a pie tin full of the stuff to say thank you! With a two pound bag of dried garbanzo beans to start with, I had PLENTY left over, as you can see from the photo.

All told, if you know what you’re doing, you can make hummus in large quantities for extremely cheap. I can make the equivalent of a $10 bucket of Costco hummus for about $2-$3 from scratch. A pie tin of the stuff, with the whole beans, paprika, and olive oil sprinkled on top for presentation, would cost much less–yet in an American restaurant you’d probably pay $15 or more.

(By the way, pita bread with hummus and fresh cilantro tastes heavenly.)

For the vegetable part, I diced up some cucumber, onion, tomato, bell pepper, and cilantro, with a touch of lemon juice. For flavor, I added a pickle (the restaurants in Jordan serve pickles with just about every meal) with a tiny bit of olive oil on top.

Let me tell you, the end result was a resounding success! I’ve been eating this stuff for lunch for the past week, and it is delicious! Not to mention that it’s nearly twice as cheap as what I was eating before, and at least ten times as healthy. Yeah!

My next culinary experiment will either be with Egyptian koshari or something to do with the million cherry tomatoes I picked at the McQueen’s house over the weekend. I’ve also got a bag of frozen chicken, and I wonder if I can make some tasty shawarma if I marinate it in the yogurt I got on sale. By the way, yogurt on pita bread with whole olives makes another delicious Middle Eastern snack.

Anyways, that’s what I’ve been up to. If you want to try this out or have any ideas or suggestions, let me know! I’d love to hear about it.

End in sight

Things are winding down for my current work in progress, Worlds Away from Home–or should I say winding up, since I’m just a chapter or two from the major climax? In any case, by the end of the week, inshallah, the rough draft will be finished. <crosses fingers>

It’s been tough, but I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to salvage it, probably sometime after World Fantasy 2010. Drafting is not my strongest point; I’m much better at revision. My goal is to have a fully polished draft before the end of 2011.

As far as the real world goes, things are starting to come together as well. I’m going home at the end of the month to get my teeth checked before my Mom’s insurance no longer covers me, and when I get back this temp agency should have a warehouse job lined up for a while, if I can’t find anything else. I’m cautiously optimistic that my sister will help me get a job at the residential treatment center where she works, which would be awesome, and of course there’s always the possibility that BYU will lift the hiring freeze (pretty soon, they’ll have to).

So here’s my plan for the next few months: quit my job at the call center and go home in two weeks, then either work through the temp agency through September/October or find something better. The wilderness job I was looking at has their training in November, so I’ll start the application process now in order to have that option in case everything else falls through. And if all else fails, I’ll go teach English in Asia for a year.

Meanwhile, I hope to stay in Utah until at least February, preferably until April. There are a lot of good resources here for writers, and I hope to take advantage of them. After I finish the rough draft of Worlds, I will throw everything behind Mercenary Savior and get it polished in time for World Fantasy 2010.

And then? Who knows. I’d kind of like to try my hand at a fantasy novel; I’ve got the start of an idea for a magic system, and enough knowledge of Middle Eastern history to throw in a sweet medieval Arab flavor in the mix.

In terms of the real world, my plan is to reteach myself Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus using some excellent resources my Dad is sending me, then go back to school in a hard science…probably. Still not sure what I want to do school-wise, but hopefully I’ll figure that out in the next year or two and head back soon.

That is, if I don’t get published and launch my writing career by then.

So that’s what my life is looking like right now. If you’re still reading and aren’t bored stiff (or if you just skipped to the end of the post, which is what I would have done), here’s an excellent song from one of my favorite Celtic bands, The Rogues:

Story Notebook #3 (part 2)

Alright, I said I’d finish running through my third story notebook, so here it is. After all, there’s no better time than now:

The song, btw, is from Summoning of Spirits, quite possibly the best fanmade video game soundtrack that ocremix has put out. Oh, and it’s completely free; did I mention that? If you want to download it, you can find it here.

Anyways, on to the story ideas:

First line: “The invisible pink unicorn in the room sneezed.”

Hahaha! Martha, this one’s for you!

Theory: all of us have a mechanism in our brains that helps us relate to other people, to see ourselves in them. But over time, we learn to shut it off, because so long as that mechanism is working, we can’t do anything to hurt other people. If we can’t relate, we can’t care and can’t feel the pain of the other.

Or maybe we learn to turn it off because it just hurts so much to feel others’ pain. We desensitize ourselves in order to survive this cruel world. But is a life disconnected from others’ pain and joy really worth living? Where is the balance?

A writer who uses himself as an alpha reader by going to an alternate universe in which he never became a writer –> told from the point of view of the alternate person, who wishes he’d become a writer but never did.

I’m pretty sure I got this idea from a short story that Mechmuse published before it went under. You can still find it here. Normally, I have a policy of not writing stories about writers (since it’s so overdone), but for this one, I might be willing to make an exception…that is, if no one beats me to it.

A democracy in which the president serves for ten years and is ceremoniously executed at the end of his/her term.

Hey, that’s what they used to do to the ancient kings in Europe: when the king got old and the time came for him to hand over his kingdom, the druid-priests would ceremoniously execute him in front of the rest of the tribe.

The question is this: would such a custom lead to a better system of government? It would certainly weed out all the greedy scumbags who are only looking for money and power (which constitutes the majority of politicians). But who would take their place? Would the new politicos be any better?

How would foresight, like Atium, change sports? Like fantasy steroids, except different.

Thoughts while reading Mistborn. True story.

What if the Dome of the Rock was a magical portal to another world?

Hey, it’s possible. The circle/square/octagon motif represents a connection between heaven and earth, and scholars have never really figured out what the religious function of the structure was supposed to be.

And that concludes story notebook #3. Have fun writing!

Braving the unexpected rough spots

Right now, I’m going through this unexpected rough spot in my novel, where I know what’s supposed to happen (or at least I have enough of an idea to wing it fairly well), but the writing just isn’t coming. This happens every time I hit the two thirds mark, and it really sucks.

Currently, I’m using two methods to get through it: 1) keep a running chapter-by-scene outline of the next few scenes, and 2) use a loose adaptation of story theory models (such as the hero’s journey) to keep perspective on things. Right now, this is what my chapter-by-scene outline looks like:

Chapter 14
14.1: Jalil
Jalil meets LARS, who with Michelle shows him the ship. Jalil learns that Lars has a connection with the Farlen family and that the Stewarts are from his parents’ home.
14.2: Mira
Mira returns home an outcast. Sheila rails at her for failing to seduce Jalil, while Sathi pulls her into his quarters to tell her that he’s arranged for her speedy marriage.
14.3: Jalil
The Bridgette launches from GN-2 using a gravity whip maneuver. The ship heads out for the L2 point, using a second gravity whip around GN-2b. Jalil realizes this is goodbye.

Chapter 15
15.1: Mira
While Mira prepares herself to get ready to meet her cousin Ibrahim, Tiera approaches her in private to apologize for calling her a whore. Tiera advises her to stand up for herself.
15.2: Mira
IBRAHIM’s convoy arrives. As Sathi and Ibrahim’s father conduct negotiations, Mira meets him and is surprised to find that she’s attracted to him.
15.3: Mira
Mira, Surayya, Amina, and Tiera discuss Ibrahim in the women’s quarters. Tiera advises Mira not to pursue him, but Surayya and Amina convince her to go ahead with it.

Chapter 16
16.1: Jalil
Lars and Michelle tell Jalil about the Colony. They show him pictures, and he has flashbacks.
16.2: Jalil
While making maneuvers around GN-2a, the Bridgette receives news of Hameji movements near Karduna. Jalil learns a bit of the Hameji.
16.3: Jalil
The Bridgette arrives at the L2 station and enters the starlane. Jalil’s first experience as an adult making the jump.

Chapter 17
17.1: Mira
???

As you can see, I’ve broken down each chapter by scene, with the viewpoint character indicated as well as a short one or two line description of what happens. When a new character comes along, I mention them by name in ALL CAPS. I use the auto font color for story that I’ve already written, and the stuff that remains to be written in red. Also, I only outline a handful of scenes ahead of my current position.

That’s the method that works for me. I have no idea if it will work for you, but feel free to give it a try or let me know what methods you’re using.

I’m finding that even though I’m more of a “discovery writer,” certain methods of outlining give me much greater flexibility to discovery write than simply winging it all on the fly. In particular, I find that outlining my characters and keeping a running scene-by-scene map for the next couple days helps to keep me on track.

I ran into this problem earlier in the week: without any kind of outline, and no previously written material to fall back on, I had no idea what to do. Instead of sitting at my keyboard doing nothing, though, I plotted out the next few scenes to give me some idea what to do.

That helped me out for a while, but now…man, it’s still rough. I did 3,251 words yesterday, but today I only hit 1,555. It’s a lot, I know, but with all my free time, I should be hitting more. Much more.

I suppose the only way out of this slump is to write–and write I certainly must. I seriously need a real job, and right now I’m looking into the field staff position at Wilderness Quest. If they hire me, I’ll need to finish this novel before I start work, since I’ll be out in the wilderness for three weeks at a time and the last thing I want is to pick up a half-finished project after it’s gone cold–especially when I’ve got to rewrite Mercenary Savior for World Fantasy 2010.

So that’s what I’m looking at right now. Three weeks, inshallah, and Worlds Away from Home 1.2 will be finished. Hopefully by then, I’ll have a real job too.

To close, check out this awesome version of the Corridors of Time song (Zeal theme) from the Chrono Trigger soundtrack. I’ve heard maybe twenty or thirty different arrangements of this excellent composition, and this one takes the cake. Beautiful.

Forward to new ground

A couple days ago, I finished writing through the material I’d written for Worlds Away From Home back in 2008 before I dropped the project. For the first time since March, I find myself drafting entirely new material.

It’s a little bit unnerving; I’m a much better reviser, I feel, than straight up writer. Revising is awesome because I know that the book is getting better, whereas drafting is frustrating because the written story never turns out as awesome as it was when it was in my head.

At the same time, it’s really fun to play fast and loose with your book. Need a new character? Throw him in! A new romantic subplot? Go for it! A new planet for the characters to visit? Sure, why not?

I will say, though, that it’s much harder to keep up a steady writing rate when you’re drafting new material. My daily word count has fallen to about 2k, give or take a few hundred words. In order to finish this by August 15, I just need to do 2.2k per day, but I’m sure something will come up and I’ll find myself in a crunch by the end.

One thing that might throw a kink in the works is getting a new job. Being underemployed really sucks, and I want to move on to a new job by the beginning of August. Easier said than done in this economy, right? Well, there are some options open to a young, single college grad in my position: namely, a wilderness job. I’ve been holding out on that because eight days in the wilderness for every six days off seems like a lot of time away from other pursuits, but the more I look at it, the more appealing it seems. Six days completely off, with no money problems…hmm…

Which reminds me: would it be lame to put up a donate button on this blog? One that said “buy me a (non-alcoholic) drink” or something like that? I don’t want to ask for money, but if you guys feel like throwing it at me, who am I to hold you back? I don’t expect it to earn much, but something is better than nothing, especially these days.