BLOGS

A little under a year ago, I started a side projected called Bad Girl Confidence to showcase a collection of aspiring creatives that I knew. Creatives such as writers, designers, comic book writers, artist, musicians, & entrepreneurs who needed exposure for their work but lacked the resources to drum up support for their work. Find out more here: www.badgirlconfidence.com

This platform is now growing into an online magazine and we will going into print as a result. We will be bringing the website and print magazine at the Northside Festival in June. The print magazine is going to include a variety of artist, all but one are people of color from around the world. There are illustrators, video game designers, graphic artists, fine art creators, and more. If you would like to help us make this magazine a reality, please pledge here: http://igg.me/at/bgcmagazine

Your pledge could earn you a copy of digital and/or print magazine. I am really excited because this is the first step in showing the world the emerging talents coming out from our communities. My main focus is on people of color but I engaged in the spirit of encourage talent full stop! This magazine is here to bring a different perspective and balance the skewed media conversation about what beauty and talent looks like!

Thank you for your help! :)

PBS.org: Forgotten Genius - Percy Julian, PhD
PC Magazine: Chemist Percy Julian Honored With Google Doodle, Chloe Albanesius

In an effort to introduce myself to the Black Science Fiction Society, I've decided to offer up a series of tutorials on a regular basis based on my experience and knowledge over the years. In many ways, i feel like I'm hoarding information and after an inspiring podcast by the BSFS last night (regarding Kollege Kids ) and speaking with the producers, everyone here moved me to really help out more.

I've been at this game for a long, long LONG time.The hope is, with these tutorials, I can help you save a lot of time and expense. I've spent years, myself, searching for tutorials over the internet and learned a lot from others and now, I bring that knowledge to you.

For us.

Some of the topics that I will go over:

Animation (3D and 2D)

eBook publishing

Traditional publishing

Photoshop

After Effects tricks

Adobe Audition

Audio engineering

Marketing

Project Management (how to get a project off the ground and execute it cleanly)

Story development

Screenplay writing

Social mining

Arduino development

HTML

Book Cover design

Short Film Production

3DS Max

Maya

That'S QUITE a list, I know. Each and everyone of those topics I've manged, used and found a reasonable amount of success in. All of it has been self-taught over the years in an effort to reduce the cost of getting someone to do it for me. It always ALWAYS started out the same way all the time:

Corey: Hey! I'm working on an animation project. How much for you to animated about a minute of stuff?

Animator: My rate is $45.00 an hour.

Corey: What?!? I can't afford $45.00 an hour!

Animator: Well, you'll never get anyone for anything less.

So the next thing you know, I'm speed learning Anime Studio Pro and other software until, years later, I'm my own studio.

My short list of accomplishments:

• Sold my first script 12 years ago for 40k. They still didn't produce it. LOL
• Published my first 2007, re-edited it for eBook in 2011 and for ONE DAY ONLY, I surpassed a James Paterson novel. Trust me, that day was quick. LOL
• Produced a couple of short films. 
• On track to release my first web series
• Had a successful running audio drama/comedy "The Shyster Club"
• Had a successfully running talk show on Blogtalkradio "The indepthYou Show"

Please friend me up at the following links and ask me anything! I'm seriously trying to build my friend/like network so please, please please ... pay a visit, like a little, comment a little. I'll be sure to do the same.

Website: http://www.desktopepics.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/desktopepic

Vine: https://vine.co/u/1055473544861544448

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/desktopepicsfilms

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/desktopepics

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/desktopepics_universe

tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/desktopepics_universe

I will be revealing the new cover for The Beggar's Bowl on May 21. This short of mine has been free for a few years now and I know it hasn't gotten as many downloads as 30 Minute Plan because the cover is just awful. I'd made it myself. But now it has an honest-to-goodness nice cover and I will be revealing it next month in anticipation of the release of Axe to the Face. TBB will also include an exclusive excerpt of the novella.

Don't forget to download a copy of Where the Monsters Are or join the giveaway over at Brutal Books!

I listened to this podcast a few times and found it very cool to hear. This is where coders, tech experts, and entreprenuers, authors, engineers, etc get on and talk about their experience in the field.

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LINK: http://www.spreaker.com/user/blacksintechnology/bittechtalk-ep-53-w-kelsey-hightower?error=access_denied&error_code=200&error_description=Permissions+error&error_reason=user_denied#_=_

MIT Technology Review:
Widespread Bug Will Linger On in Unpatched Devices
Money.CNN.com: Heartbleed bug: What you need to know
LA Times: 'Heartbleed' bug could undermine years of work to build public trust

In college I was introduced to the utopian novel, heard much of hippie communes and investigated several religions and such, ultimately getting stuck in one. The weird thing is that for every serious group, there is a vocabulary. That group of words dictates the context of the reality of that group. Outsiders are separated by not knowing the language and/or not participating in the fellowship using that language. What I mean is you have experiences (mostly normal human experiences) and you describe them in the language of the group. The end effect is that you must use the appropriate language with the appropriate group. Mixing groups and languages is for dissing or promoting the one group to the other group.

Now if you spend any length of time in a focus, using a particular language and describe your world through the defines taught to you, you will find your being has been altered accordingly. Take my word for it, when a startling change comes, it is a struggle to deal with it internally.

The one who knows this experience is the traveller. If you've been to another nation where the culture and language is foreign then you have the alien experience. Now let's shift gears and change realities. Now you know very little experientially. You hope if you go through this door you can come back through. Then can you describe what you experience to yourself because you sure as shoot'n will have a hard time describing it to others.

I haven't been there yet, but I sense it in the back ground, where the times and names mean nothing. I wonder if my sense organs and brain are giving me all that is or a narrow spectrum. I heard one say if I rub my hands together, I am ramping up my chi. I don't want to waste energy, I do want to see energy fly from my hands, not just assume. Power of life, what a thought and yet I've been taught not to consider it or develop it. Power of mind, beyond the meanings in words I've been taught, beyond the reality I learned to sense. OR is what is exactly what it is? Perhaps it is imagination after all.

Ibn al-Haytham. (Image by Guérin nicolas, GFDL)

Post inspired by COSMOS episode this past Sunday (full episode at link).

"al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 9 Apr. 2014<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Islam Wikia: Ibn al-Haytham
Wikipedia: History of the Scientific Method/Ibin al-Haytham

NASA: The Opposition of Mars

Source: The Economist (link below)

The Economist: New roles for technology - Rise of the Robots
MIT Technology Review:
Cheaper Joints and Digits Bring the Robot Revolution Closer

MIT Technology Review (the report):
Why We Can't Just Adapt to Climate Change, John Reilly
MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
NOLA Times Picayune: Hurricane Katrina
FEMA: Hurricane Sandy Recovery
World Bank:
What Climate Change Means for Africa, Asia and the Coastal Poor

Blog link: Minute Labs

http://www.shondabrock.com/#/blog/4559736266/This-is-an-Ode-to-Firsts/7825874

This is an Ode to Firsts.

Firsts are as old as the beginning of time. God created the Heaven and the Earth and afterwards He looked over the surface and created Light.  He called the Light Day and the Darkness was called Night, and that was the First day.

Well something a little less majestic are my personal collection of Firsts. They might not be equal to the birth of the earth or the launch of religion, but they will always live in my memory as Firsts.

The First man I ever loved was my father. I loved everything from his natural masculine scent to the way he never missed making Christmas eggnog from scratch.

The First time I every touched a gun. It felt like power, death, control and fear all rolled into one chaotic emotion.  I remember never wanting to touch it again, yet a few years later I joined the service and lugged one around for five years. Funny, how life turns out.

Speaking of the Army, I still get goose bumps recalling the First time I was called “Ma’am” in front of my battalion. The weight of that one syllable word rang like liberty through my body because I knew I had earned the respect of my soldiers.

The First time I looked into my newborn daughter’s eyes subdued my heart. There are no words to describe the miracle of birth. All I can say is its one thing to feel movement inside your belly for months, but another to witness life where there was none.

Unfortunately, there are some First’s that I wish to strike down from my memory, like pushing the delete button on a keyboard. But they too will always remain.

Like the First time someone called me the N word. I was so confused. I looked around wondering who they were talking to before I realized it was me. I should have rained terror down on them, but I was so embarrassed that I was so naive.

On a lighter note, I remember very well the First time I ate chitlins at someone else’s house. This particular First also became a Life Lesson. For those of you who don’t know what chitlins are please Google, but for those of you who do know what they are, you also know that you can’t eat just anybody’s chitlins. I didn’t know that rule until then. That mess in my mouth was so foul… that it immediately became the measure for being disgusting and being disgusted at the same time. And it became a Life Lesson never to be forgotten. “Never eat anybody’s chitlins. I must trust them explicitly before that delicacy ever crosses my lips.”

Please feel free to share your Firsts.

Oh and No Chitlins please, I’ll have a glass of water instead.

Source: Link below to access interactive media

Scientific Chicago: Real Physics Behind Star Trek

"1984"

MIT Technology Review:
Study Shows Flawed U.S. Encryption Standard Could Be Broken in Seconds

I'm pickin up a conflict between the nature power people and the technology powered people to rule the planet. They duke it out by trying to reduce each other primitive savages.

The nature people (NTRs) can say a glandular hello, the Technos countered by placing a shield micro dot on their foreheads. A group of NTRs were talking when one turned without warning and winged a boomerang at a hovering ear drone, splitting it into pieces. They then went into the glandular and nodded heads toward each other.

The Techno people can't glandular connect but they do have devices for everything and a software called swarm that helps them work in masse. Techno people don't like to be solitary unless going into sensory overload, which has replaced any and all drug use. So when you see a lone person you have to figure is he naturating or chaosing.

Once a Techno challenged a NTR to a contest to see who could relay the farthest. The Techno first bounces signals off the ionosphere. He then sent signals to the furthest satellite in space. The NTR then transcribed a lengthy message from a friend on the other side of the galaxy w/pictures and a joked about a strange signal he intercepted from a busted up satellite.

The NTRs like to live simple, they are natural of course, grow food themselves, mostly for the pleasure of it. Their needs are small, they live with seasonal local foods. The Technos still use the mega farm approach to sustain their selves and are working toward synth-food with infinity shelf life.

The Technos brag how their big machines will one day build new pyramids once they can break the dense matter gravity link. The NTRs say what is matter or gravity to us? (Ooh Neal, there is no spoon!).

Sound familiar? I wonder who we be ultimate. I do think we trust too much in technology today and don't know enough about nature (MTR NTR). The key is not information and calculation but the illumination of knowledge.

Maps of gamma rays from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, before (left) and after signals from known sources were removed, reveal an excess that is consistent with the distribution of dark matter.

Quanta Magazine: Case for Dark Matter Signal Strengthens