BLOGS

Source: Link "From last summer"

Web site: Stephon Alexander, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy

The first story I wrote was published when I was five years old. Technically, it was a contest for the local paper where you had to finish the prompt. Something about finding a treasure chest in an attic and what was in it.

From what I remember, I wrote something like it was a TV and we all watched Bugs Bunny because it was Saturday! That’s not verbatim, of course. For that, you’d have to ask my Mother; I think she still has the newspaper clipping somewhere.

Now, ahem, several years later, my writing has progressed. I can also say that I’m a full-fledged geek as well. (It wasn’t long after that “publication” that I moved from watching Bugs to watching reruns of Star Trek and playing video games on the computer.)

Being both a writer and a Geek places me in an interesting position.  And certainly in a different headspace when creating fiction. The writing process can be challenging in general. Just ask all of the frustrated authors out there. 

But it’s different for us Geeks. We’re special. And that has good and bad implications.

The good part includes the fact that we’re natural storytellers. We love to take an ordinary situation and add our own spin to retelling it. Even adding our own “what if” scenarios to make that book more awesome.

Also, most of us have an encyclopedic knowledge of our chosen object of geeky affection. References from comics, movies, books can weave their way into our lives so easily and deeply that they become part of us. It can create and fuel ideas. Like that time I wanted to translate “99 Luftballons” into Klingon.

But it’s also a challenge when writing.  It can make us think, “This will never be as good as insert author’s name here.” That can stymie us into only reading, watching, experiencing our faves and not creating our own work. Comparison can be detrimental to any author, but we Geeks have such love and respect for the creators of our books and movies and such, that they reach cult status. And we hesitate to toss our own work out to the public.

It can make us question our astounding creativity.  Is this too much like episode 25 of that show? I have it on DVD; I’ll watch it to be sure. Didn’t they already make something like this into a movie?  Even other Geeks may tell us this. “You know, this sounds like…” Geekiness can make us second-guess the ability of our work to stand out among the crushing amounts of awesomeness out there. But no one can write a story exactly the way you can. So stop worrying. Even if your lead character’s name sounds strangely like that starship captain’s. It’s okay, really. Finish writing and change it later. Maybe.

We as Geeks can also get caught up easily with other pursuits. Heated Internet debates about the newest video game, introducing the uninitiated to our favorite TV series, watching someone else’s favorite TV series… The list can be endless.

While there’s a lot of shiny for Geeks to get distracted by, in order to effectively create our own awesome writing, we must do the unthinkable:

Take a break from our favorite things.

I know, I know. The thought of not watching the next episode, or of not making it to the next level up is torture. (“I’ll write after I finish this” is all too common.) But making this sacrifice will help you reach the goal of finishing a first draft of that short story or creating your RPG for the contest. Don’t give up your pursuits completely; just lessen the hours you devote to it for a short time. If it’s really a hardship, cut back on certain days or make a schedule you can live with that includes your writing and your Geek love.

Sometimes, I don’t even take my own advice. The lure of another Firefly marathon is too strong. Or I’m determined to beat the next boss without losing another life point and that takes me… some time. So I have to continually remind myself of the goal: Get the story done.

Writing while geeky is tough, but without a doubt worth the sacrifice to bring your vision to life and make your mark on the Geek world. Just think: It may be your work the future Geeks are debating via their neutral implants. 

Image Credit: Metro Times

Scientific American: "Dark Money" Funds Climate Change Denial Effort

Hello everyone!

Happy New Year! 2013 was a great year and now 2014 holds many more possibilities for creative thought and development. We’re excited about getting things going. We want to ramp up our efforts to really make a greater impact in the realm of creating independent videos, games and animations. 

OK NOW WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?

We need your help with developing our digital production facility pipeline to make this first 3D animated feature length film, “Earth Squadron” a reality.  Earth Squadron is a film about what happens when planet Earth's rejects are the only ones that can save them from an unknown alien foe bent on world domination.

WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU WITH MY MONEY?

We have a proven record of successes. Here are a few of our previous projects:

2008 Creates Science Fiction Social Networking Site with over 3500 registered members to date

2010 Published Genesis Anthology of Science Fiction Book I

2011 Published Genesis Science Fiction Magazine

2012 Created Genesis Science Fiction Radio Show

2013 Published Genesis Anthology of Science Fiction Book II

WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH THE MONEY?

We’ve already made substantial investments in software, computer equipment and movie making equipment and now we are asking for your help in the form of donations to raise $25,000 to cover production facility, production and marketing costs. Help us help others to turn dreams into realities.

Please make your contribution now.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/earth-squadron-movie-project/x/328798

Hi all,

I just wrote an article for my magazine regarding channeling my inner Afropolitican modern-day Jedi. Follow the link below to read about the principles I discovered while watching all 6 Star Wars movies this holiday! Tell me what you think! :)

http://badgirlconfidence.com/2014-wisdom-from-jedis/

Ok, don't get all zoomie on me. Back there in the past from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s there was an style of architecture called Googie. Look it up on Wikipedia, has to do with when the world culturally entered the space-age, mid-century modern. Building had wings, geometric shapes and bright colors. Yeah, like the Jetsons cartoon. Wings boomerangs, spaceships, flying saucers. Anyway, there was a brother named Paul Williams who designed the Theme building for the Los Angeles International Airport. Here's a picture so there's no mystery:

And if you are so inclined, look up about the black atomic scientist at Los Alamos, we were in the spaceage fever. There are stories to be told, yep, stories. (Blacks on the dark side of the moon, lol, probably true).

Isaac Asimov's Predictions For 2014 From 50 Years Ago Are Eerily Accurate

{Click on the Link for the Full Article}

Fifty years ago, American scientist and author Isaac Asimov published a story in The New York Times that listed his predictions for what the world would be like in 2014.

Asimov wrote more than 500 books in his lifetime, including science fiction novels and nonfiction scientific books, so he was well-versed in thinking about the future.

In his article, called "Visit to the World's Fair of 2014," Asimov got a whole bunch of his guesses right -- and his other predictions are making us a little envious of his imagined future.

However, there is an architectural mode well suited for this type of circumstance; the Arcology.  One of the problems with co-opting this architectural form is that Arcology construction is generally considered monumental. It would be hard to marshal the resources to build an Arcology in normal times, it would be reckless to consider it after the fall of modern society. 

However, not all forms of arcologies are necessarily of the type and variety requiring a high-tech infrastructure.

From Technology Review's "Best of 2013":

Credit: footnote (1) link

1. Technology Review: Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet for Over Two Years
2. Physics arXiv: Network-Centric Quantum Communications with Application to Critical Infrastructure Protection,
Richard J. Hughes, Jane E. Nordholt, Kevin P. McCabe, Raymond T. Newell, Charles G. Peterson, Rolando D. Somma

They were:

• Four-Quark Matter
• Strangers from Beyond our Solar System (Neutrinos)
• Dark Matter is Still Obscure
• Light Stopped for One Minute
• Telescope Detects Twist in Ancient Cosmic Light
• Lasers of Sound
• Microscope Spies on Hydrogen
• Facilities in a Box
• Majorana Fermions Annihilate in Nanowires
• A Year of Quantum Victories—But No Quantum Computer Yet
• What’s Inside a Black hole?

Compiled by Matteo Rini and Jessica Thomas

APS: Highlights of the Year

I Write Like

Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.

Any text in English will do: your latest blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your unfinished book, etc. For reliable results paste at least a few paragraphs (not tweets).

As I've written in a previous blog, 'nothing makes a great story like a good villain.' So when spinning your tale for readers or the screen, what do you do when there's more than one bad guy? There are a number of scenarios in which a story will have more than one villain. Often, it will be a series of villains the hero(es) must work their way through to get to the main 'baddie'.

But what about when there's two prominent villains? How do they interact? Are they 'Master and Servant?' What about siblings or parent and child? How volatile is their alliance if any? Most important, what personality type of villain are they? Plotter, Strategist, Butcher or Nihilist?

Once you've figured those elements out, what are the villain's goals? Great villains may have intricate or no goals at all save to just be 'in the game'. Getting all that hashed out and integrated into your story in a compelling way is where the real work comes in. Here's a good article concerning who's 'Eviler than Thou' when it comes to writing multiple villains in a story....

Eviler than Thou

With content from some of your favorite BSFS Members!

O.T.H.E.R Sci-Fi: The Magazine

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Reading Changes Brain's Connectivity, Study Suggests

It's no secret that reading is good for your brain. But what actually happens inside your brain when you read a great novel?

“Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person,” Dr. Gregory S. Berns, director of Emory University's Center for Neuropolicy in Atlanta, said in a written statement. “We want to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it.”

Now we may have a better idea, thanks to new research by Berns and his research team.

The researchers took fMRI scans of the brains of 21 undergraduate students while they rested. Then the students were asked to read sections of the 2003 thriller novel “Pompeii” by Robert Harris over nine nights. The students' brains were scanned each morning following the nightly reading assignment, and then again daily for five days after they had finished the book.

The scans revealed heightened connectivity within the students' brains on the mornings following the assignments, and the changes persisted for the five days after the students had finished the novel. The areas with enhanced connectivity included the students' left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with language comprehension, as well as in the brain's central sulcus, which is associated with sensations and movement.

"The anterior (front) bank of the sulcus contains neurons that control movement of parts of the body," Berns told The Huffington Post in an email. "The posterior (rear) bank contains neurons that receive sensory input from the parts of the body. Enhanced connectivity here was a surprise finding, but it implies that, perhaps, the act of reading puts the reader in the body of the protagonist."

How long do the brain changes persist? Berns said in the email that it wasn't clear, but he added, "At a minimum, we can say that reading stories –- especially those with strong narrative arcs -– reconfigures brain networks for at least a few days. It shows how stories can stay with us. This may have profound implications for children and the role of reading in shaping their brains."

This new research was published in the journal Brain Connectivity on Dec. 9.

For the ill-informed, Krampus is a beast like creature that features heavily in winter festivals of Alpine Countries (Germany, Austria, Hungry etc). [Ed. If you watch Grimm or American Dad, or The Venture Bros., you would be tacitly aware of the concept].

Krampus originally began as part of Germanic pre-christian rituals. However, after the Roman Church converted the Germanic peoples to Christianity, Krampus was paired with Old St. Nick.  As St. Nick's companion, Krampus is charged with beating, kidnapping, consuming, transporting to Hell, and otherwise making naughty children's lives around Christmas a terrifying game of waiting until this cloven footed monster would end them.

Even with this tacit blessing by the Church, there were many attempts in Austria and Germany to stamp out the practice of giving children PTSD around Christmas time. One assumes that many a "home-alone" scenario played itself out in the minds of young Gustav and Heidi deep in the Bavarian Alps. A dark winter night, a knock at the door. Screams! It must have been like a second bite at the Halloween apple for pranksters of the 17th Century.

Over time, modern sensibilities about telling children that a demonic goat-man was going to kill them transformed Krampus into a demonic goat-man who gives out coal and bundles of kindling to bad kids. In the Germanic tradition there is always a terrifying demonic half-goat man.

Krampus and St. Nick share the Christmas naughty / nice list, dividing the work like only a mildly socialist country can. St. Nick only gives presents to good kids. He doesn't truck in coal delivery. That is Krmapus's bag.

As with all things Christmas, people have been making some money off of Krampus for centuries. One of the earliest forms, was Krampus greeting cards, distributed since the 19th century. This gives us a great visual record for the evolution of the concept over the last 150 years.

All of this has got us thinking about the Antagonist frequency of a earlier blog post. The universe of potential antagonist in fiction is massive. However, western literature tends to stick close to home regarding supernatural creatures. For every story out in the world about Krampus, there are 1000x more stories about Vampires, Zombies or Aliens.

One partial theory for this is that fiction is really about us, our society. Zombies and Alien invasions and Sparkly Vampire Boyfriends are telling us something about our culture and our society. They are a mirror of what we fear or desire at a subconscious level (immortality, a fresh start to civilization, a cool trench coat).

There was a time and place where Krampus spoke to people, to their society in a very real way. It seams silly now, but they took it quite seriously, otherwise it wouldn't have endured for millennium. It is just that our society doesn't fear the same things as society that came up with Krampus. Perhaps, we have forgotten to be afraid of something.

Great fiction not only explains us to ourselves, but sometimes points out fears we didn't realize we had.  

Some additional cards can be found here.

www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com

Twitter: Moorsgate

Prologue of American Specter: The Seven Sisters attached.  

American%20Specter%20Excerpt.pdf