Revising story.
Finding out I'm linked from TDWTF.
Staying up late reading comments and looking at readership impact.
Getting up early to print story if necessary.
And buy tutoring supplies.
Story still not done.
Class wanted to know blog address.
Tutoring postponed.
Fell asleep at Leonardo's Basement.
Still tired.
Still need to finish story.
Still need to write new story for Monday.
Still need to write this Winnipeg library piece to keep new blog visitors coming back.
How to do this?
Dunno.
Sleep.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Call me a pessimist...
...but the prospect of an economic breakdown in China triggers my "major global disaster" sense. Many people have noted that in many ways China, as the world's foremost manufacturer, occupies a spot analogous to the US in the 1920s. Add to that the trillion dollars of US debt held by China, and today's economy could look like paradise compared to that in two or three years.
Fortunately, my track record on these kinds of worries is not particularly good, but if you do have a spare minute and some plans for weathering this Great Recession, they may be worth reviewing.
As for me, I don't know what I would do anyway. If I had a house I would start collecting cardboard, bits of string, and scrap pieces of metal and other things that you might be tempted to throw out, but since I don't even have that I guess I will just need to learn how to fish the Mississippi River.
Fortunately, my track record on these kinds of worries is not particularly good, but if you do have a spare minute and some plans for weathering this Great Recession, they may be worth reviewing.
As for me, I don't know what I would do anyway. If I had a house I would start collecting cardboard, bits of string, and scrap pieces of metal and other things that you might be tempted to throw out, but since I don't even have that I guess I will just need to learn how to fish the Mississippi River.
How to get 100,000 players
[This is the original e-mail I sent to Calvin after the the infamous interview just featured in the Daily WTF. John, for one, thought this version of the story much more humorous than the one I eventually submitted to the Daily WTF, so I will preserve it here for posterity.]
Calvin,
I interviewed this afternoon for a programming position with a game development company.
By game development company, I mean a man who has played some video games before.
He is designing a massively multiplayer online game that will have both steam locomotives and sail-driven ships.
By designing, I mean he has some ideas.
Some of them are even written down.
This man claimed to have an idea every day. Can you imagine how it must feel for him to walk among the rest of us?
Oh, actually.
He doesn't. Walk among us, I mean. He never leaves his apartment.
He told me that.
He will charge $15/month, but the income will not stop there. He will also have in-game advertising. For a fee players and businesses can put up banners in the game and even send each other messages.
The game is going to be so popular Google will advertise in it.
I showed him Venture the Void and mentioned that as an example of how long it can take to develop a game.
And how few people might sign up.
He is outsourcing most of the development to the Philippines and India. He found programmers there who said they would work for royalties only.
The game would take three to six months to finish. I would be the go-between. And also work for royalties only.
Not paltry pay. $75,000 a month when they start pouring in. That's 2% of his expected income.
Did you know, you can easily get 100,000 players by posting your game to mmorpg.com?
You might try that.
Please send me 2% of the proceeds if you do.
Because for some reason,
I decided not to take the job.
Kevin
Calvin,
I interviewed this afternoon for a programming position with a game development company.
By game development company, I mean a man who has played some video games before.
He is designing a massively multiplayer online game that will have both steam locomotives and sail-driven ships.
By designing, I mean he has some ideas.
Some of them are even written down.
This man claimed to have an idea every day. Can you imagine how it must feel for him to walk among the rest of us?
Oh, actually.
He doesn't. Walk among us, I mean. He never leaves his apartment.
He told me that.
He will charge $15/month, but the income will not stop there. He will also have in-game advertising. For a fee players and businesses can put up banners in the game and even send each other messages.
The game is going to be so popular Google will advertise in it.
I showed him Venture the Void and mentioned that as an example of how long it can take to develop a game.
And how few people might sign up.
He is outsourcing most of the development to the Philippines and India. He found programmers there who said they would work for royalties only.
The game would take three to six months to finish. I would be the go-between. And also work for royalties only.
Not paltry pay. $75,000 a month when they start pouring in. That's 2% of his expected income.
Did you know, you can easily get 100,000 players by posting your game to mmorpg.com?
You might try that.
Please send me 2% of the proceeds if you do.
Because for some reason,
I decided not to take the job.
Kevin
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sacrifice
I wrote up about 24K of text today, which is the longest piece of fiction I've ever done. I will probably spend most of tomorrow revising it, which is probably not enough time given its current state, but I guess this is a workshop after all.
At some point I need to check how long this is. It only needs to be under 30 pages, and I'm pretty sure it's shorter than that, although it probably is longer than the other pieces that have been reviewed.
Ending still stinks too.
Anyway, I did get a lot of writing done today even if it doesn't show here.
At some point I need to check how long this is. It only needs to be under 30 pages, and I'm pretty sure it's shorter than that, although it probably is longer than the other pieces that have been reviewed.
Ending still stinks too.
Anyway, I did get a lot of writing done today even if it doesn't show here.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sometimes
Sometimes I cannot tell the difference between Christ and Quixote:
The Legend of Master Legend
Even if you've read this article before, it's worth re-reading. Here, I'll post another link:
The Legend of Master Legend
It's a Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes.
The Legend of Master Legend
Even if you've read this article before, it's worth re-reading. Here, I'll post another link:
The Legend of Master Legend
It's a Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes.
Social Skills
So there is this ad going around on the tubes with the text:
My first thought was how few social skills one would need to have to say something like "I'm popular. You're not." Then I thought that someone who had poor social skills might think this is a good thing to say, so the ad is actually extremely well targetted. I am flummoxed.
I'm reminded of a sign on the door of SCUM -- the Society for Collegiate Undergraduate Mathematics -- at the University of Calgary. When I first arrived, the sign read
I liked the blatant nerdiness on display there, but the next year I noticed a change:
That was somehow disappointing, but another year later it changed again:
The only undergraduate mathematician I ever knew well was Robert. His opinions, in fact, were rarely a mystery. I asked him one day about the sign, and he told me. I cannot quote Robert on a blog read by my family, nor even paraphrase him because his speech is essentially a long string of vulgarities punctuated by descriptions of obscene acts. I survived middle school and high school but Robert showed me that it was still possible for language to shock me. So really the best I can do is give a paraphrase of a translation from Robert-speak to normal-person-speak.
In short, Robert admitted that both changes to the sign were his fault.
The first time he had managed to say, or do, something so awful it shattered the limits of SCUM's tolerance. He was banned and the sign was changed from "No social skills" to "SOME social skills", that word SOME in uppercase and underlined multiple times. After meeting other members of SCUM it horrifies me to imagine what this could possibly have been. Robert would not tell me.
The second change occurred when Robert was elected president of SCUM and had the sign changed to "Few social skills" as a rational compromise.
I had a class with Robert my last semester there as he was trying to finish school. He spent most of the semester in a drug-induced haze, skipping classes and dressing as a pirate, until he realized that he needed to pass all his classes in order to graduate. In an astonishing period of a month he was able to finish his backlog of homework and tests, complete his final projects, and, also astonishingly, beg and plead the professors he had been verbally insulting for mercy.
I left school to live on the river, and Robert left Calgary to work on a doctorate at the University of Toronto. He said his real calling was to become an evangelical missionary, and a PhD would lend authority to his claims that science does not disprove the existence of God.
He is one of many Calgarians I miss dearly.
I'm popular. You're not.
#1 Guide to Social Skills.
My first thought was how few social skills one would need to have to say something like "I'm popular. You're not." Then I thought that someone who had poor social skills might think this is a good thing to say, so the ad is actually extremely well targetted. I am flummoxed.
I'm reminded of a sign on the door of SCUM -- the Society for Collegiate Undergraduate Mathematics -- at the University of Calgary. When I first arrived, the sign read
Welcome to SCUM!
No social skills required.
I liked the blatant nerdiness on display there, but the next year I noticed a change:
Welcome to SCUM!
SOME social skills required.
That was somehow disappointing, but another year later it changed again:
Welcome to SCUM!
Few social skills required.
The only undergraduate mathematician I ever knew well was Robert. His opinions, in fact, were rarely a mystery. I asked him one day about the sign, and he told me. I cannot quote Robert on a blog read by my family, nor even paraphrase him because his speech is essentially a long string of vulgarities punctuated by descriptions of obscene acts. I survived middle school and high school but Robert showed me that it was still possible for language to shock me. So really the best I can do is give a paraphrase of a translation from Robert-speak to normal-person-speak.
In short, Robert admitted that both changes to the sign were his fault.
The first time he had managed to say, or do, something so awful it shattered the limits of SCUM's tolerance. He was banned and the sign was changed from "No social skills" to "SOME social skills", that word SOME in uppercase and underlined multiple times. After meeting other members of SCUM it horrifies me to imagine what this could possibly have been. Robert would not tell me.
The second change occurred when Robert was elected president of SCUM and had the sign changed to "Few social skills" as a rational compromise.
I had a class with Robert my last semester there as he was trying to finish school. He spent most of the semester in a drug-induced haze, skipping classes and dressing as a pirate, until he realized that he needed to pass all his classes in order to graduate. In an astonishing period of a month he was able to finish his backlog of homework and tests, complete his final projects, and, also astonishingly, beg and plead the professors he had been verbally insulting for mercy.
I left school to live on the river, and Robert left Calgary to work on a doctorate at the University of Toronto. He said his real calling was to become an evangelical missionary, and a PhD would lend authority to his claims that science does not disprove the existence of God.
He is one of many Calgarians I miss dearly.
Update
Well, I turned in a last-minute job in class today that I was really unhappy with, and was duly pounded in review. Hopefully this drought passes soon. I still need to write a story for Thursday.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Potok
So with all the writing I was supposed to do this weekend here is what I have accomplished:
Yeah, not much else to say.
(Potok is from a "webcomic" called Order of Tales. If you don't know what Order of Tales is, go read Rice Boy instead.)
- Drew a picture of Potok:
- ...
Yeah, not much else to say.
(Potok is from a "webcomic" called Order of Tales. If you don't know what Order of Tales is, go read Rice Boy instead.)
I haven't left bed yet
But I did finish the Fall of Endymion. I guess I will get my annoyances with these books out of the way first.
My impression of this series overall is that Hyperion is a very strong, character-driven work. The Fall of Hyperion is a satisfying conclusion. Endymion and the Rise of Endymion have amazing settings which are generally let down by the plot and characters.
I guess I should get up now and start on my own poor writing.
UPDATE: I forgot the most important thing, which is while browsing Dan Simmons website I ran across a link to this.
- Raft and kayak travel is too fast in this series. A canoe or kayak is rarely faster than walking speed plus current speed, while a raft is locked to the speed of the current; a river like the Mississippi rarely exceeds three miles per hour. Still, they sometimes travel more than 100 miles in a day. I wonder if Simmons is conflating experience from a short canoe trip with a long motorboat trip. I did enjoy these elements but I felt they were too short.
- Way too much retconning. Simmons denies most of the major revelations of the Hyperion books, and the Rise of Endymion even ignores things in Endymion. There is a very humorous scene at the beginning of Endymion where one character makes a list of ludicrous demands of the hero, in such a way that you know these things are meant to be accomplished by the end of the series. However, at least one of these demands is never accomplished, nor mentioned again by either character, although there were at least good opportunities to bring it up.
- The characters in Hyperion sparkle with rivalries, which they mostly resolve by the Fall of Hyperion. The inter-character conflict is not as compelling in Endymion. The protagonists are simply too nice and the antagonists have no apparent motive for the political intrigues. I wasn't given any reason to care which of the multiple bad factions came out on top, and I wasn't even sure why the baddies cared. If you are lusting for power it is presumably for love or hate or at least change, but none of the characters seemed to have significant plans for how to use the power they plotted for.
- Everyone blinked. A lot. I started to think I was in the land of Tink Tonk.
My impression of this series overall is that Hyperion is a very strong, character-driven work. The Fall of Hyperion is a satisfying conclusion. Endymion and the Rise of Endymion have amazing settings which are generally let down by the plot and characters.
I guess I should get up now and start on my own poor writing.
UPDATE: I forgot the most important thing, which is while browsing Dan Simmons website I ran across a link to this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)