Is It Really Commercialism?

Some might want to classify this as political, but I'm not one of them, which is why I've labeled this "General."

The question, more exactly, is if Christmas has really been bastardized into a commercial holiday instead of a Christian holiday. Those who say it is now just commercialism may sight statistics like the amount of spending during the holiday season, and I, who choose to counter this argument, say, 'so what?' The tradition of Christmas has involved the giving of gifts for a long time, and thanks to the existence of currency and our ability to purchase that which we cannot make, it is understandable that there would be an increase of sales at this time.

I suspect the response by those who are, in this matter, my opponent would involve a statement that the gift giving is promoted by companies to boost profits. Again I say, 'so what?' Would you expect a company to do something to negate profits? It still remains that gift giving is a tradition of the holiday, regardless of promotion.

Now we get to the real debate. The promoting is to get people to purchase gifts that the recipient does not want, such as expensive toys. Here I may have to agree, but only on a case to case basis. To me, the quality of a gift is not related to its cost. Indeed one of my most valued gifts was quite inexpensive. Also one of the most valued gifts I ever gave was quite inexpensive. I have also given fairly expensive gifts, but it was never about the expense. It was about the gift and the spirit of giving.

There is a tip that I seem to be hearing a lot lately about giving people what they want, instead of what you want. That is a horrible tip. Of course whatever gifts you give should be something desired by the recipient, even if they don't know they want it yet, but you should want to give it to them. The best gifts I have given have also been gifts to myself, simply by seeing or knowing how the recipient reacts to the gift, or how it will be used. This is what I mean about the spirit of giving; it should always go both ways. If it does not, then it is a bad gift. You must want to give the gift that is wanted by another, for that two-way desire is what makes the gift valuable. Unless you don't like the person, then you don't have to care about it.

Merry Christmas!

End of the World Silliness

Nope. Don't believe it's happening this Friday. No silliness from me. Just this post.

So I realized something that is fairly odd when you think about it. The reason so many people think it is this Friday that the world ends is because of the Mayan calendar, which is a rather complicated construction. So complicated in fact that if the world does not end Friday, the calendar will be recalculated to some later date, and again, the end of the world is coming! But really, what is that calendar doing?

Now, I'm not an expert of Mayan culture, but this is what I understand. The Mayan calendar can be described as three different sized gears. On Friday, all of these gears align, and thereby reset the calendar. The resetting of the calendar though cannot be the reason people think the world is going to end. After all, calendars reset every year. The one I and many others follow resets at New Years, yet the world has not ended. The Mayan calendar, like all others, will just reset to its first date.

So where does the idea of the world ending come from? Well, from what I know of the Mayan religion, when the calendar resets the god that made the old world is destroyed and devoured by the god that creates the new world.

Here is a question I put to everyone who thinks the world is going to end on Friday. Are you a follower of the Mayan religion? Seriously, we have followers of multiple religions freaking out and doing stupid stuff because they think the world is going to end according to a different religion! I do believe one should be open to learning the ways of religions other than their own, but this is just silly. What makes it worse is the number of people that freaking out and probably would not describe themselves as religious or actively religious. Despite that though they will allow an old religion some would describe as mythology to grab hold of their emotions.

This is silly. This is very silly.

Now, if you are an actual follower of the Mayan religion, then I respectively hope that whatever process may occur on Friday, as predicted by your religion, is not too cataclysmic.

An Econo-political Epiphany… Or Not

No idea if "econo-political" is a word, but I don't particularly care simply because I'm not going to use it much here and I'm confident the reader (you) will understand my meaning. Now, with that said, this obviously will be a post concerning politics, so if you don't want to read it, don't. It isn't like I'll know. As it is I don't think anybody actually reads this blog, so, at best, this post is as a note to myself. In case this is read though, please understand two things: I'm not attached to this idea and my opinion may change in the future; and I'm not saying this to provoke anything but critical thought. I will also present, at the end, my own views and thoughts on the matter at hand. If any of this upsets you, deal with it. I deal with it when someone else says something that upsets me, so afford me the same courtesy.

Awesome and Worth It

I know I've mentioned Humble Bundle before, so I can skip over what it is and get straight to what awesome thing they are doing now. The Humble THQ Bundle. The first offering from Humble Bundle with truly AAA titles, instead of the usual indie. Of the 6+1 current games, four of them I already own and have played:

Metro 2033 is an apocalyptic survival FPS based on a Russian book. This is easily an excellent game. Perhaps short but it is beautiful and lots of fun. It also has multiple endings, if you are in to that. Simplest way I can think to describe it in terms of other games is Fallout 3 (the only one of that series I've played) as a story-driven FPS instead of a somewhat open-world RPG.

Darksiders is the first of a franchise that recently released its sequel. The only complaints I could lob at it would be the occasional evidence of the PC version being a console port with poor controls and a poor camera. Overall though, still worth it as those issues are not major and only frustrating at times. Some describe it as an adventure game similar to the Legend of Zelda games. I understand the comparison but would say this has far more of a brawler sense to it than Zelda games. After all, Link is a guy with a sword while War is more of a demigod with a sword about the size of Link.

Red Faction: Armageddon is, on its own, a good good. In the shadow of Red Faction: Guerrilla though it is a weaker title. It is worth noting though that the two games are two separate games in a franchise and not games in a series, if that makes sense. This is not a direct sequel to Guerrilla but another Red Faction game, so it makes sense that there would be some differences. It would have been nice if one of them was not the difference between an open world and a linear story, but still, it is a good game.

Saints Row: The Third is the only game in the Saints Row franchise I have played and it is one of the few games I have ever played to completion. Every mission, every unlockable, and every collectable I got because I enjoyed the game that much. Definitely worth beating the average to get this irreverent open world game. But understand, it is rated M for a reason.

The bundle is worth it for any one of these games I've mentioned, assuming these games are of interest to you. (Obviously if you don't like survival games you won't like Metro 2033, even though it is a great game.) I definitely recommend the bundle if you are interested in these games. You will need a Steam account though, but that is free, so you can still get these seven great games for less than $1 each.

Not Going to Say It

Nope, not going to say it because the majority of people on the planet don't care, and those that do would have already heard it, even if I had posted this on Thursday. Not feeling a point to wasting the Internet saying it again.

Unfortunately this has left me without much to say. Although, as I'm sure some friends of mine would attest to, my having little to say may be a good thing. (I think my average length for a personal email is still well over 1000 thousand words.) I guess I can say this though. I've had an idea that I doubt is original, but I don't care. I think I will still do it.

Not Sure What to Do With This

I've been working on something for this blog for awhile and now that I've finally finished it, I can't figure out what I want to do with it! It's an image I put together that I thought would be fitting for this blog, but I can't find a way to stick it in here that I like. Also I can't get it in here in its original form; a vector graphic. Well, here's a PNG version that isn't as great, but it's something:

Put a fair amount of time into this, which you can probably see on the pencil and brush. The camera was relatively easy, though I admit the buttons don't look right, but I'm not sure how to make them look better. The person I admit also doesn't look right but there is no chance I'm going to get that right. But hey, the top portion looks good, so I'm happy.
Maybe I'll figure out how to use it on here in the future. We'll just have to see.

See the Silver Lining, Now Finding the Cloud

I wish I was more interesting. Then I might be writing more stuff for here. Anyway, here's something interesting that is not about me.

I like science in general, so I follow and read a lot of science news, including climate science. To be inflammatory though, you could call it climate propaganda given some of the information being put out there of late. Basically what this information is saying is that claims about global warming climate change are not being thoroughly investigated. First up, biofuels:

Biofuels are these beautiful things, aren't they? You grow a plant, process some of it, and you get fuel to not burn in your car (ethanol is actually bad for your engine, at least in concentrations above ~15%). The combustion of the fuel releases carbon – bad – but growing the plants takes carbon from the atmosphere – good – so everything balances out, right? Actually there is no evidence of this, as was found by a meta-study (meaning it studied other studies). No one has ever bothered to actually measure the total carbon output and input of producing and using biofuels. The studies just assume the output is the same as the input. At the same time as making that assumption though it also counts the carbon plants absorb…. So along with the assumption, they are double-counting the carbon sink. Add onto that lack of scientific rigor the fact that apparently the nitrogen cycle, which could have ever great impacts than the carbon cycle, has largely been ignored when considering biofuels. (That's from another study I don't have the link handy for.)

So why am I talking about this today? After all, that study I link to above is from June. Because I just got another piece of science news that again shows a lack of scientific rigor.

One of the ideas put forth concerning climate change is that it will increase droughts, and according to one measure, that is true. Unfortunately that measure, as scientists are now pointing out, is completely useless for this measurement.The means of measuring drought for this concept is to compare precipitation and evaporation. Well, measuring precipitation is easy with a rain gauge. Measuring evaporation is quite difficult though, because of all the factors involved, including wind, humidity, and temperature. For this drought measurement though, it only considers temperature and assumes that higher temperatures directly lead to more evaporation. So again it is an assumption that is being touted as truth.

When using a different measure of drought, it actually turns out that it was worse in the 1950s and 60s, before global warming was a thing. Wasn't that when people thought we were heading to an ice age and over population was the source of all ills.

For what it's worth though, this is how science has always worked; someone makes a claim, likely without examining all aspects, and someone else comes around to do that investigation. The problem now is the people who try to shape the world on the 'silver-lining science' (that's what I'm calling it) before finding the cloud.

Still Here

I know it's been awhile since I last posted something. That was primarily because there was nothing interesting to share. Now I have something interesting but I've also been left in a brown out!
That's right, I'm a victim of the storm that hit the Northeast US, Sandy. I am luckier than some though, as I'm just experiencing a brown out so there is some power, but usually not enough to power a computer. I'm posting this from my phone, so I'm going to keep it short and end with this:
As wonderful as fluorescent lights may seem to be, they are mostly useless in a brown out. Incandescent lights however work fine at half voltage! Bring me back my bulbs so I can see in emergency situations. Protecting the environment is great, but protect the people too. Besides, fluorescent lights that burn out during a brown out are hazardous waste, but most people just throw them into landfills. Pretty sure that is worse for everyone/thing involved; humans and Nature.

And They're Up!

Took two calendar days, but my two new short stories are now up for sale in Amazon's Kindle Store! Yay! Also, today marks one year since Sci-FU was available in the Kindle Store!

If you're interested in these stories, here are some links:

The Death of Heroes

Professional Witness

Both are available for just $1 and I hope you think they are worth it.

Almost ready!

I mentioned about two weeks ago that, to mark the first anniversary of Sci-FU being self-published, I was going to try to self-publish two short stories; The Death of Heroes and Professional Witness. Well, I'm better than half way to that goal! The Death of Heroes is ready to be published and I just need to edit Professional Witness, which I think I can do before the end of today. Not sure though, since it comes in at ~25,000 words (The Death of Heroes is only ~15,000) and is a more complicated story, so any continuity fixes may be more complicated to make as well.

Even if I do get them both uploaded to the Kindle Direct Publishing system today (actually, The Death of Heroes already is as a draft) I may still miss the October 17 goal, simply because Amazon takes the time to review at least the formatting of submissions through KDP. I'll still call that a victory though, since I cannot control that.

I Can Talk About It!

In the last post I mentioned there was something I wanted to talk about but had to wait. It just got posted so now I can talk about it! Actually, I probably could have talked about it before, but I didn't want to chance it.

In another previous post I mentioned Borderlands 2 and that "I have been playing it, and playing it, and playing it, and I will likely keep playing it, and keep playing it, and keep playing it." Turns out there is more to it than that as I was actually playing it without sleep to try writing a review! (This was completely my idea and choice, by the way. Though it is posted at OverclockersClub.com, where I am a news editor, no one there asked me to do it.)

After I got my copy of the game, I installed it and started playing and only paused playing to use the bathroom, eat, and make some notes. Immediately after finishing the playthrough, I started writing the review, which surprisingly went well. Sure at times I was forgetting the beginning of a sentence before I finished it, but then what would you expect when you've been up for 40 hours (just under 30 hours of which were in the game). There were no egregious errors in my writing, or unrecoverable sentences, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Part of the reason I put myself through this was to see how I would feel about the game after so much time in it. Essentially, I was testing it for burnout, which is not something typically tested for in reviews (I think). I am very happy to say that the very next day I ended up playing the game until 2 AM, because I lost track of time. Yeah, no burnout for me!

Huh… It's Felt Like More Than a Week

Like the title says, it feels like my last post was more than a week ago. Of course, if it wasn't for my mind finding random things to do other than what I should be doing, this post would not be written.

There is actually something I'm waiting to post about and I'm really hoping it will out there soon, but at this stage, I have no control over it. 'It's something fun,' is all I will say.

So in just over two weeks (October 17, to be exact) Sci-FU will be celebrating its first published year! Isn't that awesome! Yes, it is awesome and nothing anyone says will change that. It may not be some crazy success, but it is what I wanted to write and I love it, so there. Oh, by the way, I don't think I'll be making it free on Kindle that day, but I may change my mind. I'm thinking this for two reasons. One is at $3, I think people should be just as willing to buy it as to get it for free. (Seriously, $3 isn't much. That's less than the coffee some people drink!). Two is that the publication date is not as special to me as the starting and ending of the first draft. Publishing obviously is an accomplishment, but it's not the same as writing the thing. I guess an analogy would be birthdays and graduations. You (typically) celebrate birthdays every year, but who celebrates graduating from high school or college a year later?

There was something else I wanted to do that day though, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull it off. I was hoping to publish some more things either on the 17^th or maybe the 18th but I just don't know if I'm going to be able to get my nose to the grindstone and do it. The Death of Heroes needs to enter form 1.1 I feel, and I've not even completed Professional Witness yet. One issue with not being employed (for me at least) is the complete lack of a daily schedule, so it's a lot harder to get myself to set aside time and actually cherish that time for what I intend to use it for. There is still over two weeks left, so it is possible I will be able to pull it off. After all, I'm pretty good at writing, it's the sitting-down-to-write part that's giving me the problem. Oh, and also do some artwork. (Professional Witness needs a cover and while I know what I want it to be, it is not going to be easy.)

Wish me luck, my imaginary readers! I hope I won't need it.

PS. I actually don't think anyone reads this, or reads it seriously. Probably the latter is a good thing, if the former is not true, but I think the former is true because why would the former be true if the latter is how one should not prove the former?

PPS. On a less confusing note, I have spent at least five minutes trying to come up with something clever to counter the last line. Obviously I have failed at doing so.

Some Quick Gaming News

Pretty sure I mentioned in an early post that one of things I would likely do with this blog is talk about games. Well, last week Borderlands 2 came out and I have been playing it, and playing it, and playing it, and I will likely keep playing it, and keep playing it, and keep playing it. Awesome game. Really enjoying it. Only issue really worth mentioning is that the balance for single player can be really bad, so play with a friend when you can. When you have that friend you have the benefit of enemy health not resetting, unless you both die at the same time somewhere. That means that you could actually have an easier time playing with an AFK partner than playing on your own. Like I said, the single player balance is not that great, but it isn't horrible. It can be done solo, it just can be much harder than I think it should be. (Of course, I am playing as the low-HP assassin, so I may be experiencing the worst of this too. Nah, if an AFK partner can make it easier than solo play, I'll say it's unbalanced. Not as bad as some games though, thanks to the awesome loot, but it isn't the best.)

Also Humble Indie Bundle 6 started last week and includes six games: Rochard, Shatter, S.P.A.Z., Torchlight, and Vessel. Dustforce is the 'Beat the Average' game. I have played Shatter and Torchlight before and can highly recommend Torchlight. You can buy the bundle just for that game and be happy. Shatter I've not played much of since I got it.

Also, all of these games are now available, or soon will be available, on Linux, and all but Vessel include their soundtracks in the bundle. By the way, there is a good chance that more games will be added soon, as typically more are added half way through the sale.

There are just about 8 days left, so hurry to help charities, independent game developers, and Humble Bundle itself!

This saddens me…

This is also going to show the kind of nerd I am.

Just read that there is now a plan for Japan to do away with nuclear power by the year 2030. However, this might not happen for odd political reasons. (When the plan may actually become law, there may be a new party in power, which could vote differently.) It still saddens me though because this decision, and similar decisions made in other countries, I believe are not in the best interest of the country but just what people are told they should think they want. Really it seems like everything to do with energy is like that, which probably isn't surprising. People don't care enough about where the electricity comes from, provided it comes every time they turn on their TV, computer, and microwave, so they don't actually understand what is involved, which makes them susceptible to propaganda that is not about energy, but about control.

Nuclear power is clean, it is safe, and the only time it isn't, it's because someone is not doing their job and fulfilling their responsibilities. But so long as the public excepts energy as a 'black-box', this won't change. (Black-box, for this situation, means you do not know what happens inside of it but just that it works when you give it the proper input.) Anyway, rant coming up, so read on, only if you dare!

I've Said It Before and I'll Say It Again

Science fact is more fantastical than science fiction. This is why I ever had the idea to write Sci-FU, so any time I see some science news concerning something I wrote about, I get particularly excited. In this case though, I actually haven't written it yet, but I've been planning to.

Quantum physics at a distance

Physicists at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have achieved quantum teleportation over a record distance of 143 km. The experiment is a major step towards satellite-based quantum communication.

One of the events in the sequel I've yet to start formally writing (I've been writing bits and pieces as I have ideas) for Sci-FU is the development and launching of a satellite network that uses quantum mechanical phenomena, like quantum teleportation, to communicate. Looks like we may have such satellites much sooner than the roughly 50 years Sci-FU is in the future. Read on to find my analogy for explaining quantum teleportation.

What's Been Happening

Not sure if there's anyone reading this that will actually care, but I've been a good kind of busy this past week. Had a new idea for something not too long ago, and just finished the harder half of the work involved. With that much taken care of, I can more easily juggle it with my writing (like Professional Witness), which is good. Can't share any information on this new idea though. Keeping it close to the vest. I will say I think it's good.

Next month will mark one year since I published Sci-FU. Not sure what I'm going to do about it. Might have another promo period, but honestly, at $3, I don't think it needs that. Sure, it'll get more interest, but the promo periods just get me good numbers for when the book is free, not for when you have to pay for it. Instead, I think I will try to get some of these other story ideas I've got ready and published in time. Not sure if I will succeed, but hey, it's a good goal.

Free Stuff Gone

During the night, the promotional period of Sci-FU ended with a total of 496 sales, and over 300 of those were from just the first day. Have to admit, I'm proud of that. Easily bested the previous promo period which only got about 300 sales for both days. It even bester a few other books as it reach #1 for Technothrillers and #7 for the Science Fiction genre. Quite an improvement from #3 and #19 during the last sale, don't you think.

With this period done, the book now sits at what will remain its price; $3. Hopefully others will agree with me that it is a reasonable price and buy some copies.

Free Stuff Coming!

Yup. What the title says. Well, maybe not what you infer from the title, but I don't care what you infer. If you're right, good for you, and if you're wrong, that's your problem.

Monday, August 20, marks two years since I finished the first draft of my first published book, Sci-FU. To celebrate, I am making the Kindle version free for that day, and possibly more. I did the same thing six weeks prior on July 9, which was two years since I started writing that same first draft. That first day I had, if not 200 sales, really close to 200 sales, so I extended the free period for another day, which netted me just over 300 sales. Sure, I didn't make any money from that, but still, getting 300 sales in just two days is pretty cool for one's first published work that has had little advertising (I'm better at writing than marketing). Still, those sales with those before pushed my book to #19 in the Free Kindle Store for the "Science Fiction" genre and #3 for "Technothrillers." Wouldn't exactly call my book a technothriller, but hey, reaching #3 on a list at Amazon is pretty cool!

I'm also dropping the price of the ebook to $3, so if you miss this promotional period, you won't have to spend too much to rectify that problem.

Now that I've shared that, why not share a little more? After all, this is the second anniversary of my completion of the first draft of my first book; there's got to be a story to go with that, right? Of course there is! It just probably isn't as interesting as the story itself. (I have a low opinion of of interesting I am to people.)

As I said above, somewhere, I wrote the first draft of Sci-FU in exactly six weeks. During those weeks I worked fairly regularly on it, either on my desktop at home or on my laptop when it was boring at work. Despite it being the first draft though, I was very, very happy with it, so the published form is actually just an edited and slightly rewritten version of the first draft. (Version 1.2.1 was the original published item, and the current version is 1.2.2.) That first draft was 63,735 words while the current version is 88,020, including the front matter, appendix, and epilogue, but 77,279 words without those. That means that from the first to final draft, I added 13,544 words. Not sure how many corrections that amounts to, since some of those corrections are to corrections I made in previous versions (1.1, for example). That is a lot of words though, and I can immediately think of one part that is a decent chunk of that. Then ending of Chapter 10, where Amy is on the phone (and Jim listens in as best he can) was actually a very late addition.

During one of the last read-thrus, I realized that Chapter 10 ended kind of abruptly and really, I should have not only some more stuff between Jim and Amy, but also I should have the mother's involved more. After all, I would expect the new mother-in-laws to be quite present, in one way or another, during the early part of a marriage between two people who met just days before the ceremony. Phone calls, dinner, whatever, I would expect that to be the case, so it made sense to add something. Of course, I then just had fun with making it silly. Jim listening in and making his own responses to half the conversation, then trying to sabotage the call, only to have his mother-in-law shock Amy by knowing what happened perhaps too well. Eh, maybe it doesn't come off as silly to my readers, but I like it, and in the grand scheme of writing, that's what matters. Authors should only write for themselves, because we only know how to please ourselves.

Of course, that's not to say an author should not respond to a reader's criticism. I got one piece of actionable criticism before I published and one after (and one unactionable piece after as well). Before publishing I was actually told, by a female friend of mine, that there was too much love in it. Yes, a woman who would normally be interested in that in a story, told me there was too much. Now, if you were to read that first draft, you'd agree with her. It really did come off as too much. It may still be too much, but it's better. She also told me the science stuff in it was too dense, which was definitely true in some specific sections.

After publishing I was told the ending was too abrupt. This prompted me to write the Epilogue which, as I state in the amended author's note, is only written in response to the criticism, not created. What is in the Epilogue is what I wanted to take place after Sci-FU ended, I just, at the time, did not choose to commit it to paper. It now is.

The unactionable criticism was that the relationship between Amy and Jim seemed like they were just dating, not newlyweds. Well, in my defense, Miss (yes, another woman criticizing romance in my book), they met two days before getting married, so what do you expect? That they behave like they have been life long friends? Still, I could have changed it if I had that criticism before publishing, but my friend read it too late for that to happen. Ah well. I like it how it is though and I even hope to keep some of that flavor of romance throughout any future stories involving Jim and Amy because that is how they love each other. They love each other completely, so characteristics that come out that they may not like in a friend, they love in that person because they are in love with that person. I don't know if that's how it actually works, but I hope that's how it works.

Can't give any updates for my other stories at the moment. Been too busy with other things to get enough done to make a post worth my time writing, or your time reading. If you're interested in that though, sorry, but we both have to wait.

I hope you haven't forgotten the purpose of this post, if you've made it this far down the page (I do have a tendency to write on and on, don't I?). If you have though, it is to let you know that on Monday, my first published book, Sci-FU, will be available for the Kindle for free. After that promotional period, it will be just $3 (currently it is $5). There are multiple links to the Amazon page on this page, so if you want a copy, just click on stuff. You'll probably find it. (Seriously though, don't just click randomly on webpages. Viruses and other pieces of malware can actually infect your computer that way. There are two links in this post, at the beginning and end, at the title of the book: Sci-FU. Also, it is under the "My Books" section on the right of the blog.)

Sometimes it Just Works

Been somewhat busy since my last post here, but I haven't forgotten. I know I warned the Internet (is that really possible? To warn the Internet?) that I may lose interest in this blog, but I haven't yet. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the blog has lost interest in me! I'm a boring person.
Since the last post though, I have completed my first editing pass of The Death of Heroes. I have to say, my favorite part of writing a short story is how quick it is to edit! Did the entire pass in just one day. It won't be the last pass, but still, I'm use to writing stories the length of novels. Also, I spent about three hours to make this:

The original image is actually larger much larger than that, both in resolution and what it shows (but what's cropped out isn't interesting). Personally, I really like the cover in part because I am not a good artist. Really, I am amazed that I was able to make it as good as I did. (No, it isn't great, but it isn't as bad as I would expect my skills to produce.) It probably helped that I knew what I wanted, so I guess it just goes to show you that sometimes, it just works. (See how I worked the title of this post in there? Yeah, it makes sense now.)
Oh, I also have started another short story; or restarted, depending on your viewpoint. No, I have not finished The Death of Heroes (there are still more editing passes and such to do before it is truly finished) but I wanted to get started on this other, more typical story to give me a break. Sometimes taking a step back helps, and that's what this other story, Professional Witness, is doing for me.
Some quick information on Professional Witness. I originally had the idea about, oh, two years ago I think. Around the same time I thought of The Death of Heroes and like DoH (I don't feel like writing it out again) I had originally written done some content for it back then. However, this time most of it I had to get rid of. (DoH I was able to use essentially everything I had written earlier.)
The premise to Professional Witness is more in line with typical science fiction (at least when compared to Sci-FU), and while it will be a surprise within the story, I don't mind sharing what it is. The main character is part of a group that travels back in time to right 'minor' wrongs however they can. Falsely convicted persons or guilty parties being released due to an error are the kind of thing they look for, but they have to be careful. They could not, say, go back in time and stop Jack The Ripper because that character has had such an impact on multiple cultures. The unnoticed crimes that don't make the news though, those are things they look at.
There is some more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil it all, and this post is already getting long. Well, I guess one more thing won't hurt. The members of that group call themselves professional witnesses, because they consider it their responsibility to reveal the truth.
Hopefully it won't be so long until my next post.

Please Check This Out. It's for Charity and You

As this blog is still very young and I'm not exactly an interesting person, I don't know if this will reach many people. But that's no reason to not try!

Today Humble Bundle started the Humble Music Bundle. For those of you who don't know, Humble Bundle is a company that gets content developers to provide their content in a collection that is offered only for a limited time. Okay, that's not too special on its own, but there is more to it. The collections are only available for a limited time and when they are YOU pick the price you pay for the collection. That's right. If you want to spend just one cent you can or if you want to spend $1000+, you can. You also get to decide what happens to that money. The money can go to the content creator, Humble Bundle itself, or charity in whatever split you want. Maybe you want to help the two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play), so you set it so most or all of the money. Maybe you want the creators to get a larger share, so you move that slider. It is up to you! You can even decide which creator or which charity gets how much money. Want all of what you pay to go to Child's Play? You can do that.

Also, all content in a collection is DRM free. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and is what covers a spectrum of technology. The purpose of DRM is to make it difficult or impossible for someone to take some content and share it without the creator's permission. The catch is DRM can also prevent people from legally doing things they would think they can do. For example, if you have a digital copy of a movie but the format is only useable on your desktop. Now you've got yourself an iPad or other tablet, and want to watch it there. Well, that might not be possible because the file would have to be converted for the tablet, and the DRM prevents you from doing so. My personal opinions on DRM can be the topic of a different post.

Now, what makes the current Humble Bundle collection interesting is how it differs from every previous collection. Prior collections featured video games, and often included their soundtracks as well, all DRM free. This collection has no games. It is just music. Six albums specifically:

• Calling All Dawns by Christopher Tin
• Album Raises New and Troubling Questions by They Might Be Giants
• Jonathan Coulton’s Greatest Hit (Plus 13 Other Songs) by Jonathan Coulton
• Favoritism by MC Frontalot
• Best of the Valkyria Chronicles by Hitoshi Sakimoto
• Twelve Remixes of Four Songs by OK Go

The last album listed here, Twelve Remixes of Four Songs is actually tied to a little game the Humble Bundle collections have always had. You can pay however much you want to pay for most of the collection, but part of it is only given to you if you beat the average price everyone is paying. At the time of my writing this, the average price is $8.03, so if you want that sixth album, you will need to pay at least $8.04. It's a pretty clever system, isn't it, to make sure customers spend more than just a penny on the collection.

And remember, you can have all of the money you spend on the collection go directly to charity. The charity benefits and you get good music. What's not to like? Here's the link again, in case you don't want to scroll up for it: The Humble Music Bundle.

Took Longer Than I Wanted, But It Is Complete

Just finished the first draft of my first short story, The Death of Heroes. Now comes the exceedingly fun part of editing, revising, and rewriting it, as needed. Also making the cover image and other front material for it. There is more to self-publishing a digital book than writing, as I discovered last year and fortunately all of this should be easier to do than it was for Sci-FU, thanks to that experience. Except for the cover that is. Never been good at drawing, but the idea I have for the cover I think isn't too far beyond my skill level.

Since I've finished the first draft, I think I'll share a little more about this story than I have already. It is set in the fictional Old West town of Scurvy. (Considering some names of Old West towns, I'm surprised I never found Scurvy when I was checking to see if there was a real town.) The story shifts between the protagonist's first experience in the town and his speech directed to the reader, as though he is telling you the story himself. I felt this would be an appropriate way to break up the main segments of the story, without formal chapter breaks.

Hopefully those of my friends I send this first (and admittedly rough) draft to will find the time to read it and let me know what they think. It's style and story are different from what I normally work with, so their feedback will be invaluable.

The primary characters are John, the protagonist, Sheriff Jimmy (I'm still bad at making up names), Rose Carey, Mayor William Simon, Father Lettery, Sam, and Robert. Hopefully I can get this polished and all the work for it completed soon, so everyone interested can read it and meet this people. I don't think any of you will regret it.

Setting a Dangerous Precedent

Have to be careful now. Two posts in as many days; someone who comes across this may think I'm going to maintain this daily but there is a good chance I won't. I do not do the things I intend to chronicle here daily, and there is always the possibility I will lose interest in this blog as well. Don't know, but we will find out. Until then, onto the actual purpose of this post:

I'm not entirely sure how long one would say I've been working on my current short story. I first started writing it well over a year ago, but then dropped it for lack of interest and sense of direction. More recently though I had a brilliant idea! Instead of stretching it out to the size of a full book, I will make it a short story instead! My interest immediately returned and, when I can find the time, I have been writing it.

I call this new story, "The Death of Heroes" and I have no idea when it will be completely finished. The writing itself I should be able to finish pretty soon but then the real work begins. I intend on submitting it to Amazon to be a Kindle Single, but to do that I will have to format it for the Kindle (did this for an entire novel already, so a short story will be easy) and I will have to create a cover image for it. Someday someone may call me an artist, but it will certainly not be for my drawing abilities. Now, I did make the cover for my book, Sci-FU, but it is not overly difficult to make. White and black with gradients in between. I have got an idea for what I want this story's cover to be, and in theory it should be within my abilities, but I really can't say until I make it.

What's the story about? Well, it's about a hero and his death. Really, what the story is about is not as interesting as where it is set, and just a few things to happen in it. I do not want to share much about it though, because I do not want to ruin it. The best way I can think to describe the town of Scurvy is an Old West town with a mindset and attitude like what you wish existed in your town, but at the same time, you would never allow your town to be like it. Tolerance is a good ideal to reach for, but I doubt many of us would actually grasp it even if we could.

One thing worth noting though is that this story worries me slightly. It is a very different kind of story from just about every other story idea I have, including Sci-FU. However, I like the idea a great deal and I will try to self-publish it like any other story I write. I just hope it does not put people off me for trying something so different from what will be my norm, in just my second (published) story.

Oh, a new blog on the Internet. Interesting?

Someone might know exactly how many blogs there are on the Internet, but I'm not that person. Despite that, I'll still guess the number is big. So big in fact that a new one has to be special to get noticed. So, what's special about this one? It's written by me, that's what's special about it!

Seriously though, what makes this blog something you want to read? Since this is only the first post, probably not much. My plan for it though is to use this to spread some news I think is worth spreading. This could be really interesting science & technology news I find while getting stuff for my positions as a News Editor at OverclockersClub.com, it could be a video game I'm playing and want to share my opinion on, because you can never get enough opinions on games, or it could be something personal or dealing with my writing.

That's right, I'm a writer. Wrote an entire book already and self-published it with the resources Amazon offers; the Kindle Direct Publishing program and CreateSpace. That book is titled Sci-FU and I hope you will at least check out the preview for it. I greatly enjoyed writing it, and I hope you will enjoy reading it. I have ideas for other books and short stories (some related to Sci-FU and some not) which I may share some news about here. That's probably going to be the main thing I use this blog for actually, is sharing ideas and thoughts I have while writing or thinking about what to write next.

That's probably enough for the first post, don't you think? Hopefully I'll get in the habit of posting here, but I cannot guarantee it. I can be easily distracted.