September 2007

World in the Satin Bag

The Insignificance of Earth

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I’ve always found it profoundly interesting how people on this little planet think of themselves as so utterly important. So I thought I would write a post about just how insignificant we are in comparison to the universe, an idea spawned by this link.Earth is but one planet in a our solar system. Our solar system has 8 planets–Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune–since Pluto is no longer a planet. Thanks stupid scientists and your anal criteria. There are loads of asteroids, comets, etc. too. Of our 8 planets, 6 of them have moons–one for Earth, two for Mars, 63 for Jupiter, 60 for Saturn, 27 for Uranus, and 13 for Neptune. Our Solar System has one sun.Our sun is a star in the Milky Way Galaxy. There are billions upon billions of other starts in our galaxy, and millions of them are similar to our sun. There are hundreds of confirmed exo-planets–planets around other stars. Our galaxy is one of billions of other galaxies in our universe. In those galaxies there are billions upon billions of other stars, and since the Universe is so vast, this means there are so many stars and so many chances for life out there, that the thought that we would have been only intelligent life to emerge is absurd. (Note that we probably will never see those other lifeforms).Now, here is where things get even more ridiculous in regards to our insignificance. Scientists are theorizing that our universe is not the only one out there. Now this could mean that maybe there are just many universes that act as big bubbles in the vastness of space, sort of like galaxies are in our universe, or it could mean that alternate dimensions are at work. This all sounds very crazy, but there is some real strength to the theories, most particularly the whole deal with the ten dimensions.So how’s that for putting things into perspective?

World in the Satin Bag

Changing WISB For All Mankind

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Some of you might have noticed some serious changes around here. I’m doing some work on the blog to try to get new readers and the like and due to some suggestions some things are changing. First, things have moved around a bit, and the archives are now a drop menu to save space. Most of you never look down on the right hand side. Usually I have a group of image bars there from sites I am a part of. I try a lot of places to see what places seem to bring traffic to the site. I’m not trying to simply increase traffic, but what I’m doing is trying to bring new readers in to my blog. That’s all. So I try various things, and from time to time I delete all the things that aren’t doing anything for me from the blog. Which is exactly what has happened. All the links that weren’t adding to my new readers are gone (I pay attention to sitemeter) I’ve temporarily removed the word meters on the right hand side. Why? Alex suggested that perhaps they are misleading because they are expecting that perhaps those word meters refer to works that are on the site, considering that WISB is on the site. So I’ve taken them off for now. My other reason for taking them off was because, while they are nice, they are just too big for me. I wanted smaller word meters that take up less space. Thus far I haven’t found any. I’m trying a new thing called BlogRush, which you can see in the right. This is temporary, but it seems to be a way not only to bring readers of my blog to potentially awesome sites related to my blog, but might bring people from other places here. We’ll see what happens with that. I’m using Creative Commons at the bottom of my page now. I was using a different copyright before, but CC seems to be the common route for a lot of writers now, so now it’s there. That about covers it for now. Hopefully things look okay. I’m giving this BlogRush thing a try, but if it doesn’t prove useful, then it’s gone.Thanks all! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this)

World in the Satin Bag

A Solid Farewell To An Icon

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It’s really irrelevant if you liked Robert Jordan’s work or not. You can’t deny his impact on fantasy literature, one that while not as powerful as Tolkien’s, is certainly recognizable. Jordan pioneered the massive fantasy epic series. There is no doubt that his writing (including not only the Wheel of Time, but various other work too) has brought rise to countless long-winded fantasy series. And like all literature, it’s hit or miss. The impact is undeniable, whether or not you see it as positive or negative (though you have to admit that his impact is a little of both).With his passing he has left behind quite a legacy, including an unfortunately unfinished fantasy series that we all of have heard of–The Wheel of Time. Like Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber…I have never read any of his works, but I recognize his importance to the fantasy genre, much like I recognize Tolkien even though I was not a fan of his writing (the story was excellent, but it wasn’t written very well in my opinion).So with that, here is a wonderful adieu to an icon that seems to have left his mark.

Book Reviews, World in the Satin Bag

The Everchanging Space Economy

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First things first, I want everyone to know that I did a review of Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret over at SQT’s blog. Check it out please. Now for something interesting! I’m sorry that it seems like all my little news things are all related to SF. Unfortunately there isn’t really a whole lot of stuff that would pertain to fantasy that I’m finding. And what exactly would be good news stuff for fantasy? Anyone know? Other than literary stuff (such as Robert Jordan dying). So if anyone perhaps has some insight as to what you would like to see, let me know. Now to another interesting article I found, located here. I’m rather optimistic when it comes to space travel, of any kind. I think one of the biggest issues we have today not only in regards to space, but even other technologies, is that we don’t take risks. There are no more Thomas Eddisons in this country, or in a lot of the world for that matter.So it came as a surprise to me that scientists think that it would cost us close to a trillion dollars or more just to get us to the Moon again. First, I see no value in going to the moon. Nobody has really come out and said why we should go there other than to just said “yeah, we can build a colony there”. We can’t exactly harvest the moon. That’s too dangerous for the planet as a whole, and a risk not worth taking. I do however think we need to go to Mars. Why? Because we haven’t put a person there yet. It’s important.So when I read that article and saw that with current funding it will likely never happen I was a little miffed. We have to go to Mars. Period. This article says that it could cost of ten times as much as NASA officials are saying. That’s trillions upon trillions of dollars. NASA doesn’t have that kind of funding and I don’t think we need to give them that kind of funding.What exactly would make such a project cost so much? And here’s a thought, if it really will cost that much, why aren’t we asked for an international cooperative effort to get this project hte funding it needs? Think, if we could send a couple Americans, a Brit, and a Chinese man or woman, etc. we could get massive amounts of funding! And it would look wonderful on a resume!I think my problem is that I’m too optimistic about space travel. I think we can do almost anything if we just sit back and do it. I think space travel and understanding our own planet are paramount to the success of our species.But maybe I’m just delusional.And what does this do to all of us who are sitting around postulating advanced human societies that rule the galaxy? Yeah, doesn’t bode well. Such societies would go bankrupt with space travel.

World in the Satin Bag

Microbes Rule!

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How many of you know what happens to the human body when it’s subjected to the weightlessness of high Earth orbit? Well, to put it simply, the body actually starts to whither. It’s not a quick process, and certainly not one that would prevent us from shipping people long distances in the solar system, but there is a noticeable effect on the immune system when astronauts return to Earth after a considerable stint in space. It’s similar to AIDS. Your body has cells called T-cells, which have these little receptors whose job it is to basically tell other cells there is an infection in that particular cell. When someone is infected with AIDS, those receptors stop working. This is permanent in AIDS, obviously. So, when the body gets a cold, the cells don’t know how to fight it because it seems to be replicating itself at such an alarming rate, which is true. Your body is no longer fighting the infection, basically.Now, being in space is much the same, except that the effects don’t remain when someone returns to normal gravity–as far as we know at least, considering we haven’t exactly stuck someone up there for fifteen years to see what happens. So, your immune system weakens, those little T-cells and their receptors shut off, and your body becomes a happy breeding ground for all the little bacterium and microbes that float around in our air and make homes in our bodies.This is where a new report from Universe Today comes in. Apparently bacteria–such as salmonella, which was used in this experiment–actually become more dangerous after spending considerable time in space. Astronauts took with them a group of salmonella filled containers with nutrients for the bacteria. What they discovered upon return to the ground was that the bacteria had changed expression in 167 of its genes and become three times more likely to infect. That’s surprising when you think about it. Imagine having that floating freely in a space ship with a group of people who are immuno-depressed!Scientists think it isn’t directly related to the zero-gravity, not like it is in us humans, but it is indirectly related to it. They believe it has more to do with the movement of fluids, which on Earth is very low, but in space is probably considerably more active. Now that’s some interesting news, eh? Edit: I changed the phrase “altered 167 of its genes” because it was brought to my attention that that phrase may be confused with mutation, when that was not the meaning I was intending.

World in the Satin Bag

Updates, Changes, and New Writing Projects

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So I am officially moved in to my new place for the next couple years. Well, at least for the next year. There is a good possibility I will be spending some considerable time in New Zealand next year, but we’ll see. Things are still a bit hectic. Some things are not yet unpacked, and things are a little misplaced and misshapen. I’m in a smaller room than I was before. You can see somewhat how things are progressing in some of the images at the end of this post. It’s not perfect, but it will certainly do, and at least I have DSL, a roof, TV, my beautiful animals, and my schooling to look forward to!So given that, it’s been a rather stressful couple of weeks. Now for an update on, well, stuff. I’m reading Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret for SQT’s blog. It’s a wonderful book and if anyone hasn’t read the first you should. I also got a laptop, which I’ll get a picture of eventually. I need it of course, because I’ll be on campus quite a lot during the week. Now, for the darker news. My blog has been getting a few comments from people from TeenageWriters, a website I was a part of. Well, I am no longer a part of the website due to issues that I don’t think need to be repeated in full detail, but I will give the gist of why this happened. I was the debate mod at TW. Recent happenings were causing the upper mods to begin breaking apart and I got dragged into the fray. Certain members proved to be incapable of trying to find a compromise, some members were trying to understand what was going on, and others were trying to explain it. Ultimately what happened was that all the upper mods were split right down the middle because of immaturity and selfishness. Everyone was bickering, everyone was arguing, and when someone tried to bring the argument to a close and resume finding solutions, the same people would continue bickering. So, nothing got done. Then a few members came back who had left before, some things were said behind my back, and I realized pretty quick with the beginning of ‘mod elections’ that things were going from bad to extremely horrible at TW. So, I made the decision to leave so as not to have to deal with the worsening condition of the site and the idiocy of holding ‘mod elections’, which proved actually to bring things even further down. I have left, several other members have left, and people who were very important to the site are now considering leaving permanently. So, that’s that. The Anthology for the website is basically dead. I’ve pulled all my material off the blog and intend to place it elsewhere, and it’s just a very bad experience. There will be more about this later, but for now, that’s that. Now for some changes. I have a new email. If you click the “Contact Me” link on the left there it will have you send to the new email. For now it is a yahoo.com account. That may change again, but because my sbcglobal.net account will be going away I have to switch up. I have to start forwarding about 300 emails too. I also recently had a short story reviewed by Zen Pen and at some point soon I’ll have to put a summary of what was said. The short version is that it was good stuff, but with some things that really got me thinking. Now for my writing. I’ve got a few projects in the works now. I’m still working on my short stories. I am hoping to get several stories in final working order so I can start sending them out to magazines. I think I’ll end up with about 4 or 5 good stories all going out at once. The Spellweaver of Dern is still in the plotting stage. I’m a bit stuck on it, but at some point I’ll have to sit down and work out the entire plotline. I’ve taken an old unfinished story and have started turning it into a novel. It’s a cross genre piece taking a lot of elements from both science fiction and horror, and there are little bits of fantasy in there, in some ways. I’m not sure how it will work but I have two storylines working right now and I am really enjoying writing it That pretty much completes that. Now for pictures! All the ones of the bay and nature and what not are actually from the UC Santa Cruz campus. Hope you enjoy them. All the pictures of a room are ones of my new room. Those are the early unpacking photos. Things are a bit different now of course. Enjoy!

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