I finished my story on Mars, but now have to go through the process of editing. The problem is I went 204 words over the maximum wordcount for the contest, so I have to quite a bit I think. It’s going to be a tough time of editing. I’ll figure it out though, I’m sure. At least the story is written. P.S.: I have no idea what the typo for ‘trip’ was… (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
The interesting thing about making goals for yourself is that you sometimes make goals right around the same time you have other stuff to do. Hold one, this isn’t one of those “Wah, I can’t write cause I have better things to do” complaints. This is the “I set up writing and reading goals during a time when I had two essays to write” complaint. However, the good news is that I should be able to catch up easily enough. I’m planning to finish up the book I was supposed to finish this weekend by tomorrow night. As for the writing…You can see I’m 3,300 words behind. I intentionally wrote over my allotted 2,000 words today to start dwindling that amount. I might write more tomorrow. I started a new short story for the Eaten Conference Short Story Contest. I churned out 2,400 words today and I plan to get another 3,000 tomorrow, time permitting. I expect the story to fall around 5,500 words, which is good because I’m somewhat limited by a 6,000 maximum word count. The story has to do with Mars, and I expect it to be pretty interesting, although I don’t know if it will do much good in winning. Luckily for me the contest is only open to UC students, unlucky for me is that the UC system seems to hate science fiction, for the most part, and is hosting a contest on science fiction without much for guidelines other than “it must be SF and deal with Mars”. Okay, great, vagueness. So they’re getting a quasi-SF story that deals with Mars that will be making a mockery of the usual cliche of Aliens From Mars. Yup, a mockery.In any case, we’ll see where it goes. I will have another chapter of SoD either this week or this weekend. I’m not entirely sure on that. Regardless, it’ll end up being on here at some point this week. I’m currently ahead of myself in that, which is good. I expect to keep it that way. And I think that is a sufficient amount of rambling from me. What are all of you doing out there?
I was reading this article at Universe Today and felt it necessary to comment on the state of the space program in this country. I have concerns, you see, and they are legit concerns. Or so I think.The article talks about the repairs that will be done on Hubble in a way that sounds as if the astronauts have better things to do. I’ll admit that they probably do, but it’s also not Hubble’s fault that they have other crap to do. Needless to say, Hubble is getting an upgrade and will be 90 times more sensitive and be capable of picking up over 900 galaxies as its field of vision is being increased. Also, its lifespan is being extended to 2013, with a scheduled decommission date in 2020 (which is part of what I want to discuss). Firstly, I’m glad to hear that they’ll be fixing this amazing satellite. It apparently suffered a power failure in January of last year and is in need of some fixing. Thanks to NASA for fitting it into their schedule.Here is my concern, though. What does this say for our space program when amazing devices like Hubble, which has produced some of the most beautiful images of space objects we’ve ever seen and helped advance our knowledge of the universe in ways unimaginable, if we can’t fix them in a good time (twelve months seems like a really long time) and are willing to attach a rockets to them and drive them into the ocean? I can’t say I fully understand the logic. Hubble isn’t a cheap piece of machinery. They didn’t make it out of soda cans and old TV parts and broken microscopes from the 50s. Hubble is an amazing technological achievement for us. It’s also incredibly valuable. We’ve poured so much money into this thing. It’s not like throwing out an old television. This is like throwing out an entire warehouse stuffed to the brim with 200 inch TVs with gold plating.Why is it that we’re having such a hard time with our space program? Where is the innovation or campaigning? I wonder if NASA or anyone else has considered this option:What if they put a public call out to individuals, organizations, and universities who would be willing to fund Hubble–from the parts to operation to repairs by astronauts? There have to be dozens of universities who would love to get their hands on this fine piece of machinery. If a few hundred universities all over the world sat down and funded a project to maintain Hubble we might see it stay in the sky for decades to come. What is the point in just replacing it? Most people won’t get to use a replacement, so if we could offer Hubble to a wider group of scholarly individuals it would give us an extra eye in the sky. Hubble might not be as powerful as the craft we plan to put in space, but it’s still incredibly useful. We can still learn from it.I simply have a problem with destroying something as important as Hubble, for any reason. At the very least this piece of machinery deserves to be in a museum. At least then we’d show a little respect for something that has dazzled us with amazing images of the stars. Right now, it feels like we’re crapping on a good friend.
You can find my review of The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller here! Check it out! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
The big game is tomorrow. I know some of you don’t care, but I found this article about rumors that the Patriots spied on the Rams in 2002. I find it rather humorous that the spokesman has the audacity to tell us as a fact that the Patriots didn’t cheat then when they were clearly caught cheating during this season and were fined tremendously for it. Honestly, whether or not they are telling the truth, I don’t believe them. Why? Because they tried to cheat this year doing almost the exact same thing as they are being accused of doing in 2002. Go figure. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
This is what happens when you have a lot of blogs to watch and a lot of time on your hands to click the stumble button: you find a lot of interesting new articles! So here they are: Wil McCarthy’s Science Wiktion: an experimental collaborative writing project. Essentially he has become busy with a nanotech company and has decided to give up some of his works to anyone wanting to write them. There’s more on the site, but it’s an interesting prospect. James Wharris writes about what SF has to do to survive. “For science fiction to remain vital it must stay above the event horizon or be pulled down into the gravitation hole of fantasy.” An online open-source publishing model for online magazines. Not sure if I linked this already, but check out these amazing steampunk-esque creations! They’re robotic animals and the like. It’s so cool! Did You Know? 2.0: A really interesting video I found that shows you a lot of things you probably didn’t know about the world. Watch it. It’s really cool. The International Space Station of the future! This is one of the coolest videos I’ve seen. Someone decided to make a 3D movie of future modifications to ISS as they develop. Watch it, it’s wicked cool! The Sun. That’s all. The Sun as a Google Video. Cool? Yes, and if you don’t think so you have no respect for that glowing orb of burning gas that makes sure you can live every day. I found this company website called Solar Style. They have some really interesting solar products that you can buy such as conversion kits for your mp3 player or cell phone. An eclipse as shown from space! (Take from Mir). Jupiter has cool eclipses too, such as this one of Io. In October of 2007 the Pentagon apparently supported the idea to put a satellite facility in space to gather solar energy and beam it down. It’s about damn time! My biggest concern is that the NSSO is recommending a 10 year project for a test satellite. My thoughts are if it’s going to take 10 years to get that up, then it’s going to take 30 to get a real program going. Cut it down to 2 years to get a test one up…let’s get a move on people! All Your Base Are Belong To Us! You should know that phrase from this video. Spielberg is doing another WW2 miniseries called The Pacific. This one, it seems, is going to follow the soldiers who fought in, obviously, the Pacific Theater, much like Band of Brothers followed people in the European Theater, specifically the airborne members of Easy Company. I’m stoke, by the way. I love Band of Brothers. Need a definition of science fiction? Here’s a huge list of definitions from authors in the field. Matt Mitchell talks about the differences between SF and F. The top ten science-based movies. It’s a decent list I think. (Courtesy of SF Signal) BMW has said they are going to pull out the stops and create a hydrogen-powered car this year. Maybe it’s not quite there, but I imagine that BMW will have them for sure by 2010. Alternately there is the air car from MDI. 11 Philip K. Dick books that have been turned into movies. I have some new reading and watching to do. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Universe Today has an article suggesting that some stars go through two planet-formation phases. That’s pretty cool when you think about it. Also, apparently that asteroid that was going to hit Mars isn’t going to after all. A really cool image. I’m not sure what it’s of (as in the specifics), but I imagine it’s a supernova or a nebula with massive gas jets. Wil McCarthy talks about the credibility of the AvP movie. The short version is that there isn’t a whole lot of credibility. Futurismic tells us that Neuromancer by William Gibson is to be made into a movie. To be honest, I’m fearful. Read the article and you’ll understand why.What about whether or not space travel is worth it? Is it? I think so, but look at what some other people think.And robots can lie! Yup, read this! They also evolve by the way. Sometimes people have too much time on their hands. Look no further than time wasting than this candy recreation of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from Lord of the Rings. It’s ridiculous and awesome at the same time. My io9 Roundup: Concept art of a spaceport on Titan. Beautiful work here. Stem Cell research gets another point as a man regrows a jaw bone in his stomach. Geneticists think they may have discovered how to expand our lives by hundreds of years. They’ve (USC) managed to extend the lifespan of yeast bacteria tenfold. Parents who get sick of their kids not concentrating have hope that scientists will be able to turn them autistic temporarily, since they can now do it with mice. McCarthy’s The Road is going to be turned into a film with Viggo Mortensen. Scientists have also created a new method to ‘fix’ men that can be turned on and off via remote, which is good news for people that suddenly change their minds. The Zombie Food Pyramid. Learn it. It’s important. Will Smith has gone crazy just like most of Hollywood and joined the crazy folks known as Scientologists–in some circles they’re seen as criminals against humanity. Needless to say I just lost a lot of respect for him. Ender’s Game is going to become a video game. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Clive Thompson talks about why SF is the last bastion of philosophical writing. (Courtesy of SF Signal) Jeremiah Tolbert brings up this really bizarre conspiracy theory that suggests that a good 300 years of European history was faked. I think the theory is crazy, but it’s interesting nonetheless. What SF gets wrong about human nature! (Courtesy of SF Signal) A
