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World in the Satin Bag

Art is Awesome!

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This is topical because it’s Scifi art! I was over at Astrona today and there were a series of videos of this spraypaint artist that does things with spraypaint I didn’t think were possible. You need to to check it out. The first video is totally amazing! I especially liked the part when he started using fire to make what I assume was the gloss. Also it seems that Michael Capobianco of SFWA has issued a statement regarding basically how SFWA intends to continue to protect author’s rights here. I pretty much agree. One blunder should not change how SFWA intends to protect its authors. Of course they messed up, but that surely doesn’t mean we should condemn the organization entirely. They’ve been around forever. Couldn’t hurt to be nice to them a bit.Now for some really bizarre news thanks to this Universe Today article. Sometimes stars eat up comets, asteroids, and planets, and sometimes stars get eaten up. Apparently, and I’m no expert here, scientists have discovered an instance of a star literally being eaten alive. Well, perhaps not literally, since a star isn’t a live, but you catch my drift. Usually when you hear about stars being destroyed, it’s either because they’re at the end of their life or a lovely black hole or bigger star has taken care of them. Well, in this case, it’s something a little smaller at work–a pulsar. The irony in this situation is that a pulsar is actually the remains of a star, rapidly spinning and emitting large amounts of electromagnetic radiation let off in pulses of radio waves. That’s a pretty simple version. In any case, this particular pulsar has been sucking the life out of this other star. Initially astronomers were puzzled as to why the pulsar was speeding up. Generally they accelerate and then dwindle down. But astronomers knew that something had to be feeding the pulsar. Further study proved there was a object, and when they really looked, they realized that it was another star, rather what they initially thought was a planet. They believe that the star was already quite old, probably at the end of its lifespan anyway in the white dwarf stage, but the little pulsar sucking away all the leftover material is truly wreaking havoc. Today they’re so close that the pulsar produces a tidal bulge on the surface of the dead star, siphoning material away. Sometimes there’s so much mass accumulated that it piles up and explodes as the outburst that led astronomers to the discovery in the first place.Don’t think of the companion as the planet. “Despite its extremely low mass, the companion isn’t considered a planet because of its formation,” says researcher Christopher Deloye of Northwestern University. “It’s essentially a white dwarf that has been whittled down to a planetary mass.” Now how is that for a rude neighbor?

World in the Satin Bag

Six Years: NYC Remembered

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There’s not much to say here. What can you say about something like this? We are fortunate and unfortunate to have been alive to witness, even from a distance, one of the most frightening moments in the history of this country. Are there words to truly describe what many of us felt then and feel now? I still can’t watch the videos or look at the pictures for more than a few moments. I didn’t know anybody in NYC, but for whatever reason just seeing it even in still form brings me to tears. So, for this day and this day only, let’s all forget the war inIraq and everything else going on in this country. Let’s forget who’s running for election, what new laws are coming in, etc.All we should do at this moment is remember. Remember all the men and women in the trade center and at ground zero, alive and dead, who saw it happen.Remember the fire fighters who risked their lives doing what they volunteered to do.Remember. That’s the only thing we as a people can do. Most of us weren’t there. We feel something that we might not be entirely able to explain. So we do what we can. We remember.To those who lost loved ones who are forced to relive this day over and over as a historical marker for this country, my heard goes to you and your family. My heart goes to the fire fighters who still live in NYC and everywhere. Thank you so much for everything you do for us. You do what most of us are no brave enough to do. For that there is no true repayment.Remember.

World in the Satin Bag

SFWA: My Thoughts

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Alright, so it’s probably somewhat old news, but so be it. I feel like putting my thoughts out there. I’m sure some of you have already heard about SFWA’s little blunder in regards to www.scribd.com. For those that haven’t, here is a very brief run down of what happened: Some members of SFWA reported finding their material posted on Scribd and other similar sites to the SFWA e-Piracy Commitee and complained about the infringement. SFWA responded and sent a notice to the sites responsible and requested they take the material off else legal action be taken. The sites responded by doing exactly that (at least in the instance of Scribd, since this is where it all explodes from). Cory Doctorow had a fit, here, because his work was taken off even though he never gave SFWA authorization to remove it (because he had not authorized SFWA to act as his copyright agent, to put it simply), and apparently this has happened to several other authors. SFWA publicly apologized, here, for the incident. Of course the good Mr. Scalzi has already discussed the topic here. But, we’re not here about what Scalzi thinks, we’re here about… My thoughts:No offense to Scalzi. It’s a genius, but yeah.So what do I think about it?Well, to be honest, SFWA should be thankful that really bad legal action hasn’t been taken against them. Maybe there has and it’s behind the scenes, but they clearly made a mistake that no organization with that much respect should have.I do think the apology says a lot about the state of things, though. The organization was quick to acknowledge their mistakes, something that certain politicians might never have done, and issued apologies not only to the public but to the individual authors. SFWA has ever right to protect authors they are authorized to represent, obviously, and they did do exactly what they should have done when they received the notice by removing many works that never should have been on Scribd and other sites to begin with. This is not Scribd’s fault. If you look all over the net you can find pretty much anything anyway, so it’s no surprise that a site like Scribd unintentionally let some stuff slip under the radar.So SFWA really handled the issue poorly. They went ballistic when they should have looked at it rationally. Would it have been hard for the SFWA people to sit down and look at the list of alleged infringements to figure out which authors they were authorized protect? Nope. Probably would have taken 5 minutes with today’s database technology. And in that instant they could have looked at all the other names and perhaps made a judgment call and sent emails instead of running out and demanding things be pulled down.SFWA didn’t do that, unfortunately. So, poor judgment call on their part, but thankfully they acknowledged their stupid mistake and made efforts to fix things. That takes some balls, in my opinion.

World in the Satin Bag

Sad News For the Week and Some Happier Stuff

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I just found out today that Lloyd Alexander and Madeleine L’Engle died this year. Read the post here at Wands and Worlds. Also here is the USA Today reports for Lloyd Alexander and Madeleine L’Engle. Sad day indeed for me. Both wonderful writers who did much for literature. For happier news I guess:Here is a neat bit on the Voyager spacecraft. I love the image. Very Scifi :).Also an interesting read on magic is here at Karen Lee Field’s blog. Good stuff there. As part of my column at the TeenageWriters Blog, I’ve started an eight part series on beginnings. The first of them is here. Feel free to check it out! I also wrote a bit about the importance of places like TeenageWriters, Critique Circle, and the like here. Also, at some point this weekend I’m probably going to babble about the latest SFWA issue. Some of you know about it already, but I feel like adding my two cents, even though I’m not a part of SFWA cause I don’t fit into their strict guidelines yet. Enjoy the links!

World in the Satin Bag

Acknowledgments and Such

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Now that WISB is finally finished it’s time for one of those long winded thank you posts.First, I’d like to thank anyone who has been reading this blog and the novel, even if you have never left a comment. I do check my sitemeter and there are several people who apparently stick around for a while and return at other times. Thank you for coming by and please leave a message some time. Second, I’d like to thank Mr. Bramage for his support of the project. While I haven’t heard from you in a long while, I still must thank you for keeping me writing in the beginning.I’d like to thank Alex of SmackJeeves for drawing all those lovely pictures including the one that is in this post and for being a one man cheering squad. I hope to see more of your art soon! Make me a new banner! And a logo! And something else that’s pretty!Next I’d like to thank Imelda, Eva, and Calamire from TW for pushing me on to finish the novel even through the hardest times when my brain wanted to quit. Word Wars have been awesome!And to anyone else that has come by here, read the novel, commented on it, linked me, or anything of that nature…thank you. Thanks everyone! It’s been fun. Now to working on SOD!

World in the Satin Bag

Sad Notice :(

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I feel really crappy right now, but I just realized I won’t have computer access for practically all of next week. That means that the chapter for WISB I have been working on won’t be up until the following week.But, never fear. Why? Because I’ll make all of you expecting the chapter a promise: I will give you one hell of a double feature the following week. Thanks for the support everyone!

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