Wanna destroy the world?

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Thom

Purdue University has teamed up with Imperial College London to create an impact simulator to calculate what would happen if an asteroid or a comet were to crash into the earth. Enter your various parameters and see what you would experience at a distance from the impact of your choosing.

Here’s the flashy version

There’s also a text-based version if your computer doesn’t like the other (mine only ran it once, then refused to again).

My only regret is that it speaks very little about the long-term effects of such an impact. But they can’t do everything.

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Consider your message

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Thom

Supposedly Feminism is all about equality. At least that’s what they keep telling me, even though that’s not always what I see. So as an MBA, let me give you feminists the benefit of my Marketing 501 class: consider your message. Focus in on what you’re all about, and stick to it. Don’t go off-message. Don’t get distracted.

Feminists, you’re getting off-message, and it’s hurting your cause.

Consider this from The Anchoress:

6) These umbrage-taking, offense-seeking people mewling about the travesty of shirts bearing sexy-women-with-guns tend to be the same sorts of people who believe that when Kim Kardashian props herself up as a plasticine-nude cocktail shelf, she has offered conclusive and empowering proof that mothers can be sexy, or something. For the sake of the world.

7) Somewhere between demands that men “speak no catcalls” and “wear no inappropriately geeky shirts” and assertions that a woman’s full-frontal/champagne glass nudity is seriously empowering, there is cognitive dissonance. A disconnect.

Read the whole thing.

I’ve expressed a similar sentiment before, as well. If you want people to follow the rules you have to make the rules clear and consistent. And if you really are interested in equality, you have to make the rules equal for everyone. And you have to make allowances for people like me who are clearly just too stupid to understand the different between “slut-shaming” and “slut-shirt-shaming”. If you can’t explain the difference perhaps it’s you who has the problem?

The saddest part about this outrage over a scientist’s shirt is that the tweet that supposedly launched it all implied that the shirt was the reason there are no women in science. Yet in the few images and videos I’ve seen of the project team (and including the televised apology by the scientist in question) there were women. If you look at the project team roster you will find several women. Are they equally represented? No. But take just one moment to actually think about this in terms of marketing. If you’re looking to increase the number of women in science, what would have been the better message  in response to the success of the Rosetta mission:

  1. One of the lead scientists wore a sexist shirt made for him by a female friend!
  2. Look at this amazing accomplishment! Look at the contributions of many women as part of this team!

If equality is your goal, is persecuting a single man who likely never even met most of the team face to face going to advance that? Even if you’re right and the guy really is a pig, is calling him out online going to encourage today’s girls to want to be scientists? You’re calling major attention to the fact that there may be unpleasant people you have to work with if you go into science. Newsflash, ladies: There are unpleasant people in every line of work. And you know what? Often they are women, and from my own experience, one of them wearing a shirt covered with images of Chippendale Dancers would have been the least offensive thing about them.

The message you all sent with your outrage about Matt Taylor’s shirt, whether it was your intention or not, was this: you may encounter things that make you uncomfortable in the sciences, and you are too frail to deal with it. Let us see if we can run all those people out first, then we’ll give you the high-sign when it’s safe.

Contrast that to the latter message: Hey look! Women in science doing important things! Be part of a team that can land a robot on a comet from millions of miles away! Girls, consider a career in science!

Too bad you totally bombed that opportunity. You took what could have been a real positive, affirming message and instead advanced the message that feminists are an intolerant, unforgiving bunch of bullies who will hunt you down and make you pay for the slightest offense, no matter how unconscious or well-intentioned (Dr. Taylor’s female tattoo-artist friend is probably feeling completely miserable now, but do you care about her?). You made a man apologize and cry on international television. Congratulations. Slap another kill sticker on the fuselage and carry on, while denying that this is a war on men.

It’s all about the message, feminists. And you’re blowing it. You can’t expect men to play by your rules when your rules don’t make any sense: Thou shalt cheer for a naked Kim Kardasian balancing champagne glasses on her scientifically-enhanced posterior, and spread her image across the Internet, but never-ever-ever consider wearing a shirt showing women wearing slightly more clothing. But should a woman choose to wear a similar outfit of her own accord, thou shalt never criticize her!

Huh? Message, message, message! You’re sending the wrong one, except when you’re sending completely confusing and contradictory ones.

If Feminism, as a movement, wants to be taken seriously you need to work on your message. Right now you’re looking increasingly like the embodiment of a “De-motivational” poster I saw once: “COMMITTEES: Because no one of us is as stupid as all of us working together.”

I, too, would love a world where my daughter, should she choose to do so, will encounter no real barriers to her going as far in science as she is willing to work for. It would be nice if she never encounters people wearing clothing that makes her uncomfortable. But she’s in middle school, and that ship has already sailed. She’s not failing middle school. She’s not coming to me whining about how hostile an environment it is because of guys’ “Grand Theft Auto” t-shirts. When she complains it’s about the other girls and their skin-tight everythings, and how they put her down for not wearing similar clothing.

Considering how geeky my daughter is, if she were to go into science she’d feel right at home among all those geeky men, regardless of what they choose to wear. They’d talk Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, and Avatar: The Last Airbender for hours while cranking out amazing work. And she would never have to worry about not being “cool” for not wearing jeggings, yoga pants, or skinny jeans.

But she is just not into math and science, unfortunately. It has nothing to do with the scientists’ shirts. It has to do with science and math, and the fact that she’s a very visual person who would rather spend her time cranking out fairly impressive artwork or planning elaborate settings for her writing. I encourage her to pay more attention to science and math, if for no other reason than to help her writing, but her interest is superficial, seldom moving beyond the conceptual. And I’m not going to force her, no matter how much more she could make starting as a computer programmer than a graphic designer.

Feminists, if you really care about the world you’re making for my daughter, please consider getting your message back on track. Matt Taylor’s shirt is not the enemy. If anything,  your obsession with people’s clothing is.

 

Posted in Random Musings | 4 Comments

A thrill of hope

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Thom

I’m working on the pre-writing for my next novel. I don’t know what that means for other writers, but for me that means I’m trying to anticipate what I will need as background for my story. Though I hear all the time different authors throwing out different figures (ie. you need to have written at least 10 times the world-building as you plan to write of your novel), I suspect it’s yet another one of those things where each writer has to find what works for them. I have no doubt that Brandon Sanderson has at least as much background written for his “Stormlight Archive” series as at least one of his novels, but if he had to write ten times that I doubt he’d have been able to start the novels yet.

I suppose, though, a lot depends on just what type of experience you’re hoping to give your reader. Sanderson is going for an epic, immersive experience. Michael J. Sullivan is going for an interesting story with a solid plot and good characters. His Riyria books may have accumulated a considerable amount of background info, but I’ll bet he didn’t start with that much initially, because his books use a lot of standard fantasy trope shorthand for setting.

As for me? I’m still trying to find that balance. I don’t want to get “lost at sea” and forget to actually write the book. The novel I’m currently planning is set in the same world as the last one, though in a rather different part of the world, so while a certain amount has already been done, there’s a lot that hasn’t. I have a general idea of the plot, and the plot is such that I don’t foresee needing a lot of background on, say, what’s going on in a part of the same empire 1000 miles away. This is not an epic novel. It’s an adventure story. I mainly just need to know the area in which I expect it to take place.

For me backstory is hard. I have to make myself work at it, otherwise I go with the first idea that comes into my head. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not necessarily good, either. It’s too easy to tie things up in a nice little bow rather than leave myself “hooks” that could lead me to develop other ideas. I tend to get lazy, and come up with something that explains it, but it’s way too simple. My setting can lack complexity, and as a general rule, complexity breeds conflict, which is what stories need to thrive.

I also have a hard time locating the holes. Anyone can take a look at a picture and figure out what’s wrong with it. It’s much, much harder to take a blank canvas and decide what’s missing. Do I really need to know how rich people’s children gain an education? Perhaps not. But perhaps that little detail could be important. It could be the spark that leads to a myriad of other ideas that lend my whole setting a weight that might not have been there before. But then, that could just be overkill that keeps me from actually getting to the story.

I suspect it may require something of an iterative process. I’d been avoiding creating my characters until I have the bulk of my world-building done, but I’ve been noticing that I’m running out of ideas as to what more elements of setting I need to fill in. Then yesterday I left my power adapter at home, so I couldn’t continue my world-building during my usual lunchtime writing time. So instead I sat down and wrote out what I know of my main character at this point, and what I know of the plot. Then, looking at those pieces of the puzzle, I brainstormed on what that suggested for other characters I might need. Within a few minutes I had four other characters. Then I started looking at each of them in turn. I quickly realized two of them were the same person.

The next realization was that several of these people likely wouldn’t like each other, or would at least have strong reason to distrust each other at first. That’s big for me, because building conflict into my stories is not easy for me. In spite of my main plot, I prefer everyone get along. It’s a bad habit I’ve got to break. So it’s encouraging that I’m starting to alter my thinking in that area.

The next and best realization was that I’m excited to write about these people. I still don’t have a real grasp on the plot line yet, but just the sub-plots already arising from my choices of characters are already grabbing my attention. I’m getting eager to start.

Since character is one place I feel I’m weak, this is especially encouraging. I’ve made a conscious goal for this next novel to focus more on characterization, so it’s encouraging that I’m giving myself more to work with this time around.

So the next step is to take a closer look at my characters and the various plots surrouding them, and do another pass at world-building. What do I now need to flesh out in order to explain who these people are and why they are the way they are? Where can I add points of conflict to their backstories? Where can I develop more interesting aspects to the setting to explain things? I’ll know if I’m getting it right if I find myself getting increasingly excited rather than increasingly bored with world-building. At least that’s the hope.

Where I may have initially erred in the last novel was in planning the novel in too great detail. This time I’m hoping to emphasize building up everything around the story so that (hopefully) the story becomes easier to tell once I get started on it. I don’t know wherethat balance point is. I’m still learning, still experimenting.

But I’m also having fun.

Posted in Writing | 9 Comments

Observations on a re-read

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Thom

With the exception of troll commenters, it’s difficult to be harder on authors than the authors themselves (and even then it’s often a dead heat). We’re just too close to our work to be objective, especially while we’re writing it. We know how hard it was to write that paragraph that the reader breezes through in seconds. We know how much we agonized over the right wording for a particular description. We know it took months to write something that the reader will finish in days. And for it to be that hard must surely mean that our novel stinks, we’re terrible writers, and that any copies of the manuscript should be burned, our computer files deleted, our keyboards hosed down with alcohol to eliminate all remaining traces, and we should have our heads mounted on a pike as a warning to future generations that some prose comes at too high a price.

While this may not actually be an exaggeration, the moment we just finished writing that passage is probably not the best time to make that assessment.

Give it some time.

I recently finished a novel that has taken me close to two years to finally complete. Granted, the first year was largely tossed out the window when I started over this year. But even so, it’s been a while since I typed those first few words. That’s sufficient emotional distance.

So I decided to read my manuscript. This was obstensibly to pick up any continuity problems, and fix any awkward language, etc. But I largely wanted to read through my manuscript in a short amount of time and see how it all hung together (or if I needed to be hung separately).

I’m not necessarily bragging when I say it was better than I remembered. I know I can’t be a truly impartial critic of my own work, but I do manage a reasonable level of neutrality. I can see it lacks something, and I have a few ideas what may be missing. I don’t think I’ve written a truly compelling novel yet. I think a majority of any readers would be able to finish it without much encouragement, but I don’t think many of them are going to think to themselves, “Wow, that was a good book, and I’m sad it’s over.” I’ve read some books like that. I don’t necessarily begrudge the time I gave to them, but I might not pick up anything by that author in the future.

But I can also see that I’ve made progress as a writer. This, I believe, is a better novel than my last one. There were scenes that got me emotionally involved. I believe the plot is tighter and more complex. My characters lack depth and distinctiveness, but I already suspected that. That’s something I intend to work on in the next novel.

The point is that with a little bit of distance things actually looked better than I remembered.

Every writer has their process. My first instinct was to put the manuscript away and not bring it out again until after I’ve written the next novel. I’m glad I didn’t do that. The experience will be helpful with that next novel. In my case it was a good thing to go back and take a look at the big picture, learn some lessons, note some weaknesses, and acknowledge some successes. I think had I just proceeded on to the next project I might have just continued making the same mistakes. Yes, I probably do need more distance before the next draft, but I do think a quick re-read was worth the time spent.

One of the main take-aways: I finish novels, not just start them. I’ve got a lot of begun-but-not-completed stories in my files. But since I decided to get serious about writing three years ago I’ve gone two-for-two on novels, with a similar succes rate on short stories. I evidently meant it when I decided to get serious. And that’s kinda cool all by itself.

 

Posted in Writing | 5 Comments

Bad news

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Thom

Years ago under a different employer they insisted that every new employee had to go to “Happy Camp”, a three or four day off-site motivational/life-skills workshop. As with most such things it makes perfect sense while you’re in the program, but once you get back in the real world and run into conflicting priorities (and the scoffing of co-workers) it tends to lose importance.

But one thing they taught us still stands out to this day: Avoid negativity right before bed. The idea is that taking in the news, reading a depressing book, or taking in any negative energy within the hour before going to sleep will put that negativity into your subconscious and drain your energy. It makes sense, and I try to stick to that advice.

Lately I’m starting to think that beginning your day with negative input is not a particularly good idea, either. I’m sure they mentioned that at Happy Camp, even if by default. I know they advocated starting off your day with exercise and positive energy activities, even if they might not have specifically mentioned avoiding negativity. But it seems for me, at least, if I start out the day with the news and sometimes even social media I run the risk of something negative putting a shot just below my water-line. Even if it doesn’t sink me altogether, I still take on water and just can’t operate at full for the next while until I manage to patch the hole.

I’m thinking it’s time to change some of my habits so that at the very least I put off the known sources of negative input until later in the day when I’m better able to deal with it, or at the very least I ruin less of my day. Even better if I could start my day off with something positive, but at least eliminating the negative would be good.

I still wish I could get away with the Happy Camp advice of taking a nap in the middle of the day, though.

Posted in Random Musings | 5 Comments

Challenges and opportunities

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Thom

This video is exceptional on a number of levels. Peter Dahmen, the engineer interviewed, does amazing work. And yet had he been rich enough to not have to ride public transportation he might have missed entirely an opportunity to excel. Sometimes embracing the challenges life throws at us can take is in amazing directions we might never have found otherwise. His comments about having to try and fail numerous times to get the beautiful, finished products you see is also foundational.

And, if nothing else, the works he creates lend credence to the idea that any technology, if sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic. These look like magic to me, not a lot of engineering and hard work.

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Happiness is never “out there”

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Thom

If there is one thing that social media is teaching me, it’s that happiness is never going to be found “out there.” Nothing anyone else can do will ever make you happy–at least not for long. Most all my friends who were so happy about how the last election turned out? They’re back to posting stuff about how terrible the other side is and exposing their latest scheme to ruin the world for the rest of us. They even found reasons to not be so happy about the election results after all.

Meanwhile, another group of friends has decided they have had enough with all the negativity on social media, and are starting a movement to fill the Internet with beauty, be it pictures of flowers, animals, or what-have-you. I’ve joined this little movement because, frankly, it helps. I’m not sure if it helps because I’m seeing other people’s beautiful pictures, or if it’s just changing my own attitude by helping me to be looking for beauty in order to post it. I’ve certainly been able to remember that I have a lot of pictures I’ve taken of beautiful scenes, landscapes, flowers, animals, my family, etc. I should probably spend more time looking at them and less time drinking in Internet hemlock.

We tend to find what we look for. If we’re looking for things to get upset about, things to criticize, or things that annoy us we won’t have to look far. It’s easy to find. If we’re looking for beauty, for inspiration, for reasons to be happy, they’re not that far away, either.

What are you looking for?

Kodachrome carpet

Autumn fireworks

Posted in Moments of Beauty, Random Musings | 13 Comments

Falling for science, or perhaps just falling

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Thom

The science geek in me thinks this is totally awesome. My only regret is that they don’t really show the drop under vacuum conditions at normal speed. That would have been more believable to my eyes than the slo-mo. But hey. It’s…science! Happy Friday!

Update: Okay, I’ve got to add this one in. Since I’m regularly posting about Lindsey Stirling, this is just too good to pass up. Evidently they tried to get Lindsey herself, but schedules wouldn’t work out. I can imagine she’d be all over it otherwise. My eyes were watering by the end of this!

Posted in Random Musings | 4 Comments

Book Review: Hollow World, by Michael J. Sullivan

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Thom

“Hollow World” is, by his own admission, a book Michael J. Sullivan never intended to write. He’s got plenty of fans (and work to do) in fantasy without trying to branch out and tackle science fiction. But he did, and he did it well.

If you’re looking for a book you can tie up in a nice, neat package, this isn’t it. The future Sullivan predicts in Hollow World is neither kind of -topia. Even the people who live there aren’t entirely happy. But it’s not necessarily a bad place, either. All we’re really left with is knowing that people from our time would have some difficulty getting used to it.

The premise is fairly straight-foward: A dying scientist discovers how to time travel one-way into the future, and finds a future humanity that has genetically engineered themselves into a disease-free, nearly immortal, genderless existence. People live underground in a series of colonies called Hollow World so as to minimize (or undo) the impact to the surface of the planet, and they’ve largely created a peaceful existence with plentiful power and resources where people are enabled to pursue their natural interests.

Except not all is entirely well. Ellis Rogers, our time traveler, arrives just in time to witness a murder–something so unheard-of that the inhabitants immediately turn to him as the expert on how to investigate the crime. He is befriended by Pax, a modern being with a talent for mediation and counseling, who takes him under his wing and introduces him to this mild new world. Pax, as a member of a humanity where everyone is manufactured genetically identical (and without body hair or sexual organs), feels a desire to stand out, to be an individual. Where clothing is optional in this world, Pax wears a suit from the Victorian era as his personal style, and he feels some dissatisfaction with a society where everything is perfect, but there is little real variety.

Pax and Ellis work together to investigate the murders and soon find themselves in the middle of events that could destroy Hollow World. Along the way Ellis must deal with his painful past and decide where he fits in a future in which he is a fascinating anomaly, but essentially alone.

If I had to choose one adjective to describe this book, it’s “honest”. Sullivan takes his best guess at what our future looks like as a species and comes up with something…different. As I said before, it’s neither a utopia nor dystopia. It’s an alternative, with plenty of pros and cons. There is a lot to like about this vision of the future, but Ellis is quick to pick up on some of the drawbacks–and Pax is open about some of the ones he sees, as well. No one is blindly cheerleading for Hollow World. They like their life, and they find the past abhorrent, but they’re not claiming they’ve achieved the perfect society. They’re still working on that.

And of course this vision of the future raises some difficult questions. Ellis believes in God, but in the future they’ve decided there is no god, and religion has died on its own. Through the course of the novel he encounters various opinions on the matter, but ultimately Ellis seems to not decide. Sullivan also looks at the nature of love and relationships in a genderless society which has some clear parallels with our own current societal conflicts. Again he ultimately doesn’t “resolve” anything so much as look at various sides of the issue. Some might say that’s the coward’s way out. Others might say it’s staying true to the characters–what works for them is not going to be universally applicable. Indeed, in some ways the parallel breaks down entirely–how does one become sexual with someone who has no gender?

I don’t think Sullivan set out to write a social examination, but when he realized the ramifications of what he was writing decided not to back away from it. Some will dislike the book for going there at all. Some will dislike it for not taking a stand. Some will dislike it for taking a stand against their pet side. Some will think it a marvelous book that validates their world view. I think this is a book that depends largely on who is reading it and what they bring with them. I found myself getting anxious simply because I’m tired of hearing about these issues and, having enjoyed the book immensely to that point, feared Sullivan was going to try and drag me in a particular direction and ruin the book for me. I’m still not completely sure he didn’t.

Ultimately the ending is dissatisfying. But then I did say it’s an honest book. He could have given us a “satisfying” ending, but it wouldn’t have been honest. Ellis, in reality, really hasn’t had enough time to come to grips with the new society he lives in, nor to explore his new relationships sufficiently to be able to understand them. This is not a story that can be tied up in nice, neat little packages and still be real (or not be incredibly dull as Ellis works it all out). It seems right that Sullivan ends it there, as any further exploration would really require a new novel.

I’ve been following Sullivan for a while now, not just as a reader, but as a writer as well. He didn’t have to write this book. His other series are safe ground. He chose to write a book he knew could be unpopular for many different reasons, and he chose to write it in such a way that very few will be entirely happy with it. I find I respect that, and I find it making me think more deeply about my own writing. I know I’m not the only one who struggles at least a little with reconciling their personal beliefs and their writing. Sullivan is making a career of writing what he wants to write, even when it goes against current trends. It’s encouraging to watch him making it work.

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Viral hate vs. viral support

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Thom

Jason Money, in the last football game of his high school career, made a mistake that cost his team the game. That would be bad enough for anyone, let alone a teenager. But then video of the mistake goes viral, and suddenly he’s deluged with social media hate from thousands of people who didn’t even know him and had no real investment in the game. They just saw a target and went for it.

Now-days it’s not, “it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game,” but ” it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you deal with the Internet trolls.” Suffices to say there are some really nasty, terrible people out there. Fortunately for Jason he didn’t have to face it alone. I feel for those who endure this kind of stuff without a support structure.

Anyway, there’s an article about what happened to Jason and how he and his family dealt with it. There are lessons there to be learned for anyone who is open to learning. I doubt any of the trolls will be at all changed by this article, but there’s something here for the rest of us. Don’t let the haters be the only ones who get heard.

Posted in Random Musings | 1 Comment