Science Gone Mad!

Good News, Internet!

I managed to find someone who likes one of my stories!  The story, titled Fire-Line, will appear in a book titled Science Gone Mad. The cover, theme, and feel of this anthology (published by Static Movement) fit the story perfectly, so I'm delighted it found a good home.

I've got about 15 pieces out on rotation to various publishers at the moment as well, so hopefully there will be more good news soon.

Oneword

One is the loneliest number.  Actually, wouldn't zero be the loneliest, seeing as it has no company at all, not even itself?

Right, so, one is a fine number, especially when it comes to writing.  I like word association games.  The simplest of these games is to pick one word, at random, and write about what it connects with in your head.  Play pinball with the word.  Brainball.  Whatever.

It's a good ole' exercise that is seeing a revival on the interwebs.  A clean, friendly site by the name of oneword allows you to play this game in a social network setting.  You get one word a day to write about, and 60 seconds to do the deed, with no later editing allowed.  It's a practice in just letting your subconscious plop out without thinking.  There's no time to think.  Once a day is perfect for this too, as it allows you time to reflect on the word and your thoughts later, without you cycling through words like your favorite new addiction.  Quite Zen, I guess.  For me, it's another great way to get a writing workout.  Like working out your body, it is a good idea to mix up the input/output each day.

Here are 5 of my 60-second word barfs:

Cards

Cards like Birds in the high winds, they blew from some tourist stall down at the wharf, now they fly as beautifully for a moment as green parrots. Who would they have gone to otherwise? Better the wind and the bay than great aunts and cousins who would throw them away.





Sage

The sage on the butternut squash ravioli looked crisp and delicious. It reminded him of the sage he should burn in the closet, to cleanse whatever spirits had moved in. It was just last night that he was woken three times by bursts of light and the laughter of children behind the closed door.




Bench

A park bench with white clothes strewn over it in winter. No sign of anyone or any tracks leading to or from it, and no fresh snow for days. The clothes are folded and clean, a full set, entirely white. The wind whispers by.

Barber

Barber sounds like something found on the Spanish coast. When I was young I thought I might end up on the Spanish coast, as a pirate washed up, or a rich lord gazing at his villa. I ended up on the Jersey coast, combing, cutting, and listening. I’m happier than any pirate or lord I’ve ever known.



Tables

Tables form the main buildings, chairs are towers. We push them together and throw blankets over the top. Cushions are walls, and inside a king and a queen discuss their subjects. We rule!

Who is Luke, and how do you know how warm he is?

Huh?

I saw an infomercial last night.  It was for a Man-Corset.

Why was I watching infomercials?

Their major selling point is "Hey, the job market is tough, and I wouldn't have gotten this flab-inducing desk-job if I didn't look this fit."  Cut to a side-view of a man who just cashed in all his Man Points to shoot an infomercial about a fake job he supposedly landed for lying about something he would have to make part of his daily routine.  This is one of those visible slipping points in our society.

Hurr!

It's where a joint bent too far on the slow collapse to a splayed prone-position, leaving an ugly stretch-mark 150 million men wide.  It's right below the one caused by razors made specifically for men to shave their chests. Don't. Give. In.  Stay strong, my friends.

That's all I wanted to say.  I've got a lot of writing in progress right now, so I'm concentrating on that.  It was easier to both blog and write when this blog was about my writing.  Oh well.

Forget the Man on the Moon; NASA's Stardust shows comet Tempel-1 is comet Sad-Bunny. And a girl. Beat that.

I made this in MS Paint for you. Magnet. Fridge. Now.

Here she is, comet Tempel-1, or comet Sad-Bunny as I like to call her.  Stardust is a fancy little satellite with a sordid history.  By sordid, I mean of course that for a satellite it has sampled a lot of interstellar medium.  A LOT.  Last time it swung by earth it deposited a canister of interstellar medium southwest of Salt Lake City.  Rude little devil.  First time that's ever happened in the history of satellites.

Anyway, Stardust got close to Bunny late last night, and some people are calling her "second-hand" now, but I prefer to reserve judgement.  No wonder she sheds a single tear.

And now for a video of comet Sad-Bunny doing the dreaded Space Wobble of Shame:

Another theory is that she saw this giant pink bunny in Italy:

Made to look like a skydiving accident.  Neat?

That would make anyone sad.

...

And it's visible from space.

Avert your axis, Sad-Bunny!

Not that way!

That's better.  What do those look like though? Snarky Dragon and Bull-Snake?

5 Ways to Clear Acne Fast

Random Update:  I had to create a sample writing piece when applying for a job recently.  Here is the piece I wrote.  It's not 100% comprehensive, but is supposed to show that I can write on health and nutrition subjects.  I've got the company's green-light on using it for this blog, so I'd like to share it with my readers, on the off chance that it might help someone.  Enjoy!

5 ways to clear acne fast

Your mom had acne.  So did your dad, your uncle, your grandmother, and your great-great-ancestor who migrated out of Africa.  Everyone who ever reached puberty has had acne.

You can hide your liver if you binge-drink, but if you have skin problems, specifically on your face, the whole world can see it.  What's worse, as social creatures, we feel eyes on us whenever we think we look less than our best.

It's just sugar, promise!

What is acne?  In short, it is the range of clogged pores and sebaceous (hair follicle oil) glands that become infected.  This action causes visible blemishes in places where sebaceous glands are plentiful and pores are larger.  Generally acne occurs in the T-zone of your face (chin, upper lip, nose, cheeks, and forehead) and your back, starting at puberty when hormones are first unleashed.   It can occur anywhere though, and often does, just to keep you guessing.

Luckily, since everyone has had acne, clear solutions have been found to reach clear skin.  Recent advances in our understanding of physiology, nutrition, and hygiene have likewise made it easier to achieve healthy skin.  Health, your entire body's health, is really what you're after when trying to eliminate acne.  It is your overall health that shines through in your skin. 

Let's explore the five best ways to clear acne fast, starting with simple healthy changes and finishing with more in-depth options.  Finally, a selection of links will help you get started with each step. 

1.  Drink more water.  This is the simplest step, and can start with an extra cup when you wake up to a snazzy travel-bottle at your desk while you work.

2.  Stay active.  The more you move, the more your body can move fluids and nutrients around your various systems and cells.  If you have a desk-job, or just like to watch TV during your downtime, make sure you break up that inaction with a brisk walk at least once per day.  It can be a walk to the store, or a walk to a good lookout point in your city.  Walking is a great way to get your body used to higher levels of breathing and heart-beating.  This prepares it to handle stress of all types better.  What's more, every last cell in your body will thank you for the increased blood-flow and oxygen saturation, especially those skin and blood cells trying to fight your acne.

Why don't I have a neck?

3.  Find a good antioxidant source.  Antioxidants are complex chemical compounds that perform complex functions.  Much about them is still in the realm of cutting edge science, meaning we don't know why they work, they just do.  In a basic sense, they combat molecules known as free radicals, which are nasty byproducts of various body processes and other sneaky things, like smoking and pollution.  If you've seen the wave of new products in the last ten years with antioxidant payloads (Acai, Pomegranate, Grape Seed, ad infinitum), you know that this is a hot area for science and consumers alike.  What is important for acne fighting, and for your general health, is to have a wide-spectrum source that is good at staying in your system for long periods of time.  Other people have figured out how to do this, so it is only up to you to find what works best for you and your budget.

cleverly disguised Hormel "meat-trinkets"

4.  Change your bedding every week.  Plain and simple.  Clean sheets will remove the body oil and detritus (dead skin cells) that build up quickly while you sleep.  Your body loves to slough off the old and bring in the new, but when the old keeps knocking on the doors of your pores, it makes for a bad skin-neighborhood.  Dust mites and bed-bugs thrive in dirty beds too.  These nasty little slumber-party pests will bite you, and your unwashed pillowcase is their favorite buffet.  Avoid most fabric softeners, as it leaves a residue that won't do your skin any favors.  For good measure, avoid eating or prolonged awake-time in your bed too.  Both of these habits grime up your crisp and clean snoozing spot.

5.  Shower with gentle soaps and use equally gentle salicylic acid products afterward.   Your skin gets a lot of abuse.  The last place you want to punish it is in the shower.  This can be the key to flawless skin, because pores are opened and product is flowing all over your skin.  For your face, use a proven facial soap that contains no harsh chemicals.  There are a wide range of soaps specifically for this purpose, from Nivea to Cetaphyl.  Each has benefits and drawbacks, so it will take some trial and error to find one that works in harmony with your specific skin type.  Once you are out of the shower, pat your face dry and use salicylic acid acne pads.  These are little round pads made by companies such as Neutrogena, and they perform a few functions.  Firstly, they pull off any remaining dead skin cells in an exfoliating process, second, they deliver a payload of salicylic acid, which is a gentle yet powerful fighter of all things acne.  Last, these handy pads moisturize your thirsty skin right after the shower process, which will keep it happy all day long.  Follow with another moisturizer with sunscreen if you plan on being outdoors for any substantial length of time.  Avoid any product with Benzoyl Peroxide.

Does this bowl smell like chloroform to you?

There you have it; Five easy ways to clear acne fast.

Now here are five quick links to get you started with each step.

1.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/the-best-reusable-water-b_n_428684.html

- Huffington Post reviews reusable water bottles for you, so you don't have to buy a bunch of trash.

2.  http://www.mapmyride.com/

- Technically for biking, mapmyride lets you plot where and how far you run, walk, bike, pogostick, or jetpack.

3.  http://www.menscience.com/Advanced-Antioxidants_p_32.html

- Menscience is a company with a solid line of proven antioxidants.  The name might throw women off, but as a full-spectrum antioxidant it is not gender-exclusive, as some multivitamins can be.

4.  http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/laundry/wash-your-sheets-10000000684315/index.html

- How to best wash and care for your linens.

5.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E96OT2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p194_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=051E1NDNVJNRNDSJYHYR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

- Neutrogena Rapid Clear Daily Treatment Pads.

 

Friday Lemonade

 

Life handed me lemons today, so I ate them whole, one at a time, while I stared unblinking at life.  

What has Einstein to do with any of this?  Well, when you get down, just think of this quote of his! ... Just kidding, I don't like to blog quotes. If I did though, you would say "oh my lucky stars, that was insightful."

sup?

Anyway, one thing I made out of the lemons was this song.  I think the three people + my mom who visit this blog will enjoy this for the few seconds it takes them to find the kill switch.

I uploaded it on soundcloud, as I am wont to do on occasion when fancy strikes.  I confess I get excited just visiting soundcloud.  It makes the words "Web 2.0" not so mealy in the mouth.  I want to walk out of my flat, fetch an innocent bystander and screech an impromptu duet about how user-friendly and seamlessly helpful soundcloud really is.  Music is rapture, and soundcloud did my heart capture.  Bon.

Song of the day by aarongbeyer

More Kepler Krap, now with Charts!

Boom, planets everywhere.

You might be wondering what my Kepler kick is all about.

Well just lookie-here at this Chartasaurus Rex and tell me it isn't blowing your mind yet:

New planets are dots.  What is the big blue one?  Death-Star??  Click to read more!

No?

Fine, here is a direct link to the charticle.  It has bigger pictures and also sounds and other shiny stuff:

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/08/a-new-view-of-the-ga.html

In short, a very clever man decided to represent Kepler's findings using a visual charting system.  It flows seamlessly in the animation, and is available in high definition (*fwooosh*).  One of those spinning dots could have once harbored the invasion force of bug-eyed aliens about to drop-ship on your lawn.

Credit to the ever-vigilant Deborah Beale for finding this article.  I stumbled onto it via her twitter.  You should follow her and her husband, the great Tad Williams, and vote for their dog's poetry (he is GOOD. What?)

Earth-Like

Kepler, NASA's orbiting planet-finder observatory, is delivering information babies that could grow up to change how we view the universe.

Kepler

Kepler's unblinking space-eyes found 1,200 new planets.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ... and so on, up to 1,200.  Try counting up to that number while imagining a new planet each time.  Kepler did.  What now?

Also Kepler

Most of what can be said about this finding has been said in a very worthwhile blog called Bad Astronomy, which is of course filled with the very best astronomy.  Author and astronomer Phil Plait wrote his article carefully, observing numerous times that the 70 of these planets that are "Earth-Like" are not Earth.  Venus is Earth-Like, and so is Mars.  

These numbers represent only one millionth of the stars in our galaxy though.  Kepler is looking at a very small piece of the Milky Way, and is doing so from our narrow vantage point.  This means that only those planets with orbits on the same plane as Earth will be found by Kepler.

Phil had this to say in closing:

" For the first time in human history, we can look out into the night sky and actually and realistically and scientifically consider the presence of other Earths out there.

Science! I love this stuff. "

Minecraft Hiatus

Minecraft is a game with a lot going for it.  I, however, am going away from it.   Building blocks as a world is a powerful concept, and the complexity behind the facade of simple graphics is endearing.  However, it's an incredibly (spoiler alert) unfinished friggin timesink.

Yes, I knew that at the outset, and I knew it was in beta, but having large creations disappear for no reason is tiring.  So I've learned a few things about building and planning, and I've learned to fear the hissing noise a creeper makes.  If someone makes that little Death-Gumby SssSss while I'm napping, I will scream for a few minutes at least.

On top of a deeply entrenched fear of the sun setting, I now fear that the good people at Google have forgotten about my blog for longer than I did since the last post.  It's been a solid month since they added any of my content to search results.  Seriously though, it's a free service.  They've now directed over 10,000 unique viewers to me, and paid me for it so I guess I'll cut them some slack.

Here, have some randomly assorted pictures of neat things that have nothing to do with minecraft:

 

Off I go to  monkey  around on Rosetta Stone.  I've got 14 languages up to advanced level waiting in there, and by Jove that's enough to fill up the rest of my brains I bet.

Minecraft Soundtrack

*Bzzzz* goes the buzzsaw of time, slicing possible into actual and a whole lot of not.

The Minecraft Soundtrack Project has morphed! I'm now collecting tracks into a 10-track album. This is a project with limited time and resources (my own), so it will take a while. I've got 19 tracks that I want to boil down to the best 10. Want to listen?

But, how do you put music into the game?

It's a bunch of jibber-jabber, I promise, and only half-worth it for this file.   Instead, you can play the file using winamp, WMP, or whatever you use for playing music.  If you still want to drop it into Minecraft, here's the short tutorial:

1.  Find your minecraft directory (see the start of this thread)
2.  In the "resources" directory you will find all the sounds from minecraft.
3.  Convert them to "ogg vorbis" format and replace them with the sounds you like.

Bored Yet?

How about a giant Minecraft avatar to smack against your retinas!

DERP!

Still with me?  Cool.

A small update on my own little Minecraft projects:  I've made some headway with the sculpture.  I've uncovered enough to carve the head, and realize I need more room.  I don't want my dude to end up looking like this dude:

"W T F"

Here's what I've got so far, from a couple angles:

Looking down from the entrance toward the statue

Looking from the statue toward the entrance.

I've got a long way to go, but my method is to spend around the same time the soundtrack takes to play (45 minutes) each day.  It's gone well so far, as I have over 34,000 bricks of various types stashed in storage, from this dig alone.

On a related note, PC Gamer released this playful jest of a cover recently.  The Minecraft mob lit their torches and demanded it become reality.  Soon?  Perhaps.

Thanks for reading!

To build a city in Minecraft, or not (yet).

 Double-click Minecraft's dirty little desktop icon, login, and select a new - empty - world.

Load-bars flow by (wherein I imagine the sound of popcorn popping), disappearing to let a new world scroll on out past the draw distance.

Square stars spin past the horizon while you build your first castle.  Stone after stone is placed according to your plan.  Play every point in the supply and demand cycle of building.  Finish, take a month break, to let your dreams stop being pixelated.

Accidentally dream up a world instead, with cities.  Resolve to map out and build one of the cities in Minecraft.  Login, select a new - empty - world.  Stare at the expanse that a city would cover, exit, and delete that world.

Click back into the previous world, with the castle.  Dig down below it, hollow out an echoing vault, and begin to sculpt a hundred-foot tall replica of Michelangelo's "David".

Baby. Steps.  Projects are fun.

In other news, I'm almost done producing my own ambient soundtrack to Minecraft.  It will be 10 songs long, and generally try to enhance the atmosphere of building stuff from scratch.  I'll post it up when I'm done along with a tutorial about how to insert your own songs into Minecraft in my next post.  Thanks for reading!

Boom, Minecraft castles everywhere.

 The glittery holiday dust has settled, and the sidewalks are lined with Christmas Tree corpses.  I don't know how your festivities went, but I grew a beard, ate too much, and forgot about my blog.

A few announcements to kick off the new year:

1. No more complete short stories or poems will be posted on this blog.  This is really no biggie though, as the people who actually read the stories have my personal email and I will happily email you my stories if you ask.  If you don't have my email, just check my profile.  The reason for this is that most higher end publishers don't accept work even if it has only been self published on a personal blog.  To them that means "already published".  Most lower-tier publications couldn't care less, and that's my market right now, so I'm just planning ahead.

2. This blog will now be viewer-defined.  Whatever gets the most traffic will get emulated.  Repeatedly.  The most popular post by far is the one about Minecraft (it trumps all other posts combined).  Therefore, this post is an update to that one!  With pictures!  The picture at the top is taken from my finished Scottish L-Shaped Castle's balcony.  I built it in about a day total, including time to build my necessarily extensive network of mines.  Here's what she looks like from the back:

mine entrance is in the background below the white crosshair

And from the front:

Check my Causeway!

At Night:

Looking out from a top floor room with a skylight, window, and balcony:

What's next? Well, I have a concept world I created for a new story series.  I'm going to construct the main city in Minecraft.  I won't name the city or the world, but I will show progress and pictures in future updates.  Thanks for reading this update, and here's a monumental minecraft city to get you thinking about the possibilities: