This picture showed up on my Facebook page. It’s a riot. I’d love to have that under my tree! Or maybe even Christmas card?
So I got to thinking: what else is there out there? I mean, to properly inspire me for the holidays? Here’s a few for you to pass around and enjoy. I got them all of the web in many different locations, so I can’t rightly say where, exactly, these belong, except in your consciousness during this lovely holiday season.
Santa passes by his alien counterpart
Robot Elf
Even little aliens deserve a little treat from Santa, who seems a little off…
Life always has its challenges and never more so than when you and your husband decide to adopt two kids from foster care. We wanted a family, wanted to give deserving kids another chance in life, and most of all out of love. These kids needed an awful lot but perhaps the biggest challenge facing us was they were 9 and 12, to be exact. And like most things, one has to be fully committed to making positive changes in these kids’ lives, and so Andrew and I did our absolute best working hard towards doing just that.
It isn’t easy, but parenthood rarely is, but we’re brave folk and did what we could. Along the way, bits and pieces of ourselves kind of went by the wayside, as most parents find true. Fortunately, we had something to help us along. Andrew has his photography (and he’s magnificent at it) and I found fiction writing.
You see, I’ve always written. I’ve composed brochures, ad copy, web content, teacher’s guides, children’s activity books, radio scripts, flyers – you name it – and I’ve got a mountain of evidence to prove it. All of it’s either informational or cold, hard facts. No fantasy, no imaginative story lines, no arc or explosive ending. Just…information.
Two years ago, my sister Gwen and I went out to lunch. My kids were at the beach and Andrew was enjoying some precious alone time. Gwen says, “You look awful. What happened to you?”
“Parenthood, that’s what. These kids – they’re work!” (I’m leaving out a MULTITUDE of details…use your imagination)
“C’mon,” says Gwen, “You’re not the only parent out there. What’s up? You used to be so creative. You were a musician. You produced shows. You lived in New York City for 20 years! You owned an apartment in Manhattan! You ordered food over the phone and stayed out until dawn. Where did that Gretchen go?”
Truth was, I hadn’t a clue.
Gwen knows what a sci-fi fanatic and astronomy freak I am. Sat on the board of an astronomy club affiliated with the Museum of Natural History in NYC, and yes, that certain famous astrophysicist was also on the board and he’s really one of the nicest, down-to-earth people I’ve ever met. Never missed an opportunity to look up to see what’s there. Received “Sky & Telescope.” All that and more. “So this is what you do,” said Gwen. “Tap into that and come up with a story. I’ll help you.”
A few months later, Andrew went off to England to visit his family, the kids were in bed and I sat in front of the computer and stared. I tentatively placed my fingers on the keyboard and let them glide over the letters. They hit letters that turned into words. Those words turned into the roughest of outlines. Andrew came home, we went out for coffee and I told him about it. After listening to my story, he joined in. Here we were, in a java joint, flushing out finer details and possible motives. Before you know it, he became hooked, too.
Andrew’s a fanboy, so his input’s invaluable, especially when it came to world building. We both weighed in on my plot devices, creations, characters, what they were up to and the messes they found themselves in. When I got to the end, he came up with such an amazing twist, I never even considered it, but once he said it, it made perfect sense. And believe me, it’s a doozy.
Once I hashed out these ideas in prose, Gwen helped me make nice with it. She’s the MFA in creative writing, a college professor and is published by Harper Collins (see above paperback in picture, one of her collection in print). She played devil’s advocate, told me what was stupid, or good, or on its way to being good but most of all she convinced me I really did have talent and could do this.
I joined a fine writer’s group where nearly all the members are published, and at least half are bestsellers. I participate in their writer’s conference that attracts over 300 people each spring, using it to hone my craft and make connections. I’ve kept up on trends and buried myself in my office spending hours writing, or trying to. Andrew constantly sends me links on things he believes will help and Gwen keeps checking my work. Best of all, I have a circle of writer friends who keep me keeping on, encouraging me when I think I no longer have it in me. I even got a cousin of mine involved – he’s a MAJOR fanboy and he’s reading the book to see what he thinks, and my librarian friend, who read a VERY rough draft last February, is reading it once more.
Yes, folks, I’ve gotten through four rewrites, but I’ve gotten extremely favorable feedback and possibilities for it (the printout of the manuscript is also in the picture). I have to admit I’m really proud to have shaped this story, but ever grateful that I had a cheering section helping me get through it all. Along the way, I’ve learned to let my nonfiction self go (and BOY, was that hard!) and embrace sentences in quotes that weren’t grammatically correct (clue from Gwen: read your quotes out loud. Do you talk like that? No? Then don’t write it that way!) and let my brain accept the unacceptable (tip from Andrew: why not? It’s your world, after all).
I guess my last thought is this: you can’t do it alone. So don’t. And sure, you can write. Everyone has a story to tell.
Yes, I’ll admit I’m a geek. I married one, too. So of course we felt it necessary to see “Interstellar.” We read up on it, exchanged speculations on the theories behind it, compared different viewpoints, opinions, reviews, all of that. After all of this effort, a sensible decision was cast to go and see it, already.
So last night, after first ducking into Target to purchase some chocolates to stick into our pockets so we wouldn’t have to pay the ridiculous price of $4.oo for a $1.oo candy bar, we went. It was great to go into a theatre filled with our kinds of people, equally geeky and completely silent during the showing, with only the rare murmur of approval over a spectacular scene.
Naturally, we weren’t disappointed. Both of us loved it and spent the ride home discussing it. And I could go on about this, that or the other thing regarding the vagaries of space-time travel and the physics behind it.
Why would I? You know all that anyway.
What got me were the small touches, the little hints of things to come and viewpoints either behind the characters or the writers who invented them. First on my list were the books on the shelves in Murph’s bedroom. How many of you took a good look at them? Here’s two that caught my immediate attention: “The Stand” and “Outlander.”
“Outlander” caught my eye because Diana Gabaldon wrote this book regarding a portal that transports a woman through time, and Stephen King’s “The Stand” because the human race is nearly killed off in that one. Both of those elements were the story in “Interstellar.”
Actually, books do figure prominently in the movie. Take, for example, the school district’s reliance on “corrected versions” of history. The moonwalk was all propaganda to economically bankrupt the Soviet Union. After all, the Soviets never made it to the moon, so that propaganda campaign must have worked. Yet Murph refuses to believe it all and listens to her father, who reinforces the truth.
All that talk about chemical compositions and how it affects environments and circumstances also gave me the goosies. The way how too much nitrogen in an atmosphere isn’t ideal or any atmosphere’s makeup is so sensitive to various forms of life made me smile.
But really, when you get right down to it, the use of time as a resource and element defined the film. Everything from the father Cooper as a younger man visiting his daughter Cooper as she lay dying, much older than he (all right, how many of you also knew that was Ellen Burstyn?), to the astronaut left behind for 23 years when Brand and Cooper seemed to be gone only minutes? Or the gradual shift of Earth from viable to slowly dying, which seemed to take both an interminable and finite amount of time?
I could go on about many, many more things about why we enjoyed “Interstellar” so much, but that would take time, so if you haven’t seen it, take the time and go!
It’s November here in the United States, specifically in New York State. Nothing’s weirder here than the weather this time of year. I’d like to illustrate this point with the following picture:
This was my house last Friday. On first glance, it would appear to be a pleasant scene, just a hint of snow to make things pretty. Upon further inspection, however, the Japanese maple wasn’t through with its leaves. Sure, there’s a neat circle of leaves on top of the snow, creating an artistic touch, but honestly, if the tree had its way, it’d rather let this season pass without having to worry about the next one butting in. “Say, wait,” the Japanese maple thinks, “this is my season – fall – and I’m not finished dumping my leaves just yet. Winter, BACK OFF!”
Yesterday, I arrived at work. My place of employment is next to a river that cuts through a mountain ridge. It’s my practice to check out the river after I park my car. It’s pretty, so it gives me a positive note upon which to begin my day. This is what I saw:
At first glance, I’m thinking this is kind of weird. Is this an alien message? Not quite a corn crop circle, but indeed some sort of symbol. Check it out: it’s a clearly-defined crescent, or even a “C”. Could it even be some sort of map? Within the shape, there’s a few distinct islands floating. Maybe this is a harbor or a bay, and those little shapes floating within could depict landing places, or locals/islands where pickup/dropoffs are designated. Or perhaps someone/thing with a name beginning with “C” is supposed to do a task? Could this be a sign from up and out there, calling for immediate response?
Sure, the rational part of me’s thinking it’s just an eddy and that’s how the water’s flowing as it slowly freezes. But one never knows the messages lying beneath the forces of nature…
I, along with everyone else who keeps their eyes on these things, shouted a big hoot of delight this morning when I saw Philae Lander put on a real showstopper of a landing on a duck-shaped comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko just after 11:00 am, EST in the USA. Released from Rosetta, it marked a real victory for a huge gamble that will reap large rewards for anyone who’s interested in the miracles of our solar system. I’m sorry, but I’m at a loss for words to describe what an amazing accomplishment this for the ESA, for science, and for our futures, so excuse the sap.
The New York Timesposted a series of tweets that a very excited Philae, who couldn’t wait to touch down on the surface of 7P/C-G after journeying ten years to get there (do you blame it?). The newspaper also has a series of incredible photos that document the comet as detail its landing place.
What makes this such a special event?
Landing on a relatively small target from a great distance notwithstanding, it’s ESA’s and the world’s first opportunity to scientifically examine, up close, just exactly how a comet operates, what it sees, where it goes and what it does for a living. The pictures indicate that its shape isn’t anything to brag about, but again, it’s the first time anyone has ever set foot on such a heavenly object and it’s a premiere learning experience for all. NASA has also contributed three instruments to the lander mission, so what makes this even better its international, offworld educational opportunity.
Philae’s got a big job ahead of it. With only 64 battery hours to get through its tasks initially, it will depend upon solar batteries to provide it with power until March. That, and it has an awful lot of tweets to send us to let us know how it’s doing!
Saturday’s tragic crash of Virgin Galactic’s space plan over the Mojave Desert was inevitable. Two highly regarded pilots subjected a new technology to a test that partially failed. I say “partially” because the launch plane lived to see another day, while the space-skimming component didn’t.
As horrific as it must have been to watch the crash, again, I say, all knew it was a definite possibility. Anyone who flirts with the impossible does. Is it wrong to test fate? Certainly not. It’s expected. Demanded, even, if humankind’s going to stretch its limits to infinite levels.
Long before the days of Icarus, the absence of wings from the human anatomy led the drive to create the next best thing. Someone’s always thought up of a way to fly without success, but it wasn’t until November 1783 that two French citizens, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes, took flight in a hot air balloon created in 1782 by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier. That’s when the earthbound soul could gaze upon the world in an entirely new perspective.
For the next 100+ years, serious study involving the physics of lift and sustained flight occurred. Notably, Sir George Caley’s work led to the first manned, controllable glider capable of sustained flight in 1853. Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, important research and experimentation regarding steam-propelled flight occurred. In 1874 Félix du Temple created an aluminum plane with a 13-meter wingspan. After launching from a ramp under steam power, it remained airborne for a short but significant hop, causing it to be the first hop achieved powered by an engine. In 1875 Thomas Moy set into flight an tandem-winged monoplane dubbed “The Aerial Steamer.” Alexander Mozhaiski, a Russian, built a steam-powered monoplane and in 1884, managed to launch it from a ramp and it remained aloft for 98 feet.
Each of these experiments edged pilots closer to their goal of sustained flight with the use of power to achieve it. Here’s where the controversy comes in. Gustave Whitehead fans know for sure it was he who took to the air on August 14, 1901 in Fairfield, Connecticut and stayed there using his Number 21 Monoplane. It was an event reported in the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. In January 1903 he claimed to repeat his feat two more times. Even Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft stated in 2013 Whitehead was first.
On the other hand, the Smithsonian Institution is sticking to its guns saying that the Wright Brothers, using their unstable, nearly unmanageable aircraft, took flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. Each brother had his turn, with Orville flying 120 feet in 12 seconds, and Wilbur beating his brother by going 852 feet in 59 seconds.
All these contributions were significant. In ten years’ time, flying machines progressed to such a level they became not instruments of how humans can soar with the birds, but shoot them down like game. World War I pilots became famous and infamous, as their canvas and wood planes were capable of killing not just the enemy, but anyone who was brave enough to fly them.
After the war, flight technology progressed rapidly. Aviators pushed the limits as quickly as the engineers who built the planes they flew. Charles Lindbergh was the first to cross the Atlantic without stopping, and Charles Kingford-Smith was the first to cross the Pacific uninterrupted. In 1924 the first aerial circumnavigation was conducted by the United States Army Air Service using a team of pilots.
Of course we all know what came next. World War II brought on unparalleled use of planes as weapons, with the first jet coming from Germany at the end of the war. That led to a combination of supersonic planes and the development of rocketry. Far more pilots died as a result of war than as a result of experimentation of new technology, but it is although through the applied usage of flight that humans have created new boundaries to serve new purposes.
Planes launched a powerless Enterprise, the first American space shuttle. Eventually, rockets got them into space. The missions also met with tragedy twice. But look what those missions gave us: a new understanding to what is possible, and what might be.
My heart goes out to the families whose members made the ultimate sacrifice for pushing the boundaries. Their contributions are not forgotten. Their deaths are not in vain, but will one day serve as an example of what can be ultimately achieved when one bravely steps out to take the ultimate risk.
Oh, come on. Surely you’ve heard of the iconic pioneering rap group Run-DMC. Well, Darryl McDaniels is DMC. Born in Harlem in 1964 and adopted at three months of age, he was raised in Hollis, Queens, where he’s still based. As a kid, he was passionately addicted to comics. Now, as a fully-fledged middle-ager, he’s make his real dream come true: his very own graphic novel.
To do this, he created the independent publishing house, Darryl Makes Comics, along with Editor-in-Chief Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and music executive Riggs Morales. Interestingly, they’re not trying to create anything new, just present the beauty of the world already here. They believe “that every walk of life has heroes and stories worth telling,” to quote their press release.
Along with his partner and collaborator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, they’re launching DMC #1 (the first cover you see above) at New York Comic-Con this month, but the rest of you will have to wait until October 29 to get your hands on a copy.
In the first DMC graphic novel, the reader visits 1985 New York City, a gritty, graffiti-covered town filled with b-boys breakdancing everywhere, and drugs and crime rule the day (I can personally attest to this; it was the year I moved to NYC and my parents were kind of worried. I found it all very interesting, on the other hand). It’s in this time and place that our superhero DMC, wearing a tracksuit and Adidas sneakers, defends the weak and powerless…and fights against rival superheros and villains, too. Darryl McDaniels, our hero, is an English teacher by day, and a superhero by night, taking care of business along with a reporter and a band of graffiti artists.
Here’s a direct quote from their press release – I’m cutting and pasting it because I want to get all of this information correct:
“The story was created by DMC and Damion Scott(Batman, Robin, Solo) with Ronald Wimberly(Vertigo/DC, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Prince of Cats) serving as creative consultant to develop the script. Each chapter is visualized by different teams of artists, including Chase Conley(Black Dynamite), Jeff Stokely (Six-Gun Gorilla, The Reason for Dragons),Felipe Smith(Peepo Choo, Ghost Rider), Mike & Mark Davis the Mad Twiinz(Black Dynamite, The Boondocks), Shawn Crystal(Arkham Manor), and colorist Chris Sotomayor, not to mention cover art from industry legends Sal Buscema and Bob Wick and graffiti pioneer MARE 139 (Style Wars).”
I’ve known about this for a long time, and should have written about it long ago, but as most things go, I forget, run out of time or life gets in the way, as it often does. But my husband Andrew reminded me of this and sent me a link, and that’s what got me poking around this topic once more.
“Star Trek” and I go back a long way. My brother and mom used to watch it when I was a mere speck of a kid, and then by the time I got to college I pretty much knew all the episodes by heart. My friend Linda did me one better. She memorized all of the credits. That in itself’s pretty impressive, considering that’s an awful lot of information to plaster within one’s head.
Anyway, back to the topic.
“Star Trek Continues” is a perfect example of allowing passion to guide you to success. I don’t know what’s more fascinating: the fact that the original Star Trek is continuing or the cast and crew that pulls out all of the stops to pull it off. It’s a fan-created web series with serious street cred. Make no mistake: it’s about a professional as anything that comes out of Hollywood. Each episode is faithful to the spirit of the original 1960s series in every way: storytelling, sets, costumes, music and more. After watching an episode, you’ll be convinced that the old set found new life. And in a way, it did.
How about the cast?
Let’s start with Vic Mignogna – that’s James T. Kirk, to you and me. Yes, he’s not only the star, but the director, writer and one of the producers. He’s a also a voice actor and musician, too.
The rest of the gang’s all there, too. Tod Haberkorn is Spock, Larry Nemecek/Chuck Huber is Dr. “Bones” McCoy, Chris Doohan is Scotty (and what better person to play the part – his Dad is actually James Doohan, the original!), Kim Singer as Uhura, Wyatt Lenhart as Pavel Checkov, and Grant Imahara as Sulu (who’s also known to blow up things on the show “Mythbusters”).
For added sparkle, various “Star Trek” cast members put in appearances in “STC.” Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis haven’t yet played their original roles, but they do show up as computer voices.
For those of you who weren’t awake, aware or available, there was a full eclipse of the moon last night. Now, I’m also one of those who, for various reasons, wasn’t able to cast my eyes skyward and catch the moon at its best. Sometimes the moon just doesn’t seem to take into consideration that many of us are located on the wrong side of the globe (or clock) to be able to glimpse at the glowing red orb up in the nighttime sky.
If ever anyone wanted to be an astronomer and didn’t have the time, patience or ability to go to school for astrophysics, yet wanted to partake of the universe in an engaging and useful way, then Slooh is for you. It’s a membership organization and it isn’t cheap, but anyone will have access to high-powered telescopes in the Canary Island and Chile, plus get in on a myriad of missions. The universe is literally at your desktop.
As a participant, one also joins a community of like-minded individuals who cast their eyes skyward share what they observe. Also, one gets in on all kinds of neat stuff that NASA offers, too. In fact, Slooh engages NASA and a community of citizen astronomers to help with its near Earth asteroid project. So if you see something, you can say something!
I’ve included the below link for those how want to experience the eclipse and/or get a taste of what Slooh can do for you. Enjoy!
Here’s one of the creepiest videos I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a work in progress by Australian artist Chris Jones. It’s a fascinating study on how to reproduce a human without being human at all. Visit the link to his website and you’ll be fascinated at all of the work that’s involved in creating such a realistic life form.
To me, it’s a game changer…and might even change some of those video games we all think are so real…
Moon, Stars and Beyond 