Given the events at Japan's Fukushima reactor, many folks, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have said that we need to take a step back and reconsider the entire question of nuclear power. I intend to offer a contrary view--rather than slowing things down, we need to speed things up.
The problems at Fukushima occurred because the earthquake and tsunami knocked out the backup electrical generators needed to cool the reactors (when they can't provide their own electricity for cooling), which led to the partial meltdown. This is because the reactors used need electricity to cool the reactor, even after it has been shut down. Because the generators were down, the reactors could not be cooled, and hence the partial meltdown. The reactors at Fukushima use an older design of the Boiling Water Reactor. Newer designs use a passive cooling system, which can cool the reactor even without electric energy. However, most plants, both in Japan and the US, use the older design.
If we decide that the current design is unsafe, we have several options. One is to mothball the current plants and replace them with something new. The problem is that the only thing we can replace them with, that has the same energy output and baseload capacity, is coal. For all the hype, energy sources such as wind and solar don't have the ability to match current needs. Much more likely what will happen is that the current plants will continue to operate, but will not be allowed to expand, and new plants will be put on hold. The problem is that these plants will continue to use the older reactors, which are just as vulnerable as the Fukushima plant. And as they age without being replaced, they will just become more vulnerable.
I think the smartest move, if we believe that the vulnerability to earthquakes is a problem that must be solved, is to streamline the process for getting the new designs approved, and to push plants towards upgrading to the new reactor designs while making it easier for them to do so. This would allow the older reactors to be phased out while maintaining capacity.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Storyblogging Carnival CXVII
Welcome to the 117th Storyblogging Carnival.We had to skip a month, since we were short on entries. Unfortunately, we still only have three, but I felt that I should at least put up the ones I've received.
A Limerick Affair
by Madelein Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
An under 75 word brief story rated R.
The tale of a cheating spouse in limerick form.
The Virgin Wife Chronicles
by Andrea DiGiovanni of Living Out Loud
An 1:18 minute video trailer rated PG.
The Virgin Wife Chronicles is an inspirational online serial where I share my journey through an unconsummated marriage.
The Confidant of Jericho
by Tim King of J. Timothy King's Stories
A 980 word brief story rated PG.
From the moment they appeared at my door, I knew the two men weren’t from around here... I try to be careful about making mistakes... (An historical short-short, based on the story of Rahab of Jericho.)
This concludes the one hundred and seventeenth Storyblogging Carnival.
Other carnivals can be found here.
The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.
A Limerick Affair
by Madelein Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
An under 75 word brief story rated R.
The tale of a cheating spouse in limerick form.
The Virgin Wife Chronicles
by Andrea DiGiovanni of Living Out Loud
An 1:18 minute video trailer rated PG.
The Virgin Wife Chronicles is an inspirational online serial where I share my journey through an unconsummated marriage.
The Confidant of Jericho
by Tim King of J. Timothy King's Stories
A 980 word brief story rated PG.
From the moment they appeared at my door, I knew the two men weren’t from around here... I try to be careful about making mistakes... (An historical short-short, based on the story of Rahab of Jericho.)
This concludes the one hundred and seventeenth Storyblogging Carnival.
Other carnivals can be found here.
The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Storyblogging Carnival Cancelled
I'm afraid I didn't get enough entries for a Storyblogging Carnival this month. We'll try again in March.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Storyblogging Carnival delayed
I hate to do this, but I don't have enough entries to do a Storyblogging Carnival. If I get enough within the next week, I'll post the carnival then. If not, then I'll cancel this month's carnival and save any entries I have for next time.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Superspeed
I've been writing a Weird Western story, and as a result, thinking a bit about superspeed (as it's an ability I want some of my characters to have).
The idea of how superspeed works, at least in my story, is not that the flow of time really changes, but that you are operating at such a high speed (including your mind and your muscles), that everything else seems to be going slower. Now, this being the case, gravity seems to slow down. Let's say a wagon goes off a cliff. If you're moving at superspeed, it seems to take a long time to fall. If you're sitting on it, it still seems to take a long time to fall. If you and the wagon become separated, you still take a long time to fall. So from your perspective, gravity seems to be slower. So when you move, do you move as if you're in a low gravity environment, with long leaping strides?
Now at issue is the fact that the forces of the universe haven't really changed. Gravity isn't any weaker. So if you move as if you're in a low gravity environment, then you're not just faster, you're stronger too, such that your leaps carry you a great deal farther and higher. Higher strength, however, is one of the prerequisites of superspeed in the first place. The extreme acceleration of superspeed means you need to produce that much more force. So if you have the strength to move at superspeed, then gravity should seem weaker.
One question is whether I should deal with speed and strength as separate powers. Technically, my story already has a Mark of Speed and a Mark of Strength, I've just been considering superspeed as coming from the Mark of Speed, and dealing with the Mark of Strength as a separate matter, not that you need the Mark of Strength to make use of the Mark of Speed.
Now, there are some disadvantages to moving at superspeed. First, there's a lack of control. You've seen how people on the moon move about. Their long leaps don't exactly give them a lot of coordination. And when you're in the middle of a jump, you have very little control at all until you reach something, be it the ground or a wall. Second, things don't operate how you think they should. You pull a trigger on a gun, and it's going to take a while to fire. Let's assume that no matter how fast you're going, you're still much slower than the speed of the bullet (and the detonation that produces it). You still have to wait an interminable time for the hammer to fall. And while you're proportionally stronger so you can pull the trigger and activate the mechanism faster, how well will the mechanism stand up to the wear and tear?
Thinking about these things is what I've been doing tonight instead of actually writing.
The idea of how superspeed works, at least in my story, is not that the flow of time really changes, but that you are operating at such a high speed (including your mind and your muscles), that everything else seems to be going slower. Now, this being the case, gravity seems to slow down. Let's say a wagon goes off a cliff. If you're moving at superspeed, it seems to take a long time to fall. If you're sitting on it, it still seems to take a long time to fall. If you and the wagon become separated, you still take a long time to fall. So from your perspective, gravity seems to be slower. So when you move, do you move as if you're in a low gravity environment, with long leaping strides?
Now at issue is the fact that the forces of the universe haven't really changed. Gravity isn't any weaker. So if you move as if you're in a low gravity environment, then you're not just faster, you're stronger too, such that your leaps carry you a great deal farther and higher. Higher strength, however, is one of the prerequisites of superspeed in the first place. The extreme acceleration of superspeed means you need to produce that much more force. So if you have the strength to move at superspeed, then gravity should seem weaker.
One question is whether I should deal with speed and strength as separate powers. Technically, my story already has a Mark of Speed and a Mark of Strength, I've just been considering superspeed as coming from the Mark of Speed, and dealing with the Mark of Strength as a separate matter, not that you need the Mark of Strength to make use of the Mark of Speed.
Now, there are some disadvantages to moving at superspeed. First, there's a lack of control. You've seen how people on the moon move about. Their long leaps don't exactly give them a lot of coordination. And when you're in the middle of a jump, you have very little control at all until you reach something, be it the ground or a wall. Second, things don't operate how you think they should. You pull a trigger on a gun, and it's going to take a while to fire. Let's assume that no matter how fast you're going, you're still much slower than the speed of the bullet (and the detonation that produces it). You still have to wait an interminable time for the hammer to fall. And while you're proportionally stronger so you can pull the trigger and activate the mechanism faster, how well will the mechanism stand up to the wear and tear?
Thinking about these things is what I've been doing tonight instead of actually writing.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Fixing the Academic Job Market
Sometimes, you read about solution so novel, you just can't wait to see it tried. This was presented by Jeffrey J. Williams in Inside Higher Ed (hat tip TaxProf Blog):
Academe is in crisis. Young academics have been left out in the cold: according to American Association of University Professors (AAUP) statistics, only about 25 percent of new Ph.D.s find full-time, permanent jobs. We are wasting the talent of a generation.This gives whole new meaning to the term forced retirement.
...
Therefore, the best recourse is to solve the problem ourselves, taking matters into our own hands, as it were. To that end, I have recently founded an organization, Academic Opportunities Unlimited (AOU). Our motto is “We can’t guarantee you’ll get the job, but we can guarantee an opening.”
AOU is elegant in its simplicity, rebalancing an artificially skewed market. One of the effects of the job crisis is an aging professoriate. Since the 1970s, the scales have tipped heavily AARP-ward: while only 17 percent of faculty were 50 or over in 1969, a bloated 52% had crossed that divide by 1998. It is no doubt worse now, and strangling the air supply of potential new professors.
AOU would work to remedy this bias against youth. It would, through a rigorous screening process, pinpoint faculty who are clogging positions and select them for hits, or “extra-academic retirement” (EAR). While this might raise qualms from the more liberal-minded among us, we would argue that it is more humane, both to potential faculty who otherwise have been shunted aside and to those languishing in the holding pattern of a withered career, than our current system. The retirement would be efficient and quick, and strictly limited to those who, as the saying goes, have their best years long behind them.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A Marriage Bed
I bought a bed yesterday. Or at least a mattress and box spring. This is a product of two circumstances:
Which worked until it sprung a leak on Thursday. Exactly how that happened I'm still not certain, but I lay on it Thursday night, and woke up lying on the aforementioned wooden slats, with the remaining air in the mattress surrounding, rather than beneath, my body.
So I needed a new mattress fast. Rather than going out and buying one (or ordering it on Amazon for overnight delivery), I talked to Kristin first. Kristin's my fiancée, and we had been talking about buying a new bed when we got married. She was not impressed with my air mattress, and her own bed is kind of small and creaky. So we used this as an impetus to get a new bed--or the mattress and box spring, as I mentioned earlier. Said items were installed on top of the futon frame for the moment (an actual bed may have to wait until we have an actual apartment), to produce this:
Which is just a little bit tall for a bed, roughly as high as my stomach. Apparently the mattress + box spring combination would work better on a bed frame somewhat lower than the futon frame.
Update: For reasons I haven't figured out yet, a whole lot more carriage returns were included in this post than I put there when I hit the publish button. I've deleted them, but we'll see if they come back.
- I am getting married in May.
- My old bed breathed its last.
Which worked until it sprung a leak on Thursday. Exactly how that happened I'm still not certain, but I lay on it Thursday night, and woke up lying on the aforementioned wooden slats, with the remaining air in the mattress surrounding, rather than beneath, my body.
So I needed a new mattress fast. Rather than going out and buying one (or ordering it on Amazon for overnight delivery), I talked to Kristin first. Kristin's my fiancée, and we had been talking about buying a new bed when we got married. She was not impressed with my air mattress, and her own bed is kind of small and creaky. So we used this as an impetus to get a new bed--or the mattress and box spring, as I mentioned earlier. Said items were installed on top of the futon frame for the moment (an actual bed may have to wait until we have an actual apartment), to produce this:
Which is just a little bit tall for a bed, roughly as high as my stomach. Apparently the mattress + box spring combination would work better on a bed frame somewhat lower than the futon frame.
Update: For reasons I haven't figured out yet, a whole lot more carriage returns were included in this post than I put there when I hit the publish button. I've deleted them, but we'll see if they come back.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Upcoming Storyblogging Carnival
The next Storyblogging Carnival will go up on Monday, February 7th. If you use your
blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your
opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog
format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at
some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.
If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:
If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:
- Name of your blog
- URL of your blog
- Title of the story
- URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
- (OPTIONAL) Author's name
- (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
- A word count
- A short blurb describing the story
- The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
- The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
- You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
- If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
- The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
- The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Doc Rampage on Kant
It's been a while since I linked to Doc Rampage, but he's had some interesting things to say recently. I especially like his two posts on Immanuel Kant and irrationality. Here's a tiny piece, from the first one:
Update: Doc made an update to correct for a mistake for a misreading. I don't think it makes a huge difference to his interpretation, though.
Kant is not saying what the a simple reading of this sentence suggests: that he has to ignore the facts because they make it hard to believe in God. The reasoning that Kant is referring to is not reasoning that tries to show the non-existence of God --he is referring to reasoning that tries to show the existence of God.As they say, read the whole thing.
In Kant's time, there was a common belief that reasoning could be used to prove all truths, including the existence of God. There were various "proofs" of the existence of God considered persuasive by influential thinkers. Although there were some who didn't buy any of the proofs that they had heard, it was widely believed that the question of God's existence could be settled, one way or another, by logical proof. Kant rejected this idea.
What Kant is saying in that quote is that since reason can never, even in principle, prove the existence of God we should give up the attempt and rely instead on "faith", by which he means another way of arriving at the knowledge of God.
More generally, Kant argued that we have different ways of arriving at different kinds of knowledge. There is no single faculty that is the ultimate source of all knowledge. This is in contrast to a very popular view in his day (associated with Descartes) that pure reason was the ultimate arbitrator of knowledge. In fact the title of the book that contains this out-of-context quote is "A Critique of Pure Reason"
Update: Doc made an update to correct for a mistake for a misreading. I don't think it makes a huge difference to his interpretation, though.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Fortune Cookies
Kristin and I had lunch at a Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant with a friend of ours, Rene, today. Rene got a fun fortune cookie:
My fortune cookie, by contrast, was kind of creepy:
I think that the best fortune I've ever seen wasn't one I got, but a friend of mine did one time when we were out together. It said:
Keep your courage up and it will keep you up.Which is kind of bland unless you play the "In bed" game--that's where you add the words "in bed" at the end of your fortune cookie.
My fortune cookie, by contrast, was kind of creepy:
The thing in us that we fear just wants our love.Adding "in bed" doesn't exactly improve it.
I think that the best fortune I've ever seen wasn't one I got, but a friend of mine did one time when we were out together. It said:
Kiss the person next to you.She declined to follow its advice, hopefully not because I was the one sitting next to her.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Storyblogging Carnival CXVI
Welcome to the 116th Storyblogging Carnival. Once again I'm late, which is a shame, since there are some new contributors this time.
Not a limerick
by Stu Savory of Eunoia
An under 100 word brief story rated PG.
A video reading of a short poem.
Who Needs A Door, Anyway?
by Madelein Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
An under 150 word brief story rated PG.
A blizzard creates an unusual predicament for my husband and me
Dynastic Ambitions
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 200 word brief story rated PG.
Examining the dynastic ambitions of Reginald Tweedsmuire, and why they will not be realized.
Grandma's Zipper by Jessica S. of Literary Journey of a Freelance Writer
An 700 word brief story rated PG.
The tale of a new town and a puppy.
Clark in Florida
by Stu Savory of Eunoia
An 1,300 word short story rated PG.
Mr. Inept makes a humorous insurance claim.
The Emperor's Edge Ebook Excerpt
by Lindsay Buroker of E-book Endeavors
A 1,695 word excerpt from a novel rated PG-13.
An excerpt from my fantasy adventure novel: The Emperor's Edge.
This concludes the one hundred and sixteenth Storyblogging Carnival.
If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.
The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.
Not a limerick
by Stu Savory of Eunoia
An under 100 word brief story rated PG.
A video reading of a short poem.
Who Needs A Door, Anyway?
by Madelein Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
An under 150 word brief story rated PG.
A blizzard creates an unusual predicament for my husband and me
Dynastic Ambitions
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 200 word brief story rated PG.
Examining the dynastic ambitions of Reginald Tweedsmuire, and why they will not be realized.
Grandma's Zipper by Jessica S. of Literary Journey of a Freelance Writer
An 700 word brief story rated PG.
The tale of a new town and a puppy.
Clark in Florida
by Stu Savory of Eunoia
An 1,300 word short story rated PG.
Mr. Inept makes a humorous insurance claim.
The Emperor's Edge Ebook Excerpt
by Lindsay Buroker of E-book Endeavors
A 1,695 word excerpt from a novel rated PG-13.
An excerpt from my fantasy adventure novel: The Emperor's Edge.
This concludes the one hundred and sixteenth Storyblogging Carnival.
If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.
The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.
Friday, January 07, 2011
The four revision process
I used to have a three revision process for all my stories, which I know I posted about before, but I think the post got lost in the move back. Since I've joined a writer's group, that's expanded to include an extra revision. Let me describe briefly how I do it.
Rough draft - This isn't really a revision, but it is where the process starts. The rough draft is what I write when I have a story to tell, and thus I tend to rush from beginning to end to get there. Thus I will sometimes skimp on the details, avoid getting bogged down in things I ought to research, and even just leave out scenes I'm not eager to write. I tend to leave notes to myself in these so I can come back and fix these issues later.
First revision - In the first revision, I fill in the gaps of the rough draft, correct the obvious mistakes, whether in plot, character, or style (or grammar!). After this revision, I show it to my writing group.
Writer's Group - This isn't a revision for me, per se. Rather, it's a meeting where some fellow writers come together and critique my work. Generally, when they do their job well, I can find out what works and what doesn't, and they'll give me back my story with lots of comments in the margins.
Second revision - This is the revision where I go through the comments made by my writer's group and incorporate them in the story, as best I can. Sometimes I'll disagree with the device, and sometimes different people will give flat out contradictory advice, and sometimes I'll see what they want but just can't figure out a way to do it. Regardless, after this revision, I should have a much better version of the story.
Third revision - This is the hardest revision. This is where I print the story out and read the story aloud, all the way through, making corrections as I find issues. Generally, this means there's a lot of red ink on the page by the end of the day. Then, of course, I take the hard copy to a computer and rework the story so it conforms to my notes.
Fourth revision - This is the final revision, where I go over the story one last time, polishing it up, and correcting issues the previous revisions either failed to correct or created.
It may sound like a lengthy process, but even at this point, it's not really done. Oh, I'll format it and submit it to some places, but as the rejections come back, I'll make revisions based on what they say. Or, when I'm lucky, as editors request revisions. Or as new ideas present themselves. Ultimately, the story is only really done once it's published.
Rough draft - This isn't really a revision, but it is where the process starts. The rough draft is what I write when I have a story to tell, and thus I tend to rush from beginning to end to get there. Thus I will sometimes skimp on the details, avoid getting bogged down in things I ought to research, and even just leave out scenes I'm not eager to write. I tend to leave notes to myself in these so I can come back and fix these issues later.
First revision - In the first revision, I fill in the gaps of the rough draft, correct the obvious mistakes, whether in plot, character, or style (or grammar!). After this revision, I show it to my writing group.
Writer's Group - This isn't a revision for me, per se. Rather, it's a meeting where some fellow writers come together and critique my work. Generally, when they do their job well, I can find out what works and what doesn't, and they'll give me back my story with lots of comments in the margins.
Second revision - This is the revision where I go through the comments made by my writer's group and incorporate them in the story, as best I can. Sometimes I'll disagree with the device, and sometimes different people will give flat out contradictory advice, and sometimes I'll see what they want but just can't figure out a way to do it. Regardless, after this revision, I should have a much better version of the story.
Third revision - This is the hardest revision. This is where I print the story out and read the story aloud, all the way through, making corrections as I find issues. Generally, this means there's a lot of red ink on the page by the end of the day. Then, of course, I take the hard copy to a computer and rework the story so it conforms to my notes.
Fourth revision - This is the final revision, where I go over the story one last time, polishing it up, and correcting issues the previous revisions either failed to correct or created.
It may sound like a lengthy process, but even at this point, it's not really done. Oh, I'll format it and submit it to some places, but as the rejections come back, I'll make revisions based on what they say. Or, when I'm lucky, as editors request revisions. Or as new ideas present themselves. Ultimately, the story is only really done once it's published.
Monday, January 03, 2011
New Year's Resolutions
I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. That said, I do have a couple of goals for the year. These are:
- Get married. Okay, there's not much doubt about this one, but I figured I should put it out there, especially since my fiancee told me it was her New Year's Resolution for the year.
- Find an agent. I've been looking for one already, but I figure now's the time to put more effort into it.
- Get back to regular exercise. I've managed this in the past, and I'd like to do it again.
- Write regularly. I've been doing okay with this, but I'd like to do even better.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Year in Review
This has less to do with newsworthy events, and more to do with my personal life. You may or may not be interested.
I don't usually post a lot on my personal life, so a whole year can go by with very little blogging on life events. Then I decide to do a year-end wrap-up, and I end up having a ton of stuff to share. So, let's begin.
January - I began the year by moving into a new apartment, in a very nice old house in Medford. For the first time in a long while, I had roommates again. That proved to be a challenge. I also received payment for a story sale to Black Gate. That was very exciting--and still is.
February - Valentine's day, and the first time I actually had a date for Valentine's day. That made it much more fun. Valentine's day is also the anniversary for this blog, which should tell you all you need to know about my love life pre-Kristin. This month I also attended Boskone, my third ever writer's conference. Sadly, however, this was also the month in which our small group died.
March - In March, I sent my new story to John O'Neill at Black Gate, a requested sequel to my previous sale. I'm still waiting for a response. Kristin also had her birthday party this month. It was a good time for all.
April - While I'm certain things happened in April, I can't for the life of me remember what they were.
May - In May, Kristin started her own blog. In addition to adding her own brand of bloggy goodness to the blogosphere, she also tends to write about more personal stuff than I do, so I now have a reference to figure out what I was doing each month. So, let's see . . . Kristin and I took a lesson in Medieval sword fighting (which we registered for at Boskone), we went for a hiking trip, and we went to New Hampshire for a writing retreat. This was a weekend trip where we stayed in a cabin and spent most of our spare time in separate rooms writing. So, a very romantic weekend. (I wrote over 2,500 words each day.)
June - In June, I had to move again. Our landlords decided they wanted to renovate the house and rent it to a family rather than a bunch of individuals, so they wouldn't be renewing our leases. I had only opted for a six month lease. Fortunately, Kristin's house had an opening in the upper apartment (her house is divided into two apartments, one on the bottom two floors, and one on the top two floors). I took the room, and now we live in the same building. Also this month was my 36th birthday.
July - In July, Kristin and I both attended the Readercon writer's conference. It was fun. At this conference last year is when we decided to start dating, so it was also our anniversary, of a sort. Kristin and I also went camping, with a dose of hiking added in.
August - This month, Kristin and I went backpacking (this, for those who don't know, is camping where you carry all of your equipment on your back, usually up a mountain). All the previous camping/hiking trips were supposed to build to this, but we still weren't really prepared for it. Backpacking is hard work (and renting camping equipment is expensive).
September - This was Kristin's and my longest trip together this year, beginning with a wedding of one of Kristin's friends in Texas, then a road trip to visit my parents in Louisiana. It was good to see them, but my allergies were pretty miserable. During this time we went to Baton Rouge, Avery Island (where Tabasco is made), and Rosedown plantation (in St. Francisville). We saw my parents, sisters, nieces, and brother-in-law to be.
October - This month we visited Montreal, where we stayed with Kristin's friend Rene (my friend too, now). We also went to the World Fantasy Convention. While the other conventions we've attended together are small and local, this is a big one. I met John O'Neill and the rest of the Black Gate crew, and took part in a reading they had. This was the first reading I ever gave, and it was pretty monotone, but otherwise went well.
November - For Thanksgiving this year, Kristin did the cooking. I helped. It was pretty intense, really, but we then had Kristin's friend Bob over, and had a nice time.
December - In December, Kristin and I cooked a Roman meal together. That was a lot of fun, although the ingredients weren't exactly easy to find. We also visited Kristin's family in Nova Scotia for the second year in a row.
You've probably noticed that Kristin appears in this post an awful lot--so much so that you'd be forgiven for thinking that my life revolves around her. Well, that's for a couple of reasons. First, I've been using her blog to remind me of everything that happened this past year, so I've had an easier time remembering events in which she took part. Second, anything that's fun to do is more fun to do together, so I haven't done a lot of solo outings. Kristin also tends to be more interested in traveling than I am, so she was the instigator for most of it. Finally, well, there's some truth in your thinking. Kristin's a very important part of my life. That's the sort of thing you should do something about, so I did. On Christmas Eve I asked Kristin to marry me. She said yes.
And on that note, I'll wish you all a happy new year.
I don't usually post a lot on my personal life, so a whole year can go by with very little blogging on life events. Then I decide to do a year-end wrap-up, and I end up having a ton of stuff to share. So, let's begin.
January - I began the year by moving into a new apartment, in a very nice old house in Medford. For the first time in a long while, I had roommates again. That proved to be a challenge. I also received payment for a story sale to Black Gate. That was very exciting--and still is.
February - Valentine's day, and the first time I actually had a date for Valentine's day. That made it much more fun. Valentine's day is also the anniversary for this blog, which should tell you all you need to know about my love life pre-Kristin. This month I also attended Boskone, my third ever writer's conference. Sadly, however, this was also the month in which our small group died.
March - In March, I sent my new story to John O'Neill at Black Gate, a requested sequel to my previous sale. I'm still waiting for a response. Kristin also had her birthday party this month. It was a good time for all.
April - While I'm certain things happened in April, I can't for the life of me remember what they were.
May - In May, Kristin started her own blog. In addition to adding her own brand of bloggy goodness to the blogosphere, she also tends to write about more personal stuff than I do, so I now have a reference to figure out what I was doing each month. So, let's see . . . Kristin and I took a lesson in Medieval sword fighting (which we registered for at Boskone), we went for a hiking trip, and we went to New Hampshire for a writing retreat. This was a weekend trip where we stayed in a cabin and spent most of our spare time in separate rooms writing. So, a very romantic weekend. (I wrote over 2,500 words each day.)
June - In June, I had to move again. Our landlords decided they wanted to renovate the house and rent it to a family rather than a bunch of individuals, so they wouldn't be renewing our leases. I had only opted for a six month lease. Fortunately, Kristin's house had an opening in the upper apartment (her house is divided into two apartments, one on the bottom two floors, and one on the top two floors). I took the room, and now we live in the same building. Also this month was my 36th birthday.
July - In July, Kristin and I both attended the Readercon writer's conference. It was fun. At this conference last year is when we decided to start dating, so it was also our anniversary, of a sort. Kristin and I also went camping, with a dose of hiking added in.
August - This month, Kristin and I went backpacking (this, for those who don't know, is camping where you carry all of your equipment on your back, usually up a mountain). All the previous camping/hiking trips were supposed to build to this, but we still weren't really prepared for it. Backpacking is hard work (and renting camping equipment is expensive).
September - This was Kristin's and my longest trip together this year, beginning with a wedding of one of Kristin's friends in Texas, then a road trip to visit my parents in Louisiana. It was good to see them, but my allergies were pretty miserable. During this time we went to Baton Rouge, Avery Island (where Tabasco is made), and Rosedown plantation (in St. Francisville). We saw my parents, sisters, nieces, and brother-in-law to be.
October - This month we visited Montreal, where we stayed with Kristin's friend Rene (my friend too, now). We also went to the World Fantasy Convention. While the other conventions we've attended together are small and local, this is a big one. I met John O'Neill and the rest of the Black Gate crew, and took part in a reading they had. This was the first reading I ever gave, and it was pretty monotone, but otherwise went well.
November - For Thanksgiving this year, Kristin did the cooking. I helped. It was pretty intense, really, but we then had Kristin's friend Bob over, and had a nice time.
December - In December, Kristin and I cooked a Roman meal together. That was a lot of fun, although the ingredients weren't exactly easy to find. We also visited Kristin's family in Nova Scotia for the second year in a row.
You've probably noticed that Kristin appears in this post an awful lot--so much so that you'd be forgiven for thinking that my life revolves around her. Well, that's for a couple of reasons. First, I've been using her blog to remind me of everything that happened this past year, so I've had an easier time remembering events in which she took part. Second, anything that's fun to do is more fun to do together, so I haven't done a lot of solo outings. Kristin also tends to be more interested in traveling than I am, so she was the instigator for most of it. Finally, well, there's some truth in your thinking. Kristin's a very important part of my life. That's the sort of thing you should do something about, so I did. On Christmas Eve I asked Kristin to marry me. She said yes.
And on that note, I'll wish you all a happy new year.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
This past year in writing
Livia Blackburne has a post about how she's improved in writing this past year, namely how she's improved her style of writing. That got me to thinking about ways in which I've improved as a writer this past year. I don't think I can point to any particular aspect of writing in which I've improved, but I have improved in one way: I've become a more disciplined writer. Not perfectly disciplined, mind you, as I still have lapses, but I've become better at setting aside time for writing, and writing stories from beginning to end. I've also broadened my horizons and begun writing in more genres, tackling ideas farther afield from my usual area. There are plenty of ways in which I'd still like to improve, of course, but I think that's a significant step in the right direction.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Storyblogging Carnival coming up
The next Storyblogging Carnival will go up on Monday, January 10th. If you use your
blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your
opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog
format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at
some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.
If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:
If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:
- Name of your blog
- URL of your blog
- Title of the story
- URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
- (OPTIONAL) Author's name
- (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
- A word count
- A short blurb describing the story
- The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
- The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
- You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
- If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
- The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
- The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Review of "From Words to Brain" by Livia Blackburne
Disclosure: Livia is a friend of mine, and sent me a free review copy of this essay. I will nonetheless endeavor to be as balanced as possible in my review.
Livia's essay, "From Words to Brain," is a 7,700 word overview of the scientific literature on how the brain interprets stories. Using the example of the story of "Little Red Riding Hood," she reviews how the brain recognizes letters and words, visualizes the scenes and actions, empathizes with the characters, and draws moral conclusions from the story. The writing is tight without being dense, and easily understandable by the layman. And I, at least, find the subject fascinating.
The essay's weakness is that it is too short. As a writer always looking for ways to improve my art, I'm certainly interested in what brain science tells us about how people read, and write, stories. While there were some useful tidbits in the essay, most of them are tricks that experienced writers already know--such as that readers fill in the details in a scene without requiring overdone description. There were a few things which I had never thought about or didn't know, such that women tend to sympathize more with the antagonist than men do, but I feel like there's a lot more that Livia could have shared with us in a longer essay.
This probably wouldn't affect how I viewed a free essay available online, but the publisher is charging over $5 for the essay. Considering that you can get entire classic novels for free on Amazon's Kindle, this seems like too much for this essay. I would still recommend it if you are interested in the subject, and would like a stepping stone to more advanced work, such as the literature Livia cites. But I'm hesitant to recommend it to those on a writer's budget.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Experimental Archaeology
As I mentioned the other day, Kristin and I did some ancient Roman cooking a week ago. The great challenge in doing something like this is finding the ingredients. Garum, a popular fish sauce in ancient Rome, isn't exactly available at the grocery store (although there's a reasonable substitute used in Vietnamese cooking). We managed to make do there. Harder to find was a substitute for defrutum, which is reduced grape must. We had to go to a wine supply store to get something roughly equivalent.
That was the most difficult part from our end, but in reality the most difficult part of Roman cooking is figuring out the recipes. There are a few ancient sources of Roman recipes, Apicius being the most famous. However, Roman recipes tend to lack such niceties as amounts and cooking times. For example:
Another way that Kristin and I have taken part in experimental archaeology is in the medieval swordfighting lesson we took earlier this year. Medieval swordsmanship is a lost art--no one's practiced it for hundreds of years. The Eastern traditions fared better, as practitioners continued to pass down their fighting techniques, even after they had been surpassed by the gun on the battlefield. However, European sword techniques have been preserved in one way: there are a number of surviving fight manuals, which display the techniques used in medieval swordsmanship. They look something like this:
Usually, with a one or two word caption. This, from Talhoffer (the most famous of the fight books), has the caption War-work. ARMA (the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts) has lengthy excerpts available online. Even with the complete fight book, it's hard to make out exactly what's going on in the images. That's why experimental archaeology is so valuable. It brings together all the manuals, with real swords, experience with related martial arts, and actual sparring, and attempts to reproduce the techniques which are only hinted at.
That turns a number of images like the above, into something like this:
Aside from the exercise, why would anyone want to reproduce sword fighting techniques from the late Middle Ages? Or, for that matter, recipes from the late Roman era? It's partly a scholarly exercise, useful for archaeologists. But I find it very helpful for a different reason. As a writer of fantasy that draws inspiration from both Roman society and the Middle Ages, such experiments give me a better understanding of how the people of that time lived, allowing me to write with greater verisimilitude.
Plus it's fun. And I, at least, thought the Roman food was pretty good.
That was the most difficult part from our end, but in reality the most difficult part of Roman cooking is figuring out the recipes. There are a few ancient sources of Roman recipes, Apicius being the most famous. However, Roman recipes tend to lack such niceties as amounts and cooking times. For example:
For mussels: Garum, chopped leek, cumin, passum, savory, and wine. Dilute this mixture with water and cook the mussels in it.
(This is taken from the Nova website, which is quoting from the book we used.)This brings us to the topic of this post, experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is when modern scholars attempt to reproduce the work of previous generations, doing their best to follow their techniques. This can include reproducing an Ancient Greek repeating ballista, running an Iron Age farm, or cooking a Roman meal. There is of course a lot of variation in how rigorously this is done. Our cooking, for example, used a lot of ingredient substitutions, along with modern kitchen appliances, following an interpretation of the Roman recipe. So not very rigorous on our part. The authors of the various cookbooks based on Roman recipes are, fortunately, better scholars. They were the ones who did the actual experimental archaeology in order to turn the the recipes into something usable in a modern kitchen in the first place.
Another way that Kristin and I have taken part in experimental archaeology is in the medieval swordfighting lesson we took earlier this year. Medieval swordsmanship is a lost art--no one's practiced it for hundreds of years. The Eastern traditions fared better, as practitioners continued to pass down their fighting techniques, even after they had been surpassed by the gun on the battlefield. However, European sword techniques have been preserved in one way: there are a number of surviving fight manuals, which display the techniques used in medieval swordsmanship. They look something like this:
Usually, with a one or two word caption. This, from Talhoffer (the most famous of the fight books), has the caption War-work. ARMA (the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts) has lengthy excerpts available online. Even with the complete fight book, it's hard to make out exactly what's going on in the images. That's why experimental archaeology is so valuable. It brings together all the manuals, with real swords, experience with related martial arts, and actual sparring, and attempts to reproduce the techniques which are only hinted at.
That turns a number of images like the above, into something like this:
Aside from the exercise, why would anyone want to reproduce sword fighting techniques from the late Middle Ages? Or, for that matter, recipes from the late Roman era? It's partly a scholarly exercise, useful for archaeologists. But I find it very helpful for a different reason. As a writer of fantasy that draws inspiration from both Roman society and the Middle Ages, such experiments give me a better understanding of how the people of that time lived, allowing me to write with greater verisimilitude.
Plus it's fun. And I, at least, thought the Roman food was pretty good.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Storyblogging Carnival?
Since Christmas is coming this next week, and I think people might be a mite busy, I'm going to delay the Storyblogging Carnival by a week. The normal announcement will go up next Monday, and submissions will be due by Saturday, January 8th. Of course, if you send me something early, I'll hold it in reserve until I start accepting submissions.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Roman cooking
Kristin and I made a meal based on Roman recipes today. Well, mostly Kristin made it, and I helped. She has all the cooking details, if you're interested, in a post on her blog:
Today Donald and I thought it would be fun to prepare an “authentic” ancient Roman dinner. I have several books on Roman cooking, most making liberal use of Apicius (the most famous ancient Roman cookbook author). I’ve found the most accessible and interesting to be Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa’s A Taste of Ancient Rome (translated by Anna Herklotz; original title was A cena da Lucullo). The author is a foodie with an archaeology background, and her goal was to take recipes from Apicius, Cato and other sources and provide a version that a modern cook could follow. The ancient sources tend not to provide a lot of detail. They’ll give the ingredients (most of them), and some vague clues as to preparation. America’s Test Kitchen it ain’t! Giacosa’s versions of the recipes should, theoretically, be doable in a modern kitchen.It was a lot of fun, and I thought the result was pretty tasty. It did take more work than I'd be willing to spend on cooking with any regularity, though.
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