BIAM (Redux)

So, March is coming to an end and April is here. Hopefully, this will be my month; the month that I finally get that novel that's been brewing in my nether realm onto some kind of medium. At least a first draft.

As per an earlier post, I intend to start the Book in a Month plan. I've even posted a greeting on their message board. I didn't do that at the beginning of March, so maybe April is the month.

Philip Dick Quote on Zen Page a day Calendar

This a page from the Page A Day group of Calendars. This one comes from the Zen Page A Day. There are most certainly better quotes from that calendar I could post, but ... you know, with the PKD Connection, and all. It seems like its meant to be phrased in such black and white issue. However, we could also speak of not only physical reality, social reality, philosophical reality. And just what is consensal reality, anyway? Do we really know?

Successful Synopses

Joshua Palmatier, whom I know (not personally) from the Online Writers Workshop for Science fiction and Fantasy, just yesterday blogged about a new project he and another writer devised with links to fellow published authors and the plot synopsis they used to send to their agents/editors. It's called the "Plot Synopsis Project".

Joshua also explains his take on the synopsis process, both once the book is written and if the book has not been written.

Thanks Joshua, this should be a valuable tool for many of us.

You Want the BigDog on Your Side

Oh man, I'm either half asleep or buzzed on ambien and michelob, and yes, unfortoneately it's the latter one. I don't have a problem, because I'm running out of ambien, Shit!

Anyyyyy Way, I just found this On Singularity link in which they referenced a You Tube video provided by Boston Dynamics. It's a video that has just been released this month and it shows some testing conditions of the most advanced quadreped in the world. It's called the "BigDog".

And it can scale some of the most uneven terrain and handle and adjust like a pro.
Oh no, this reminds me of the Robocop movie. Gee, I hope they don't intend to give it weopens any time soon. Really Cool!

Uh oh! Another Plan

I've got a plan. What I'd like to do is to set a minimum amount of words to write a day. I know, innovative huh : )

I think 1500 minimum should be manageable. I will also allow myself to divide up the total, such as 500 hundred words each for fiction, writing exercises, prompts, blogging or journaling. That's just an example.

The idea is simply to get words saved in some format or other.

iGoogle & Gadgets

Oh no! I am in trouble now. I discovered Googles iGoogle mode about a week ago. I've just spent about 3 hours checking out different gadgets and setting up tabs based on my areas of interest.

Not only can you add gadgets, but you can make your own as well. I haven't read how to do it yet, but Google has its own resources on how to create them. That's next!

Near Future Phone

A few days ago I was guided by a site (which I have forgotten)to a website that displayed an animated demonstration of a Nokia phone that is in development (I think at the concept phase at this point).

I found another site last night with a link so although not the site I first saw it, I did find a post about it here. Within the post there is a link to Nokia's demonstration.

I've got only 3 words: Damn, that's Cool!

Book in a Month

I recently purchased another writing book. It is Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days
by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. I have two other books by her, too. Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters and 45 Master Characters. I've read about half of each, but like everything else I've got going, eventually gets stowed away for the new flavor, for a while.

Today,I'm beginning the Book in a Month challenge. It begins the first day of every month. There is also a companion website, and a yahoo group to join and proclaim your goals to everyone. Like that's supposed to work, for me?

Might as well try, since I'm not doing anything but sitting around the house, waiting, hoping that my unemployment benefits go thru without a glitch. It's not that I don't want to work. Believe me, I'd rather make 3-4 times as much as I may get thru unemployment, but we're going to have to move from current location to find anything. And of course, this takes time. So, this makes a perfect opportunity to pound out a few novels and short stories before I need to find that lucrative, permanent job. If only I could focus more; complete a few stories. At the very least I'd like to finish one novel and begin an agent query within two months from now.

I intend to to book reviews, eventually. Hopefully sooner than later.

So, here goes nuttin'.

Encyclopedia of Life

The new Encylopedia of Life site is now up as of this last Thursday. Haven't had much time to check it out yet, but so far it boasts about 30,000 species, with one page devolted to each specie. They expect to have another 1.7 million within a decade. In my opinion,however, our known species will probably near at least 2 million. So many invertabrates that have yet to be discovered.

It's maintained by an international group of scientists and was spearheaded by E.O. Wilson.