Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged awesome, creativity, inspiration, Maya Angelou, Motivation, Thoughts, work, yay on December 4, 2013| 1 Comment »
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.
― Maya Angelou
As an addendum, I posit that you don’t have to start out loving your work to be good at it. Pay close enough attention to a thing for long enough, and its beauty becomes clear.
Posted in Writing, tagged awesome, Fiction, submission manager, submissions, The Grinder, work, Writers, writing, writing tools, yay on November 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Insane deadline looming so I wasn’t planning on posting anything today but! I just had to mention that my favorite writing and submissions manager The Grinder has added yet another really useful feature: the Market Response List. It tracks all responses from markets where you have current submissions, and is visible as a tab on the main page, next to Recent Activity and Recently Added Markets. So you won’t waste time clicking through to each market individually, repeatedly, far too often!
Yeah, it’s a version of something Duotrope already has. Only, you know, free. Thanks for all your hard work, The Grinder!*
* Not associated with the aforementioned site, just think they are terrific.
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged awesome, creativity, Ender's Game, genre fiction, hacks, MIT, nanowrimo, science fiction, work, writing on November 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
In classic MIT fashion Lobby 7 has been hacked, Ender’s Game style.
…rogue fans of the legendary science fiction book series Ender’s Game hacked Lobby 7 sometime over the weekend.
Credit: Hairuo G. ’17
See the link above for more fun photos.
In other news (and after whole minutes of deliberation), I’m doing NaNoWriMo again. Yes, on top of the other special projects I have going on. Feel free to check out my progress in the NaNo sidebar widget. This also means that I will be extra busy so posts here are likely to be, well, not here. As much.
/nano ftw!
Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing, tagged astronauts, awesome, Becky Chambers, creativity, inspiration, kids, Motivation, science, science fiction, sff, space, space exploration, writing on October 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »
As a followup to my last post on Reading for Generation Mars, I’d like to reference this piece by Becky Chambers at the Tor.com blog. She wrote it after meeting a (real! live!) astronaut and realizing that what she does is important to science and progress too, and not in an abstract way.
The fact is that if space exploration—in whatever form—is going to continue onward, it needs all the support we can muster. We need public outreach, like what the astronaut was doing, to be aware of the work that’s already being done, and to spark the next generation to follow in their footsteps. We need quality education, and a larger emphasis on scientific literacy, both in the classroom and beyond.
And we need science fiction. Now, more than ever.
We need to consider which futures are worth pursuing, which ideas we’ve outgrown, and what dangers (both practical and ethical) could be lurking along the way. Science fiction is the great thought experiment that addresses all of these things, and there is no branch of it that is not hugely relevant today. We need stories based around existing technologies, to help us determine our immediate actions. We need near-future stories that explore where our efforts might lead us in our lifetime. We need stories that take the long view, encouraging us to invest in better futures for distant generations. We need space operas, to remind us to be daring. We need apocalypses, to remind us to be cautious. We need realistic stories, and ridiculous stories, and everything in between, because all of these encourage us to dream (perhaps the ridiculous ones most especially). We need all of it.
I found this to be a really nice summary of so many of the reasons why fiction, and science fiction in particular, is important. Sure, it’s just one element in a matrix of education, outreach and exploration, but it’s in there.
Now I’m going to go write something:)
Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged awesome, finishing, Harvard, lightsaber, MIT, science, star wars, yay on September 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »
From Phys.org via the good folks at Tor.com:
MIT and Harvard Just Made a Real Lightsaber. So That’s Done.
Cross another dream off the bucket list, because the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms just created a new form of matter that could potentially be used to create real lightsabers.
… and fine, that place up the street isn’t so bad either:)
And yes, I finished those projects I was working on, thanks for asking.
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged artists, arts, awesome, bill watterson, calvin and hobbes, creativity, inspiration, Motivation, persistence, tombstone, work, yay on August 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Oh, I love this, and it’s just the sort of inspiration I need today. The text is an excerpt from a commencement speech in 1990 by Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame). The art is by Zen Pencils and is a beautifully done tribute to his inspiration, Watterson.
If you have a moment Read the Zen Pencils essay. I always enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes but didn’t know much about Watterson’s challenges as he made the strip or his history. I particularly like the part about persistence.
… Broke, he was forced to move back in with his parents and worked an advertising layout job he hated while he drew comics in his spare time…. Luckily Watterson didn’t quit…
Of all the things that could go on my tombstone, “Luckily, she didn’t quit” is right up there.
Posted in Funny, Likes, tagged arts, awesome, books, Einstein, flash fiction online, good society, inspiration, knowledge, public libraries, smart, Thoughts, yay on August 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »
From Flash Fiction Online’s Facebook page. I can’t even say how much I love this…
Like many other committed readers and writers, I spent a significant part of my time from childhood on in public libraries. People often take them for granted now, but imagine a time (or place) where you couldn’t pop down to the corner for a book, or a consultation with a librarian, or a safe quiet place to read and work, where knowledge wasn’t freely available to all. What a wonderful invention.
J.R. Johnson 
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