interesting things

Lightning-powered!

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We had a thunderstorm last night, which is pretty rare for Seattle. We get lots of rain clouds, but little in the way of fireworks. Still, it’s cool to look at.

Which brings back a question I wonder about now and again: Why don’t we use lightning for our utilities?

Obviously, we couldn’t run everything on lightning power, but it seems to me that, with the right kind of capacitor, the energy from lightning strikes could be used to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use.

I imagine the real kink in this plan is “right kind of capacitor.” Is someone working on this? I can’t imagine there’s no one, but I haven’t seen anything about it.

Only an hour

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Ah, well. I only got an hour of free time for my writing today. No big. I’ll make up for it tomorrow.

But for you, dear Reader, I have a link: Morningstar.

What is that, you wonder? It’s a free online game of the point-and-click narrative variety. It’s also remarkably well done–the visuals are excellent, the voice acting (there’s a lot of voice acting) very strong (although you can mute the sound) and you can even save the game part way through.

The story is simple: You’re second-in-command on the space ship Morningstar, and the opening of the game is a fantastic little cut scene of you and your ship crash landing on the surface of an alien world. The captain is injured and unable to move (but full of advice) and your engineer is dead. Can you salvage enough of your ship to make lift off? Why did you crash in the first place, and what happened to the other ship lying wrecked across the sand. Finally, how can you prevent it happening again when you try to leave?

It’s a surprisingly long game, with a lot of detail, and the story takes you much further down the rabbit hole than you expect. And of course, it’s all about the puzzles. How do you get this control panel to work? Where are all the pieces of the hull-repairing glue dispenser? What are you going to do about the ruined CO2 filter?

You click on items to pick them up, combine them, and use them with objects in the environment. Best of all, the objects are used in ways that are thoroughly sensible–not always a given in this sort of game. The captain gives you hints about the next step in the mission, but there’s a walkthrough, too, just in case. And the visuals are excellent. Hell, even if you just watch the pre-title animation sequence, you’ll be impressed.

It’s great fun. One of the best c&p games I’ve played in a long, long time. Enjoy.

Meme!

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This meme is stolen from Brett. Open your current WIP and type out the first ten verbs that appear in the manuscript.

I went to Man Bites World, because it’s newest.

  1. was
  2. sat
  3. did
  4. slumped
  5. fidgeted
  6. stared
  7. pulled
  8. was
  9. was
  10. had been
  11. grown

Boy, that doesn’t sound promising, does it? It’ll work when it’s finished, though. I promise!

Also, thank you to everyone who has been voting in my polls. Today’s is about recurring characters in a series and last weeks poll (which I should close this weekend about what I should do with my ARE copies of Child of Fire.

“Road Cones Protect My Head”

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Speaking of tower defense games, here’s trailer for a new game, Plants Vs. Zombies:

Or you can check out the more traditional trailer here. And if that’s not odd or cute enough for you, this has to be the cutest zombie moment ever

You’re welcome.

Today (5 things make a Monday)

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  1. For dinner tonight, I made roast chicken (note: I hate my oven) and a from-scratch baguette that had tapenade rolled in it. Olive bread? Big hit with the fam. I’ll be doing that again.
  2. Just watched the latest CASTLE.  Yeah, it’s a good show.  And I would like 26 bestsellers, too, please.
  3. Just when I thought the swine flu thing was winding down, I find out it’s actually getting much worse.
  4. And I realize I’m a little late (hah!), but there are a couple of free comics online you can check out.  One.  Two.  That second one was written by Chris Sims, of Invincible Super Blog fame–it’s pretty ridiculous funny.  What’s that you say?  The internet is full of free comics?  Never mind.
  5. If you Google funny robot, no quotes, you get this animation, which at least has a robot in it, although I’m not sure where the funny comes in.  Look for more Google top hits in this blog in the future, since actual, thoughtful content turns out to be pretty hard to come up with.

More lol-ing at trainwrecks.

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I’m going to keep this one short so you can get right to the WTF?/gape-mouthed expressions of astonishment/guffaws.

Literary agent Janet Reid: What not to say when you’re pitching an agent. Number three is the one that really dinged my bell.

Quick links and notes

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First: I’ve mentioned before that I cut my writing teeth on Wordplay, a screenwriter’s site, and I maintain a friendship with many of the people I met there. Well, another Wordplay alumnus, Keith Calder, has a movie coming out this weekend: Battle For Terra. His previous film was The Whackness, and if that doesn’t say “this producer has a wide range of skills and interests” what would? It opens this Friday, and I’m planning to take the whole family.

Next: this is what the term “office hijinks” was created for.

Next: I passed the halfway point of the revision of Everyone Loves Blue Dog, and I’m about to start a scene that will need heavy changes (for the better, I suspect). As soon as I finish this post and a little more kitchen work, I’ll be back at it.

Next: Tonight we have a taste test of the three pizza crust recipes posted in my LJ last week. The family decides tonight!

Next: Andrew Wheeler posts the genre bestsellers of 2008. Hmm. If each hardback sale earns about two bucks for the author…

Next: The deadline to opt out of the Google/Author’s Guild settlement is May 5th. Find out more about it.

Next: I’m on Dreamwidth as burger_eater. Currently, I have no idea what I’m going to use the account for, but once a WordPress cross-poster comes into the world, I may start copying everything over there, too.

Finally, on Saturday we took a couple buses across town to check out the final weekend of Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. It was beautiful, and I loved the idea of paintings where the same characters appear several times in different places, each different image coming together to tell a story. Amazing stuff.

You’re the expert

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Typing this quickly, because it’s sunny and I want to go for a walk on my break.

This morning’s work session was terrible. I read a particular sequence in Everyone Loves Blue Dog over and over, trying to find ways to trim or improve it.

But you know what? I think it works pretty damn well just as it is. I’ve decided to take the stance that I am the expert on my own story. It works, and I’m not going to break it.

Hell, I even have the T-shirt, which isn’t available any more (but other items are). I think I’ll take that T-shirt out of my bottom drawer for my trip to San Diego Comic-Con.

Have I ever mentioned that I started off in screenplays? Most of my learning-to-make-story training happened on screenplay forums (ask me why if you’re curious) and I spent years on it. That’s why my IPSTPW Day offering was a horror script. I learned a helluva lot on the Wordplay site, back in the day.

Tomorrow, I’ll be up extra early and start on the next section of book. I’m already giving Important Supporting Character additional juice in her scenes, and I have a couple of other changes in mind.

Now, I’m off to the sunshine!

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch Day

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This year, I’m posting a screenplay.

Five years ago, a friend and I decided to make our own ultra-low budget horror movie. Our plan was that we’d make a solid story and people would overlook whatever shortcomings our budget brought us.

It’s called The Dead Feed (pdf file – html file — the pdf is easier to read, but I know some people hate that format) and it’s not a standard hungry zombie movie.

And! As I give away my writing for free, I also link to a roundtable of sf/f book reviewers on the recent changes to newspaper book reviews and book review sections. Check it out.

Bicycle Parkour

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It’s fantastic. via mighty_god_king.