Hypnagogic State

(h/t Mental Floss)

I started playing Farmville tonight, succumbing to months of peer pressure. It’s…brightly colored? Sims-like? Mostly pointless?

Orwellian?

I am writing this down because I am afraid, and want documentation lest one day I vanish into thin air. I sense there is a strong force stirring up and I do not know where it comes from, or worse yet, where it is headed. Am I too blame? All I wanted was a pretty farm, an efficient one that was also aesthetically pleasing, but I worry these days that I am being punished. Was I abusing my power?

…I don’t want to leave my farm, but maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe I should get together a bunch of friends who are willing to relocate to a place where we have more control, and are allowed to have slaughter houses and smoking houses. I want to till plots that are not shaped as squares– is it so hard to ask for a tool that creates triangular plots? I also want to have a storage space for seasonal items so I don’t have to throw away my Halloween decorations, and some more clothes for myself. But all of these things depend on Zynga. I am the farmowner, yet there is very little control that I have.

Jeff Burk is offering free downloads of his book Shatnerquake for today only. The book is Wil Wheaton approved.

Luke Butler has a series of Enterprise themed paintings on display at the Silverman Gallery in San Fransisco. “Bridge”, the painting above, exemplifies the retro colors and slight camp encapsulated in the works.

The accompanying artistic statement:

Sad news for those of us who watched MTV in the late ’80s: Ken Ober, host of the game show “Remote Control”, has passed away at the age of 52.

I was six when this show began to air in 1987 so my memories of it are vague but pleasant. Watching some footage from its first episode made me all “get off my lawn, you damn kids” nostalgic for when MTV had both music videos and quality non-music video content.

Tenebrous Kate has scans of a 1986 GALLERY magazine interview with George Romero. The art accompanying the article is fantastic.

From TrekToday: NASA Scientist Creates First Tricorder

John Howell on Why science fiction authors just can’t win

Lou Anders responds to Howell’s article with a quote from James Enge

James Enge responds to Anders’ quote and Howell’s article in “SF/F: Field or Dangerfield?”

Strange Horizons interviews Jesse Bullington.

Wired: GameLife suggests you Confuse Loved Ones with Left 4 Dead Holiday Cards.

Protective face gear has been on my mind since I finished reading  Boneshaker last night. In a stroke of kismet, I came across a Mental Floss article that describes a proposed gas mask bra (a better idea than it sounds):

The winners of this year’s Ig Nobel public health award got the nod for their invention of a bra that could also double as a gas mask. Two, actually—one for the wearer and one for her lucky companion. The bra was invented by Dr. Elena Bodnar, a Ukrainian native now living in Chicago who has been studying the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown for years, and her colleagues, Dr. Raphael Lee and Sandra Marijan. Said Bodnar, “You have to be prepared all the time, at any place, at any moment, and practically every woman wears a bra,” noting that the bra would be useful in the event of rioting, freak dust storms, nuclear disaster, you name it.

That glacier-born waterfall isn’t gushing actual blood so it is all “oooo, ahhhh” instead of “someone get an exorcist”.  The lowdown on Blood Falls, courtesy of Atlas Obscura:

This five-story, blood-red waterfall pours very slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys. When geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, they thought the red color came from algae, but its true nature turned out to be much more spectacular.

Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of “primordial ooze.” The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.

There’s another “bloody” body of water located in a less frigid clime. Spain’s Rio Tinto begins in the Sierra Morena mountains and ends in the Gulf of Cádiz. It has been a mining hot spot since ancient times and the river has become highly acidic due to this activity. And, as the color hints, the water is extremely rich in iron.

(h/t: Web Ecoist)

Lifehacker linked to the How To Use an Apostrophe illustrated guide from The Oatmeal. Handy for those who don’t do a lot of writing (or rely on their imperfect word processor). Grammar masters can still appreciate the amusing examples provided:

I poked around the site looking for more grammar goodies but instead came up with a chart that warmed my awkward hugging heart. The 6 Types of Crappy Hugs has diagrams of each offender but this is the one that I am guilty of (though I’m not a man):

My father actually says “Good game” when he hugs me because my response reminds him of the stiff, uncomfortable gestures athletes give one another after a game.

Both comics are available in poster size for $9.95. If you are a teacher or there’s one in your life, the apostrophe poster would be a nice stocking stuffer.

Honorable mention from The 5 Phases of Caffeine Intake:

Eden Robbins is guest blogging over at Eclectic Days while Jeff VanderMeer is on his Finch/Booklife whirlwind tour. Robbins’ used Booklife as a touchstone to discuss whether and when a writer should quit their day job to pursue their passion.

She lists her “rules for choosing and thriving in a day job” and the first is that said job must not involve writing. But there is an exception:

1a. The exception to this rule is what I have heard called “word math.” This is basically writing that doesn’t take much creative initiative, or writing about a subject that you know so well that it takes almost no energy to do. Curriculum, web copy, press releases, that sort of thing. Word math.

I have been working as a word mathematician for the past two years, though this is the first I’ve heard of that term. I work as a freelance copy writer and produce web content for a variety of sources and clients. The pay is decent- better than when I was working as a pharmacy technician- and the hours are whatever I would like.

But the best advantage of being a word mathematician is that it got me used to treating writing like any other job related task. When you’re a cashier, you can’t refuse to ring up a customer because you have cashier’s block. You have a limited number of breaks and sick days and excuses you can file before the job is no longer yours.

But writing- fiction and nonfiction, strenuous and light- tends to have the reputation of a mysterious rebel who can come and go as he pleases and that best be respected. There’s talk of inspiration and muses and creative flow.

Needing to pay the electric bill is tremendous inspiration. Having to write in order to make a living has made it a lot easier for me to do other forms of writing. I’m currently writing “word math” for five hours a day and fiction for a few more hours. I am also in my final year of a Journalism degree, which carries its own writing load.

Do I suffer word burnout on occasion? Of course. But I have become a much stronger writer in the past two years because writing is now a scheduled daily activity rather than a side task that must be worked around other events.