NaNoWriMo in the Spotlight

As I drove back to work after lunch today, I heard Neal Conan announce that in the next hour of NPR's Talk of the Nation, they would be talking about writing a novel in one month! Yes, National Public Radio dedicated 45 minutes of programming to NaNoWriMo, The National Novel Writing Month project.



Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, was the guest. They took calls from people who are currently endeavoring to write 50,000 words in 30 days... people like me! What I managed to listen to was fun. It's nice to see the project get some national attention.



Read more about NaNoWriMo on NPR.

Cory Doctorow: the Baroque Cycle is Worth It

Cory Doctorow just finished System of the World, Neal Stephenson's final book in the Baroque Cycle. In his post on Boing Boing, Cory makes the case for reading all three, saying it's a big, sometimes irritating investment, but it really pays off. He describes the Cycle thusly:

...these books are like a good curry. They're mild and interesting when you first taste them, but after you've swallowed, they grow on you, spreading a warm fire throughout your digestive system, making beads of sweat appear on your forehead. Since finishing the first two books, I've been practically haunted by them. Ever time I spend money, or walk through London, or see a ship, or think about math and science, some snippet of those books springs to mind, a lens through which to reexamine my thinking and assumptions.

I never made it past about page 50 of Quicksilver, but maybe the time has come to do my chores and get my reward.

New Short Story from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow, one of my favorite new authors, has published a new short story in Salon, entitled Anda's Game (you need to subscribe to Salon to read the whole thing, or just read my PDF version below).



Here's an excerpt from Cory's posting to Boing Boing:

Salon has just published a brand-new short story of mine, called "Anda's Game," which is a riff on the way that property-rights are coming to games, and on the bizarre spectacle of sweat-shops in which children are paid to play the game all day in order to generate eBay-able game-wealth. When I was a kid, there were arcade kings who would play up Gauntlet characters to maximum health and weapons and then sell their games to nearby players for a dollar or two -- netting them about $0.02 an hour -- but this is a very different proposition indeed.

This is the first story ever published by Salon under a Creative Commons license-- which means it can be freely distributed if it is not modified and no one profits from the distribution.



Here's a PDF version of the story.

Fallujah: Up Close and Personal

Kevin Sites, a freelance reporter currently embedded with Marines in Fallujah, has posted some new photos and insights to his personal blog. Kevin is seeing the sweep through Fallujah up close and personal, no doubt closer than he would like.



His writing is personal, and moving. I recommend it to anyone hoping to gain an understanding of what our troops are going through in Iraq.



Latest report: 22 U.S. deaths since the assault on Fallujah began.

Winning at any cost

Residents of a mostly-Democratic area in and around Painesville, Ohio received a letter claiming to be from the local elections board. It incorrectly indicated that anyone who had been registered to vote by the following organizations weren't really registered, and would not be allowed to vote until the next election:

• Americans Coming Together
• NAACP
• Kerry Campaign
• Capri Cafaro for Congress (in Ohio)

What we don't know is whether this is a fraudulent attempt by a group of Republicans to get Democratic voters to stay home, or some Democrats sending it to make the Republicans look bad when the lid is blown off the whole mess (such as coverage in a local paper). Either way, it is a further sign that rather than preserving the Republic, some elements in this election are willing to win at any cost.



Here's a photo of the actual letter, at Jason Schultz's blog (via Boing Boing).

Still an Undecided Voter? Then Watch This

Michael Moore publicly announced he supported pirated copies of Farenheit 9/11 on the internet... so I offer you this opportunity.



Mark Perkel invested $2000 to host the film on his website for the two weeks prior to the election (less than a week now) and you can get it here.



If you have already made up your mind how you will vote, don't bother. If you have your doubts, PLEASE WATCH THIS FILM.

The NaNoWriMo Cometh

Sounds like something Mork from Ork might say, but no! It's National Novel Writing Month! Isaac turned me on to this cool idea, and like an idiot, I jumped at it.



What is NaNoWriMo, really? Anyone who wants to participate has the entire month of November to write a novel that must be at least 50,000 words long. You must not write a single word until 12:01 am on November 1, and must submit your novel electronically for official word-counting before the end of the 30th.



Eschewing quality in favor of quantity, the main point of the whole thing is to get people not only to write, but to write a lot.



Blogger got involved in the process my setting up a directory (called NaNoBlogMo) for anyone who also wants to blog their novel as they write it. Here's mine (it's named for my working title): A November Like No Other.

Einstein Right Again!

NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft in orbit around Earth has allowed astronomers to confirm a prediction made by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. They were able to directly measure an effect known as "frame-dragging."

According to Einstein's calculations, when a large, massive body such as the Earth rotates, it tends to pull the surrounding space around with it slightly, just as sticking a spoon in a jar of honey and twisting it will tend to drag around some of the honey.

The effect is extremely small -- amounting to about 6 feet (1.9 meters) in the distance that satellites, moving at about 18,000 miles per hour, cover in their orbits in a year -- but it is within the ability of NASA's tracking instruments to detect.

Read more at TechNewsWorld about the Einstein Gravity Effect Demonstrated by NASA.

Neal Stephenson Comes Up for Air

Baroque Cycle author Neal Stephenson gave an interview on Slashdot recently. It's a great read, and I would love to see him create his own weblog when he's not buried under a writing project.



He provides some excellent illumination on the subject of literary vs. for-profit writers, and the apparent lack of respect literary critics have for the latter. Of course, everyone should read it for his response to the following question:

In a fight between you and William Gibson, who would win?

Please read the Slashdot interview of Neal Stephenson.

Yet another blog

I've decided to go back to school and work toward a degree in Anthropology, ultimately earning a Ph.D. in Archaeology. To chronicle my strange trip, and to provide hints and tips to those who might follow, I've created a new web log: Wanna be an Anthropologist.



I've included some photo galleries of archaeological sites I've visited, and I'll add more as time allows.