Gerald Brandt

Marry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanza, and any others I may have missed.

I hope the season bring all the joy it is meant to.

This wish was delayed because I managed to stay off the computer for the last 2 days.  I had severe withdrawal, but I’m better now. (editid to add: except for work)

No weekly links this week, things have been busy and hectic, as they have been for just about everyone this season.

I’m actually off of work for the next two weeks.  The kids have no school, and I’m still the primiary caregiver, so I stay home with them.  The timing work-wise sucks, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m going to go out of sequence here, and post a link outside of my regular weekly ones.

Economically, we’re in a bad place.  Our friends to the south are being hit harder than we are.  It started with the mortgage crisis (honestly, sub-prime loans for quarter million dollar houses to waitresses?), and has rippled out from there.  It affected almost every sector, and spread rapidly across the U.S borders into other countries.

A nice guy I met via BackSpace, and in person when I went down south, E.J. Knapp has blogged about it in Don’t Let the Meltdown Melt You Down.  It’s a good read.

Science

Short for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR is a new high-power plasma-based space propulsion technology, initially studied by NASA and now being developed privately by Ad Astra. A VASIMR engine could maneuver payloads in space far more efficiently and with much less propellant than today’s chemical rockets.

Future astronauts could benefit from a magnetic “umbrella” that deflects harmful space radiation around their crew capsule, scientists say.

Writing

A rant on the publishing industry by M.J. Rose.

Our lives are full of ‘thingummys’, ‘thingamajigs’ and ‘whatjermecallits’ – those everyday items we should know the word for, or were once told but have since forgotten. Now, a collection of them has been compiled for a fascinating new book…

Amazing stories need great characters. And when you’re writing a story set in a futuristic or fantastical world, it’s more important than ever for readers to be able to relate to your characters. It’s also harder than ever, because your characters’ lives and experiences will be totally different than your readers’. How do you make people identify with someone who lives in the future, or on another planet? How can your main character stand out, against a bizarre and colorful backdrop? We asked six great science fiction authors for their advice.

Computers

Some of the best things in life are free. When it comes to icons and icon sets, there are many talented designers and artists that choose to provide beautiful and useful icon sets for commercial and/or personal usage.

There are lots of scripting languages for Unix/Linux and Windows, but this one just kinda blew me away, and brought back some memories.

I’m off to the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary!  I’ll blog about my experience when I get back.

I’m pretty sure I said I’d blog about my Africa/Ghana trip as well.  I will, it’s just taking some time.

I just saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  I figured the link wouldn’t wait untill my weekly updates.  Here it is, in different resolutions.

Miscellaneous

The US National Debt ‘clock’ had to be revamped recently.  The device wasn’t built to handle the numbers it’s currently showing.

Some people just have way too much time on their hands.  This guy modified his computer case to make it look like Battlestar Galactica

And what can I say about this one.  It’s a comic, and it just tickled me the right way… I laughed.

Software

OpenOffice released version 3.0 of their free Office suite.  It’s looking pretty good.

Writing

Paul Citlik has 8 things you need to remember when writing science fiction.

Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel “The Forever War,” and Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with “Blade Runner” and “Alien.”

John Joseph Adams lists 21 blogs writers should be reading.

Well, I’m off to Africa in a couple of days.  I’m spending 2 weeks in Cape Coast, Ghana.  I’m trying desperately to get my edits for The Courier off of the paper I did them on and into the computer.  So far, it looks like I’ll make it, but I’m cutting it pretty darn close.

I’m about 50% done, which means I have 130 pages to enter before Friday evening.  Here’s to hoping.  The worst case scenario is that I have to bring along the last few pages, and do them on the plane or when I get there.

At any rate, Cape Coast has an Internet Cafe, but from what I hear, it’s closed allmost of the time.  So this may be my last entry for the next few weeks.  I know my loyal reader (yes, singular) is used to my long absences, and will deal with it well.

I thought I’d post a brief update on where things are at:

I’m camping with the boys again, trying to squeeze in an extra week before school starts.  I’m hoping to get a couple of weekends in as well, but we’ll see.

I’m continueing to revise ‘The Courier’, which may go through a title change soon.  I haven’t updated the revision page counter here yet, since the revisions are on paper and not in the computer yet.  I’m heading to Ghana in a couple of weeks, and I really want the thing revised and in the computer, so I can do more work while I’m there.

It looks like my status as a stay-at-home dad may change.  I haven’t got a formal offer yet, but it sounds close.  The job will completely work around the schedule of my boys, which means they’ll never notice I’m working.  I’ll still drop them off to school, pick them up, be home during school holidays, etc.  The potential work schedule is entirely based on the school year, which is great.  Personally, I’d rather stay at home than go and work, but the offer is almost like candy… tough to say no to.

The blog has, once again, been quiet.  I thought I’d post some updates on whats been happening.

Last year, I closed down an incorporated company I ran since 2000.  The company took a nose dive because of 9/11, and wasn’t able to recover.  I kept it limping along until 2007, and made the decision.  Apparently, I was a bit hasty.  After a few years of being a stay-at-home dad, I got a software contract, and some money started coming in again.  So, I resurrected Majentis.  This time as a sole proprietership rather than a corporation.  The books are a bit easier and its less hassle for me in the long run.

The contract has kept me busy, on average, 8 hours a day.  That, on top of still being a stay-at-home dad and all the work that entails, has made me a fairly busy guy.  It was obvious that things had to be dropped, and they were.  The house isn’t as clean as I normally keep it, the writing stopped completely, and my normally short fuse got a bit shorter.  I’ll deal with it.

As part of ‘dealing with it’, I’ve decided that, although the income is nice to have, its not going to take over every waking moment.  So, I’m back at the laptop weekday mornings from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM, working on the latest novel (Working title: The Courier).  Its in the revision stage right now, and you can see how the revision is going in the sidebar to the right.

I’m finding revisions on this one a bit tougher than normal.  It may be simply because the last few months of no writing have made me rusty.  I’m hoping that’s the case, since it means the flow will come back as I progress.  My goal is to have first pass revisions done by the end of May, second pass by middle/end of June, and the novel out to my beta readers by end of June.  We’ll see how well I do.

What else is new… the contract work has made me miss some of the kids school events.  I had to skip out on three co-teaching days.  Co-teaching is basically what it says, a parent comes into the classroom and helps out the teacher.  Its a great way to see where your child is in relation to the rest of the class, and how he or she interacts with the other kids.  I really enjoy doing them.   I won’t be missing anymore, no matter what pressure I get on this current contract.  The kids are, obviously, more important.

Other than a few colds, the family is healthy.  The kids are happy, the adults no so much.  Marnie is working more than I am, and has been doing so for a few months.  It’s beginning to take its toll.  But, the workload will get lighter for both of us, and the world continues to spin.

Cya next time.