If you lock the scale to the point where the Earth is a tennis ball, how large would the sun be? Well, about the width of a city street. But the sun, even though it’s larger than 80% of all stars in the universe, is actually quite small. How small? Watch and see. Read More
The power of persistence. Youtuber Eastory tries to start a war/history youtube channel. And fails. And fails again. And fails some more. And sinks a thousand hours into creating content before the channel subscriptions virtually explode. Pure inspiration. Read More
Neil Halloran’s amazing data-driven documentary. 18 minutes long, but it puts the scale of the losses into mind-boggling clarity. Watch it. Fear the implications. Decide to do something about it. Read More
Batteries from air. Long term storage at 60% efficiency using off-the-shelf OEM components. So-long rare earth metals. So-long lithium. Welcome New Glorious Age of Eco-Aquarius. Read More
For fishing geeks: what happens when you put an underwater camera on your fishing rig. Also: perch are crazy jealous. Read More
So, like, you’re paying $20 billion for a company that has never turned a profit, and doesn’t plan to? And you’re telling me that you’ll make money that way? Please do tell how it works, Mr. Ponzi.. Read More
It’s been a while since I wrote something here, so I’m a bit rusty. But this is something I need to say, and hopefully something you need to listen to:
Find your heroes.
Simple as that. Call them mentors or teachers, parents or guides, I don’t care. To me they are heroes, people I look up to, people I want to emulate.
For a long time I had no idea how to do it. Isaac Asimov‘s dead. So’s Jack Vance. Ursula Le’Guin died a month ago. Louis McMaster-Bujold, Dean Wesley Smith, Howard Tayler, pretty much everyone I admire, lives on the other side of the world. And even when I knew Tayler was going to be in Finland, for the World Fantasy Convention last August, I put that aside. Didn’t have the time. Didn’t have the strength to chance it. Promised myself that I’d go meet them some other WorldCon. When I’d made enough money from my writing.
Wrong. Read More
Some time ago, I submitted a story to an anthology of catastrophes, “Enter the Apocalypse”, edited by Thomas Gondolfi. I’m now the proud owner of my first physical anthology.
Of course, Apocalypse is a term that can be interpreted ad infititum. For me, it was intelligent dolphins. For writer Janice Law, it was something completely different. Read More
But there was a twist. Each attendant got a tag that tracked where they were in the room, and who they talked to. And it turns out that although every attendant stated beforehand that they went in order to meet new people and make new business ties, immediately upon entering the room, they made a beeline for old friends – and stayed there the entire event. If they did speak to a stranger, it was because the stranger was a friend of a friend. Read More
So the year is at an end. Yeah, yeah, new year, new possibilities, same old 24 hours/day. Anyway, here’s how I did in 2016:
Writing wise I…
(2015 numbers in paranthesis)
… submitted 164 (109) stories to publishers.
… got 4 (8) stories accepted.
… of which 4 (2) acceptances were by pro markets.
So, more submissions, less acceptances. But I only submitted to pro markets this year, meaning that all of my acceptances were from pro markets. Which rocks! Read More