Category: General

To help me re-focus on getting out there and seeing my words published (and paid for!) elsewhere, I’ve been following along with Nicole Dieker’s article A 7-Day Plan for Starting Your Freelance Writing Gig.

The hardest part for me was during Day 1: coming up with five publications I’d love to have bylines in. I’m not sure if it’s modesty, insecurity, or simple ignorance, but it took me the longest time to think up, and write down, five different publications where I would be proud to see my work.

I say “simple ignorance” because I’m just not aware of a lot of different journals, magazines, or publications. Especially so in the last few years, where I tend to read articles online that I gather from Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and I rarely connect those individual articles with their overall publisher or publication. Which means I need to start doing that, again, with an eye towards “places I might want to pitch”.

But there’s also the underlying fear of “am I good enough?” and “they wouldn’t like me or my work” to deal with.

To combat that fear, here’s the list I finally – finally! – put down on paper. I would be happy to see my name on a story in any of these five, whether in print or online:

1. The Portland Mercury – Portland’s best independent newspaper. Covers politics and local topics with a liberal, irreverent edge.
2. Mother Jones – Also a liberal bastion of politics and current events. My anti-corporate skepticism and empathetic view of people would fit in very well here, I think.
3. Wired – I’ve been reading Wired since the first month it came out. It’s where I honed my views on technology and the culture that surrounds it.
4. Atlantic Monthly – In my mind, it’s the classiest place for narrative non-fiction.
5. The New Yorker – Pretty much the pinnacle of prestige for writers of all stripes. They don’t normally accept unsolicited work, though, so I need to work my way up to this one.

I can think of a few other places but those five are a good target for my aspirations. Perhaps as I work on this, and do more research and reading, I can find more. There’s a whole world of paying publications for writers these days.

Right?

View post on imgur.com

Tristan Tarwater, over on Facebook, came up with the idea to share, review, or rate one cool thing, every day in November. It’s an alternative to National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a., NaNoWriMo.

I like this idea, and I will attempt to do it, starting today. I dub this Regional November Media Sharing Month, or ReNoMeShaMo (I’m terrible at naming things, just terribly bad at it).

I spent several days last week at my sister’s house working on my Halloween costume. It’s mostly finished and I could not be happier with it. I could not have done it without the help of my sister Lisa, my friend Diana, and my nephew Max.

Here’s a small preview:

View post on imgur.com

Can you tell I’ve been playing a lot, and I mean a lot, of Fallout lately?

Mostly I’m writing this to push the “pardon my dust” post down the page, because for the most part, the move is done. I’m happy with the blog for now, except for the giant yellow box in the sidebar where, eventually, AdSense ads will appear. I’m not sure why it’s just a giant yellow box devoid of content. I’d rather, if nothing else, that it was a giant black box or giant blue box to at least match the color scheme. My understanding, and I may not be right about this, is that I have to leave that there until Google decides to start letting me run actual ads. It’s necessary for the approval process, I guess? Apologies for the ugliness.

Also over there in the sidebar is a handy Amazon link. Yes, I’m now using affiliate marketing. If you find yourself needing things from Amazon, feel free to use that search box. If you buy something that way, it should not affect the price you pay in any way, but I do get a small kickback for sending you there. It’s a small way to support my writing.

You can always support my blog by reading it, sharing posts you like, or just telling others about it. For all of that, if you’re here now reading these words, thank you. I am happy you’re here.

I have two pen pals that I need to send something to. One is in New Zealand and the other is in Massachusetts. I don’t know a lot about them. I was connected with them via a Slack group for a local art/tech festival I volunteer for, XOXO.

Not knowing much about them I figured the first thing I should do is tell them something about myself, because maybe they’re thinking the same thing on their end of the connection. I was pretty sure they had been to Portland, my home town, but they probably had never been to Sellwood, the neighborhood I live in and love.

I have three or four pieces of artwork by a local artist, sketches of different corners and streets in Sellwood, and two of those pieces are on greeting cards. I bought them a year or two ago in a boutique, called Fuchsia, just a few doors down from where I often drink and eat myself into oblivion.

I met the artist himself at a charity art show, in fact, where I purchased two of the four prints I own. I had gone there with some friends and had joked that I would only buy something if it was about my neighborhood, and that is exactly what I found.

And then earlier this year, I had seen him again, sitting with his easel on a sidewalk across the street from a breakfast diner I love far out of proportion with the quality of its food. He was sketching that corner, which in addition to the diner includes a dive bar and two different auto mechanics.

Yesterday, in the delightful gray rain, I put on my coat and fired up a podcast on my iThing and walked to that shop to pick up some more cards, to send to my pen pals. It’s an easy 20-25 minute walk.

I walked in, said hello to the lady behind the counter, and wandered around the greeting card aisles; when she asked me if I was looking for something specific I told her about the cards.

“Oh,” she said, her face falling, “we can’t get those cards anymore. The artist passed away.” She couldn’t remember the name of the artist and, sadly, neither could I.

Unsure what to say beyond that this was sad news, I ended up buying some cards of a different local artist, although these cards were not of my neighborhood. I still have to write in them and send them, which is the important part of being a pen pal with someone.

When I got home yesterday I looked at the signature at the bottom of the drawings I own. Mason Parker. I clicked around the site, a basic WordPress blog, and found that he had completed the painting of Bertie Lou’s (see above), and that he had artwork showing in Portland through December. That page was updated on 19 October 2015, in fact, just 10 days ago as I write this. There’s a list of stores that sell his cards and art–notably, it does not include the shop in my neighborhood. Did he really pass away?

Mr. Parker has a phone number listed and a P.O. Box and a PayPal link to order his art. I can’t tell if he’s not actually dead, or if his death was so recent that the site just hasn’t been updated.

Today, I’m going to call him just to check. I’m not going to wait.

Instead of actually writing the chapter (for now), I’m going to write (and think) about writing the chapter.

The scenes I’m working on in my not-yet-finished first-draft novel are pivotal ones. They’re intended to introduce two characters from previously unrelated storylines, and that meeting is going to affect almost everything that happens afterward. I know these characters and, once they’re introduced, I know, the way any writer or storyteller knows, how they’ll react and what bits and pieces of themselves they are willing to share with each other. I am not nervous at all about the interpersonal part of the scene.

The two characters are: a 3 term US Congressman who is facing an increasingly tough re-election campaign, someone who has a code of honor about his civic duty but might be willing to break some rules “just this once”; and a heart-broken woman serving in the US Army under DADT who regrets leaving the love of her life behind because she felt she had no other options for a career.

The parts that are giving me pause in writing are all the details of the setting in which they’re meeting: in and around, to the north and the south and the east and the west, of Baghdad, Iraq, during the height of US occupation.

All I know about the area is what I’ve seen in movies, and on TV. I don’t even really know much about military structure. What ranks would be doing what work? Who would she report to? Who would be there to meet the Congressman and his staff? How much leeway would each of them have to actually have a face-to-face conversation?

All these questions are nagging at me. I don’t want to fuck this up. I’m confident about the emotional elements of the story; the military and setting details, however, scare me. I don’t want to write things so poorly it kicks people who do know these matters out of the story.

I remind myself, however, that this is a first draft. I just need to get something down on paper (well, pixels), and when it’s done, I can have more knowledgeable eyes go over this (and every) section and tell me how to fix it. First draft is a long way from finished book. I can just focus on the parts I know.

Fingers, fly! Time to write.

Sometimes when you visit here, you may see an ad down at the bottom of the page. These ads are placed by WordPress, because I am currently on a free hosting plan. Maybe someday, after HBO buys the rights to the book I haven’t finished yet, I’ll be able to pay for actual hosting and avoid those ads. In the meantime, they should be unobtrusive; that’s what WordPress says, anyway.

In the meantime, however, I may be placing ads here myself. The current theme I’m using, Ecto, isn’t really a great one for ads, since the only place I can place ads is in the Sidebar, which is hidden away under a menu. So I’m looking at other themes that will allow me to put another ad or two on the page somewhere. Or there are plugins that allow me to inject ads into posts, but, man, that doesn’t really sit right with me. I may be just unaccustomed to advertising, however.

In any case, stay tuned for ads, but not a lot of ads, and with any luck at all, good targeted ads that aren’t racist, sexist, right-wing, or otherwise horrible.

If you ever see an ad here that’s offensive, please let me know, hopefully accompanied by a screenshot. I will do everything in my power to make sure such ads don’t appear here.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you all.

Earlier this week, I got the following pop-up message from Safari running on Mac OS X 10.11.0 El Capitan. I don’t now recall what site gave me the message.

View post on imgur.com

Using Flash as a Mac user has been annoying and sometimes even dangerous; there are exploits out that use Flash’s security holes to attack our computers, on top of the normal performance draining behavior of Flash. Apple and Adobe’s Flash have been in conflict for a good long while now.

“Most modern websites will work without Flash if you turn it off” you say? OK, sold. Gone. Goodbye, good riddance.

For the three days following that message and my response, I have noticed no significant difference in use. Honestly, I forgot about it. Until just now, I followed a link from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Twitter feed with a sneak preview of next week’s episode (linking to the picture of the page because spoilers if you’re not caught up on the third season).

When I got to the ABC website, the page was overtaken by a banner that took up fully a third of the window. The banner read:

You either have an old version of Adobe Flash Player or do not have Adobe Flash Player installed which is required to use this site. Please install/upgrade Adobe Flash Player.

Which brought me back to that earlier Apple dialogue box. Am I going to have to re-enable Flash? Do I care about what happened to Simmons enough to do that?

What happens if I just click that play button?

What happens is… the video plays just fine.

But that damned banner is still there, telling me it won’t work.

Which is hilarious to me.

I feel as if I’m watching a contest between titans, the corporate persons who shape our daily lives. Apple, Adobe, ABC/Disney, flailing around, each defending their turf, and all I can do is stand and watch and laugh, because nobody really knows anything.

Tech is weird, y’all.

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian released an advisory opinion today stating that “sharing economy” taxi services Uber and Lyft drivers are employees, not independent contractors. Therefore, the drivers should be afforded the protections offered by law, such as being paid for each hour worked, safe working conditions, and remedies for discriminatory practices, among others.

It’s important to note that this opinion is simply advisory. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries hasn’t actually had to review a specific case, with specific details. The Commissioner is simply reviewing what is already known, primarily based on California administrative and court cases, and stating what they would decide based on that information. The Commissioner says that Uber’s practices in Oregon are “substantially the same”. New information may change BOLI’s opinion, of course.

So what are the criteria BOLI looked at to get to this opinion? Be sure to read the whole memo yourself; it’s in clear English, with very little legalese and jargon. But it boils down to the fact that drivers for Uber do not run their own business; they’re dependent on Uber for infrastructure, marketing, and for finding customers. Drivers can’t even set their own price, which would let them manage their business to avoid loss and gain profits. Uber reserves the right to screen, hire, discipline, and terminate drivers; drivers don’t work on a project or time-based contract, but indefinitely.

Basically, Uber retains control of the business; drivers don’t.

I can’t wait to see what Uber and Lyft say in response to this, beyond the one quote I’ve seen that they dispute this finding.

Your move, “Sharing Economy”.

I did it. I gave in and downloaded Star Wars: Uprising for iOS.

Look, I’m a big Star Wars fan. I saw the Holy Trinity in the theaters before George Lucas started modifying and altering them. The last iOS game I became obsessed with was also a Star Wars franchise game, the Farmville-like Star Wars: Commander. The hours I lost there… When I heard that there was a new game that was more of an RPG, I resisted. Right up until a couple of friends mentioned that there was co-op play. I’m a sucker for doing things with my friends, even if it’s online. So I installed it.

I spent a half-hour launching the game, messing around with the character creation, and then closing it again, until I settled on my alter-ego: Lunar Strongarm, a smuggler who’s bumbling and brash and snarky but also eager to please his bosses.

Here he is at Level 11, wearing some of his leveled-up gear. I like that the game classifies him as “sentient.” Good to know.

The time frame for the game is immediately after the events in Return of the Jedi. A crafty Imperial Governor named Abelhard has enacted an IRON BLOCKADE around Anoat System, preventing everyone within from learning of the destruction of the second Death Star and the death of Emperor Palpatine. Smugglers are struggling to move shipments in or out, and that’s where the players of the game come in.

I haven’t played a modern computer RPG in, like, forever (Skyrim doesn’t really count, does it?) but there’s a lot to learn in SW:U. Special abilities that use touch-screen gestures to activate. The ability to spend currency in the game to level up gear. Any gear you find, even that lowly cloth-and-twine backpack you find. And the amount of gear available seems overwhelming to me. My impression is that it’s similar to Destiny, in that you’re supposed to go look up what all this stuff does when you’re not actually playing the game. That helps with immersion, I suppose.

There’s several different kinds of currency, and they are all spent on different things. Crystals for upgrading equipment. Scrip for buying random junk gear. And credits, which are used in addition to the other kinds on everything. You can, of course, purchase more, trading real-world cash for in-game currency. What free-to-play game wouldn’t have that, these days?

There are many different kinds of missions, too, and they have you jumping around between worlds of the Anoat Sector, which location, if you’ll recall, didn’t much impress Princess Leia. It does, however, include the familiar worlds of Hoth and Bespin, and the new-to-me worlds of Mataou and Burnin Konn. There are story missions, daily and repeatable missions, and Sector Battle missions, which allow players to influence the Galactic Empire’s influence over each system.

My favorite mechanic of the game is sending my crew off on their own missions, though. That’s a nice way to keep gaining in-game currency for a casual player like me. And I finally joined a cartel today, which will let me play co-op and give me access to more experienced players for advice. I want to make a cartel with just my friends, but maybe after I’ve learned more about the game.

If it sounds like I’m skeptical and cynical about this, I am, a little. But overall I’m having a lot of fun. The Star Wars universe, even now, is like an old home to me, and any chance to play around in it is worthwhile. Even if it means distracting me from this pile of work I should be doing…

I know reading about other people’s dreams can be terrible and boring but bear with me. Mostly I’m writing it down for myself because I thought it was funny, and maybe I can use it in one way or another down the line.

In my dream I was… somewhere… and these two men showed up. They were both wearing all black nylon/Kevlar tactical gear, helmets, bandoleers, night vision goggles, the whole set up. Stompy black boots. Carrying huge assault rifles. They were both doughy, pudgy middle aged white men. And they demanded I stop what I was doing, whatever it was (I don’t remember).

Me: You’re from the government, aren’t you?

Them: We don’t have to tell you that.

Me: Show me your official government identification or I’m going to keep doing this.

Them: <awkwardly looking at each other> Uh…

Me: You have to. I’m a citizen and it’s my right under the Patriot Act.

Them: It doesn’t say that!

Me: Oh, look at these guys! They’ve actually read the Patriot Act! OK, wise guys, tell me where it doesn’t say that and I’ll back off. You can’t, can you? That’s because nobody has read the Patriot Act! For all you know it could be in there! Now show me your IDs, stat!