Flying Whale Productions

NaNo WriMo - Update

Only 48,737 words left to go

Download Glassmaker-11-2-09

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National Novel Writing Month

Yikes!!! 

Since my position as a Naturalist at Glenwood Gardens ended as of 10/31 and since I have not been sucessful at finding another job I've signed up to do NaNo WriMo.  I'm going to try and write a 50,000 word novel between now and November 30th.

I'm planning on revising and expanding a short story I did a while back.  If everything comes together I'll have a Steampunk version of Cinderella with a twist.

Like I said Yikes!!!

Pooh and the swine flu

 

The Down Economy hits home. Hard

We had a meeting at work today and they announced that Amity is merging with
United Mail.  Over the next six to nine months Amity operations will be moved to
their expanded facilities on Spring Grove Avenue.

All Amity employees were given job applications form that we need to fill out
and turn in by ten tomorrow morning.  On Monday morning we will sit down
one-on-on with United Mail's HR director and discuss our future with the new
merged company.   We have been told that they will be offering positions to
most, but not all, Amity employees. They have said that they are impressed with
the length of tenure of Amity employees and that they want to keep people with
experience. People who they do hire will keep things like vacation and seniority.

So, the long and short is that I find out Monday what my future employment
prospects are.

I wanted folks to know what was going on, but I really don't want to talk about
anything until after I have my HR meeting on Monday.

Roebling Point - Best name for new riverfront development

After years of on-again-off-again maneuvering the development of the Cincinnati riverfront between the stadiums is underway at last.     

As part of that process the developers have been running a naming survey.  I think they want to jettison the working title for the area of "The Banks" as inauspicious.  I never liked that name.  Something about it just grated on my ear.  Now after all the economic free-fall and bank bailout trauma it is even less appealing, even if that is a different use of the work 'bank'

I think Roebling Point is the best of the four final names.  The other names are very un-inspired.  I can't believe they were the best Carter Dawson could come up with.

You can go here and vote for yourself. 

Is under-clad pirate statue worth a bunch of Religious uproar?

A Girardville PA an antique store has a statue of a female pirate in its doorway. The local Catholic priest was offended by the statue and organized protests, including a march ending at the store where he "commanded" the owners to remove and destroy the statue.

You can check out the whole story  here

 I think the thing is rather tacky, and tasteless, but no closer to porn than the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.

Maybe things like this are why more and more Americans say they are spiritual but not members of an organized religion, and according to Newsweek the number of people who self-identify as Christians is falling.

Seriously, there are lots of wrongs in the world that could use a few protest marches, some community organization and a rant from the pulpit to engage the public in working for a solution,, this stature isn't one of them.  When religious leaders waste time and energy on stuff like this it debases their stature  in the community, and weakens their moral authority.

Fine Arts Fund

It's that time of year. The Fine Arts Fund is running their 2009 fundraising campaign, and no suprize in today's economy they are not getting the responce they would like.  If you do not have the option to donate to the FAF at work, or if you do and would like to add a little bit extra, check out their website here

The FAF provides support and assisstance to scores of Arts organizations arroud the Greater Cincinnati Are and we would be a poorer city without the work they do.

SF and Racial Dialog in America

For those of you who think all SF fans and readers are pasty-face socially inept dweebs living in their parent's basement take a moment to check out this series of guest blog posts on Race from SF writer John Scalzi's Whatever blog. SF Fans are more in touch with this real world issue than most folks I know. 

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part I

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part II

These guest blogs are the response to the Internet war over Race in SF has been burning up the Internet the last few months over mostly white writers in a mostly white genre writing "other" characters for their mostly white readers to to read.

I'm a white middle-class kid from the 'burbs, but I come from a political family with one parent from each party.  Both parents were politically active in Civil Rights issues over the years, and did their best to raise kids who would see everyone as their equal.  I grew up hearing my folks talk about issues of race from a political viewpoint.  I'm smart and informed enough to know that although we have made great strides things are still not perfect.  I'm also smart and informed enough to know that  looking at Race as a two sided right/wrong black/white issue isn't the way to fix things.  Dialog is.

These posts are about Race in SF, which for all it's open mindedness, and forward thinking, is still mostly read, written, and populated with white guys from Middle America, or as author Steven Barnes says "white folks and their imaginary friends".   I think these post have some real insight into the state of Race relations in the US today and they come to those insights from a slightly different angle than most essays on the subject. 

Even if you are not into SF, not a SF Fan, not a SF writer, not a writer of any sort, you should still read these posts, and take time to root through the comments too.  It will give you something to think about.

I wasn't big on Gen Cem either, but I'm not sure about Red Lobster

The nut-jobs from Westboro Baptist Church showed up at University of Chicago the other day.   

Student groups countered. 

I know which signs I think truly reflect God.  Only humans are imperfect enough to hate. More photos from this protest here.

 

Mentally unstable people, like the folks at Westboro Baptist and the Young Earth Creationists, who distort religion to further some personal agenda, or to get back at a world they can't put in a little box and completely control, are the reason more and more people in American say they can't connect with an organized religion, even if they have deep spiritual yearnings.

Link to the blog post that started it all. I think

For the past week or so have you been coming across, reflections echos, and tangental coments on various inter-net sites about the whole 'Elizabeth Bear is a Racist' thing?  Have you not had a clue  what was going on?  I think this is a link to the post that started it all.

Or it might have been this one, or this one.

Lots of people talking past each other on all the comment threads involved in this argument.