Blog Action Day 2009

I've become aware that today is Blog Action Day 2009. Well, it still is for me for about thirty-three more minutes. This year's topic is global climate change. As most of us thinking people have become aware, we humans are adding to the problem of raising the average global temperature. We also realize the need for all of us to help to alleviate this problem before it's too damn late.

The biggest contribution I have made was donating my car to Volunteers of Minnesota about five years ago. I thought that perhaps some single mom would have a greater need than I for a car, so I gave it up. I have not regretted the decision since. I live about a mile and a half from my work, so I walk. Many of the incredibly nice people I work with offer me rides home nearly every day, so I walk to work, and usually get a ride home. Anywhere else I have to go, I walk, ride with someone or take the bus.

It's amazing that you can get along without a car, and living in Minneapolis, it's absolutely great not to have to scrape snow and ice from a car, pour gasoline into it or pay insurance for it. Not to mention all the greenhouse gases that have not gone into the air because of me in the last five years.

We have been using compact fluorescent light bulbs for four years, which save electricity, and therefore money and CO2 emissions. Each cfl bulb can help to keep up to a ton of carbon from going into the air per year.

I also don't eat much meat. Once or twice per week on average. It's not a vegetarian thing, just that I don't eat much at all, including meat.

Finally, I haven't flown anywhere for several years. Air travel is a huge contributer to greenhouse gas emissions, so I don't travel much either. Not that it's a noble decision I've made, I'm just too poor to travel.

So, I know there is a lot more I can do, but it's a good trend. Just what are you doing to help the climate change problem?

Worldbuilding

Well, the writing is going slowly, I'm afraid. But that's okay, since there are always real-life intrusions to blame. Work, sleep, other projects, and sheer laziness all play a role.

One thing I have been working on is a world in which those stories may or may not take place. It all started with a blog. Valerie D'Orazio's Occasional Superheroine blog to be exact. In a great series of posts wherein she describes her trials within and without the comic book bizness, she mentions a name generator. Not one in particular, just that they exist.

So, of course I hit Google, and found Seventh Sanctum. This is a site with numerous and helpful generators for a number of gaming and writing needs. Especially for someone like myself, with a comics and gaming background.

Seventh Sanctum lead me to this fractal world generator.

That's where I generated the above map of my new world. It doesn't have a name yet, just a designation: 1535565268_28_28. If you visit the site and are at all curious to see better images of my new world, simply type 1535565268 into the random seed field and set the water and ice levels to 28 each. You can view the world as a flat map, as a hemisphere or even rotating! That's a really cool feature. Sometimes I just set it up and watch the world rotate.

Once I had finally settled on a randomly generated world that pleased me, I set about to deduce some of the major features of the world. By altering the water level to about 90%, I could locate the highest mountain peaks and ranges. By using the green portions, I could mark where the major rivers might occur. With mountains and rivers, I can determine where the major cities might crop up. There is a wealth of information to be created using this wonderful generator.

At the same time, I had found the great online Steampunk comic Girl Genius. This was to prove vital to providing the main inspiration for the overall setting that any stories might find themselves growing within. If you haven't read Girl Genius, I urge you to do so right now. It is one of the finest stories I have read in the genre of comics. Brilliant writing, beautiful coloring. I can't rave enough about the story. But I won't anymore right now. Just go read the thing!

What I have mainly settled on is a world in which the primary technology is created, maintained and controlled by nine very powerful Guilds of Alchemy, which on this world, is the catch-all term for any form of science. It's a combination of technology and carefully guarded arcane knowledge. Each Guild has it's own particular form of Alchemy; steam, electricity, rocketry, flight, healing, mechanics, motors, minerals and forces. These Guilds operate independently of any government and provide their technology to all fairly. But the Guilds control the technology, and they all co-operate with each other. They have successfully kept any country or region from practicing the art of war for nearly one thousand years. They simply have all the technology, and the battle robots of the mechanics guild ensure that no war is waged.

Another reason why war has been dropped is that the Guilds ensure that trade is maintained from region to region. They tend to keep banditry and piracy to a minimum and most people at least fear the Guilds and their representatives, if not outright cheer them for their gifts of the technology that makes their lives better.

Hey, it's my world. If I don't want war, then there will be no war.

Probably.

Another aspect that I fully admit that I stole from Roger Zelazny. Gunpowder will not work on this world. Period. As well as the fact that no one has figured out that this black, smelly sludge that has been pumped up from the rocks is good for much of anything except machine lubricant.

That's about as far as I've gotten, except for having some fun generating various characters that are intended to be periferral at best, and some of the minor characters who might be involved with the main characters. People like the fellow who calls himself "The Secret Horror in the Shadows of Society," Ben Franklin's Steam Knight Corps, the Rocket Motor Legion and the Buckminster Fuller Quintet.

It's been a fun distraction, and I have always loved creating characters, scenarios and settings. I don't know how deep this well goes, but I will draw from it as long as the cool water of inspiration lasts. I will post here with any progress.

Thanks for reading!

Writing

    Writing has to be one of the hardest tasks in the human world. I remember staring at blank pages in my old, orange Sears typewriter, waiting for that magical moment of inspiration to strike. Quite  a long time ago, when I thought I was a songwriter. All of those songs have been destroyed. I remember giving it up. I thought to myself, "Until you have something worthwhile to say, stop writing songs. They're not that good."
 
Staring at a blank space on a screen is no easier.
 
A couple of weeks ago, a good friend gave me a copy of the documentary film Harlan Ellison; Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Ellison has been a favorite writer of mine almost as long as I have been able to read. If you're familiar with the man's work, or his legend, you'll know he has a reputation for ,,, shall we say, not suffering fools gladly.
 
This is a marvelous documentary, which I highly recommend to anyone who has even the remotest interest in writing and writers. Seek it out. Buy a copy. Buy another for a friend.
 
This film got me thinking about another good friend. He has a brilliant mind, and is never going to run dry of opinions. Never. However, he isn't really happy in his life situation right now. Well, in my mind, somewhere this friend and Harlan drew a parallel. I realized, this is a man who is a writer and doesn't know it yet. So, of course, when we next met, I went on and on about the movie and how much I thought that my friend is in fact, a frustrated writer. Maybe I went on a bit too much, but I couldn't help it. I wanted this nudge to take.
 
Which brings me to this blog. Hey, if I think my advice is good enough for a friend, why the hell shouldn't it apply to myself as well. I've been thinking about doing this for a bit, and my time's a wastin'. I turn fifty-one in a few days and there are probably more summers behind me than ahead now. If I want to try some writing (something I've held secretly to my breast since childhood) I better get to it. So the intent is use this as a forum to develop my chops. To get the rusty machine lubed-up, on the track and moving forward. I have no idea if I actually have anything significant to add, but we'll see. This will be a place for essays on topics that tend to loop through my head, and through conversations with friends. I want to write about things that should be, hopefully wry observations on normal life, and the occasional hard-learned life lession. I'll try to stay away from the politically inflammatory. I have grown tired of the current hack-and-slash political discourse on the internet. I will welcome all constructive responses. I will read every one, and will post any polite responses. I'm grateful for any eyes who scan these words. Hang in here with me, and you just might see a writer emerging.


Thank you in advance.