Orphange by Robert Buettner (blog, website) is Heinlein’s Troopers without the mechs and Denise Richardson.
Official Blog of author R. K. Bentley
Month: December 2010
So, the day after Christmas while the Patriots pasted the Bills, we watched Snowpocalypse 2010 march into New England.
By the time I got out of work at 430, everything was closed including the Grocery Stores since they were out of bread. Subway on Post had closed but the one on Airport was still open. The sandwich shop was empty one moment and busy the next but they were open and everything else was closed.
Monday morning, I went out to shovel and after taking a picture of some pictures of the snow laden tree branches I put my phone back into my coat pocket, dragged the snow thrower out of the garage and cleared the driveway. Hour later, I opened the pocket and hit the home button and nothing happened. So, it’s cold outside, maybe the battery drained. Finished clearing up the driveway and plug the phone back into AC to charge: Nothing. Plugged into iMac: Nothing.
Brought up: How to dry out iPhone 4 and the fact I plugged or press anything was not the bestest thing in the whole wide world so I opened two packets of instant rice and in went the phone. Opened up the Apple Store App on my iPad and made a reservation for New Years Eve since the instructions said it would take 2-3 days to dry out if the phone was “damp.”
Today, I went looking for Silica gel crystals aka Flower Drying Crystals at Sears and Walmart. No luck. Rolled into Panera for lunch, checked emails, FB, Twitter since iPhone was dead and decided to open the Apple Store App to see if I could reschedule. 440 appointment was avail and after one click it was rescheduled. The traffic on RTE 2 had thinned a bit so onto 95N I went.
Journeyed up to the Providence Place Mall, the length of lines outside the Mall Garage did not surprise me. I managed to find a parking space right next to the door on the top floor. Ventured down 3 escalators, walked in early, got served, found out two apple store employees participated in NaNoWrimo and poof iPhone fixed. Turns out sometimes the Apps can crash and looks like a black screen so the water may have had nothing to do with it. On a side note, I haven’t seen that many red shirts in one place except a Star Trek convention.
Got a new iPhone case and swiped out of the store at 438pm.
Waited at the elevators. And, waited. And, waited. It came down to 1, half of it filled up, a group of Seniors asked how to get down to Level A. After directions we filled up with baby strollers. The babies had a lovely time talking and pawing each other. We traveled up three levels refilling the car as we went. Got back to the car around 450pm and managed to get halfway down a level and the line started. Okay, holiday traffic to be expected. Glad I didn’t pay early.
530 we still hadn’t moved. I had burned through several chapters of the Orphanage by Robert Buettner and made out my Last Will in case they found us like the Donner Party.
The car horns beeped, children went back into the mall and came back out every time we budged five feet. Several people tried to go down the lane marked Do Not Enter.
By the time we left at 645, the gates have been raised and we got out of the mall for free.
I’m glad I rescheduled the appointment, more than happy the app allowed for it and happy the phone worked. Hopefully Apple will open another store in Rhode Island like maybe Chapel View in Cranston would be nice.
“It’s all in the wrist.”
Tron was to the ’80s what Matrix was to the ’90s/’00s.
Thankfully, Legacy is prettier than Matrix Reloaded and decides to dip it’s toe into the philosophy kiddy pool without drowning it in. It’s style is what sells it. Gone are the outfits, the boots and the helmets with the day glow lines and instead it’s black and white outfits for everyone with several stripes of white, red, yellow and green.
The idea of Tron has caught up with the technology. The plot is fairly straight forward and while some of the scenes harken back to the original right down to Sark’s Command Ship or even to other movies (ahem, Star Wars among others, my mom asked me where Luke was).
It’s what Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith should have been if you ejected the political plot lines and the racist aliens.
Well, shit.
I can tell you where I was when Farscape was canceled. When Firefly and Dollhouse was canceled and now SG:U.
The Twitter SGU List I had set up was full of well wishes to the cast members and reports of them not even being told until they heard about it on Twitter.
You’d think with three Twitter-created shows in development you’d think H’Wood would figured out to tell the cast first then release the bad news.
Personally, SG:U was a fun show. It could do the comedy, human and space action without dumbing it down for the audience.
After running down the healthy Atlantis, SG:U embraced the BSG model of: Oh snap! We’re lost in space! OMGWTFBBQ! It started off to a rocky start even before it began with character descriptions looking like 90210.
In the end, it became a great show that had found itself by the end of the first season.
The second season was throughly enjoyable even if the Eli’s geek in love plot was snuffed out too soon.
There will be no third season unless it’s on DVD ala SG:1.
It’s unfortunate in this day and age that smart Sci-Fi Shows are tossed while rehashes are brought up in the same press tweet, no less.
The good news is least we have 10 episodes left of Season 2 to enjoy next year.
Well, for those just joining us, here’s how things stand for those who did not manage to get any tickets for SDCC 2011:
SDCC is currently not selling tickets due to the server strain that couldn’t withstand two attempts by Nerd Prom attendees. So, after losing their attempt to free the tickets from the clutches of the Evil Empire, the Nerds have now positioned their rag tag fleet around the small moon of Endor.
Judging from this page, they’re decided to spread out the tickets between 2 vendors and try a test run on Wednesday. The #sdcc tag on Twitter is going to be a lovely place to watch the fireworks just as it was for the great Hotel Fubar of 2010.
On the personal front: my time off from work has been approved and where I’m staying is already booked. So, it just comes down to airline tickets and right now Southwest has the cheapest fares.
I guess it goes without saying the line for the ticket booth for 2012 is going to rival that of Hall H…
So with NaNoWrimo over for another year, I’ve been posting a few pictures and put them into a Wrimo 2010 Folder. The final pictures of the TGIO party are up.
2009 Folder as sparse as it is.
2006 Folder.
Overall, the month went well, I think. I don’t foresee changing locations at all for next year. The Panera that’s going into Providence Place is great but I think Johnston’s Brewed Awakenings will definitely be a spot for next year. Warwick Public Library worked out perfectly and South County’s Brewed was perfect. I’d love to return to Fox Point at some point, the entire area felt right for writing.
Story wise, I got some good pages out of it, I think. 100k didn’t happen but I think that’s for the best. I’m going to try and prep better next year.
Now going to go back through to finish my WIP from last year.
The good news is after checking out Agent Query Connect I have a better handle on the overview of the story and how many words it should be. Which means the intro chapter I handed out at the TGIO lunch is going to change.
Several questions came up about where all this took place so I’ve gone back through found the maps I had made (yes, carrying around 2 lined + 2 unlined Moleskines is your friend) and will probably re-design them in Illustrator and place a map at the beginning of the manuscript.
So, back to the grind we go…
Game of Thrones Behind the Scenes Video:
Well, for those who felt bullied into NBC’s 10 Bullying Special and didn’t feel like staying up until 330am.
Last night’s Community:
Snatched from the original Projo News Blog Article by Lynne Chaput.
“Body of Proof” finally has a start date. The new ABC drama series, which is set in Philadelphia but has been filming around Rhode Island for months, will debut Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10 p.m.
Dana Delany stars as Dr. Megan Hunt, a neurosurgeon turned medical examiner after an accident ends her days in the operating room. Jeri Ryan, John Carroll Lynch, Nicholas Bishop and Sonja Sohn are featured.
The new series was originally slated for a fall airing on Friday nights, but the network decided to hold on to the show and wait for a better timeslot.
Delany, executive producers Christopher Murphey, Matthew Gross and Sunil Nayar will be at the State House Friday at 9 a.m. for an event in the Governor’s State Room arranged by the Rhode Island Film & TV Office.