N.A. Ratnayake @quantumcowboy@wandering.shop
Engineer, Educator, Writer, Rational Idealist. A better world won't simply happen, it must be built. Mars novel: http://bit.ly/redsoil
Relaxing by the pool.
In the middle of Neal Stephenson's SEVENEVES, and I'm liking it far more than I expected. Probably still not going to make it higher than a 3.0/5.0, just because, as usual for NS, about 40% of the text is mindnumbing irrelevant descriptions of things and processes that could be removed with zero impact on the story or characters. But the premise is fascinating and many of the ideas it explores have great bearing on near-future spaceflight.
I'm obviously late to this party, but I just discovered that i can download OS Vue and Netflix apps and stream them via Chromecast to many hotel smart TVs. I feel like I'm in the future.
Hell's Belles is a new actual play #DnD series on the official D&D channel (Twitch & YouTube)
All the participants are either women (cis & trans) or NB. They give their preferred pronouns at the start of the show.
The DM, (@mazzmatazz on Twitter) just wanted to play a game with their friends, pitched it to WotC, and they approved it.
Ep. 2 is going to be streamed tonight at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific.
Forgot to mention: it's fantastic for Cold War history buffs!
Loving the strategy board game Twilight Struggle: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333/twilight-struggle. Layers and layers of strategy, counter-strategy, and counter-counter-strategy. Not a game for the impatient (which means it's good practice for me, because I am quite impatient). So far, my wife has beaten me twice, but she is also a far superior mastermind than I am... Anyway, highly recommended.
"The happiest places in the world are those where enlightened leaders shifted their focus from economic development to promoting quality of life." | So constructing a society & economy around what's good for business isn't the best approach? Shocking. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/happiest-places-in-the-world/563570/
Interesting article in The Atlantic on Tony Crews, touching on toxic masculinity and sexual assault. Show more
Major storms while on approach to FLL. Looks awesome from the air!
At my first technical conference since returning to research engineering from education... and signed up for an Education Subcommittee. I guess I can't escape! Glad I can still support STEM education indirectly from my new profession.
So, writing books often seem to be full of crap... or at least, full of information that may be valuable but I am unable to understand or apply. However, "The Emotional Craft of Fiction" by Donald Maass is turning out to be one of the few that really seems to be strengthening my writing quite a bit. If you struggle with this aspet like I do, then I recommend it!
So, submitted a short story to a market that claimed they would respond in 15-20 business days. That was 35 business days ago. It's been two days since I queried, with no response yet. How long would it be appropriate to wait before withdrawing and moving on to the next market on my list?
Ran my first formal race of any kind this morning... the NASA Moonwalk and Run 5k. That was a lot of fun! I will likely try to do another, and maybe actually train this time.
SOLO rings in at a solid "meh" for me. Too much useless fan service that doesn't have a real structural home in the plot, though not as bad as Force Awakens in that regard. Some of the "hope through darkness" message of all the best SW, but not enough coherent threads to really make it pop like Rogue One. Random awesome things introduced for no reason then abandoned. Felt like they were trying to do way to much, and never did anything well... but neither did it outright suck. So... meh.
Alright, I'm going to try to read all the short stories that are nominated for the Hugo. @amreading
@krumbukt Do you have an email or other form of contact that I can share with someone who doesn't have Mastodon? (I actually can't figure out how to share a link to a toot that works without being logged in...)
Happy to report that my #scifi short story THE PARCHED LANDS, first published in 2013 in Crossed Genres Magazine, is now available as a #free #ebook download from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/827776 … | #education #schools #testing #future
So, I rated Book 1 of Iain M. Banks's Culture series (Consider Phlebus) a 1 star on GoodReads. The internet convinced me to give the other books a shot, and sure enough, Book 2 (Player of Games) just got 5 stars. Detailed review on the blog queued. #scifi #amreading
