...but he's got no hair and a 5-oclock shadow for a beard. He also goes by the name of "Jobs".
After surveying the field and finding nothing better than the Apple offering, I pre-ordered my 3G iPad (online, and from Thailand) and after several abortive attempt to take delivery, finally got my new machine up and running.
While spending the summer traveling the backroads of BC, Canada and running between hospitals to monitor aging parents, my iPad has been a lifesaver! Like many other users, I'd love to see a camera on-board, and it would be nice to be able to plug straight in via a USB port, for a 1st edition, it's a keeper! While attending a conference this week, I've used the my pad (named "CanOracle" -short for "Canadian Oracle") with a wireless keyboard as an alternative to a laptop, and the results have been beyond acceptable. I think I may permanently tether my Macbook Pro to a desk and use the iPad as my primary machine.
Onward!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
My Year of the Tiger...
...is off to a good start. The Wayback Machine has made the 1st cut in ABNA3 (Amazon Breakout Novel Contest) in the new YA division, and boy, does that feel good! Even though I've written off the contest as something of a lottery, with a single winner eventually "winning" a publishing contract from up to 5,000 entries, it was still a downer in ABNA1 and 2 to look for my name and not find it among the (long)listed titles.
It's been five years now since I decided to write in earnest, and this is my biggest boost so far. Oh, I had that excerpt from Mai Shangri-La published in Polar Expressions in 2007, but other than than, I'm building up my requisite (it seems) file of publisher and agent rejections. Some are kind, offering words of encouragement or bits of advice; others are pretty blunt. All part of the writers' babtism of fire, they say...
Next big date is March 23rd, when ABNA cuts to 500 "Quarterfinalists". I'm keeping my expectations low, but still, one can't help dreaming a bit of that big breakthrough. With growing global awareness of the fragility of the environment and the challenges ahead, maybe the time is at hand for us environmental "canaries in the coal mine". The challenge, of course, is to get the environmental message out subliminally, while telling a good story...
It's been five years now since I decided to write in earnest, and this is my biggest boost so far. Oh, I had that excerpt from Mai Shangri-La published in Polar Expressions in 2007, but other than than, I'm building up my requisite (it seems) file of publisher and agent rejections. Some are kind, offering words of encouragement or bits of advice; others are pretty blunt. All part of the writers' babtism of fire, they say...
Next big date is March 23rd, when ABNA cuts to 500 "Quarterfinalists". I'm keeping my expectations low, but still, one can't help dreaming a bit of that big breakthrough. With growing global awareness of the fragility of the environment and the challenges ahead, maybe the time is at hand for us environmental "canaries in the coal mine". The challenge, of course, is to get the environmental message out subliminally, while telling a good story...
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Still Edging Ahead...
...towards the day when Universal access on a single Ubiquitous device that's lighter than a lead-brick will put the riches of the web truly within Every person's reach.
On review, Apple's new iPad didn't do it, but Hearst's new Skiff, although not quite there yet, moves the bar significantly closer to the mark. Go Hearst!
On review, Apple's new iPad didn't do it, but Hearst's new Skiff, although not quite there yet, moves the bar significantly closer to the mark. Go Hearst!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Mai Shangri-La Kindle Edition Now Available
Just call me "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" Rubis...
...the VERY day Mai Shangri-La makes it to the Kindle platform is the day the Apple iPad "Kindle-killer" is released.
Sigh...
...the VERY day Mai Shangri-La makes it to the Kindle platform is the day the Apple iPad "Kindle-killer" is released.
Sigh...
Monday, November 16, 2009
If you read ONE book this year...
...make it Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl".
Paulo Bacigalupi is a new writer to me, as his previous (award-winning) work has been largely short fiction, but with his first novel, he has absolutely NAILED the world I was trying to create in "Mai Shangri-La". Best of all, he's created his future world in Bangkok, as I did in "Mai Shangri-la". Worst 0f all, his vision of that world is, if anything, even darker than mine.
As a school librarian and a writer, I'm going to quickly correct my ignorance of Bacigalupi's previous work. I stand in awe of his vision of the future, of the intricately detailed world he has created in a single novel (it reminded me in this sense of "Dune"), and of the absolutely visceral nature of his writing. Move over Stephen King. I've got a new literary muse to follow!
Reading "the Windup Girl" won't make me give up on my own writing, and it won't make me try to emulate Mr. Bacigalupi's style, but it will make me rethink the old "show, don't tell" mantra. Bacigalupi is a master at this. I've lived in Bangkok for 25 years, but in apparently a single short visit before writing "the Windup Girl", he captured the very essence of what makes living in Bangkok a constant love/hate thing - and he shows what it could be like in 50 years.
Thanks so much, Paulo Bacigalup - for both entertaining the Hell out of me for the past week - and for giving me a new reason to get back to my own writing.
Paulo Bacigalupi is a new writer to me, as his previous (award-winning) work has been largely short fiction, but with his first novel, he has absolutely NAILED the world I was trying to create in "Mai Shangri-La". Best of all, he's created his future world in Bangkok, as I did in "Mai Shangri-la". Worst 0f all, his vision of that world is, if anything, even darker than mine.
As a school librarian and a writer, I'm going to quickly correct my ignorance of Bacigalupi's previous work. I stand in awe of his vision of the future, of the intricately detailed world he has created in a single novel (it reminded me in this sense of "Dune"), and of the absolutely visceral nature of his writing. Move over Stephen King. I've got a new literary muse to follow!
Reading "the Windup Girl" won't make me give up on my own writing, and it won't make me try to emulate Mr. Bacigalupi's style, but it will make me rethink the old "show, don't tell" mantra. Bacigalupi is a master at this. I've lived in Bangkok for 25 years, but in apparently a single short visit before writing "the Windup Girl", he captured the very essence of what makes living in Bangkok a constant love/hate thing - and he shows what it could be like in 50 years.
Thanks so much, Paulo Bacigalup - for both entertaining the Hell out of me for the past week - and for giving me a new reason to get back to my own writing.
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Tipping Point...
...on global recognition of the Freight Train bearing down on us.
NO, if I read Stuart H. Scott's body language correctly yesterday. Addressing students at International School Bangkok yesterday, Scott literally choked up when he reached a slide showing the impact on agricultural capacity in the US at a projected "best-case" future of 600 ppm atmospheric CO2 .
More on Scott, his Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, and the Climate Project, as I learn more about them. They are just part of the cascade of opinion, research, prognostication and exhortation to action that are beginning to - finally, bring us to the tipping point on real action.
The question is, is it in time? Inform yourself, and then start taking action. NOW
NO, if I read Stuart H. Scott's body language correctly yesterday. Addressing students at International School Bangkok yesterday, Scott literally choked up when he reached a slide showing the impact on agricultural capacity in the US at a projected "best-case" future of 600 ppm atmospheric CO2 .
More on Scott, his Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, and the Climate Project, as I learn more about them. They are just part of the cascade of opinion, research, prognostication and exhortation to action that are beginning to - finally, bring us to the tipping point on real action.
The question is, is it in time? Inform yourself, and then start taking action. NOW
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Getting the word out...
...one person at a time.
Unfortunately, I'm preaching to the choir, but hey, I'll "build my network", as my "techfolk" colleagues put it, whereever I can..
I wrote James Howard Kunstler a couple of days ago to tell him his new book had kept me up until midnight (a rare occurrence since I became a father, and grab my sleep when I can). If you aren't ready to take a chance on an unknown author, the do NOT miss "World Made by Hand ", in which Mr. Kunstler lays out a possible scenario much like mine in Mai Shangri-La, but much more elegantly put. My kudos to him for keeping up the energy on this front.
James Kunstler wrote me back within a day, and his words have given me fresh energy and hope. "Persevere", he says, and he's absolutely right. Those of us who have woken up to smell the coffee need to keep up the fight. Eventually we'll reach the critical mass needed to bring about real change.
I wrote a new blog-post in my "professional" blog yesterday too, in answer to the focus question for the launch of a new SUNY course we're running at International School Bangkok. The theme of my post was that there are strong competing issues with "flavor of the week" technology that we should be thinking about - the environment being right at the top of the list.
I compared weighing the importance of technology integration over other issues to Greg Craven's "big decision grid", and mentioned his book "What's the Worst that Can Happen: A Rationale Response to Climate Change". Surprisingly Greg Craven too, got back to me within 24 hours. It seems that even he, as a published author, obsesses over whether anyone is reading his book. Take heart, Greg, the word IS getting out. Slowly, slowly, but getting out.
Pass it forward....
Unfortunately, I'm preaching to the choir, but hey, I'll "build my network", as my "techfolk" colleagues put it, whereever I can..
I wrote James Howard Kunstler a couple of days ago to tell him his new book had kept me up until midnight (a rare occurrence since I became a father, and grab my sleep when I can). If you aren't ready to take a chance on an unknown author, the do NOT miss "World Made by Hand ", in which Mr. Kunstler lays out a possible scenario much like mine in Mai Shangri-La, but much more elegantly put. My kudos to him for keeping up the energy on this front.
James Kunstler wrote me back within a day, and his words have given me fresh energy and hope. "Persevere", he says, and he's absolutely right. Those of us who have woken up to smell the coffee need to keep up the fight. Eventually we'll reach the critical mass needed to bring about real change.
I wrote a new blog-post in my "professional" blog yesterday too, in answer to the focus question for the launch of a new SUNY course we're running at International School Bangkok. The theme of my post was that there are strong competing issues with "flavor of the week" technology that we should be thinking about - the environment being right at the top of the list.
I compared weighing the importance of technology integration over other issues to Greg Craven's "big decision grid", and mentioned his book "What's the Worst that Can Happen: A Rationale Response to Climate Change". Surprisingly Greg Craven too, got back to me within 24 hours. It seems that even he, as a published author, obsesses over whether anyone is reading his book. Take heart, Greg, the word IS getting out. Slowly, slowly, but getting out.
Pass it forward....
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