EVEN BETTER THAN SETI@HOME
Google now has a simple utility that will download small bits of research projects (things like folding proteins so see what they'll do) that require vast computer time, and, while you're getting your coffee, or thinking about the next word you're going to type, it will have your computer crunch away. Easy way to do good, costs you nothing.
Friday, April 30, 2004
I MUST BE GETTING OLD OR SOMETHING BUT...
Very funny O.C. last night, which I only just watched. The Vegas episode.
First of all, how much money do shows get paid to glorify Vegas? Or do people actually think it's a glamorous exciting place? Aside from being an abomination before the Lord, it's pretty seedy, and there's a stink of old alcohol and lost money. But I don't know how many times I've seen the wow-we're-in-Vegas montage. Ugh.
Second, why does it bother me so much that the otherwise quite clever O.C. characters fall for the old routine (from movies and tv, anyway) where the character picks up an attractive woman, and then her pimp comes around and extorts money because the lady is a hooker? (A) if you didn't know she was a hooker, how are you on the hook for the dough; and if you're not, aren't you essentially being mugged? (B) more importantly, no way the Hard Rock Hotel would let thugs come and mug their guests. The Hard Rock Hotel is looking to take its guests' money legitimately. Why couldn't the kids just call room service for some house detectives? I'm sure the pimps would have been relocated to an unmarked hole in the Las Vegas desert in no time at all.
But maybe I'm just too old to go along for the ride...
Very funny O.C. last night, which I only just watched. The Vegas episode.
First of all, how much money do shows get paid to glorify Vegas? Or do people actually think it's a glamorous exciting place? Aside from being an abomination before the Lord, it's pretty seedy, and there's a stink of old alcohol and lost money. But I don't know how many times I've seen the wow-we're-in-Vegas montage. Ugh.
Second, why does it bother me so much that the otherwise quite clever O.C. characters fall for the old routine (from movies and tv, anyway) where the character picks up an attractive woman, and then her pimp comes around and extorts money because the lady is a hooker? (A) if you didn't know she was a hooker, how are you on the hook for the dough; and if you're not, aren't you essentially being mugged? (B) more importantly, no way the Hard Rock Hotel would let thugs come and mug their guests. The Hard Rock Hotel is looking to take its guests' money legitimately. Why couldn't the kids just call room service for some house detectives? I'm sure the pimps would have been relocated to an unmarked hole in the Las Vegas desert in no time at all.
But maybe I'm just too old to go along for the ride...
A LITTLE BIT O'FAIRNESS
Here's an idea: allow college sportsmen to use their scholarship after they play for the university. Everyone knows that kids on, say, basketball scholarships don't get anything out of their college years. They play for the university, which makes massive amounts of money off televising their games, and they come out without an education because they were too busy playing ball. Why not allow them to play the sport and then go to school? That way if they make it into the pros, they can go back to school when they're too old to play, and if they don't, they can get the education they were promised.
Here's an idea: allow college sportsmen to use their scholarship after they play for the university. Everyone knows that kids on, say, basketball scholarships don't get anything out of their college years. They play for the university, which makes massive amounts of money off televising their games, and they come out without an education because they were too busy playing ball. Why not allow them to play the sport and then go to school? That way if they make it into the pros, they can go back to school when they're too old to play, and if they don't, they can get the education they were promised.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
WHITHER WEST WING
Aaron Sorkin's West Wing was always Star Trek: The Next Generation in the White House: a tight-knit crew of talented and devoted people work together to do Good Things, under a tough, but-surprisingly wise and compassionate leader whom they practically worship. The attractive fantasy was identifying with that crew. For everyone who works in a normal office or shop floor, where bosses are often tyrants or stupid or both, and co-workers are vengeful and spiteful, and people are expected to bleed so their company can sell more widgets, or sell them cheaper, here was a place you could imagine yourself where the crew's success or failure meant the world to millions of people.
The new season of West Wing -- I guess we can call it the John Wells West Wing seems quite different. It's more about office politics. People are at odds with each other. Leo uses Josh's talents to get a bill passed, even though Leo knows that if Josh knew the whole story, he'd try to kill the bill instead. That's more like real life. I can't say it's a better or worse show, but I don't enjoy it as much. It doesn't make me cry the way Sorkin's show did. Ah well. "I am Ozymandius, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."
Aaron Sorkin's West Wing was always Star Trek: The Next Generation in the White House: a tight-knit crew of talented and devoted people work together to do Good Things, under a tough, but-surprisingly wise and compassionate leader whom they practically worship. The attractive fantasy was identifying with that crew. For everyone who works in a normal office or shop floor, where bosses are often tyrants or stupid or both, and co-workers are vengeful and spiteful, and people are expected to bleed so their company can sell more widgets, or sell them cheaper, here was a place you could imagine yourself where the crew's success or failure meant the world to millions of people.
The new season of West Wing -- I guess we can call it the John Wells West Wing seems quite different. It's more about office politics. People are at odds with each other. Leo uses Josh's talents to get a bill passed, even though Leo knows that if Josh knew the whole story, he'd try to kill the bill instead. That's more like real life. I can't say it's a better or worse show, but I don't enjoy it as much. It doesn't make me cry the way Sorkin's show did. Ah well. "I am Ozymandius, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."
PITCHING IT
I still think the best way to write a good story is to keep pitching it to friends, as I say in my book. However, just like other writers, I'm bad at doing it. But I finally finished off the long version of Unseen, almost 15 pages. Now I'm retelling it in 5, hopefully, off the top of my head. And, I think, it's getting better. Faster. More streamlined.
It's tough to tell a story off the top of your head, but if you can, it's a better story than if you can't, I think, and you find yourself rearranging scenes in much better order as you do it. Sometimes you realize you have as you do it, sometimes you don't realize it until later, but the order that comes to mind off the top of your head almost certainly makes a better story.
The exception here is things you need to set up in advance. But you can mention them in your short form where they come up ("... a guy we've, I forgot to mention, seen snooping around in earlier scenes") and stick them in their proper place when you start writing pages.
I still think the best way to write a good story is to keep pitching it to friends, as I say in my book. However, just like other writers, I'm bad at doing it. But I finally finished off the long version of Unseen, almost 15 pages. Now I'm retelling it in 5, hopefully, off the top of my head. And, I think, it's getting better. Faster. More streamlined.
It's tough to tell a story off the top of your head, but if you can, it's a better story than if you can't, I think, and you find yourself rearranging scenes in much better order as you do it. Sometimes you realize you have as you do it, sometimes you don't realize it until later, but the order that comes to mind off the top of your head almost certainly makes a better story.
The exception here is things you need to set up in advance. But you can mention them in your short form where they come up ("... a guy we've, I forgot to mention, seen snooping around in earlier scenes") and stick them in their proper place when you start writing pages.
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