Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
Great post (again) by Modesitt and here’s my favorite quote/excerpt:
Study after study has shown that stress levels actually are lower in upper management and higher in those who work for them and that the highest stress levels are created at lower levels of management when the expectations of upper management conflict with the lack of adequate resources for achieving those expectations and when the compensation differential between those tasked with a job and those supervising them is highest.
Like many other Star Wars fans, I was seduced into a dark movie theater this past weekend to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. My husband and father accompanied me to the show. But all was not unicorns and rainbows even from the start.
I recently learned that my favorite movie theater complex for the past ten years, the Legends 14, changed hands. Almost mirroring the movie I was about to see, the Phoenix rising from the ashes of better distribution contracts fizzled before the dawn of AMC, which is anything but “amazing” (a snide reference to their marketing mantra).
http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/12/08/beyond-pc/
AKA calling a spade a spade.
This is almost the complete opposite of what Scalzi posted earlier today on his blog Whatever.
I’m on the fence. I don’t like intentionally harming anyone, including their feelings.
But when a religion or political entity fails the basic human rights test, what is our duty as members of said hunan race to heal that wound? Is it more bandages? Or surgery?
These questions keep me up at night. And we seem to be returning to the Cold War (the Sequel) and the threat of M.A.D. I had hoped my unborn grandchildren would not have to grow up under that doomsday cloud.
And on that depressing note, I’ll bid you ado.
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It’s not bad enough that my Texas trip was cancelled at the last minute. Or that I haven’t seen the sun since before Thanksgiving and that Kansas City is experiencing it’s fifth consecutive day of rain and drizzle (more rain today as it’s slightly above freezing). Or that I gave up my day off to voluntarily drive the vanpool to work because I believed both my back drivers had requested this Monday after Thanksgiving off. Surprise! Both of them rode in the van this morning.
Nope, it couldn’t possibly get any worse, right? Until I remembered as I got off the parking garage elevator and walked to the building elevators and saw this:
Outsiders – http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/10/13/outsiders/
A good quote from Modesitt’s post (click link above):
“… without all the social and physical ‘infrastructure’ provided by American society and government, few if any of those successes would have been possible. Just having clean water and decent sanitation provides a great advantage. Almost half the world doesn’t have one or the other.”
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/07/29/wind-nos/
More and more reasons to try or switch to Linux. Beware of Windows 10 “Free” upgrade … it will only cost your privacy.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Report: Trolls can be detected early on – KCTV5.
I’ve been a moderator in various forums online over the years. My number one axiom is ‘Never Feed the Trolls!’
Now there’s a study to back up that assertion and to predict the birth of the next troll.
Over at Tor.com, Ilana Meyer offers up some great insights into writing characters of the female variety. Here’s some excerpts that resonated with me:
They should kick ass but have other talents; they shouldn’t necessarily kick ass because that’s been done to death; they should have agency; they should move the plot forward; they should be assertive but not obnoxious; they should hold positions of power; they shouldn’t be raped or die to give the hero incentive for his quest.
What I think is missing from some of these discussions is: writing a fully realized character of any gender requires one trait above all others, and that is empathy. When a female character goes off the rails, it is often because the author experienced a failure of imagination; while he could imagine all the emotions a man might feel in a similar situation—and Continue reading “Deconstructing Strong Female Characters”
http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/01/20/why-higher-education-isnt-the-solution/
I just depressed myself reading this article. My daughter completed her Masters in Vocal Performance last year. Everything Modesitt mentioned is true only he paints an even more daunting and brutal career landscape than I imagined.
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http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/01/16/the-current-economics-of-e-books/
For my aspiring and published author friends: observations on the ebook market by Modesitt
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon