Filed under: Alzheimer's, Depression, Health, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Promotion, Publishing, Society
So, we’re doing another free promotion day for the Kindle edition of Her Final Year.
One thing I realized some time back was that many people just don’t want to think about care-giving. That’s understandable, because there’s a *lot* about care-giving which is stressful, unpleasant, depressing.
But that isn’t all there is. I have said to others that this experience of being a care-provider was the hardest thing I have ever done, but that it also made me a much better person. Why? Well, because of moments like this, from the ‘November: Endgame’ chapter of the book, originally written in November 2007:
After a particularly rough patch of it yesterday morning, I was helping her [Martha Sr] from the toilet to her usual seat in the front room, where she likes to sit and look at magazines. As we transitioned from the wheelchair to her comfy chair, and I got her settled safely there, she looked up at me, her frail thin arms still around my neck, her light brown eyes clear for a moment, and said “thank you, son.”
In the more than twenty years I’ve known her, in the twenty years I have been married to her daughter, she has never once before called me “son.” In fact, since my own parents died almost 40 years ago, no one has called me that. It was a strange word to hear directed my way. And it touched me like no other thanks she has ever offered.
So, don’t be afraid. If you haven’t read the book, go download a copy for free now. And tell your friends and family members about it. This is something which may not be useful right now, but the chances are that it will be relevant at some point in your life. And knowing that you can face that with a measure of joy can make all the difference.
Jim Downey
*Yes, from this.
Filed under: Marketing, movies, Music, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Violence, YouTube
So, anyone and everyone (well, in the “Love movies/science fiction/spectacles” crowd) spent much of the last couple of days talking about the new Prometheus trailer. This one:
At the time I write this, some 3,894,928 people have viewed said trailer on YouTube. And little wonder that it has so many people talking – it’s just about perfect for a blockbuster Hollywood spectacle, with massive explosions, plenty of violence and special effects, and a soundtrack that’ll make your ears bleed.
I’m a big fan of Alien, and Ridley Scott in general. And the above Prometheus trailer is pretty damned exciting.
But you know, I’d rather see this movie:
Yeah, that’s also a trailer for Prometheus. But it’s the UK trailer. It’s slower paced. More emphasis on telling a story. Literally quieter. The first explosion doesn’t show up until about 3/4 into the trailer.
Interesting difference in marketing. Using the same tech, many of the same clips/images from the movie (well, as much as you can depend on any trailer to use actual clips from the movie), even mostly the same music, the UK trailer manages to create a substantially different mood.
Like I said, I know which movie I’d rather see. And I know which crew I would rather see turn Communion of Dreams into a movie.
Well, I can dream, can’t I?
Jim Downey
Via Topless Robot.
I’ve said before that there is some kind of environmental effect behind the rising obesity rates worldwide over the last several decades. It could be a virus. It could be change in our gut flora. It could just be a response to rising stress levels in our society. It could be some kind of leeching plastics, or the use of HFC, or any number of other factors individually or in combination.
Or, perhaps it is the air we breathe:
Could Air Pollution Be Making Us Fat?
Steadily rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be affecting brain chemistry, increasing appetite and contributing to the obesity epidemic, according to a new hypothesis, which still awaits rigorous testing and inevitable debate.
The idea proposes that breathing in extra CO2 makes blood more acidic, which in turn causes neurons that regulate appetite, sleep and metabolism to fire more frequently. As a result, we might be eating more, sleeping less and gaining more weight, partly as a result of the air we breathe.
Major studies are in the works to test the hypothesis, which is still very much in the what-if stage. But if the link pans out, the research would offer yet another reason to reduce the CO2 we produce, while also potentially inspiring new obesity treatments.
OK, as the article stresses, this is *not* proven yet. But there is enough preliminary data and a plausible mechanism to warrant some serious investigation. And it tracks well with the rapid spread of obesity rates – CO2 levels have about doubled in the last 50 years.
Still, I’d rather have to fight fat than Reavers.
Jim Downey
*http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/G-23_Paxilon_Hydrochlorate
Filed under: Blade Runner, Guns, Marketing, movies, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction
One of my most popular blog posts is this one: Model 2019 Detective Special
Well, you still have a few hours to get one of these, just $10 plus shipping:
Why yes, I have ordered one already.
Jim Downey
I’ll be damned – they actually used a miniature. I expected that it’d all be CGI in this day and age.
Full article, and a bunch more images of the model, here: Harry Potter and the film-makers’ magic.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Firefly, Joss Whedon, movies, Press, Promotion, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
The title seemed an appropriate reference for how science fiction can have an impact on culture, if only a minor/temporary linguistic one. Which is the topic of today’s entry in the ongoing series of interview questions:
4. In 2012, we can easily look back at previous science fiction works and poke fun at how we’ve yet to receive our flying car or develop certain technologies we were “promised.” When crafting a world that hasn’t come into being, and may never, how have you viewed the balance between letting your imagination run wild and still trying to create a future that rings true in some form or fashion?
Yeah, that’s one of the big dangers in writing about what the world will be like in just 40 years. I mean, I’m 53 – I *remember* what the world was like in 1972. So I tried to turn that around, and think back to how small changes and unexpected events have shaped the world in the last 40 years, and then tried to use those insights in looking forward. I’ve tried to anchor the world of 2052 firmly in what our world today is really like, but extending trends we have seen operate in the last 40 years. Toss in a few wildcard events, some unexpected discoveries, and then cross your fingers.
And to a certain extent, this is why I don’t really think of Communion of Dreams as a typical ‘science fiction’ book – it is solidly grounded in known science and built from the reality around us. The people in it are all real people, not unlike folks you know or would find in any mainstream novel. In this sense, it is just another work of fiction, though one which is a bit more speculative.
That said, while we can all grumble about not having jet-packs or flying cars, a lot of science fiction did help inspire and influence technological development. Arthur C. Clarke is arguably the first person to have suggested geostationary satellite communications. Our tablet computers and smartphones can be traced back to countless “electronic readers” and “communicators” described in science fiction back as far as the 1930s. And just a year ago the X-Prize Foundation announced a $10 million competition to build a Star Trek ‘tricorder’. I can’t say that there’s anything in Communion of Dreams which will have that kind of impact, but who knows?
Part of my ambivalence there at the end is just due to the unpredictability of these things, and how they can pop up long after you think whatever impact has long-since faded. I mean, look at the appeal of the Air Mags. Who would have predicted that those sneakers from a movie made in the 80s would suddenly be popular again? And with Hollywood seeming to be stuck in an endless cycle of remakes of classic science fiction movies/shows, it is entirely possible that I will live to see Joss Whedon (or someone else) get another crack at the Firefly universe, perhaps reviving interest in some small bit of his future tech/lingo. Stranger things have happened.
Jim Downey
*From here, of course.
Filed under: Blade Runner, movies, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction, YouTube
Sharing this just because it is so completely insane:
And the long sequence of her dancing with the snake reminded me very much of the ‘Miss Salomé and the snake’ scene in Blade Runner. Given the rest of the futuristic theme of this clip, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out that it provided the inspiration for Ridley Scott twenty years later. It’d be interesting to find out. Maybe if Scott winds up doing the film adaptation of Communion of Dreams . . .
Jim Downey
Via John Bourke, my co-author of Her Final Year, this truly delightful (and poignant) little story:
How completely wonderful. Thanks, John.
Jim
Filed under: Art, Augmented Reality, George Lucas, Humor, movies, Science Fiction, Society, Star Wars, YouTube
I can be a bit of a curmudgeon. A grump. A misanthrope. Anyone who’s read my blog for a while knows this.
But sometimes, people impress the hell out of me. Oh, I’m not talking about the sorts of things that cause a lump in your throat. You know, self-sacrifice . . . being kind to strangers . . . saving a defenseless animal . . . that kind of thing. No, I’m talking about how people can be remarkably creative and intelligent. Like this:
Yeah, it’s two hours long. You don’t have to watch it all at once. Just look at it in bits and pieces. It’s OK, because you know the story, and the thing was *designed* to be sampled:
In 2009, thousands of Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.
Just watching the amazing approaches that different people took to telling each slice of the story is pretty mind-blowing. Everything from bad acting with pretty good mock-ups of the scenes, to sock puppets, to incredible animation, to re-interpretations using animals, and on and on. It’s really damned impressive.
And of course, so is the brilliance behind the idea, and seeing it to completion.
Yeah, sometimes people impress the hell out of me. I’ve been laughing my ass off watching this thing.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 