Damon Alan's Blog, page 11

A bit about space.

That’s right, a bit about space. On the page and over our heads.

A Hohmann Transfer Orbit is a method of getting a spacecraft from lower to higher orbit with less fuel.

You can spiral outward from a low circular orbit to a higher one. This is the way to burn the most fuel.

Or you can burn once in the lower orbit to make the orbit elliptical with an apogee equal to the higher circular orbit you want to establish, burning again to make your orbit circular once you get to that height.

I wrote this into my book, then realized that 1) it’s 15,000 years in the future, nobody will remember poor Mr. Hohmann’s name even if they still use the process, and 2) the reader would have to stop reading to research what I’m talking about.

Admitting 1) makes for a better story, admitting 2) keeps the pretention down. I don’t want pretentious writing.

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ATV ready to go!

This is my daughter Loren, she’s the personification of amazing. Hard working, involved, and deeply interested in bettering her mind.

Here she’s helping me get my ATV ready for the season, and it’s done now. We added that bumper on the back, stuffed the rear seat with new stuffing to ridiculous levels, and reupholstered the driver seat. We also added a winch to the front, a 3,000# Harbor Freight special. It didn’t want to fit 100%, but we made it. Because that’s how you do things for prices people can afford anymore. You adapt.

This is a 2007 Arctic Cat 700 diesel, which was about $11,000 new. I got it on Ebay for about a third of that from a guy who’d burnt out the glow plugs inside of 400 miles of buying it, bent the rear receiver, and generally treated it badly. That has changed. Tracker Marine/Bass Pro fixed the glow plugs for me at a reasonable price, and I am fixing everything he broke.

It’s 9 years old and only has 1,400 miles on it. By the end of this year, I’m hoping that’s 3,000 miles. Because this year, I’m ready to ride.

Our first ride is Saturday, an easy outing at Rainbow Falls in Woodland Park, CO.

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We need more like the James Webb Space Telescope

When I was young I used to get excited about every mission that went to space. After all, I was born before man walked on the moon. But with time that luster wore off, and NASA became more of a thing we just did because it’s what we were supposed to do. Instead of Apollo 11, we had yet another space shuttle mission to test how sugar crystals react to burning in space. Important science, I’m sure, but not exactly exciting.

With each year we Americans settled for the mediocre yet again, another shuttle mission, another comm satellite, and upgraded weather satellite launch. Still important, yet ho-hum. Occasionally we got a reprieve from routine space, and we got something like the Mars rover Opportunity. Or Curiosity. Or Galileo, Cassini, or New Horizons. So the adventure at NASA wasn’t completely dead, but it was just limping along.

And it still is.

The sad thing about NASA is that it’s a government agency, so everything costs 10x what it should, there are way too many employees, way too many restrictions, and innovation is rarely rewarded. It’s a leviathan when what we need is a lean, mean, space exploring machine.

We do get a reprieve. Private enterprise is taking up the yoke of exploring space, and Space X has promised to put a lander on Mars by 2018. Good luck, Mr. Musk.

So even the future at NASA isn’t entirely dim.

We have a planned mission to Europa to study the moon of Jupiter most likely to have life. (Maybe. Might launch in the 2020s.)

We have the Mars InSight mission to drill into the surface of Mars and see what’s below. (Launches in 2018.)

In 2020 we’re supposed to launch a more advanced Martian rover.

We have Juno, arriving at Jupiter in July of this year to study Jupiter in detail.

And, of course, we have James Webb scheduled to launch in October of 2018.

Details of the James Webb

But we need more. We, humanity, are an exploring species. When we sit on our butts doing nothing, we stagnate. Then we start bickering and worrying about who uses what bathroom. Silliness. What’s important is the advancement of our species, our movement into what is our destiny… space. We need to stand up and insist that we buy fewer tanks and more ion drives. We need to spend less on sports and more on fusion research. We need to step back from the utter silliness of religious intolerance and grab the Moon, Mars, Ganymede, Ceres. Because it’s ours. And instead of taking baby steps, we need to leap into the darkness with a boldness worthy of being human.

NASA is outdated. We need to update it and make it that lean machine, or we need to eliminate it and cede space to private enterprise. There are quadrillions of dollars worth of resources out there. There are answers to every question about our origins. Space will pay for us to come there, if we let it. Helium 3 is nearly priceless, yet the surface of the Moon is laced with it. A single asteroid moved into lunar orbit could provide more mining potential than we’ve had in the history of mankind. Space has everything we need. Hydrocarbons in asteroids, comets, and on Titan. Volatile gases frozen in comets and in forever dark craters. Water enough to fill the Earth’s oceans again and again. Gold. Silver. Titanium. Uranium. It’s all there. We just have to decide what our destiny is.

Are we cowardly and fearful apes sitting in the trees while the Savannah waits for us with fire and food? Or are we the people I thought we were as a kid when each space mission was a matter of awe and inspiration?

We have to decide. At some point we will no longer be able to sustain our people on Earth. Our resources are depleting. Our biosphere is in danger. Our oceans are dirty. Our soil is eroding. Our society is decaying in stagnancy.

Space is what will change it all. Space is what will make our species immortal, safe, and beyond the grasp of extinction.

Will we go? Or die quietly at home?

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COLORADO!

A few days ago it was 74F.  Today, not so much. And, I just looked, it’s not supposed to get above 50F again until May 3rd.

In fact, on a few days, there is a forecast of a rain/snow mix.

Maybe Mother Nature didn’t get the memo I sent her about going ATVing? Maybe she didn’t notice me changing oil, redoing seats, pressure washing, installing a new bumper, installing a 3,000# winch… maybe she just didn’t see all that.

What the %*(@*#$@#$.

So I guess this is good news, I rewrote the first chapter of Renegades, and I like it much better. With the inclement weather I suppose I’ll have more time at the keyboard. I’m making the antagonist (Garrette Orson) less of a comical creep and more insidious. Not to be confused with Darth Sidious.

I’m off to pick up a kid from school. But tonight’s agenda is writing and cooking BBQ ribs. Maybe an hour or so of Grand Theft Auto V.

This global warming thing is soooooo disappointing.

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Preparing for a summer of fun… and writing

Life can’t be all work and no play.

I got my ATV back from the Tracker Marine repair shop last week. They replaced the glow plugs. That’s right. Glow plugs. It’s an Arctic Cat 700 diesel.

I have a few changes of my own to make before things are done, and it’s supposed to be warm tomorrow. So hopefully they’ll get done.

Change the oil.

Advance the timing 2-3 degrees. Turn up the fuel regulator just a tad. The goal is to get the little Lombardini engine to the point where it just starts to puff black smoke. At that point it will be timed for maximum power and torque.

Then change the oil in my wife’s Bombardier Outlander 400. No engine changes.

CleanTalk… how to keep the wankers off your page.

I wish my blog was full of visitors. And it could be… if I wanted those visitors to be hawking porn sites, cheap clothes, $10,000 a month jobs from homes… and who knows what else.

I don’t want that. Those aren’t even real people, many times it’s just a bot out there doing what bots do. Which is mainly annoy me, from what I can tell.

But you won’t see any of that on my page. You’ll see a friend or two share their thoughts with me. I hope, over time, the site has a lot more real people on it talking science and science fiction, but until it does I will settle for a pleasant silence over the spam the less intellectual types on the internet want to foist onto my page.

Yes, I just called spammers stupid. They’re probably not if even .01% of us click their lunacy, but I still despise them anyway. And CleanTalk helps with that problem. I haven’t had a single spam attack get through since I hired them for the princely sum of $8 a year to keep my page clean.

Worth it?

Every penny. Every single penny.

You can get them for your WordPress Blog HERE.

 

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DARK MATTER!

I’ve always been a strong skeptic of DARK MATTER! theories. A non-believer, if you will, probably because skepticism is my base state.

The original “discovery” of DARK MATTER! was because the stars of the Milky Way don’t rotate around the galactic center properly. The stars out toward what we thought to be the edge of the disk rotated too fast, in violation of the known laws of gravity. They rotated just as if there was more unseen mass further out from the core, and I do admit one thing: The velocities of stars do not lie. That matter is out there.

Scientists, just like cavemen, don’t like to leave things unexplained. Since we couldn’t see the matter surrounding the galaxy, it must be DARK MATTER!

The fact is that we simply don’t know enough to make that supposition. That sound in the dark? The caveman thought it was the ghosts of their ancestors, and within a few tellings of that reason it was gospel truth. The stars are moving too fast? Must be DARK MATTER! and within a few studies that made DARK MATTER! seem reasonable… well, you know how that works. Inertia is just as strong in scientists as it is in cavemen.

But look! We’ve discovered more mass to the galaxy. Potentially 60% more mass. And I predict that’s just the start. Andromeda has a dark (but detectable) halo of matter around it that makes Andromeda 6x larger, and 1000x times more massive… WOW!

Andromeda is keeping it real.

Would that much mass explain the rotation rates? I bet it would. I bet that someday we discover the Milky Way has the same halo of matter and increase in mass. When that happens, we will be able to do away with the concept of DARK MATTER! and realize that the universe is much more WYSIWYG than we though. (What you see is what you get.)

Milky Way takes steroids.

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Leave it all behind. Especially politics.

Whatever you have going on in your life, every four years it’s interrupted by the biggest collection of idiots you’ve ever seen… until the next four year cycle comes around. They do seem to top themselves every election cycle.

But why care? There is nothing we can do about it as individuals anymore, short of dedicating our lives to the process and running to fix it. How many of us want to do that? Darn few, that’s how many.

So don’t sweat it. Just live your life, leave the political stress in the hearts of journalists, and go about life. Maybe even escape a bit.

Where to you ask?

I love Netflix. And Amazon Prime for that matter. My oldest girl and I watched Force 10, 12 O’clock High and Tora, Tora, Tora over the last few days. We’re in our WWII movie phase, I suppose.

Books!  They’re always a particularly good escape, because you can pick them up and put them down as you please. Space Opera is particularly awesome for escaping the daily doldrums. (Hint, Hint)

Outside activities will save you some during the warm months, and for the particularly hardy even the cold months. ATVing (my fave), camping, fishing, hiking, driving, or just yardwork. It’s all good for you and will reconnect you with something other than a computer screen or TV. Or iPhone for that matter. Put it all away for a bit and see the part of the world near you. If you live near a beach you can add swimming, boating, snorkeling, diving… the world is full of good things.

Why am I telling you this? Because I noticed I was letting all this wind me up. Especially on Facebook. The problem is none of it matters and there is nothing I can do about it anyway. Just try to adjust my life according to current government policy. Taxes less? Work more. Taxes more? Work less. It’s simple.

Since my writing isn’t in any danger of changing my tax bracket, I am certainly not going to stop that.

Next week I start editing Book 3, Renegades. I have more than one person standing by to buy it, which is sort of exciting. I’m told the more books you put out there, the more the readers trust you and will buy your stuff knowing you’re not going to give it up on them.

I’m not going to give it up. I write for me as much as for anything else.

Tomorrow, in a bid to forget the nonsense going on in political land, my wife and I are getting out the Mercedes 560SL for a few hours and enjoying the sun on a 66 degree day. I’ve got the battery charging right now after a winter of just sitting in the garage. It will be fun.

The dog likes summer activities

My lovely bride and I with the top down enjoying a day out together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My oldest likes to ride too.

Who could ask for a cooler wife?

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Serum is released!

So Serum is out there, in the world, hopefully walking on it’s own and making new friends.

Serum: A Political Thriller on Amazon

As soon as Amazon approves my request, I’ll be conducting a giveaway for 6 books. So look for that to be posted here with a link.

I’m going to spend a couple of days promoting Serum, and after that it’s back to the grind. Renegades is nearly done as well, I need to write a couple of battle scenes and polish the book one final time. And finalize the cover.

That will probably take a couple of weeks, maybe a month. After that, it’s hit the promotion of All or Nothing and see if we can get our game to take off. It should, it’s fun.

There’s going to be a lot of ATVing this summer as well. My Arctic Cat 700 Diesel is in the shop getting new glow plugs, but as soon as it’s back Shannon (my wife) and I intend to hit the trails in Pike National Forest. I’ll take some good videos of that while we’re running through the mountain forests, so expect a few of those.

Summer might be a bit slower than winter as far as output goes. But I have a series of novellas to work on, the first two are complete as first drafts. Then there is Swap Out to finish, that’s the second game our company will be releasing most likely.

Wow. Busy much? Who would have thought.

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Serum, my next book

Serum, my next book to be released, is almost done.

But what about Renegades, you ask?

Renegades is also almost done, but I don’t want to release two books at once.

So probably by the end of April Serum will be released.

At this time I’m planning on releasing Renegades sometime in June or July.

I’m also revamping my Slayer novelette series, and as soon as I have three works in that set done to my satisfaction I’ll release them all at once. 15,000-25,000 words each, they’ll be on Amazon for $.99.

So if all goes well by the end of 2016 my list of works will include:

Dark Seas Space Opera Series:

The Anvil of Dust and Stars (published and available on Amazon)
On the Shores of a Dark Sea (published and available on Amazon)
Renegades (likely publish date June or July 2016)

Stand Alone Political Thriller: (might become a series if reception is good)

Serum (should be out by the end of April)

Slayer Novelettes:

Slayer (written, needs edited)
Succubus (written, needs edited)
Book 3 (not written, not titled, not outlined, not even thought out yet)

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