Michael Offutt's Blog, page 143

Five ways in which Fringe is one of the best science fiction series ever even as it ends

Oh J.J. Abrams...what a talent you are.

You have entertained me for five years, and our journey once again is over.

Tonight I shall be watching the Fringe series finale with millions of other loyal sci-fi viewers, and I have to say, I wish it wasn't so. When I first started following this series several years ago, I thought it was kind of an X-Files reboot with a team that dealt with a quirky monster of the week. It quickly shed itself of that legacy, however, and toward the end has become the kind of insanity where I sit back and think: are these writers crazy? I love this.

I think genius and insanity kind of go hand in hand.

Fringe took us to an alternate universe. This really isn't done enough (it's one reason why I chose to break it loose in my book). Star Trek did it well (and I don't think there's a single "alternate universe" episode that I don't like no matter what series we are talking about). But if there's a master example of multiple universes, that paragon is Fringe.

Abrams has given us a great cast. Leonard Nimoy showed up as insane Dr. William Bell who removed slices of Walter Bishop's brain because he was becoming a mad scientist (how nutso is that?). And furthermore, those slices of brain actually get put back into Walter causing his personality to shift.

Walter's own son died so he kidnapped an alternate dimension's "son of Walter" to adopt as his own.

Olivia has had just about anything you can imagine happen to her. Including being a young woman and working with her daughter (who is the same age) because the show decided to leap forward 23 years from the previous season and just start up there.

Why the hell not? Right? But it works.

And when you think of insects stuck in amber, you ain't seen Fringe yet. Whole buildings are encased in Amber. Here is a list of five ways in which Fringe is one of the best science fiction series ever even as it ends:
Being bald and wearing a suit is a sign that you have
super powers in the Fringe universe. How cool is that?
Rogaine for Men would be proud.1) Fringe made bald guys stylish and scary with the freaky observers from another dimension. They're a cross of the Agents from the Matrix, with names borrowed from the calendar (who names their kid September?), and dared to show a race that's a total sausage hang (I've yet to see a female observer). But that wasn't enough, they also crossed into Vulcan territory, borrowing the insane logic of that race and coupled it with the Borg's "resistance is futile" mantra. Bravo Fringe Bravo.
Fringe "Frog" scene break. There were others equally as cool.2) Fringe had the coolest scene breaks ever. You know when you are reading a book, and there's a cool scene break that looks like a butterfly or a dragon or a palm tree and you think...damn, that's kind of cool! Way better than three asterix (what my publisher uses). Well Fringe has frogs, six-fingered hands, and other cool scene breaks. If I were stoned and twenty years younger I'd say "That's so meta dude."
Left to right: Peter, Walter, Henrietta, Olivia, and Astrid (token black woman).
It's like the "Lost in Space" gang only without spaceships. I used to watch this series on Saturday mornings. Yes, I'm that old.3) Fringe dared to give us a family. We haven't seen that kind of sci-fi mom and pop stuff since Lost in Space! Fringe has Walter Bishop, son Peter Bishop, wife Olivia, and even a daughter in the fifth season that's integral in everything even after she gets smoked. Oh and there's Astrid. She's the token black woman. But I like Astrid because everything that falls through the cracks, she catches.

4) Fringe gave us consistent urban science fiction without vampires and werewolves. That in itself should win an award because urban fantasy as a genre is replete with vamps, werewolves, witches, and angels. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just saying it's not particularly original.
So much weird...so much cool5) Fringe totally owned quantum mechanics (and quantum weirdness in general). It took the most ground-breaking concepts from the world's leading physicists like Stephen Hawking, and turned stuff like quantum entanglement, wormholes, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and made them into episodes that BLEW MY MIND!

Goodbye Fringe. I laughed, I cried, you became a part of me. The two-hour series finale airs this evening beginning with an episode called "Liberty" and ending with "An Enemy of Fate."
Today is the second-to-last stop in my book tour. You can find me at the blog of super science fiction writer M.PAX HERE. Please stop by to say hi if you have the time. If not, no worries. See you Monday when I get to do a cover reveal for Julie Flanders. Enter giveaway...you know you want to...a Rafflecopter giveaway

Can Supernatural reinvent itself?

I thought the first five seasons of the television show, Supernatural, were pretty spectacular. And then in the sixth and seventh season, the good story kind of got lost in a whole population war thing where all the souls in purgatory were at stake and could tip the balance of power in favor of heaven or hell. I didn't really like how that whole thing got executed as the villains ended up being mostly "meh." Plus they killed off Bobby. I rather liked Bobby, and thought he brought a certain direction to the show.

In last night's episode of Supernatural, I thought this is just going to be more of the same: either a monster of the week or some lame episode where the prophet translates some gobbledygook, and it ends up having some catastrophic consequence that really isn't all that catastrophic since it can be solved in a single episode.
Alfie the angel works at Wiener HutBut I was wrong. They opened up a whole new storyline that really has me intrigued. Crowley (who's the king in hell now and has been since Lucifer got locked up with Michael at the end of the fifth season), was torturing Samadriel, an angel that looks like a kid in a "Wiener Hut" uniform (fast food equivalent of Weinerschnitzel). They were corkscrewing his brain and uncovered some basic "angel programming" that eluded to an "angel tablet." So far in the series, we know of a demon tablet that if used, can lock all the demons up in hell (a good thing). Well the angel tablet can supposedly do the exact same thing (keeping all the angels locked up in heaven) which is bad if you consider that demons will run amok on the world unchecked.

I like where this plotline is going, and it seems odd that they are introducing it so late in the 8th season. I mean how long can the CW keep milking this series along? I guess it's one of their more popular shows so perhaps ten seasons just like Smallville? I bet Jensen Ackles had no idea that Supernatural would occupy such a huge portion of his acting career.

I love analyzing the writing of this show. I think that most of us that write in the paranormal genre start with characters just like Sam and Dean and then struggle to figure out what Sam and Dean should do. We create bad guys and then create maybe an object or a person or a thing that everyone wants. If the wrong group gets it, then all hell breaks loose (and thus a source of tension for the story). And despite being used over and over again, it is still intriguing if done right. The question that tugs at my mind is this: Can Supernatural reinvent itself using this technique? My initial reaction is yes. I guess I'll have to keep watching to see.

I have to admit that I am attached to Sam and Dean, so it's what keeps bringing me back to the show.
Prolific Jamaican author, Joy Campbell has a blogfest that actually ends on February 1st. To participate, she wants your most interesting stories of people taking another shot at a relationship. And these stories must be posted by the February 1st deadline wherein they will all be judged and a prize awarded: $10.00 Amazon Gift card. You must also link your story to her blog which you can find HERE .

In 500 words or less (fact or fiction) you tell the reader why the couple broke up and why they feel compelled to get back together. You must also indicate whether you are posting in the fact or fiction category. I'm going to write a funny post...like maybe why Mike and Ike (the candies) got back together after their breakup.

If you have the time, please stop by Joy's blog today as she's one of the last to host me in my book tour which is ending soon. Again, her blog can be found HERE.

Have a great Thursday. I hope you don't catch a cold, because I caught one and my head is so stuffed that my eyes water.

So the Being Human season 3 premiere was a real disappointment

The cast of the US version of "Being Human" from left
to right: Sally, Aiden, and Josh the werewolf. SyFy
shows new episodes on Monday night.So the "Being Human" season 3 premiere (U.S. Version) THAT I HAD WAITED A YEAR to see was a real disappointment. For those of you who are fans of the show, you probably know what I'm talking about. For those of you who aren't, the season 2 finale ended with 1) a gunshot in the dark and the question: is Josh dead or did Josh kill his werewolf master 2) Aiden the vampire got buried in the ground by the Mother of vampires (a great villain) after she killed Aiden's true love (the Mother of the vampire's own daughter) in front of him and 3) Sally the ghost stuck in Limbo trying to save her ghost friends with only her voice coming over the kitchen radio asking for Josh and Aiden to help her.

How could they possibly leave me hanging like this? Season 3 has got to be amazing. I had all of these things dreamt up in my head as to where the writers could go with these great characters. Well here's what they did (SPOILER ALERT):

1) Aiden just got dug up by some person I've never seen before. The vampires all have a sickness, and it's 15 months later and they think Aiden is the cure. One vampire tells Aiden "Mother is dead." Really? This great villain is just "dead". That's like getting to the Empire Strikes Back and someone saying, "Oh that Darth guy died of a heart attack." WTF?

2) Josh shot his werewolf master (no big surprise there). The lameness started with Josh taking 15 months to even begin questioning where the hell Aiden is. Really? We're just to assume that Josh couldn't get any information on Aiden's whereabouts during this whole "disappearance" even though Josh knew Aiden was trying to leave the vampires with Saorin.

3) Sally gets resurrected by an evil witch. It's the evil witch thing that really pisses me off. It's copying the season 4 True Blood plot from two years ago where the evil witch and her coven became the big badass of the season (because True Blood ran out of villains when they got rid of Russell Edgington). Being Human had so much invested in these wonderful characters that they really didn't need to go to this whole "witch" thing. They already had a villain in Mother and they could have done that instead of just saying "she died" off screen. So now the whole Season 3 thing is going to be fixing the vampire plague and fighting the witch who is doing something with Josh's dead werewolf master that she found in the woods.

4) Oh and in order to resurrect Sally, the witch needed Josh to bring her the heart of a person he killed. Conveniently, that person was his werewolf master. Inconveniently, this deed was done 15 months ago and the dude's body was buried in the woods. Josh went out there and was able to retrieve the heart? Seriously? Over a year has passed and it hadn't decomposed to the point of just being soil and some bones. Maybe I don't know decomposition all that well, but it seems to me that a person buried in shallow earth will rot in 15 months unless the ground is frozen. Seeing as this takes place in Boston, that wasn't happening.

Both Josh and Aiden did a chat on io9 yesterday, but I was so mad at the season premiere that I didn't read it. I'm still going to watch the rest of the season, but I think the writers really dropped the ball.
Fellow blogger and writer Elise Fallson has teamed up with science fiction author Stephen Tremp who wrote Breakthrough and Opening, Carolyn Brown (author of the Protector series), and writer Mark Koopmans for a simple blogfest scheduled for January 28th. On that day, post a short snippet that you think others might find interesting about your life. You can locate the sign up on Elise's blog which is HERE .

Cindy Borgne posted a review of my book. If you'd like, you can visit it HERE .

IF YOU HAVE TWITTER, COULD YOU COPY/PASTE/TWEET THIS? Muchos gracias in advance :)

Sex in a sci-fi novel? Yes, please. George R.R. Martin shouldn't have all the fun. Review of #Oculus #Yaoi http://dreamersperch.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-review-of-oculus-by-michael-offutt.html PLS RT
Have a great Wednesday.

My Arthur C. Clark WTF moment

Artist's conception of a supermassive black holeOkay, so last night after I got off work it was so cold that just getting out of my car makes my fingers numb. Right now as I type this, it is 12 degrees in Utah. Ick. Don't even bring up the inversion which is giving us red air quality.

Anyway, I crashed on the couch in anticipation of watching the premiere episode of Season 3's "Being Human" which I will talk about tomorrow. I flipped through the channels and ended up on the Science channel watching a special on supermassive black holes.

I'm not going to summarize the episode, but I get suckered into watching these specials because quite frankly, they're interesting.

They had this scientist guy on there and he said that they've discovered that the mass of every supermassive black hole that is at the center of every galaxy ever discovered (there's a lot) is exactly one-half of 1% of the total mass of the galaxy. It's the same everywhere.

I started to think about this and the book "2010" came to mind because there's this totally featureless thing called a monolith in Clark's book. The dimension of the black monolith is always the squares of 1, 2, and 3. So 1x4x9 no matter where they discover it.
So yeah, I had this whole "WTF" moment sitting on the couch and thought of the late Arthur C. Clarke.

I'm just going to say, our universe is really weird. Like stranger than anything that you could just "make up" if you just bother to look.

Today I'm stopping by Cindy Borgne's blog, "Dreamer's Perch." Cindy hasn't been feeling well so if you have the time, please drop by and say "Cindy I hope you get better soon" :). And Cindy is a fantastic blogging friend to have (and one of the most talented science fiction authors I've ever read). She is so supportive, reading blogs, reviewing books, and helping out other authors. I can't rave enough about her and if you aren't networking with Cindy, today is the day you should start. You will never regret it.

And the winner of the Amazon gift card is

Well I'm back from the Consumer Electronics Show, and I'm ready to start paying all the bills that are pouring in from my Vegas trip because I didn't stick with just what my work was willing to pay. I took one day of vacation and then splurged on Vegas shows and some fine dining. Yes, I had a very nice vacation, but there were some pitfalls, and I'm going to tell you about them so that you don't experience the same thing if you make it to Vegas.
My first bit of housekeeping involves giving away the $50.00 Amazon Gift Card for the tweet support I received from my friends because of this post HERE.
Random.org chooses... Sarah Ahiers Falen!
Congratulations!!!
I'll send you the gift card via email on Monday.
Okay, so the low point of my trip really was the place where I was staying, i.e., the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Right off the bat, the front desk person was snippy and could answer none of my questions about the CES shuttle service. In fact, she seemed clueless that there was even going to be a convention in town. Then in order, this is what I got (I attended the conference with friends):Room lock didn't work half the time. I think there was a short in the lock so when you stuck in the magnetic key card, it just wouldn't register.Room had no view. Just the roof of the casino.Volcano attraction was broken and being repaired.Found a bandage with dried blood on it stuck to the computer desk. That was gross.Television had like 10 channels on it that showed anything other than local news. You had to pay for everything else.WiFi did not work the entire first day and pretty much sucked every day after. There's no way you could stream anything. I was just lucky to get a blog post up every day last week. That was a real chore. Thing is, the technicians we spoke to by phone said the WiFi is only shared over six rooms. He had the nerve to blame other rooms for hogging the bandwidth.We went to the spa and my friend Tomeka got handed a robe with human feces on it. She took a picture and we got our visit comped.The buffet at the Mirage sucked. Worst buffet ever. Felt like I was eating at Chuck o' Rama. Their shrimp was old and really smelly, crab tasted bad, and the ribs were cold. Complete bullsh*t if you ask me. I teased my friends that they probably just grabbed the dead fish from the lobby fish tank and served that at the buffet.* The Mirage did comp the spa visit and also took off the $25 a day resort fee as an apology.
Highlights:The Wynn everything. We ate there at Tableau four times, ate the best dinner I've ever dined upon at Wing Lei, enjoyed the drunken noodles at Wazuzu, and with the money we saved from the spa at the Mirage, we did the spa at the Wynn. Best spa experience ever hands down. I will never visit Vegas again and NOT stay at the Wynn. Oh and did I mention that everything but the room is cheaper at the Wynn? Yeah...the Wynn is a winner. Did I mention that the Wynn is sending my friend and I some robes from the spa? They're so comfortable. Oh and they have this deluge shower that literally pours 10 gallons of water on your head a second. It's like standing under a warm waterfall.The Vegas shows. We saw David Copperfield, the Jersey Boys, Absinthe, and Daniel Tosh and they were all amazing. Daniel's show is really short (like 45 minutes of standup is all). But Daniel's hilarious.The best buffet in Vegas is the Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan. It has fourteen flavors of gelato, a gourmet macaroni and cheese bar made right in front of you, French macarons, and just incredibly fresh cuisine including wine service at your table. Go see the Cosmopolitan...you will be blown away.I chickened out on Goretorium and I consider that a highlight because I read one person's experience and said, "I have no idea what possessed me to even think I want to see this attraction." Sure, Eli Roth blew 10 million on it, but it's supposed to be incredibly scary and they plunge you into a maze that just goes wrong at every turn. Nope...I skipped that one.
AND BOOK TOUR STUFF...
Today I'm at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Please go read my post if you have the time. You can find his blog HERE.
I'm also at Charity Bradford's Blog. You can find that post HERE . Please visit both if you can because then the lottery fairies will bring you millions of dollars in power-ball money*
*Disclaimer: If you believe this, you should also look into a bridge I have for sale in Iowa.

Consumer Electronics Show Day Three. Is the nation in an educational crisis?

I enjoyed the last panel that my work paid for me to attend on Thursday. It ran all day and focused in and around higher education technology. Just as a little background, half of my salary is paid through federal vocational rehabilitation which is a program that focuses on getting individuals the right kind of education and training for them to become gainful contributors to society. V.R. of course has its challenges, and I wanted to find out more information regarding what's out there that could help our clients to achieve success. What I ended up getting can more or less be summed up by the question: "How well does society in the United States prepare college graduates for a life of work?" I'm sure all of you have answers to that question. For me, the answer is obvious: it doesn't. The cost of higher education has become grotesque...beyond the means of people (like me) to afford. Sure, you can take out student loans. But graduates today will step into the workforce for the first time with a mountain of debt and many with skills that are obsolete within six months. So if you don't swim right away, then within a year or two, you're sinking. Is the cost of education worth it?
It's an interesting dilemma and really goes well with some of the other panels I attended at CES this week. Take for example the quandary of all of those out-of-work professional drivers who will be in their mid-forties and face obsolesence. The person in charge of that particular panel chafed at my question (if you remember) and merely said, they will have to get trained in other jobs that are created by leading innovations.
Okay...sure. So how does one get trained? Well apparently it's for the cheap cost of another $50,000 that you could either borrow or starve your family out (I suppose you could try selling your soul to the devil, but I don't think he's buying these days as sin is free).
Basically, this panel on higher education had a debate that went on for hours. They know that as of 2011, there exists 9.4% unemployment for those possessing only a high school degree. The ones that fall outside of that percentage have jobs at Burger King or McDonalds, right? But who cares, they have jobs. They just can't make any money at the jobs that they do.
The panel knows that normal "non-unicorns" are graduating with a ton of debt. A "unicorn" in this context is the "mythical" genius student that gets into Harvard at the age of 15 (my book "Slipstream" is about the life of a "unicorn" of this nature). These panelists know that a path to a degree should allow for the learner to pick and choose what they want that is in accordance with their goals. Take for example the "engineering" student that is forced to study Spanish literature and read Don Quixote. They want to put an end to this. However, to accomplish this, means to go to war against the Department of Education, and the DOE (the people that pay my salary through Voc Rehab) is an entity that moves very slowly and does not adjust to change the same as people posting a relationship status on Facebook.
It literally means a revamping of the "credentialing system." This "system" has been in place for decades, but technology has arrived. The West is well beyond what we should be doing and is facing what it must be doing in order to retain a position of leadership. The answer is a new pedagogy, because the United States is a nation that is in (right now) an educational crisis.
The United States is setting itself up to be essentially "irrelevant" within my lifetime. Nice. Here's some statistics for you: 36 million college students lost their way at some point and didn't get credentialed. They are smart, but have no certificate to show it. Because the system is the way it is, without that certificate, they are condemned to a life of poverty. Our system is not set up to help those students who may run into trouble mid-course. Our system is set up to count the dead bodies at the end. It's not a good system and creates obstacles for success to preserve the value of the certification as a reward at the end.
That would be all fine and dandy if businesses valued those credentials. But increasingly, businesses are hiring their employees based off of portfolios. They are examining the work of someone and could care less what the credentials are. That's the way Silicon Valley currently operates and is becoming more and more the business norm.
So the value of a degree is basically becoming less and less.
However, all of this discussion is moot since the Department of Education sent no representative and as far as anyone can tell, congress can't agree on anything anyway between the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling that a discussion on educational reform isn't going to happen.
Interesting eh? I found a lot of food for thought in this last summit at CES. However, being presented with all problems and no solutions I guess seems like a waste of time. But at least there's a discussion taking place (probably one that gets even less attention than the one regarding gun control in our country). I predict that both will peter out, and we'll accept our irrelevance while China, Singapore, and other countries become global leaders and the United States watches Honey Boo Boo and gets fat on "sketty and butta", but continues to feel important simply because we all own firearms (and someone in the country knows the launch codes to nuclear weapons). And as much as the evangelicals in our country will want to blame the intellectual abyss that will become America, it will not be because of gay marriage. "The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting."
--Plutarch. (I really liked that quote and thought I'd share). You're welcomeBook Tour Stuff: Today I'm at Mimmi's Musing talking about my love affair with assassins. Go HERE to read about it :)
I'm talking about the hockey culture in "Oculus" on Puck Buddy's. Find the post HERE . Thank you, Jeff, for putting up the article on this blog recognized by the New York Times for its ground breaking articles.
Also I may be at Melissa Stevens tomorrow. Find that blog HERE.
Next week I shall be back from Vegas trying to resume a normal schedule. Thanks for your patience. Have a great weekend.

Consumer Electronics Show Day Two and some Absinthe in Las Vegas

Upon entering the Smart Homes and Digital Consumers seminar hosted by J.D. Power and Associates, I was greeted with the following quote from their president, Finbarr O'Neill:

"Consumer demand and expectations for digital lifestyle services continues to grow at a dramatic pace. The conveniences of monitoring and controlling more aspects of our lives through digital interface will change both engagement and dimensional aspects of the customer relationship."

I can't say that I don't agree. There's a clear and pressing need for Smart Home technologies at all scales of income. The one that I am most familiar with has to do with differently-abled individuals who rely upon assistive technology in order to live somewhat independently of a caregiver. However, these individuals can ill-afford the price tags of many assistive technology devices.

Think about this for a moment. We are entering a phase where technology in the home allows a quadriplegic to control all aspects of their environment. You can set the thermostat, turn lights on and off, change the channel on the television and operate a satellite DVR all without raising a finger. Home security is tied into this as well. You may have seen advertisements made by Xfinity touting their new remote camera systems allowing you to view activity both in and around your home.
This is the panel. We have Eric Anderson, Executive Vice President Products, Control4,
David VanderWaal, Director of LG Electronics USA, William F. Davidson,
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations at Qualcomm, and Chris Williams, Sr.
Director of Intelligent Home Product Development from Time Warner CableAt the J.D. Power seminar, Time Warner indicated that they are rolling out the first of many intelligent homes in the next year. I thought this was excellent news.

Eric Anderson said there are many connection issues, and stressed that all of this "stuff" needs to be personalized and customized to each individual. We've gone from the generation of those that say "I want my MTV" to a generation that demands "I want all of my things from home available to me on the go." An interesting observation, but I can't say that I'm surprised given the selfish demands of the "me" generation.

The Qualcomm representative had a bunch of statistics. One of them purported that a person looks at their phone 160 times in a day (on average once every six minutes). So for them, the discussion is about visual appeal, battery life, and the fact that the "World is flat" which is a line stolen from a best-selling book and illustrated by the fact that social networks were key in making the "Arab Spring" a reality.
Because I know you guys love statistics, this is a pie chart that illustrates
how cable companies are leading the charge in providing Smart Home technologies
that everyone needs/wants. What do I say to this? Excellent. Lets regulate the
cable companies then. Regulation via public utility for a public service is the
only way to guarantee that these services "everyone needs" will be standardized
and that the price won't go up simply because the provider wants to make more money.
I'm sure "regulation" wasn't the point of the seminar. But it's what I was thinking
the entire time. I guess they really should check us democrats at the door.Finally, the guy from L.G. stated that their goal is to promote ease of use, control, and lifestyle. Their goal through the use of their innovations is to give time back to the consumer.

All of the panelists agree on one thing. The need for Smart Home technologies is not just for the super rich. It is for everyone. Everyone will benefit from all of this and they want the companies to come together and create a standard so that everything will be compatible with everything else.

Then they started taking questions. Of course, you can count on me to bring up the uncomfortable question. And it did make the panelists jump a bit and caused the Qualcomm guy to utter, "I think I need to answer this question carefully."
The digital lifestyle ecosystem. It's a chart that shows how just paying
for cable leads to so many other roads, i.e., computer access, television,
movie rentals, game rentals, security, social networking, etc. Cable is
the doorway by which all things Smart Home will soon be possible.I asked this, "If you are sitting up there saying that we all need these, I agree. This is even more true of the people that I help on a daily basis who have no ability to care for themselves without a care provider being around. So I ask you this: do you foresee the government coming in and regulating this industry just like a public utility? Would you oppose this? If you are saying that Smart Home Technology is a public service, then the price of those that offer it, i.e., Comcast or Xfinity needs to have price regulation just like a utility. In order for them to raise their prices, they should have to petition the government to be allowed to do so. Do you agree or disagree?"

There was a bit of "avoiding my question." It was their opinion that the only "regulation" that would need to take place revolves around privacy as they would be collecting massive amounts of information on consumers living in these homes in order to provide them with the best services. But other kinds of "regulation" might stifle innovation. Meh, that sounded a lot like a capitalist excuse.

Wednesday night, I attended the best show I've seen in Vegas yet. It's called Absinthe and it was at Caesar's Palace. It's in a very intimate setting and is for adults only. There's swearing, nudity, profanity, and audience members get randomly picked on by a foul-mouthed ring leader. But the Russian and Polish acrobats are not only gorgeous, but so close you can reach out and touch them. They even high five you during the show. Admittedly, I was in the front row.
If you like adult material (if you like my books basically), and watch rated-R
movies, go see this show in Vegas. It's truly a five star act. F*cking incredible
I might add. There's eye-candy for every sexuality IN SPADES.All I remember from this night is blue eyes, a chiseled narrow nose, pronounced Adam's apple, and mousy brown hair...a Russian so beautiful, I'm speechless. I guess "Yay, Vegas!" applies because I'm glad for all those who escape from Putin's grasp. I just hope America treats them well. They certainly put in the hard work. I'm still in awe from the sheer display of strength that I saw only a few feet away. Guys doing hand stands thirty feet in the air with only one arm, girls getting slung around by their necks, and a high wire act without a net involving two guys carrying a third who balanced on top of a chair that was balanced on top of a pole. He almost fell, but caught himself. It was nerve wracking. None of them couldn't have been older than 30. And they performed many of their acts shirtless (girls included and one married man got titties rubbed on his face for you alpha males out there). She was oiled up too (and glistening). I think I'm going to write a Russian into my books. After this show, I don't see how I could avoid that.This is a video someone uploaded on YouTube. I saw this from a few feet away in the front row. Crazy chair guy is so athletic, it's silly.

If you have the time, please go and visit Melissa's Imaginarium as she is kind enough to support me on my book tour today. You can find the link HERE.

Consumer Electronics Show 2013 Day One

My first day at C.E.S. was full of all kinds of exciting things. Here are my highlights:

Dr. Wendy Walsh, Relationship Expert for CNN and author of "the 30 Day Love Detox" spoke at length about online dating. She gave advice for singles exploring a market that are looking for companionship after kids. The advice I took away: 1) Avoid a profile pic because pictures move the discussion away from a carefully crafted profile that is as detailed as possible to intrigue your soul mate. 2) Do not engage in email exchange as words invite the other party to extend their own perceptions about you as a person before you meet in person (possibly setting up disappointment). If you are interested, arrange a quick meet and greet at a coffee shop with the intention of progressing to a first date. 3) Older people are looking to find connections later in their life and embracing technology to rediscover interests that were put aside to raise family.
Panelists at the Silvers SummitEric Taub, writer for the New York Times, moderated a panel with current developers of SmartHome technologies. For those of you who don't know smart home technologies, it's where you can go in and have all your environmental controls, lights, and habitat controlled by something as simple as voice. The next step in this is to develop a digital means to monitor life signs or to even predict dangerous falls. All of this stuff is ideal on a bottomless budget (i.e. the 1%), but the fact is, most people won't have the access to the kinds of funds to make this a reality. There's a push by people to get Medicare to pay for all of these Smart Home innovations, which pushes the tax burden onto the american tax payer. But hey, seniors live longer so they can draw more social security, which causes medicare expenses to go up to keep them alive, and medicare and social security continue their never-ending dance with one another until people are 140 years old and still alive drawing down money and entitlements. It's really quite interesting.
I can't tell you which pavilion is more magnificent between Sony's and LG.
The LG Pavilion was filled with 3D ultra HD television sets so sharp, it's like
real life. Sony's debuted its new 4K television sets that were simply incredible.Justin Rattner, the CTO for Intel, spoke about working with Stephen Hawking. Intel worked with the world famous astrophysicist who is paralyzed, yet still able to do things like advanced calculus in his head. Anyway, Intel went to Cambridge and studied his facial gestures of which he has three: a cheek twitch, an eyebrow raise, and a mouth raise. They want to make computers more accessible for older folks or for people (like Hawking) who really struggle with the technology because they are "differently-abled." You may find this interesting: Hawking can only do one word per minute. When you hear him speak at conferences or to respond to someone's question, that's all been done beforehand so you don't have to wait for him to answer you. The same goes for his writing...all done one word per minute via a word prediction program that tracks his eye twitch and/or movement. So what's coming? Well they're going to eliminate passwords. Intel wants to go to palm secure authentication. Skin is transparent at certain wavelengths of light, so they intend to put an emitter on a computer that can read the infrared structure of your palm. So basically, they want all computers to be more secure through better biometrics.

Finally, Nick Pudar, VP of Planning and Development with OnStar told us of the plans coming for self-autonomous cars. First off, Audi, Toyota, and GM will have them within two years. He said that within our lifetime, you will have to go to Disneyland to actually drive a car. By taking away the responsibility from consumers and employing the use of a bionic eye, more lives will be saved. It's all about safety and how the car manufacturers are taking steps to prevent automobile deaths. When they took questions, I don't think they were prepared for mine. I kinda got that "Who let the Democrat in this seminar?" look. What question would poor old Mike ask you might say? Well it went something like this: "So if cars can drive themselves, what happens to the millions of drivers who have jobs and families that depend on that income?" The answer: "Well, we think there will be resistance to this notion, but those people will be unemployed and have to find other work." So yet again...technology in America destroys jobs.
After C.E.S. got out, I went to see the Jersey Boys at the Paris Hotel and Casino. I absolutely loved it. I'll have to do a review later as this blog post is already too long. But here's a video from another show, and it's pretty much what you get at the Las Vegas one. The singing was incredible, and I knew nothing of Frankie Valli but now I'm a fan. It's just really interesting to me how four guys with such incredible talent can randomly coalesce/find each other. Who wouldn't like guys that have voices like angels?

Have a great Wednesday.

A Magical Monday Night

The Consumer electronics show starts tomorrow morning here in Las Vegas. I'm really excited. So today, my friend James, my friend Tomeka, and myself (all of us here in town for the convention) decided to have some fun and see the Mirage dolphin habitat along with some white tigers. Here's one shot that I took on a particularly frisky looking white tiger at the Siegfried and Roy habitat (where I saw a rather majestic looking lion straight out of the lion king, and a few leopards). I'd post the video of the dolphins that I took, but it's upside down and don't have the time to figure out how to turn it right side up. But the shots are incredible...only a few feet from them through glass. And then Monday night we went to see David Copperfield at the Hollywood Theater in the MGM Grand hotel and casino. I've been a fan of Mr. Copperfield for many years. Seeing him live is absolutely incredible. He made entire audience members disappear and teleport to other areas of the theater. He made a car appear out of thin air, levitated some random guy in the audience, and then did this really touching tribute to his father and grandfather who thought he could never make it in show business. He asked someone, "what do you collect?" After hearing her answer, he said that he collects words. Things that he finds worldly or inspiring. And then he made someone pick a word at random from a display of 100 words and then that one word printed on all of our show bracelets throughout the audience. That was a neat trick. This is my glass from the pina colada that I ordered. It's a collectible glass so I get to take it home with me and put it in the cabinet where I keep other things that remind me of trips that I've taken. We had really good seats to the magic show, just one row of folks before the stage.
Click to Embiggen to read the wordsAt one point, he did this kind of random chain thing with the audience and told us that he'd just been to the future, and he had a poster that he wanted to show us to prove it. He picked on one person to come up to the stage and write down a dead celebrity's name (then he turned the poster around). But you can see that the poster of Elvis isn't just an ordinary poster, but one comprised of words (some of which spell the exact audience members and what happened randomly to arrive at the point of the big reveal). It was really awesome.
And here's a picture of my friend Tomeka on the left, me in the middle, and James on the right.

Today, I'm scheduled to appear on Cherie Reich's blog at some point. Thank you so much for following and commenting on my book tour. Tomorrow I will post a bunch of pictures that I take from CES (my day begins at 7 a.m.) And then at night we are seeing "The Jersey Boys" at Le Theatre des Arts in the Paris Hotel and Casino.

Have a great Tuesday.

Passing Time Cover Reveal with author Ellie Garratt

This cover rocks!Book Blurb
Nine short tales that just may give you nightmares.
A man lives to regret "Passing Time."A father will do anything to save his son in "Expiration Date."An author finds out her worst nightmare is back in "The Devil’s Song."A woman gets more than the claim fee when she takes out vampire insurance in "Luna Black."In "Dining in Hell," the Death Valley Diner becomes the wrong place to stop.A serial killer wants to add another file to his collection in "The Vegas Screamer."In "Eating Mr. Bone," an undertaker could meet an unfortunate end.A con man meets his first ghost in "Land of the Free."And will truth finally be set free in "The Letter?"  Ellie you are so pretty! Best author photo ever!Publication date: 11th February 2013

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
A life-long addiction to reading science fiction and horror, meant writing was the logical outlet for Ellie Garratt’s passions. She is a reader, writer, blogger, Trekkie, and would happily die to be an extra in The Walking Dead. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online. Passing Time is her first eBook collection and contains nine previously published stories. Her science fiction collection Taking Time will be published later in the year.

Author Links
Website
TwitterFacebookGoodreads
Please visit Ellie’s blog on Friday 11thof January, when she will be interviewing Passing Time’s cover designer, Ida Jansson.

HOUSEKEEPING: I'm at Elise Fallson's blog today. You can find it HERE.