Christopher McKitterick's Blog, page 28

Spring Break pt.2: Writing and Life. Help.

Geez, how could I forget this part (continued from late-last-night's Spring Break post):

I've also been working on my next book some more, working out plot points and developing characters and scenes. Almost have it all in place! Which leads me to an insight:

I've discovered that it takes me about 3-4 days of being away from a full day of work to clear my mind enough to really immerse myself in my writing again. No matter how much I'd like to be, I'm just not one of those people who can write for a few hours a day, at least not when first getting started with a project. There's too much mind-clearing needed, because my job is not just teaching (which also entails answering email and grading at all hours of the day), but also keeping up with Center for the Study of Science Fiction stuff pretty much every day (including planning, emails, website updates, prepping for and doing stuff like tonight's Super Nerd Night activities, and so forth), and constantly researching ways to improve each course (which I do pretty much weekly for most of 'em). There are also meetings, course development for new courses down the line, GTA training to teach existing courses I've developed, student and GTA mentoring, thesis direction, reading for the Campbell Award, and a ton of things I don't even want to think about right now. It's utterly consuming and draining.

Now, I'm not complaining, because I love my work. I love teaching, I love the Center, I love almost everything I do for my job.

The point is, what I need to maintain a level of new writing and publication that makes me happy is more chunks of time off. I used to think that summer = writing time for a teaching job, but in fact for MY teaching job, summer = busiest time of the year, with two two-week intensive courses sandwiching an international conference where we honor the authors of the best short-SF and SF novel of the year and bring in guest authors and editors from around the world.

How to find the time to make my writing happen? If I could only secure a solid month during the summer, I could write a book a year - I have no problem doing story-development in dribs and drabs.

Are you novelist or other big-project creative who also maintains an all-consuming job? How do you manage to product big projects on a regular-enough basis to remain happy? 'Cause I've reached a place in life where I need to make this happen or I'll grow more and more frustrated and dissatisfied with my career(s).

Thanks,
Chris

Spring Break!

It's been lovely so far! Man, I needed a vacation.

First, kicked it off with a visit from a friend I haven't seen in far too long (hi Thomas!) on Thursday evening. Great to see you, man! Miss you!

Just beforehand, my "Science, Technology, and Society" class talked about robots, and the author of one of the stories (Robin Wayne Bailey, plus his wife Diana) paid a visit. The students really enjoyed his being there, and it was a great discussion. As a thank-you, I took them out to dinner at one of my favorite local restaurants, Ingredient, then bid them adieu before joining the Thursday-night crew at Harbour Lights, Lawrence's oldest bar (in continuous operation since the end of Prohibition). Ended the evening with some adventures with a friend who's always up for adventures. Lovely evening.

Spent a fair sum ordering parts for the Chevelle. It's going to be awesome! If only the people from Keisler Engineering get on the ball and update my 6-speed transmission quote so I can get that thing ASAP.

Also worked a bit on the Newport: made an anti-drainback valve for the fuel system in hopes of keeping the gas from running out of the carb back into the tank, so it'll start easier between runnings. If all goes well (haven't been able to test it, as we're enduring 40 days and nights of deluge here in Larryville), I'll put together a little tutorial for how to make one for yourself, saving tons of money if you can even find something that works for a carbureted engine.

The Lawrence St. Patty's Day Parade is always charming, with pretty much everyone in town participating, either by watching or driving in it: If you have a convertible, you're in. And if you ever won a beauty pageant within the past few century or two? Sit in the back of one of those converts! That part was a little weird. It was a beautiful, cool-but-pleasant day, and we sat outside most of the time enjoying good company and conversation. Ended the evening at Matt's place playing old Atari and Nintendo games (remember The Adventures of Link?) on his Wii. Also had a drunken push-up contest - turns out I can do 7 one-armed push-ups with each arm (yes, even with the damaged side) after blasting out 30-odd nose-to-floor knuckle push-ups. Absinthe is a curative. 'Twas a blast.

Got caught up with the current BBC Sherlock series. Wow, but is it amazing: great acting, great actor chemistry, great filming, great writing... just all-around fantastic. LOVE IT.

Also finished Season 2 and started Season 3 of Due South, which is even better with the addition of Callum Keith Rennie. He and Paul Gross (RCMP Constable Benton Fraser) have PERFECT timing. At a few points in their first episode together, I was laughing so hard we had to pause and rewind to hear the dialogue. LOVE IT - how did I miss this series before now? Thank you for introducing me to this often-surreal series, CR!

Getting caught up with reading through more of the mountain of nominations for the Campbell Award. Really loving Ernest Cline's Ready Player One right now: It's well-written, well-conceived, funny, serious, and meaningful. Hope it gets even better; if so, it's probably my favorite book of 2011.

Earlier today, bought my first pair of running shoes since high school, New Balance Minimus MR10 trainers in an astounding green-and-blue color combo. They weigh less than the box they came in! Also got a pair of exercise shorts from Sears at 50% off (yes, Lawrence is losing our Sears *sadness*). I couldn't buy a pair of Nike or New Balance or other corporate-logo shorts. Can't do it.

Why did I need this equipment? Well, right now I'm recovering from the introductory session of CrossFit. WOW, but I'm beat. And I'm beginning to get hints of how sore I'll be tomorrow. I thought I was in decent shape with my regular exercise (weights, pull-ups and push-ups with 25-lb weight vest, heavy bag-work, stair-running, and so on), but boy was I WRONG. They say, "Expect to have a challenging, but short workout that might give you a little reality check on your fitness level." Reality check? CHECK: Kettle ball swings up over the head, lunges, box-leaps, sit-ups, running while carrying a medicine-ball, hardcore stretching... I just about died. Even so, chernobylred and I both decided to sign up for the next step: a 10-session "Elements" punch-card that includes several one-on-one sessions with a personal trainer. Seems like a great workout; can't wait for the next one! (Did I really just write that?)
I haven't posted fitness-tracking photos for a long time; gotta keep myself honest. Here they be, from December 2011:



I'm in a little better shape right now, but not significantly - that's why I bought the 25-pound weight vest and part of why I decided to do CrossFit, because I've been kicking ass for a long time without significant results. I'll take another set of shots after CrossFit to see how this program improves things!

Okay, and now I need to get back to finishing my little 7-questions response for weaselmom ....

Chris

As we trudge closer to theocracy in the USA....

Have you been following the Doonesbury comics over the past week? Holy Relevant Politics, Batman!

Here's the progression so far:









Have you read The Handmaid's Tale? In it, Atwood paints a dark portrait of how the US might look if the Christian Right gains the reins of government. When I first read the book - when it cam out, about the time I started college - I thought this an unlikely future. I mean, we wouldn't let this kind of insanity happen, right? Half our population is women - surely they would defend their rights!

I was wrong. This is the direction our country is headed. Women of America, do you like the vision portrayed in this novel? If that's too SFnal for you, let me put it this way: Do you like the world in which women live in theocracies and religion-dominated nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan under the Taliban (or even now), and so forth? Because that's where we're headed.

Don't believe it could happen here? Then you're not paying attention. You're like the young me, privileged with having grown up white male in a United States freshly reformed after the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s.

This is not only our future; it's happening now. Do something about it.

I'm adding The Handmaid's Tale to my SF Novels reading list.

Chris

Bender for President!

Hacked DC School Board Voting Elects Bender PresidentTime to go back to voting on paper ballots. "Hanging chads" are nothing compared to living under a Bender dictatorship! Seriously, though, this casts a bit of doubt on our election security, doesn't it? And what of all the new state laws for preventing electoral fraud? I suspect we'll see more actions like this one, designed to prove there is no such thing as computer security.

Chris

Will red meat kill you?

Well, maybe if it's part of a hungry lion and you're unarmed and looking particularly tasty in the veldt.

But will eating red meat kill you, as so many news articles are now proclaiming, based on this study?

Turns out the answer is probably not. Mark Sisson of "Mark's Daily Apple" - the paleo-lifestyle go-to mentor - analyzes the faults in this study and especially the media's misapprehension of it, and systematically tears it down. The most salient points:

It's an observational study (not science per se)...based on self-reporting eating and other behaviors on a bi-annual basis.Participants clearly lied about their intake, because the average person in Australia clearly consumes more than 1200 (women) - 2000 (men) calories per day....but more important is that the self-reporting meat-eaters reported eating 800 more calories per day than the non-meat-eaters...any amount of which could be hamburger, which (if American eating habits are under discussion here) was likely delivered buried in special sauce, cooking grease, and refined-flour buns.They also smoked more...were less active...and took fewer multi-vitaminsOh, and the meat-eaters had lower cholesterol.
Why wasn't the title of the report, "Eating red meat lowers cholesterol"?

When I first saw the news reports on this study, I was a little concerned about eating paleo-style. Well, it seems those concerns were unfounded. The important hypothesis that I get from this observational study (which Mark points out is only the first step in the scientific method)?

Avoid eating fast food, eat fewer calories, get more exercise, and don't smoke.
World-shattering, I know.

There you have it: This study tells us nothing new. What people should not get out of this is that you should eat more grains and seeds - these we know are bad for human consumption (see Mark's "Start Here" page).

Thanks for the heads-up, chernobylred !

Chris

Astro-Porn of the Day: Time-Lapse Movie of the Earth from the Space Station

In honor of the gorgeous aurora those of you who live in the high (and low) lattitudes are enjoying tonight, behold "All Alone in the Night," a time-lapse video made from images taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station:



Explanation from NASA: Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night. A compilation of such visual spectacles was captured recently from the International Space Station (ISS) and set to rousing music. Passing below are white clouds, orange city lights, lightning flashes in thunderstorms, and dark blue seas. On the horizon is the golden haze of Earth's thin atmosphere, frequently decorated by dancing auroras as the video progresses. The green parts of auroras typically remain below the space station, but the station flies right through the red and purple auroral peaks. Solar panels of the ISS are seen around the frame edges. The ominous wave of approaching brightness at the end of each sequence is just the dawn of the sunlit half of Earth, a dawn that occurs every 90 minutes.

Enjoy!
Chris

Whoah: Exercise changes your DNA.

A new study finds that exercise reprograms your muscles and metabolism at the DNA level.


You might think that the DNA you inherited is one thing that you absolutely can't do anything about, but in one sense you'd be wrong. Researchers reporting in the March issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, have found that when healthy but inactive men and women exercise for a matter of minutes, it produces a rather immediate change to their DNA. Perhaps even more tantalizing, the study suggests that the caffeine in your morning coffee might also influence muscle in essentially the same way.

The underlying genetic code in human muscle isn't changed with exercise, but the DNA molecules within those muscles are chemically and structurally altered in very important ways. Those modifications to the DNA at precise locations appear to be early events in the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength and, ultimately, in the structural and metabolic benefits of exercise.

"Our muscles are really plastic," says Juleen Zierath of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "We often say "You are what you eat." Well, muscle adapts to what you do. If you don't use it, you lose it, and this is one of the mechanisms that allows that to happen."

The DNA changes in question are known as epigenetic modifications and involve the gain or loss of chemical marks on DNA over and above the familiar sequence of As, Gs, Ts, and Cs. The new study shows that the DNA within skeletal muscle taken from people after a burst of exercise bears fewer chemical marks (specifically methyl groups) than it did before exercise. Those changes take place in stretches of DNA that are involved in turning "on" genes important for muscles' adaptation to exercise.

When the researchers made muscles contract in lab dishes, they saw a similar loss of DNA methyl groups. Exposure of isolated muscle to caffeine had the same effect.

Zierath explained that caffeine does mimic the muscle contraction that comes with exercise in other ways, too. She doesn't necessarily recommend anyone drink a cup of joe in place of exercise. It's nevertheless tempting to think that athletes who enjoy a coffee with their workout might just be on to something.

Broadly speaking, the findings offer more evidence that our genomes are much more dynamic than they are often given credit for. Epigenetic modifications that turn genes on and back off again can be incredibly flexible events. They allow the DNA in our cells to adjust as the environment shifts.

"Exercise is medicine," Zierath says, and it seems the means to alter our genomes for better health may be only a jog away. And for those who can't exercise, the new findings might point the way to medicines (caffeinated ones, perhaps?) with similar benefits.____
Holy cow. So you can cause sub-cellular-level changes by just working out, improving your entire body's function. (Wish they hadn't distracted from the results with the mega-dose-caffeine thing.)

If ever you needed a reason to start exercising right now, here it is. X-Men, here I come!

Chris

Been a long time since I posted OMG CUTE BABY ANIMALS *ded*

Five words sum it up: Baby sloths learning to climb. The cute, it is well-nigh unbearable:



Chris

Andy Duncan: This year's guest author for the CSSF Writing Workshop!

Breaking CSSF News: Andy Duncan is guest author for the second week of this summer's Science Fiction Writing Workshop! For 2012, the Workshop meets from June 24 - July 6, followed by the Campbell Awards and Conference, which runs from July 5 - 8. Andy will be here for the second week plus the Conference.

The Workshop is a great experience, intended especially for writers who have just begun to publish or who need that final bit of insight or skill to become a published writer. We work with all brands of speculative fiction, including horror, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream, speculative philosophy, hard SF, and so on, and it's a wonderful way to bond with fellow writers in a friendly and dedicated atmosphere. Plus we go out to dinner every night at a different restaurant in lovely downtown Lawrence, KS, watch lots of (usually bad) SF film, and write our brains out.

Starting last year, it's also available for graduate credit through the University of Kansas (ENGL 757). If you're a KU student, perfect! If not but you wish to take the Workshop for credit, be sure to contact us right away for how to make that happen. Most attendees, however, simply enroll as a normal, professional workshop rather than for credit.

Interested? We are open for applications right now through June 1, but sooner is better as we usually fill early. See the website for details.

Chris

"Avatar and Activism: Ecological Indians, Disabling Militarism, and Science Fiction Imaginaries"

Reminder about an upcoming CSSF talk! Nöel Sturgeon will give this year's Richard W. Gunn Memorial Lecture, "Avatar and Activism: Ecological Indians, Disabling Militarism, and Science Fiction Imaginaries."

Nöel is Theodore Sturgeon's daughter and trustee of his literary estate; Professor of Critical Cultures, Gender, and Race Studies at Washington State University; and a juror for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

When:
Monday, March 5
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Where:
Malott Room in the University of Kansas Student Union
Lawrence, Kansas

The Gunn Lecture, endowed by Dr. Richard W. Gunn, James Gunn's brother, has featured several science-fiction scholars. Although it has also sponsored speakers on Shakespeare and Ralph Ellison, it has brought a distinguished group of science-fiction experts to the campus beginning with scholar Fredric Jameson, William A. Lane Professor at Duke University, and continuing with Bill Brown, Edgar Carson Waller Professor at the University of Chicago, and China Miéville, British author of what has become known as "the New Weird." Michael Chabon, prize-winning science-fiction and mainstream author and editor, also recently presented a Humanities lecture at KU.

Spread the word!

Chris