S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 61

My Greatest Weakness

Back to the 52-week blogging challenge (we're getting close to the end). This week's prompt is "My Greatest Weakness."

We all have weaknesses. I have little self-control around foods I like. I like to drive fast. I don't multi-task well.

But what's my greatest weakness?

Last week I talked about how extremely shy I am. And I'm going to stick with that as my greatest weakness. But the good news is, I've mostly overcome it except in group settings where I don't know everyone.

But it used to be miserable. I wouldn't talk to people at all for fear of rejection (which is what I think shyness is: fear of rejection). I could barely function as a human when I was in my teens.

And I'm still shy. I just worked hard to overcome it like I said last week. But when I have to call a stranger on the phone and ask for an interview, I have to screw up my courage. Every time. It's very difficult for me. I don't make friends easily and usually have very few.

What do you consider your greatest weakness? Comment below! Let's talk.

A Speculative Fiction Cantina Replay with Wesley Thomas and John Pyka

Today on a Speculative Fiction Cantina replay, we are proud to welcome writers Wesley Thomas and John Pyka.
Wesley ThomasWesley Thomas

Wesley Thomas is a bestselling horror author, freelance writer, business owner, and avid blogger. His obsession with all things horror has led many of his short horror stories to be published in anthologies, magazines, e-zines, and on popular websites. He strives to scare, thrill, and entertain.

Wesley's Books:


GORE ZONE

Where Does Crazy Start?

Succubus

Wesley's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

John PykaJohn Pyka AKA “Big Daddy Cool”

For over 20 years John Pyka has set himself apart as an entertainer with his patented fusion of magic, music, and larger than life characters!

John Pyka is best known for his work onstage as a new vintage variety artist, fusing music and magic with comedy and dance in a 1920s – 1940s style in what is described as “Dieselpunk.” He can be seen performing in theaters, at festivals and conventions around the country.

He is also the author of 4 books on magic, including the best-seller Theatrical Magic . His first novel, Tales From the Flip-Side is published by Pro Se Press and available wherever books are sold – also available as an audiobook!

John is also the producer and host of the Dieselpunk Podcast, THE Voice of Dieselpunk on iTunes and Stitcher. He is also the producer and host of the weekly YouTube show The Roll N Go Game Review Show.

John's Books:

Tales From The Flip-Side 

Magic 101 (non-fiction)

Theatrical Magic (non-fiction)

John's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

From Today's Program: A Renegade Speeding Black Hole.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

My Biggest Strength

Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "Your biggest strength."

I had to think about this for a while. And I finally decided what my biggest strength is.

I'm a very, very shy person. My Myers-Briggs personality type is INTJ. The "I" stands for "introvert." I would rather be alone with my thoughts than at a party where I have to interact with people. All you introverts know what I mean.

But despite that, I am a pretty good public speaker. I can speak in front of a group of people without a problem, if I'm sure about my subject. Part of that is because of my work in Toastmasters. But even before Toastmasters I was fairly good at public speaking. When I worked in the corporate world, I would gladly give presentations all the time.

So I think my greatest strength is overcoming my inherent shyness to be a good public speaker.

Or it might be that I'm capable of doing freelance writing work because that means calling people I don't know and asking them for interviews. It's very hard for me to do that. But I do it because I enjoy the freelance work so much.

What is your greatest strength. Comment below!

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Keith Rosson and John Murphy

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are very pleased to welcome writers Keith Rosson and John Murphy.
Keith RossonKeith Rosson

Keith Rosson is the author of the novels The Mercy of the Tide and Smoke City, and his short fiction has appeared in Cream City Review, PANK, December, The Nervous Breakdown, and more. He's been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the Birdwhistle Prize for Short Fiction and the New American Fiction Prize. He’s also an illustrator and graphic designer, with clients that include Green Day, Against Me, the Goo Goo Dolls, and others. A fierce advocate of public libraries and non-ironic adulation of the cassette tape, he can be found at keithrosson.com.

Keith's Works:


The Mercy of the Tide

"Torch Songs" (short story)

"Forgive Me This" (short story)

Keith's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

John MurphyJohn Murphy

John Murphy was a Corporal in the US Marine Corps. He graduated college and had a successful career in the software industry. He’s the father of 3 adult sons and grandfather of 2.  In addition to writing great stories to share, he enjoy a good cigar, riding motorcycles, shooting guns, drinking tequila, downhill skiing fast and traveling the world with his soulmate wife.

John's Books:

Mission Veritas 

Proelium Veritas 

Vulgus Chronicles

John's Links:

Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

From Today's Program: Math will be Key to Communicating with Aliens.

Listen to Today's Program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

Most Beautiful Place I've Been

Cannon Beach, OR.Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge and today's prompt is "The Most Beautiful Place I've Been."

This is a tough one. I've been to some beautiful places.

Last year around this time I went to Cannon Beach, Oregon. It was very pretty. But I don't know if it's the most beautiful place I've been.

Two years ago I went to the Canadian Rockies. Now that was amazing. See here, here, here, here, and here. Yes, it was so lovely, I have to have five blog posts to cover it. Only problem was the weather wasn't very good.

And in 2013, I went to Glacier National Park. It was amazing. I'm not sure which is better, Glacier National Park or the Canadian Rockies. See here and here.

And I've been to Hawaii. Of the islands I've visited (Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai) that the prettiest one (and the least spoiled by tourism) is Kauai.

Of all those places, the place I'd want to go back to is Glacier National Park. It's just amazing.

What's the most beautiful place you've ever been? Comment below.

Movie Review: Dunkirk

Last Friday I took a mini vacation (hashtag #minivaca) and went and saw the new Christopher Nolan movie Dunkirk in IMAX. And (not to give away the ending) I was blown away.

Dunkirk is an amazing movie. Based on the true events at the beginning of World War II (1940) when the British needed to evacuate nearly 400,000 soldiers from France that had just be overrun by the German army. The movie gives us three points of view: 1) a soldier trying to get back to England, 2) a Spitfire pilot trying his best to stop deadly German bombing of ships evacuating the men, and 3) a civilian who, like many others, takes his small boat across the English Channel to rescue as many of the trapped soldiers as possible. Each, in their own way, show amazing courage, even though the solider is trying desperately to get off the beach.

You feel the terror of the soldiers out in the open on a beach with no cover as German Stuka dive bombers attack both the men on the beach and the ships trying to evacuate them. Messerschmitt fighters engage with Spitfires that are trying to shoot down larger German Heinkel bombers that are bombing ships, both military and civilian.

Nolan made an interesting choice to never name the enemy. You never hear the words "Germans" or "Nazis." You never see the enemy until the last few moments of the film during the final fade to black.

Another choice Nolan made was not to make the film gory in the model of Saving Private Ryan. He certainly could have and there were plenty of opportunities. But blood and gore and minimized earning the film a PG-13 rating. The gore wasn't needed to make the move intense.

Even if you don't like "war films," Dunkirk is a very good movie and mostly historically accurate. The biggest problem I had was the train interior that the soldiers get on after arriving in England. It did not look like an early 1940s train. More like a late 60s/early 70s train (there might even have been plastic around the seats). But that's a small quibble after the rest of the amazing movie. Go see Dunkirk. You'll be happy you did.

Throttled by Netflix...Again

For some reason, Netflix DVD service back in March and April decided to throttle me again. I have no idea why. But it took me until this past week to finally get the last movie that was released in March.

"Throttling" is when Netflix doesn't send you the latest releases to punish you for watching too many discs. It costs them at least $1 per disc sent out so they discourage watching lots and lots of discs. But I didn't think I was watching too many discs. Before and after March and April, I was watching three discs every two weeks. So why did I get throttled in March and April? I have no idea. But as the chart below shows, I was definitely throttled waiting as long as 16 weeks to see a new release.

(Netflix doesn't reveal release dates once a disc is released so I had to estimate the release date based on what Amazon.com said it was. Netflix release dates are often four weeks after Amazon release dates. This chart only shows new releases. I also watched a lot of old releases during this time, mostly older movies/series I hadn't seen yet.)

But then after March/April, the only time I didn't get a new release right away was when I didn't send in enough discs such as there are two new releases that week but I only send in one disc. I have highlighted those in gray.

I did learn a trick that I think helped me get the throttled new releases. I used to send in two discs on Friday and they would both arrive Monday. Then I started sending one disc Thursday and it would get there Friday or Saturday and I'd have more chance of getting a new release that I hadn't gotten yet. If I hadn't started doing that, who knows how long I would have waited for silence.

I'd still like to know what I did in March/April to piss off Netfix's computers.

Speculative Fiction Cantina Replay with Ronald Chapman and Debbie Kump

Today on a Speculative Fiction Cantina Replay episode we are pleased to welcome writers Ronald Chapman and Debbie Kump.
Ronald ChapmanRonald Chapman

Ronald Chapman is an author, speaker and facilitator of approaches that increase well-being-ness and produce breakthroughs when practiced deeply and in a sustained fashion. He is the creator of Seeing True™ and Progressive Recovery, resources dedicated to exploring the concepts of engaging, releasing and transcending, essentially the core of forgiveness practice. Ron is an internationally accredited inspirational speaker and workshop leader, and the author of two novels, two works of non-fiction and two audio sets. He holds a Masters in Social Welfare.

Ronald's Books:


A Killer’s Grace

Seeing True: The Way of Spirit (nonfiction)

Ronald's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Debbie KumpDebbie Kump

As a teen, I enjoyed writing and illustrating my own books. I’d spend hours pounding away (literally!) at the keys of my mother’s archaic typewriter, dreaming of one day getting published. I put those dreams on hold to pursue my other love: teaching. After graduating from Cornell University with degrees in Biology and Education, I taught middle and high school science in Maui, Seattle, and the Twin Cities and worked as a marine naturalist aboard a whale watch and snorkel cruise. When I’m not teaching or working on my next novel, I enjoy coaching my sons’ soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams and dogsledding to school with our three Siberian huskies.

Debbie's Books:

Elemental (Book 1 of The Elementals Trilogy)

Essence (Book 2 of The Elementals Trilogy)

8G

Debbie's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

From Today's Program: Do Black Holes Have Event Horizons?


Listen to today's replay at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

A Person Who Inspires Me

Cannon Beach, OregonBack to the 52-week blogging challenge and today's prompt is "A Person Who Inspires Me." I had to think about this one.

The person who inspires me is . . . you! You who read my blog, perhaps follow me on Twitter or Facebook. And maybe, just maybe you buy and read my books. And a few of you might even leave a positive review on Amazon.

You are the one I'm doing this all for. You are the one who inspires me to write, promote, blog, and write some more. I want to entertain and perhaps enlighten you with my writing. I want to use my talents to make your world just a little better place.

So the person who inspires me, is you. How does that make you feel? Comment below.

Movie Review: Life

Last week I watched on Netflix disc the movie Life. Even though it had horror elements (and I don't do horror), I watched it because of its science fiction based setting. It takes place in an International Space Station of the near future (it has holographic displays).

First the good: the movie always had the characters in free fall, as they would be in Earth orbit. When the thrusters were fired (there are thrusters on the space station?) the people inside felt the acceleration. The movie did a good job portraying free fall, with only a few times where it didn't work well. For instance, a character sets down a tablet and it obviously is in gravity because it drops a bit when he lets go of it. So I had less problems with the basic science of this movie than I did for a movie such as Gravity  (which also took place in near-Earth orbit).

One other problem is sound. The movie (like most scifi movies) had sound in space, including debris flying by a space probe. The only movie I know got this right was 2001: A Space Odyssey. I say again: there is no air in space and therefore, no sound outside of space ships with air inside them.

And the movie Life was very derivative. It's a "trapped in space" horror flick (think Alien) about something scary brought from Mars (sort of like The Andromeda Strain). While the actors do a good job and the movie is scary and tense most of the time, you do have to over come the disbelieve that the monster (named "Calvin" by the space station crew) grew that quickly from a single cell.

Also, the crew sleeps in these over-engineered sleeping chambers (which become important later in the film). On the space shuttle and on the current space station, crew sleep in bags attached to the walls. This is simple and works and doesn't require a lot of resources. An engineer would love it.

If you like horror and trapped-in-space movies, you'll probably like Life more than I did. It's probably pretty good horror and it's fair science fiction.