Zero Angel Richardson's Blog, page 20

Free Promotion...MAYBE

Hi Guys!

I'm sure you're aware I've been writing (and now revising, drawing, formatting, etc) my butt off to try to meet all the deadlines this month. With so many releases coming out, I'd really like to do something more than just offer a $0.99 book for free, but I'd also really like to increase my base.

If I can get 150 Likes on my Facebook page (http://facebook.com/zawota) by July 20, then I'll offer both "Zero Angel's Mathematics #1: Arithmetic and Number Sense" AND The Warrior's Way as free downloads.

It takes a little bit of time to organize the free promos, so the promos will be in August and will be for 2 days each (both books are exclusives to Kindle).

Both books are regularly sold for $2.99, ZAM #1 has never been offered free before, and TWW is coming out this month (so it's never been offered free before either...if that wasn't clear).

Don't forget you can also connect with me on Twitter, by following this blog, and through my newsletter (just e-mail me that you'd like to sign up for the newsletter: zero [at] apocalypsedesigns [dot] com)

Whatever happened to...

Sometimes I'll get the question, "Whatever happened to Champion of the Gods?" or "Whatever happened to Coming of the Comet?" or the same question applied to this or that short story that USED to be available.

Keep reading after the jump to find out...

Well, Champion of the Gods and Coming of the Comet were never presented in a completed form (in fact, Coming of the Comet was never more than a teaser), and I ended up continuing to keep them on the backburner long enough that I felt it ridiculous to continue offering what I had of these without delivering.  So they went away.

I also sometimes get a question or two about Tyria or Gawyn, both of whom appeared in their own short stories WAYYYYYY back when I was using Myspace as a blog. (Like, in the '00s o_O).

They went away when that Myspace went away (along with hundreds and hundreds of "Friends" that refused to migrate to my company's Myspace page or Facebook).

So now you know what happened to them, you're probably wondering what's going to happen to them.

Champion of the Gods will be completed this winter; I'm hoping for a 2013 release, but I'm pretty busy for the rest of this year, so it will almost have to be in January or February. As soon as CotG is out, Coming of the Comet will be the next novella that I release, so possibly as early as March 2014, but definitely no later than Summer 2014. Both novellas will be not just re-released, but published.

I know that some of CotG was available for free, so I will be posting the first part or two of the novella up for free on ApocalypseDesigns.com. I have no desire to make people pay for something they used to have access to for free. The full versions of Champion of the Gods and Coming of the Comet will be released at my novella prices ($2.99) for Kindle.

Now, as for Tyria and Gawyn, both characters are actually main characters of Book 2 of the main saga of WotA. The short story featuring Tyria actually takes place in the prologue of Book 2 (that shows you how far ahead I've been writing and planning :p). The short story featuring Gawyn takes place several years before his introduction in Book 2, but once I have it rewritten and am happy with it I will be releasing it as one of the Transition stories between Book 1 and 2 in the timeline. This could be as early as next month.

I also plan on sharing the prologue of Book 2 first in my newsletter and eventually here on my blog and on ApocalypseDesigns.com significantly in advance of Book 2 being released. Currently titled, The Towers of Aeruen, Book 2 is still scheduled for a third quarter release in 2014.

So that's where we stand currently. I'm hard at work getting the MANY releases polished for this month, and the only thing that may delay them is cover work and formatting right now. I'm about 75% - 90% on each promised release for July. Here's the current updated schedule (everything tentative past July):

Jul '13: WotA: "The Warrior's Way"
Jul '13: "Zero Angel's Mathematics #2"
Jul '13: "Zero Angel's The Forest"
Jul '13: Of Faeries and Demons: Gremlins
Jul '13: 3 WotA Prequels
    Val, Balolsur, Iro Jad
Aug '13: Of Faeries and Demons #2
 Aug '13: "Zero Angel's Mathematics #3"
Aug '13: 2 WotA Transitions
  Planning on one featuring Schaele and one featuring Gawyn
Sep '13: Of Faeries and Demons #3
Sep '13: Zero Angel's Mathematics #4
Sep '13: "Zero Angel's Mathematics Collection #1" (continuing yearly)
Oct '13: Of Faeries and Demons #4
Nov '13: Untitled Children's Novel
Nov '13: Of Faeries and Demons #5
Dec '13: Cross Adventures Novella: "A Cross at the End of Days"
Dec '13: Of Faeries and Demons #6
Dec '13: Zero Angel's Mathematics #5 (continuing quarterly)
Jan '14: Cross Adventures Short (continuing monthly)
Jan '14: Of Faeries and Demons #7 (continuing monthly)
2014 First Quarter: Champion of the Gods
2014 Early Second Quarter: Prologue to The Towers of Aeruen
2014 Second Quarter: Coming of the Comet
2014 June: Of Faeries and Demons 1st Collection (continuing yearly)
2014 Early Third Quarter: Book 2: The Towers of Aeruen
2014 December: Cross Adventures 1st Collection (continuing yearly)
2015 Late Fourth Quarter: Book 3 (continuing every ~18 months)

Newsletter Preview

Hi everyone,

In case you were curious what will be included in the upcoming ZA newsletter, I've compiled a quick list:

A sneak preview of The Warrior's Way. The reveal of the title for the first "Of Faeries and Demons" story. And the dates of the next free promo for Zero Angel's Mathematics.

If you'd like to join the mailing list before it goes out, then please e-mail zero@apocalypsedesigns.com with your request to join. Right now everyone on the mailing list has elected to receive updates on everything, but eventually there you can elect to receive just my speculative fiction updates or just my math updates, so if you'd rather receive updates on one and not the other, please let me know in your e-mail.

You can also message me on any one of the MANY social media sites I'm on. Check out the Contact and Submissions page above or the links to the right.

Newsletter goes out at the end of the week!

Making Undead #5: Corrupting Elysia

Time for another "Making Undead", this time I am focusing on the elysia, commonly known as star elves.

Note: Making Undead is part of a blog series. Each post consists of creating original undead creatures from the building blocks of the world of War of the Ages. You can read the rest of the series here.

Warning: Making Undead is not for children or for those weak of stomach or easily offended. Even in a standard fantasy, undead creatures may be horrific and the ideas behind and creation of undead is rarely something that will be pleasant. 

I'm growing bored with just focusing on physical corruption, and I think everyone is starting to get the idea on how it works. Instead, this time I'll branch out and focus on anything and everything that catches my attention with the elysia. This is more useful as well since the elysia are not as fleshed out as some of the previous races I have covered. In Ao, they are mostly a background race, and they really are not prevalent until you start into stories going back or sideways from the main series. (Although there is a half-breed in Book 2).

Quick background, the elysia are the original elves. They are the elves that stayed behind on their homeRealm, Lysia, when their sun exploded instead of fleeing to Ao like the elves that would become the high elves and the wild elves did. The elysia were not unchanged however, and the uncontrolled energies released by the exploding sun warped and twisted them. Overnight, the mystical star citadels of the Lysian heavens were filled to overflowing with magicks and the runoff was channeled into entire moons consisting of nothing but pure magickal power. To this day, the eruption of Nova, the sun of Lysia, is ongoing and being contained by the other star citadels and the prayers of every living being on Lysia. 
Physically, the elysia resemble dark elves or night elves from other universes, but have streams of pure magick running throughout their bodies which manifest in different-colored deposits across their skin. In most star elves, the streams are purely cosmetic and have little to no influence on them (although they believe otherwise), but uncommonly, the streams are more highly concentrated in an individual causing changes to occur. If one of these individuals dies, or if a star elf dies in a way that accelerates/grows their magicks, and we ramp these growths up, we come to our first undead: let's call them gold stars / silver stars / red stars / prismatic stars.

The group of colored stars have different characteristics based on what color is predominant or if they are in balance. All of them become metal-men/women with mineral exteriors, but retaining their high agility and speed. Feral, they seek out sources of magick to consume, especially the mineral deposits of other elysia and other undead stars.This is why they can usually be found in the same area as other stars, as each tries to hunt and stalk the others.

Silver stars are the magickal dynamos of the group, and the metallic deposits of this creature contain concentrations of star silver, a metal that is the polar opposite of the antimagickal cold iron and accelerates elven magicks. Powerful silver stars are able to utilize their magickal accelerating natures to overload elves to the point that they become undead stars as well. Silver stars are the "default" undead star.

Gold stars on the other hand are much more reclusive than the other undead stars and frequently secret themselves away to meditate for years at a time. Over time, they find that the world itself grows around them and their understanding grows so that they are able to influence larger and larger portions of the world. These undead stars become gold giants as they exert their influence on larger and larger portions. Typically, they are content to absorb the magick of the universe and planet naturally, but if concentrations of magick (that is, other undead stars, living elysia, etc) are close by they may be motivated to action. Although gigantic and consisting of massive amounts of foreign inorganic material, gold stars retain their alacrity. It is unknown why an elysia may rise as a gold star instead of a silver star, but popular theories include the elf having reached enlightenment, a repressed trait in their heritage, being chosen by Nova or another star god, or any number of other ideas.

Red stars are a contradiction of sorts. When an elysia of significant magick that might otherwise rise as a silver or gold star dies near a significant source of cold iron (itself very rare on Lysia, so these are more common for elysia that have migrated to Ao), it rises as a teeming mass of chaotic metal in flux. Red stars have both magick accelerating properties and antimagickal properties. They can change their form at will, and usually do this to change their arms into chain whips or blades and are the most aggressive of the undead stars. Their dual nature drives them utterly mad and they are unique amongst the stars in that they will kill without feeding and will kill prey that has no magick. If they encounter dwarves, either the lost dwarves living on Lysia, migrant dwarves on Lysia, or dwarves of Ao if they are on Ao, then they hunt them with the same ferocity undead stars hunt on elysia.

As mentioned previously, undead stars do not get along and will hunt each other with even more prejudice than they hunt elysia. Usually, this results in the stronger star feeding on the weaker and growing significantly stronger, but sometimes the stars are equally balanced in magick (or, more commonly, a weaker red star uses their antimagickal ability on a stronger silver or gold star). The results of these battles between balanced opponents that do not end in mutual destruction are the prismatic stars.

Prismatic stars are wildly chaotic and more akin to forces of nature than a tangible creature. They can cross from their metallic state to pure energy and back again and shoot across the sky like lightning. Gravitating to strong clumps of magick in the atmosphere, they will stay in the sky until they sense a stronger source of magick, which they strike out at, opening with a lightning blast consisting of their bodies before coalescing and attacking in person if needed. This has caused schools of magickers or any particularly powerful magicker to construct magickal lightning rods to protect against the initial blast of a prismatic star (although the unique nature of Lysia's weather is another reason for the protection).

I'd be remiss to go further without mentioning a standard elven undead, the banshee and the atropal. The banshee and atropal undead duo are common to all elvenkind and began with the eruption of Nova. High elves suffered this malady due to their migration to Ao and the alien magicks of that land, while wild elves are the least effected, but still sometimes suffer if taken out of their adapted habitats. The elysia become banshees and atropals due to the overwhelming magickal radiation of Nova on Lysia.

A banshee is an undead elven lady that died late during pregnancy, during childbirth, or killed herself after a stillborn child was born to her. The atropal is the child if it died during pregnancy, childbirth, or was killed by its undead mother after birth. (Note: Atropal is a place-holder name. It's a big bad stillborn undead in D&D and it lets me easily recall the thing I'm talking about. I'll eventually come up with a new name. Banshee is the classic banshee and I'm fine with keeping that name). Sometimes a banshee will attempt to care for her living baby (rarely successfully), and when a child dies after being cared for by a banshee, it may rise as a super-atropal (especially if it fed on the mother's milk), a regular atropal, or it may stay dead.

A banshee that successfully cares for a living baby (whether her original child or a stolen replacement) becomes a quiet banshee and no longer wails and carries on in grief. These banshees can be downright helpful and regain their sanity, although they may begin to hate themselves and once the child grows up enough or they are able to bear parting with it, they may kill themselves. A quiet banshee that fails to care for a living baby becomes a loud banshee (or super-banshee) and actively seeks out entire communities to destroy, in her rage even killing children which are normally exempt from the wrath of a banshee.

All banshees possess a mind-shattering wail, and the more powerful banshees can kill with it, although children are rarely more than unnerved and it helps many children sleep or stay sleeping. Atropals are able to move and develop hardened gums that they can chew/bite through flesh with. Most banshees are not "hungry" undead, but they do indulge any atropal babies they have and regularly seek  to help the atropal seek satisfaction. Although atropals do not develop physically, their hunger grows and they are able to grow larger and stronger (although retaining their shape).

Most banshees begin to fear and hate their child, some even turning to filicide to rid the world of the abomination. Those banshees frequently become loud banshees, but some become quiet, and some even find rest and are able to pass on. Other banshees willingly take part in their child's hunger, even encouraging it, and they become a bansheepal, a dark shadow of a banshee that cunningly traps and destroys everything she can reach. Some bansheepals will even abandon their atropal if they feel it is holding them back.

Elysian banshees and atropals are much more magickally explosive than those coming from high elves or wild elves. The elysian banshee wail can physically stun her prey, and at higher levels causes explosions. Elysian atropals quickly develop physically, becoming much stronger and capable than their high elven cousins (although high elves learn to float faster). Elysian atropals are more prone to mutations (both before their death and after) as well due to the magickal radiation of Nova, and may develop additional limbs, longer, sharpened tongues, and more.

Atropals may stay at a feral state, or they may develop mentally. Super-atropals almost always develop extraordinary mental abilities, surpassing genius levels after only a few decades (very fast when you remember they're elves and elysia do not reach adulthood until ~80). Atropals that develop mentally may abandon their mothers, causing her untold grief and prompting her to hate her child or hate all life. Some abandoned banshees pursue their child for centuries, either finding death at the end waiting for her, granting death to her child, or finally experiencing a reunion with the unholy horror.

Servants of banshees/atropals are those members of their families that were already born or the father/husband. Usually motivated by the atropal, the banshee and atropal hunt them down and turn them. They rarely develop much, but serve as bodyguards to the banshee and atropal. Sufficiently young children may be turned into atropals through feeding from the mother, or from rebirth if the banshee chooses to take them within herself. If the miscarriage/stillborn/death-of-the-mother was caused by the husband, then the banshee will usually pursue the husband even without the urging of the atropal. Sometimes the husband can retain the woman's fear of him even in undeath, but eventually the banshee becomes powerful enough that she can kill him from a distance.

A banshee that attempts to take a grown child into herself to rebirth it may find the child resisting enough to become an unholy fusion of banshee and atropal. An atrocishee (sorry, the joke was impossible to resist) is a dual creature consisting of the banshee above and below, but with the child grotesquely emerging from the center, sometimes just the torso, sometimes with arms, sometimes with arms and legs. Although they appear clumsy, an atrocishee is surprisingly fast and all limbs develop undead strength. They can climb walls, ceilings and trees as spiders, and elysian atrocishees regularly mutate even further so that all aspects of the creature turn into a weapon wholly unrecognizable from its original elven heritage.

Finally, let's examine an aspect of elysian culture: namely, star worship. On Lysia, the elves believe that the Star Gods rule the heavens which consist of great Star Citadels connected by Star Roads (I'm translating here into English from Elysian, so lots of star-this, star-that). The Star Citadels are what one actually sees when they look up into the lights of the eternal night. Each Star God resides inside his or her citadel and influences those creatures below that are born under their citadel. (This is the origin of hume astrology on Ao actually, even though Ao stars are nothing like those on Lysia). Occasionally, an elf is chosen by a Star God to live wholly in their thrall, to do nothing but their bidding, which they understand through strong impulses and instincts they feel compelled to follow. In life, these Star Priests can inspire great followings to their deity and are granted additional powerful magicks to carry out the wishes of their god. However, in death, if they are not purified, Star Priests rise as a Fanatic.

Fanatics still hear the call of their god in their impulses and wishes, but everything has changed for them. More than ever before, they seek to corrupt, pervert and proselytize. They launch attacks against the temples of other deities and weave in and out of the twilight with their impossible magicks. Even the faithful begin to doubt the call of a fanatic and many religious turn away from a god when a priest rises as a fanatic, believing the statements made in life to be false. Some fanatics hold true to their moral compasses and master themselves and their urgings. They become more powerful than ever, but return to their religion to guide and help others. Let's call these the Bishops. Bishops can fall to corruption, but if they can hold true, they are a great boon to the faithful of their god. They are generally more intolerant of other religions, but do not usually lash out personally or violently.

Very powerful fanatics or even wavering bishops may seek to construct the blasphemous ziggurats, outlawed on Lysia by all since Nova's original explosion. A ziggurat is a type of tower that reaches to the sky to harness the magicks of the gods directly. It is believed that the original ziggurat created by Oberon caused the explosion of Nova and opened the First Gate to Ao, creating the Faerie Realms between the two realms and forever tying them all together. This has generally been seen as a bad thing and it is believed that additional ziggurats will only weaken the gods holding back the full explosion of Nova, and that it is possible that Nova is still alive at the center of the explosion, and additional ziggurats may enrage him further. Once constructed, a ziggurat can empower the fanatic or bishop with untold power, or they can grant this power to others as they desire. A fanatic becomes the dreaded zealot while the bishop will become the powerful cardinal. Zealots usually are more focused and tend to plan things out more than a fanatic, while cardinals may regret building the ziggurat or launch into plans that are even larger than before. Even if a cardinal or zealot abandons a ziggurat (or the ziggurat is destroyed), they remain empowered and are forever changed by the power they are granted.

So that is just a touch of some undead for the elysia. I know I cheated a little by using banshees for elysia when they also apply to other elven races (and aren't exactly original on their own for that matter), but I hope that the dual pair of banshees and atropals, and all the things that can happen to them, including the atrocishee and how the banshee can make new atropals was original and new.

I'm still deciding on what the next Making Undead will be of. If you have any requests, please feel free to comment below or on Google+, tweet me @zawota or Facebook me at facebook.com/zawota.

The Mythic Guide to Characters by Antonio del Drago Review

A while back (in fact, quite a long while back, my focuses have not been on the review portion of this blog I'm sorry to say), I was given a review copy of The Mythic Guide to Characters by Antonio del Drago. I have finally been able to give this book my attention (due to my Internet being effectively down for a few days this week).

(You can click to the Amazon page via the picture above)
I'm quite sorry that it took so long, not just because I promised a review much earlier, but because I found the book to be a spectacular resource after everything was said and done...but only after everything was said and done.

It takes a while to get going. In fact, for quite a while I was afraid I was going to give the book a 3-star review (which isn't necessarily bad, but much lower than I figured on giving). There's just too much explanation to be honest.

I agree with the philosophy behind the book. Build characters with layers and the character on the page should be an iceberg with much more behind the page than ever needs to show up. I was fully in accord with him in this regard.

But I did not need to know the history of each device the author used to help build layers. And I did not need three examples behind every archetype (although only one of the layers actually calls them "archetypes"). Still, from an educational point of view, it's hard to finish reading those chapters without knowing exactly what the layers consist of, and the knowledge you gain will be useful when the author finally gives us the advice I am assuming paying customers buy the book for.

This advice does not show up until the "Further Considerations" sections of the book, but it shows up with a vengeance. And the advice is not overbearing or of the this-is-the-only-way-you-can-write-effectively sort. It was agreeable and more importantly, useful.

I'm not going to be using the advice much personally, because I take a much more natural approach to character building, but I can definitely see it being extremely helpful to an aspiring or beginning writer, or one that has some talent but struggles with characterization. A lot of what the author brings up is frequently overlooked by many.

And when he starts the "Putting It All Together" chapter, boy does he ever put it all together. The entire book feels seamless by this point.

What I will utilize is the Character Worksheet at the back. It's spectacular, and he conveniently includes a link to a printable version. I won't use this to develop characters mind you, but I feel it is a worthwhile exercise to run every character through and especially if your characters are to the point that they have a mind of their own, may even surprise you.

The information in this book is good, the advice is great, and the worksheet is spectacular. I strongly recommend this to every writer that struggles with their characters. Although I got a free copy of the book, I definitely feel it is worth the $2.99 price point if you need it. And although it is aimed at fantasy characters, the advice and worksheet are easily applied to any character in any genre. I am glad I have a copy.

That said, there are some errors in the text (as any first edition book will have though), and the slow burn of a build-up probably would have been a deal-breaker for me if I had not already planned on reviewing the entire thing. That said, I had a lot of people tell me that it was a great book, so I probably would have given it a chance in spite of the slow-burn, but it was definitely infuriating there for a while. Still, it's an easy read and the slow-burn is really not that slow given the length of the book (about 180 pages). You could easily read it the first time in a day, but I recommend the people that need this book come back to the "Further Considerations" sections through the end more than once, and again, the worksheet is a great resource.

Zero Review: 7.5/10, a solid C, but after you've finished it and taken as a whole: 4 stars.

Announcement: Compilations and Relaunch of Mailing List

Announcement: After the first 3 prequel shorts to The Throne of Ao come out this month, I will be collecting these AND ALL FUTURE PREQUELS to Throne of Ao in one compilation. The compilation will be priced at $2.99 and will eventually contain ten short stories between 4000 and 12000 words each (normally priced at $0.99 each).

Being able to do things like this is one of the nice things about the ebook formats. All I have to do is update a file and everyone that already purchased it will be able to receive the new story at no additional cost.

Note: these prequels do not include novellette/novella/novel length stories or those shorts that I do not classify as a true prequel to Throne because they include unrelated characters or are about history or legends.

Also planning to do this with transitional short stories and other collections. May do dynamic pricing where it is cheaper to buy earlier before the books are full up.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to comment.

If you'd like to make sure you're always up-to-date, then please join my mailing list by messaging me or e-mailing zero@apocalypsedesigns.com with your address and "Mailing List" in the subject. Also, if you only want to receive fiction news or nonfiction news instead of all news, please make sure I know in your message. Mailing list content includes all new publications, new editions, awards and honors news, and more. Also includes sneak peeks and specials. If you were already on my mailing list or the short-lived WotA Online quarterly newsletter, then your subscription will be rolled to the new newsletter. Thank you

Request: Can we please stop teaching cross-multiplication?

I don't usually write blogs out of annoyance and frustration (not since I grew up anyway), but if there's one thing that annoys me more than most things in mathematics education, it's the retention of such a worthless "tool" as cross-multiplication.

Cross-multiplication is the quintessence of why people are crap at math in America.


...But you're not buying a bloody car, you're trying to learn and educate! Why on Earth do we spend so much time trying to get kids to emulate a calculator? They're never going to be as good as a calculator is at calculating!

But you know what they can be good at? Mathematics. Real mathematics, not the ABC crap we learn and teach in primary and secondary schools. Arithmetic and algebra are to math what the ABCs and grammar are to English.

Do you think people would enjoy English if they spent 12 years learning to read? and then never having read any narratives, only a paragraph or a page at a time?

When does reading for fun start? Grade 1? 2? BEFORE THEY LEARN TO READ?!

When does math for fun start? Calculus? Something most people never get to? And then only if they have a halfway decent teacher?

Real mathematics is asking "Why?", not stating the value of x. Real math is problem-solving, not solving word problems and worksheets. Real math is the universe, not bloody cross-multiplication!

If you doubt this and have gone through a few levels of math yourself, try and ask yourself if you know why we add in long multiplication.

...

...

...

Well? Did anyone question the teacher when they learned long multiplication? Or was it, like cross multiplication, handed down from on high and left with the promise that you will be able to multiply big numbers and is just a technique that we use because it works, you don't have to worry about how it works.

You should always ask why. (I explain it in Section 1 of ZAM, "Arithmetic and Number Sense: The 'Basics' of Math We Are Never Taught", but the short answer is the distributive property)

Why does cross multiplication work? And what on Earth IS cross multiplication?  At its most base, cross multiplication is a statement that is always true, a/b = c/d if and only if ad = bc, b, d ≠ 0.

It is usually presented as a way of solving proportions in the sense that if we know 3 out of the four in the fraction statement, it is easier to solve the multiplication statement.

But why does this work? and why do I find it so infuriating?

Well, let's scale back and ask how to evaluate 3/4 + 2/6?

Now, I hope, that most of us know that we convert this to twelfths and then add. 9/12 + 4/12 = 13/12 (if you don't know why THIS works, maybe you should start reading my math books? or feel free to ask).

But what about if instead of using 12ths, we used 24ths instead. Now, you might be saying, but 12ths worked out find and the answer is in lowest terms~! To that I'd counter, but 24ths is easier to find than 12ths. You just multiply by the other denominator. We get 18/24 + 8/24 = 26/24

Easier's better, right?

How is this related to cross multiplication? Well, let's start with how cross multiplication works.

In algebra, one of the techniques you learn to help you with equations involving fractions is that if you multiply by the least common denominator (or LCD) then all of the fractions magickally disappear (or rather, their denominators are cancelled out). This is the same idea in a cross multiplication problem. Let's do an example.

x / 4 = 9/12

Here, the least common denominator is 12ths, so we multiply both sides by 12 and get:

3x = 9

Thus, x = 9/3 = 3.

To put it back in the original statement, we now know that 3/4 is the same as 9/12. 

No trickery needed, no magickal techniques. We just cancelled out the fractions, but even that is less than what we could have done if we hadn't turned off our brains when we saw fractions. This says x divided by 4. To solve you just need to multiply both sides by 4!

x / 4 = 9 /12
 · 4         · 4
      x = 3

In ONE step! Now, not all of these can be done in one step, but the fact that we can gives us at least some pause before we turn off our brains.

Now you might be asking yourself, what about cross multiplication? Cross multiplication to this problem is the same as if we had multiplied not by 4, and not even by 12, but if we had multiplied by $*!!!  (note: $* is a capital 48 on the keyboard). By forty-bloody-eight! Not even the LCD, but just a lowly common denominator!

Let's see how it works.

x / 4 = 9 / 12
 · 48      · 48
  12x  = 36

Look familiar? It's the result of the cross multiplication step. Cross multiplication is just a way to hide the truth of multiplying by the common denominator instead of the least common denominator in clearing fractions and completely puts aside the idea of not even needing to clear fractions in this problem in order to solve it.

Algebraically, we can prove the cross multiplication rule using this fact now:

 a / b = c / d
· bd      · bd
abd / d = bcd / d
      ad = bc

Again, the only place this would fall apart is if b or d were zero.

So why do we use something so clunky as the cross multiplication rule? Because students can get the correct answer by following the rule blindly and turning off their brains.

Why is that desirable? Students won't ever be able to be as good of a calculator as a calculator, so why do we focus on that? I'm not saying we should go back to "new math", but this math is just crap.

Why do we want crap?

There has to be a paradigm shift in how we teach and what we expect in mathematics. Getting the answer is like finishing a book, it's next to worthless without the story behind it. If we keep teaching kids to skip all these steps they're going to end up at the bottom of the stairwell. The fastest way to get to the bottom of a building is to jump off the roof but I am pretty sure most people aren't ready for that.

So why are we teaching this bastardized technique that is slower and less efficient than what it comes from and does nothing for understanding?

Mathematics education in America is ridiculous.

Students will fight back against any sort of paradigm shift also. They don't want math to be interesting, they just want to get through it. To endure. Mathematics is everything in the world. Mathematics IS the bloody world. The turn of the Earth is described in math. Math is the language of the universe.

Deal with it.

The Dark Knight Rises and a Memory of Light: Spoiler-warning

I know I'm late to the party. "A Memory of Light" came out back in January and "The Dark Knight Rises" hit theaters almost a year ago and has been on DVD since December. I won't structure this as a review then (although I will give my ratings), and instead focus on what I took away from both works. I'll assume everyone has read "A Memory of Light" and seen "The Dark Knight Rises". If you haven't purchased them yet, here are the Amazon links:


Both works are the long-awaited conclusions to their respective fantasy series. AMOL is Book 14 (15 if you count the prequel) to the acclaimed "Wheel of Time" (WOT) series, and TDKR is the end(?) of the trilogy of Batman films done by Christopher Nolan with Christian Bale playing the eponymous superhero.
There are a lot of similarities between the two, but especially in the very end of both. The Dragon Reborn of WOT has long been a stoic character who tried to make himself stronger by blocking out emotion and only recently realized that caring made him stronger, while Batman has always been a douche and never really realizes it. Still, both characters set about sacrificing everything they are and represent in order to save the world (or just Gotham) in spite of their douchiness.

In AMOL, the times where I was overwhelmed with emotion were frequent throughout the first 5/6 of the novel or so, and the military action was welcome although I'm sure some long-time readers may have been put off by something that seemed to always take a backseat to the personal struggles of the characters (with the exception of Mat) over the course of the series. It was fittingly epic in size and scope, and the sacrifices and failures as well as their successes never really seemed cheap or done for effect, something many people ending their series could take as an example (I'm looking at you, J.K.). The sexism that's always been a part of WOT was still present and annoying/frustrating, but finally took a back seat near the end of the book.

In Batman, I was not emotionally invested at all in these storylines. Alfred was the emotional core of the movie, but I found his actions either overly-done or illogical. Catwoman, err, Selina Kyle rather, appeared as though she was going to be a well-developed character and I thought her actress did very well, but then it evaporated in the last half of the movie. The character played by Christian Bale in the first parts of the movie was not Batman and I found it hard to believe that he wouldn't try another way of fighting crime and trying to make Gotham better. Well, he did in his clean energy but then gave up on that entirely when it could be weaponized. (BTW, Iron Man did it, so apparently Iron Man's doing it right). And then after being crippled a couple of different times came back entirely too hale. The fear of a nuclear device being weaponized strikes me as being completely and totally insane, seeing as how EVERY NUCLEAR DEVICE COULD BE WEAPONIZED. Maybe if he had finished it and installed security like EVERY NUCLEAR PLANT HAS, then....excuse me, I'm getting off-track.

Batman was full of inconsistencies and illogicallies, but overall it just wasn't enjoyable. What makes Batman's character so attractive is not that he needs to fall before he can rise, it's that he has already fallen. It's that his calling IS his hell. It's that he can't let injustice go even if it means completely dedicating his life to ending it and solving crime.

I believe I ranked "The Dark Knight" a 10 out of 10, whereas "The Dark Knight Rises" is barely a 6. I could go on and on about how terrible it is and the many, many poor choices they made in the movie, but I'll leave you with just one horrible mistake, not just a bad decision, but an outright-they-screwed-up mistake: Miranda is captured by Bane, and then magickally shows up at Wayne Tower, and then Batman asks Gordon where she is and he says she is captured by Bane. Apparently, Miranda was not supposed to be captured by Bane until after Batman met with her at Wayne Tower, or else Batman should be somewhat suspicious that she can come and go from Bane at will and why would he have asked Gordon about her if he just saw her? In a movie of this scope, with this much of a budget, and this much of a "high production value", this completely broke the movie for me after the already unenjoyable time I was having with it.

AMOL had this same start of a break in spite of the incredibly enjoyable time I was having with it. Egwene sacrifices herself in some sort of magickal nova (which is already super-cliche, but that's OK) and it seems unnecessary. From everything up to this point, it seems like Egwene should be able to manifest the counter-balefire weave to win the day and not have to kill herself doing it. Egwene's legacy as one of the best Amyrlins is ensured, but it seems like her death was completely unnecessary and unimaginative. She also died killing a bastard of a character that should have been wiped from the Pattern books ago. And then nobody learned the weave from watching her do it! Balefire remains a problem for the rest of the book.

And then here is where both works combine in the completely insane decision to have their ready-to-sacrifice-themselves-main-characters that have literally lived just to die...have a happily-ever-after ending.

The writing had been on the wall for both for quite a while. I fully expected both characters to live. Rand, the Dragon Reborn, mostly because he was so insistent that he had to die and also because of the ridiculous number of women in love with him, and Batman, because they mentioned the autopilot wayyyy too many times and because of Alfred's wish.

In fact, after seeing Alfred's wish to see Batman being happy, I think the movie went on the track of no return. At least with AMOL I had about 750 pages of awesome until the absurd ending and reactions of the characters around Rand. What did I enjoy about Batman? Robin was OK, although entirely too competent and his knowledge of who Batman is was insane. Gordon was OK, although he should really consider checking his coat pockets and I think the movie would have been better with his death. This version of the Batwing was reasonably cool, although the autopilot feature was wayyy too contrived and set-up. And Selina Kyle was interesting for the first hour or so, and Anne Hathaway did a good job with her.

Like I said, I can believe that neither character died (Batman and Rand), but it was just stupid that they both got traditional happily-ever-after endings when especially Batman's character does not seem like he would ever be satisfied with a happily-ever-after. And how does someone with Rand's power not try to help? The endings were rubbish. I can't remember the last time I was satisfied with an ending of a series though.

"A Memory of Light": 8.5/10, B
"The Dark Knight Rises": 6/10, D-

What were your thoughts? Is there a series that has a satisfying ending somewhere?

Movie Review: "Hachi: A Dog's Tale"

I had occasion to re-watch, Hachi: A Dog's Tale starring Richard Gere. This was not the healthiest thing I could have chosen to do, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. You can find the DVD on Amazon for the low price of $5 as of the time of this writing. Click the picture to go to Amazon:
I was familiar with the story of Hachi from my studies of Japanese culture. If you're not, I won't spoil it for you, but you can read about the original Hachi here (I recommend waiting until after you've seen the film).


You see, I had made the mistake of watching Hachi with both my fiancee and my future mother-in-law. Not that they made my enjoyment of it any less than it would have been had I watched it alone, and in fact, for the first hour we were chit-chatting here and there without distracting from the movie (lots of time to do that since we didn't have to worry about missing something Hachi would say).

After the first hour or so, we were no longer speaking and in fact were doing everything possible to not look at anyone or say anything or make any noise whatsoever, because if we had even for a second, that would have been the end of being able to do anything. I will spoil the fact that Hachi is not the happiest of movies.

By, "not the happiest of movies", I mean, I had never been so completely and totally destroyed by a movie. It destroyed me more than Doctor Who does at its best.

My mocking attitude towards the directorial decisions and some of the stupider cheesy movie decisions (old people practicing kendo without armor???) had overlooked the fact that Hachi didn't need to be amazing in its first hour, all it had to do, and it did this relentlessly, was showcase how much Richard Gere's character cares for Hachi, and how much Hachi cares for Richard Gere's character.

Having established this incredible relationship, cementing it, and supporting it in all directions, the only weakness is you watching the movie, and it shows no mercy in destroying that weakness.

The remaining 30 minutes of the movie hit you again and again and again.

It doesn't do this with a surgeon's precision, but it doesn't need to. Be prepared to have a wrecking ball smashed through your heart. Again. And again. And again.

Watching it a second time (I don't know what I was expecting there), only caused the memory of the pain to well up inside during the FIRST hour, BEFORE anything happens. The recovery this time was much faster though (although that might have been from watching it on television and having to deal with commercials as well). When we first watched Hachi, it took us almost 20 minutes before we were even coherent. As the credits rolled we all finally looked at each other (I would have just continued not saying anything or looking at anyone, but as soon as one broke everyone broke!) and the dams were annihilated. There was nothing held back. Even after being coherent, just talking or thinking about Hachi for the remainder of the night set you off again.

If you believe the highest pinnacle of art is to cause emotion, then Hachi: A Dog's Tale is at the pinnacle of the pinnacle. It will tear you apart until it is dividing your atoms and leave nothing but a huge, gaping emptiness where your sense of peace and well-being were before. This movie made me ache with heartbreak.

For you, the final rank of Hachi is an A+, a 10 out of 10.

Even if you're not a fan of animals, if you value loyalty, friendship and love, then you will be destroyed by Hachi.

But the directorial decisions (or possibly the writer's decisions, but I hold the director as the final quality control in movies) do cut back on some "enjoyment" (if enjoyment is even the right word) and I am not someone that thinks that the highest pinnacle of art is to cause emotion (because of the obvious art-that-only-causes-emotion known as propaganda).
So my final rank for Hachi, is a solid B, 8.5/10.

I highly recommend experiencing Hachi at least once, and if you're a glutton for punishment, then $5 is not too bad for guaranteed punishment (in fact, the blu-ray is less than $8). If you're too lazy to scroll up, here is a link to Hachi.again:


What did you think of Hachi? Speaking of famous loyal dogs, has anyone made a movie about Fido yet?

Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor and Series 7, Review and More

(Note: Attempts at a spoiler-free review refers to not giving away any major reveals of the episode, and usually not more than what is found in the teaser given the week before. May contain spoilers of past weeks. Please avoid reading the retrospective and comments for spoilers. Last week's review of "Nightmare in Silver" is here.)

Series 7 is finally over and it leaves behind both good and bad, but it definitely has left us with one of the largest cliffhangers I've ever had to deal with. I won't spoil it for you (at least not until after the review), but know that I wholeheartedly recommend Series 7 part 2. You can watch the series finale here:


and you can purchase the DVD for Series 7 Part 2 here:


On to the review!
"The Name of the Doctor" is the series 7 finale of Doctor Who and features the reappearance of Vastra, Strax & Jenny along with River Song's first appearance in this half of the series. It starts with some mystic time travel performed by Vastra et al and escalates rapidly, forcing the Doctor & Clara to journey to the one place he must never go to, Trenzalore, which has been hinted at for what feels like forever by now.

The baddies in this one were reasonably scary in design and concept, and this is escalated by everyone seeming to be pretty helpless. There were some nice twists and turns that provided some good character drama, but the end was pretty obvious once they got to where they were going.

The very end featured a fantastic cliffhanger which I already hate because of how much it's built up the 50th Anniversary Special which WON'T AIR UNTIL NOVEMBER @#!!
("@#" is the capital versions of 23 in case you weren't sure).

Overall, I have nothing negative to say about the episode other than that it ended.

Final Rank: A 9.5/10


Series 7 Review (no spoilers beyond names of episodes):

First, let me say that I thought Series 7 "Part 1" was stupid. I say "Part 1" in quotes because it was a grand sum of about 5 episodes. Of those 5 episodes, 3 were crap, 1 was good and 1 was fantastic. If you look up Series 7, they also include the Christmas episode of the year before for some reason (phew! I just looked into this, and in order to own the Christmas special, you have to buy it separate! BBC has really been gouging the Whovians lately!)

The Christmas special for this year ("The Snowmen") was originally going to be included in the Part 2 DVD, but doesn't look to be any longer. You have to buy that separate as well! Even though Series 2-6 are high on my list to purchase, and I would consider last year's "The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe" if it was less than $5, I would not spend more than a dollar or two on "The Snowmen". I don't understand what the BBC is thinking! Are they just trying to capitalize on Doctor Who's current popularity? If so, I do not have high hopes for the future of Doctor Who.

Anyway, back to Series 7, which apparently "The Snowmen" is not a part of (even though it's integral to the story of Series 7!!!), by splitting Series 7 into two parts, BBC has made it easier for me to not ever purchase Series 7 Part 1 (unless I hit the lottery). I would genuinely enjoy watching "The Asylum of the Daleks" again and "A Town Called Mercy" was good, but I have no interest in watching any of the other episodes in Series 7 Part 1. The entire thing felt like watching the show on fast-forward where they were trying to get the Ponds to where they needed to be to get rid of them.

After Series 7 Part 1, the Christmas special, "The Snowmen" was good, but not fantastic, and the first episode of Series 7 Part 2 was good, but not fantastic. The second episode was incredibly underwhelming with a great first 40 minutes and a terrible ending 20 minutes (although in hindsight, it makes a LITTLE more sense, it's still cheap and not enjoyable). The second episode, "The Rings of Akhaten", was so bad it caused my fiancee to give up on watching Doctor Who until they've been vouched for by me.

Then it was back to the good, but not fantastic with "Cold War" and FINALLY back to the fantastic with "Hide", "The Crimson Horror" and "Nightmare in Silver" with a little dip to good with "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" (although admittedly my issue with that was mostly mathematical and others probably would enjoy it just fine so long as they don't think about it) and EVEN MORE FINALLY back to the AMAZING with "The Name of the Doctor".

Series 7 Part 1 Final Rank: C-, 7.0/10
Christmas Special "The Snowmen" Final Rank: B, 8.5/10
Series 7 Part 2 Final Rank: A-, 9.0/10

Series 7 Overall Final Rank: B, 8.5/10



Beginning of Spoilers: Retrospective of "The Name of the Doctor" and looking forward


If you're not like me, then were probably pretty surprised by the reveal of a never-before-seen Doctor in the form of John Hurt. The story goes that basically, this is the Doctor that had to do the dirty work and so was blocked from memory by the recent few Doctors. This means that Matt Smith is actually the TWELFTH DOCTOR, which means he is either at the end of his regenerations or only has one more.

I enjoyed seeing more of an ending with River Song, as ever since we discovered who she was I've been bothered by how David Tennant left it with her. Seeing that the Doctor considers her to be dead-dead instead of still going on adventures with him explains a lot more of his kissy-wissy behavior this year, and I enjoyed how they incorporated her, although I am newly bovvered by the spoiler she hinted at (don't know if that was just her being nostalgic or actually giving a hint that there was more of her to come).

As soon as they revealed the TARDIS's "open wound", we knew Clara was going in there, but I really liked how they showed her with the younger Doctors. I only wish I had more access to the old episodes so that I could be aware of some of those moments they referenced.

One of the things I love about Doctor Who is that it is so satisfying while at the same time leaving you craving the best of fiction and of the world around you. Doctor Who is fantastic and it has had more of an effect on me than any other television program, I can't wait for this year's specials and my only lament is the incredibly long amount of time between half series and specials and everything else and the incredibly limited number of episodes each season. 13 episodes is too few and, more than in any other year, in Series 7 has really hurt the Doctor's reputation.

Cheers to the 50th Anniversary and Christmas Special, and cheers to Series 8. I'll keep watching as long as the show keeps on keeping on, but please be fantastic like you have been for so long.