Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1197 (SoD #1892) - THE CROSSROADS - Weekly Hodge Podge and Throwback


Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1197 (SoD #1892) - THE CROSSROADS - Weekly Hodge Podge and Throwback

Hi Mom,

I am getting pretty consistent with weekly HEY MOM check in and keeping up on Throwbacks and the HODGE PODGE, the weekly collection of stuff I found that I felt was worth sharing. This post has a great deal of variety, which I will curate in a moment.

So, Mom, as usual, a bunch of stuff that you don't care about, but I can hear your voice in my ear describing Trump ("asshole") as I am sure you would have dismissed him vehemently. I think you might have liked this song, Mom, so here it is...

For the second week in a row, I am not using a THROWBACK picture of myself but rather one of content being presented here. This week's image is Grover in the rain from a mash up of the classic Bone Thugs-n-Harmony song "Tha Crossroads" using Sesame Street characters mashed up by Mylo the Cat from the YouTube channeler "isthishowyougoviral."

"Tha Crossroads" is from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's 1995 album E. 1999 Eternal, released four months after the death of the group's mentor and executive producer Eazy-E, who fronted N.W.A. one of the seminal gangsta rap groups of all time, who died of complications from AIDS.

"Tha Crossroads" is a tribute to Eazy-E and won a 1997 Grammy Award.

It's a GREAT song, and here it is with the Sesame Street characters. I have embedded the album below via AMAZON MUSIC.






Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - E. 1999 ETERNAL - Amazon.com Music

CURATING THE REST

Let's start off with a great share via Ganzeer, one of my favorite artists, of a very relevant quote by Ursula K. Le Guin.

 I have mixed throughout the whole a variety of images that should be self evident.

 The bulk of today's post charts recent news for Covid-19, a Scalzi bit, and a big post by David Brin on breaking into the writing biz.

 There's also some other fun things, such as the discovery of intact scraps of dinosaur DNA, a New Yorker article by the artists who is Japanese Breakfast, a great Twitter message from Margaret Atwood on our relationship with animals and how it will affect the next pandemic, a bunch of classic comic book covers (no commentary), and three final thoughts, one of which is a new song by Jonsi of Sigur Ros.

 LET'S DIVE IN.






Florence + The Machine - How Big How Blue How Beautiful


I wrote someone last week because telling people we appreciate them in these times is as important (more) as telling them we appreciate them all the time, even without a pandemic.








CHECK OUT XENI JARDIN'S WORK AND SUPPORT!

https://www.patreon.com/xenijardin

https://xeni.net/




I was reminded recently that Brian Eno composed the start up music for WINDOWS 95, so here's that story and the clip.

https://theindustryobserver.thebrag.com/the-odd-story-of-how-brian-eno-composed-the-windows-95-startup-sound/




My friend Helene wrote a thing:

Sourcebooks Fire Week: How to Eat an Elephant or Write About Books Based on The News, by Helene Dunbar


and excerpt:

My next book, Prelude from Lost Souls, began when I heard about Lily Dale, New York, a town of Spiritualists and mediums, where everyone talks to the dead. I studied the town, spiritualism and ghosts. I reacquainted myself with my tarot cards and rune stones. And then I started to ask: What sort of people live in a town where everyone talks to the dead? What does that sort of life do to you? What if you could talk to any ghosts except the ones you really wanted to talk to? I was nibbling around the outside of the elephant.
Surely, I figured, some teens don’t want to live in my fictional town of St. Hilaire. And so, Dec Hampton, the only son of talented mediums who, after the death of his parents would rather do anything other than kowtow to the town leaders, came into being. And his friend, Russ Griffin whose mother, a medium in denial, abandoned him and his father when Russ decided to spend his life in St. Hilaire and has high aspirations to rise to the top of the town’s government. And Annie, a piano prodigy who wanders into town by coincidence, if there is such a thing, and can view the town as a sort of outsider. And Ian Mackenzie, a talented young medium, now ghost, who…well, you’d have to read the book to find out.
I realize Desmond Tutu probably had things other than writing on his mind when he talked about eating an elephant in bites. But in viewing large and often uncomfortable topics, I’ve found that seeking out the bite-sized piece that represents the heartfelt experience of an individual, can make a large meal, much more easily digestible.




Carina Nebula via Voyager
There's this science and media news site called INVERSE. I just found it. I know. Late to the party. But at east I am at the party!

 I spotted this article via Google News:

SCI-FI AUTHOR JOHN SCALZI ON SPACEX AND ELON MUSK: “SPACE TRAVEL IS ELITIST”





Excerpt:
ON WHAT INSPIRED THE LAST EMPEROX— “Weirdly enough, it had absolutely nothing to do with anything current. When you’re a science fiction author, you kind of take weird ideas from wherever and try to bring them up into the future. One day, it was about 2014, I was thinking about what would have happened to the European age of exploration, which was roughly from the 14th century to the 17th and 18th century. If ocean currents and ocean trade winds had just stopped, it would have been able to get to the new world, the new world would have been safe from Europe, and how would history have been different.”
“So that was the initiating sort of thing that I was thinking about, but the funny thing is, if you’re thinking about ocean currents, you’re thinking about climate. If you’re thinking about climate, you’re going to have a thought that is relevant for today’s time. And the more I wrote this particular series, the more sort of reality caught up to what I was doing. So in many ways, I didn’t mean to write something that was relevant to 21st century United States or 21st-century world, but it turns out that that’s what I ended up doing, and I apologize for that because my universe is a terrible place to live in.”











BIGGER NEWS

Possible Dinosaur DNA Has Been Found

Possible Dinosaur DNA Has Been Found

New discoveries have raised the possibility of exploring dino genetics, but controversy surrounds the results

Don't invest in a Jurassic Park start up just yet!!

EXCERPT:

Yet first, paleontologists need to confirm that these possible genetic traces are the real thing. Such potential tatters of ancient DNA are not exactly Jurassic Park–quality. At best, their biological makers seem to be degraded remnants of genes that cannot be read—broken-down components rather than intact parts of a sequence. Still, these potential tatters of ancient DNA would be far older (by millions of years) than the next closest trace of degraded genetic material in the fossil record.
If upheld, Bailleul and her colleagues’ findings would indicate that biochemical traces of organisms can persist for tens of millions of years longer than previously thought. And that would mean there may be an entire world of biological information experts are only just getting to know. “I think exceptional preservation is really more common than what we think, because, as researchers, we have not looked at enough fossils yet,” Bailleul says. “We must keep looking.”

Jurassic Park 4 confirmed – and gets a new title | Film | The Guardian




AND NOW SOME MORE SCIENCE RELATED TO THE PANDEMIC

But first the weekly update on deaths, though I am grabbing the image yesterday (Wednesday 2004.22) but close enough, eh? Data can be found here, as always:

COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)


This is also a good data site:

Worldometer - Coronavirus info

As of 2004.22

Coronavirus Cases:

819,321

Deaths:

45,356

Recovered:

83,008




The US reaches 40,000 deaths, data shows coronavirus can survive high temperatures, and Lady Gaga raises millions for Covid-19 relief. Here's what you should know:

Headlines

The US reached 40,000 deaths from the coronavirus this weekend, growing the number to 166,000 deaths worldwide. The actual numbers are still believed to be much higher due to unreported cases, a testing shortage, and lack of government transparency in reporting.
New data says coronavirus can survive higher temperatures
A study done by researchers at University of Aix-Marseille in France dashed hopes that coronavirus might disappear this summer. Researchers found that even in 140-degree temperatures the virus not only stayed alive but continued to replicate. The virus had to be exposed to 197.6-degree temperatures for 15 minutes to actually kill it.
A crowdsourced symptom tracker is predicting new hot spots
People who believe they're experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 can anonymously report them to a site called "Covid Near You." The crowdsourced website, built by a team of epidemiologists and bioinformaticists at Boston Children’s Hospital, could offer early warnings to places that are about to get hit with the novel virus.
Lady Gaga's Together at Home concert raised nearly $128 million for Covid-19 relief
On Saturday, a virtual concert featuring everyone from Taylor Swift and Lizzo to the Rolling Stones and Billie Eilish streamed live in support of the World Health Organization's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund as well as local and regional first responders. The show has garnered $127.9 million in donations.

Daily Distraction

One dad has found an interesting way to spice up quarantine life for his kids—he turns into a Dadasaur on command. You have to see the mayhem to believe it.

Something to Read

WIRED's Editor in Chief is a marathon runner. But it wasn't until age 44, after 20 years of competitive long-distance running, that he ran a sub-2:30 marathon—his fastest marathon ever. How did he do it? Training, tech, and challenges that brought him a new understanding of life.

Sanity Check

The awful trackpad or crappy mouse you have is putting you at risk of carpal tunnel or mouse shoulder. Take our advice and go for a cheap gaming mouse—you don't have to be a gamer to keep your wrists and hands from hurting!

One Question

Any tips for cutting my hair at home?
Have someone else help: Cutting your own hair in the mirror can be tricky. If you can, get someone to help you trim evenly, or decide when enough is enough. If you have to fly solo, use multiple mirrors and take breaks to check up on how you're looking.
Consider texture and length: A DIY haircut is hard enough for folks with long, thick, straight, healthy hair. If your hair is curly, short, or especially textured, mistakes will be easier to spot, so use caution.
Start small: Have you ever used a magnifying mirror to tweeze your eyebrows, only to step back and realize you've gone too far? The same principle applies to your hair. You can always take off more, but there's no going back once you've snipped away too much. It may help to step away for a few hours before you reassess where you’re at.
Avoid horizontal lines: It might have looked badass when Disney's Mulan did it, but you don't want to hack your hair off in a big horizontal line. Hold your scissors straight up and down the length of your hair, rather than across it, and snip away just a little bit at a time. This is especially important if you're working on bangs. Horizontal lines are sometimes necessary for removing length, but snipping vertically keeps your hair from becoming too blunt—a telltale sign of at-home haircuts. If you've cut horizontally, make sure to follow it up with vertical snips to thin out the ends and make the cut look more natural. If you aren't feeling dextrous enough to cut vertically, try holding your scissors diagonally.
Here are some more specific tips on how to cut any kind of hair.

Covid-19 Care Package

❓Not sure what social distancing is? Or flattening the curve? We answered the most popular Covid-19 questions.
💻Some of you are work-from-home pros, but if you're new to it, here's how to stay productive without losing your mind.
🥺 It's hard not to be anxious about a global pandemic, but here's how you can protect yourself and your family without spiraling.
💉Over 30 companies are working on a vaccine, but it's probably still at least a year away. Here's everything you should know.
📦The Covid-19 virus can linger on objects for as little as a few hours or as long as a couple days, depending on the surface. Here's the research.
👫Quarantined with a loved one? Here's how to not hate them before all this is over.
🧼It's not just your hands that need washing—your gadgets, clothes, and home need it too. Here's how to properly disinfect your stuff.








My photoWhat to do during Cov-Fe-Fe (Covid Forced-exile From-employment). Some of you are writing fiction. Even science fiction!

First a brief historical note about the "Asian Flu" of 1957, quoting: "Maurice Hilleman, a doctor later regarded as the godfather of vaccines, in 1957 read about a nasty flu outbreak in Hong Kong that mentioned glassy-eyed children at a clinic, tipping him off that these deaths meant the next big flu pandemic.” Hilleman requested samples of the virus be shipped to U.S. drugmakers right away so they could get a vaccine ready. Though 70,000 people in the United States ultimately died, “some predicted that the U.S. death toll would have reached 1 million without the vaccine that Hilleman called for... Health officials widely credited that vaccine with saving many lives.” 

What differed then? Well, Dwight Eisenhower was a different kind of president. And the Greatest Generation admired science and expertise. And the most popular American at the time was named Jonas Salk. Make America that kind of great again.

(Read about that event and other far worse plagues from history.)

== Are some of you taking on the Great Humanican Novel? == 

While my life has changed less than most… e.g. exercising with weights instead of at the gym… I have seen a surge in news media and podcasters wanting interviews. They claim it’s for wisdom or insights about the near and farther future… but I suspect many are just bored, or need filler.

Another uptick is from folks wanting to do spec scripts based on some of my stories.* And yes, there are many fine ‘possibles’ to be found in my three collections. Someone, someday, will do “Dr. Pak’s Preschool” right and creep-out millions!  

But most prevalent in the era of Covfefe are pleas from the house-quarantined, seeking advice about writing! Both nonfiction books and (especially) science fiction stories and novels. (Ignore the slander phrase "novel-coronavirus"! They are trying to deter you!)

Yes, this happens more mildly during NaNoWriMo November (National Novel Writing Month.) Only now with greater urgency! At-minimum, it’s a more creative use of time than binge-TV and maybe a lifetime opportunity to check that item off a bucket list. And so, to those of you with an ear for dialogue and a feel for character and sense-of-story… and willingness to work hard while seeking criticism… to all of you talented up-and-comers I say –

-- to Go Away! The field is full! Have you tried jigsaw puzzles?

Um, just kidding! We’re all readers, too! And someone out there might be just on the verge of creating the Great Humanican Novel -- a tale so deeply moving it will change us all for the better. For that reason… and others… I am among the few “best-selling authors” who always responds personally to every such appeal. (I do not promise always to do that! Stephen King used to, but physically can’t anymore, alas; Nice guy, BTW.)

 Oh, sure, I have some shortcuts, like “canned advice” that I paste into most responses, using QuickKeys, before adding some bits apropos to each person. So it occurred to me. Why don’t I share that now, with all of you? 

For one thing, it might keep some of you from emailing me! (Except to say thanks and to promise me a copy of the award-winning best-seller I helped to inspire? ;-) 

More importantly, maybe some practical tools and tricks will help a few of you achieve that glimmering goal, and thus enrich us all.

== David Brin’s Canned Advice Note ==

Dear _____

Naturally I’m pleased you are writing and I do want to offer my encouragement. Still, there is good news and bad news in this modern era. The good: there are so many new ways to get heard or read or published that any persistent person can get out there.  Talent and good ideas will see the light of day!  The bad news… it is so easy to get "published," bypassing traditional channels, that millions can convince themselves "I am a published author!" without passing through the old grinding mill, in which my generation honed our skills by dint of relentless pain. 

 . . . . . . . . (Insert apropos personal note in here! ____)

Alas, fiction writing is a complex art that involves a lot of tradecraft... as it would if you took up landscape painting or silver smithing. It is insufficient simply having ideas and being skilled at nonfiction-prose, nor does a lifetime of reading stories prepare you to write them.

Story telling is incantatory magic and there are aspects to the incantation process that are mostly invisible to the incantation recipient (reader). Skills at rapid-opening, point-of-view, showing-not-telling, action, evading passive-voice and so on are achieved by studied workshopping -- and as in most arts, the whole thing is predicated upon ineffable things like talent, e.g. an ear for dialogue that only a few people have. Indeed, point-of-view (POV) is so hard that half of would be writers never "get" it, no matter how many years they put in.

This is not meant to be discouraging! It is to suggest that extensive workshopping and skill-building are as important today as they were 30 years ago.  And to do that, you need to do one of the most difficult  but rewarding things a mature human can do – relish and seek criticism.

And enjoy whatever level you reach! Seriously. Tell a story. Even give it a way (as I am virtually giving away my sci fi comedy!)
No matter what, you'll be a creator of worlds. 
A kind of deity. 
An artist.

This answer is already too long. So what I can do is point you to an "advice article" that I've posted online, containing a distillation of wisdom and answers to questions I've been sent across 20 years.  (Note, most authors never answer at all.) 

I can also offer a general site containing advice bits from other top writers.

Then there is my advice video!  

Many people have found these items extremely helpful. I hope you will. But either way, do persevere.

Good luck!
David Brin

== Anything Specific? ==

All right that was a bit vague and general. There's lots more specific advice and pointers if you follow the links. And down below in comments. If enough of you ask, I may append some very specific examples of common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them.

Beyond that, however, the adventure is yours. Enjoy. And at-risk of violating my own rule against repetition… persevere!


------

* Re spec scripts: I do require a very strong, signed release! And real experience is required. And this applies only to short fiction, not novels or series. Sorry.

in 2015, when I set up to watch Baseball and tennis simultaneously






Because of the science hate lately in the national forum, I strongly believe we need more science and not less. And what is science without MATHS (WITH AN "S" as they say in Britain).

 Here's a yummy new post on simplifying that damn clunky quadratic formula.

 LOVE it.

















from Injection issue one









in Glasgow - from my friend Bill
A BRIEF COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY

















TWO FINAL THOUGHTS and a new song:








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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you soon, Mom.

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- Days ago = 1755 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2004.23 - 10:10

NEW (written 1708.27 and 1907.04) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. Dropped "Talk to you tomorrow, Mom" in the sign off on 1907.04. Should have done it sooner as this feature is no longer daily.

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