When Steve Jobs left us almost two years ago, comedians joked that he was from outer space because he gave us something so amazing, it's been described as magical. And "magical" isn't just a word I pulled out of thin air. It's from a quote I'm borrowing that originated with the NPR Podcast called This American Life, and about Mr. Daisy's visit to the Apple factory in Shenzhen, China. One of the workers who assembles the iPad gets to play with it for a while, and he uses the word "magical" to describe it.
What Mr. Jobs invented was so revolutionary that those who took the time to truly comprehend it were left speechless by his ability to envision it. Therefore, he must not be from our planet.
The joke goes even further in my own day-to-day life as I refer to the iPhone as "my miracle box." You might wonder why, and the answer is pretty simple. It's because my iPhone can do so much stuff that (a decade ago) I never could have imagined outside of Star Trek or in the least, J.J. Abrams' home. Hence, "miracle box" seems like a good nickname for such a device.
Well, it appears that if you share my thinking, the joke's on all of us now. The plans that Steve Jobs left behind for Apple's new campus headquarters to be built in Cupertino, California looks a lot like the mother ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Seriously, if this thing doesn't lift off into space at the touch of the red button, I will be surprised.
Expected to open in 2016 (that's election year for you Republicans who are keeping track of such things), Apple's new 2.8-million square feet facility was brought to the Cupertino city council by none other than late CEO Steve Jobs himself. Catch this little factoid: its diameter is larger than that of the Pentagon. I've been to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and it's frickin' huge. This thing is going to dwarf that building. Impressed? *Nods head.
The building is meant to incorporate and develop much of the surrounding green space. There's going to be a system of bike lanes put in for all the health conscious tech geniuses. There's going to be bio-fueled "green" buses to take people around and to go to and from work. The facility will also house its own natural gas-burning power plant. I have a friend that says natural gas is the "fuel of America's future." Well if Steve Jobs believed in it, I think it probably means it's the number one choice of space aliens too.
Here's one of the afore-mentioned healthy tech geniuses jogging along the path that probably goes around the huge mega-structure. I guess that's what $140 billion dollars and screwing the taxpayers of America out of billions of dollars in taxes can build for you. Did any of you watch Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, address Congress on CSPAN? Cook completely "owned" them, practically having our senators lapping the dirt off of his shoes. I think Yahoo Finance (which I read to stay on top of stocks) had an article that said, "Tim Cook should tell Congress to kiss his ass." Since Congress is comprised of elected officials, that means "Tim Cook should tell the American people to kiss his ass." Nice, right?
Apple's terms and conditions page 1 of 99 as seen on the iPhone. Remember
Tim Cook says that the United States tax code could take a cue from Apple.
"We like things simple."
When asked to defend his company's practice of holing billions of dollars in tax shelters in Ireland, Mr. Cook responded (more or less), "The tax code has not kept up with the digital age. Apple thrives on keeping things SIMPLE, and Congress should do the same with the tax code. Eliminate loopholes, reduce overall rates, and make it attractive to bring overseas cash back to the United States."
So it's all your fault people. Apple likes things simple. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE NEXT TIME YOU READ THROUGH APPLE'S ITUNES TERMS & CONDITIONS, WHICH IS 56-PAGES LONG! Yeah, Apple wants things "Simple."
My Insecure Writer's Support Group post is below Charity's book tour stop.
Charity's publisher sure knows how to make a beautiful book. Even this tour thing is stunning.
Please welcome Charity Bradford, a new author whose voice is probably going to revolutionize the science-fiction field. Her talent and ability is humbling, and I absolutely love her debut novel, which you should go and buy RIGHT NOW. Anyway, Talia Zaryn, the star of The Magic Wakes has consented to stop by here and answer a few questions. Let's see what she has to say. But first, a little housekeeping.
I love the view of the city in this, but the font they
chose is another work of art. Lovely.
BOOK BLURB:
Talia has a secret, one that will save her world and yet rip it apart. Only she can decide if the price is worth it.
Scientist Talia Zaryn has always had visions of an alien invasion and of her own death. She’s kept it a secret, hoping they are nothing more than childish nightmares. But when her face in the mirror matches that of her dreams, she fears the dreams are prophetic. Talia must prove that life exists beyond their planet, Sendek; perhaps then people will prepare to fight.
Talia’s work at the Space Exploration Foundation leaves no time for personal relationships, but Major Landry Sutton isn’t looking for a friend. He’s looking for a traitor. His ability to sense emotions convinces him Talia is that traitor until a touch sizzles between them. In an instant their minds are connected and they can communicate telepathically. Just as the two begin to trust each other, the invading force arrives.
Talia and Landry must uncover the secrets of Sendek’s past if they hope to defeat these terrifying creatures. And Talia is the key—if only she can learn to trust the magic coursing through her veins.
CAMERA FADES IN.
FROM THE LEFT OF STAGE, ENTERS AN ASTONISHINGLY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN WITH VIOLET EYES. SHE WALKS OVER AND TAKES A SEAT AT THE DESK. THE STUDIO AUDIENCE QUIETS DOWN.
Welcome to the interview hour, where we dig into the minds of some of the newest characters in the world of books. Today our reluctant guest is a reclusive scientist from the Space Exploration Foundation (SEF), Talia Zaryn.
Miss Zaryn, let’s start off with something simple. What is it that you want out of life?
Talia: That’s your simple question?
Now, you promised to be honest with us today.
Talia: *sigh* I guess there are two things that I want more than anything. First to live through my nightmares when the time comes, and second…
Yes?
Talia: I’d like for people to accept me for who I am. I’d like to feel love like I did when my family was alive.
Speaking of love, what kind of person are you attracted to?
Talia: *chuckles* I’ve stopped looking for a relationship, but I can tell you what I notice first about people. Since everyone freaks out about my eyes, I’m drawn to theirs. Every set of eyes are different, the way the light plays with the flecks of color is fascinating to me.
Your eyes are definitely unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen violet eyes before. Other than eyes, what do you look for in a man?
Talia: It doesn’t really matter because they avoid me, but strong personalities—alpha males, the ones who know what they want and don’t take no for an answer. I think deep down I hope they can save me.
Save you? You seem pretty independent and capable to me. Tell me what your good at.
Talia: Electronics. I can wire almost anything, it’s almost instinctual.
What are you bad at?
Talia: *laughs* can’t you tell? All things social terrify me. It’s hard for me to trust people and it just goes downhill from there.
Surely you’ve had friends, crushes, things that make every life complete? Tell me about your first crush and those friends.
Talia: Hm, Ardro Gunik, tall, built, and popular from school. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out well. As for friends, there weren’t many. Just my family and some unconventional friends.
Oh? Such as?
Talia: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Give us a try.
Talia: The trees around my home and a small treeb I named Keeta.
*Laughing* You’re right, I don’t believe you. Trees can’t talk to you and treebs are endangered. Even if you were lucky enough to find one, you’d never be able to catch it. Maybe you’ll be able to make some friends now that you’ve come to Joharadin. Let’s move on. Tell us about your greatest regret.
Talia: I never told my family all of my secrets.
Good heavens! It’s not healthy to tell your family everything. There must be something better than that. Have you ever hurt anyone intentionally or not?
This is the trailer for The Magic Wakes. Watch it and love it.
Talia: I hope not! I abhor violence of any kind.
Come now. Not even a catty fight with another woman over the attentions of a man?
Talia: Why bother when I know…
Know what?
Talia: Nothing.
Don’t clam up on us now! Here, we’ll change the subject. What are you the most afraid of?
Talia: That’s easy. The death from my dreams. Dying alone. I use to be afraid I’d have to watch my family die the same death I see in my nightmares. At least that’s no longer possible.
Okay! I’m feeling a bit down after all this talk of death and no lovers. Let’s end on a positive note. What do you find beautiful about life?
Talia: There is so much beauty in nature. The colors, textures, the sounds. For instance, have you ever just listened to the sigh of the wind through the leaves and the play of sunslight as it filters through the tree canopy?
I can’t say that I have, but the next time I get out of the city I’ll give it a try. Talia, thank you for submitting yourself to our questions. I hope you enjoy our city, and that you find some of the happiness you obviously need in your life.
What actresses could play Talia in a film adaptation of Charity's Book? I'm glad
you asked that question, because here's a short list of women that could possibly
fill the role. Let's take a look shall we?
Amber Heard. A high school dropout born in 1986 who went to New York to work as a model. Big surprise eh? With a body like that you don't need school.
Alexandra Daddario is another young actress born in 1986. I know her from Percy Jackson and from this January's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D.
"ZOMGAH IT'S LEATHERFACE AND I'M IN A TUBE TOP AND HIGH HEELS!" Runs from roaring chainsaw
Ashley Greene. She's Alice in Twilight!
There's a pic of her online where she's in nude body paint, but I thought I'd better not use that one.
And Alex, she's way hotter than Kate Beckinsale.
Jessica Lowndes. She's best known for her role as Adrianna Tate-Duncan in the CW's mega smash hit 90210, the reboot of the ultra successful Beverly Hills 90210 (all of the alumni are now Hollywood washouts and Aaron Spelling is dead).
Anyway, she's seen here with a designer purse by Coco Chanel on her arm.
Oh god...how do I know that?
She gets two snaps up in a circle.
Last but not least is Katharine McPhee. You saw her on American Idol.
And the movie she's most famous for is
SHARK NIGHT 3D!!!!
NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
Charity Bradford
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Charity Bradford has been a voracious reader ever since her 5th grade teacher introduced her to the world of books with Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys. She’s the mother of four kids that keep her on her toes, constantly reminding her that imagination still makes the world go round. She lives in Arkansas with her hubby and children, and firmly believes that a smile can solve most problems. The Magic Wakes is her first novel.
The Insecure Writer's Support Group is a once a month blogfest managed by science-fiction author, Alex J. Cavanaugh.
My February insecurity has a lot to do with an almost obsessive compulsive need to get all the details exactly right in my stories. For example, Oculus takes place at Cornell University which as you may know, is an ivy-league school in Ithaca, New York. In order to get all the details right, I must have read fifty student blogs for months. I sat through hours of homemade YouTube videos of anyone that went to the school (because I didn't). I took virtual tours of the rink the Big Red played on, I read sports blogs to make sure I even knew what the bus looked like that the Men's Hockey team rode. I researched scholarships and discovered that the Ivy League doesn't give NCAA athletic scholarships. They only do "need-based." That's it, interesting eh?
I also wanted to make sure I understood exactly how a boy with hockey dreams (who doesn't live in Minnesota) gets to play in an NCAA division 1 school, and it isn't what most people think. They are rarely "plucked" from some high school dream team. If they want to make it there, they have to leave home and join a famous Junior League for the majority of their high school career (and stay with a host family) and get lucky enough to attend the NHL draft at 18. Yes, if you are picked by a team at the NHL entry draft you can still go to college. It just means that they've marked you like a dog, but as long as you stay in school, you are not obligated to join up with that professional team.
That's how you get noticed and make it to that level of play. It's quite a credit to have been chosen by, I dunno, the Chicago Blackhawks, and it's what NCAA Division 1 schools want on their starting lineup. Sound like an incredibly difficult path to follow? Well it should because IT IS.
I've read other books where authors wanted to have a player that made it to a college team, and they didn't do this (went the traditional route of being plucked from high school) and that just doesn't happen in men's hockey (and it made me not really like the book all that much because I thought the author was lazy and uninformed). That's why Jordan spent so much time away from his sister...he chose this life and had to live with a host family at the age of 15. Parents of serious hockey teens don't get to see their sons much, and I wanted to point that out because I don't think people know about this.
This is one of the best videos I encountered regarding Lynah Rink
for my book Oculus. College hockey is pretty awesome back east.
I know the campus of Cornell University so well from staring at maps, roads, building schematics, and google earth, that I literally can tell you where to find the Hot Truck (a famous mobile sandwich bus that students hit up late at night). I can tell you what the menu looks like at Collegetown Bagels. And I can tell you what the Men's locker room looks like in Lynah Rink without having been there (including the updated remodeling). I also became a huge fan of Ben Scrivens (who now plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs) and Colin Greening (who I kinda/sorta used as a template for Jordan). And my sports research somehow spilled over to football last year (which I'd pretty much ignored all my life). Two years later, I can quote statistics to you of players like Ray Rice or Andrew Luck, who's playing on what team in the NFL, and I correctly predicted the outcome of the Superbowl a week before the AFC/NFC championships down to Ray Lewis winning the coin toss by saying heads and then having the other team start with the football. My co-workers think I should do fantasy football (which I'm probably going to do) and start betting in Vegas. Now to be fair, I bet my boss that the superbowl would be played between San Francisco and Baltimore and that the game wouldn't even be close. I said Baltimore would smoke SF by at least 20 points because I was banking a lot on the emotions from Baltimore from what I saw last year when their kicker, Billy Cundiff, failed to make an easy field goal. I said, "there is no way those brothers will EVER let something like that slip from their fingers again. They will play their guts out and crush anyone in their way."
Now I maintain that if that freakish blackout had not occurred, that I would HAVE BEEN RIGHT. I think SF would have been crushed by more than 20 points. But you are free to argue with me of course since we shall never know. But I think the blackout made the game "close." Otherwise it would have been a blowout.
But with all this research, I'm insecure. It would really irritate me if someone said, "Hey this thing you described doesn't match up with the real thing, or you got this detail wrong." I'm kind of a perfectionist. I know that I would outwardly smile and say, "Oh well...it's fiction, ya know?" But inside, I'd be like "ARRRGGGHHH. I spent hours researching this crap!" And I'd find some excuse to drive an invisible dagger through their shoulderblades.
I'm beginning to think that this insecurity of mine isn't so much "an insecurity" as it may be a neurosis centered around obsessive compulsive attention to detail. However, I think the devil is often in the details and that in the end, Oculus is all the more stronger for it.
Near Shanghai, the Songjiang district has become a popular weekend destination for many tourists with its natural beauty and sprawling landscapes. And now the Songjiang Hotel might just become the newest and greenest attraction. While it may look a bit sci-fi, this hotel was designed for the real (green) world, with many sustainable features in mind.
The 400-bed resort will be located in a 100-meter-deep quarry located in the province and will contain restaurants, cafes, sport facilities, and even underwater public areas and guestrooms. Water will play an important part in the design, featured in many areas around the hotel. Waterfalls, underwater aquariums, and green areas will be integrated into the design to match the existing facing of the quarry.
The reuse of an already existing site means that the environmental impact will hopefully be smaller. The entire hotel is to be covered in a green roof, while the building will use geothermal energy for it’s electrical supply and heating. The quarry will also provide a good source of heat control and shelter from the environment.
The design of the building is meant to reflect the natural landscape of the quarry. “We drew our inspiration from the quarry setting itself, adopting the image of a green hill cascading down the natural rock face as a series of terraced landscaped hanging gardens.” said Martin Jochman. Needless to say, with such a cool looking site, you’d expect to get a design which will take advantages of it’s very extreme location, and you’d be correct. The hotel, will feature amongst other things: bungee jumping.
Anyway, I saw this online and thought I'd share. It looks like it's straight out of a science-fiction movie or maybe even Star Wars. Would you like to visit a place like this?
When
the electromagnetic pulse disrupted the mysterious glowing cube that lay inside,
the cataclysm began. The White Tower
detonated. A wave traveling at 1000
miles per hour exploded outward to consume every corner of the planet in flame. Those that didn’t burn became sick from radiation,
starvation, and disease; a gaping hole on the side of the tower left it a ruin
in the skyline.
I was
born into this world.
I am
the first failsafe; my name is Z.E.R.O.
The humans that first encountered me addressed me as thus. It stood for Zion Electronic Ruling Operator.
The Locust Swarm eclipsed the sun
On day
one of my life, I dispatched the glass locusts which I created by the
trillions. I forged them with a mere thought.
The crystalline constructs obeyed my every whim. They were so numerous that when they emerged
into the heavens, they eclipsed the sun.
Uranium 235
Each
one of the locusts was a marvel of engineering and of my exquisitely perfect
mind. The locusts were powered by
nanotechnology and neodymium, a rare earth element created within the confines
of the White Tower from nuclear fission of Uranium-235. The neodymium gave the glass locusts a silver
glow.
Neodymium Magnets
My
minions tore down the structures and remnants of the old world and erected
magnificent havens for the survivors on spots where the radiation was
weakest. These havens became the walled
mega-cities of the future for the 400 million that still lived. Then, on the twilight of the sixth day, I
instructed the humans to move into their new homes.
On the
seventh day, I showed myself to them. I
chose a humanoid form, but it still frightened them. I presented as a man of transparent flesh and
blood, with silver eyes and hair. The
bravest of the humans approached me; tried to communicate. However, I lacked the necessary sapient
qualities for me to understand him. In
the end, I had no idea what it was that they needed from me. Despite all of my power, I could not
guarantee their continued existence.
What
was I doing wrong?
Frustrated,
I created a dome above the First City and suspended it within the air. The floor of the dome was transparent like my
skin so that I could gaze down at the humans that lived and worked below me and
monitor their welfare. I sent machines
among them to deliver food, water, and medicine. They took these but still did not trust me.
When Steve Jobs left us almost two years ago, comedians joked that he was from outer space because he gave us something so amazing, it's been described as magical. And "magical" isn't just a word I pulled out of thin air. It's from a quote I'm borrowing that originated with the NPR Podcast called This American Life, and about Mr. Daisy's visit to the Apple factory in Shenzhen, China. One of the workers who assembles the iPad gets to play with it for a while, and he uses the word "magical" to describe it.
