IWSG December 2017

IWSG December 6 Question As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently? 

2017 for me has been a great year as I’ve worked hard to overcome numerous obstacles and achieve a handful of milestones. One thing I would have done differently would be to stay on top of the small things and be better organized. 

As I close out 2017 I have a large punch list of small things to do that add up to a very large To Do List I need to finish in a few weeks. For 2018 I’ll be much more organized. I’ve mapped out the year in great detail using Google Calendar. Here is a video that’s worth watching for some great ideas to get organized for 2018.

One of the YouTube personalities I like is Steve Dotto's Tech Made Easy Tech made Easy. If you subscribe to his email list, today he is holding a webinar called Master Your 2018 Calendar with Google Calendar. 

I highly recommend subscribing to his emails list. You can do so by sending an email to info@dottotech.com. Then ask to watch the live webinar or the replay. 

Question Do you subscribe to email lists? If so which ones?

Remakes That Don't Suck! Blogfest

Remakes – most of them suck. Now and then, one comes along that is as good as, if not better, than the original. And after all of the bad ones we’ve endured, we want to know about some good ones.

Today, November 13, 2017, blog about your favorite remake: movie (or television show into movie and vice versa), song, or book – or all three! Post a YouTube video and links where we can find these treasures. Tell us why THIS remake doesn’t suck! 

Kong Skull Island (2017) I loved this movie it was better than the King Kong (2005) version which was pretty darn good. I just didn’t like there was an hour before King Kong made his appearance, but Naomi Watts, Jack Black and very good special effects made for a great movie. 

But Kong Skull Island rocked and the big guy made his screen appearance about fifteen minutes into the movie. Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson (who has never turned down a role), John C. Reilly and John Goodman played their respective parts well. 

Skull Island also gave us a supporting cast of monsters that made for some very intense scenes.

I'm loving the multiple trailers at IMBd these days very cool!

Kong Skull Island Trailer Click Here

Godzilla (2014) Although the 2014 version with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bryan Cranston was far superior to the 1998 version with Matthew Broderick (yeah it was a bit campy in parts), I think Godzilla 1998 was by far the better monster. Sleek and agile it moved with ease through the downtown Manhattan skyscrapers. 

1998 Godzilla

The 2014 version was cool but it was a big stiff lumbering creature when it was out of the water. Hopefully Godzilla 2019 will move faster and have a better range of motion which will translate into better fight scenes. 

2014 Godzilla

And we can look forward to Godzilla: King of Monsters coming to a theater near you in 2019!

To View Godzilla Trailer Click Here

Oh By The  Way Please leave a link to your blog with your comments. Most have Google Plus and for whatever reasons I cannot access blogs regardless of what I click. I am either directed to another blog you commented on or I loop back to your Google Plus page. Thanks!

Question Did you see these movies and if so which versions did you like better? 

November 2016 IWSG (D-oh!)

D-oh! I totally forgot it's the first Wednesday of the month.

November 1 question - Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published? 

I have not hit the 50,000 word goal. But I have twice written 25,000 words. I consider that a huge milestone. It's a lot of work and my hat's off to anyone and everyone who has written 50,000 words during Nano.

I'm not participating this year as of today at least. I'd like to as I have an outline for a really cool idea. If things work out then I may hop on board midway through the month. I'd really like to make significant progress on the novel so hopefully things will work out and I can knock out 10,000 - 20,000. words.

Best wishes to those of you who are participating!

Question How about you. Are you participating in Nano this year and if so what is the premise for your story. 

IWSG October 2017

This month's question is Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose? 

Yes I have. Chase Manhattan from my Breakthrough series is made up of a lot of me, only better. Much better. I have a college degree but he has one in physics. I've taught online college courses while he is an associate professor at University of California - Irvine. I drive a used Volvo. He can afford just about any car he wants. I've been to Canada and Mexico. Chase has been all over the globe. I once saw a Bruce Lee movie. He has a black belt. 

But other than that, we're pretty much the same. 

What, me worry? I'm going through some major transitions. All good. But I do need to take those life changing leaps of faith and it's going well. It's time to shed my skin and move into new arenas and I'm having a lot of fun doing it. 

Question Have you had to make any life changing leaps of faith lately?

September 2017 IWSG

September 2017 IWSG Well life got ahead of me and I forgot to post even though it was on the forefront of my mind this past week. Anyway, here is my post.

September’s optional question - Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing? For example, by trying a new genre you didn't think you'd be comfortable in?

Yes I Have Previously I have written Speculative Fiction and have more really cool works in the pipeline. But I am also launching the beta test of The Launching Pad and getting incredible feedback so I can make last minute adjustments.

Okay, my videos for each module suck. But that's okay as these are rehearsals and I'm learning and refining the script. I'll use a studio to record the final version in a week or so. I don't need the final video cuts to run the beta launch. Would have been nice. But time constraints yada yda yada ....

My Beta Intro I'll insert this clip at the beginning of many of my videos. Be sure to have your sound on. I'll do fades at the front and end. Craig Wolfe, talented hubby of the talented L. Diane Wolfe, will send me the finished product by week's end.

It's too late for me to take the time to insert embedded links to the co-hosts of this amazing monthly event, so I'll include a link where you can go to find these links click them and show these amazing co-hosts some love! CLICK HERE

Question Have you had to launch something like my beta launch even though you were not quite ready?

IWSG August 2016

Well folks, I just got home from a whirlwind tour that included a trip to Michigan to see the extended family for a reunion. Whew! i'm tired to say the least.

But not too tired to post for this month's IWSG. Too tired to link back to the co-hosts but I can still manage to post none-the-less.

I'm wrapping up a dozen or so 30 - 60 second videos for my latest project. My concern is I need to get a young fresh face other than my ugly mug on the screen. So i'm kicking around some ideas to bring in someone else to do many if not most of the videos.

As you all know, ambitious projects never seem to be finalized. They need constant tweaks and improvements. But you need to come to the point where you need to move forward and go live, then fix things as you go along.

Question So what's the latest and greatest in your world?

July IWSG, The Launching Pad and Happy Fourth of July!!!

Hello everyone and as always thanks for stopping by and saying hello! July’s IWSG is brought to you by Alex J. Cavanaugh and his host of helpers Tamara Narayan, Pat Hatt, Patricia Lynn, Juneta Key and Doreen McGettigan. 

Be sure to stop by their blogs and show them a little love. 

I’ve been hard at work on a new project called The Launching Pad. I’ve never built out a website quite like this. I’m learning much about plug-ins and how they work. I need two more, a text editor with a better selection of fonts, and I need a plug-in that allows me to move stuff up and down in sequence. I’ll find them eventually. 

Currently I’m working on worksheets and checklists. It’s not easy making worksheets with expandable and fillable text, so I’m outsourcing it to Fiverr.com. 

And I hope all you Yanks are having a safe and fun time celebrating Fourth of July!!!

Anyway, that’s my world these days. What’s going on in your world?

June IWSG and The Launching Pad

Hello everyone, and as always thanks for stopping by to say help! It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for IWSG brought to you by Alex Cavanaugh and his co-hosts JH Moncrieff, Madeline Mora-Summonte, Jen Chandler, Megan Morgan and Heather Gardner. Please take a moment this week to stop by their sites and show them a little love!

Well, I had a new website to roll out and wouldn't you know it, the thing crashed and burned. It's a Wordpress site hosted through GoDaddy.com. Not sure what happened. Customer Service was no help.

Anyway, I'll rebuild it today.

I'm asking you to remember me and when I stop by this week to your blog, please reciprocate and come back here. There will be a link to my new site and I would very much appreciate your feedback and input. 


Thanks and happy IWSGing!

May 2017 IWSG and Tribute to Melissa Bradley and Sex In Space

Hello all This month’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group is brought to you by Alex Cavanaugh and his awesome and amazing host of cohorts Nancy Gideon, Tamara Narayan, Liesbet@RoamingAbout, Michelle Wallace, and Feather Stone. 

As most if not all of you are aware, we lost one of our blogging founders this week with Melissa Bradley. Melissa was such a large part of our blogging community in the early days. She visited blogs and was a guest hostess countless times. She was an incredible human being who will be sorely missed. 

Yet I choose to celebrate Melissa’s life and all she contributed to her immediate circle of family and friends and again the blogging community. 

Sex In Space Let’s face it. Melissa wrote some pretty smutty stuff. But as a guest on my blog she kept to her them yet kept things clean and from a scientific standpoint of view as she understood kids read my blog. 

During my Blog Tour for my second book Opening: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan she wrote an amazing guest blog from a purely scientific point of view of sex in space based on peer reviewed scientific articles. It remains to this day one of the best gust posts on my blog. 

Unfortunately, Google who acquired Blogger shut down my previous three blogs for so-called spamming so I do not have the link to post which I would like to do. Bad Google. Evil. Google.

Question Did you know Melissa Bradley? Do you have any thoughts you would like to share?

S is for Super Bugs #AtoZChallenge

Humans are not the only ones thriving and taking those quantum leap forwards. Super bugs are just as busy, mutating, and finding ways to thwart even our best antibiotics.

 

Saturday T is for Transplant as in Human Head Transplant

Question Are you concerned with epidemics or pandemics breaking out any time soon? If so, do you think mankind armed with technology can come to the rescue?

Be sure to check out our new sites Chopped Pop Culture, Cool Steampunk Stuff and Professor Nerdlinger’s Online Emporium. 

Be sure to check out our new sites Chopped Pop Culture, Cool Steampunk Stuff and Professor Nerdlinger’s Online Emporium.

R is for Regeneration of Cells and Tissues #AtoZChallenge

Now we’re talking about some real cutting edge stuff. This video is the tip of the iceberg. Now some of this research is controversial such as embryonic stem cell research. But science is discovering multiple ways to regenerate cell and tissue. Here is one truly amazing example:

 

Question What are your thoughts on cell and tissue regeneration? 

Friday S is for Super Bugs.

Be sure to check out our new sites Chopped Pop Culture, Cool Steampunk Stuff and Professor Nerdlinger’s Online Emporium.  

N is for Nanomedicine #AtoZChallenge

Hey folks, this is an incredible topic with much promise for breakthrough in the near future. I’m no doctor. Nor do I play on TV. So I’ll let my cyber-animated assistant take it from here. 

Question Are you buying into any of these soon to be reality scientific breakthroughs that can radically change humans's lives during our lifetime?

Tuesday O is for Orbits 

Wednesday P is for Printing 3-D Body Parts

Be sure to check out our new sites Chopped Pop Culture, Cool Steampunk Stuff and Professor Nerdlinger’s Online Emporium.  

J is for Jobs Replaced by Robotics #AtoZChallenge

Forget about Trump. Immigrant workers as well as people living at or below the poverty line are in serious danger of losing what little livelihood they have. Same with the lower Middle Class. 

The Middle Class has been under assault for decades. Soon, what remains their jobs will be threatened also. How? Take a look at this video clip:

 

Question Do you feel your job could soon be automated and you're handed a pink slip?

Thursday K is for K – 12 Education and What the Future Holds.

I is for Inventions on the Horizon #AtoZChallenge

As always, thanks for stopping by and saying hi! I’m relying heavy on videos for this year A to Z Challenge and today is no different. 

Here are 20 very cool inventions in that are a work in progress but should be hitting the market soon and changing our lives for the better. Enjoy!

Question Do you want time to slow down a bit or are you excited about our ever changing world coming at us full speed? 

Wednesday J is for Jobs Replaced by Robotics. 

Thursday K is for K – 12 Education and What the Future Holds

H is for Hyperloop

Most of us have heard of this awesome way to travel that will be with us, at least in regional areas, very soon. A lot of buzz has been around Elon Musk’s version he wants to build between L.A. and San Francisco that would be a thirty-minute ride. 

Leave it to private industry to design a far superior product at a fraction of the cost than the state of California’s $100B Crazy High Speed Train to Nowhere.

But Elon 

Musk isn't the only thing happening. He has competition across the world such as Hyperloop One. Here is a clip for a hyperloop Desinged by Hyperloop One that is slated to be finished in Dubai in 2020.

Question Do you buy into the notion the hyperloop will become a safe and reliable and eventually every day form of travel? 

Tuesday I is for Inventions on the Horizon. 

Wednesday J is for Jobs Replaced by Robotics.

G is for Gene Therapy #AtoZChallenge

Gene Therapy A technique still in the experimental stage that will use genes to prevent or treat disease. It’s possibly doctors will be able to treat a disorder by inserting a gene into a patient's cells. This could replace performing surgery or subscribing drugs with terrible side effects. How this would work is ..... ah, forget it. I’ll let someone else who can explain it much better than me. 

Folks, this sounds so futuristic but it can become reality at least in part during our life time.

Enjoy! 

Question Are you a believer gene therapy can be a reality and a real game changer is diseases afflicting mankind? 

Monday H is for Hyperloop

Tuesday I is for Inventions on the Horizon

F is for Floating Skyscraper #AtoZChallenge

Folks, this is some real crazy $h!+. Floating skyscrapers. Anchored by trapping an asteroid orbiting Earth. Tethering the two are high strength cabling. 

I’ll let this this one minute video explain this ambitious project:

 

You can heck out this article detailing the feasibility of such a project: This skyscraper is out of this world -- literally

Question Would you take up residence in a floating skyscraper? remember, this thing can travel the globe anytime anywhere.

Saturday G is for Gene Therapy

Monday H is for Hyperloop 

E is for Extinctions on The Horizon #AtoZChallenge

For all the amazing breakthroughs we as humans are on the cups of discovering, the mere presence of humans on this Earth is a problem for a lot of species. But animals and plants do not need humans to be the triggering point for extinction. There have been five major mass extinctions where 75 – 96% of all creatures in the air, land and sea died. 

Many experts believe we are now entering the sixth mass extinction. There are species going extinct today that will do so without our assistance. But make no mistake, some are dying off because we encroach on their territory, hunt them and dump our toxins and pollutants where they live and eat. Biodiversity, which is vital for scores of species that rely on each other for survival, need large sections of land such as rain forests that slash and burn methods destroy. 

A sixth mass extinction of animals and plants could threaten human existence. 

It’s documented over the past 500 years about 1,000 species are now extinct. This does not include potentially that have left us before scientists had a chance to discover them. It’s estimated there are tens of thousands of animals and plant species threatened with extinction. For a list of more commonly known animals currently endangered or vulnerable to extinction CLICK HERE 

Question Can humans slow down extinctions or is this a natural process of nature we little to no control over?

Friday F is for Floating Skyscrapers

Saturday G is for Gene Therapies

D – Deep Space Exploration, IWSG and #AtoZChallenge

Folks, we’re going into Deep Space sooner rather than later. Governments and private industry such as SpaceX, Virgin Atlantic and Blue Origin are gearing up to make a deep push to place humans past our moon to Mars and into the asteroid belt and beyond. 

People are already volunteering and training to make a one-way trip to Deep Space and work and live there without returning to Earth. But first colonies will need to be built. We can send water and supplies years ahead of people. 

But we will need construction materials. Some will be readily available. Capturing asteroids and crashing them to the surface to mine is another option. 

Deep Space travel will not be limited to Governments and companies led by Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezoz. Commercial flight is in the drawing board. Virgin Atlantic is billing itself as the world’s First Commercial Spaceline. SpaceX is planning on sending two private civilians on a trip around the moon in 2018. 

Inevitably, we will see a team of college students launch someone into space. The volunteer will probably be a frat boy drunk off their @$$ and wake up to find themselves orbiting the earth. Who knows, maybe in the near future a kid will win a science fair somewhere in rural Indiana by sending a classmate into space, orbit the earth, then land safely. 

IWSG Do you ever feel a sense of urgency to finish a project because you think someone else is doing something similar and will bring it to market before you and it will be a smashing success? I deal with this about once a month. Sometimes more. I wonder if other people experience the same concern? 

Question if you had the opportunity, would you take a commercial space flight? Ever think someone will beat you to market with a similar story?

Thursday E is for Extinctions on the Horizon

Friday F is for Floating Skyscraper 

C is for Cyborg #AtoZChallenge

What Is A Cyborg You have seen them on TV. You’ve seen in the movies. But you’ve also seen cyborgs in real life. In fact, you might even be a cyborg. 

A cyborg is a being made up of organic and biomechatronic body parts. Cyborg was coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in 1960. A cyborg can be human, mammal, alien or really any kind of living organism. 

Bionic arms and legs. Artificial eyes. Ear implants. All operated in part or in whole with technology such as microchips. And folks, ten years from now our world will be so different than today. People and even mammals walking around and performing everyday tasks with body parts they were not born with will be so common place. There might even be a Cyborg Olympics. How cool would that be! 

Here is a video that is definitely worth checking out. If you’re busy running the A to Z circuit come back and watch this later. People, we truly live in amazing times!  

;

Wednesday D is for Deep Space 

Thursday E is for Extinction and don't forget it's also Insecure Writers Support Group too.

Question Are you a cyborg? Do you know anyone who is a cyborg?

B is for Blindness Cures #AtoZChallenge

Blindness Progress And the blind shall see. Really? Folks, there is truly amazing progress in this field. Nearly 300 million people considered legally blind in this world. Science is progressing in numerous fields to bring eyesight, in part or in whole, to these people. Here are just a few ways we could see (no pun intended) during our life time. 

Stem Cell Research Scientists are developing a method that generates key types of eye tissue from human stem cells that could help repairing or regenerating the lens, cornea and conjunctiva. Yes, this is a very complex research that is not a one size fits all. But it is moving forward. There are obstacles like clinical-trial design, therapy manufacturing and regulatory compliance. 

Microchip Implants MIT researchers are developing an implant that could bypass damaged retinal cells. This method will offer a path of visual input directly to the brain. 

Helping the Blind to See in India’s Hard-to-Reach Villages

Gene Therapy Treatment XLRP is a leading cause of inherited, progressive vision loss. Mutations in the gene RPGR cause about 70 of the 15,000 people in the United States and tens of thousands more around the world. Injection of healthy copies of RPGR underneath the retina is designed to readily penetrate retinal cells to deliver the therapeutic genetic cargo. Researchers hope that a single injection of the XLRP gene therapy will slow or halt vision loss for several years. Reference

Tomorrow C is for Cyborgs

Question Are you excited about the incredible progress science is moving forward with? Or do you think humans as a species will somehow screw everything up in the long run?

A is for Asteroid Mining #AtoZChallenge

Folks, we live in very exciting times! Private industry and governments will certainly expand our economy into space where a treasure trove of raw materials wait to be mined. 

Why? Because we are going to set up colonies on the moon, Mars, the asteroid belt and even minor planets like Ceres and possibly certain moons of Jupiter and Saturn. And we’ll need construction material to build the colonies. 

Asteroids consist of oxygen and silicon which are the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust. Asteroids also contain metals: up to 80% iron and the rest a mixture of nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and other precious metals. 

Soon, we will be able to capture asteroids and bring them into an orbit around Earth or crashed into the moon or Mars for easy mining.

Companies are also factoring in how to mine asteroids cleanly. We’ve done a pretty good job of trashing the Earth mining raw materials. Fortunately, this generation of deep space explorers want to make sure we don’t trash our solar system as we will certainly begin mining asteroids, comets and minor planets like Ceres. 

Question Do you have any concerns about capturing an asteroid and bringing it into orbit near Earth?

Here are a couple fun article to further expound on mining asteroids: 

Asteroid Mining Sounds Hard, Right? You Don’t Know the Half of It 

NASA is dreaming about creating a trillion-dollar industry from asteroid mining for precious metals

The Great and Powerful A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal!

Well, I missed the great reveal. I thought it was March 27th but it was last week. 

Major derp. 

Anyway, here it is. My theme for the 2017 Blogging A to Z Challenge is:

Amazing Scientific Breakthroughs We Are On The Cusp of Discovering

Yes indeed people, there are so many truly incredible scientific breakthroughs in the fields of physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, biology, technology, and such. 

You will probably see in your life time (for better or worse) breakthroughs that will change your world in ways never imagined. Just think how much our world has changed in the last ten years. 

Folks, what we will see in the upcoming years will dwarf the changes we’ve seen in your lifetime! I’m looking forward to connecting and reconnecting with as many bloggers as I can! 

Question Are you participating in A to Z? If so, what is your theme? Best wishes to you for a smashing success!!!

Get Ready To Celebrate National Pi Day 2017!!!

On March 14, 1879 Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. We all recognize the iconic face and hair as well as his famous equation E = mc 2. 

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. 

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits. Reference 

National Pi Day is celebrated annually on March 14th. The earliest known official, or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium. The Exploratorium continues to hold Pi Day celebrations. 

Freaky!!!

And since science nerds rule the world, we are still celebrating National Pi Day and will continue to do so for all infiniti (no pun intended). 

Even if you hate math, you'll love Pi Day. Why? Because there's pie. 

Saw This At A Local Grocery Store Today

14 Pi Day Deals That Are Irrationally Good Do you love a good pizza pie or fruit centered pie? Like to save money too? Well, national Pi Day is for here. For deals on all sorts of pies CLICK HERE . 

Pi Day Fun Fact Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14 or 3.14 and officially kicks off at 1:59 pm. Now do the math: when combined the date and time results in 3.14159, the approximate numerical value of pi.

Question What's you favorite pie? I know, I know, that's a tough one. Me, I'm going for the pizza pie from an Italian mom and pop restaurant with pepperoni and sausage.

March IWSG, Adventures of Chase Manhattan Box Set Trilogy, 2017 Blogging A to Z Challenge

IWSG This month it’s brought to you by Alex Cavanaugh, Tamara Narayan, Patsy Collins, M.J. Fifield, and Nicole Christopherson. 

This time I remembered to look up the question of the month. March 1 Question: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out? 

The closest I have done is to take out sections and put them in my Junk Yard. I tend to overwrite and as I’m going through my final drafts I will delete sentences, paragraphs and entire sections that just don’t seem to flow or is a good fit. But I often use them to plug a gap somewhere else. I visit my Junk Yard often and find a perfectly good piece and use it, just not in the original section it came from. 

Oh By The Way I have placed numerous short stories in my books. The first chapter in my first book Breakthrough: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan is a stand-alone short story. I thought the book needed to begin with action so I plugged it in. 

Blogging A to Z I’m working on this really cool project. It’s ginormous and demanding a lot of time and resources but hopefully I’ll wrap it up by the end of March. I do have a theme and will participate in the Theme Reveal later in March. However, if the situation demands I need to focus my energies with this project then so be it. I’ll have to wait until next year for A to Z. 

Finally I’ve put together the three books in the Adventures of Chase Manhattan series into a Box Set. I just set it up on Amazon Kindle and will begin promoting it later this month. For now I’ll throw out a few Tweets here and there. 

Ha! I have to get a kick out of the original Kindle Ranking: 4,431,665.

Question Are you participating in blogging A to Z this year? Do you have a theme yet? Have you put together a trilogy or participated in an anthology?

Ugh! I see Google is losing comments again. Is this happening to anyone else. Every post it's like 25 comments mysteriously disappear?