Picture Kaleidoscope 3/30/11

With the time change, sunrises and sunsets are wonky with my drive to and from work, but still was able to catch this beauty from the fourth floor. What's truly amazing is that the sun is not only rising but moving slightly sideways. There is one point where the sun will be exactly behind the building. I'm hoping to catch a picture of that soon. (By the time I realized it was happening and hurried to get the phone, it was too late.) :(

NASA shared some very cool pics this week.

1st one up comes from WISE - Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. It is the last picture taken by it back in Feb 2011. A gorgeous field of stars and gases.

2nd is an infrared image of the North American Nebula. I love all that RED!

3rd is a super cool image of Saturn. Not only can you see the rings, but more fun is the fact you can see its auroras. Take a look at the north and south poles. Sweet!

And just when you thought it was safe, winter is BACK!
Inkyelbows got a great picture of an unhappy bird and added a cute caption to it. Heh heh.

That's it for this week! Have a good one!

Mind Sieve 3/28/11

It's going to be a full load this week! Lots of stuff!


Fan Fun

From Seth Green twitter feed I got this link about Nathan Fillion who made it onto the cover of Entertainment Weekly! Nice little write up with the cover pic at EW.com

SoonerCon shared this link to a pseudo steampunk film by Luc Besson, the same man who brought us Nikita and the Fifth Element, called The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-sec. The preview is totally awesome!

Candance Haven linked the latest preview for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. More movies for my to be watched list!



Author Platform

Nathan Bradford has a great post on Face Book for Authors. Most of the steps are very easy. A few may have changed slightly as Facebook just did a major change with fan pages, but most should be viable.

Kristen Lamb's Twitter Tuesday #10 is right on the money this week. You'll note that I already follow her advice as from the get go I went with @GloriaOliver. :)

10 Ways to Increase You Likebility Quotient - another Kristen Lamb zinger for this week! I do some of these already but I really need to clone myself to be able to participate more. Ugh!



Writing Advice

Kristen Lamb talk about her kitchen junk drawers and at the same time shows us where we can get idea and even help ourselves with our writing.

Donna Newton asks the question "What's in a Log Line?" And taking some lessons learned we get a before and after picture of hers. Very good advice for pitches.

Log line and actual content get discussed in Hooking the Reader and Never Letting Go by Kristen Lamb.

This bit hits home for both writers and readers. Part of it stems for a current discussion on e-book pricing, but it's the bottom half that I want you to look at. It's something I've touted about in my blogs a time or two - The Care and Feeding of Your Favorite Authors - from the indomitable (if not safe for work) mind of Chuck Wendig.

Nathan Bradford talks about a problem all of us writer types face - How to Find Balance? (Cloning! I tell you, cloning is the answer! Bwahahahaha!)

Stalled on your novel? Need ways to jump start the old noggin' again? Chuck Wendig has made a list of ways for you.


Okay, I think I will stop there. lol. This should keep you busy for a bit. :P

Aggie Con 42 - Tentative Schedule!

Hey, all!

If you're going to find yourselves down at Aggie Con this weekend, here's a list of the panels I'm currently schedule to be on.

Friday 3PM: Nerd Girls - What makes a girl a nerd, and what makes them better than regular girls?

Friday 4PM: Did somebody call The Doctor? - Who is that man in the police box?

Friday 5PM: Nerdlings: Where to begin? - How should you introduce your kids to the wonderful world of nerds?

Saturday 10AM: Trek is BACK! - A discussion of the new Star Trek movie and what could be in store for the inevitable sequel.

Hope to see you there!