Revisiting my Merlin wishlist

Spoilers for season 5 below.

In September, I wrote a wishlist for season 5 of Merlin. Here's how my list compares to what happened this season.

1. Arthur finds out. 
He did find out in the final episode, and it was the best magic reveal that it could have been after a mess of episodes this year.

2. Gwen finds out before Arthur. 
Gwen guesses that the sorcerer at the battle was Merlin, but it wasn't before Arthur knew and certainly not early enough to make any difference in the story.

3. An episode about the knights.
Nope, we didn't have this.

4. Mordred comes back.
This happened in Arthur's Bane, part 1. How exciting! Merlin had a vision of Mordred killing  Arthur, and at the end of the episode and at the end of part 2, Mordred saves Arthur's life and becomes a knight of Camelot. He's in the background for most of the season, until he leaves Camelot, joins Morgana, and comes back to kill Arthur. I would have liked to see more of his character.

5. Morgana's story ends.
Merlin ends up killing her. Again, too late for it to really matter and we don't see the consequences of Morgana's death. What happened to her allies?

6. Gaius steps down.
Nope. Gaius is there until the end, still giving Merlin advice. 

7. Merlin loses control.
Sadly, this didn't happen. We got plenty of good emotional moments, but nothing like Merlin losing control.

I was satisfied with the last two episodes of Merlin, but most of season 5 was a waste of potential. Unfortunately, the writers could have done so much with the characters and the series, but they didn't take those opportunities.

What I read in 2012

Here's a list of the books and short stories I read this year. I recommend the titles in bold.

Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and Email Overload by Mark Hurst (non-fiction, 2007)
From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
- "The Reigate Puzzle"
- "The Crooked Man"
A Hidden Witch by Debra Geary (modern fantasy, 2011)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (fiction, 1999)
Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It by Peter Cappelli (non-fiction, 2012)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (fantasy, 2009)
A Modern Witch by Debora Geary (modern fantasy, 2011)

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon (non-fiction, 2012)
The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (fantasy, 1979)
From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
"The Musgrave Ritural"

From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
- "The Stock-broker's Clerk"
- "The 'Gloria Scott'"

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher (urban fantasy, 2005)
Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie A. Helgoe (non-fiction, 2008)

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon (fiction, 1988)
Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel, 1990)
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss (non-fiction, 2007)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (fiction, 1951)
"The Yellow Face" from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (science fiction, 1985)
Start a Freedom Business by Colin Wright (non-fiction, 2012)

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn (superhero fiction, 2011)
"Silver Blaze" from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Linchpin by Seth Godin (non-fiction, 2010)

"Embroidery" by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (fantasy, 1996)
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin (non-fiction, 2012)
"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (urban fantasy, 1998)
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

On Writing Well by William Zinsser (non-fiction, 1976)
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon (non-fiction, 2008)
"The Red-headed League" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Short stories by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
-- "The Flying Machine"
-- "The Murderer"
-- "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind"
"A Case of Identity" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Five Orange Pips" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Man With the Twisted Lip" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Heart of Stone by C.E. Murphy (urban fantasy, 2007)
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (science fiction, 1966)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (fiction, 2012)
The Constant Art of Being a Writer by N.M. Kelby (non-fiction, 2009)
Short stories by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
-- "The Fog Horn"
-- "The April Witch"
-- "The Wilderness"
-- "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl"
The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel, 1991)

Merlin: What if Mordred knew?

I thought of a plot twist that could redeem the final season of Merlin (a little bit, anyway). Season 5 spoilers under the cut.

Unsubscribing from blogs

Does anyone use RSS feeders anymore? I have a few dozen feeds in Google Reader. Some of them are active blogs. Some of them haven't posted in a while, but I really like them, so the feeds stay.

Then there are others that I haven't read in a while. I unsubscribed from a lot of those tonight.

These are the feeds I scroll through, barely scanning the post titles. The content is still good, I'm sure, but my interests have shifted and I don't care about these blogs anymore. So tonight I clicked the Unsubscribe button, and then I did it a few more times.

I'm reading Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst, and the point he keeps reinforcing is "let the bits go." We already have too many things that want our attention. We have to learn to let go of the things that don't really matter, the things that waste our time and do not provide us with value.

So when I have a pile of ignored RSS feeds (not a pile, a list–you know what I mean), I have to be okay with unsubscribing. I let go, and the thing that goes away is the weekly effort of scrolling through new posts to get the Unread count back to zero. I gain time back, actually.

Merlin: "A Lesson in Vengeance" should have ended differently

I don't like complaining about Merlin, but it's one thing when the show doesn't progress (where it could) and another when things that should have logically happened, don't.

I liked tonight's episode but the ending should have been different. Spoilers below for 5.07 "A Lesson in Vengeance."

An Open Letter to Charlie McDonnell

In response to his video, I'm Scared.

Dear Charlie,

Lately I haven't been on YouTube much so I just watched your video last night. More on that in a moment, but first I want to say I think the way you're feeling is completely normal.

I don't have a million people seeing what I post online, but I can relate to how you're feeling because everyone has a version of that same fear. Everyone wants to be loved, and everyone is afraid of disappointing others. The straight-A student worries about getting a B on her next test. The star quarterback worries about missing a catch in the playoffs. I'm using high school stereotypes, but you get the idea.

Like many others have said, I think the most important thing to do is keep going. If you like making videos, keep making videos. All creative people have duds in their work, something that didn't come out the way they expected or didn't get the reaction they were hoping for. But the more you do something, the more you improve. Those duds are experiences you can learn from, and that's better than not making anything in the first place.

I started watching your videos when I was in college. I had spare time between classes or I'd take a break from studying and hop onto YouTube. Many of your videos are funny and creative, but that's not why I subscribed to your channel. From the first video I watched (it was Blink), I could tell that you liked making videos. Your personality comes through and even though making videos is a lot of work, you make it look easy. There's the camera and there's Charlie.

I don't know of many people who can make a living doing the thing they love, but you're one of them, and that has always been an inspiration to me. When I was having a bad day or frustrated with whatever I was working on, I could watch your videos and know that over in England, there's this young man whose job is making videos and he loves it. And that gives me hope.

So back to last night. I have a job right now but it's not what I'd like to do for a living. I don't know what I'd like to do long-term, actually, and I've been frustrated with myself for not figuring it out. So I went onto YouTube. And I checked if you've posted any new videos because I know you love what you do, and it's a joy seeing that.

I didn't expect to see a video like "I'm Scared" on your channel, but I'm glad you uploaded it. It's easy for viewers to forget that vloggers are real people with lives outside the internet. It's easy to forget that the Charlie we see on screen is only a part of you. And it's easy to forget that you can be good at something and still doubt your ability to do it.

I hope you continue making videos. You've inspired me to keep going, and I hope the video responses, comments, and messages you've been receiving will help you feel that you aren't alone in your fear (because you aren't) and that we look forward to your videos, whatever their content, (because we do).

Take care,
Kali

I have a writing exercise for the writers of Merlin

It goes like this.

Part 1: Ask yourself “Does this scene add something important to the story?” If the answer is yes, keep it. If the answer is no, get rid of it and write something better in its place.

Part 2: When a character reaches a turning point in the story, ask yourself “Is this decision consistent with what the character has done so far?” If the answer is yes, keep writing. If the answer is no, revise.

Part 3: When reviewing a script ask yourself “Would this episode be better if Merlin could openly use magic?” The answer is yes and you should have revealed his magic last season.

Cloud Atlas: Watch for Themes

I usually don't read much about movies before I see them, so going into Cloud Atlas I knew that 1) Tom Hanks and Halle Berry were the leads 2) scenes mixed from periods in the past, present, and future and 3) it was based on a book but I haven't read it.

I walked in to the movie expecting that it would be one story that jumped around, but about 45 minutes in, I realized that the best way to watch it was by themes and not try to think too much about the stories. The scenes jump around and the character introductions are too fast to keep track of everything in that way.

So instead, I looked for ways to connect the segments according to common themes and that worked pretty well.

Spoilers under the cut.

Dependence on old technology

Since electricity (and everything electrical) has stopped working, the characters have two options: develop ways to thrive without electricity (move forward) or try to turn the power back on (move backward).

Miles and Monroe represent each option.

Miles has accepted the way the world is post-blackout. He started policing thieves and murderers and built the foundation for the Monroe Republic. Notice how Miles fights with a sword or his bare hands? He isn't hoarding rifles and bullets. He's moving forward, learning to live without electricity.

Monroe wants to turn the electricity back on. He took headquarters in Philadelphia, where it still looks like a city. He interrogates Rachel about the blackout and how to turn the power back on. He sends orders to get a train moving, and he wants a helicopter for his militia. Monroe is stuck thinking in terms of what worked before the blackout, so he spends his time with old ideas and methods.

We haven't found out yet why Miles left Monroe, but I wonder if this difference in thinking was part of it.

Fringe theory: the Observers already had the red universe

Spoilers for season 5.

What if in seasons 2 and 3 when we saw the red universe, the Observers had already invaded and were in charge? We've always watched the show from the fringe team's perspective, so what if we simply weren't shown the Observers' control? A few things make me think more was going on than what we saw.

1. Walter's portal - When Walter crossed over to save Peter, he disrupted the balance between the universes. Why was the red universe decaying faster than ours? The show gives us one explanation: time moves differently over there, so the rate of decay is faster. But what if the Observers were contributing to the destruction of the red universe and that's why it was faster? In season 5, we see that the Observers installed machines to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere. They could have made similar changes that hurt the red universe.

2. Advanced technology - People are mostly the same but with minor differences in each universe, so what allowed people in the red universe to rapidly advance technology? Maybe the Observers traded their tech for the humans' submission.

3. Show Me - Everyone in the red universe has to carry ID at all times and show it for everything, even boarding a public bus. Why are the people in the red universe under such strict control? The Observers insist on it. It's not far from requiring Loyalists to have an official stamp on their cheek.

4. Cold-hearted Walternate - Maybe Walternate's hardened personality is a result of reporting to the Observers. If he is a liaison between humans and Observers, he will act cold and calculating to match how the Observers act. Think of how Broyles is in "Letters of Transit."

5. The fringe division as clean-up crew - In the red universe, the fringe division's main responsibility is to respond to fringe events. Amber locations when necessary. Figure out how to patch their deteriorating world. They do investigate situations, but more often than not, it feels like they're an extension of the government sent out to keep the peace. Foot soldiers but not leaders.

So if the Observers were in control of the red universe, what happened to them in season four? I think the Machine interferes with their influence. When the machine was not put together, the Observers could take over the red universe. Why didn't they invade our universe too? Peter and Olivia are together on this side, and together they are capable of stopping the Observers. Follow the path of least resistance.

At the end of season 3, Peter activated the Machine and bridged the two universes. The Observers can't be in power while the Machine is running, so their influence unraveled and the red universe began to heal. Observers could still visit but they couldn't invade and take over any more.

We can take the "fixed point in time" idea from Doctor Who and apply it here. Peter was supposed to connect the two universes to save them from the Observers. That's why September kept showing up to help. He wanted to keep the timeline in tact.

So what went wrong? William Bell wanted to create a new universe and destroy the others. Peter had to turn off the Machine to stop him, and that made both universes susceptible to an Observer invasion. At the end of season 4, September appeared to Walter and warned that the Observers are coming. And here we are in season 5.

I don't know how plausible this theory is, but it's fun to play around with the ideas in Fringe.

Revolution: Inverted damsel in distress

Spoilers for episodes 1-5

I like Revolution for its story and characters, but the most interesting part so far is how the show plays with gender roles. I'll focus on the women in this post.

Charlie. Her name is a good starting point: Charlotte but she goes by Charlie. A blending of male and female, so we can guess that Charlie is going to blur the line between what is typically male and female.

The militia takes Danny, Charlie's younger brother, in the first episode, and she goes after him. The set up is not a strong man going on a journey to save a helpless woman but instead a young woman going to rescue her weaker brother. If you don't think that Danny is supposed to be the weaker of the two, look at how they dress. Danny wears simple clothing, a loose shirt and pants, and Charlie's outfit is close-fitting with a knife sheathed at her hip and a crossbow over her shoulder.

Charlie hunts and she's good at it, but she's not a warrior. She fights the militia men who come after Miles, but Nate has to save her. Miles has to intervene when Charlie gets into fights she cannot physically win. She reacts emotionally and Miles has to remind her to take logical action.

Charlie repeatedly shows herself to be tough but also scared. A good fighter, but also reckless. She doesn't try to hide her vulnerabilities and she doesn't let people talk down, ignore, or belittle her. Especially Miles. She's an excellent example of tempered strength.

Nora. The first time we see her, she is chained up along with many other slaves. But then we find out that she picked the lock and can escape at any time. Nora got arrested on purpose so that she could steal a rifle from the militia. She doesn't need to be saved.

Nora is determined and focused on her work for the Resistance, even to the point of putting Danny in danger in episode 5, "Soul Train." Miles thinks the Resistance has no chance of accomplishing anything and if that's true, all of Nora's work goes to waste. At this point in the story, she is an example of lost potential.

Lastly, Rachel, Charlie's mom. Monroe is holding her hostage and we've seen her tied up and interrogated. A few scenes imply that Monroe's men torture her. In a flashback scene, Rachel killed a man who tried to steal the family's food and threaten Charlie, but now Rachel seems powerless. Monroe manipulates her into telling him what she knows about the blackout and how to turn the power back on. It seems like Rachel is an example of arrested power, but I'm excited to see how that will change when Monroe tries to bargain with Danny's life.

The women in Revolution show strength as well as weakness. At times, we see in them the damsel in distress cliche. The men must come to rescue them. But as we watch, the cliche turns itself inside out. Charlie takes charge of rescuing Danny, Nora defies Miles to blow up the train, and Rachel will do whatever is necessary to protect her children.

The narrator in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Spoilers below.

Robert Downey Jr. is the main character, Harry Lockhart, and he narrates most of the movie. But besides typical narration, the movie breaks the fourth wall. Harry addresses the audience, as if he's having a conversation with us. He pauses scenes to add comments and rewinds when he forgets to tell us something.

The one problem with narrated movies is that you know the character makes it through to the end. Not a problem for family dramas and comedies, but Harry is in constant danger. Hearing him tell the story in the past tense means he survives all the trouble he gets in to.

It's difficult to worry about the main character when you know he'll be okay, so Kiss Kiss Bang Bang forgets about the narration for the middle of the movie. Harry is still on the screen but he isn't talking to us anymore. We lose the certainty that he survives until the end because he's not cracking jokes about what's happening. Maybe he doesn't live to tell the rest of the story so we just have to watch and see.

It's an interesting move, to use narration to lure us into a comfortable zone and then take it away to let us question the character's safety.

Pushing Boundaries: Morality and Justified Science in Fringe

I co-wrote this piece with a friend over the summer. Spoilers for season 4 of Fringe. Enjoy, and please feel free to leave comments below.


We noticed a marked difference in Future!Walter in “Letters of Transit.” He was much more like Secretary of Defense Walternate than he was the Walter that we are familiar with. However, this difference only comes after the Future!Fringe team has regenerated his brain using the tissues from the brain sample that we now know contained the plans to create the New World.

Now that we know that the “man he didn’t like that he was becoming” was related to a concentrated series of ideas as opposed to a holistic character trait, might we see a Future!Walter next season who tries to recapture that idea and escapes from the world overtaken by the Observers by creating an alternative universe?

It would be an interesting symmetry and move for the character—to go from being responsible for the near destruction of an alternate universe to the creation of a new one.

And we, the audience, will be okay with Walter’s work to create a new universe because he will do it to save mankind. Fringe has always played with ideas of moral and immoral science, and in season 5, we will see this boundary bend and shift.

Originally, we were asked to believe that crossing universes was a bad thing. Walter upset the balance and both worlds suffered because of his actions. But in the past four years, we have also seen positive outcomes from crossing over: Peter and Lincoln found their “homes” in the universe where each man was not born. The dopplegangers worked together and shared experiences. Both Fringe divisions were better for it. Walter and Walternate found forgiveness and reconciliation for their past actions.

We’re okay with the outcomes of crossing universes, but we’re having a hard time sympathizing with Bell’s attempt to destroy the universe and make a new one. And we know why: he didn’t have a reason for what he was doing, except that he could. (Bell said so in Brave New World, Part 2: “God made us in His image. If that is so, if we are capable of being gods, then it is our destiny to do so.”)

So along with the moral/immoral boundary, we have this question of “If you can achieve something through science, should you?”

This is where the push comes in and we’ll bend that boundary between moral and immoral. We’ll be okay with Future!Walter if he creates a new universe in order to defeat the Observers and save everyone because he will be pushing the boundary for the sake of something good—not only because he can. We might be concerned with what the other characters will think and if they’ll allow Walter to carry out his ideas. But we’ve seen that Olivia will do whatever it takes to save the world, and so will Peter, Astrid, and Broyles.

We wind up having to reassess the situation and change our position on its morality when it becomes re-contextualized. Everything must be considered in its context, and new situations each have their own context (sometimes as a result of past events or decisions, sometimes entirely new). The writers complicated (and then made irrelevant) the morality issue when they re-contextualized it within an argument on survival: should the Fringe team work to preserve the established world or create a new one? One issue collapses, and then we get tangled into new ideas.

So what we’re really saying in the end is, “science for the sake of science” is immoral, but science for the sake of humanity is justified. That’s interesting since the premise of the show is based on experimental science. The Fringe Division started out fighting the outcomes of experimental science, and in season 5, experimental science will become their weapon to fight the Observers (we hope).

Becoming Human Through Rebellion: September’s Character Development

I wrote this article for a Fringe fanzine but since I don't know when the zine will be published or if this piece made the cut AND we're allowed to share our articles on our own sites anyway, I'm posting it here. I'll update this post with a link to the zine if/when it's published. Here's a look at September's development over four years of the show. Spoilers for season 4.

"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made." 

- Oscar Wilde

Walter violated laws of the universe when he crossed over to save Peter. David Robert Jones crossed ethical lines with his real-world-as-a-laboratory experiments. Nina Sharp withheld information that could have helped the fringe division. Altlivia deceived everyone on our side.

But the character whose prohibited actions have had the most impact is September. He broke the rules when he visited Walternate in 1985 and distracted him from curing Peter. September’s interruption set off a string of events (and alternate events) that have unfolded over the past four years on Fringe. September’s initial interference led to continued disobedience of the Observers and ended in season four with him siding with the humans.

But he didn’t switch sides over night. Let’s take a look at September’s development.

The Observer: When we first meet September, he seems exactly like all the other Observers. He dresses like them and speaks like them. Most of the time, he stays in the background, simply watching.

The Interrupter: September wanted to witness the moment when Walternate cured Peter, but he accidentally distracted Walternate. When Walternate failed to cure Peter, September had to interfere to save Walter and Peter from drowning in Reiden Lake. Peter was safe, but he was in the wrong universe. Even worse, Walter’s crossing upset the balance between the universes. All because of September.

The Sympathizer: Again and again, September shows up to help Olivia, Walter, and Peter. September isn’t supposed to make contact with present-time humans, but he keeps disobeying the Observers’ rules. At the end of season two, September appears to Olivia and, as a warning, leaves her a picture of Peter activating the Machine. In season three, September prepares Walter to sacrifice Peter (so that later Peter can bridge the universes and heal both worlds). The bridge doesn’t completely erase Peter from the timeline, though, and instead of finishing the job, September’s lack of action allows Peter to re-enter the timeline. September cares what happens to Olivia, Walter, and Peter, so he warns them about future events, prepares them for what’s coming, and deflects the other Observers’ attempts to reset the timeline. Which finally leads us to...

The Rebel: At the end of season 4, September explains to Walter that the Observers are going to invade Earth in 2015. This is September’s final act of disobedience: warning the fringe team about the coming invasion and in doing so, giving them time to prepare a defense.

September’s disobedience puts him back in touch with emotions—the essence of being human. His rebellion allows for progress, but not in favor of the Observers. Instead, September’s actions allow him to help the fringe team. We don’t know the primary reason for September’s disobedience, but fan theories suggest that he is the young boy in “Inner Child” (season 1, episode 15). If that’s true, maybe September is returning the favor: the fringe team helped him, so he helps them. Perhaps we’ll have a definite answer in season 5.

At least I got a blog post out of it

Sometimes I think of an idea that's easier to draw than to describe in words, so I was looking for an app that would let me do that. Simple drawings (preferably on a canvas larger than the screen) that I could save and email.

I have a notepad app on my iPod Touch that's simple and quick. Surely, there's something similar but for sketches and diagrams.

Simple and quick, that's how I thought it would be to find this little app. But no, I spent the evening searching and might have found a satisfactory app.

When I'm looking for a specific kind of app, my usual method goes like this:

1. Go to the app store, directly from my iPod Touch.
2. Search keywords.
3. Check reviews for any app with more than 3 stars. (My level of optimism determines how far down I scroll before trying new keywords.) See if the pros outweigh the cons. (If I don't find a suitable app by searching, I browse categories.)
4. Download a free app (or free "lite" version) with high ratings and good reviews.

5a. If it does what I want, keep it. Possibly upgrade to the paid version at some point.
5b. If it doesn't do what I want, delete it. Go to step 4.

I looked at several apps and saw lots of complaints. For example:

Doodle Buddy crashes.
Inkflow only has a black pen and no eraser (but there is an Undo button).
Sketchpad has too many ads.
DrawCast isn't updating.
Whiteboard lags.

Then my own grumbles...

I had to muddle through all the drawing and doodling games. I don't want anything with neon/glowing effects. No kiddy sound effects. I don't need anything social.

What I want is a large blank canvas, a few different colors, an eraser, the ability to save and send images, and positive reviews.

It was too much to ask.

And then I had an idea. Sharpie might have an app. How perfect would that be? Digital Sharpies and a sketchbook. It seems too good to be true.

It is.

Steal Like An Artist: Routine Art

This is the best advice I have read about creative work:

Be boring. (It's the only way to get work done.)

It's from Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon, which is an excellent book for anyone interested in creative work. It's full of practical advice.

Most people have to practice their art for a while before they can make a living off of it, so in the mean time, they need a regular job. Austin says, get a job you can tolerate, pay your bills, and build a routine. When you have regular hours that you work, you know what time you have left, and you can carve out time to write stories, compose music, take photos, draw...whatever it is that you do.

Better yet, Austin points out that if your job doesn't take a lot of creative energy, you'll be happy to pour that energy into your hobbies. You take care of yourself, and you keep your mind in the right place to produce art.

This is more useful than the advice I've seen that focuses on craft. Other books I've read on writing tell me to set a daily word count goal and find a distraction-free space—which is fine, but they don't connect creative work to the rest of your life.

Steal Like An Artist is the first book I've read that blends creative work with the average, day-to-day things. It's the first time I've said, "Yeah, that's something I can try today."

My wish list for Merlin season 5

I don't read spoilers and I don't keep up with show updates over the summer, so I go into new seasons knowing very little about what's going to happen. I've been thinking about what I want to see on Merlin this year, so here's my wish list.

1. Arthur finds out. Of course this is at the top of my list. We've had four years of Merlin hiding his secret. Time to let it out. I want to see how Arthur reacts and how his relationship with Merlin changes.

2. Gwen finds out before Arthur. If the writers still want to delay Arthur's finding out, then I'd like to see Gwen find out that Merlin has magic. How will she treat him? Will she keep his secret?

3. An episode about the knights. I'm having trouble remembering all of the knights' names at the moment, so that's a clear sign that we need an episode that focuses on them. Have a story that develops their characters, or have an episode from their point of view (sort of like "The Zeppo" from Buffy).

4. Mordred comes back. We need a new, strong threat to Camelot. Before, Mordred was a creepy kid. Now, let him return as a dangerous young man.

5. Morgana's story ends. She's been stuck in a loop of betrayal, vengeance, and failure. Give her a small victory or a final loss—something that snaps her out of that rut and lets her move on.

6. Gaius steps down. Merlin has out-grown his mentorship with him (as far as magic goes), so I'd like to see Gaius's role change. Maybe instead of giving Merlin advice, Gaius can focus on teaching him medicine.

7. Merlin loses control. We've seen Merlin make mistakes, but we haven't seen him crack. I want something bad to happen that makes him furious, desperate, or grief-stricken (over a character's death...maybe Gaius's?). And Merlin goes crazy for an episode or two. We know Colin Morgan can pull off powerful emotions and the show has given him great moments, but I want something bigger.

That's my list. What do you want to see on Merlin this year?

Two decades of sports movies

D2: The Mighty Ducks was on TV earlier today, and I started thinking about sports movies that were released in the 1990s versus the ones that came out in the 2000s. Specifically, I was wondering if one decade had more sports movies than the other.

I went to IMDB and started searching. These were the parameters I set: released in the U.S, from the years 1990 to 2010, rated G or PG, and categorized as a Sport movie. As I went through the results, I excluded movies where a sport was not the main plot.

Here's the list:

1991 - 2000 - 34 total
The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend (1991)
Talent for the Game (1991)
The Babe (1992)
The Cutting Edge (1992)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
Airborne (1993)
Rookie of the Year (1993)
The Sandlot (1993) 
Rudy (1993)
Cool Runnings (1993)
Little Big League (1994)
The Air Up There (1994)
The Next Karate Kid (1994)
Major League II (1994)
Little Giants (1994)
Angels in the Outfield (1994)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
The Big Green (1995)
Snowboard Academy (1996)
Ed (1996)
D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
Space Jam (1996)
The Ride (1997)
Air Bud (1997)
Possums (1998)
Without Limits (1998)
Golf Punks (1998)
Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)
Soccer Dog: The Movie (1998)
Endurance (1999)
A Little Inside (1999)
MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000)
Remember the Titans (2000)

2001 - 2010 - 48 total
Snow Dogs (2002)
The Rookie (2002)
Like Mike (2002)
Hometown Legend (2002)
Jumping for Joy (2002)
Just For Kicks (2003)
Radio (2003)
Mickey (2004)
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
Guarding Eddy (2004)
Soccer Dog: European Cup (2004)
Miracle (2004)
The Game of Their Lives (2005)
Madison (2005)
Herbie Fully Loaded (2005)
Kicking & Screaming (2005)
Ice Princess (2005)
Rebound (2005)
Racing Stripes (2005)
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (2005)
The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)
Believe in Me (2006)
Everyone's a Hero (2006)
Cars (2006)
Nacho Libre (2006)
Glory Road (2006)
Facing the Giants (2006)
Church Ball (2006)
Rocky Balboa (2006)
We Are Marshall (2006)
Invincible (2006)
The Final Season (2007)
Pride (2007)
White Air (2007)
The Game Plan (2007)
Surf's Up (2007)
The Longshots (2008)
Fast Girl (2008)
The Express (2008)
Speed Racer (2008)
The Mighty Macs (2009)
The Perfect Game (2009)
Chasing 3000 (2010)
The 5th Quarter (2010)
Ice Castles (2010)
Wildfire: The Arabian Heart (2010)
The Karate Kid (2010)
Secretariat (2010)

As it turns out, the 2000s had more sports movies. I've seen more from the 1990s, though, which is why I thought that decade had more.

Nine wasn't one for hero moments

Earlier tonight I watched "World War Three" from season 1 of New Who, and a few things stuck out to me (I think) because it's been years since I've re-watched Nine's episodes, and I've gotten used to Eleven and Moffat's writing reign.

1. Nine doesn't have fun in dangerous situations, the way Ten and Eleven sometimes do. When he's figuring out how to beat the Slitheen, he's stressed. When the missile is heading for the building, Nine looks like he accepted that they are going to die. It's Rose who suggests to go in the closet and huddle in a stronger part of the room.

2. Nine isn't proud of fighting aliens. He stopped the Slitheen from destroying the Earth because he didn't want six billion people to die, not because it was heroic or cool. He doesn't smile about it, doesn't brag, doesn't cheer. Think about how that contrasts to Eleven's "Boo-yah!" in series 5 or his "Who do you think?" in last week's "Asylum of the Daleks."

3. Nine trusts that his friends can take care of themselves (at least part of the time). When the Slitheen are chasing Rose and Harriet Jones through the building, Nine is on a different floor, running away from the police. He isn't looking for Rose or figuring out a way to save her—he's just running for his own safety. When he does meet up with Rose and Harriet, he confronts the Slitheen. And even then, he's not saving Rose and Harriet. They're teaming up.

Nine is as brilliant and compassionate as Ten and Eleven, but he doesn't have the same ego. It was refreshing to re-watch "World War Three" and see a low-key Doctor. The story was straightforward with strong character moments. Special effects and fancy camera shots were less of a priority. Those were better days for Doctor Who.

Missing pieces in Doctor Who

Every year I get excited for new episodes of Doctor Who. I look forward to new adventures, compelling characters, and intricate stories. And because the show is what it is, with so much is history and material, I'm willing to forgive minor plot holes and problems. To a point. Overall, I liked "Asylum of the Daleks," but I can't ignore the missing links in the episode.

Spoilers below for "Asylum of the Daleks" (season 7, episode 1).

That popping sound in The Sandlot

I've seen The Sandlot at least a dozen times, and it was on the third or fourth viewing that I noticed a popping sound in two scenes. The first is when the boys tell Smalls to walk over to the fence and peek through the hole. The second is when the boys are looking down at the ominous busted baseball.

To me, it sounds like bubble gum popping. We see the boys chewing gum throughout the movie. The sound could easily be one of them popping a bubble off-camera. But somehow, the sound doesn't seem like it's part of the film.

I like to think that the popping sound is supposed to be part of the world outside the film, part of the audience. Maybe it's the narrator, popping his gum during a quiet moment in the story. Or maybe we're supposed to imagine the sound coming from an audience member, someone else in the theater.

I haven't decided where this falls on the scale of Creepy to Cool.

In which Cabin Pressure predicts real life

(I wrote this four weeks ago, but I had limited internet access while I was on vacation in Greece.)

On the plane to Greece, I listened to an episode of Cabin Pressure. I thought it’d be neat—Cabinception— and since it’s a sitcom, there wouldn’t be anything to freak me out mid-flight.

Well, I was almost right.

I listened to “Boston” (series 1, episode 2) and the bit comes up with Martin asking over the intercom for any doctors on the flight.

Half an hour later on my real-life flight, the captain made a similar announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, one of our passengers requires medical assistance. If you have had any medical training, please notify a flight attendant.”

Fortunately, we had a couple doctors and a nurse on board, the man who was ill got better, and the captains didn’t have to yo-yo between diversion destinations.

(I didn't listen to any Cabin Pressure on the way home. Just in case.)

Saving John Carter

Last night, before I watched John Carter, I checked Rotten Tomatoes. I don't consider the site to be the definitive measure for a film's quality, but I tend to agree with the Tomatometer. I wanted to see what it said about John Carter.

John Carter has a 52% rating. A bit below Decent Movie status. I watched it, and even though it won't have a place on my Favorite Movies list, it's far from the worst thing I've seen. And yet, the blurbs on the movie's Rotten Tomatoes page call it "a mess" and a "a curiously dull film" with a "tiresome" story. There's some merit to those criticisms, but there's also a lot to like about John Carter.

Spoilers after the cut.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Concept of the Mask

I didn't have any reservations about rebooting Spider-Man. He's my favorite superhero, and things weren't working out with Sam Raimi after Spider-Man 3, so by all means, have another go at Spider-Man with a new crew. After seeing Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, I'm happy we got this movie.

The first time Spider-Man is in his full suit and faces a thief in The Amazing Spider-Man, he says, "No one seems to grasp the concept of the mask."

The characters in the movie might not understand how the mask allows Peter Parker to be Spider-Man, but the people who made the movie certainly do. That's what I want to talk about.

Spoilers after the cut.

False Hope at the Movie Theater

I saw a poster for Looper at the movie theater, and it has Justin Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis on it. The first 'o' in Looper is a clock, and the tagline is "Hunted by your future. Haunted by your past."

The composition of the poster is a bit strange. Bruce Willis is upside down, sort of like a reflection, but not really. A cloud of ashy speckles is behind the title for some reason. The tagline is split between the top and bottom corners. But it's a movie with Justin Gordon-Levitt and possibly about time travel, so I'm excited. I came home and checked IMDB for more info.

The description of the movie sounds like it was inspired by La jetée, which is a French short film from 1962. I won't spoil the story for you because it's neat (both interesting and tidy), but I will say that La jetée is famous for being almost completely made from black and white still photos, strung together into a story with a voice-over narrative. It's so famous that if you've had any photography or film classes, you probably watched it. You might have heard of it in any college humanities class.*

Hollywood recycles ideas all the time.** It's fine that Looper might be inspired by La jetée. That doesn't bother me. But I wish when Hollywood reused ideas, it would look for something interesting but not well-known. I'm sure there are plenty of less popular short stories, novels, plays, legends—you name it—that have potential to be great films. Those would be great sources of inspiration.

But instead, Hollywood uses well-known ideas and my excitement for a new film sparks and immediately fades. Because I know the source material, I likely know the gist of the movie before it has a trailer. There's no fun in that.


* In college, I watched La jetée three times: First Year Seminar, Black and White Photography, and Introduction to Film Studies.

** La jetée has inspired an American film before, actually. Twelve Monkeys (1995) uses a lot of the same ideas. Bruce Willis starred in that movie. I'm sensing a pattern here.

Fringe Season 4: All of my posts in one place

As I'm waiting for the final season of Fringe, I'm reviewing the things I've written about season 4. I like making lists, so below are the links to:
- all of my season 4 reaction posts. These are my thoughts I wrote on Tumblr after watching each episode.
- season 4 posts on this blog
- an article I wrote for Hypable.com

Needless to say, each post has spoilers.

Reaction posts on Tumblr:
4.01: Neither Here Nor There
4.05: And Those We Left Behind
4.08: Back to Where You've Never Been
4.09: Enemy of My Enemy
4.12: Welcome to Westfield (and a second post)
4.13: A Better Human Being
4.14: The End of All Things
4.16: Nothing As It Seems
4.21 and 4.22: Brave New World: Parts 1 and 2 (a back and forth discussion between my friend and me)

Blog posts here:
Fringe Season 4—A Paradox? - Pre-season 4 speculation
Fixing the Future - A discussion of how time travel operates in Fringe, Back to the Future, Doctor Who, and The Terminator
An Open Letter to FOX
Are Fringe and Community Breaking the Fourth Wall? (spoilers for Brave New World: Parts 1 and 2 and the season 3 finale of Community)

On Hypable:
Fixing Fringe's Universe(s) - season 4 speculation (winter hiatus, between episodes 7 and 8)

How to recruit forum staff

As your forum grows, you'll need more people to help you maintain the site. You essentially have two options for recruiting forum staff.

1. Post a public application for members to apply
2. Privately invite members to join the staff

If you have a small community of dedicated members, then posting a public application will work fine. But if you have a large community or if you don't know the members very well, I suggest privately inviting members to join your staff. Otherwise, you'll waste time going through applications from unqualified members.

Then the question is, who do you invite? Watch for members who:

• actively post and contribute to discussions
• answer other members' questions
• welcome new members to the site
• suggest ways to improve the community

Members who already show an interest in your site and care about the community will continue to do that as part of the forum staff. You can teach people how to moderate forums and how to deal with rule violations. But you cannot teach them to care about your community, so look for that quality first.

Other qualities to consider as you're looking for candidates:

• Clear writing. The principle form of communication in online forums is text, so you want forum staff who can express themselves clearly in writing.
• Objectivity. Part of the fun of online forums is that you get to debate and discuss topics with people from all over the world. You want forum staff who can participate in conversations, but who can also remain objective and clear-headed when arguments heat up.
• Cooperation. Forum staff members have to work together to maintain the site and deal with problems that come up, either from members or technical issues.
• Integrity. Depending on the set up of your forums, you'll be giving a lot of authority and power to your staff members. Make sure they are people who will use their position responsibly and honestly.

Watch members in your forum and make a list of potential staff members. Your list should have a few names beyond the number of staff members you need to add, so that if someone declines your invitation, you have alternatives.

After you have identified the candidates, send each one a personal message. Tell them that you're looking for new staff members to help maintain the site and explain their responsibilities. Let them ask you any questions they have about joining the staff. After they've accepted, change their settings and assign their areas and duties.

Following these steps will help you build a dedicated forum staff whose first priority is the community on your site.

If you're interested in more blog posts about online forums, please check out the forums tag.

Telepathy is a good supervillain power

I wonder why more telepaths aren't villains. Think about it: he has the power to see what people actually think, what they keep inside their heads that no one can criticize or judge. He knows whenever someone lies to him or talks behind his back or takes advantage of people. He can't ignore any of it. He gets angry at the world for not being honest, and so he messes up things for the people who lie to get ahead.

And when he turns to a life of crime, his power will be a huge help. He can sense when police or superheroes are near. He knows what everyone in the room is thinking and can use that to his advantage. He might be able to manipulate their thoughts.

I did a quick Google search and found a few telepathic villains: Saturn Queen, Esper Lass, Mentallo, and Black Mamba.

That's all well and good, but I'd love to see a movie where telepathy is misused. Chronicle showed us the bad things that can happen when normal teenagers develop telekinesis. Do the same thing, but with telepathy.

Reading ebooks doesn't mean you have to give up printed books

Every now and then I see arguments on Tumblr about printed books and ebooks. The comments go both ways. Ebooks aren't "real" books. (You can't smell them, turn their pages, feel their weight in your hands.) Ebooks are better for the environment. Printed books don't need batteries. Somehow, the words you read on a screen are less genuine than words you read on paper. And on and on.

Reading an ebook is not the same experience as reading a printed book. That's true, but a book is a book. Who says reading ebooks means you have to stop reading printed books? And when people were able to buy books, did library patrons argue that you shouldn't own books? I wonder.

I've been thinking about the books I read and where I get them. Below is a list of the books I read this month, plus two that I'm currently reading. Next to each, I noted the format.

- Start a Freedom Business by Colin Wright (ebook, Kindle)
- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (ebook, Kindle)
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon (printed, purchased)
- Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman (printed, checked out of the library)
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss (printed, checked out of the library)
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (printed, purchased)
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (printed, purchased)

That's 2 ebooks (on the Kindle) and 5 printed books (two from Barnes and Noble, one from a used book sale, and two from the library). Guess what? I enjoyed them all. It's possible to buy printed books as well as ebooks, and still use the local public library.

We shouldn't criticize people for reading. So many people don't read for fun. They think of reading as assignments they hated in school and not something you can possibly enjoy in your free time. That's the tragedy—not that someone reads screens instead of printed pages.

Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation

I watched Terminator Salvation for the first time a few days ago, and my favorite part of it is Kyle Reese.

He's only a teenager in the movie, but the actor (Anton Yelchin) captured the personality and spirit of Kyle Reese in the original Terminator movie. He's resourceful, resilient, compassionate, loyal, and hopeful.

The way he takes care of Star and his instant concern for John's safety mirror how Kyle protected Sarah Connor. He's easily the most relatable character in the movie because he's in the war's crossfire and doing his best to stay alive. But he's not bitter or angry about his situation. He just focuses on survival.

Constellation Prize

When I was in elementary school, we had carnivals twice a year, one in the fall and one in the spring. Family nights, basically, where we went to the school for a few hours and played games, ate hot dogs and cotton candy, and entered raffles. Everything was in the gym and on the playground.

One year, the prizes were themed after the solar system. There were posters, freeze dried ice cream (remember that?), key chains…things like that. If you won, you got one of those "good" prizes. If you played a game and lost, though, you still got a few glow-in-the-dark stars (the kind you can stick on your ceiling).

Those stars were at every game, so I played and lost a few times, and still had all these plastic stars and planets.

I heard one of the teachers explain the prizes to a parent. I thought I heard her say the stars were the "constellation prize," and it made sense to me. Of course, I could take these stars home and stick them to my ceiling in formation. I could make the Big Dipper and Orion. That was pretty cool.

It was a few years until I realized the prize you get even when you don't win is the consolation prize. Misunderstandings like this have happened to me before then and since (more on that some other time), and "constellation prize" is one of the better outcomes.

Stiles is not a sidekick in Teen Wolf

Even though he's set up to be just the sidekick. Take a look at the core group of characters on Teen Wolf:

Scott - the teen wolf
Stiles - Scott's best friend
Allison - Scott's girlfriend whose family hunts werewolves
Derek - another werewolf/mentor figure for Scott

Out of these four characters, Stiles is the normal one. He doesn't have superhuman abilities and people in his family do not lead double lives. Stiles is intelligent, socially awkward, and loyal. He could easily fall into a sidekick role. where he's just around to help Scott.

Stiles could be a minor, underdeveloped character, but instead he's often the one to figure out what's going on. Stiles solves problems that come up. He investigates on his own, and he calls the shots. Instead of following Scott, Stiles is equals with him.

It's good to see a show with supernatural elements that can ground itself with an ordinary, competent character.

Beyond Hollywood Films

I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tonight and enjoyed it, so I went to its IMDB page to check out discussions about the film. I know that comments on IMDB tend to be negative. But even so, I was surprised to see entire discussions that said the movie was overrated, poorly made, slow and boring, and that the plot was hard to follow.

People are free to dislike movies of course, but I can't help thinking that these comments are coming from people who primarily watch Hollywood blockbusters (and in doing so, have a narrow view of what makes a good movie).

The complaints I saw weren't so much about the content of the film as they were about the way it was made. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not a typical American-made spy movie. The explanation for this is simple—the movie wasn't made in America. The actors and writers are British. The director is Swedish. They filmed in England, Hungary, and Turkey.

If the film was poorly made, it would not have received nominations and won several awards. What people see in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a kind of film they are not used to seeing, and that puts them off.

Even if I didn't know anything about the movie, I could tell within the first few minutes that this wasn't made in Hollywood. The opening scenes are slow and feel sparse. I had to pay close attention because the characters speak in hushed and sometimes mumbled voices, time passes without clear indications (until you realize what's happening and are prepared for the jumps), and sometimes very little action is happening on camera. These things don't make the film bad. They make it different from what I'm used to seeing (and from what most Americans are used to seeing).

So if I'm used to Hollywood films, why don't I have these complaints about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? I did think it was slow and I had trouble following parts of it, but these things didn't take away from my enjoyment of the film. The reason is, I've seen a bunch of films that are outside of Hollywood's typical style. I've learned to appreciate different kinds of film making.

I used to think that in order to appreciate foreign films, independent films, and older films, people should take a film class or at least read a few books on film criticism. (College film classes are what got me into a wider variety of films.)

But I don't think that anymore. All you really need is an enthusiasm for movies and a willingness to watch different kinds of things. Twenty years ago, people had access to a lot of movies at the local video rental store, but now with Netflix and the internet, we have access to even more. If you're  watching only Hollywood blockbusters, you're missing out on other styles of film and other ways of thinking about movies.

Watch movies made in other countries. Watch films made by young directors, by women, by people who live outside the U.S., by people with tiny budgets. I'll keep doing that too. Then maybe the next time a movie lacks explosions and quotable one-liners, we'll be able to find something else about it that we liked.

Are Fringe and Community breaking the fourth wall?

This is how Wikipedia defines the "fourth wall":

The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. [...] Speaking directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience through the camera in a film or television program, or through this imaginary wall in a play, is referred to as "breaking the fourth wall" and is considered a technique of metafiction, as it deconstructs the boundaries normally set up by works of fiction. [source]

I noticed something related, but slightly different, going on in the Fringe and Community finales. Spoilers for both after the cut.

Why the Hulk works in The Avengers

The hints of Bruce Banner's struggle to accept that he is the Hulk make his character compelling but his focus on the team—rather than himself—makes him watchable. Bruce doesn't talk about himself  much in the movie, but when he does, he sets up an interesting contrast in his identities as Bruce and the Hulk.

Spoilers after the cut.

Top Superhero Posts

Here's a list of the top superhero posts on Digital Fare. If you're new to this blog and like superheroes, this is an easy way to dip back in the archives.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Concept of the Mask

Why the Hulk works in The Avengers

Does everything a spider can - a look at the excellent storytelling in Spider-Man, the animated series that was on FOX from 1994 to 1997

Clark Kent is not a Commentary on the Human Race - why Clark Kent's geeky side doesn't mean that's how he thinks normal people are

Superman movie: Reboot or Sequel? - what I want from the next Superman movie

Marvel and DC Movies - differences between the Mavel and DC movie franchises

11 Ways to Improve Your Online Forums

Low activity, growing pains, inactive staff...these are all problems that online forums face. Here are a few tips to improve your members' experience on your site. Everything here is based on my experience as an administrator in the Supernatural.tv Forums. 

1. Welcome new members. People want to join active communities. They want your forums to be worth their time. The least you can do is say hi after they sign up.

2. Add more content. Start discussions. Contribute to current topics. Keep the conversations going.

3. Clean up your policies. Update your rules and revise them as necessary. Be sure they are clear and concise.

4. Buckle down on the rule breakers. It's one thing to give second chances. Another to let a member break the rules over and over. Ban members who don't respect your forum policies. Otherwise, they'll keep disrupting your community.

5. Promote your site. Use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs to attract new members. Be smart about it—promote in relevant places and do not spam. The more ways you reach out to people, the more people can interact with you and discover your site.

6. Redesign the site. Or at least freshen up the banner at the top.

7. Reorganize. How can you improve the navigation of your forums? Do you  need to add new sections? Clear out old, dead discussion topics—either delete them or move them to an archive section.

8. Encourage the staff to interact with members. Your staff should talk to members—not be aloof.

9. Add or replace mods. If some of your staff members have become inactive, replace them. If your membership has grown, maybe you need to add moderators to your staff. Different people on your team gives your site a different kind of energy. Be sure the staff members are passionate and have the same goals as you do for the forums.

10. Plan activities or incentives to keep people interested in your forum. Fan of the month. A competition or a contest. Special areas for long-time members. Think about what's relevant for your community and what will encourage people to stick around, and then do it.

11. Ask for feedback. Your members may suggest something you haven't thought about. You won't know what they're thinking unless you ask.

Why does everyone trust the telepath?

A few days ago I finished reading After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn, which is a novel about the daughter of Commerce City's prime heroes. She doesn't have any superhuman powers. She's a forensic accountant, but she's not the point of this post.

One of the superheroes is Arthur Mentis. He's a telepath—your basic mind reader and lie detector. I like his character (he might be my favorite), but one thing bugs me: People automatically trust him. No one questions him. Everyone assumes Arthur tells the truth.

He can tell if people are telling the truth. That doesn't mean he has to be honest all the time.

I want to believe he's completely a good guy but he makes me think of the Salem witch trials.

Arthur Mentis has the same power as those girls who accused people of witchcraft. He can see if people are telling the truth. What's stopping him from lying about what he sees? This bugs me because this novel does a good job of seeing superheroes as people first, and vigilantes second. Most people think the heroes are great, but under the masks, these heroes have flaws. But the author hasn't addressed this undeserved trust of the telepath.

Size Semantics

I'm annoyed with coffee shops—any place that serves beverages, really—that have Medium and Large as their drink sizes but no Small.

Having a Medium size implies a larger and a smaller size. Medium falls between two extremes. When Medium is the smaller size out of two sizes, it is properly called Small. Small and Large. Medium and Large does not make sense.

I know there's more to this than semantics. Especially in the U.S., we have distorted portion sizes. We don't know what's appropriate and in some cases, a Small is not big enough for the stereotypical American appetite. Cafés drop the Small size. Then Medium becomes the new Small but does not change size or name. The incorrect term sticks.

If we can't have a logical system for Small, Medium, and Large drinks, we should use liquid measurements. Small becomes 8 ounces, Mediums becomes 12 ounces, and Large becomes 16 ounces. (Or 12, 16, and 20, if you want to scale the sizes a little larger.) Order by the measurement, and you always know how much coffee you're getting. Simple.

Years of Experience

My biggest frustration in job hunting right now is that companies are down-sizing and/or laying off employees with years of experience and then those people are getting entry level and junior positions at other companies. Obviously those people have to work and it's a shame they have to take pay-cuts. Obviously, hiring managers are making safe decisions by hiring people with five, ten, fifteen years of experience. I'm not frustrated with the people, but this situation stinks for me, the recent college grad.

I applied for a junior writing position at a small local organization. I submitted strong writing samples. I outlined my relevant experience in a cover letter.

Today I received an email from the hiring manager that I'm not moving forward as a candidate because she needs someone with years of full-time writing experience. I don't have that and other applicants do. Fair enough.

Or is it? True, I don't have years of paid writing experience on my resume. How can I? I graduated from college in May 2011. I wasn't on a time clock, but I did write every day, research, and put together presentations in English and in Spanish for four years of college. I learned to be flexible, work in groups, and adapt to whatever guidelines I had to meet.

I know that my B.A. program was heavy on writing and that may not be the case at other colleges and universities, but why is my college experience overlooked when I'm applying for full-time work?

I don't know what page I'm on

When I read a paperback book, I like knowing how many pages I've read and how many I have left. I thought that one of the things about ebooks that would bother me is the lack of page numbers, but that isn't the case.

I've been reading a lot on my Kindle lately, and none of the short stories, non-fiction books, or novels I've read have page numbers that correspond to their physical counterparts. I don't think locations are useful, so the only thing I pay attention to is percent complete, that little number in the bottom right hand corner. I know that I'm 43% done with Neverwhere, and that suits me fine.

I realize this is a lot like using a bookmark to keep my place and then looking at how the bookmark separates what I've read from what I have left to read. I can see if I'm about a quarter of the way, half way in, or more. Percentage does the same thing, just more specifically.

I don't have to cite pages or discuss passages with other people, so not having page numbers isn't an issue. I'm surprised, though, that I don't miss page numbers that much. This would be a bigger deal if I was reading as an assignment.

Evernote for job searching

One of the ways I use Evernote is to organize my job search.

I dedicate one notebook to track jobs I'm interested in. The first note is Applications In, where I keep a table of the jobs I have applied to, when I follow up, and any additional notes. The top row looks like this:

I keep a list of sites and job search engines on a second note. That way when I'm looking for jobs online, I can simply go down the list to do a thorough search.

The third note has keywords I use. I'm looking for a position in marketing, public relations, or writing, so my keywords include those words as well as "communications specialist," "marketing assistant," "social media," and "media relations." Hiring managers use various job titles and descriptions, so searching several related keywords gives me more relevant leads.

The fourth note has notes about my portfolio: pieces I should edit, pieces that are tailored to a specific job, and notes about presentation.

Using Evernote this way helps me search for jobs efficiently.

Point of View in A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

One of the things I like most in A Game of Thrones is how George R.R. Martin uses point of view. He moves the story so that we see it from Eddard's eyes, then move on to Bran, to Jon, Sansa, Catelyn, and so on.

Switching points of view works so well because these characters' stories interlock, and this also creates tension within the story. We see all the points of view, so sometimes the tension comes from waiting to see what happens when a character finds out something we saw in an earlier chapter. At other times tension comes from leaving one character at a critical moment and not seeing her point of view again for 50 pages or more.

With seeing all the parts of the larger story, surprises might lose their impact, but that's not the case. Many times in the book, we find out something at the same moment as a character. Even when we know about an event before it reaches across the kingdom, it's still exciting to see what happens.

Constellation Prize 2

I uploaded a new music program. Nostalgia seems to be running through these songs.

Constellation Prize 2 - March 29 2012 by Digitalfare on Mixcloud

Discovering Music on Mixcloud

Two weeks ago, Alex Day wrote about the future of radio. He ended up on a site called Mixcloud where you can upload your own mixes, radio programs, and podcasts for free. Probably the best part is, Mixcloud pays royalties to artists and so you can use copyrighted songs as long as you tag and label them properly.

I've always wanted to try being on the radio, and Mixcloud is the next best thing. Better, I think, because you can play the music you want, you don't need to worry about licensing, and you don't need advertisements.

I uploaded my first program today. Eight songs with a little commentary in between tracks. For me, this is a step up from making playlists and it was fun to put together. You can listen to it below or directly on Mixcloud.

Constellation Prize 1 - March 21 2012 by Digitalfare on Mixcloud

Thank you - Treasury List on Etsy

I made a new treasury list on Etsy, Thank you. It's a collection of thank you cards, stickers, banners, and tags.

I like making treasury lists around one theme, and I try to include items that vary in color and style. In this collection, I also kept the price range to $20 or less.

Besides this list, I have made a few others. You can see them here.

Sidebar: A reverse reveal on Merlin

What if the writers are planning a reverse reveal? Merlin won't reveal his magic to Arthur. Instead, Arthur tells Merlin he's known for a while. Maybe this is why the reveal hasn't happened yet. We've seen Merlin have several close calls but really, Arthur has seen more examples of Merlin's power. Neither one has found the right moment to confront the other.

An open letter to FOX

Dear FOX, 

 

I’m writing this open letter to tell you that for the next three Fridays, I will be watching Grimm on NBC. I do this, however, with no ill intent. I am a firm supporter of genre television—it’s all I watch. Since Fringe is taking a break, I will watch another genre show in its place.

I might have continued watching FOX in March, but I see you scheduled Kitchen Nightmares specials for Friday nights. Dysfunctional restaurants do offer some drama, but they lack the imagination, surprises, and mind-blowing stories of Fringe. This replacement is not worth my time.

It’s a shame genre shows struggle with ratings and recognition, and so I’d rather spend an hour supporting Grimm, which is entertaining and finally finding its rhythm. The last few episodes have been great. I’m excited to see where Grimm goes in the coming weeks.

FOX, thank you for giving Fringe a home on your network. I wish more people watched this intelligent and well-written show, but I suspect most television viewers look for shallow distraction. Fringe is high above that caliber.

I will see you again on March 23. In the mean time, we part ways.

Best wishes,
Kali, a Fringiphile

12 Ways to Improve Your Forum Staff

As the forum administrator on the Supernatural.tv Forums I built the areas of the message board, invited members to become moderators, dealt with day-to-day arguments between members, solved technical problems, and planned contests, games, and challenges for the community.

Running a forum takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why as an administrator, you need a reliable, effective forum staff. Based on my experience, here is a list of twelve ways to help moderators take better care of your online community.

1. Have a staff-only area. If you can make a part of your forum private so that only staff members can access it, do it. If your forum software doesn’t allow for a private area, come up with an alternative (such as a separate staff forum or an email chain). You need to have a place where staff can discuss issues, plan forum activities, and keep track of who does what.

2. Keep each other in the loop. Moderators should communicate with each other often. A staff-only area makes this easy. When a moderator handles a problem, he should post about it in the staff forum. This way, everyone will be aware of what’s going on and moderators won’t double up on the same problem. Keep track of troublesome members and repeat issues. A staff-only area is also the perfect place to plan activities for your forum and bounce around ideas.

3. Write guidelines for your staff. Outline their responsibilities. Explain the steps they need to take when someone violates a forum rule. List your expectations for how your staff should treat each other.

4. Write up case studies. Give your staff examples of how to handle different types of situations. For example, when two members have a huge argument and it blows up to involve a whole group of angry members, how should moderators step in? What should they say? What did and didn’t work in the past?

5. Make sure your staff knows that the rules apply to everyone. Staff members should follow the forum rules just like regular members. If a moderator violates a rule, he must face the same consequences as a regular member would. Don’t play favorites with your staff and don’t excuse inappropriate behavior.

6. Resolve differences among your staff. Sometimes staff members will disagree about how to handle an issue. As the administrator, it’s up to you to resolve those differences. Don’t take sides, but instead figure out the solution that is best for the community.

7. Demote inactive moderators. Moderators should be regular visitors who have an interest in reading discussions and talking with members. If you have a moderator on the staff who doesn’t visit your site anymore, you should demote her to a regular member. Otherwise, you and your members might think an area of the forum is covered when really no one is there.

8. Appoint new moderators as necessary. When you replace inactive moderators or when your community grows, you will need to add new staff members. Look for active members who are engaged in the community: people who start new discussions, welcome new members, follow the rules, and look for ways to improve the community.

9. Reassign areas and/or duties. Chances are, your staff members are volunteers. They want to enjoy working on your community. If you assign moderators to specific parts of the forum, make sure your moderators care about the discussions they oversee. If you have moderators in charge of running contests or other activities, make sure those moderators enjoy what they do. If moderators aren’t having fun, change up responsibilities so people can work on the parts of your community that they enjoy.

10. Utilize staff talents. Is one of your moderators good with Photoshop? Ask him to make a new banner for your forum when you need one. Is one of your moderators super friendly? Appoint her to welcome each new member to your community.

11. Listen to your staff. As a whole, your staff members cover more of the forum than you can, and they interact with more members than you do. Ask for input about what is and isn’t working in your community. Moderators will be happy to voice their opinions, and you’ll be better equipped to make positive changes.

12. Lead by example. Members look up to moderators, and moderators look up to the administrator. Each time you handle an issue, talk to a disruptive member, or plan a forum activity, your moderators will be paying attention. What you do on the forum should be a good example of what you want your moderators to do.

These tips and techniques should help your forum staff be more effective as a team and take better care of your community.

Sidebar: The Spider-Man movie no one will make

I want to see a Spider-Man movie that focuses on Peter Parker. He's in college trying to juggle his course work with freelance photography. He makes friends, upsets girlfriends, eats dinner with Aunt May every Sunday, and manages to pick up a research grant his junior year.

Peter Parker as Spider-Man is in the backdrop of all this. Spider-Man is the focus of Peter's work for The Bugle. Spider-Man is the way Peter travels across the city. Spider-Man stops the mugging Peter would have witnessed.

I love that superheroes movies are still trendy ten years after the first Spider-Man movie came out, but I'd like to see a story that focuses on the human side of the superhero.

On Hypable: Why I Keep Watching Grimm

I wrote a piece about why Grimm still interests me, and Hypable featured it today. You can read it here.

Pinterest: First Impressions

With all the buzz around Pinterest, I wanted to check it out and see why some people are saying Pinterset is going to stick around. Here are my first impressions of the latest site to break into the top ten social networks.

Pinterest is still in open-beta, so I asked for an invite to join. Three days later, I received a link in my email. At the moment, you need a Twitter or Facebook account in order to join Pinterest. I understand this helps reduce spam accounts and makes finding your friends easier. That's all well and good, but I'd rather have an account that stands on its own and doesn't depend on another site.

After registering, a page with pins (essentially images) loads and you click on what interests you. Pinterest uses your choices to generate people for you to follow. I like that Pinterest embraces new users by connecting them to people on the site, but I wish the suggestions for people to follow stayed suggestions. Pinterest automatically subscribed me to a dozen people based on my few clicks. I would rather see the suggestions and then choose if I want to subscribe to people. One image that I liked doesn't necessarily mean I will like the rest of the content that person posts. I ended up going through each profile of the people Pinterest gave me to follow and unfollowed them. Then I browsed pins by category and found people that I actually wanted to subscribe to.

I've seen taste preferences done better on Etsy. When you join Etsy, the site asks you to choose items that you like from a random selection on the page. Based on your choices, Etsy will suggest other items you might like. Suggested content based on previously-chosen content. Pinterest, though, suggests people to follow based on your content choices. Pinterest's suggestions can't match your preferences as well as Etsy's can.

On the positive side, I've seen more activity on the content I posted compared to a new account on other social networks. But that's not enough to make me check in often. It might be because I'm new and still poking around, but I've been going on Pinterest about once a day. Compare that to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, where I check in multiple times each day. Pinterset doesn't have that much of my attention yet, but the coming months might change that.

If you'd like to see what I've done on Pinterest so far, here's a link to my profile.

Sherlock: Post Reichenbach Fall, Take 2

I re-watched The Reichenbach Fall again today. Moriarty said something to Sherlock that stuck out to me:

"That's your weakness. You always expect things to be clever."

What if that was a hint to us? Maybe the way Sherlock faked his death is simple and clear-cut. Clever enough to fool the snipers, but not complicated. No drugs. No muscle relaxants. No editing tricks.

After my previous post, Robinson (whoever you are), commented that Sherlock did jump off the roof, but into a padded laundry truck. I didn't notice the truck the first time because I was watching John, but the truck drives away from the body on the ground...presumably, the double's body. The double was already dead and bloodied to look like he fell from the roof, when really he fell from the truck. Molly is going to examine the corpse, so she can lie about the body's actual time of death. It fits.

Sherlock: Post Reichenbach Fall

It's been only a few hours since I've seen the Sherlock finale, but here's the theory I've pieced together. It isn't solid, but I think it's plausible. Spoilers after the cut.

Non-Spoilery Thoughts on The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I finished reading The Fault in Our Stars tonight, sooner than I thought, because of one quality John’s books all have. I want to keep listening to his characters.

His writing is transparent and simple. He captures teenagers’ conversations and interactions believably and yet while I’m reading, I have to stop and stare at the page every now and then because suddenly there’s a sentence that says “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” Sentences like those are beautiful, stand out against the rest of the narrative, and yet they feel completely natural. Totally organic to the story.

I’ve read John’s previous novels and while each deals with different themes, all of them dig deeper to show something about humanity. The Fault in Our Stars is no different.

Half of one of the bookshelves in my room is dedicated to the Books You Read In High School (Or Should Have Anyway). I’ve got The Great Gatsby up there. Catch-22 and Cather in the Rye. Some Vonnegut, some Hemingway. John’s novels are there too because they belong with thoughtful literature.

Done with Kill Arthur plots

Or, The Futility of Lethally Endangering the Protagonist in his Origin Story

*Spoilers for season 4 of Merlin*

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Besides not having a magic reveal, my major disappointment in season 4 was the repetitive plot of someone trying to kill Arthur. We could have seen more diverse stories than the villain of the week with a plan to kill the King.

After one or two episodes where Arthur might have died, it’s silly to keep writing that sort of plot. The audience knows that Arthur can’t die because he hasn’t become the Once and Future King yet. Arthur, Merlin, and (probably) Gwen are safe in every episode.

We know they can’t die, so we know that they’ll make it through any trouble that comes up. It’s interesting to see the characters react to fatal situations, but the threat of danger does nothing for the audience. After we’ve seen what characters do when their friends are hurt, we’re done with that story and that development. There isn’t any more to cover there.

This is the difficulty in origin stories: you can’t do any permanent damage to the protagonist. You have to find a way to develop characters without putting them in danger all the time.