Arleen Barros

I am not sure how it happened, but ever since I had AJ I seemed to have developed a black thumb.

Except my thumb, instead of killing innocent plants, targets and kills blogs.  In a span of three months, I demolished, quite accidently, three of my sites:  Gunloving, TMI and my old guild forums. 

Of course all the unintended destruction made me very nervous and in an effort to save the only site left standing, Saucy Wenches, I decided to back up the database.

That is all I did people.  Back it up.  Just like every freaking post and warning tells you. Back up your shit, yo and you are good.

Okay, I think, I will follow the uber advice of those much smarter than I and backed it up.

*Backs up database, smug in the knowledge she if finally do it the ‘right’ way.”

*Oh great, the database is backed up.*

*Let me refresh*

Only to see this shit:

WTF

I swear I felt like that raid leader in the Ony Wipe video, “How is that even remotely fucking possible!”  Indeed, my nerdrage friend, indeed how is it even possible!  I didn’t touch ANYTHING.  Why would it give me this damn error and how the hell could I fix it!

I am sorry to say I turned into a raging beast for a couple of days, swearing off the interwebs and anything dealing with WordPress.   I mean COME ON. The others I will take reasonability for their demise. I messed up and didn’t do things the ‘right way’.  But this time?  This time, no freaking way should this be happening!  Thus the disgust and mini-boycott.

Anyway, because I do want to save Saucy and continue to do the cast. I decided to take a shuttered breath and dive back into the interwebs for an answer.

And it seems the interwebs took pity on me, because I found it in less than 5 minutes!

Bless you, kentuckyclassrom for creating these video especially made for idiots just like me.  Bless you and may all it rain all the little tech gadgets you have ever wanted; because of your great step-by-step instructions, Saucy Wenches is back on the interwebs in is former glory.

Here are his two vids.  He also has a bunch of informative videos!

…just so I have an excuse to wear these:

Awesomeness doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

Below is my idea list. 

• Setting: cyberpunk/space opera. Theme:story-of-substance-addiction/things man-was-not-meant-to-know story
• Girl quits with easer board. (I know it was a hoax. Still cool What if?)  http://thechive.com/2010/08/10/girl-quits-her-job-on-dry-erase-board-emails-entire-office-33-photos/
• Old Fashion ghost story
• Erotica. Mind connection- mind blowing sex. Literally? Or a society like demolition man that they don’t have actual physical contact ant it is all mental.
• Geek love
• Creepy neighbor
• Miami
• Key West
• Tropical
• Contemporary
• Art
• Special
• Phone hacking

One caught my eye.   

Erotica.

Hmmm.

Initially I keep thinking of how cool I found  Demolition Man’s take on sex; a society where touching between a couple was discourage and regarding intercourse, almost illegal.  The idea of a mental connection or virtual connection to satisfy the need, really stuck with me. And then I realized when talking to Tami and Iris, I had never seriously written an erotica before.

This must be rectified !

Erotica is the poor red-headed stepchild often labeled as icky porn. However, I tend to disagree.  Really well done erotica is a romance with a extremely sexually undertone.  Of course it tends to have very explicit sex, which often  is *cough* inventive, but that is not all it is about.

For me, the connection between the characters and the exploration of their relationship in the emotional, spiritual and physical sense, is much more important than the physical act. 

Which brought me back to the erotica on my list.  How interesting would it be to write a story about a society where physical touching in an intimate situation was deemed unclean and severely looked down on.   How starved for a connection would these people be?  How would it drive them? Would it addict them? Would some go insane, or would they finally feel connected and not so alone? What would happen if you happened to have characters in this society breach this taboo? Forget actual intercourse, but how intense the mere touch of their bare hands feel? 

*Thinks of the scene*

*Fans herself*

Now that is sexy. 

We currently live in a society where sex and nudity is everywhere.  It is in the open and no longer suppressed, however there was a time when the slight flash of a woman’s ankle was enough to label her a scarlet woman and drive a punch of desire into the man’s gut.

Sometimes, my friends, less is definitely more.

And that is what I want to write about.  A group of people who have, because of  their past or their ancestors preferences, do not like to touch each other intimately. 

I did a cluster for the erotica.  It went to places I never expected. Here are are:

Plenty more work to do.

Now I need some characters. 

Madam Moore provided an list of her most useful posts, which includes the Nano series.

The lady is scary organized!

http://tamimoore.com/best/

Cats and dogs know how to survive.  So do some birds.  Come to close to them, or drive in a car and the noise often will have them racing to get out of the way.

Ducks, do not possess this self-preservation gene.

The Duck, much like my writing, thinks the world around them is not real and only the narrow space in front of their eyes exists.

Case in point, not too long ago, my mother and I were driving to the market.  She lives near a canal ; a canal often populated by large ducks.  Ducks, who saunters onto the street, trucking along without a care in the world.

Until my mother, going a tad too fast, ran one over.

This is how my writing experiences have been thus far.  I, like the duck, have just tried to take it one step at a time and walk forward, figuring at some point I would get to the other side of the street. 

Instead I continue to get hit by cars and trucks, because I am unwilling to look at the bigger picture.

This week, Tami asked if I would be participating in Nanowrimo this year.  My first instinct, after been run over last year, was to say no.  However, I had to stop and think about, why am I avoiding getting a story written?

Answer: because not finishing hurts.  Starting and never really being able to get to the other side, gets pretty damn exhausting and you wonder about your sanity and why the hell do you even bother.

And then ladies and gents is when you have to decide with to lay on the hot asphalt, a bloody, rotting mess, or if you are going get back up and learn to look around.

Now, instead of trying to rebuild my corpse alone.  I am going to share it here.  Every single step.  I have several ideas for a story. None of them are well-thought out.  All of them are single grains of a speck.  One of those specks will become my new Nano projects.  Others will be lost to the wind.

I am going to try new things, test out new methods, and all of this will be documented here.  Maybe you will benefit from my reconstruction, maybe you will skip these posts.  These posts will not be very detailed or provide fantastic insight to the creative process. There will be no How-To’s, since I am figuring it out myself. 

What we are talking about, isn’t how to write a story.  I know how to write one, I know what a story needs to work.  But I don’t know how to write my stories and how to get them to work for me. I am not talking about a magic pill or bullet, but finding the method which gets me going.

I am talking about getting dirty.

I am talking about crossing the street.

However, while I may be a mess, it doesn’t mean my dear friend Tami Moore is one.  She is the real deal, an author working on her craft and provides FANTASTIC advice throughout her journey.  If you are looking for a  PHENOMONAL series (one I am currently re-reading) on how to gear up for Nano, head over to Tami’s site.

Here is the list of her posts in sequence from beginning to present. Make sure to put her blog on your readers or bookmark, since the series isn’t over! 

Also, if you enjoy it, let her know! We need moar writery goodness!

• NaNo2010 > The Decision
• NaNo2010 > The List
• NaNo2010 > Trimming the List
• NaNo2010 > Worldbuilding 1
• NaNo2010 > Worldbuilding 2
• NaNo2010 > Characters 1
• NaNo2010 > Market Day
• NaNo2010 > Characters 2
• NaNo2010 > Daydreaming
• NaNo2010 > Hooky Bits
• NaNo2010 > Plotting Vocabulary
• NaNo2010 > Plot Scavenging
• NaNo2010 > The Bad Guys
• On Worldbuilding And Infodumps
• NaNo2010 > Preliminary Outline
• NaNo2010 > Everyone’s a Hero
• NaNo2010 > Character Roundup
• Outlining
• NaNo2010 > The Blockade
• NaNo2010 > Snowflake Spine

Several things going on at the moment, none of which are terribly witty or exciting from a blog standpoint, hence no real posts since last week.

However, I will not starve your readers. 

I present, the gratuitously cute baby picture! 

Try not to stare for more than a second, much like Medusa, he will turn you into a puddle of pink goo full of sparkles, when trampled upon emits a choirs of “awwwwwwwwww”s. 

You all have been warned.

Now that I have a daily hour long trip to pick up AJ from my grandmother’s house, I am in desperate need of new listening material.

Podcasts. What do you listen to?  Which ones are your favorites? 

Help a friend in need, and give me some of your recommendations.

Thanks in advance, an audio deprived blogger.

Amazing how quickly situations like these no longer phase you.

My phone rings.

“Hello?” I say, and hear my husband whisper from the other end, “The package is secure and silent.”

I laugh.

“Really now, is he asleep?” 

Luis chuckles and says, “I think so, but I will call if the status changes.”

Twenty minutes later

Ring, ring

I answer.

Horrible screeching sounding like several dogs and cats being tortured with hot pokers spilled out of the phone.

In the distant background I hear Luis cry out, “We have a breech! The package has exploded! I repeat we have a breech!”

“I will try to make sure we have containment when you arrive.” I say, flipping the page of the magazine, trying to finish the article I had been reading.

“Affirmative,” he yells over the screaming, then hangs up.

Guess it is time to make a bottle, I think, waiting for my boys to get home.

Speculative fiction at its core is all about questions?  Should man play god?  What is the soul?  What at the root of our essence?  What would happen if there was darkness when the world only knew daylight?  How does society react when its foundations is destroyed?

These are questions not limited to Sci-fi, after all they are questions tied to the human condition and the world around us.  We are constantly searching for answers and in Sci-fi the try to reason them out again the backdrop of technology and science.  Most of us have heard or seen of classics like Blade Runner, Star Wars, War of the World (the original), The Matrix, but there other films which have been able to bring the essence of speculative fiction to the screen without having the advantage of being well known. Each are personal favorites, while not none are prefect, they are still fantastic cinema fare.

This is my small contribution to better humanity.  Go watch these if you haven’t seen them.

Dark City (1998):  Fantastic plot, brimming to the edge of all sort of questions by the end of the film.  May I say I developed a bit of a crush on Rufus Sewell in this film?  John Murdoch awakes on night in a bathtub full of water and a mutated body of a prostitute in the other room.  He has no memory of the murder and nor any memory of his own identity.  He stumbles across some items in the room which seem to belong to him and he runs out into the world for answers.  I won’t say more, because it will spoil it.  Don’t read any reviews on this, don’t ask a pal, just pick this baby up, and get ready for a hell of a ride.

I will leave you with only one question, “Do you know the way to Shell Beach?”

Gattaca (1997): This movie shows the ‘What if” scenario of genetic manipulation towards “designer babies”.  Vincent is a great guy, smart, driven and wants to be an astronaut.  Only problem, he is a Non-Valid, or other wise known as a ‘natural’ baby.  In Vincent’s world only individuals who were generically manipulated to be ‘perfect’ or Valid are allowed to do the big jobs, like go to outer space.  This film, while can be a little dry at times, does have very relevant questions for today’s audience.  Should man be allowed to manipulate their own genes?  Does optimizing genes really make you better?  Is there more to man than just the sum of his genetic makeup?  Overall, this is an excellent and intelligent film.

Though I have to ask, “I need to run your DNA before we can go out on a date.”

Strange Days (1995): Set days before New Year’s 2000, this cyberpunk flick made me a fan of Ralph Fiennes for life.  Not even Maid in Manhattan  could make me change my mind.  He plays a lovable if even self-destructive drug dealer, Nero and through a series of events gets involved in some serious trouble.  The plot, the images of the LA that could of been, and the character and the questions regarding this degrading society are great.

Oh and there is Angela Bassent, ripped, mean and one hell of a woman.  I had a woman-crush just because of this film.

Equilibrium (2002): Before Batman Begins  Mr. Bale was in a little action Sci-fi film called Equilibrium.   Anyone who wasn’t sure he could pull off Batman when the casting was announced obliviously never saw this film.  The most action orientated of the four film listed, Equilibrium still delivers on plot and you really feel for Bale’s character as the film progresses, which is ironic, since the premise of the film centers of people not feeling.  See, seems like those pesky emotions are the root of all our ills and to rub them out, people in this society take a drug multiple times a day to stay on a even keel.  Bale’s character is a Cleric who’s job is make sure people aren’t feeling. 

The action is impressive, so impressive other films have tired to imitate (Ultraviolet I am looking at you) but haven’t been able to pull of as stylishly.  Enjoy the gun fights!

After you accidently destroy years of work in a matter of minutes, it is important to have friends. 

I have known Beer and his lovely wife a couple of years now, since they both joined my old guild on Bleeding Hollow.  Both are fantastic people and though I rarely play on Bleeding, Beer still sends me hellos every once and a while.  He latest email held a post written on his site.

A Good Friend Is Gone….

Not for real, but in the virtual world… gone. No the *person* isn’t gone, even from the virtual world, so I guess a bit of an explanation is in order.

Once upon a time (back before Wrath), Ponykeg and a bunch of other assorted alts were on another server. I was in a guild with some great people but the difference in time zones (I was eastern time, most of them were at least central – most pacific) meant there usually weren’t a lot of people online when I was. In the end, I got frustrated and considered leaving the game. Around this time, I was surfing the assorted WoW blogs that were out there. Big Red Kitty, Need More Rage, Big Bear Butt, WoW.com (Back then it was still WoW Insider), you get the point. That’s when it happened. I went to one of the other blogs I had found and had been reading. There was a new post, the writer’s guild was recruiting. They raided, but they were casual. Everything in what they said they wanted sounded like what I wanted. So I clicked on the link to the application and filled it out on the forums. I would have to start from scratch, no server transfer (I was Horde, they were Alliance. Faction change wasn’t around yet), but I applied. They approved, I had a new guild. And so the race to 80 was on.

A little bit later, the blog itself went quiet. It was still there though, and the author was doing well, maintaining the blog on top of everything else was just excessive. I can completely understand and appreciate that. Only so many hours in a day.

Yesterday I log into twitter though and I see a post (I refuse to call them tweets). Well, here’s the text:

I pressed the red button without meaning to yesterday and much like Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli, I spent most almost 24 hours trying to shift through the rubble.

This was in regards to a personal blog, but as soon as I read it I knew what it meant since it was on the wow blog’s domain. The wow blog was gone. Gun Loving Dwarf Chick had gone offline (It’s predecessorat Blogger lives on though, I checked).

So Breana, in case I never properly told you… Thanks for making WoW fun for me again. Thanks for bringing me into AUO, and thank you for introducing me to people like Krys, Fem, Rorik, Millie, and Fitz. Even though I’m a bit of a dwarf in hiding at the moment (I *can’t* show my face in Ironforge, I’m a dwarf with a crossbow for cryin’ out loud! They don’t *care* how nice it is, it isn’t a GUN! And I know you know that story.), I’m still having fun with the game.

See you on the blogs!
Signed:
Ponykeg,
Beermaker,
and the rest of the army of alts on Bleeding Hollow

No, thank you Beer for being exactly the type of person ( honest, sweet, friendly, easy going and sincere,) that I always enjoyed and grateful to call a friend.  You are awesome.

*Huge hugs*

Beside Ponykeg, Beer also has a funny site called Beerbarrel Productions (yes he brews his own) and has a great Five Thoughts For Friday series.  Check it out !  I also would nag him to write some posts on how to mircobrew your own stuff!