I need a Time Turner…

I have been busy.  I am kicking school’s butt (3.9-ish GPA as of the midterm)–instead of the other way around–but it’s been keeping me away from the internet and my laptop in general.  Unless I need to write a paper, of course.  A Time Turner would be so great, if such a thing existed.

I was absent from my posting duties last week, and it makes me feel incredibly guilty.  I guess that’s why I am writing this short musing piece.  A nice way to alleviate any guilt I hold, I suppose.

We are reading Anthem by Ayn Rand for my English class, so I am glad to say I will have something to write about when I finish.  This is my first foray into Ayn Rand’s works, and I am enjoying it completely.  I am trying to follow the assignment schedule, and read the chapters as they are assigned.  I am not sure I will be able to stick with that.

I plan on taking part of the Japanese Film Blogathon over at Wild Grounds.  I am contemplating which movie(s) to watch, and I am pretty sure Kikujiro will be the first.  I will post a link somewhere, when I get started so you can see what I think of it.

NaNoWriMo is here!

So it’s November, which officially means it’s National Novel Writing Month! The generally accepted practice is that you dedicate the month to writing a work consisting of no less than 50,000 words. While it sounds like a lot, it is definitely possible to accomplish if you’re actually willing to put in the effort involved. Still daunted? Well, I’ve done my best to assemble a few resources that will be helpful to any writer interested in participating in NaNoWriMo. Here they are:

NaNoWriMo: This is the official site to sign up and participate in NaNoWriMo. Jump in!

Scrivener: A seriously kick-ass program for writers, and generally considered the best out there. I personally just started using it and I’m falling in love with the chapter note insert options, as I tend to have a lot of rambling thoughts I like to jot down that don’t immediately fit as I write. It really helps scrambled-brained as well as the well organized (I fall somewhere in-between). Scrivener has a free 30-day trial for Macs and is about $45 for the paid version. Personally, I think it’s worth it. There is a Windows version now available, but it’s still in beta testing, and expires at the end of the year.

PageFour: Pretty similar to Scrivener, as it helps making organizing your story elements waaay easier. If you’re using Windows, this is your lover. Embrace him/her now.

And please, try to remember that the point is not to write a perfect story. It is more to just to put aside excuses and write something. No writing is ever wasted; I always compare it to a good workout at the the gym. Don’t spend too much time debating whether or not you’re going to do it, because the month is ticking away! We can always improve as writers, and there’s no time like the present, right?

Stay tuned, as I will be posting PS new feature column this week… as soon as I stop fussing over it.

Sometimes I Pretend this is Happening on the Way to Work

Found via Joystiq comes a short film that should delight the hearts of gamers everywhere. What would happen if the end of the world was brought on by 8-bit games? What if everything they touched turned to pixels? Well if you watch the amazingly done video below you will find out. I’ve already watched it a couple times this morning. Then I went and watched all of One More Production‘s works and even if they aren’t in English are entertaining and skillfully done. Having been studying special effects myself recently, I can appreciate the large amount of work that must have gone into this. So kudos Patrick Jean! You ser have brought joy to teh internets today.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Discover more animation and arts videos.

This Is What Korea Needs More Of

As I’ve stated here before my main area of study is Korean film history and culture. I have an entire bookshelf filled to the brim with Korean DVDs and have studied in Korea. Recently however I have been slightly disappointed with the output of the Korean film industry. While there have been some great films, on the whole Korea has fallen into a creative slump producing cookie cutter melodramas, sequels to films that don’t really need sequels, and rather tepid blockbuster films. The other night over drinks with a fellow Korean film scholar/fan we got to discussing the state of the Korean film industry and what we think could help fix it. I stated rather bluntly that what Korea needs more of is independently minded directors who just want to make films. In a sense Korea has become stagnant because it has become complacent in its success (it is only the second country after India to retake the domestic box office from Hollywood) and like Hollywood has become adverse to the experimentation that makes interesting national films. … Continue Reading

Muppets are still awesome

Happy Easter weekend everyone! Its Friday and I have 45 minutes to get ready for work but first I came across this awesome muppets youtube video. I love that they’ve been releasing these viral videos online and targeting the kids that grew up watching them (us) in a way that will get us interested again (teh internets). So its Friday and I have to go eat and take a shower so I’m cutting this short. This video is fairly amazing. Enjoy.

OMG!!1!!111 Blizzard announces awesomeness.

April first has always been a big day for Blizzard Entertainment. They make it a point to make huge announcements on this day, like last year when they announced World of Warcraft game coming to consoles in the form of Molten Core, a game built exclusively for the Atari 2600. Anyone can see, with the concept art matching the screen shots so amazingly, that this was going to be a great game.

Well, they’ve outdone themselves again this year, announcing a new equipment rank system for WoW players and two mobile games that are sure to be hits.

… Continue Reading

I Like How The Snake Has The Breach

Here at Paper Spaceships we have a ton of friends. One of our favorites is Suzie Townsend who is not only an awesome person she is also a blogger over at Confessions of a Wandering Heart as well as being a world class literary agent over at FinePrint Literary Management (she also has cute dogs too). Her and the equally awesome Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of  Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation have unleashed upon the world a hilarious look into a day in the life of a lit agent. I never knew it could be so cutthroat. Also some of these moves are straight out of the WWE and the Bourne movies.

Go over there and show your support (and join in the April Fools fun~!)

This Is Why We Do This

Sometimes I need a reminder why we do what we do. We all have other jobs, some of us work insane hours, others have more than one and some of us go to school. Yet everyday we get up and type out our thoughts to the ether. As much as we are a science fiction and genre blog, we are also science fiction. We are the between generation, raised between the old and the new. In the short course of our lives we have seen technology exponentially expand and grow more powerful. Things that our parents and grandparents thought of as impossible are now possible with a few clicks of the mouse. I have friends from all over the world and we don’t send letters or even emails, no we keep up with each other through facebook and twitter. Blogs and network sites. Our younger cousins and the kids today are growing up in the future. They are a generation raised in a time when skills we learned in school are long past obsolete. A generation where facebook and wikipedia are normal and aren’t even worth thinking about because duh, its just there and its been there forever. Granted with this technology the technological divide between classes becomes more apparent. You need money to access information, and in many ways information is the new currency. Social status is more important in some ways than how much money is in your bank account, yet they also seem to grow together. The more followers you have on your blog the more advertising revenue you get and the more writers you can hire (or finally pay).

We are a generation who watched WarGames and thought wow that is a crazy computer, now our cell phones are more powerful than WOPR. Obviously I’m a technological optimist, and every once in a while I stumble on infodump videos that make me marvel at the world around us. Today I want to share this one with you. Its from the Socialnomics crew.

Also this one from the awesome guys from XPLANE:

BSG: Sabotage

You’re Welcome.

GODZILLA HAIKU

Found via the interesting io9 I discovered my favorite tumblr blog ever. GODZILLA HAIKU. Now for those of you who don’t know I have a rather large soft spot in my heart for the giant green one, and this site launched cupids arrow right into it. So if you like kaiju like I do (see what I did there?) go now. But first a taste of what you’ll get:

If you don't understand why this is full of win we can't be friends.