About halfway through the trip I felt a little overwhelmed from the data - there are so many things to see in Hawaii. I tried not to look like a tourist.

Yesterday was my 31st birthday, so I decided to take the day off (I have a tendency to work 7 days a week, and feel antsy if I am idle), and took the circle island bus from Honolulu to Kaneohe, up around to the North Shore, and then back down again. I stopped for an hour to take photos near Chinaman's Hat (an island you can wade to during low tide), and the whole thing took 6 hours! Mostly I was shivering on the bus since I had gotten my hiking sandals soaked in the ocean, along with the lower half of my jeans. I find it hard not to go into the ocean when I'm outside! And the water is much warmer on the eastern shore than where I am.

Anyway, I don't really celebrate my birthday because I think it is a totally arbitrary day, that has more to do with one's mother than oneself. I do like being a prime number old though! If 40 is the new 20, then I guess I'm fifteen and a half. Actually, I retook the RealAge test again, and I'm 27. Yay!

I was perusing my stats for my physics column, and found that I was linked to a course called The Nature of Science in Science Teaching, taught by Dr. Deborah Hanuscin at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Based on the course number, it looks like a graduate course, so I am deeply thrilled and honored. The specific article that is linked is my most controversial (and popular), Theory vs. Hypothesis vs. Law.

This one was a bear to write - it took me much longer than I expected - not so much writer's block as tracking down the different temperature ranges, and getting the length down to something reasonable while still having meaningful content (ooh, I hate the 400 word restriction - still blew the cap on this one though).

http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/types_of_stars

Here is what I entered in the Fox "On The Lot" contest (hopefully, still ironing out some technical wrinkles). "The Typist" has a page of its own here:

http://www.katharineosborne.com/art/film/typist.php

On a tip from my roommate Judy today (thanks Judy!), I found out that the Lost people were in Kapolei filming on location at the Honolulu Advertiser building. I went down to lookie-loo, but there wasn't much to see. It looked like they were filming outside the building (which is actually quite distinctive, so I wonder what it will end up being in the show). There were about 5 big "Star Waggons" in the nearby Home Depot parking lot (aka Base Camp), plus another smaller trailer, and a big equipment trailer. It actually seemed like quite a lot. Back in highschool, I once ditched class (the only time) to be on a feature film set, and there were only three trailers (that was really cool because the director let me stand behind him for a couple of hours, watching the monitors).

I can't believe I've only been on the island for a month (exactly today!) and I've already encountered a Lost set. I didn't take my camera because I thought it might be disrepectful, but there really wasn't much to see (filming is mostly standing around, I know from The Typist). It was really cool though.

In other news, I was asked this morning to review the book The Physics of the Buffyverse for my column, so I guess I am on some sort of Joss Whedon roll (see below)!

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting fantasy author Margaret Weis at the Kapolei Library. She was very down-to-Earth, and she was very inspiring (although I was rather jealous that she can make a living writing only 3 hours a day). I've never read any of her books, but I knew she was a big deal after I spent a year shelving dog-eared copies of her novels - people would buy her books in any condition. Few authors have that kind of addictive attraction and cult following - even Stephen King can't compare.

Margaret Weis is famous for co-creating the Dragonlance series with Tracy Hickman, based on Dungeons and Dragons originally at TSR (the librarian introducing her called it TRS - which prompted a few in the crowd to mumble "it's TSR!" nerds are into precision).

Weis started off by relating her story of how she and Hickman began the Dragonlance series. Dragonlance was invented by Hickman, based illegally off the Dungeons and Dragons game. Instead of suing him for copyright infringement, TSR hired him and started producing the Dragonlance module series, which quickly became nationally popular. At around the same time, Weis applied to TSR. She was living in Kansas City and recovering from a divorce - and she wanted to be out of town. TSR didn't hire her for the position she applied for, but when they needed someone to edit the new Dragonlance novels based on Hickman's modules, her resume was already in the pool and she got picked. She was poor at the time, but borrowed some money to move herself and her two kids north to TSR.

After the original author TSR hired couldn't write to the nature of Hickman's characters, he got dumped and Weis and Hickman took over for no pay. The first book was sold almost exclusively in gaming stores, since this was the first novel produced by TSR. It was an immediate hit there, but an awkward way to sell books. Eventually, Weis, posing first as a customer, and then as a bookstore employee, was able to cajole a major distributor into carrying the book. Shortly thereafter it became a bestseller! Weis continues to write a new novel about every 9 months.

There were also some other interesting tidbits she was kind enough to share. She now owns her own publishing company, and has produced a Serenity role-playing game (this produced a lot of "awws" from the impressed audience). Serenity was the movie based on Joss Whedon's short lived (all TV execs need to be fired) sci-fi series Firefly. I asked her if she was going to to a Firefly game (this was on everyone's mind), but she said no, Joss Whedon was keeping the reins tight on his baby (really, who could blame him), and there weren't going to be any Firefly novels beyond Serenity either. If you don't know why this is a big deal to the geek set, you need to rent the Firefly series on DVD, possibly the best sci-fi TV series yet created.

She did say that her company had started working on a Battlestar Galactica game, which is just a stunning announcement. The new BSG is a big deal because it treads the line between entertainment and veiled, spot-on social commentary. Pissed about global politics? Watch BSG for a catharsis. Plus the word "frak" is a great addition to anyone's vocabulary.

Anyway, back to Margaret Weis. I did get to ask her a couple of questions from the audience (there weren't many people there, and I felt bad, because she really is cool). I asked her what she thought of the recent slew of children's fantasy books (which I think are derivative). She thought it was great - anything that get's kids reading is positive. I'd have to agree with that.

After she spoke, she signed some books, and deigned to talk to people one on one. I was so nervous, I could hardly speak - reminding me of the time I met David Hewlett in LA and threw up later. I finally forced some words out, relating that 1) I was a writer, 2) I wanted to know the best way to break into published fiction, and 3) whether she thought writing short stories was worthwhile. This was all a mishmash of one meandering question, and she looked at me quizzically. I was just so nervous and my stomach was churning. I need to stop being so starstruck.

Anyway, she said that she thought that short stories were completely useless (yay! That was the painful conclusion that I had been in the process of reaching - she brought me to the finish line), and that unfortunately, you need an agent to get published but in order to get an agent, you need to be published. I think I might have an in with a literary agent (who also does non-fiction), but it's a screenwriting agent I really need now (Weis told me she stays away from Hollywood when she can help it). Ah well.

The whole experience was really cool, and the buzz lasted a couple more days and I finally found a structure I'm completely satisfied with for "This Matter Awake" my "android" story I'm writing as a screenplay. Now I just have to buckle down and belt it out. I also hooked up with members of the local branch of the Women's Writer's Guild, which might be very useful.

Anyway, here is a brief clip of Margaret Weis at the Kapolei Library.

I've updated my cafepress store with new merchandise, including an all new apparel section:

Labels: aloha, buy stuff, clothes, prints

I went to the famous North Shore today (which seems tiny), and took a lot of great photos. I wished I could have stopped along the way because central Oahu has so many different landscapes. Ah well, that'll be another day.

Labels: hawaii, north shore, oahu, ocean, sunset

Here is this week's article, a little late, but more on that later (lots happened this week - didn't get much chance to sleep let alone blog):

http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/beyond_the_big_bang

Other than that, really beginning to despise my current web service provider. There was a recent outage, and now that they're back up (thankfully I didn't lose any data this time), they've locked out secure shell (probably wise actually - but annoying for this linux geek), and ditched Webalizer, my favorite stats program. Llamacom may have been small, but it had much better uptime. I miss them. I'll keep my current websites with my current provider, but I'm looking elsewhere for my next endeavors.

These are some rather blurry pictures I took last Saturday at Ala Moana Beach Park (next to the Wakiki Yacht club, which is next to Wakiki beach.

I was looking at my stats for my physics column, and came across a referrer from Scroogle, a scraper that lets you search Google anonymously:

http://www.scroogle.org/


Pretty neat! Personally I don't think that Google's being too much of a big brother - but this is good if you are into searching for rather sensitive things and want your IP address masked. I think I remember something awhile back about the government subpeonaeing (sp?) the major search sites for their logs so they could seek out terrorists (and the odd bogeyman).

I've just posted a new article on the big bang:

http://astrophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_origin_of_the_universe

Sam has also recently posted a new article on coffee:

http://allergies.suite101.com/article.cfm/coffee_allergy_or_something_else

In other news, I was watching an episode of Magnum P.I. I haven't seen any since it first aired when I was a little kid - but it did have a big impact on me at the time. Much as when I saw "Raising Arizona" I decided to live in Arizona, when I saw Magnum P.I. I wanted to live in Hawaii. Now I've done both. I course, I still have a very long list of places I would like to live, but, all in good time.

Embedded here:




Not Feeling Well has it's own page here:
http://www.katharineosborne.com/art/film/nfw.php

My space bar on my laptop completely fritzed out - gone! Too much typing. It was really upsetting, but there is always a way around any obstacle. I figured out how to remap my keyboard and now the completely useless windows key is the new space bar. It's taken some getting used to - I can only reach it with my pinky and I never type with my pinkies (I learned to type years before I ever got dumped in a typing class so the home row tripe never stuck - I swear that's why people get carpal tunnel).

Anyway, my typing has slowed considerably. Remember the kid in the wheel chair from "Malcolm in the Middle"? He would talk in a slow staccato taking long breaths between words? That's how I type now. It's aggravating, but I really don't wan't to buy a keyboard to plug into my laptop. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a laptop. It does remind me of the mortality of the machine. I guess 5 years is pretty long.I can't believe I've had this computer for that long. I just need it to hold out a little longer. All my other computers are back in Arizona in storage. Sigh.

I've just posted new designs in every category. I've also started to read an article Sam sent me a while on getting a Cafepress store profitable within 30 days.

Go HERE: http://www.cafepress.com/enigmata

I might be very close to recapturing my old domain name. Squatter's be damned, I shall have my revenge! Muhahahahahaha!

Here are some images I took near Wainaie several days ago. Palm trees, ocean, mountains, lava rock, seaweed, that sort of thing.

Okay, I hunkered down and created a page just for "The Typist":

http://www.katharineosborne.com/art/film/typist.php

It has lots of goodies like the script, character sheets, pre-production stills, and production stills taken from the video footage. Check it out!

My next task is to reorganize my whole film section.

Also, I finally got around to writing a review for "A Dog's Breakfast" at IMDB:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0796314/usercomments-4

Thanks to my new mystery friend "m", I've been informed that Michael Lenic wasn't the director of photography for "A Dog's Breakfast" (that would be Jim Menard). Lenic also played the part of "Zero". This refers to this previous post: A Dog's Breakfast Part IV.

Not but one post ago I was bragging about my journalistic integrity, and I go an botch something as simple as that. Really, it was just a matter of a couple of clicks at IMDB. Jeez KO.

Anyway, this reminds me that I need to get my butt in gear with editing "The Typist" (plus I need to get a separate page up for it). I recently found out about a reality show contest called "On the Lot" created by Mark "Survivor" Burnett and Steven Spielberg (thanks Judy!). They're looking for the next great filmmaker. I've decided to enter "The Typist", but I have to get it down to a 4:15 minute edit. This actually makes my life easier editing it because I don't need to worry about as many foley bits (I didn't have time to capture background sound before I left Arizona - so some of the sounds might end up being Hawaiian). I doubt my chances are very good for getting into the show, but it's very little work for something that could turn out to be a great opportunity.

All of this feeds directly into "This Matter Awake". The more I write, the more excited I get. I really want to bring this project to fruition. Their aren't many female writer/director's out there, but I want to be one of them. As lame as "The Typist" is, it totally whet my appetite.

Here is the new article at suite101:

http://geophysics.suite101.com/article.cfm/geomagnetic_reversal

I almost made a huge gaffe with this one, calling it "pole shift". Bad Kathy, bad. Luckily I don't rely on my brain alone - I check anything that might be a bit spotty.

My favorite word, ramekin, is now sharing it's top spot with a new word - monkeypod, which is a type of tree here in Hawaii (I don't think it is indigenous though). Hawaii is an aural delight. Hawaiian pidgin has an interesting lilt to it. I was in Barnes and Noble recently and they have a translation of the bible into pidgin called "Da Jesus Book". I'm almost tempted to buy one - I think it might be one of the few books completely in pidgin. When I read the overleaf, I was tempted to write an online pidgen translator. It seems like merely a matter of swapping certain words since the grammar looks identical to "proper" English.