Month: May 2013

Literary tropes can be defined as ideas and metaphors that repeat over time. Much like memes, tropes are infectious and tend to create a standard. Watching the film The Watch last night and re-watching Star Trek: Into Darkness this afternoon helped me recognize some key sci-fi tropes that have defined the genre.

I spent the afternoon at the theater with The Maricopan. he hadn’t seen the new Star Trek movie, so I decided to take a second look. The film takes place early in the rebooted lore, after Starfleet has made contact with the Klingons but prior to hostilities between the two. I studied those interactions and thought long and hard about the games I’ve played and shows I watch. It seems there is a common trope there that includes war-driven alien races and insects that don’t know when to quit.

Ender’s game, Aliens, The Watch, Independence Day, Starcraft, Starship Troopers and many more all feature bug-like aliens bent on the destruction of mankind. These bugliens are a classic trope that reflect the inherent fear we have of colonization and infestation. Bugs are creatures we pick on, but what if the bugs not only outnumbered us (as they do) but were large enough to represent a significant threat?

The other threat is the war race. Not necessarily bug in origin, classic sci-fi and new alike feature a war-driven race. Star Trek has its Klingons, Mass Effect has its Krogan. All are the same concept–orcs or orclike creatures driven by competition.

These tropes are fresh in my mind as I design my fantasy novel. See, you need to know the past so that you do not repeat it.

Playing flag football this weekend one of the guys I play with quipped, ‘Soon they’re gonna call it the NFFL’. He figures the new rules point to a shift dictated by one person, the commissioner of the league. While I agree that the NFL changes do point towards a reduction of violence in a sport that dictates violence, I don’t think the change is about one person. The change is a weak gasp from an organization struggling to stay ahead of a shifting culture and not understanding how to do so.

Football is about violent collisions at high speeds, about the nimble players who can avoid those collisions, and the rugged players who survive them. Football is also about concussions and severe brain injury. The organization is working to keep players safe–or so they lead us to believe. While the suggested changes seem to lower the risk of head injury, there is nothing on the table to reduce the turf caused leg and knee injuries that ruin careers. I don’t mean to doubt their intent–clearly brain trauma is more damaging than a blown knee. I mean to suggest the effort is being forced by societal perceptions and perceived standards.

Football players are heroes in America. We don’t want to see our heroes degraded in the fashion of Muhammad Ali. We also don’t want the children who follow these heroes to place themselves in a situation where brain injury is a high likelihood.  Still, we don’t see this level of commitment to safety from Hockey (where fights are allowed to continue) and that could point to the leadership, as some suggest.

Ten minutes is not long enough to figure out what these societal cues are that are making the NFL need to be safer, but it is enough to notice that a safe game, at least in the way that is being suggested, is not football as I was raised to play. We can only wait and see what the game effects of the changes will be.

reflection of

Imagine for a moment you are a 17 yr old white girl walking home at night through your gated community. Suddenly there is a vehicle following you and the man in the vehicle is staring at you and whispering into his cell phone. You turn back and scream for the man to stop following you. He continues, so you get away from the road, moving into the grassy area between the houses. He gets out of his car and follows you. What happens next?

Change the variables of the story only slightly–make the white girl a black boy–and you have the story of Trayvon Martin. The victim, Martin did everything I suggested above, including leaving the scene. Did he call the cops? No. Did he run away? Yes, until chased. Cornered and alone Martin faced his attacker and wound up dead. That attacker called it a good shooting. That attacker claimed to be standing his ground, despite admitting he left his vehicle and pursued Martin on foot. Given the state of racial and gender politics in America, the attacker, Zimmerman, would have gotten the death penalty if he shot a white girl. He didn’t so for the longest time what he did wasn’t even a crime. Now it is a 2nd degree murder trial. Lets see how the media reacts.

About to embark on another summer semester. In essence that means my vacation is over until the 20th of July. No matter, I don’t seem to do well with free time on my hands anyhow. I don’t use the time for anything professionally constructive. No, I just sit around, eat chips, and play Minecraft. Having purpose is a big deal. While I don’t necessarily enjoy the non-stop responsibility, I realize that having it keeps me out of trouble.

I think as a parent I need to be thinking the same way. Those three Bengal cats I refer to as my children (or spawn) need structure and purpose less they result to random acts of violence and property destruction–my property of course. When I look around at the calmest people I know it is usually the ones who are working towards some high order goal. It may be the pursuit of a medal in the Spartan Race series, or the private quest for a satisfying body, or a husband, or a wife. It is the purpose that cements these few and puts them on the path to patient understanding.

I need to find that path quickly. Nobody wants to see me in jail for abandoning a screaming kid on the side of the road.

Each of us have different reasons that we put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. I write because It is the best way I have of expressing that one true story that lives deep in my bones. I tried everything else first. I tried to be an artist, but even my stick figures were unrecognizable. I tried singing with limited success, and I even thought that sports would be an excellent instrument through which to share my story. None of those have the resonance of writing and nothing in writing is as powerful as writing fiction.

I write to tell stories about the connection between thinking beings. I believe that a side effect of any society is that it creates barriers between people. Romeo and Juliet–heck even Twilight exist because of those barriers imposed on us. The same can be said of any story. Django is about the separation of people based on the qualities they are born with. The Great Gatsby, City of Bones, Divergent, and the Hunger Games are all identical in that respect. I suppose I write to illuminate those barriers in hopes that by recognizing those barriers, even metaphorically, we can make progress towards defeating them.

At a time where Obama choosing to shake hands with vs. salute a soldier is a real news story, I am starting to wonder if the end is nigh. Think about it. We’re at the point the Romans were before the fall, where gladiatorial combat, death and sex is all we talk about anymore. The people in power choose not to talk with each other, and the banks represent the real power structure in our country and beyond.

I think the biggest threat to the continuance of our society is the fact that nobody trusts each other anymore. We definitely don’t trust the media and the government. Why should we? We were clearly lied to about the Iraq war. We were also lied to repeatedly about 9/11. I believe those two instances further eroded the trust to the point where a discerning audience questions everything. In fact, the biggest new conspiracy theory I’ve encountered  is not about secret alien technology or multi-governmental pacts, but Sandy Hook Elementary. There is a groundswell of belief that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged. I’m one to believe that terrible things can happen, and when it happens to children I tend to question last and get angry first. This common habit is partially responsible for why the act imprinted itself on us so quickly. But how many of us stopped o consider if this was real?

Maybe the end is near and we should all be working on our post-apocalypse skills. Maybe I should learn how to change car batteries, tires, and all that stuff. I don’t know. If the end is really nigh, guys like me won’t make it too long anyway. Too tech dependent.

Just the other day Rex Ryan appeared to realize that his job is on the line. After watching Sanchez throw 3 picks in 11 passes (statistically similar to his normal turnover rate), Ryan said the # of turnovers was unacceptable. This is against a rookie DB on one side of the field. Sure, he has absolutely nobody to throw to and he is performing better (sort of) than Geno Smith (3-10 with a pick). The bottom line here is the Jets have no QB of worth and given the loss of Tebow, no weapons of any sort to put under center. Perhaps it is finally time the Jets crawl back into the closet of useless obscurity and let the G-Men shine, shine, shine.

Okay, 10 minutes to totally nerd out.

I am struggling with Redstone. A central part of Minecraft building, The low lying red rock represents ‘Craft’s form of electricity. As with all electricity, redstone is best applied in circuits to move and activate objects. I am using redstone to power hidden doors, and that is where my struggles begin.

Redstone circuits, like electric ones, have two basic states–on and off. The circuit I’m building is set to on as a default and I need to turn it off from in front of the circuit barrier and behind it. This is made difficult by the limited number of switch options employed by the game. I can use a button, a switch, or a pressure plate. The fourth option, called a Block Updater Switch, is not really an option for this particular endeavor.

So, I am presented with a challenge–be it a juvenile and largely meaningless one. Still, I am fully engaged in the challenge and will update you on my progress as the puzzle is slowly unraveled.

Some Thoughts:

1.  I’m not quite sure if Michael Strahan crossed over or sold out. The co-star of Live! with Kelly & Michael was once the cream of the NFL crop and a hero to thousands of inner city kids. Now he is the hero of middle-class white moms.
2. Mattress Firm is making particular use of the primacy effect in their ‘8 yr mistake’ commercial. By first establishing the 8 yr time frame, you are immediately persuaded that a mattress can only last 8 yrs. furthermore, you are persuaded that the purchase is an 8 yr commitment–much like American marriages.
3. You do something long enough you start to think you’re good enough at it–regardless of if you actually are good at it.
4. I want another shot at owning a business. The last business, djmalik.com, was a single proprietor operation that denied me the opportunity to manage staff. Staff would be a great challenge to experience in a non-acedemic setting.
5. Dear Overstock.com: ‘Saved thousands’ and ‘got me an engagement ring’ don’t really work in the same commercial let alone the same sentence. Please reconsider your marketing strategy.

I remember how I felt the first time I experienced how drugs can tear people apart. It was more than just  the destruction of a physical individual but the tearing down of morals, family, societal bonds and taboos. People are inherently animals. This I know now in a visceral way. We wear the heavy cloak of civility but beneath we are flesh, bone, desire, hate, and pure reptilian instinct.