Mythbusters

Both my daughter and I have long been fans of Mythbusters. The show has carved an incredible niche for  itself by presenting both science and entertainment to the public.  There is far too much of the latter on TV today, and far too little of the former.

Add to this formula the hosts: they are all people I could see myself both having a conversation with and being entertained by. They have, in their way, made it cool to know something of science.

In particular I love that my daughter gets to watch Kari Byron, an attractive woman and mother, conducting experiments and taking the lead on projects the show takes on. I delight in my daughter's affection for this role model, as I am surrounded by strong women at home and at work, but just don't feel there are enough representations of women like The Coolness or the judge I work for or the lead clerk of my court on TV.

I try and find good examples for her to observe, but they seem hard come by. So it was fun to see this on GeekMom:

"Even though I will have to eat live bugs this season and possibly handle poop, I am not fazed. I still do exciting, daredevil, and wild things — but now I do them so that my little girl will know that a mommy can distinguish between a C4 and an ANFO explosion.

If I want my daughter to be an adventurous independent woman who doesn’t shy away from new experiences, I will have to be that woman too." -Kari Byron

Just you keep it up, Kari! My daughter is watching, as are any number of girls awaiting inspiration.

Where They Come From

My ideas flow forth in rivers, and sometimes my girl has to put a stop to them by plugging my ears with her finger.

She's fast, really fast.

This is the first time I caught her on film:

Not Much To Rant On, But A Bit To Talk About

Not much to rant on these last couple days, things have been relatively good.  Saturday started a bit rough, though.

93 Games Studio, the folks that first published my work, are closing their doors after a nine-year run of it.  The boss has had enough, and as another so clearly put it, "with the low margins and other headaches of today's RPG industry, if your heart ain't in it, it just isn't worth it." I am saddened by this news, as I hate for anyone to become fed up with things or face such difficulty that they cannot go on entertaining others with quality games.

Saturday was a loss for The Pink Pixies, the last game I will be able to coach for this year.  While it was a loss, the team played wonderfully, and Isabelle fired two goals in and had two assists.  They spread well and passed so very beautifully.   Where Isabelle truly shines is in her speed onto the ball.  She is incredibly fast, able to overtake offensive players even when starting from well behind.  Just awesome.

It has been very nice to spend lots of time with my girl, though now she is running a slight fever and feels a number of aches.  We spent Sunday watching Farscape and thoroughly enjoying it and one another.  She is starting to find the tropes and predict some of the plotting, which I find immensely cool.  I was never that into the mechanics of story when I was... Shit, I was never that into story until I sat down and started to try and really write my own stories.

I also, over the weekend, started writing another novel.  It is a sequel to The Last Captain, and the idea had been percolating in my head for some time.  So far it's flying out pretty fast, though I have no set title.  I even have some research to do for it, which is fun and different for me, who likes to annoy those of his friends with expertise in an area until they relent and give him their thoughts (Yes, David, I am talking about you, among others!)

Today was just me, Isabelle and Farscape, as Isabelle still isn't well.  I got a tiny bit of writing done.

I also, through the miracle of Twitter, attended Litchat.  I'm not normally able to devote my full attention to this chat, being at work.  Today's was not as interesting for me as others have been in the past, having read those I have read.  That being said, it was much better than some of the litchats I have attended, in that no one bashed a writer for gender-bias or failure to meet some tangential standard with little relation to their art.   Also, I was able to drop a few names in for some who were less familiar with the genre, which was nice (I do so love to corrupt the souls of the untainted:  Why, one didn't even know the definition of ichor!  So sad!)

Tonight, dinner with my agent, where I am sure some stratagems will be discussed for WFC (Read: Have a good time but keep your mouth shut about business, Griffin). He has also read and done an editing pass of The Last Captain, and I am hungry for his input.

Tomorrow I have to go into town for a brief while, but otherwise shall do as I did today; mellow, write, hang with my girls and prepare myself for the fun and intensity of the upcoming World Fantasy Convention.  I hope the flights will be uneventful or, if not uneventful, full of merely colorful characters to write about here.