Divergent

Hey kids.  Did you like The Hunger Games but felt it needed less action, fewer love triangles, more religion, more sexism, more inception, and 100 more pages of un-realized plot potential?  Then you’re going to love Divergent!

On Character Flaws

Hey folks!  I didn’t get a post out last Sunday because I was too busy finishing my first and very rough draft of my novel.  Hooray!  But I still wanted to post something for this week.  So I figured I’d share with you something I learned from the very early phases of my writing process.  Something that was very difficult to learn because so much advice I read actually pushed me away from the realization.

Things Zaq and Company are no Longer Allowed to do in an RPG: 540-590

541: Not allowed to use explosive bombs while fighting onboard a wooden ship

542: Not allowed to take Favored Enemy: Party Member.

543: Not allowed to accidentally summon a hydra during an alchemy experiment

544: When accidentally summoning a hydra during an alchemy experiment, I am not allowed to shunt the blame onto an innocent bystander.

545: I have not been hired to assassinate another party member

About Teh Menz

So some crazy dude snapped and went on a violent rampage.  He shot and stabbed several people.  Four men were killed.  Two women were killed.  There were twice as many male deaths as female deaths.  And this incident sparked a ton of discussion about how horribly women have it in our society.  A discussion that exploded during the Memorial Day weekend.

Zaq is Baq!

Okay, I’ll admit it.  This blog basically died.  Some of that had to do with me working grad-school hours doing grad-school things, and some of it had to do with me trying to write a fantasy novel while working grad-school hours doing grad-school things.  But I think a lot of it had to do with me being less interested in fighting religion.  And that is because here in physics-grad-school-land, it’s the wildly religious who are in the minority.  So religion hasn’t been a big eyesore in my life these days, and that means I’ve lost some of my interest in fighting it.

Vacation

Hey guys, long time no post.  I've been tying up some loose ends in my research and have just started a vacation.  Expect another 2 to 3 weeks before the next post.

Conceptualize This

This is the first part of a series on concepts.  In this series, I will talk about the way in which people use and misuse concepts, as well as a few things you can do to help aid in the appropriate use of your concepts.  This series is ongoing (so stay tuned for more!)  To start, I’m going to outline what I mean by ‘concept’ and why it is we have them.