It’s been a really long time since I reading something that I simultaneously didn’t want to put down, and didn’t want to finish. It’s the kind of novel that makes me want to stop reading and go write, and also the kind of novel that makes me despair of ever writing something so real.
The pile of 3D prints in my office keeps growing.
Remember when I said how excited I was to review Six of One? I just loved the premise, a time-traveling chicklit about the six wives of Henry VIII, and I could not wait to read it, but then… it turns out that I didn’t actually like the novel all that much.
The protagonist, Dolly, a Tudor history scholar, is about to marry six-times-divorced Harry. She’s on her hen night with her girl friends, female relations and all of the ex-wives, when she whacks her head and finds herself meeting the girl friends, female relations and wives of Henry VIII. Each woman has to tell Dolly a story about her life, and at the conclusion of the stories, Dolly will be back her real world, to apply her new knowledge to her regular life.
Dolly, spent a lot of time saying she was an academic and a scholar, while making weirdly childish rhymes. It was odd, even before the time-traveling bit.
Each of the six wives revealed a pretty shocking secret, and each time it made her historical arc more sympathetic. (Except for poor Jane Seymour, who was constantly, and hilariously, ten minutes behind the rest of the conversation.) Unfortunately, the secrets didn’t really work out into one narrative, there were way too many secret liaisons, dark secrets and witchcraft. I did like Anne of Cleves’ secret romance with Holbein, though. Actually, I’d probably have been interested in any one of these alternate histories as a standalone story, perhaps with less rhyming overall, but all the stories together was over the top.
Overall, I was thoroughly shocked to find Tudor fiction that I did not enjoy! Although I was excited to read a fun Tudor riff, and I was on board with all the time-traveling and magic, this turned out too zany for me.
We have more space in our new studio, and it turns out that I don’t know how to have normal workplace conversations now that I have to walk into another room to chat. What if I am interrupting other people’s important work? What if someone is looking for me and can’t find me? What if I seem like a lazy slacker because I am always talking? Or what if I’m an antisocial jerk because I don’t know how to have these casual normal chats?
Adult life is very hard.
How It Works Media makes short, explainer videos for startups and small businesses, allowing them to demonstrate their idea or project to visitors, without suffering through an elevator pitch or reading a product description.
Does anyone ever want to listen to an elevator pitch? I’ve been to tech shows where I know I walked around and saw new apps and new hardware, but I still felt like I listened to one long elevator pitch all day.
Look, I have never personally encountered this phenomenon and I’m not entirely convinced it exists, but I’ve been told there are people who don’t like to read! Weird. I don’t really understand that, but I’m not going to judge too harshly. If I had a startup, I’d want to reach (and sell to) everyone, including people who — for some reason — don’t like to read. Short videos, like the explainer videos from HowIsWorksMedia, are easily understood by everyone, and can be easily shared.
For example, here’s an explainer video on how explainer videos work.
Now, you basically don’t need the rest of this post because you already know what How It Works Media does
It’s also easy to promote videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so forth, and we all know how once a piece of content is on a social network, how widely and wildly it can spread. Cute videos could be shared and spread more easily than a text explanation of a new product or service.
How It WorksMedia believes that explainer videos also increase sales, not just visibility or name recognition, so of course there’s an explainer video for that, too.
Right now, How It Works Media is running a promotion for startups, offering a discounted rate through the end of September. The September rate is $4000 for a 90 second explainer video, and interested startups can check it out here.
This post is in conjunction with How It Works Media. Pretty sure it’s due to my extensive knowledge of startups and even more massive hatred of elevator pitches.
Possible Cover Art!
I’ve started a new project combining two of my favorite things, gaming and travel, and now I’m looking for contributing writers. This will be a collection of essays, vignettes and general reflections on games and location. I have, um, two pieces for it right now BUT THEY ARE AWESOME.
Here’s the call for submissions:
I see many connections between games and physical location, and I hope you do too. Do you think of Monkey Island when you visit a real jungle? Did you recognize your Beijing dumpling shop in the background of a hidden object game? Will you always remember which game you played that week you were snowbound in New England? Or the game you played on a long flight? Did a game inspire you to take an actual trip? Did a trip encourage you to try a new game?
I’m looking for around 20 brilliant writers to share personal reflections on games, place and travel. Ideal contributors will have a background in game development, games journalism, travel writing, or just in thoughtful analysis of games.
Tentative release date is Spring 2015.
You should be part of it! Send .doc or .docx submissions to Checkpoint.Submissions@gmail.com to contribute, or share simpsonsparadox.com/checkpoint with other gaming or travel writers.
A number of days ago, I went to a, um, thing…. about blogging and, um, stuff for bloggers…. which was held at… a local place. Ugh. I’m trying to stay vague about the event because I had some good conversations with a few people, and learned some very Valuable Information, but it was a basically terrible evening.
Mostly it’s my own impostor syndrome, which means when that even though I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I feel like I’m pretty new and I have a lot to learn, which is why I signed up for this… event. To learn more about blogging from the expert speakers.
One expert blogger would say that you need to post every single day. Another would say that you must always share your posts on Facebook. And then another would say that you shouldn’t spam your followers by posting on Facebook every single day. And then, when someone in audience would ask which it is, the panelist would agree that you just have to find what’s right for you! Each audience is different! Everyone is right!
I’ve figured out already that social media promotion is necessary, and that too much self-promotion is annoying. This isn’t because I’m so genius — I’m guessing that most of the attendees had figured this out too. By existing in the world, we’ve all figured out that there’s a happy medium between constantly promoting yourself and completely hiding your accomplishments (saying fairly new to mean been blogging for a decade, actually for example. UGH. Why do I do that?) What I wanted to be told was that 4PM EST is the ideal time to post (It totally is — you get East coasters waiting out the last hour of work and West coasters on their lunch breaks.) or that you should tweet a blog post 3 times with 3 different headlines in a 24 hour period (I made that up, but that’s the kind of information I could seriously use).
You should be authentic and honest, because brands want Authenticity in their sponsored posts. But also, don’t be political on Twitter because that’s alienating to brands. Also, you should either cram your metatext full of keywords, or not. Can you be an Amazon affiliate in North Carolina? No one seemed to know! Which made me feel less and less like I was learning from a panel of experts, and more and more like I was a loser wasting time and money on attending. I’m not a particularly big fish, man, but this felt like a depressing puddle.
It was not a total waste, because there was alcohol. In one of the event’s promo photos, there’s a lovely panorama of the room, with an audience focusing, paying attention, and taking notes. I’m the girl sitting at the bar looking bored. It gave me such a laugh to see it, and the laugh was mostly at myself. Sign up for intro-level info, Meg, and of course you’ll be bored and unimpressed.
Also I realized some Valuable Information that night. In my life, I constantly feel like a dabbler or hobbyist, instead of a professional. I learned that the thing keeping me from being a professional isn’t that I need more experience, or I need to earn a certain dollar amount at it, or that I need someone outside to validate me by calling me a professional. The thing keeping me from being a “real” professional is just that I constantly feel like an fake one, like a imposter, even when it’s objectively not so.
Really excited to review these both!
In which Harold goes to my work party, but is actually thinking about action figures the whole time.
Mobile apps and games now occupy children from a very young age. In addition to consuming New Media, more and more children are becoming New Media producers and makers. There is a great deal of evidence showing that toys which allow players to build and create are gaining much more traction. Lego, for example, has gained a huge market share, earning $2 billion in the first six months of 2014, beating the earnings of Fisher-Price, Mattel and Matchbox.
All these things came together in my mind recently, leading me to think about the possible future for action figures. I was at the opening reception for the new studio for my fiancé’s place of work, Youth Digital. After working in game design for years, Meg now teaches game design and app design to children as young as eight. Others at Youth Digital teach 3D modeling, animation and 3D printing to children and teens.
As I made my way through Youth Digital’s new space, I came face-to-face with examples of their 3D printing. 3D printers are becoming more common and more accessible to the general public. The quality of the printed output continues to improve, and 3D printing is more accessible to casual and hobby designers, especially as companies such as Shapeways spring up to provide 3D printing services and a marketplace for 3D designs.
via Building a better action figure with 3D Printing? by Harold Sipe on Action Figure Fury.
[Tweet “In which Harold goes to my work party, but is actually thinking about action figures the whole time.”]
When Harold and I got into Richmond, we drove past the stylish restaurants, art galleries, and bookshops of downtown, and we were in payday loans and check cashing counter territory when we found our hotel. We also weren’t entirely sure it was open, because all the lights on the street-facing side were off. It was not entirely reassuring.
This one of my stranger hotel visits, because the building had, at one point, been a fairly upscale hotel. You could see how someone had once carefully chosen and coordinated the (peeling) wallpaper and (stained) carpets, and that when it was new, it must have looked really nice. We looked at the pool, but the room was only lit on one side (unsure if this was a wiring failure or lightbulb apathy) and the floor was warped enough to leave deep puddles. There was also a whole wing devoted to holding functions, but it was deserted, naturally. Pretty sure anyone holding an event would have a few blocks down the street, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, rather than here in the ghost hotel.
Everything non-essential was broken, and in some cases, even the Out of Order signs were dusty. One elevator was non-functioning and the other had a little sign asking riders to please press the buttons harder. But hey, the bed was comfortable, and the room was clean, and it was right down the street from Harold’s comic con.
Although, when we left the first morning to go to the show, the desk clerk was visibly relieved that we weren’t checking out early.
