Star Trek - Love Boat

Have you ever wondered how different Star Trek: The Next Generation would have been if it had taken place on The Love Boat? No? Well, good thing this blog is mine.



Patrick Stewart, never change.

Publishing: A Tale of Two Options

Book image taken from St. Michael's College where they learn too.

I have often fantasized about publishing one of the numerous story ideas that float around in my mind. But in these fantasies, I have never given much thought about the publishing process – my daydream beginning after the publishing aspect, where I sign autographs for adorning fans, get a movie deal, and sit on my couch stuffed with hundred dollar bills. However, as I am starting to writing my novel for school, I have begun thinking more and more about how I will publish it in the future.

There are a few avenues to stardom that I can take:

1. Find a publisher and get them to publish my novel

2. Self-publish an e-book or hard copy

The first option has multiple perks and one great downfall. The perks are that I will have an editor (which is duly needed), and a whack of other people dedicated to selling my novel. But on the negative side, I only get 10% of the royalties from my book. That means if my book is $20, I get 2 bucks a pop. Ouch.

So let's say I sell 100 copies of my book. That's only $200 for all my sweat, tears, and a year (or years) of living like an aquariam dolphin. That $200 would give me enough cash to buy groceries once. So if I go the publishing route, I may just have to sacrifice a goat to ensure that I make it big, or get another job on the side. (And no I wouldn’t sacrifice an actual goat. I’m a hard and true veggie-head.)

The second option is that I publish my book through e-publishing. Going the e-publishing root unfortunately means that I won’t have an editor or publisher (unless a publisher like Harlequin picks me up for their new e-book line), and I won't have a hard copy of my book that bookstores can shelve away. Getting the word out about my book becomes substantially harder as well.

Self-publishing is a difficult route to go, but the venues for self-publishing are growing rapidly. It also means that my profit will substantially increase as companies like Lulu give the writer 50% or more of the royalties for every book sold (depending on how you print your novel – e-book or hard/soft cover style). Or I can just upload it to iBooks and set a price and BAM! Instant book. Yet, these paths are also fraught with the fact that telling the world about my amazing novel will rest on my sole shoulders.

If I want to get the best of both worlds, I could go the e-book route and print off a few hard copies for family and friends (and possibly try to get McNally to pick up a few). I might even think of hiring a freelance editor, which could increase the quality of my work.

For my IPP, I still want to go the publishing root first. Why? Because I would like someone to go over and edit my work and have people guide me through the whole publishing process. But if I get rejected across the board, I am thinking about taking the self-publishing route (or perhaps I`ll take the more undignified option where I sob into my grandmothers tea-towels as I pack all my hopes and dreams into a box in my basement).

In the end, I think both routes are viable ways to get a book published. But in the future, I see e-book publishing being the easy money banker, as technology keeps changing and people and books with it.

My Star Trek Mug

Last summer I went to a Jerome, Arizona and bought one of the most awesome and badass mugs I have ever had the pleasure of looking at.

It's a Star Trek mug that radiates amazing as Kirk and Spock stare off into the distance, the two wearing their serious captain and fascinating faces. On the back (or front depending on how you look at your mug), the Starship Enterprise hits warp speed. The Enterprise obviously going on a journey to a treacherous planet that Kirk and Spock will visit – alone. And like all good fanfics, this is where pon farr hits Spock as fast as a drunkenly acquired STD, Kirk being the only person available to cure the logic debilitating psychophysical condition.

But that’s enough of exposing my hidden fantasies to the world. Let's get on to the pics.

Try not feeling the stir of exhilaration when you look into their sensual gazes.
You can't.
 

You want to watch Star Trek now. I can sense it.

I found this exquisite mug at a movie theater/novelty store hybrid shop. A place that can only exist in a town like Jerome.

Jerome isn't a big town, but it contains some of the most interesting artwork and ideas that I have ever seen. It is a hotbed for art, jewellery, and crazy-wicked stores, making the town very tourist friendly. In fact most people’s livelihood in Jerome comes from tourism.

One of the neatest and bizarre shops in Jerome is a whore house that was turned into an artish-brothel-sex shop-marilyn monroe-1950s call girl-gift shop. Try finding a place like that in Winnipeg.

I also enjoyed visiting the art galleries. At one, I even purchased a painting of a robot in space.

Jerome is one of the best places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting for a day.

Mario Paint Composer Music is Swell

Okay, I found these videos a while back, and I'd thought I'd share the finally tuned love. I have never tried Mario Paint Composer, but even if I had, I don't think I could ever redo Zelda songs, or any other for that matter. Kudos to all who have!

Note: For fun, watch these two videos and see if you can guess the song names and which game the music is from. (Personally, I did better on the Zelda one.)

                               Can you name each Zelda song?

                 Have you played each game featured in this video?

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - First Impressions

Image taken from GameSpot

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective arrived faithfully at my door a day ago, and since then my fingers have been feeling rather wane and cramped, from the hurt of extended button poking and stylus holding. Or maybe it’s ‘cause outside it’s -30°C and I need to wear a parka in my house to stay warm.

I have to say right off the bat, that there may be a bit of bias in my love of Ghost Trick, as the Ace Attorney series is one of my favourites (both games created by Shu Takumi). But having gone through preliminaries, I can see how someone can like Ace Attorney and not Ghost Trick or vice versa. Game play is very different between the two games, Ghost Trick relying on physics, object manipulation, and mapping out a series of events in a short amount of time – while Ace Attorney is all about detective work, interrogations, and courtroom drama. But the fundamentals that made Ace Attorney so well liked such as hilarious dialogue, off-beat characters, and winding plot twists, haven’t missed a mark in Ghost Trick.

Suit-dude, Lynne, Sissel, and Kamila. You wish you had their hair.

Ghost Trick follows a man named Sissel, who recently died, and his journey to unravel the mystery behind his death. On his quest for truth, Sissel learns that he can interact with the dead and go back four minutes in time to try and stop their usually humorous and tragic deaths. He does this by going between the Land of the Living and the Ghost World, where time stands still and he can manipulate inanimate objects, and prevent unfortunate demises.

I haven’t finished the game yet, but from what I’ve played, the game has been excellent. The puzzles that you have to solve go from easy hard, but never brain-exploding hard. There is also a wonderful rewind feature in the game that lets Sissel replay a puzzle as many times as he has to until he solves the puzzle – with no penalties (that I know of so far).

As of right now, I’d totally recommend people checking this game out, especially adventure and puzzle game fans. So go forth and buy people! And while you’re at it, can you buy me a heater?

Manga Mad - Video/Short Documentary

Sorry that my blog has been dead as of lately all. During winter break I went into hibernation and it has been hard to get back into the blogging sphere. I hope to write up something on Hotel Dusk: Room 215 soon... and since those words have now been etched into blog-stone, I have to hold myself to it!

Meanwhile, here is a short and interesting documentary called Manga Mad, which is about manga in Japan, and its impact on Japanese culture. Some of the subtitles made me go :/ but overall it was a fascinating video that I would recommend people to watch - especially manga beginners (and it's free to watch on YouTube. Which makes everyone happy in this age). And if you're an offical manga guru/otaku, it’s worth watching for the images of Japan alone.

If you ever wanted to know what manga is, but didn't have a clue where to start, check this out. You'll learn something.

Pseudo-Events - Flash Mobs - A Time to Sing Cheer

Pseudo-events are publicity stunts organized to get people to talk about said organization or person. One of the more popular and larger based pseudo-events is a flash mob. Flash mobs are when a group of people get together and organize a large-scale event that will surprise other people who are not involved. Many flash mobs take place in a mall for promotion, ergo to impress mall-goers.

If you've been living in Canada for even nary a year, you'll have heard of the Christmas Food Court Flash Mob that took place in Ontario. The flash mob was created for promotion of Alphabet Photography (a store in The Welland Seaway Mall), as well as a video card to clients. The idea came from its owner Jennifer Blakeley. She contacted Chorus Niagara to help with her idea, and with support from Seaway mall president Mike Belcastro, set the mob in motion.

On November 13, 2010 Chorus Niagara broke out singing Hallelujah in the mall's food court to the surprise and wonderment of its shoppers. Alphabet Photography uploaded the video days later and it has become and instant YouTube success with close to 30 million views.

With millions of people viewing the video, I can guess that business for Seaway mall and Alphabet Photography has gone up. Having the video released for Christmas was a genius idea as that's when families get together and want to share sweet and interesting holiday videos with each other - a cluster of people singing Hallelujah in a mall filling that void. The video going viral was also helped by news stations like CBC or the BBC picking up the story, the video spreading like wildfire throughout Canada, the US, and some places in Europe.

Alphabet Photography successfully achieved great PR and created a pseudo-event that will be remembered through continuous viral footage and word of mouth.



For more flash mobs, check out Top 7 Flash Mobs Of All Time, where businesses like T-Mobile get on the bandwagon and flash dance to a compilation of songs.