tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8285178927967676882024-03-05T08:54:20.458-08:00Noble Storm BooksHome of SF Edwards and the Spiral War Saga.SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-82577249328070658082016-09-07T13:02:00.001-07:002016-09-07T13:06:15.461-07:00Book Review: Explorations: Through the Wormhole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Explorations-Through-Wormhole-Ralph-Kern-ebook/dp/B01LC0JZD4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473278187&sr=1-1&keywords=explorations+through+the+wormhole#nav-subnav" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="640" src="https://d188rgcu4zozwl.cloudfront.net/content/B01LC0JZD4/resources/397779702" width="435" /></a></div>
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Overall: </h3>
I quite enjoyed the anthology, there were high points and low points, but it worked well as a number of stories linked by a common thread, wormholes. Several of the stories also seemed to reference at least the first story, and from there others, to a lesser degree. Whether this was accidental or intentional, it worked out well. To anyone looking for a quick read of some engaging stories I recommend picking this volume up. Below I have reviewed each individual story.<br />
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The Challenge: </h3>
An intriguing story of a near future journey through a mysterious wormhole. It follows the mission commander Elaine who had been training for a long duration colonization experiment on Mars when the wormhole appears. It's nice to see a story with professionals doing their job even when the job changes suddenly. The characters are believable, interesting, and relatable. Excellent job.<br />
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Through Glassy Eyes:</h3>
Lady or the tiger. Many of us read this short story in high school, the elegant cliff hanger that left you asking what door to open. TGE is set after thr challenge and follows a mega Corp as they create, release and then deal with the fallout of the world's first networked neural implants. It's an excellent sorry and one that anyone interested in such tech should read. It is also quite similar to the short lived Web series H+ which is a must watch. A great effort with touches of mega corps and a future that while only 70 years ahead had undergone significant societal change.<br />
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Here, there, forever:</h3>
Not my favorite of the stories. It starts out promising, then takes an odd turn into fantasy. The ending does raise an interesting question though about the nature of the rest of the narrative. Quite a lot of echoing in the story however. Another edit pass would have tightened it up nicely.<br />
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AI denier:</h3>
Fonts are important, especially with the letter I. I originally went into this story thinking it was called Al denier. The story stumbles at first to get the protagonist shifted forward in time. Once in place however, it ran along fine with a woman out of time dealing with a future where the AI have taken over and turned most sentient biologic life into subjugated citizens, little better than slaves.<br />
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Flawed Perspective:</h3>
A story with a definite twist. When an earth exploration ship find itself cut off from Humanity, The Crew ally themselves with a powerful yet pacifistic race. They then take up arms against their new allies enemies and begin to carve out a new Empire for themselves. Ultimately this is a story about the corruption of power. And comma House of such corruption can blind you to your own history. An interesting read, that would probably work better as a full-on novel comma as certain advances are just glossed over in an effort to advance the plot.<br />
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<br />The Lost Colony:</h3>
When a smuggler ship cuts it a little close trying to jump out of a protected wormhole things go very wrong for the crew. This story had me pumped from the start with a very firefly-esque crew doing their best to keep their ship flying as they evade an STA patrol and attempt to jump out system. Things don’t go to plan and they end up stranded inside the closed wormhole, looking for a way out. A fun, self contained story, that was a blast to read.<br />
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<br />The Aeon Incident:</h3>
What happens when you combine Star Trek with Warhammer 40k? The Aeon Incident, that’s what. Be prepared for intense battle armored action, mixed with first contact protocols of Star Trek’s Federation. Action packed and fun, the twist at the end was a genuine delight.<br />
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<br />The Doors of the Temple:</h3>
The Earth is being ravaged by a war against powerful aliens, and no idea is too outlandish to examine as a means of ending the conflict. When a widowed Ace Pilot is offered one final chance at saving the Earth using mythology and a crazed, BO ridden Irish scientist he takes it and one final ride through a wormhole like no other.<br />
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Dead Weight:</h3>
Months from rescue with a damaged ship thrown through a sudden wormhole, Captain Guan Xi Has a mystery on his hands. Who, or what is killing his crew. A fun little mystery story with some nice twists.<br />
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Webbed Prisms:</h3>
This was probably the most interesting story so far. Told from two different perspectives, on either side of the wormhole it showcases how societies differ and can changes, especially with advanced technology. I don’t want to give away too much, but would love to see this one expanded into a novel. Even so, as it stands now, it is a nicely contained story.<br />
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Anathema:</h3>
Quite an interesting story and one that diverges from the norm in a good way. The crew of the wormhole corvette Anathema must escort 4 freighters to a mining colony cut off for 16 years. What they find when they arrive changes everything. <br />
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When the Skies Open:</h3>
Not all colonies are created equal. On an Earth colony cut off from resupply generations have past and what technology that is left is in ill repair, if it functions at all. When a wormhole reopens and Earthers return they bring with them new miracles of technology and medicine, but at what price? This was a well constructed story, with the mechanics of it such that you felt the confusion of the main character as she witnesses a major change to her society and wrestles with the long terms impacts, a good read with a solid, coherent story.<br />
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A Second Infection:</h3>
This was an odd one. For the medically minded the story will be easy to follow, for others, get ready to learn a lot about how infections work. The story gets medical and metaphysical fast so might not be everyone's cup of tea, but is an interesting take on the overall subject matter.<br />
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Personal Growth:</h3>
The longest story in the anthology wraps up the book, and follows the Hong Kong based crew of a budget mission through a wormhole. Not giving away too much it works nicely with some of the other stories presented here (The Challenge, Webbed Prisms in particular) and bookends the anthology well. Clearly some talent here and a well constructed, concise tale that handles its own internal technologies, sciences, and logic well.<br />
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In the end, this is a great book and a definite recommended read.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Explorations-Through-Wormhole-Ralph-Kern-ebook/dp/B01LC0JZD4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473278187&sr=1-1&keywords=explorations+through+the+wormhole#nav-subnav">Explorations: Through the Wormhole Kindle Edition</a></b></h2>
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Product Details<br />
File Size: 2467 KB<br />
Print Length: 376 pages<br />
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited<br />
Publisher: Woodbridge Press (August 31, 2016)<br />
Publication Date: August 31, 2016<br />
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC<br />
Language: English<br />
ASIN: B01LC0JZD4<br />
Text-to-Speech: Enabled<br />
X-Ray:<br />
Not Enabled<br />
Word Wise: Enabled<br />
Lending: Not Enabled<br />
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled<br />
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-80639180987553237362016-09-05T15:05:00.002-07:002016-09-05T15:05:53.559-07:00Spiral War: Book 3. Rising Warriors/Rising Threat In Beta<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfEfHvG8CK-W0Jr_pqOD6MPuzJ7zJ5j6HiBrSeDpBT24kie5Q-QlqXIBI-L1GgaptcjJT7pwnOMtx0paTp0UPM14a8627-JIWHhNOrPH-tg4xB9s2NXvaputHmc3FNdublYfLazwCtsI/s1600/6x9+beta-cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfEfHvG8CK-W0Jr_pqOD6MPuzJ7zJ5j6HiBrSeDpBT24kie5Q-QlqXIBI-L1GgaptcjJT7pwnOMtx0paTp0UPM14a8627-JIWHhNOrPH-tg4xB9s2NXvaputHmc3FNdublYfLazwCtsI/s640/6x9+beta-cover.png" width="420" /></a></div>
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Book 3 of the Spiral War Saga, Rising Warriors, Rising Threat is now with the beta readers. Once I have their input I will make any necessary changes and upon receipt of the final cover art will submit the book to <a href="https://kindlescout.amazon.com/">Kindle Scout.</a> From there I will have 30 days to get the <a href="https://kindlescout.amazon.com/about">requisite votes </a>to have Amazon accept the book for publication, distribution, and most importantly, promotion. When, that happens I'll be calling on all my loyal readers to help vote.</div>
<br />SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-25096955053157472912016-09-05T10:46:00.005-07:002016-09-05T10:46:54.498-07:00Fitness Log 5 September<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Fitness Log 5-September</div>
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Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have not fallen off the fitness wagon, I have just been crazy busy. The week of 22 August I was on travel for work and could not blog. The following week, 29 August, and the Milestone A update, I was single dading it while my wife was on travel, and was so busy getting things and kids ready for school, and having last minute summer fun, that I couldn't get to it. I still kept exercising though and the results are in the table below.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_p35kBM9naugRfKTZuifMSW4tzF-ymK-TwM25F3_fIaMjIKwBDp2PhooR8TEQIuD05bhhaJVH_e1SayoepqdpbbqCSss7xdkm1UC1vvrrVffNFslM7bzhZUnyc-5Ptr3YUSI6UiVw4OA/s1600/Weight-Loss-Milestones-5-Sept.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_p35kBM9naugRfKTZuifMSW4tzF-ymK-TwM25F3_fIaMjIKwBDp2PhooR8TEQIuD05bhhaJVH_e1SayoepqdpbbqCSss7xdkm1UC1vvrrVffNFslM7bzhZUnyc-5Ptr3YUSI6UiVw4OA/s640/Weight-Loss-Milestones-5-Sept.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Not only did I hit Milestone A, I beat it into the ground. Weight wise I was right on track, with a slight hitch the week before, damn you free office pizza. But the waist measurement, I was an inch ahead, heck I was at, and am still at Milestone B for waist size. I am thrilled about that. Hitting Milestone B for weight might be a bit harder to achieve. </div>
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I am getting stronger everyday, adding weight to my lifts weekly if not multiple times a week, which means muscle growth. Muscle is denser than fat, so losing weight will require stepping up the Cardio something fierce. I had intended to start doing that last week, but my youngest doesn't start kindergarten until this week, meaning I have to watch him all day. My plan was to start biking for my cardio, can't bike hard with a 5 year old. Oh well.<br /><br />In other weightloss/fitness news. My gym's opening is delayed until 1st quarter 2017. The reason, their landlord won't let them do their construction at the same time as the other tenant. So the current shop needs to complete their construction first. This is frustrating, but since I repaired and reinforced my workout bench shouldn't be a huge issue. They have also opened up their preview center at the mall for members to use and demo the equipment. I will be making use of that facility soon, once the wife gets back, at least two to three times a week.</div>
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Many people have commented that they are seeing the results of my working out, even if the scale isn't. My face and body are noticably thinner, but I am finding extra skin hanging out, and that takes a while to go away.</div>
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I am very happy with how my weight loss and overall fitness are progressing, but still have a long way to go. And because it was requested, here are the first fitness log pictures I took and the latest to compare it with.</div>
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<a href="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13925043_10153680104326937_3463496085914755504_n.jpg?oh=10415f7eb67bbe016c7e91c80b7c2ba1&oe=587D7EE1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13925043_10153680104326937_3463496085914755504_n.jpg?oh=10415f7eb67bbe016c7e91c80b7c2ba1&oe=587D7EE1" width="320" /></a><a href="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p526x296/14264158_10153756342591937_5022141467162507463_n.jpg?oh=7693a5735ebfb928ae936c8f31547a43&oe=5837CC4A" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p526x296/14264158_10153756342591937_5022141467162507463_n.jpg?oh=7693a5735ebfb928ae936c8f31547a43&oe=5837CC4A" width="320" /></a><br /></div>
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Yes there is still a belly, but it's tighter, and not as flabby. I don't see the results as much, others do, so there;s that, and I can't argue the numbers. Let's Go.</div>
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Also I will post more reviews and writing updates soon. I am also looking at doing another design day. I just have to decide on the subject of it.</div>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-28248336777845143352016-08-17T09:40:00.003-07:002016-08-17T09:43:45.750-07:00Ghostbusters 2016 review<div dir="ltr">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn3-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2016/07/ghostbustersreview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn3-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/2016/07/ghostbustersreview.jpg" height="400" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So much potential, so little reward.</td></tr>
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I really debated whether or not I would you review this movie. As I'm getting the blog back up and running I realize I should do more movie and book reviews. I have not seen a lot of movies this summer but this is one that friends insisted that I see. In short, I was not impressed. To put it bluntly, the movie had good bones, but just wasn't good. It focused on the wrong things.</div>
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In general, I'm not a big fan of Hollywood's endless reboots of late. For every reboot that goes well, Christopher Nolan's Batman, there are reboots that are just horrible, Terminator Genisys. Ghostbusters Falls somewhere in between.</div>
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From the day it was announced, the movie seemed to want to generate controversy. I had no issue with an all female Ghostbusters, though felt that a more integrated cast would have been better. I don't know Paul Feig's work very well, the few movies titles of his I recognize, I never saw. They just didn't look like something I or my wife wanted to see. I find Kristen Wiig hilarious in almost everything I've seen her in. I'm not a fan of Melissa Mccarthy, though I know many people who are. Rosie Jones is somewhat hit or miss with me, but I found her to be the funniest member of the cast. Erin Gilber, I don't know if I've ever seen her before, but then I haven't SNL in years.</div>
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This movie ultimately failed because it was a reboot, I think. People are sick of reboots. Audiences want original content. And in cases where a reboot or delayed sequel does come, they want it to respect the original. After the original creators of Ackroyd, Reitman, and Ramis (RIP) spent years trying to make their own reboot / continuation / hand off movie, a reboot without them bordered on insulting.</div>
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I think one of the large reasons that this movie failed is because most of the characters were one-dimensional or two dimensional at best. Let's start with the one-dimensional characters. Every male character in the movie, with the exception of the bad guy, was a one dimensional prop. Chris Hemsworth's secretary was inexcusably stupid. I hate inexcusably stupid characters. By comparison, Annie Potts' Janine from the original was a smart, sassy, funny character with attitude and some great lines. I don't know anyone who felt insulted by Annie Potts' character. By the way, her cameo in the movie was excellent, probably the best one. Andy Garcia's mayor again, completely one-dimensional.</div>
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Even the main cast was largely not fleshed out. </div>
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Kristen wiig's character, whose name I can't even remember, just fell flat. She was obviously supposed to be the Bill Murray of the group and it didn't work, which is odd, because she's a funny actress. </div>
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Melissa McCarthy's character was obviously supposed to be the Aykroyd,but none of her jokes were funny. The few I can remember revolved around her food orders getting messed up and her berating the delivery boy. </div>
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Rosie Jones honestly had some of the funniest moments in the movie. Her character was also probably the most fleshed-out. In a lot of ways, she had the most to offer to the team. </div>
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The character of Holtzmann, was supposed to be the Egon of the group. She was no Egon. The character of Egon and even Dan Akroyds's character in the originals worked because they were straight men. Egon never got the joke, he was always serious. Funny things happened around him and he didn't realize it. He'd be flirted with and didn't get it, he'd subtly tell Murray how much to charge, and it was hilarious, but he didn't see it. Dan Aykroyd's character was always over eager and into everything that was going on. Even he didn't get the joke half the time. The character of Holtzman seemed to always be setting up the next joke, most of which fell flat.</div>
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One of the things that made the original so good and also gave it a lot of depth is that busting ghosts was more than just a scientific Endeavor for these characters. It was also a business and their income source. These were scientists who had been discredited due to their findings and beliefs and had to find a way to make a living. There were multiple scenes about how they got their money and how they would eventually run out of it. Prior to busting their first ghost, Slimer, they were almost out of funds they were going to be destitute. This movie had none of that. </div>
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Beyond what was just simply supposed to be the scientific endeavor, there was no mention of where they got their funds or their equipment. The only indication about their funding and equipment, was that they stole large pieces of equipment from their University. By the way that would not have been enough to build everything they had. After that it, appeared that they built all the rest of their equipment out of scrap. I'm an engineer none of that would have worked. By having them steal all of that equipment it would have made them criminals. Also what kind of scientist, Melissa McCarthy's character, doesn't know that their equipment has a function where it moves, especially since she "designed it herself."</div>
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While on the subject of equipment. What kind of scientist tests out highly dangerous equipment in a back alley? That was beyond irresponsible and resulted in quite a bit of property damage. This also occurred after Rosie Jones entered the group, she could have given them access to unused subway tunnels or closed train yards.</div>
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Does this movie have redeemable qualities? Yes. Could this movie have been saved in the writing stages? Yes quite easily.</div>
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I'm a fixer by Nature. When I see something that could be good I want to fix it. Maybe it's the engineer in me, maybe it's the writer. Whatever the case, I see many ways in which this movie could have been fixed in small subtle ways that would have made it better. </div>
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The core movie itself was good. The Ghostbusters concept should have work in today's world. All the various Ghost Hunter shows out there prove that people are willing to believe in the existence of ghosts. The movie even references this. The movie has a lot of good references in it to the originals and to the modern world. </div>
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I will say however, that I found it shocking that only one person in the movie ever used a cellular phone. The movie seems trapped in a different age. Anyone who's seen the previews, and not the movie, will know the scene at the concert of the girl use a selfie stick, who still uses a selfie stick?, to take a picture of herself, Rosie Jones, and some kind of demon. That is the only time someone whips out a phone to take pictures. By contrast, look at the new Doctor Who. In Matt Smith's first episode, when the aliens invade, the way he tells that somebody, Rory, knows something more is going on is that he's the only one not taking pictures with his cell phone.</div>
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So how would I have changed this movie to make it better? Well there's a couple of easy fixes that I would have used:</div>
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#1: Make the movie a continuation of the original not a reboot. </div>
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There's a reference in the movie about how they've covered up similar incidents in the past obliquely regarding ghosts. That could have been worked into the movie much better to make it a full-on continuation of the original Ghostbusters. Look at Star Wars episode 7, one of the reasons it works so well was that it was a continuation of the old story bringing it into a new generation.</div>
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#2: Moving out of New York. </div>
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Now hear me out here. With a largely Saturday Night Live based cast I understand why they made it be New York again. But why not move it someplace else? Maybe it's just because I'm from the west coast and the southeast, I really don't care that much about movies based in New York that are constantly referencing things in New York. Why not move it someplace new, some place that might not get as much exposure in movies. Now that I'm based in Seattle maybe I'd like to see it someplace up with the Pacific Northwest. Or how about down for their self down in LA, or Dallas, or Chicago, or any other major or minor muscle. It did not have to be New York and by taking it out of New York it could have taken the whole concept in a fresher Direction.</div>
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#3: Have the movie be a handoff. </div>
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This could have been done this very easily. The beginning could be largely unchanged. But after they find their first ghost, they are contacted by the remaining members of the original Ghostbusters. At that point it's revealed that ghost activity has been pretty low level for the last couple decades. </div>
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It could even be a great meta reference to all the ghost hunting TV shows. The Ghostbusters themselves are funding these TV shows in order to find ghosts throughout the country. They then send in one of their regional franchises to catch any ghosts that are too dangerous or harassing to the owners of the properties. </div>
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The Ghostbusters than offer the new lady Ghostbusters a franchise. This takes care of so many issues in the movie in particular those involving funding. From there the movie could be largely unchanged you could still have these characters busting their first ghost getting caught in public at cetera. But instead of the mayor telling them that they can't be so public, it's Ghostbusters headquarters telling them this. They could then explain that with the help of the government they have kept the existence of ghosts to a minimum.</div>
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It also creates a great means of character growth. Imagine them receiving their first shipment of OG ghostbusting gear, and Holtzman commenting on how "80s" it is before souping them all up to create their new gear.</div>
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#4: More fleshed-out characters. </div>
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All of these characters could have been fleshed out a lot more. By having the movie be a continuation instead of a reboot, it would have allowed the characters to become much more their own as well. At the same time make The Supporting Cast not insulting and more real. Especially the secretary character. Chris Hemsworth's character could have been very funny very sassy very maybe not as intelligent as the rest of the crew but he didn't have to be just an idiotic pretty face. If they wanted that they should have cast Ashton Kutcher.</div>
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It would have even allowed for them to fix some of the character mistakes of the original. Winston, for instance, was originally written as an Air Force Veteran who helped teach them tactics. The studio forced the change to have him instead be a guy off the street looking for a job because Ernie Hudson was an unknown (another good cameo, but not as good as Annie Potts'). They could given that backstory to Rosie Jones' character, and it would have made a nice nod to the original as well. </div>
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#5: Make the final villain's form more original.</div>
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Don't get me wrong, that the villain was a live person manipulating ghosts was great. His final form however was far too marshmallow man like for my tastes however. I liked that he used their symbol as his final form, sort of, but it just felt off.<br />
<br />
#6: Overuse of CGI.<br />
<br />
This one should go without saying. In an age when practical effects are making a comeback, neon CGI ghosts just don't work anymore. Even the scariest movies of late that use ghosts hardly show the ghosts.</div>
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With those changes the movie, and even the franchise could have been saved. At this point however, it is dead in the water and I doubt that we'll get any kind of continuation.</div>
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Overall I give the move a 3/5 stars. It has the bones of a good movie, it just failed to deliver in the end.</div>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-20027910760023616322016-08-15T13:00:00.001-07:002016-08-15T13:08:50.125-07:00Fitness Log 15-August-2016<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2ERyWOSOQvdHoRwptz3mougbGZjjklea1MCVZ-9hauZ_wXlStqSAoKcAVN68SSN_V6y9I2Ylez_NUGf8NO0OEfLJQLua20aCXSj8W5EX9wYoyoS_cptoURlQ-sP9D0RKo5cf02sNt_s/s1600/Weight-Loss-Milestones-15-aug.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2ERyWOSOQvdHoRwptz3mougbGZjjklea1MCVZ-9hauZ_wXlStqSAoKcAVN68SSN_V6y9I2Ylez_NUGf8NO0OEfLJQLua20aCXSj8W5EX9wYoyoS_cptoURlQ-sP9D0RKo5cf02sNt_s/s640/Weight-Loss-Milestones-15-aug.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weight Loss Milestone Chart, 15 August Update</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Week 3 of the fitness plan. We have some actual data points on the weight and waist size charts.<br />
<br />
A quick glance shows that I am closing on the Milestone A weight objective, I've already passed the threshold. The waist line Milestone A, I have surpassed Milestone A and am closing on Milestone B.<br />
<br />
Onto this week's numbers:<br />
<br />
Height: 6'<br />
Weight: 244lbs (Past Milestone A threshold, 60% of objective, figuring on a start weight of 250 lbs)<br />
Waist Size: 42.5" (.5" loss)<br />
Belly Size: 44" (1 inch lost)<br />
Neck Size: 18.5" (no change)<br />
Bicep Size: 16.5" (no change)<br />
Thigh Size: 27" (.5" loss)<br />
Calf Size: 18.25" (.25" gain)<br />
Chest Size: 45" (1" loss)<br />
<br />
I am noticing a change in my face now when I look in the mirror, it is slimmer. I am also lifting more weight or pushing more reps/sets everyday, so I am getting stronger and fitter. In that way the weight numbers are not as upsetting, but I am still on track for Milestone A objective in two weeks. <br />
<br />
The problem that comes is this: My gym's opening has been delayed, possibly to October due to issues with another tenant in the building. On the plus side they will open up the preview center in the mall for members to use free of charge. We'll act as demo for the equipment. They are also looking into placing a temporary preview center in front of the gym location in portables. Neither of these is an ideal solution, but improve, adapt and overcome.<br />
<br />
Exercise alone will not result in weight loss and to that end, this is what my diet became over the weekend and what I plan to try and keep to.<br />
<br />
Breakfast: 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil (solid) plus supplements (see below)<br />
Lunch: Small, high protein lunch, minimal carbs plus supplement. This weekend the boys and I made real fruit smoothies for lunch, high fiber with protein powder. I paid for that later that day.<br />
Dinner: Smaller portion, high protein, with salad.<br />
<br />
Curiously enough, I'm not getting that hungry. I get more psychological hunger as my brain reminds me that it's time to eat. My stomach really isn't rumbling, except when I have too much fiber. Based on the low carb intake I could be forcing my body into ketosis, so it is burning fat much more regularly, this a good thing.<br />
<br />
I'm still dialing in my supplements, but for now, here we are:<br />
<br />
Helix Nutrition RB-TON3R (x2/day, breakfast and lunch)<br />
1000 mg Metabolic Matrix<br />
- EPA<br />
- DHA<br />
- CLA<br />
- Alpha-Linolenic Acid<br />
- Oleic Acid<br />
- Vitamin E<br />
<br />
Cellucor Super HD (x2/day breakfast and lunch)<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">10mg Niacin</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">3mg Vitamin B6</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">250mcg Vitaming B12</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">250mg Thermosculpting blend</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> - Green Tea leaf extra</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> - Simpro Protein Hydrolysates of Blue Whiting</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> - Dandelion Root Extract</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">250mg Sensory Impact Blend</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> - many ingredients, hard to read, will fill later.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">160mg Caffeine Anhydrous (this part left me jacked on friday)</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">100mg Vitamin D3</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Overall, I am feeling great and think I have a real chance of getting this weight off. I will be cutting in additional supplements as needed and have taken Tumeric here and there when I felt a possible swell coming on.</span></span></div>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-11727940238922919372016-08-08T09:18:00.001-07:002016-08-08T09:18:30.340-07:00Fitness Log 8-August-2016<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0i5s872BrB2BWjyqpOq2UEhT4fjH7J0UINtGGUZFc5bl2EmCLc44ggnQO87LeXLa1oPBQajgkXtduQMkw4rf7tEO865wHCn6S1GRalBtQolN2K4xqufusFu_sZ8Hqn3qRm5fmhRpcUbY/s1600/Weight-Loss-Milestones.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0i5s872BrB2BWjyqpOq2UEhT4fjH7J0UINtGGUZFc5bl2EmCLc44ggnQO87LeXLa1oPBQajgkXtduQMkw4rf7tEO865wHCn6S1GRalBtQolN2K4xqufusFu_sZ8Hqn3qRm5fmhRpcUbY/s640/Weight-Loss-Milestones.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weight Loss Milestone Chart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Week 2 of the fitness plan. Above I posted my milestone chart with objectives and thresholds for the two major measurements, weight and waist size. My wife pointed out to me this morning at weigh and measure in that I was measuring my waist wrong. I measured it at my pant line, she said to do it and my belly button since that is where most of the fat is. She says she's also noticed a change in my physique just over the last week. I am well into this now, no turning back.<br /><br />Had a slight set back this week though, got sick over the weekend, just overly fatigued, could barely move so I skipped the sunday workout. I also had some carbs on thursday (homemade oatmeal, raisin and macadema nut cookies, hey I'm not made of stone.) Friday (free pizza in the break room, again, stone man I am not.) Sunday a pita sandwich at the airshow and pho for dinner.<br />
<br />
Onto the numbers:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I am engineer, as well as a writer, let's go over my current numbers, which I will update weekly:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Height: 6'</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Weight: 246lbs (at Milestone A threshold, 40% of objective, figuring on a start weight of 250 lbs)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Waist Size: 43" (pant line)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Belly Size: 45"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Neck Size: 18.5" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Bicep Size: 18"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Thigh Size: 27.5" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Calf Size: 18" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Chest Size: 46"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">I need to review and make sure that I am taking measures at consistent places. The increase in neck, bicep and thigh especially are surprising. On the other hand, I have increased the amount of weight I am lifting, so that I am getting stronger again. The biggest problem with that is that my cheap weight bench might not be able to carry much more, and I don't have that many weights left. Guess I need to run to goodwill and grab some more weighs and home depot to get some bar stock to reinforce the bench.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZDQb59_AKxn7FrOLQAUpGLRV1nI-z_NLlTfUTbeECXz2EGonMKskODFbxyz9io8ED1aMTvY8tl9y1ruOxEPfWz-iQ3kmhYQWZG38b5umOQL5M_4FpDRcl6I1pETqjZvrAqF4Q91Y1pjA/s1600/IMG_20160808_084205%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZDQb59_AKxn7FrOLQAUpGLRV1nI-z_NLlTfUTbeECXz2EGonMKskODFbxyz9io8ED1aMTvY8tl9y1ruOxEPfWz-iQ3kmhYQWZG38b5umOQL5M_4FpDRcl6I1pETqjZvrAqF4Q91Y1pjA/s640/IMG_20160808_084205%255B1%255D.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you see a difference yet?</td></tr>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-71481074871882655522016-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:002016-08-08T09:20:19.732-07:00Five Scene Fixes #2 Star Trek Into DarknessDon't shoot me. I am not here to bash trek. I enjoy the heck out of Trek, but STID, while it had the potential to be great, was just bad. A lot of that was lack of self identity and horrid writing, seriously bad writing. So bad that I had to list nine scenes minimum to fix the story.<br />
<br />
This movie could have been great. It should not have been a retelling of TWOK but of Space Seed. Imagine changing just these scenes and how it would have changed, and maybe improved the film:<br />
<br />
1: Opening, Kirk and McCoy distract the aliens so that the Big-E can blast open the caldera of the volcano from the opposite side, or beneath the water, venting the volcano harmlessly. The shuttle must provide targeting data however and crashes due to proximity to the volcano, mandating the Big-E to go atmospheric and reveal itself to save Spock. You have inherently the same scene with Spock; waiting for the inevitable before Kirk rushes in to the rescue without the need for the silly underwater scenes (sorry spaceships aren't built to go underwater, Scotty even comments on that).<br />
<br />
2: Kirk does not lose his command due to the potential political fallout. Instead Admiral Pike will transfer his flag to the Enterprise in order to keep Kirk on a tighter leash. Remember, Kirk and crew saved the Earth in the last movie, to send him back to the academy would make the public question Starfleet in a huge way. If instead, they just see an Admiral actually command the fleet's flagship, they will accept that much more readily.<br />
<br />
3: The transwarp pod (the biggest Pandora's box in the movie) doesn't send Kahn to Kronos, but to a freighter passing by the Sol system. Kirk and crew then rush off after it instead after seeing that its course has changed towards Klingon Terrritory. Scotty also remarks that the pod burned itself out upon usage (just like the one that beemed him and Kirk to the Big-E in the last film).<br />
<br />
4: The Kirk/Scotty argument proceeds much the same, but Kirk begins to see the cracks in what is going on, and instead of firing Scotty, subtly sends him to investigate.<br />
<br />
5: Added scene, Kirk and Crew catch up to the freighter, after several days and the captain (Mudd?) reveals that Kahn commandeered a shuttle to escape to Kronos. The timeframe issue in this movie was just bad, no Trek movie, series, or book has ever said that Earth and Kronos were within a day of each other. Several movies of late have done this, either having a nebulously short time line (SW-VII), or making everything seem to take place in an absurdly short amount of time (Ghostbusters 2016).<br />
<br />
6. Make mention that the abandoned area of Kronos where they find Kahn is that way due to Nuclear Fallout. This will come into play later, and explain some of McCoy's motivations to study Kahn's blood.<br />
<br />
"He spent enough time in that irradiated waste land to kill you three times already, Jim. He has an unusual resistance to radiation."<br />
<br />
7: Scotty takes the coordinates Kahn provides and uses a repaired Transwarp pod to beam to the top secret facility without his little buddy. Remember, this is a top secret facility, and he just flies on in with the rest of the crew with no identification and no question asked. Also, a little easter egg could be thrown in here and after Scotty beams aboard the Vengeance, Porthos materializes after years of being trapped in a matter stream from Scotty's experiment he mentioned in the last film.<br />
<br />
8: While the Enterprise is falling towards Earth, again after taking several days to get back, Spock informs Kahn that they have his crew alive but unless they save the Enterprise his crew will die. Kahn teleports direct to engineering and prevents Kirk from entering the warp core. He then saves the Enterprise, forcing a debt upon Kirk and asks Kirk to take his crew someplace safe, where they and the Federation won't come into contact. But he also asks that he send his body with them, so that they can mourn properly.<br />
Kirk and Spock can still have a scene, not as touching, where Spock comments how Kirk was about to sacrifice himself to save the ship. Also have McCoy pronounce Kahn dead, but put back into a stasis pod.<br />
<br />
9: Instead of the Vengeance crashing, the restored Big-E, and other ships, able to get out of Space Dock in an emergency, grab the ship before it can crash, saving millions of lives. This was another major plot hole, where did all those other ships in space dock go? I get that the captains of several ships were killed by Kahn earlier, but none of those ships had crews that could fly them?<br />
<br />
10: Kirk implores the Federation to allow him to deliver Kahn's body, and the rest of his crew, to an out of the way, in hospitable world they discovered (Ceti-Alpha Six) where they will live without technology in the hopes that they will eventually develop a more peaceful society. This leads into McCoy complaining that he wanted to study Kahn longer, and his remarkable resistance to radiation, and a post credits scene where we see Kahn's colony some time later (years preferably). We see a man plowing a field, he looks up and smiles, revealing that Kahn is still alive.<br />
<br />
Ok, so that went long and was ten scenes. There would be some other small, subtle changes as a result of these, but that would, IMHO, take care of many of the issues people had with the film, and create an ability to have a true NuTrek TWOK later on down the line, or allow a possible remerge of the timelines.<br />
<br />
Also, STID created several big Pandora's Boxes: The Transwarp Pod (makes ships all but obsolete), Kahn's super blood (renders people immune to death), Super Fast Warp Drive (can cross distance to major adversary's planet and back in two days), Super Torpedoes (Can be fired distances of light years away). These changes close the lids on those boxes and mitigates the issues they created. Is it perfect, no, is it better, I think so.<br />
<br />
Will I do one of these for ST: Beyond? I don't think so. I thoroughly enjoyed that movie, and while there were some plot holes, none of them were movie breaking. It was a fun movie. As for my next movie to go after, I am open to suggestions.SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-74117055671302409882016-08-02T07:04:00.003-07:002016-08-02T07:04:55.733-07:00Book 3 UpdateWhile I am still waiting on my editor, I did receive the first concept sketch from my artist for Book 3, Rising Warrior/Rising Threat, and I am blown away.<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA2PusX2imj1yZDhXGkAnbktfd3DDHjMkkRBuMk-2LWLKMTjl9DU6oGkAwZgjQTFQ34kKz-rTHa_ivl9frL0FRzXnqgqXzy4VtY5pk51hzMQuuvgXnqQl-AX_TznEf05zdpQvn89tZEfE/s1600/13901532_1177064405647705_3688766833944516444_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA2PusX2imj1yZDhXGkAnbktfd3DDHjMkkRBuMk-2LWLKMTjl9DU6oGkAwZgjQTFQ34kKz-rTHa_ivl9frL0FRzXnqgqXzy4VtY5pk51hzMQuuvgXnqQl-AX_TznEf05zdpQvn89tZEfE/s640/13901532_1177064405647705_3688766833944516444_n.jpg" width="419" /></a></div>
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I added the standard text and logo just because I couldn't resist, but it looks great even as it is. I almost want to release the book with this as a variant cover. The artist has also insisted on doing the full cover instead of just the character art. Given that he is asking the same price as my last two artists who am I to argue, but I will pay him more. I can't wait to see the final product.</div>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-12291646483025399862016-08-02T06:25:00.000-07:002016-08-02T06:25:25.138-07:00Fitness LogAnd now for something completely different.<br />
<br />
On a blog mostly about writing, indie publishing and tech it might be odd to see a title like Fitness Log, but let's get something out there. I'm overweight. My weight has always fluctuated, when I was younger I would pack on weight during the winter only to shed it in the summer. After the diagnosis of my son Owen's illness I began to add on the pounds slowly and never lost them again. Stress, illness, stress, not eating right, stress, work issues, stress, willpower loss, stress, etc... led to be reaching 250lbs.<br />
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Inspired by friends who have lost weight, my wife who lost the stress weight over the last year, and the fact that I don't like being this heavy I am now taking the weight loss seriously. Combine this with the fact that I will start making appearances for my books and I don't want to roll up looking like GRRM and I have a definite goal.<br />
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To that end I have purchased several pieces of gym equipment, am fixing up my bike and am taking on a revised diet and exercise plan. I'll also be posting my progress on here as a means of motivation and encouragement for myself and others.<br />
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To start let's list the exercise plan:<br />
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Office Days:<br />
Wake Up: A40 workout 3-5 sets.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUxsfaPBM6I">A40 workout</a>: 10 Flutter Kicks, 10 Toe Reaches, 10 Pull Ins, 10 Reverse Crunches with leg Extensions<br />
At Office, A40 Ab workout every hour, walk around building every 1-2 hours.<br />
Return home and commence resistance training.<br />
Ride Bike around neighborhood.<br />
3x20 Bench Press<br />
3x20 Seated Rows<br />
3x20 Lat Pulls (alternating front and reverse)<br />
3x20 Tricep Pushes<br />
3x20 Bicep Curls<br />
3x15-20 Kettle-bell Squats<br />
3-5 A40 Ab Workouts<br />
After dinner, cool down walk with the boys. (Pokemon Go Walk)<br />
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Telework Days/Weekends<br />
After getting everyone else out the door complete resistance training workout.<br />
A40 Ab Workout every hour<br />
Longer hike/bike ride as time allows.<br />
After dinner, cool down walk with the boys (Pokemon Go Walk)<br />
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Diet Plan:<br />
Breakfast: No Earlier than 8-9AM depending in wakeup time. Low/No Carb, High Protein (Bacon and Eggs)<br />
Lunch: 12 Noon timeframe, Low/No Carb, High Protein (Varies depending on availability)<br />
Dinner: Post evening Workout, Low/No Carb, High Protein. (Chicken, Steak, Salad)<br />
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Assuming that I can stay with this I hope to lose a significant amount of weight by my first official book appearance at the Olympic Collectibles Show on 1 October. That is also when my new gym will open and I will start using their equipment and varying my workout more.<br />
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And since I am engineer, as well as a writer, let's go over my current numbers, which I will update weekly:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Height: 6'</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Weight: 247lbs</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Waist Size: 44"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Neck Size: 18" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Bicep Size: 15"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Thigh Size: 25" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Calf Size: 17" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Chest Size: 46"</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Ultimate Goal, assuming no major muscle weight additions, 200lbs, and 36" waist.</span></span></span><br />
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<br />SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-39994492480759696072016-07-27T07:54:00.001-07:002016-07-27T07:54:42.145-07:00Space Opera: Writers, Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest WINNER!<img height="320" src="https://scontent.ftul1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13735715_10206584707968836_7865480052073190893_o.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/Spaceoperawriters/">The Space Opera: Writers Facebook Group</a> began a flash fiction contest last winter to be run quarterly. I skipped the first one for personal reasons and have submitted in the last two. I placed second in the Spring Contest as judged Author <a href="https://www.facebook.com/david.farland1?fref=ts">David Farland</a>. This, of course, made me ecstatic. So I competed again in the summer contest as judged by<a href="https://www.facebook.com/PeterFHamilton/?fref=ts"> Peter F Hamilton</a>. And this time. I won. I was blown away to see that this morning. The entries will be compiled by the group's leader, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bruce.mcglasson?fref=ts">Scott McGlasson</a>, into an ebook for free distribution, but this is a huge add to my writing resume. I will post the link to the ebook once it is completed for sure.<br />
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For those that don't know, flash fiction is a short story, in this case 1000 words or less, based on a starter phrase or image. In the case of this contest, six images were presented. Authors picked an image, wrote their story and submitted it for judging by the moderators (in the blind, no names attached). The top three were then submitted to the final arbiter, Peter F. Hamilton.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The images for the Sunmmer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest</td></tr>
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There were a total of 35 entries this time, and most were quite good. I based mine on image number 6. I have read through the entries and liked a great many of them. Some were just not my taste, and others were great romps. I am always impressed by what these talented undiscovered authors can come up with in just 1000 words or less.</div>
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A big shout out to the other two finalist, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chad.dickhaut?fref=ts&ref=br_tf&qsefr=1">Chad Dickhaut</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Josh81?fref=ts">Josh Hayes</a>. Their stories were excellent and I'm still surprised that I won in the end. I also love what PFH wrote about the three finalists, see below.</div>
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Peter F Hamilton has spoken! The celebrity judge of the Space Opera: Writers summer flash fiction contest has handed down his first, second, and third place rankings.</blockquote>
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Says Peter:<br />"Okay, here we go.<br />For the record, this was a lot tougher than I was expecting! They’re all of publishable quality. So the ranking is all down to personal preference, which means very little in the real world.<br />First: Hermetic History<br />Second: The Day We Tore The Sky<br />Third: Salvation<br />Hermetic History. 1000 word stories are always difficult, you have to include plot characters and hopefully a punchline or twist at the end -that’s what I always look out for. This story has all of these, in addition to some very professional prose. It conjured up a decent worldview in a few paragraphs, then made me wonder exactly how it was going to end. Given the length, not a page turner, but I wanted to know what was coming next. The goal of any story. Also, using Elon made me chuckle.<br />The Day We Tore The Sky. The ‘voice’ of the story was really well established in the first few lines. An essential quality in a piece this short. Personal preference again, I liked the tough-guy character with a pretty bleak sense of humour. There was a lot in here helping to place the reader in the world, with all its excess government security and missions that never go to plan adding to the believability. As always, I was wondering how it would end, and yes it ended well.<br />Salvation. (For transparency I should declare Salvation is also the name of the book I’m currently writing, but I’m fairly sure I managed to put that to one side) The only reason I placed this third was because although it was well written, and covered all the bases of making me want to read on, it felt like it was a section of a much larger work. This is a credit to the worldbuilding, which set up an intriguing civilisation and a conflict within it. I simply wanted more out of it than a story this length could realistically provide. If Josh has the detailed structure of this universe mapped out, along with the character arcs, maybe he should consider a longer piece set here.<br />best"</blockquote>
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This win is still blowing me away and now I just have to decide how I will proceed. I think that I may compile this story with my second place finisher from last contest along with some other shorts I have been tossing around into a collection of short stories. I might also submit them to some anthologies. I will keep you apprised as I make my decision.</div>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-85808439828864805812016-07-26T11:08:00.000-07:002016-07-26T11:09:22.408-07:00Five Page Fixes #1 Star Trek (2009)Welcome to the first installment of Five Scene Fixes. Unlike YouTube series like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYUQQgogVeQY8cMQamhHJcg">Cinema Sins,</a> that only point the problems, in these posts I will look at popular media (movies mostly) that while good (or sometimes bad) could have been made great with just minor adjustments. I will try and limit these "fixes" to only what was seen in the original releases, keeping track of subsequent director's cuts and extended editions will only complicate matters. Some of these fixes will be minor, others may call for the complete rewriting of the scene, but sometimes even a throw away line can be enough to make a giant plot hole disappear.<br />
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Before we get started on the minor fixes that would have made this movie better, let me put this forward. I like Star Trek, I am not a huge Trek fan, growing up on Star Wars myself, but I always enjoyed Star Trek for what it was, a great platform for writers to tell allegorical sci-fi stories. It could almost be treated as an anthology series similar to the Twilight Zone, if it did not have a recurring cast of characters. Those characters and stories became iconic in sci-fi and helped to establish many of the sci-fi tropes we know and love today. When I first heard about the reboot I had no issue with it, assuming it was done with respect to the original vision of the creator, Gene Roddenberry.<br />
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Don't get me wrong, Star Trek 2009 is not a bad movie. It just left some large plotholes in there and could have been made that much better with just a little work, or by adding just a few lines. One of the biggest complaints that I know many people had with the movie was Kirk's precipitous rise to captaincy from being, basically a delinquent with zero space time under his belt prior to entering starfleet. So let's get to the fixes:<br />
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#1: The Bar Scene; Add in a line from Pike about how Kirk served on a civilian or Star Trek Merchant Marine type ship, maybe even made Executive Officer and was recommended to Starfleet by the captain. This would also be a nice place to drop a nod to the original series, by naming another civilian ship captain.<br />
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#2: The shipyard: There was no reason to show the almost completed Enterprise on the ground. It would have been just as effective to show the major hull pieces of the Enterprise on the ground, for later assembly in orbit. This is more a design level discussion, and the design of the NuTrek Enterprise has never sat well with me.<br />
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#3: The Transwarp Transporter: Sorry but just inputting an algorithm would not make the transport due what they needed, actual code would be required, and probably some physical alteration. Adding just a shot of the transporter exploding after use might actually suffice to ram this home, and a line from Scotty about how he's been souping up the transporter as well.<br />
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#4: The Core Ejection. Simple Fix, don't eject the core, but the Antimatter Reserves. (I said some of these were simple fixes).<br />
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#5: This one is not a scene fix so much as a design issue. I have always despised the design of the ships in this film. The exterior of the Enterprise, while similar to the original, was just too flowing, and it had numerous size discrepancy issues. The biggest failure however was to the interior designs. Modern ships are designed around compartmentalization, keeping spaces only as large as necessary in case of hull breaches. A ship like the Enterprise would be similarly designed. Filming in a brewery might have been necessary for budgetary reasons, but adding in some digital walls would have helped to a great degree. The vast open chambers of the engineer deck just hurt any suspension of disbelief. Nero's ship was even worse with the whole interior not appearing to have any interior walls.<br />
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Like I said, some films don't need much in terms of fixes, the next NuTrek film however, that one was a mess. That being said, I loved Star Trek Beyond.SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-8743997627788575072016-07-26T08:50:00.001-07:002016-07-26T08:50:12.285-07:00We're Back...<br />
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Sorry for the last of updates for the last 9 months. Life has been busy, and has kept me from working on this. But, we are back now. Here are some updates:<br />
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Spiral War, Book 3, Rising Warriors, Rising Threat, is with the editor and should be back in my hands NLT my birthday in late August. After that I will send it off to the Beta Readers, including the cover artist before finalization and hopeful release in Fall 2016. I will be posting this novel to Kindle Scout, see if I can't get Amazon to help foot the bill for advertising and promotions.<br />
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Spiral War, Book 4, The Gorvian Campaign (Working Title), is finished and now fermenting before I jump in to the self edit. I have submitted the first three chapters to the <a href="http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/">OWW </a>however for comment as I proceed through my self edit.<br />
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I am also stepping up my own self-promotion game. I will be attending several conventions in the coming months, some I missed out on the deadline to appear, but the first will be a tiny art and hobby show at work. I won't be able to sell there, but it will get me some exposure, and I will hand out the new book cards with links to here, the amazon purchase site, and the ISBN for physical book purchase. Speaking of which, I have two boxes full of Books 0, 1, and 2, awaiting my convention appearances.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My special Owen showing off the hardcopies.</td></tr>
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<br />Convention appearance one will be at the <a href="http://olympiccollectibleexpo.com/">Olympic Collectible Expo's</a> fall show on October 1, 2016 at the Silverdale Beach Hotel. I missed the last show, but am glad to appear at this one.<br />
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I am on the wait list for <a href="http://www.jetcitycomicshow.com/">Jet City Comic Show </a> on November 5-6, 2016. Crossing my fingers to get into this one. I will update on this and other upcoming appearances as they arise.<br />
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Onto the writing front, some errors were pointed out in the current edition of Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings. As a result, I am preparing a version 1.2. I found most the errors pretty quickly, which was upsetting, but then I have gotten better on the editing front, so that is not surprising. Version 1.2, which will update to all kindle addresses for free, will include a new Forward section to address the issues and hopefully appease some fans.<br />
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Final note for this update. I love doing reviews and am getting back into it. As part of that, I will bring out an old game I used to play with my father and other writers, 5 Scene Fixes. In that we take a movie or show that could have been great, but was hampered, and maybe ruined by 5 scenes, in some cases more. My first victim, the Star Trek reboots. That being said, I saw Star Trek Beyond over the weekend and absolutely loved it, so a longer review will be forthcoming.SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-47208295624482154542015-10-23T12:42:00.001-07:002015-10-23T12:42:03.267-07:00Review Roundup October 2015I have not posted any book or movie reviews of late, but that is because I have been doing them for my old friends over at <a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/">Slice of Sci-Fi</a> and their sister sites. Rather than post each one as it went up I decided to wait and post the lost of them at once.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/09/11/reviewing-listening/">Listening</a> </h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px;">Listening is a movie that I would rate as average. There is little about it that makes it stand out amongst other movies, within and without its genre. This does not mean that Listening is a bad movie, it simply doesn’t bring much new to the table.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/09/11/reviewing-containment/">Containment</a></span></span></h2>
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<b>Review Summary:</b></div>
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I have never lived in a tower block/apartment building; part of the reasoning behind this is because I always saw them as perfect havens for disease vectors. This movie plays with that concept to a great degree, along with themes about not knowing your neighbors, fear of authority, isolation, and paranoia.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><u><a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/09/25/reviewing-nightmare-code/">Nightmare Code</a></u></span></span></h2>
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The way these characters interact and the lack of flashy hollywood computer usage was a welcome change for me. I did my share of code writing and debugging in college and could feel their frustration. Forget the flashy screens and multiple person at a keyboard typing away like mad monkeys, this is what debugging code looks like. Mostly bored folks looking for stimulus as they scroll through line after line of text. Overall this is a great movie, and I recommend it for anyone who is interested in coding, computers and who wants to see a good A.I. movie.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/10/06/reviewing-june/">June</a></u></span></h2>
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This is an interesting film, but doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and most genre fans will spot inspiration from various other films. What I have found most interesting is the nebulous time frame the movie takes place in. The three adult leads will be recognizable to folks from my generation, appearing in numerous genre films since the mid-nineties. It was almost a 90s reunion, which kind of works as the movie appears to be set in the early to mid 90s.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/10/02/reviewing-the-princess-the-scoundrel-and-the-farm-boy/">Star Wars: A New Hope: The Princess, The Scoundrel, and The Farm Boy</a></span></span></h2>
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Review Summary:</h4>
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Do not consider this book a replacement for the movie, or the original novelization ghost written by Alan Dean Foster. Instead, look at it as a supplement. This book does an excellent job of getting into Leia’s head and really lets the reader/listener (since I am reviewing the audiobook version) know what she felt through this adventure. I almost would have liked the book to tell the whole story through her viewpoint, and those of the others as well.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.2;"><a href="http://www.writersafterdark.com/review-so-you-want-to-be-a-jedi/">Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to be a Jedi?</a></span></h1>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">When most people think about Empire, they consider it one of the best of the Original Trilogy Star Wars movies. It develops greatly on A New Hope and expands on the nature of The Force and the Jedi, and the universe at large. This book tosses out most of that for fairy tale stylings, and adds a trite fairy tale about Yoda right in the middle of the book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.writersafterdark.com/review-star-wars-beware-the-power-of-the-dark-side/">Star Wars Beware The Power of the Dark Side</a></span></h2>
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Overall the book doesn’t add much to the story, and is an almost straight retelling of the movie but does add new links to the prequel trilogy and also describes a far more desperate rebel fleet then other media has portrayed. The audiobook is quite good and the choice of music good as well, though I would have preferred if they didn’t use the Ewok theme as much. Given that this book tried to portray them as warriors so much more, hearing the jaunty theme from the movie here actually did them a disservice.</div>
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<span class="entry-title-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2015/10/05/do-the-young-adult-retellings-of-the-original-star-wars-trilogy-work/">Do the Young Adult Retellings of the Original “Star Wars” Trilogy Work?</a></span></h1>
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This was a follow up to my earlier review of these three books where I outlined what they did right, and also their significant failings.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.writersafterdark.com/review-deadlands-ghostwalkers/">Deadlands: Ghostwalkers</a></span></h2>
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Throw every trope and genre you can into the mix, it’s here in some form or another. It can be a bit overwhelming at times, but made for a fun pre-Halloween read. My oldest wants to read it after he finishes my old HP Lovecraft books. The book also features more than it’s share of violence, and might not be for the squeamish. If a movie is ever made of this, Rob Zombie will probably be involved, let’s put that out there.</div>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-16974880147989982332015-10-06T12:47:00.003-07:002015-10-06T12:47:52.916-07:00The Martian Movie Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://danirachmat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/the-martian-600x450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://danirachmat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/the-martian-600x450.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Go see this movie. No, seriously, grab a friend, or two, or more, and go see this movie. 5 Stars. Then come back here and read the review.</div>
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Did you go see the movie?</div>
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What do you mean no?</div>
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Need more of a reason, here's the trailer:</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ej3ioOneTy8/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ej3ioOneTy8?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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Grab your keys and your wallet, or someone with keys and wallet and go see this movie, now.</div>
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Did you see the movie yet?</div>
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Well whether you have or not, spoilers ahead. Quite simply put, this is the best movie I've seen this year. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate it when movies deviate too far from the source materials, especially when it's a book. I hated movies like I-Robot, Starship Troopers, I Am Legend, etc... for doing just that. On the flip side I have praise the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies.</div>
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This movie, while taking certain liberties from the book, stuck to it fairly well. I understand why it it deviated too, most of the time it was to move the story along at a faster pace. While there were some scenes I would have liked to have seen, losing them didn't upset me. Even the additions didn't get my blood boiling. Yes, there were a couple that were there for the ego of the stars, but they were ok and I could pass them off. Even the extended ending, compared to the book, worked well in my opinion, it offered more closure.</div>
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I could sit down here for hours and dissect every scene of the film, but I won't. It it simply a great film. It is smart, it is funny, it is well paced, and it is believable. They didn't turn any of the characters into mustache twirling villains, and on some level you could relate to almost everyone in it. </div>
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This was a story about people coming together to save a single brave hero. And, it worked. It worked so well. I hope that Andy Weir gets a dump truck full of royalties for this movie.</div>
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And for those of you haven't read the book.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA"><b>BUY THIS BOOK!!!</b></a></h3>
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5 Stars, well earned by all involved. Now go see the movie if you haven' yet.</div>
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<br />SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-90365155375890523992015-08-03T10:38:00.002-07:002015-08-03T10:38:35.246-07:00Book review, Of Ice And Magic by Hugh B Long<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Once again <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hugh-B.-Long/e/B0095JP0EI/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1">Hugh B. Long</a> showcases his expertise in Nordic history and mythology with this engrossing novella. This was quite the fun read. The story follows a Nordic blacksmith who forges living swords, fantastic weapons imbued with the soul of a willing sacrifice. After forging such a blade his customer, an overly ambitious clan chief murders the smith's wife. The smith then embarks on a quest for vengence.<br />
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I don't want to to give away too much in this review as this is Novella is a short read. The writing in this book is great and focuses primarily on the blacksmith as the main character, but opens from the perspective of the sword itself, which, as stated, is imbued with a willing soul. <br />
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Long's writing style lends it self well to a visual realm, and I could see it adapted to a short film or fantasy anthology series without much difficulty. The story could likewise be fleshed out into a much longer novel, and I applaud Long for keeping this story short and to the point.<br />
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Shield Rating 95%. (Well written/edited and a good length for a novella)<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Of-Ice-Magic-Hugh-Long-ebook/dp/B011N13UZG">Of Ice and Magic</a><br />
File Size: 3415 KB<br />
Print Length: 88 pages<br />
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited<br />
Publisher: Asgard Studios (July 14, 2015)<br />
Publication Date: July 14, 2015<br />
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.<br />
Language: English<br />
ASIN: B011N13UZG<br />
Text-to-Speech: Enabled <br />
X-Ray:<br />
Not Enabled <br />
Word Wise: Not Enabled<br />
Lending: EnabledSF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-19061602703675318072015-08-01T09:10:00.001-07:002016-07-26T09:07:23.100-07:00<p dir="ltr">Once again Hugh B. Long showcases his expertise in Nordic history and mythology with this engrossing novella. This was quite the fun read. The story follows a Nordic blacksmith who forges living swords, fantastic weapons imbued with the soul of a willing sacrifice. After forging such a blade his customer, an overly ambitious clan chief murders the smith's wife. The smith then embarks on a quest for vengence.</p>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-1424861292412993172015-07-30T10:02:00.002-07:002015-07-30T10:02:04.587-07:00Book Review: The Forgotten Prince (Second Star Book 2), By Josh Hayes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What if Neverland was a real planet out there? What if the story of Peter Pan as we know it was a flawed retelling of the actual events on that planet? That is the idea that Josh Hayes took and ran with in this series of books.<br />
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I will admit that I have not yet read book<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 1 of the series, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Star-Breaking-Josh-Hayes-ebook/dp/B00ODQIKFY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Breaking Through</a>, but I will rectify that soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That being said I was not lost at all as I started reading this book. Many a new author when writing a series will not write the second book assuming the reader has finished the first book. This is always a mistake, and one that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Josh-Hayes/e/B00O4VA2YK/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0">Josh Hayes</a> has avoided. I was in the action from the first word and didn't feel like I had to play catch up at all. The characters were reintroduced well and we were off on an adventure in Neverland.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But this isn't the same Neverland you grew up with, and the main character, John McNeal, is well aware of that, commenting on that several times in the book. It is nice to see a character who is <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreSavvy">genre savvy</a> in that way. John finds himself in the middle of a civil war between the Regency, led by the Infamous Captain Hook and his second in command Commander Peter Pantiri, and the rebellious Lost Boys led by Wendy herself.</span><br />
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As the book progresses it becomes more obvious that it is the middle part of the story, and as the author explains at the end of the book, he has plotted out a four book series. The ending left me wanting more and caring about what happened next to the characters. The book also left some questions unanswered, foreshadowing some things that will, hopefully, happen in the rest of the series. Book 2 of a series is always a good place to do this kind of thing. <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">I was never a huge fan of Peter Pan growing up, the tale of a little boy who never grew up and never matured just didn't work for me. I think having seen the </span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Disney</span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> version first hurt my impression of the book. Though I did love the short lived Fox series </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_and_the_Pirates" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Peter Pan and the Pirates.</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/6500000/Peter-Pan-Wallpaper-disney-6583577-1024-768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/6500000/Peter-Pan-Wallpaper-disney-6583577-1024-768.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://neverpedia.com/wiki/images/thumb/7/7e/PP%26Pirates.jpg/250px-PP%26Pirates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://neverpedia.com/wiki/images/thumb/7/7e/PP%26Pirates.jpg/250px-PP%26Pirates.jpg" height="320" width="178" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Peter in ripped up rags just looks so much more fleshed out then in tights, plus hook doesn't look like a joke.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a fun, genre defying book, with some fun characters and a world that gets more fleshed out with every page. I am definitely looking forward to the next two books in the series and plan to go back and read the opening novella as well now to see what I missed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Book Shield Rating: 91% (some minor editting glitches crept through, but nothing that I wouldn't see coming out of a major house as well as an indie publication.)</span><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Prince-Second-Star-Book-ebook/dp/B0115790HU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Forgotten Prince </span></a></b><br />
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>File Size: </b>2005 KB</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Print Length: </b>155 pages</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Simultaneous Device Usage: </b>Unlimited</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Publication Date: </b>August 14, 2015</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Sold by: </b>Amazon Digital Services, Inc.</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Language: </b>English</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>ASIN: </b>B0115790HU</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Text-to-Speech: </b>Enabled </span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>X-Ray: </b></span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Not Enabled </span><b style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"> </b></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Word Wise: </b>Not Enabled</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b>Lending: </b>Enabled</span></span></li>
</ul>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-5394424459343797812015-07-28T09:37:00.001-07:002015-07-28T09:37:27.811-07:00More Reviews IncomingLike the title says I will be posting some more reviews soon. I have been forwarded ARC (Advanced Reader Copies) of two books by fellow Indie Authors that I am in the process of reading for review.<br />
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The first is The Forgotten Prince by Josh Hayes.<br />
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Release Date is 14 August, but I should have my review up in time.</div>
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The second book is Of Ice and Magic by Hugh B. Long.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_sI9t255wR3-jKEUFyZOu9JLi8UA0xRhIrmL4BdEYHYJFC_3_epPOk9nS7nPa649kq__xpVvu0y51fRErM_K0G7jh631eJX6I5-trvuBE9q6majtXSd2LIh8DiDH3ff00ZbfLhiDGcg/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_sI9t255wR3-jKEUFyZOu9JLi8UA0xRhIrmL4BdEYHYJFC_3_epPOk9nS7nPa649kq__xpVvu0y51fRErM_K0G7jh631eJX6I5-trvuBE9q6majtXSd2LIh8DiDH3ff00ZbfLhiDGcg/s400/unnamed.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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Released on 16 July 2015, I will get this one done right after Josh's book.</div>
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I am also considering some more movie reviews in the future, and since I just reread it, a review of the book, The Martian, but I think I will wait until I see the movie on that one, compare and contrast. I also came across some old notes of mine from discussions my oldest and I used to have about how I would remake/rewrite a certain movie franchise that I am considering posting, but I'm not sure yet if I should. Time will tell.</div>
<br />SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-2998716002827292122015-07-06T09:08:00.001-07:002015-07-08T06:07:39.920-07:00Terminator GENiSYS Review.<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Terminator GENiSYS review.</h2>
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<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcToT_BFrHTP-ivud58j1X8mNRxpwSdJpDM6rGUMjySDpzQr7_pg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcToT_BFrHTP-ivud58j1X8mNRxpwSdJpDM6rGUMjySDpzQr7_pg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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Warning, there will be spoilers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You have been warned.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Still here?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ok, let’s begin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let me just say, that despite it’s many flaws, I love the
Terminator franchise. I have ever since
I saw the original Terminator, when I was far too young to be allowed to see an
R-rated movie mind you, but hey it was the 80s and my grandparents slept in
late.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I still consider the original Terminator to be one of the
best sci-fi-action-thrillers ever put on screen. It is a tightly written causal loop time
travel story, that is made even moreso by the scenes cut from the theatrical
release. In those scenes we see Kyle
Reese dealing with being a man out of time, cliché, but was well done and
showed that Michael Beihn had some real acting chops. The other key scene was at the end where an
employee at the plant where the Terminator is destroyed shows the damaged arm
and chip to his friend, who then tells him to hide them, shuffling his friend
out of frame in time to show the cybverdine systems logo behind them. Had the franchise ended there all would be
right with the world. Terminator did not
need a sequel, nor did anyone really want one.
Some people call the movie’s ending bleak, but they forget that while
Judgement Day was coming, the war was won thanks to John Connor, otherwise
Reese and the Terminator would never have been sent back in time, and John
would not have been conceived.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.latinpost.com/data/images/full/33720/terminator-genisys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images.latinpost.com/data/images/full/33720/terminator-genisys.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is a funny scene in the later half of the movie where they compare the heights of all the actors. Funny but not right for a Terminator Movie.</td></tr>
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I’ll discuss the other movies later, but let’s jump to
GENiSYS. (Yes I am writing it that way
for a reason, will get back to that later).
On the whole, it was a fun summer action movie, with plenty of cheesy
one liners, explosions enough to make Michael Bay’s mouth water, and gunplay to
satisfy your post July-4<sup>th</sup> need for action. It lacked the tension and the sense of
unrelenting doom that original Terminator brought to screen. On the whole, this soft reboot of the
franchise (which relies heavily on the viewer having seen the previous movies)
is what I would call a missed opportunity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The movie opens with Kyle Reese’s Monologue about how his
future history, including Judgement Day and how he eventually meets John Connor
(played by Jason Clarke, he does a great job BTW for the most part). This is well done, but feels very much like a
book prologue, and on the whole, I prefer how the original handled this. It also throws out the continuity established
in Terminator Salvation for how John and Kyle meet. When John kills an early terminator, saving
Kyle, it is great, the Terminator in question doesn’t look like Arnold,
reinforcing that they don’t all look alike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We then continue into the future war all the way up to the
final battle, where John Connor leads an assault on a Skynet work camp, instead
of the assault on the Skynet main core in Colorado. Kyle questions this, but John assures him that
there is a reason. All looks hopeless
when suddenly all the Terminators, Hunter Killers, etc… all shutdown Phantom
Menace style with the destruction of Skynet over a thousand miles away. But it’s too late, and a T-800 model 101 has
been sent back to 1984.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The resistance then takes the base and Kyle is sent back in
time. Ladies the following scenes are for you, naked Jai Courtney and CG naked
Arnold. However I must point something
out here. Michael Biehn was a wirey guy,
that fit the role of a man fighting for his life in the post-apoc, Jai Courtney
is a beefy bruiser, while he handled the role well, he had far too much muscle
mass for the role. This is where things
start to change. *** SPOILERS HERE
*** The biggest surprise, which wasn’t
shown in the trailers happens here. The
Doctor, I mean Matt Smith, or an all new terminator type, played by Matt Smith,
attacks John Connor just as Kyle begins to travel back in time. Kyle then proceeds to see two different
possible timelines, the one he grew up in, and one where Judgment day was
postponed 20 years. In the process, the
Kyle sees two pivotal events that will help him later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.filmclub.es/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/kylereesecomparison-550x220.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.filmclub.es/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/kylereesecomparison-550x220.jpg" height="256" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your Four John Connor's to date:<br />
Wheres the Beef, Chicken Sandwich, Whopper Junior, In 'N out 4x4.</td></tr>
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Kyle and the T-800 arrive in 1984, much like the
original. Only in the case the T-800 is
intercepted before getting his snazzy punker duds by an older T-800 who it
proceeds to get into a brawl with before someone with a Barret M82 50Cal Sniper
rifle drills a special round through the chest of the T-800. How they got hold of a gun that was only
introduced 4 years earlier is left unstated.
The CG Arnold is not terrible, and in most shots looks pretty good, not
entirely convincing, but close enough.
In too many shots it still looks very claylike with some serious uncanny
valley, which kind of works for the character.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theterminatorfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CGI-T-800-Terminator-Genisys-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.theterminatorfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CGI-T-800-Terminator-Genisys-2.jpg" height="225" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The image on the left is from the trailer (it looks better in the final film) and the right from the original Terminator. Close, but not close enough.</td></tr>
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Meanwhile Kyle finds himself pursued by a T-1000 while he
steals some clothes from a homeless man.
He is arrested by two uniformed police officers during the chase. One is killed, while the other releases him
just before Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke, rocking more the T-2 Linda Hamilton
look that the T-1 poffy 80s hair) smashes into the clothing store in an armored
truck and saves him. “Come with me if
you want to live!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I know which Sarah Connor I prefer.<br />
Two Games of Thrones Actresses play Sarah Connor, I wonder if they ever joke about that.</td></tr>
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Kyle is left obviously confused as to why meek little Sarah
Connor just saved him and has a Terminator guardian. There is a brief fight about this and a chase
by the T-1000 before they lead it back to a trap they’d been setting for it
since 1973. Seems that the older T-800
was sent back in time, by person’s unknown, to protect Sarah and raise her into
being a warrior woman. “Pops,” as she
has named him, has even briefed her on whole Kyle Reese will be to her, the
father of her future savior son, John Connor.
She has some very awkward talks with Pops about why she doesn’t immediately jump Kyle’s
bones, and there is definite tension between Kyle and Pops, not just because he
is a Terminator, but also some father-suitor issues going on.</div>
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The trio defeats the T-1000 by raining acid on it. I liked this bit, it was well done. They also melt down the younger T-800 in the
acid. Pops is damaged in the fighting
though with several facial scars and the flesh of his right hand melted away
before Sarah can treat it with an acid neutralizing Base solution. This hand was also damaged when fighting the
younger T-800, and will come back into play later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sarah and Pops then reveal their plans to Kyle. They have constructed a one-time use time machine
that will send them forward to 1997, so that they can destroy Skynet before
Judgement Day. Kyle correctly points out however that they have
now altered the timeline, and that now Skynet will go online in 2017 using a Trojan
Horse program called GENiSYS. This was
the first message he received from his younger self, the second is a hand
gesture he shows Sarah, one that only comes about because of the 1973 intervention
of Pops and the T-1000 (it had been hunting her for 10 years). This convinces her to jump forward to 2017
instead. Ladies more naked Jai Courtney,
gentlemen, it’s PG-13 so we get some above the butt backside of Emilia Clarke
only, go watch Game of Thrones if you want more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Kyle and Sarah arrive in the middle of the San Francisco freeway,
disrupting traffic, a callout to the
Sarah Connor Chronicles. Pops was supposed
to meet them there, taking “the long road” and waiting for them for 33 years
preparing. He, unfortunately, gets
caught in traffic and they are arrested, and taken to a local hospital. There two detectives are told to process them
before homeland security arrives, but another detective, an older drunk detective
(JK Simmons) insists that there is something more about these two, he
recognizes Kyle. He even bursts in on
the interrogation and after revealing that he was the surviving beat cop from
1984, Kyle starts a ruckus and the detectives leave when told that Homeland has
arrives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Homeland Security agent turns out to be John
Connor. He helps the pair to escape as
Pops arrives at the Hospital with a giant teddy bear, and accidentally reveals
that he Kyle is his father. The quartet
meet back up in the parking garage where Pops attacks John with no explanation
before John gets back up and reveals himself to be, you guessed it a Terminator
(come on it was in the previews). John
is an all new type of Terminator created by Skynet at the very end that
replaces every cell in the person’s body with magnetically adhering
nanobots. A fight ensues and the trio
escape thanks to trapping John with an MRI machine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I won’t spoil the rest, or reveal too much more about the
plot. Needless to say the heroes fight
to stop skynet going online. Cyberdyne has
created an app/OS called GENiSYS that links all electronic devices, phones,
tablets, computers, cars, even military hardware (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and it goes
online in less than 24 hours. Once that
happens, and everyone downloads it, Skynet will come online and start Judgement
Day. The heroes eventually prevail and
destroy the Cyberdyne HQ, stopping GENiSYS from going online, and averting
Judgement Day, happy ending. I was told
later that there is an after credits scene with a server node comes back online and the holographic Skynet
is shown to be alive (can we please stop these stupid after credit’s scenes?).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All in all it was fun and as a straight action movie (with
too much comedy) would give it a Shield Rating of 77%.<br />
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The PG-13 rating really hurt this movie in a lot of ways,
and no not because of the lack of nudity or cussing. The PG-13 rating pushed the humor and forced
the removal of the blood and gore that made the earlier Terminator movies feel
so much more real and gave them that sense of dread. In all the earlier movies blood dripped off
the T-800s when they took damage. The
scene in T-2 when the Terminator rips the skin off its arm to reveal the blood
soaked metal beneath sells the scene.
There is none of that here and it hurts the movie as a result.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://thehollywoodprojects.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/robot-arm.png?w=620" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://thehollywoodprojects.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/robot-arm.png?w=620" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at all that gore.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.coresites.factorymedia.com/mpora_new/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Terminator-face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.coresites.factorymedia.com/mpora_new/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Terminator-face.jpg" height="135" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bloody, bloody, bloody.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theterminatorfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CGI-T-800-Terminator-Genisys-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.theterminatorfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CGI-T-800-Terminator-Genisys-1.jpg" height="265" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Umm, that looks awfully clean for having half a face torn of 2 seconds ago.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As a Terminator movie, and a time travel movie, I give it a Shield Rating of
42%.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was hoping this would be a full on reboot of the series
and it really could have been. Keeping
just the primary elements of the story this could have been done very well and
could have formed a nice Causal Loop story.
The Comedy in it, while funny, was in appropriate to the tone of what a
Terminator Movie is supposed to be. T-2
started introducing the Comedy, but it was delivered in an uncomfortable way
that reminded the audience of the dire nature of the situation. The whole tone of the movie was too light
hearted to be Terminator.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blacksportsonline.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Terminator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://blacksportsonline.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Terminator.jpg" height="326" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That Smile is pretty terrifying though.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The movie could have easily been made into a true reboot
with just some minor changes:<o:p></o:p></div>
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#1. Erase the
original timeline, just throw it out, no more 1984 attack, no more 1997 Skynet.
Done, kaput, no more. The Star Trek reboot should never be taken as
the format by which to reboot all franchises.
The New Battlestar Galactica had it right, start fresh, make some slight
nods to the original and move on.<o:p></o:p></div>
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#2. Modernize the
whole thing. There is a great line in
the movie about how they can find nothing the system on Sarah Connor, no
fingerprints, no facial recognition through Social Media, etc… Take that idea and run with it and
incorporate that into some good social commentary.<o:p></o:p></div>
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#3. Keep Pops, I
liked him actually but send him back to 2007 to rescue young Sarah Connor, right when Social Media was
starting to come into being and before the pervasive use of smart phones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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#4. In 2017 Sarah
Connor come back into play, she is spotted on Social Media when she and Pops
come out of hiding and start their bid to take down Skynet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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#5. Multiple
Terminators are sent back to stop her and ensure the creation of Skynet as
well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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#6. The resistance
still wins in the future and sends back Kyle.
Once Kyle is sent back John then orders another T-800-101 out of storage
before something attacks him, maybe even show another model terminator attack
him.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
#7. The rest can move along much for
the movie, did but remove the comedy, or make it darker, this a serious and
dark story. Have Sarah save Kyle, the
uncomfortable bit with Pops, all that and make some real social commentary about
too much inter-connectivity in devices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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#8. Instead of the birth
of GENiSYS causing Judgment from the start show/explain that the Skynet
consciousness evolves from it, and eventually blackmails the military into
installing into their weapon systems, or installing Skynet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
#9. This is the
important part, have them fail to stop Genisys, let them blow up the main site,
only to see the countdown continue and the altered John Terminator reveal that
there was more than one server location before it dies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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#10. Show the
survivors escape back into the wild, with shots taken from various social
media, and CCTV sources. Maybe even show
Sarah as pregnant and agonizing over whether or not to tell him what will
happen to him, if it even really was him and not some kind of copy. Include messages they post to the web about
not trusting GENiSYS or Skynet, warnings that allow people to escape and get
out of the line of fire once Judgment Day comes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
#11. Final bit, maybe
make this an in credits (not post credits scene). Fast forward through Judgmetn Day and the war
back to the time travel device, after the attack that “kills John.”
Show another group of resistance fighters arrive and retake the time
machine, their leader ( a woman) orders the second T-800-101 readied to be reprogrammed
and sent back, also show her grieving the loss of John. This could be an older Sarah or possibly John’s
future wife.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
*** BONUS ROUND ***</h2>
<div>
This next bit is cribbed from a conversation I had on a discussion board about the Terminator Franchise but explains my thoughts on the individual entries.</div>
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<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; padding: 0px;">
I grew up watching a version of the Terminator my G-Pa got that had the cut scenes at the end (back in the 80s) that showed how the whole plot was a casual loop, and how skynet planned to bring about its creation even with the death of Sarah and John. The reveal that the final battle took place at Cyberdine, and that those parts of the terminator survived forms the basis for the creation of Skynet. Even if the terminator were successful, it likely would have self destructed at Cyberdine in order to ensure the creation of Skynet.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; padding: 0px;">
T2 threw the causal loop out the window with its ending, and no one in the movie ever mentions it. Even the cut scenes didn't help matters, there is no reason to ever create the time machine to ensure John Conner's birth and even if you did, they would have to send a terminator and a brainwashed Kyle Reese back in time to do so, to ensure John grows up the right way. Taken on its own T2 can be a good, fun illogical (lets change the past) sci-fi action movie, but it fails as a sequel to a true Causal loop storyline, and also breaks some of the rules established by T1.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; padding: 0px;">
T3, I view as a poor attempt to try and correct the timeline. It shows that somehow the Cyberdine tech survived, and all they managed to do was delay Judgement Day. It could have been done better, with a better John Connor, but it tried to correct the issues left by T2. Even then it leaves massive plot holes, especially in regards to why Kyle tells Sarah certain dates for Judgement Day, that obviously are wrong.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; padding: 0px;">
T4. This movie should have saved the franchise. They jump forward, have an awesome cast, and show us the future war. Unfortunately it was saddled with bad plotting and a terrible director that just bogged the whole thing down. The root story should have worked, and some nice twists could have been worked in, but the fact that Skynet knew who Kyle Reese was ruined things. All the new terminators, especially the giant one, just made no sense and screwed with things. If it had just been the story of how John C rose to power as the leader of the resistance, and met Kyle it would have been great. It maybe could have even introduced or foreshadowed the T-800 at the end, or showed early T-600 infiltration attempts, instead of making them those lumbering oversized humanoids. A proper sequel, or two, would have shown the resistance coming full force against the T-800 infiltrators, and getting their butts handed to them before turning the tide and making the final push on Skynet HQ. The last movie could then end with showing Kyle travel back in time to save Sarah, along with any other Terminator(s) that are sent back.<br />
<br />
What people tend to forget with the original Terminator, is that by having Sarah/John live, we win the war. Yes, Judgement Day is coming, and that is a dark immediate future, but John will save humanity from Skynet, and the only reason he can is because he defeats Skynet before the movie begins. Sending the Terminator back in time was a last ditch effort by Skynet because it had to know the risks of doing so, and possibly knew it had to do so no matter what. Kyle getting sent back is because the human defeated Skynet and so they send him to ensure that John will be born, live and be there to defeat Skynet.</div>
</div>
SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-38243556028211051022015-05-22T20:55:00.001-07:002015-05-22T20:56:27.726-07:00Design Day: Feral Bomber<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4t.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4t.png" height="268" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Sorry for the lack of updates. There has been a lot going on in my personal, professional, and writing life that has kept me from making regular updates. <br />
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So for today's irregular update, I offer up a design day following the development of another iconic <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SpiralWar">Spiral War</a> design. This time, the Feral-F Bomber. For those here who have read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spiral-War-Daggers-S-F-Edwards-ebook/dp/B00WOXCW84/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1430007789&sr=8-2&keywords=spiral+war">Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings</a>, and if you haven't read it, get to it, you know the importance of this craft to the plot and our protagonists personal tale.<br />
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/StrikeMaster2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/StrikeMaster2a.jpg" height="187" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/B-52H_static_display_arms_06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/B-52H_static_display_arms_06.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a>The inspiration for the Feral Bomber came from two sources. The first was an old <a href="http://www.toyarchive.com/Megaforce/Megaforce.html">Mega Force</a> Toy, the <a href="http://www.toyarchive.com/Megaforce/Strikemaster.html">Strike Master Orbital Attack Shuttle</a>'s Booster. I loved the configuration, and thought it would be great for spaceborne bomber craft. The other craft that served as inspiration was the venerable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-52_Stratofortress">B-52 Stratofortress.</a> Like the B-52, the Feral is intended to have a long and storied career, serving throughout the UCSB-GF conflict.<br />
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I originally designed many of my craft using paper and pencil, and unfortunately most of those drawings are now gone. If I can find them, which is doubtful, I will scan and attach the image.<br />
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I then transitioned to CAD back in the mid-90s and redrew the designs in TurboCAD. While I still have most of those files, I cannot access them anymore, the version I used back then is too outdated for any program I have to read the old 2-D drawings.<br />
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Then in the late 90s I started using AUTOCAD. While I have again lost most of those early images I do have some of early redesigns.<br />
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<h3>
Feral-F Bomber, Circa 1997</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/santa-1999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/santa-1999.jpg" height="296" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 1999 Spiral War (then Infinity War) Christmas Card featuring the Feral Bomber of the time with festive textures. I made these for about 5 years, wonder if I should start them up again.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The original design kept with the Strikemaster tri-hulled design, but added torpedo tubes to the front end and a giant cockpit. It also featured three turrets for self defense; one to each side and another in on the tail. The craft also featured three gatling mass driver cannons under the cockpit for attack. I played a lot of Wing Commander at the time and the Broadsword bomber served to inspire the design as well.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/knightspace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/knightspace.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Featuring some old friends on the nacelle, and eight tubes of torpedo spitting death.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/arenaships-broadsword1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/arenaships-broadsword1.png" height="327" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wing Commander was a great game.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As I gained skills at texturing reworked the design slightly mostly by chamfering the nose up so that it was slightly more aerodynamic, just slightly.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/ferlf-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/ferlf-4.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting There. The Major Salient features are there, but she just isn't the Feral, Yet.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
These textures were not created by me, but served to show the direction that I wanted the design to take. Now, the design, at this point, had some serious issues. Those massive low slung engines and weapons nacelles would lead to major thrust imbalance and pitch up issues. </div>
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<h3>
Feral-F Bomber, Circa 2003</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FERAL-F-3-Flight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FERAL-F-3-Flight.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A radical departure in the design that eventually led to something else entirely.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: left;">Keeping the "borrowed" texture of the previous version I tried to come up with a more aerodynamic, and therefore faster, Feral-F Bomber. The design did not go over very well with my friends, whoudl were my only fans at the time. It was too generic, and didn't carry the weight of the old design, nor did it stand as well as an iconic symbol.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
That didn't stop me from creating some variants however, including a Spaceborne Warning And Control Systems (SWACS) version. Or a retextured version.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-2.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-1.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FeralF-3-SWACS-3.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">I always quite liked the SWAC Varaint, Just need to get around to giving the new version the treatment.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FERAL-F-3-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/FERAL-F-3-4.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a><br />
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Then as a joke, I imagined a bomber that I christened the Untamed, it was a ridiculous design that carried dozens of torpedoes in two massive nacelles.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/untamed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/untamed2.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Count the Tubes, the Untamed carried 72 torpedoes in ready to launch tubes. The Feral here, only 12.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="text-align: left;">While ludicrous in size and design, it did inspire the next redesign.</span></div>
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Feral-F Bomber, Circa 2010</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-reg-lrg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-reg-lrg.png" height="640" width="457" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5-Views of a deadly bomber</td></tr>
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The Feral-F redesign would kick of my redesign launch of most of my craft in 2011. For this rendition I wanted to go back to the roots of the design, and the triple fuselage. In order to do that I had to correct of the thrust imbalance issue, that was easy enough to get over, I added engines to the upper, central fuselage.</div>
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On this design you'll also notice that I finally added maneuvering thrusters. These were a long overdue addition. Additional turrets graced the underside of the nacelles, giving a total of five, and adding much needed lower hemisphere coverage. I also cut a bomb bay into the central hull, and as on the previous design added doors to conceal the torpedoes behind.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4v.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4v.png" height="265" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Each Rotoary launcher carried 6 Torpedoes, so the Feral can carry up to 18. The central bay can also house other bombs for planetary attack missions.</td></tr>
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Though hard to see here, the design now featured a rotary launcher for the torpedoes, much like that of moden bombers, like the B-1B and B-2 Stealth Bomber.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4s.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4s.png" height="267" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Landing Skids, deployed.</td></tr>
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When it came time to texture the ship I wanted to give it an iconic look, and what is more iconic than Invasion Stripes?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4t.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4t.png" height="267" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What nose art?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="text-align: left;">With this redesign I also wanted to finally show some details that no other designs had. In this case the Generator for the Electro-Magentic Toroid (EMT) Shield. Even though it is almost always covered, it is there, an serves as a nice detail. There are two of these, one buried in each nacelle arm between the ion screen ports, and Gravitational Shield Emitters.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4w.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4w.png" height="265" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shield Generators and hatches. The two main crew hatches are visible here, as are the escape hatches, though not as clearly. You can also see some discoloration ahead of the engines where the reverse thrusters have messed with the paint.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Another area that got a fair amount of detail was the cockpit, though these pictures are not the best, sorry I need to redo some old renders.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-f.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-f.png" height="200" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is a lavatory/rest space below the cockpit (not pictured)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-c.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-c.png" height="200" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking Aft, the Feral has seating for six flight crew, including the gunners.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4x.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4x.png" height="507" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cockpit Interior, definitely needs new textures applied.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The engines even received a fair amount more detail, which illustrates the power of the craft. Something this big has to have some serious power to move with any kind of respectable velocity.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-g.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Feral/feral-f4-g.png" height="320" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the words of Tim Allen, MORE POWER!!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-31064032440940447492015-04-27T13:02:00.001-07:002015-04-27T13:06:58.920-07:00Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings Rereleased<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVOgqMtfjiem4YSsToqfjtUk79SwG4ZQV_ozP2vI7KxvtulpBkB1_M-8JYDBbdFEM9NW5hjgQ497WmrdI0D_kcTaxlds9dRl2RyulCXLJqyukNU0eh6hUC5fNmzKLSgb9MpoLBb4HHik/s1600/6x9+cover-2.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVOgqMtfjiem4YSsToqfjtUk79SwG4ZQV_ozP2vI7KxvtulpBkB1_M-8JYDBbdFEM9NW5hjgQ497WmrdI0D_kcTaxlds9dRl2RyulCXLJqyukNU0eh6hUC5fNmzKLSgb9MpoLBb4HHik/s1600/6x9+cover-2.tif" height="640" width="419" /></a></div>
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Long story short I wasn't seeing much in the way of sales through my previous distributor/publisher. So since I bought the ISBN for Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings, I decided to pull it back. After some healthy edits to clean up grammar and punctuation mistakes left behind by myself, my editors, and some created during the conversion process I have rereleased <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spiral-War-Daggers-S-F-Edwards-ebook/dp/B00WOXCW84/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1430142842&sr=1-1&keywords=spiral+war">Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings</a> as a Kindle exclusive.<br />
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This move is for a few reasons:</div>
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#1: It allows me to enroll SW: ODW into Kindle Select and Kindle Unlimited. Many independent authors I have spoken with agree that KU has boosted their sales significantly.\</div>
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#2: This rerelease allowed me to make some much needed edits, edits that if I had tried to make them through my previous distributor would have cost me.</div>
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#3: I saw dismal, read almost no, sales out of the other e-book retailers, single digits from both B&N and iBooks. Almost all sales thus far were through Kindle, so I am going to keep with that for now.</div>
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#4: Hopefully this will generate renewed interest in the title as Book 2: In Death's Shadow is forthcoming. I have to put some finishing touches onto the last chapter, then it's off to the beta readers before one final scrub, assembly, and publication.</div>
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Anyone who purchased the previous revision of On Dagger's Wings should get the update automatically if they purchased through amazon. For the few folks who bought the book through ibooks or B&N contact me directly with proof of purchase I and I will send you the update manually.</div>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-79508474382088879392015-04-17T08:45:00.000-07:002015-04-17T08:45:09.788-07:00The Agony of Formatting and E-Book Conversion (A Tutorial)<h2>
Zero Cost E-Book Formatting and Conversion Tutorial</h2>
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So you've written your book, edited it, and have decided to go indie on the publication, casting off the shackles of the "traditional" publishing houses. But how do you ready your novel for publication without going to outside assistance? You can always go out and pay someone to take your individual files, clean them up and convert them, or buy the software to do so, which can range from $40-$160 or more. Well if you're willing to put in a little work and/or are on a tight budget, then consider this method.<br />
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I originally attempted this method as outlined on wikihow:<br />
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub">Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub</a><br />
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It's a good method, but somewhat incomplete and can result in some buggy output.<br />
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In my case the conversion of my book resulted in several thousand html based errors and convinced me to pay for the conversion, which I was never satisfied with. Onto the actual tutorial.<br />
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Resources:<br />
Word Processor (<a href="https://products.office.com/en-us/word">MS Word</a>, <a href="https://www.openoffice.org/">Open Office</a>,<a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/"> Libre Office</a>, etc...)<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/">Google Docs </a><br />
<a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/">Calibre E-Book Manager</a><br />
<a href="http://validator.idpf.org/">An Epub Validator</a> (There are many of these out there, but this one is free and was recommended by my original distributor)<br />
Your Novel.<br />
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Part 1: Formatting and Cleanup.</h3>
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Step 1:</h4>
Using your preferred Word Processor open up your novel, be it all one file or multiple. At this point you may not have done any formatting to the story itself so it will look like the default plain text. If you have already added a chapter title, then you are already a step in the right direction.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/d/d5/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/d/d5/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-4.jpg" height="187" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 2:</h4>
Highlight your main title, select "Format > Styles and Formatting" or the equivalent option for changing a "style" in your word processor, then select from the list of style options: "Heading 1" as shown here:</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/4/41/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-5.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/4/41/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-5.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-5.jpg" height="125" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 3:</h4>
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Repeat this process for every chapter, this is how you will assemble your table of contents later.</div>
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Step 4:</h4>
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This is the step that will take up the most of your time, so settle in for several operator hours, but first meet your new best friend, the Pilcrow ¶. Click the Pilcrow ¶ symbol (1)in your word processor and you should be immediately be presented with a view like the one below. A properly formatted document will have nothing on the page except for the actual text and Pilcrows at the end of a paragraph. Any additional spaces at the end of a paragraph (2), additional tabs (3), or carriage returns (4), should be eliminated. Take your time here, as cleaning up these little errors will have a big impact later after you convert your document, so best to do it now.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNUq7gmFC5ua7zm-v44woaxm6IbnRzqYTl2BxUzjDVmOMuJpjdaWqfmk4EMxE9BsudlthbtHYYx9R-ajcklrCvL1t6qboiyRTIpxrO1StZr0z7OPSvG4KAcR5Iqmxd1Dp6Z7AMNichcI/s1600/Pilcrow-Ex.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNUq7gmFC5ua7zm-v44woaxm6IbnRzqYTl2BxUzjDVmOMuJpjdaWqfmk4EMxE9BsudlthbtHYYx9R-ajcklrCvL1t6qboiyRTIpxrO1StZr0z7OPSvG4KAcR5Iqmxd1Dp6Z7AMNichcI/s1600/Pilcrow-Ex.png" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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Part 2: Compiling.</h3>
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Step 5:</h4>
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Most word processors, MS Word in particular, have a bad habit of sneaking formatting into a document that you cannot readily see. This formatting will bite you hard when you convert to an e-book format. It was suggested by fellow author <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Chakram01?fref=ufi">Bill Frisbee</a> that a way to clean this up would be to first copy and paste the manuscript into google docs.</div>
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To that end, pull up google docs on your favorite web browser and paste the text from your novel into it. Note, it is important to actually cut and paste it in, do not import the document. I further recommend that this where you composite the whole document together. To do this, after you paste in a chapter, go to the bottom and insert page break.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLr_gDGLaSfNM2TUzTn8W1SP4N5YCqfmbmAQI7Mikb2l38eFtQw0akSkKNJk4_GWO4LVFXjgem-OFmAt77sHV-tMsS6W5iaCTFGLeJe4rBxC63E8QDFjOrGX8Il5Y2oWQJXhAbL2dPe8A/s1600/google-doc-paste.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLr_gDGLaSfNM2TUzTn8W1SP4N5YCqfmbmAQI7Mikb2l38eFtQw0akSkKNJk4_GWO4LVFXjgem-OFmAt77sHV-tMsS6W5iaCTFGLeJe4rBxC63E8QDFjOrGX8Il5Y2oWQJXhAbL2dPe8A/s1600/google-doc-paste.png" height="173" width="400" /></a></div>
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Repeat for every chapter.</div>
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Step 6:</h4>
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Now that you've compiled/assembled your novel in google docs you need to export it. There are several formats you can download it as, .docx, .odt, .rtf, .pdf, .txt, and .html. I recommend exporting for submissions into .docx as most publishers prefer this format. For e-book conversion though download it as an .rtf. Now don't be shocked to see that the rtf file will be several MB in size.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DkpwzerdUfl7Ok8a891e-I21zXM5-tAmXK7p4en8pfhoOP7HGtYCTynHhW_TksV64p3IlI9T-qendPJwTflF_yS0iY6lKBu7ChYdnBNTAQJTenxGSX4UI1VSfIc2dYnZ95PyfNb7bqE/s1600/google-doc-export.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DkpwzerdUfl7Ok8a891e-I21zXM5-tAmXK7p4en8pfhoOP7HGtYCTynHhW_TksV64p3IlI9T-qendPJwTflF_yS0iY6lKBu7ChYdnBNTAQJTenxGSX4UI1VSfIc2dYnZ95PyfNb7bqE/s1600/google-doc-export.png" height="183" width="400" /></a></div>
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Part 3: Conversion.</h3>
<h4>
Step 7:</h4>
<div>
Now open up calibre (this is free software). You will be presented with a screen like this one.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/0/0e/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-7.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/0/0e/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-7.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-7.jpg" height="237" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 8:</h4>
<div>
Click on the "Add Books" Icon in the upper right hand corner and select the rtf version of your novel.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/9/91/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-8.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/9/91/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-8.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-8.jpg" height="172" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 9:</h4>
<div>
Now click on the "Edit Metadata" Icon and enter in the pertinent data about your novel.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/6/67/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-9.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/6/67/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-9.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-9.jpg" height="132" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 10:</h4>
Click "OK" to exit back to the main screen and then "Convert books" Icon. The "Convert books" window will pop up. In the upper right corner of this screen find the "Output format" menu, select MOBI or EPUB. You can't do both at once, but you can do one then come back and do the other. I recommend EPUB first as it can be tested with ease.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/b/b9/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/b/b9/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10.jpg" height="116" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 11:</h4>
The left side menu has several items, but you'll only need "Look and Feel" and "Table of Contents."<br />
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/d/d7/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10Bullet1.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10Bullet1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/d/d7/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10Bullet1.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-10Bullet1.jpg" height="187" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 12:</h4>
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Under "Look and Feel" check the "Remove spacing between paragraphs" box.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/b/bb/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-11.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/b/bb/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-11.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-11.jpg" height="157" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 13:</h4>
<div>
Under "Table of Contents" select the wizard button to the right of "Level 1 TOC (XPath expression). This is where your formatting comes in handy.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/0/05/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-12.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/0/05/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-12.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-12.jpg" height="108" width="400" /></a></div>
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Step 14:</h4>
From the drop down menu labeled "Match HTML tags with tag name:" in the new window that pops up select "h1" and click "OK."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/9/95/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/9/95/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-13.jpg" height="208" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 15:</h4>
You should now see "//h:h1" listed in the Level 1 TOC field.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/a/a8/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-14.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/a/a8/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-14.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-14.jpg" height="106" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h4>
Step 16:</h4>
Click "OK" and Calibre will begin converting. Conversion can take a few minutes, so be patient. If you converted to MOBI the first time, then hit the "Convert books" button again and select EPUB to convert to that format. Then you'll want to hit the big "Save to disk" button.</div>
<div>
<br />What you're saving is actually a directory (author's name) with a set of files (all their works.) Because off this, you'll want to save all your Calibre conversions into a super-directory called "authors" or some such. If you enlarge the picture above you'll see the location is:<br /><br />Documents > My Documents > My eBooks > Authors<br /><br />This is where you want to be, with the "Folder" field at the bottom of the windowblank when you press the "Select Directory" button. What happens is that Calibre will search this directory for the author's name and either save to that author's directory if it's already been created, or create it if it's not yet there.</div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/1/1e/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-15.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/1/1e/Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-15.jpg/670px-Convert-a-Word-Document-to-Epub-Step-15.jpg" height="128" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Part 4: Testing.</h3>
<h4>
Step 17:</h4>
<div>
Now navigate over to your epub validator and upload your newly created epub.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaPZrGTtgpyUcjXZZn0jhxKNe5sfKsdx_aofVfsXwP6fd2CNA_u-qo6nTM9upUtiI8lzdWSBTE4jJSaYUyY89eC_smFDGVCTe_Y3LMXOtS51OLce6S12F-bOYy7uyMR3HmJIW43NyqGk/s1600/epub-validator.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaPZrGTtgpyUcjXZZn0jhxKNe5sfKsdx_aofVfsXwP6fd2CNA_u-qo6nTM9upUtiI8lzdWSBTE4jJSaYUyY89eC_smFDGVCTe_Y3LMXOtS51OLce6S12F-bOYy7uyMR3HmJIW43NyqGk/s1600/epub-validator.png" height="280" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you've done everything right then the system will return zero errors. Most errors will appear as html errors though.</div>
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Yes, I cribbed most of this tutorial from the wikihow article, but there are some changes and additional steps that had I known them at the time would have saved me quite a bit of time, money and embarrassment. </div>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-84183907358700138042015-04-03T08:27:00.001-07:002015-04-03T08:27:06.290-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirBvYSI-ymB2IjI6BKscKOzpCllYQLYhgcQdUmNLSsXVgVRMJlNN8Ypx30s4vR7ql18Xi82g_951wADvlvK5Z1BlFDGfllKM-30KAinXq-Fskya3D6OHb3s1RPUIGONCc_x9XWNb3Uq4w/s1600/s-war-tech-db+(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirBvYSI-ymB2IjI6BKscKOzpCllYQLYhgcQdUmNLSsXVgVRMJlNN8Ypx30s4vR7ql18Xi82g_951wADvlvK5Z1BlFDGfllKM-30KAinXq-Fskya3D6OHb3s1RPUIGONCc_x9XWNb3Uq4w/s1600/s-war-tech-db+(2).png" height="194" width="640" /></a></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://noblestorm.blogspot.com/p/spiral-war-technical-database.html">The Spiral War Technical Database is now open. </a></h2>
Sorry we've been quiet lately, but I've been working on editing In Death's Shadow along with updating and uploading the files for the technical database. I will update this as I write up new documents and as I update the science within the database. <br />
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Enjoy.<br />
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<br />SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-46059250122180389042015-03-07T13:36:00.000-08:002015-03-07T13:51:36.236-08:00Design Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-15.png" height="260" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
So I have not been able to keep up a daily blog posting schedule, not yet anyway. I am therefore going to shoot for at least a weekly if not a bi-weekly update schedule.<br />
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For today I'm going to talk design. Maybe it's because I'm an engineer by training but bad and/or inconsistent designs have always bugged me. I will not say that my own designs are perfect but I have always tried to keep my designs consistent and believable. <br />
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For this design day post I'm going to go over the progression in design of one of my own craft. The Splicer-1000 "Dagger" fighter/trainer that plays such a critical role in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1M0EOS/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=05J7H139433R7Y8JW5G0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846" target="_blank">Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings.</a><br />
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<a href="http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs9/i/2006/061/9/0/X_Wing_Underside_by_jonnymorris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs9/i/2006/061/9/0/X_Wing_Underside_by_jonnymorris.jpg" height="151" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/research/x15/x15_serj_04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/research/x15/x15_serj_04.jpg" height="172" width="200" /></a>My original inspiration for the Splicer 1000 was a cross between the venerable X-Wing fighter from Star Wars and the proposed delta wing X-15 rocket plane. I wondered what it would would look like flipped over and with a delta wing instead of its trademark split wings.<br />
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I originally designed many of my craft using paper and pencil, and unfortunately most of those drawings are now gone. If I can find them, which is doubtful, I will scan and attach the image.<br />
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I then transitioned to CAD back in the mid-90s and redrew the designs in TurboCAD. While I still have most of those files, I cannot access them anymore, the version I used back then is too outdated for any program I have to read the old 2-D drawings.<br />
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Then in the late 90s I started using AUTOCAD. While I have again lost most of those early images I do have some of early redesigns.<br />
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<h2>
Splicer 1000, Circa 1998.</h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjP6VhdciC0BR5Ix-1bEMPGZ9XprmQryDicJ1hvCG-5harwcuIk01QCJEXoxdV867fXH4TXQ4ntmLmv_69xYs1qyd7-1Uta90VeV1DXdSYxsQm6BghUt-2ue3ZBkP2zJ0pIpNlZ9y_EPA/s1600/S1000E3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjP6VhdciC0BR5Ix-1bEMPGZ9XprmQryDicJ1hvCG-5harwcuIk01QCJEXoxdV867fXH4TXQ4ntmLmv_69xYs1qyd7-1Uta90VeV1DXdSYxsQm6BghUt-2ue3ZBkP2zJ0pIpNlZ9y_EPA/s1600/S1000E3.jpg" height="304" width="400" /></a></div>
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The overall design was locked in earlier than this, a delta winged single seat light fighter with a mid-fuselage mounted cockpit, with twin engines, fuselage mounted weapons (story concession) and wing mounted missiles (in the pods). It also features obvious thermal radiator wrapped around the engines and sensors in the wingtips. </div>
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The texture maps here were cribbed straight from the old X-Wing alliance game. I had no skill with them at the time, and it shows.</div>
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Splicer 1000, Circa 2001</h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLon11atEesmL2X1yGgOJqSFtYetttdQoWNR01CcgMPYw1JC0Gui5sXlkFoOQBVJhILw0MFxi8SDkCSfmc3e0w5AP1Zis77jWKRodCKmfcjTdZUNfyOVDK5ipd-vEkXtXEfVSKzP7HCEU/s1600/S1000e3-ns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLon11atEesmL2X1yGgOJqSFtYetttdQoWNR01CcgMPYw1JC0Gui5sXlkFoOQBVJhILw0MFxi8SDkCSfmc3e0w5AP1Zis77jWKRodCKmfcjTdZUNfyOVDK5ipd-vEkXtXEfVSKzP7HCEU/s1600/S1000e3-ns.jpg" height="235" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ePqDNNGrwR8x44N29I4YHOqkZK4AaO6OFA-0AgjEhilt9PiC78gsV2kZFHsf3szF3yjgmGzrndfOIOdOPwViZ5dSq05FdI5NU3q6bcBd99FrEYn8wRQ2_636CVuepgwjT9j9C3oU78E/s1600/S1000e3-ns-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ePqDNNGrwR8x44N29I4YHOqkZK4AaO6OFA-0AgjEhilt9PiC78gsV2kZFHsf3szF3yjgmGzrndfOIOdOPwViZ5dSq05FdI5NU3q6bcBd99FrEYn8wRQ2_636CVuepgwjT9j9C3oU78E/s1600/S1000e3-ns-2.jpg" height="235" width="400" /></a></div>
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The overall design here is not much changed, but I attempted to add details and some realism via textures and subtle additions. The craft now features maneuvering thrusters in the nose and wingtips, along with runners of the cockpit to open and an actual cockpit interior. The reverse thrusters are still pretty rudimentary but I added some basic maintenance hatches, the landing gear bays, and moving control surfaces for atmospheric flight.</div>
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Splicer 1000, Circa 2003</h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIPSAh_nzJx3eyKi6JcmTX35HKI7a17THaFQWltCzpsWZ5YhlsiFT1FVHpd5nZ4pTHr36exFT-cFFSzRk4krQDDXWhcqvq91AWoX9Zi5nW7nyW6lg2D9w5clpgwplY9GNXYygDautgkU/s1600/s-1000-4-tight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIPSAh_nzJx3eyKi6JcmTX35HKI7a17THaFQWltCzpsWZ5YhlsiFT1FVHpd5nZ4pTHr36exFT-cFFSzRk4krQDDXWhcqvq91AWoX9Zi5nW7nyW6lg2D9w5clpgwplY9GNXYygDautgkU/s1600/s-1000-4-tight.jpg" height="252" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div>
In 2005 I upgraded my autocad package and with it began a serious redesign effort of all my craft. For the Splicer 1000, I wanted to start from the ground up and threw out the whole design, but endeavored to keep the major salient features, final result seen above. I kept the delta winged design, but made it more of a cranked arrow similar to the F-16XL. I also gave the outer section an anhedral, dropping it down. The inakes of the earlier design are gone, replaced with simple reverse thrusters. And I added a ton more maneuvering thrusters, this are space fighters and with damage expected I wanted plenty of redundancy. I also redesigned and moved around the weapons, keeping the plasma laser cannons on the belly, and added new external missile hardpoints.</div>
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But it didn't start out that way.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcMwzyKUz0szE81dZRc7fpGjoIY3J2_O5dmQojBpQgau1DVzgQ5Ae8Feu7yWm-7h5bU-yDNDmTRfbL22_sKWJ23x8NKRzFFFiZNMqk4fiJ6t1yznWkUBWqCNsclA7nbY3kOPHOhN0aHY/s1600/s1000-new-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhcMwzyKUz0szE81dZRc7fpGjoIY3J2_O5dmQojBpQgau1DVzgQ5Ae8Feu7yWm-7h5bU-yDNDmTRfbL22_sKWJ23x8NKRzFFFiZNMqk4fiJ6t1yznWkUBWqCNsclA7nbY3kOPHOhN0aHY/s1600/s1000-new-1.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></a></div>
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Around this time is when I first really started documenting my design work. This is how the design started, a grey blocky mess.</div>
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In short order I gave it a quick yellow color scheme to match with the standard cadet colors I described in the novel, added weapons, chamfered the wings to give them a more realistic shape and replaced the ovoid cockpit with something more angular and framed in looking.</div>
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In short order I darkened the color and shifted around the weapons, burying the larger cannons in the wings and I added the docking claw hardpoints to the engines. These were something I always toyed with. The fighters could launch or "land" on their motherships via arms that would extend and hold them in place. Power could be recharged, fuel tanks filled, as well as life support systems. I also cut in the reverse thrusters.</div>
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Next came the first version of the thruster emplacements and the moving of the Plaser cannons to a better location, that also fit the book narrative better. There is also a vertical stabilizer there and the early wingtip sensor pods, upon which more thrusters are emplaced.</div>
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The landing gear came in next, which necessitated redesigning some of the thrusters and their placement. Even is science fiction design compromises take place, at least if you want to maintain a sense of realism. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Uzau4txnpu2Ravn8lhZflPuAJrcWIFjMLeSfUARIF1AzdQ1efiXtb5haKM2KpaHAjwJvZYpeV5AvHwGiDgzZq9DURar5P3ozWjjs-vWRUCaEj1RB2qTen59u6vT-YYGc0MLtEX-bnTY/s1600/s1000-new-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Uzau4txnpu2Ravn8lhZflPuAJrcWIFjMLeSfUARIF1AzdQ1efiXtb5haKM2KpaHAjwJvZYpeV5AvHwGiDgzZq9DURar5P3ozWjjs-vWRUCaEj1RB2qTen59u6vT-YYGc0MLtEX-bnTY/s1600/s1000-new-18.jpg" height="257" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inert Training Missile: Tactical Round Simulator (TRS)</td></tr>
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Speaking of realism, these missile simulators for the trainer version are actually based on the CRS/PRS RAM simulators I helped to design during my time working at NAVSEA PHD.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAdLmFk3t-gOUJ4hODgjyc38sO6hcX7Qv6J_hh_ELtFptzAJoBc82fcW8MUXG0McoHfWt_xkk7kNP7UqJwXTwJ5e9b8orTMhp1lOo8BWCcx7CfHSNLjzCF4ME4uHTM1xRYJdn_KZ2FO4/s1600/s1000-new-20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAdLmFk3t-gOUJ4hODgjyc38sO6hcX7Qv6J_hh_ELtFptzAJoBc82fcW8MUXG0McoHfWt_xkk7kNP7UqJwXTwJ5e9b8orTMhp1lOo8BWCcx7CfHSNLjzCF4ME4uHTM1xRYJdn_KZ2FO4/s1600/s1000-new-20.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Electron Particle Cannons (EPCs)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrDAj6gFzO7TCtI2IQGwQ7OGVKig_Tn49XGwl-ZnD23FiwzC85rmjctaXGrPBXxXS10rW3A1p3Z5fPRfMKVwVevPF978BcSv1tV20WINl7XUSSd67exPpAxWXIC-ESF_mlYjL3O5G4u8/s1600/s1000-new-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrDAj6gFzO7TCtI2IQGwQ7OGVKig_Tn49XGwl-ZnD23FiwzC85rmjctaXGrPBXxXS10rW3A1p3Z5fPRfMKVwVevPF978BcSv1tV20WINl7XUSSd67exPpAxWXIC-ESF_mlYjL3O5G4u8/s1600/s1000-new-21.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plasma Laser (Plaser) cannons.</td></tr>
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While on the subject of weapons, check out these close ups on the guns. Notice all the thermal radiators built into each one. Weapons in space will get hot, and they need expel that thermal energy away somehow.</div>
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At this point, the design has pretty much come together, complete with cockpit. Now comes the DETAILS.</div>
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This shot does a good job of showing all the panel lines I cut in to make the craft look more user and maintainer friendly.</div>
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Finally come the textures. These really help the design come to life, showing wear and tear and dirt marks show that a craft is used and real. Now, notice how there are no giant thermal radiators in this design? For this generation of designs I changed my text base, the wings help serve at the thermal radiators as do the thrusters themselves when not in use, and internal heat sinks.</div>
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Beauty Shots.</h3>
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<h2>
Splicer 1000 Circa 2011-Current</h2>
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Round about 2011 I decided to redesign my craft once again. I had just completed re/modelling some of my enemy craft and now the hero craft didn't meet the same standards. Also, the means by which I textured the craft had changed too, and the old method made it a serious pain to change color schemes. As these things do, the redesign started small. I like most of the old model, so I wanted to preserve it as much as possible, but change the parts that bugged me most.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-a.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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I started by stripping away the old engines, but kept the parts on them that were most important, in this case the docking points.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-c.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-c.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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From there I cut in a new, blended fuselage and engines.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-e.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-e.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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A whole lot of cutting and chamfering later and I added the docking points back in, though they are angled this time.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-i.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-i.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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This highlights one of them major design changes, the engine size and shape. I went with a more octagonal exhaust this time with more details inside the engine itself. See the old jet engine style exhaust on the old engine to the right.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-l.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-l.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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With the main engines redesigned also adopted this clamshell design for the reverse engines. This cleans up the profile of the ship for atmospheric flight and still allows a measure of thrust vectoring of the plasma exhaust.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-p.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-p.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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A nice closeup of the cockpit, notice the minimal railing this time around, though I still need to redo that HDD console.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-t.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-t.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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As part of the redesign I really considered the world I'd created. The confederation has been space faring over a millennium. In that time they would have something more advanced than simple gas thrusters like I modeled before. So I sat down and did my research into proposed future propulsion systems, especially ones I could have double as thermal radiators. The result is the hexagonal magnetic accelerator panels seen above that accelerate miniscule particles up to extreme speeds to kick the fighter around. The downside, they burn out quick and require regular replacement. Little details like this add a lot of realism to a story,</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-w.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-w.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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At this point, the single vertical stab just looked out of replaced with twin stabs. Also, chekc the mirror image beneath. That red panel is landing gear that I preserved from the earlier version. But that grey panel next to it, that slides away to reveal an internal missile bay. This is also a good time to point out the grills on the front of main engine. Those serve two purposes: #1 they are hydrogen ram scoops allowing the fighter to self refuel while on patrol or if it comes to a nice hydrogen gas giant. #2 they act as thermal radiators, venting away excess heat.</div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-y.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-y.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-x2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-x2.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></div>
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Tt's all in the details. For the most part, the grey bits in these shots are parts that carried over from the last version or we only minimally modified to onto the new design. Next step texturing.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-10.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standard Cadet Scheme</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-11.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fleet, Light Fighter</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-13.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sukhoi Flanker Inspired Scheme</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/Spiral-War/designs/WIP/Splicer-1000/s-1k-11-15.png" height="162" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Factory Fresh</td></tr>
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These images serve to illustrate how much easier the new texturing method is and how it has allowed me to create various schemes with much greater ease as seen with the trio of fighters that grace the cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L1M0EOS/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=05J7H139433R7Y8JW5G0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846" target="_blank">Spiral War: On Dagger's Wings.</a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeGVgBi-LlJqSUhNRfRm3d6q4vnyEozwabQKsiPokWCbDLue5kFdV9VRIbimzZvbQDicQeExMjHwYbpb8DNkX7SmIOXng2n76gv_6bYWJsbanYH6Z1QschnEIr_jkOjfCiB-GqMVRD-c/s1600/trio2-a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeGVgBi-LlJqSUhNRfRm3d6q4vnyEozwabQKsiPokWCbDLue5kFdV9VRIbimzZvbQDicQeExMjHwYbpb8DNkX7SmIOXng2n76gv_6bYWJsbanYH6Z1QschnEIr_jkOjfCiB-GqMVRD-c/s1600/trio2-a.png" height="232" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover Fighters</td></tr>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-828517892796767688.post-41951621232625677322015-03-03T07:52:00.001-08:002015-03-03T07:52:52.338-08:00Sci-Tech Tuesday<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/naca_symposium/#.VPXTKPnMSSq" target="_blank">100 Years of NACA</a></h2>
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<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/naca_aircraft_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/naca_aircraft_0.jpg" height="306" width="400" /></a></div>
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For those outside of aviation, NACA may look like a misspelling of NASA, but the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics actually predates NASA by 43 years. Established March 3 1915, the agency was founded to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. It eventually became part of NASA, but it served as the foundation of all things aerospace for quite some time. Find any aerospace engineer and through a NACA number at them, they'll probably start describing the wing shape attributed to it.</div>
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NASA is holding a celebration of the founding of it's parent agency March 3 and 4 and will be broadcasting the whole thing live on NASA TV.</div>
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<a href="http://sploid.gizmodo.com/first-photos-of-the-largest-airplane-ever-now-in-manufa-1688085252?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow" target="_blank">Stratolaunch is Coming Together.</a></h2>
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<a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xj0K8jHH--/rbeln7vezakn3umdwmoj.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xj0K8jHH--/rbeln7vezakn3umdwmoj.gif" height="180" width="400" /></a></div>
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In short, Stratolaunch is Paul Allen's private space launch concept. It will utilize the largest plane ever built to hoist a rocket up to altitude and the launch the rocket with it's payload into space. Originally SpaceX planned to partner with them, but decided to focus instead on making their rocket reusable.</div>
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The concept here is not new, even the Germans in WW2 played with the idea, and it is how Virgin Galactic and the Spaceship Company deploy Spaceship 2.</div>
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The mothership plane is finally coming together, and it is one big mama. I watched the hanger it is being built in go up. That structure is mammoth in size, but as the pictures in the link show, it still won't be large enough to hold the completed aircraft once they attach the wings. This one of those programs to watch.</div>
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<a href="http://www.iflscience.com/physics/researchers-image-wave-particle-duality-light-first-time-ever" target="_blank">Wavicles Imaged</a></h2>
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<a href="http://www.iflscience.com/sites/www.iflscience.com/files/styles/ifls_large/public/blog/%5Bnid%5D/lightparticlewave.jpg?itok=sZkQExV9" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.iflscience.com/sites/www.iflscience.com/files/styles/ifls_large/public/blog/%5Bnid%5D/lightparticlewave.jpg?itok=sZkQExV9" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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Light is a funny thing. Is it a wave, is it a partcile? It acts like both and neither, coining the term Wavicle. Researchers have now imaged light acting just that way proving the quantum-mechanical theory behind how light works. It's quite the interesting experiment and worth a read for anyone interested in physics.</div>
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SF Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267726963958454958noreply@blogger.com0