Kickstarter or Kickstopper

Dork Tower webcomic has promoted the use of a (fictitious) service known as Kickstopper.   

    
So in spite of the idea that many creative ideas are really not worth pursuing, there have been two that I have supported recently.   

The first was a company of science guys who had an idea to bring laser cut trebuchets (catapults) to the classroom as a way to model science for kids. I received in the mail last week my own trebuchet as a reward for helping them out. I have not assembled it yet, but when I do, Whimzy better watch out. Treats will be flying across the backyard (a good way for her to exercise without me having to move much).  

And I just sponsored my second project  - Fireside magazine - which purports to be a magazine for fiction in which writers of many genres will get a chance to receive a reasonable wage for writing short stories.     

Besides wanting to publish good stories, my other goal is to pay the contributors fairly for their work. Currently, for fiction, the rate that is considered professional is 5 cents a word. For a 4,000-word story, which is the upper word limit for Fireside, that would be $200. That's not all that much, considering how much work goes into a short story. I've set my budget, and the Kickstarter goal, at 12.5 cents a word ($500 for a 4,000-word story).

Sound interesting? For $2, you can get a PDF of Fireside No. 1. For $4, you can get an eBook too. Got $10? Then you can also get the printed magazine, which will only ever be offered to supporters of the Kickstarter. (The electronic versions will be sold online.) For $25, you can get a print copy autographed by one of the writers.   

 The project leader recalls a quote from Neil Gaimin, one of my favorite authors (also mentioned in the comic above, and whose talent would be inversely proportional to Adam Sandler's):    

I was reading the introduction to the "Stories" anthology edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio earlier this year. In it, Gaiman writes of his response to a question about what quote he would want inscribed on the wall of  the kids' section in a public library. He captured the reason why we love good stories in his response:
I'm not sure I'd put a quote up, if it was me, and I had a library wall to deface. I think I'd just remind people of the power of stories, of why they exist in the first place. I'd put up the four words that anyone telling a story wants to hear. The ones that show it's working, and that pages will be turned:

"... and then what happened?"    

If you have extra cash lying around, you may want to consider sponsoring Fireside magazine. They have quite a ways to go yet before they are fully funded.    

Christmas in Holland

Mike and Tammy went to see Santaland Diaries in Portland the other day and it prompted me to search for David Sedaris's story about Christmas in Holland.   

While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed, where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know for sure, but we want you to be prepared."     

This is the reward for living in Holland.   

The video below runs for 15 minutes, but you will find it passes quickly.  It is amazing to me that the video begins and ends with blind people hunting with guns in Michigan, and in the middle moves on to Christmas in Holland. If you don't have time to listen to it today, please find time later. Listening to David Sedaris tell a story is the ultimate Christmas treat. Some of you may be getting actual presents from me for Christmas. For all of you, though, this is your real present. Merry Christmas.    


        

Lord of the Rings, Round 4

I am currently re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy after being sucked in by my son Mike into watching the entire movie series over a period of 2 days after Thanksgiving. After watching all three movies (probably the third time), I realized that I had not read the books in 20 years or so. And so it seemed like a good time to do so. The interesting thing about reading the books for me has been to see how really good the movies were. They don't match the book perfectly, but in the places where they differ, the movie version makes for a better visual than the books do. There are a couple scenes in particular. Early in the story, the four hobbits make a run for Bree to meet up with Gandalf to begin the quest. The book version is interesting, but not nearly as exciting as the movie visual of Frodo leaping for the ferry at the last possible moment to outrun the Shadow Riders. In the second movie, the defense of Helm's Deep by Theoden, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli (and a few thousand others) is a major scene. The sequence where they ride out into the enemy expecting to die in battle, only to see Gandalf arrive in the nick of time with reinforcements is a very stirring (and lengthy) part of the movie. In the book, the entire battle is downplayed to a couple of pages. The difference seems to be in expanding the sections of the book that seem to lead to exciting action sequences in the movie. Much of the book is spent in helping us to understand the background of the main characters and the history of the regions and peoples involved in the war of Middle Earth. When I read the book the first time, it meant that I cared more deeply about the characters as I worked my way through the books (enough so that our two cats in the house in Mundelein were named Merry and Pip). When I watched the movie, the character development wasn't necessary - I already cared what happened to them. I would be interested to know if those of you who saw the movies without reading the books felt that something was missing from the movies. I am just starting to read the final part of the trilogy. I am especially interested in reading the end where the hobbits come home to a Shire under siege, which was ignored in the movie.  

As a side note, the New York Times Book section has a review entitled "The Hero is a Hobbit" of the first book in the trilogy, written in October of 1954 by the poet W. H. Auden. He writes,   

The first thing that one asks is that the adventure should be various and exciting; in this respect Mr. Tolkien's invention is unflagging, and, on the primitive level of wanting to know what happens next, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is at least as good as "The Thirty-Nine Steps." Of any imaginary world the reader demands that it seem real, and the standard of realism demanded today is much stricter than in the time, say, of Malory. Mr. Tolkien is fortunate in possessing an amazing gift for naming and a wonderfully exact eye for description; by the time one has finished his book one knows the histories of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and the landscape they inhabit as well as one knows one's own childhood.    

The True Meaning of Christmas

For those of us who were raised in the Christian tradition, there are many meanings of Christmas. We are happy to light the advent candles at the Christmas Eve service at our church this year, so you can be sure that one meaning of Christmas is in our hearts and minds. Ann went to a party today sponsored by the Wauconda Schools PTO. Guests were encouraged to take Christmas wishes from the various trees set up at one of the PTO member's homes and help someone have a better Christmas. Ann was invited by our PTO and School Board friend Carey to come this year and she found six or seven wishes that she decided to make come true. These are all students in the school district who are on free and/or reduced lunch and whose families have requested some help this year. So tomorrow we are shopping for a boys jacket (XL), some size 6 tennis shoes, and 4 or 5 gift cards for older kids at Target or MacDonalds. Ann was impressed by the organization and dedication of the PTO ladies. They are a truly tremendous group of people. And so a second meaning of Christmas occupies some of this weekend and next week. Which leaves us the third and in my mind equally important meaning of Christmas. Probably the message is given best in a Christmas movie we watched often when the boys were younger.   You are invited to watch the entire video, but the meaningful part occurs in the first two minutes.  
           

               

I agree whole - heartedly with the big spiny guy (Herb, I think). One of the most important things about Christmas is the snacks. We have already done Christmas cookies once this season (mainly for Mike and Tammy at Thanksgiving, since they won't be here for Christmas this year) and I am excited about trying some other Christmas cookie recipes - peanut butter blossoms are a favorite, along with snickerdoodles and pinwheels. Or maybe some candy, like buckeyes. We used to devote a night to baking cookies with Mary and Dave and all the kids, but it gets harder and harder to schedule now. So we'll have to forge ahead on our own. I expect Ann will be pretty sick of cookies by the time we're done. But it's time for her to step up and take one for the team. And by team, I mean me. And maybe Nate and Dave if we can get some cookies delivered to them, too. Merry Christmas!!

Let's Get Demotivated

Somewhere in the last twenty years, it became fashionable to tell people that the reason for their lack of success was a lack of motivation. And that the best way to get that motivation was to see posters on the walls that encouraged you to be motivated. You've seen them. The idyllic poster with the forest scene telling you about dreams or achievement or teamwork. Here's one your boss hung up in your office area that he bought at Allposters.com framed for about $57.00.   

In small print, it says, "The best way to not fail is to determine to succeed." Isn't that a nice sentiment? Unfortunately, you end up working harder than ever, only to find the promotion went to the boss's nephew. That brings on a sense of failure that now makes it even harder to get motivated.  

Luckily, the people at Despair, Inc. have found a way to break that cycle. As they so proudly declare: 

At Despair, Inc., we believe it's time people face the truth - that any kind of motivation you can buy isn't worth owning, and in the end will produce even greater demoralization. Given that inevitable fact, we'd like to invite you to skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointment that follows! 

Or if you want to see it as a poster:   

I had these hanging on one of my file cabinets at work for the last few years:  

And Scott and I agree on this poster about the workplace:   

So if you are having a hard time finding the right gift for that special someone for Christmas, may I suggest a (de)motivational poster. Especially for that special new person in your life. You know, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Wait, I think there's a poster in there somewhere.   

It's Salsa Time!

So lately I've been spending some time on the website Howcast finding out how to do the many things I don't do well; like, say, wear a winter scarf:  

I have found lots of things that I should know more about: how to decorate a Christmas cake, how to play the B Major scale on your bass guitar, and how to handle a screaming child while shopping. That last one they did differently than we did when the kids were little. In the video, they don't mention tranquilizer darts once.   

So take a look at the incredibly long list of how - to videos. There must be something you want to learn by Christmas. How about "How to Play the Pokemon Trading Card Game" or "How to Dance Salsa Style." Man, I can't decide which sounds better.