Avatar photoSteven Savage

Geekdom And The Wars Of Infinte Freedom

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I want to follow up on my post about how I missed Geek Evangelism. I had stated that I frankly missed the passionate outreach, even when it was annoying, as it had been replaced with stark territoriality. What, I wondered, had happened?

My conclusion was basically too many geeks had gone into the internet echo chamber, where even more marketing echoed, and sealed themselves off.  Some of us, many of us didn’t end up in echo chambers (or ended up in larger ones that were well-aired), and those echo-chambers confused the hell out of us.

Yet I had noted that the internet also let people re-invent fandoms and themselves. Harry Potter fandom seemed to spring to life on the internet, cultivated not from any origin in earlier fandom, but by fans itself.  Many that followed seemed the same way, springing up everywhere, diverse, wide, and often crazy.

Yet these too would end up in fan wars and conflicts and battling echo chambers.

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A Few Dollars Makes The Difference

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In the Bay Area, rent and housing prices are an important topic of discussion since that’s where no small amount of your paycheck goes.  I was out recently with friends, when the subject came up, and someone mentioned a person they knew who took an insane commute so they could avoid insane rents.  They had few options.

In The Bay Area, there seem to be these weird cutoff points in rental options.  Make X amount of money and you can live in this area, but X plus even a few hundred more a month opens up new options.  As one gets more and more options, you end up almost being able to save money – because you can, say, afford an expensive apartment on public transport and ditch a car.  Or one can live near work and cut commute time – and use that to do a part-time job or run a startup.

It’s not just that you have to spend money to make money.  When you have money, sometimes you can save time and money or make more time and money.

A boss of mine once ditched her car, lived in a small studio near public transport in the expensive area of San Francisco – and came out ahead financially.  She had all of San Francisco as her playground, a great job, and plenty of options.  But ironically, to save that money she needed to make enough to live in a place where she needed less.

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

 

Look For AlternaTEAS!

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Hey Gang, just heard that someone is looking for writers – for something rather unusual!

AlternaTEAS is a Steampunk/Urban Fantasy anthology published by Sky Warrior Books. The reading period is from March 1, 2015 to July 31st, 2015.

The anthology will include stories (from between 5,000-7,500 words — please query me if outside the boundaries of those already stated). Stories will be of intrigue, assignations and assassinations plotted (or committed) over a cup of tea . You are not limited to specific people or set in Victorian England. Japan, India and even the US have fine tea traditions. The more out of the ordinary a story is, the more I’m likely to keep it. Humor is not out of order.

Submission Guidelines:

  1. No story is considered complete if it does not have a ~100 word autobiography. I do not read incomplete stories. Period.
  2. Stories should be in standard accepted ms. format and submitted as an attachment in Word97, Open Office or .RTF
  3. Submission letters should have “AlternaTEAS submission” in the Subject line and be sent to ANTHOLOGIES@SKYWARRIORBOOKS..COM or LACEGILLIGAN@GMAIL.COM
  4. If you have a question, PLEASE contact me at Alterna_TEAS on FB or in email at the address given below.
  5. Your ms. should have contact information: Name, mailing address phone number and email address. If we can’t contact you, we can’t buy your story.
  6. Payment is author share divided equally among the authors. We pay twice a year.
  7. No simultaneous Submissions. We prefer no reprints.
  8. Further information about Sky Warrior Books can be found on their website at: www.skywarriorbooks.com