Author: AM Devine

Fandom Friday 00001

AM Devine

So, in case you had missed it, I am a major Star Trek fan.

To be quite honest, it is probably one of my two top fandoms of them all.

I dearly love it. I know more about the timelines involved than is definitely considered normal. I collect star trek ornaments and star trek toys and books, and things that surround the fandom that look like they’re not part of a fandom. I like things to look a combination of both fannish and real.

Take for instance the planetary travel guide about Vulcan. I fucking love that book. It is probably one of my most favorite things to have come out in the fandom in the last two years. (I will admit that one of the other things I’d consider a favorite from the last two years I don’t even have yet, still.) These things are awesome.

But, this year should have heralded an absolute pile of Star Trek stuff in stores.

Why?

Because it’s the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek’s premier on TV, and there was a new movie out. We should be absolutely ROLLING in merchandise at ALL price points.

BUT WE’RE NOT.

What the hell? CBS, Paramount – You guys seriously dropped the fucking ball. There should be ornaments galore. There should be more toys. There should be more books. I should be able to decorate a christmas tree with all kinds of Star Trek shit this year.

And what do I get?

Overpriced clothes from a designer that has good designs about one in three times.

I haven’t really seen or heard anything about cool toys or books or clothing or household goods. Nothing. (Just a Trivial Pursuit that comes in a shuttlepod with cards nearly too hard to read.)

Just the same old shit that you’ve had forever – redone with the 50th logo on it in a few cases to try and milk more money out of people.

And the stuff you’ve always had? It goes back and forth on the scale of obscenely expensive for what it is – to obscenely expensive for the quality – or just obnoxious on the shipping (though it looks like the star trek website may have fixed the last one). Let’s not even talk about the prices of the DVDs. ST: Enterprise Seasons can be bought from the star trek website at a sale price of $57.99 – you can get the exact same DVDs for about $35 – with free prime shipping. It’s slightly obnoxious. To be quite honest – I’d probably buy anything that I could from Amazon – because almost all of it can be found for cheaper and with free prime shipping.

And this just disappoints me because Star Trek released one of it’s biggest movies this year and I barely saw ANY merchandise in stores.

I can still buy Rey’s staff from SW:TFA – which was released at christmas this last year, but I can’t get Jaylah’s staff anywhere? Can’t find a Lirpa anywhere, just klingon weapons from TNG and phasers from TOS. I’d like to get my hands on a voyager compression rifle toy, but they just don’t exist.

And for that matter – while I understand that there’s a lot of love for TOS and TNG – can the other series get a little love too?

There’s a whole dedicated section on the Star Trek website’s merchandise section for TOS, and TNG – and all of the Starfleet Academy stuff is set in the year 2161 – which doesn’t line up with any era for any captain. And it technically doesn’t coincide with the founding of the academy either.

There’s no tea cup to honor Picard. Hell, there’s not even a coffee mug to honor the Captain that literally is known for her comment of “There’s Coffee in that Nebula!” There’s nothing baseball themed for Sisko.

It’s like Deep Space 9, Voyager and Enterprise just don’t exist at all.

But they do.

And, you know, I’d buy shit that had my favorite series plastered all over it.

There are literally 8 t-shirts that include things other than Klingons, TOS or TNG or the upcoming Discovery or Star Trek Beyond. Only ONE of them includes Voyager – but it’s not a just Voyager shirt – it’s got an outline of each of the first four series flagships on it. Most of them are DS9. One is general Federation. One is Borg. One is Enterprise, and includes a little known quote.

The only uniforms offered by the star trek website are TOS and TNG. Again, there are 3 more series to pull uniforms from, guys. COME ON. You’re literally leaving out roughly one third of your fanbase.

Going into the collectable things tab – there are three things for Voyager, and two for Enterprise and two for Deep Space Nine, but they’re all $150 and higher.

Jewelry, there’s only a single set of cufflinks for Enterprise. Nothing for Deep Space Nine or Voyager, just a single general Federation set of cufflinks. Five things are Vulcan, and then the rest are either TOS or TNG, with 2 klingon things. And let’s not forget the sqaure with a yellow cushion cut stone. What the hell is that for, anyways? It looks so out of place – but it’s an official piece of star trek jewelry.

There’s ABSOLUTELY nothing reminding everyone that Archer had a beloved Beagle named Porthos in the pet section – in fact the only two things there are TOS.

The toy section isn’t even worth mentioning.

There’s just so much that you people are missing in merchandising opportunities that it’s insane. Everything that could be done that you haven’t – and all the things that you could have done for the 50th will always disappoint me.

After all, this was a year you SHOULD have gone crazy.

And you did jack shit.

In fact, honestly, the only thing I’ll probably remember about this year is Beyond. Not the 50th – but Beyond.

You blew it.

Muse Monday 0004

AM Devine

Okay, so, after the depression situation that was last week, let’s look at something cool again!

If you know me IRL at all, then you’ve probably heard me gush about architecture. It’s probably one of my strongest loves outside of space and coffee and swords and winter. (Yes, I know my list of cool things is weird. Did you actually think I was normal, because if yes, please be advised: AM WEIRD.)

So , anyways, BACK to the architecture!

One of my most favorite things that I have ever come across on twitter was an account that tweeted cool looking home design pictures. It was connected to a website called Home Adore – and let me tell you, Home Adore is a bit addictive.

They have hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of cool residential architecture.

Like the Edgeland House, which is a unique take on a Native American Pit House.

Or the Sorrento, which caused me to have a twenty minute long crisis of the mind. You’ll figure out why when you read the page and then look at all the pictures. Hint: Look closely at the kitchen pictures.

Or the Vista Mar, which has absolutely stunning views as well as both stunning interiors and exteriors.

I find the Derby House to be one of great value to me for one of my stories – it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the house I see in my head for one of my characters. Though, their decorations are more colorful.

This Penthouse in Moscow is probably one of the coolest I’ve seen on the site, I especially want the light fixture from the kid’s room. But, I will say it’s got interesting features in the form of the exterior walls – being at such angles.

And this Modern Home in California, with it’s unusual design including lots of skylights and lots of glass accents, and unusual windows on each of the bedrooms.

And then while I was just kicking around on their website I found a modern castle like thing, and I WANT IT.

A setting tells as much about the story you’re writing as you choose to let come through. A slick clean space may mean that your character’s don’t spend a lot of time in that area, versus a warm comforting room may be the hub of the home. Or, it could even reverse.

I am Disappointed in my Country

AM Devine

This post has taken me since 11pm on election night to write, and I’ve drafted about a dozen versions of it. It could probably contain more links to research to back up the facts, but I am tired and I don’t want to think about it anymore if I can help it. If you want to discuss it with me, you’ve got the ability to locate me above and at the end of the post. I fully expect a little hate mail for it, and I’m going to mercilessly mock all of it.

This post is massive. It is neutral/angry. Read all the way to the end if you’re going to read any of it.

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Yesterday I woke up to the solid conclusion that a man who should never have made it as far as he did in the election process was unofficially declared President Elect. I am heartbroken that the very thing that most everyone said couldn’t happen did happen.

The only thing is, he isn’t confirmed to be President Elect until the following happens:

November 8, 2016—Election Day

Registered voters cast their votes for President and Vice President. By doing so, they also help choose the electors who will represent their state in the Electoral College.

Mid-November through December 19, 2016

After the presidential election, the governor of your state prepares seven Certificates of Ascertainment. “As soon as practicable,” after the election results in your state are certified, the governor sends one of the Certificates of Ascertainment to the Archivist.

Certificates of Ascertainment should be sent to the Archivist no later than the meeting of the electors in December. However, federal law sets no penalty for missing the deadline.

The remaining six Certificates of Ascertainment are held for use at the meeting of the Electors in December.

December 19, 2016

The Electors meet in their state and vote for President and Vice President on separate ballots. The electors record their votes on six “Certificates of Vote,” which are paired with the six remaining Certificates of Ascertainment.

December 28, 2016

Electoral votes (the Certificates of Vote) must be received by the President of the Senate and the Archivist no later than nine days after the meeting of the electors. States face no legal penalty for failure to comply.

If votes are lost or delayed, the Archivist may take extraordinary measures to retrieve duplicate originals.

On or Before January 3, 2017

The Archivist and/or representatives from the Office of the Federal Register meet with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House in late December or early January. This is, in part, a ceremonial occasion. Informal meetings may take place earlier.

January 6, 2017

The Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes. Congress may pass a law to change this date.

The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the Electoral College vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

If a State submits conflicting sets of electoral votes to Congress, the two Houses acting concurrently may accept or reject the votes. If they do not concur, the votes of the electors certified by the Governor of the State on the Certificate of Ascertainment would be counted in Congress.

If no Presidential candidate wins 270 or more electoral votes, a majority, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution provides for the House of Representatives to decide the Presidential election. If necessary the House would elect the President by majority vote, choosing from the three candidates who received the greatest number of electoral votes. The vote would be taken by state, with each state having one vote.

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SOURCE: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/key-dates.html

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Until the Electoral College votes on January 6th:

I am afraid for my friends who are POC.

I am afraid for my friends who have relationships that cross country borders.

I am afraid for my friends who are disabled.

I am afraid for my friends of other non-christian religions.

I am afraid for my friends who are a part of the beautiful rainbow of genders and sexualities.

I am afraid for my openly pagan friends.

I am afraid for my female friends.

I am afraid for myself.

This is not a feeling I should have in this country, and it is not one that I enjoy.

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We are the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, and a place for people to come to escape religious persecution.

But right now, it feels more like we are the Land of the Oppressed and Home of the Repugnant.

It has been less than 72 hours and the list of already active hate crimes or physical assaults or verbal assaults numbers greater than the number hours it has been since the election was unofficially called. And the number keeps rising.

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Now you’re going to say, “but it’s not all..”

It’s not *all* Trump supporters, they say. Just like it’s not all men. No. You’re Right. It’s not.

But it is ENOUGH OF YOU
to cause ALL OF US to be afraid.

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU DO YOURSELF.

IT MATTERS WHAT *YOUR CROWD* DOES.

And as a part of that crowd, you are responsible.

If you are a Trump supporter, then the actions of a few Trump Supporters reflect badly upon you. If you are male, then the actions of a few men reflect badly upon you. You don’t have to ACTIVELY be participating in something to be a part of why or how it spreads.

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We were doing so good on setting aside hate based upon skin colors and sexual orientations and religions. Then the far right, made up of people who are predominately wishing for us to return to the ‘glory days’ of the USA, was given Trump – who said things that should have condemned him with the rest of the country. He has said things like, “grab them by the pussy” “I don’t even ask, I just start kissing them”. Dozens of young women have come forward indicating that he walked into their Miss USA changing rooms while they were changing. There have been sexual assault charges against him from a preteen. He’s accused of variations of fraud on two separate methods, through the defunct Trump U, and his charity, and many more that just make me uneasy. Read the listing of the history of Donald Trump Scandals >here<.

No matter, so far – he is considered to have won the election. Come better or worse, a man that does not deserve to be in the highest office of this land will take an oath of office (“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”) that he will more than likely break in the first year. (In case you’re wondering which parts of the constitution I’m referring to, I suggest you examine the Bill of Rights, 1st amendment and the 9th, as well as the additional amendments: 14th, 15th, 19th, and 26th.)

How any woman or a male with a wife or daughters could vote for him, just based upon his predatory actions towards the female half of the population, completely blows my mind. But a lot of people I know chose to base their support for the red party or the blue party on something that, to me, shouldn’t even be a subject in public forum – or even something that the government should have any say in. The right of a woman to choose what she does or does not do with her body.

To be quite honest, government should have no say in health care other than the fact that yes, it is a basic human right and all individuals should be able to get health insurance.

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I am a white woman. 2nd most privileged color and gender combination in this country.

And I am terrified for what’s coming and of what has already begun.

At the end of each shift I work, I put my taser on charge for 30 minutes to make sure that if someone attacks my relief or myself – I can go on the defensive. I’ll be putting it on charge while I get ready for work as well, for those nights I go in for the 3rd shift instead of the 2nd. I carry my pocket knife and the taser everywhere. While they were once relegated to a specific pocket in my purse, they are now loose and easy to grab. I like wearing certain kinds of clothing, but I’ll need to adjust what I wear to make it difficult for men, who have been empowered by Trump’s now infamous words, to grab me. As a woman, I am now a target. I am blessed to have never had as much sexual harassment as everyone else I know – but I still expect that it will occur.

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For those of my friends who feel suicidal:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: text START to 741-741
The Trevor Project (LGBT+): 1-866-488-7386
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
www.iamalive.org
hopenet360.com/help
www.didihirsch.org/chat

I know the Trans Lifeline is going up and down – it’s not due to malicious intent, it’s due to call volume.

If you feel that this is the absolute end and can’t reach any of those, I’m on twitter at @huskerslaura and I’m turning off the silence window for the rest of the month, I’m not an immediate response but I am there if you need someone to talk to. I am however, turning off notifications for retweets and likes, because I’m already going to go crazy from the noise of one of the people I follow. *squints* I do advise that sometimes I have a temper, but I do have open ears, and I don’t want anyone to think that suicide is their only way out. I’m also a lot tamer and a lot less responsive/available over here: @authorAMDevine. (huskerslaura goes to my phone, authoramdevine I have to open the twitter app to see.)

Until the
Electoral College votes on January 6th 2017,
and thus confirms the results from the Nov 8th election, Donald Trump is not the President of the United States in any form.

 

Truthful Thursday 0002

AM Devine

Hi folks, AM Devine here, popping in to say a quick hello and to give you a probably way too long life-website-writing update.

LIFE:

If you’ve been around a while, or got bored and read the archives, then you’ll know I’ve got a nice quiet job now. Well, a nice job now. Sometimes it’s not so quiet, but that’s okay. I mentioned in the past that I was glad to have a job that was going to be a Monday through Friday thing, and while I am glad to be here, we’ve yet to actually make it to the Monday through Friday part. Why? Because one of the shifts doesn’t have someone to work it. It’s generally a hard shift to fill anyway, and it’s been since January that they’ve been trying to get it filled. Twice they’ve thought they had someone and twice it has been a bust. Even if they hired someone tomorrow, it wouldn’t be until January that they’d be ready for their shift.

The medical things I was trying to take care of didn’t quite work out the way I was hoping they would, but I did come out with a diagnosis of three things, and hopefully I’ll be able to start actually getting that under control as time goes by. I’m also going to be reattempting to line myself back up for a near total gluten free life again. I felt so much better while I was doing that a couple of years ago that I’m planning on doing it again.

WRITING:

NaNoWriMo 2016 is SPACE THEMED, and basically I can’t get over how badass that is. Don’t mind me. I freaking love space. Space is so seriously up there in my list of favorite things it’s kinda crazy. (I’m aiming to buy all the gear this year. I mean… is anyone actually surprised?)

I’m going to be doing a lot more than what I’ve got listed on the NaNoWriMo website this year, mostly because I’m trying to get a project together for TOR’s submission window, and while I know the whole plot and could probably crank out a thousand words per day on it – I’ve got NaNoWriMo things to get done as an ML. So I’m going to crank out the rest of that story during NaNoWriMo because it’s still in need of nearly 20,000 words and I like watching the bar rise.

I’m going to be working on at least one Aurora Story during the event as well. I do know that I’ll probably be doing more on my Indigo/Bronze/Marigold series that I’ve been kinda plotting on for the last 10 months. I hope to come out of this NaNoWriMo with at least one complete first draft MS, completed plotlines for I+B+M, and possibly even worked out plotline problems in the Aurora Universe. Also during NaNoWriMo, I hope to add a chapter to each of my currently active fanfictions over on AO3, as well as draft a whole separate fanfiction of off the Star Trek Word Crawls that I’m writing.

WEBSITE:

So, in case you are new, I redid my blog’s hosting and the theme. I really like this theme, and I’m actually looking forward to the day when I have pictures to plug in for the slideshow. I’ll be completely revamping my author website sometime in the next couple of months, or at least before my birthday in May, as well.

Am I ever going to have forums? I have no idea anymore. I used to have forums on three different occasions. The first couple, the program locked up and just would not let me back in and I lost a few dozen things I wish I’d had hard copies of. The third time I never actually finished setting them up. Never actually had a reason to finish them.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for now. I’ll see you folks hopefully on Monday!

Well,

AM Devine

It looks like I didn’t break it, so the blog is wholly back online! YAY!

This post definitely doesn’t fit the Technical Tuesday thing properly, but I’m going to send it live on a Tuesday anyway. Updates ahoy!

With any luck, I’ll get back on schedule with the Muse Monday, Technical Tuesdays, Whimsy Wednesdays, Truthful Thursdays, Fandom Fridays, and Caturdays.

As it’s been mentioned in the past: Muses, Technical things and Truthful things are all blog exclusive (though they may have bits and pieces show up on Twitter and/or Instagram as well). Fandom Fridays will probably be on Twitter, as will Caturdays (though Caturday can also appear on Instagram), and Whimsy will be wherever I choose to put it.

Now, If you’ve been here before, you’ve already noticed the first of a few major differences. The theme is a new one, and I actually really really like it. Eventually it’ll have a slide show on it making it a little less text, but that looks like it might be at least a year or so out.

Right now, I’m heading up NaNoWriMo 2016 in Memphis, with a Co-ML. We’re hoping to make this the best year yet, and have a lot of enjoyment of the season. Stay tuned for the NANO2016 updates. This year, the NaNoWriMo theme is SPACE, and let me tell you, I am way excited. In case you have not been here long, or don’t actually know who I am in the real world, SPACE is probably my favorite thing ever. (It shares the favorite things box with Coffee, Coca-Cola and winter.)

I’m also attempting to write a novella for Tor-dot-com Publishing. They’re opening up for unsolicited submissions for three months starting on October 12th and I have an idea that;s actually workable. My word count goal for it is something like 25,000 words. I’m allowed to have up to 40,000 words, but I know myself well – I’m going to overshoot. I’m also allowing for editing, and the notion that I may need to seriously rewrite bits and pieces. I’m going for romantic fantasy, with magic and rice and kimonos, and a driving need for revenge that someone has been working on for 20 years. I’m only half way hoping now, to get it into Tor. On one hand, that would be fantastic. On the other, I could turn it into it’s own world and make more stories out of this world. Tor wants stand-alone stories, and while at this time this is, I wouldn’t mind being able to expand it.

A side effect of the Tor project, as it’s currently called (I haven’t come up with even a working title for it yet, yikes), is that I’m doing a lot of research into Asian cultures. This is helping the Revanta project something fantastic as one of the major cultures in the Revanta Universe has always been more Asian than anything else. I use Asian here in the sense that this particular culture has Samurai like warriors as major players, as well as the more structured courts with royal concubines that are seen elsewhere. I’ve always wanted to get deeper and deeper into this court, but seeing as most of the work I needed to do was for elsewhere, since the story only really spends maybe 12 to 16 hours in the edge of that court – I didn’t really get to. Now I can, and it’s giving me a lot of creative go power for doing work on almost all of my various works in progress.

Before I make this monster post any longer, I’m going to sign off. With some luck, I’ll be back to posting at least once a week, but until then, enjoy October!