Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

I bet some of you probably thought I was going a bit Warren Ellis with a title like that. ^_^ Not so…

Over at the Sci-fi Wire, there’s mention of a Dragons of Autumn Twilight animated movie. I like the fact that they’re going the animation route with it. And if the information I tracked down was correct (didn’t see it listed at IMDB Pro though), I was already a fan of the company they have on board to do the concept art (Kunoichi). It’s also nice to see that the producer, Cindi Rice, worked for TSR and then WotC and then on to Hasbro (she also graduated from the same college my wife went to). Not so sure yet about the animation company involved in the production (I need to do a bit more research on them before I make any judgements).

Tags: Dragonlance – Dragons of Autumn Twilight – movie – animation – fantasy – D&D

If they can spend money making crap movies with worlds flooded over, Spice Girls and Bat-nipples, why aren’t they all over my script that’s better than half the junk out there?

Tuddle Middleson – Attila, IL

Dear Tuddle,

Better than half? You’re aiming way too low there. Your script needs to be the pinnacle of writing achievement throughout the universe before hitting Hollywood. It should reach another plane of existence where miracles happen… babies stop crying, fast food restaurants get every order right, and vehicles run on piss instead of gasoline. And that’s just to make sure it gets through the Hollywood system as just mediocre crap.

But I think it’s best you see for yourself. Let’s pull out that Film School Rock classic, “I’m Just a Spec” to see how a script is really made into a film…

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Tags: The Creative Adviser – breaking in – Screenwriting – spec – screenplay – movies – Hollywood

Some things just stick with ya. The other day, someone was talking about the military and was trying to remember the articles of the military code of conduct. Without even looking up, I just started reciting them (all six articles) from memory, which got a “thanks” followed by a look that screamed “weirdo”. ^_^

Back in my military days, I spent a good number of months in the training program for Air Force Survival Instructors (I’m pretty sure they refer to them as SERE specialists now… Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). Wound up moving to a new career because of complications due to a freaky heart condition I had (but I was still a 3-level survival instructor, so I got to work with the survival instructor for my next base to assist with training ROTC cadets… that was a lot of fun).

The cadre for the survival instructor course liked to keep the trainees mentally fit. They’d toss random objects at us at any time and have us give an impromptu 5-minute lesson on the value of that object for survival in the wilderness, they’d give us some crazy deadlines (requiring us to stay focused with little sleep for days), and they’d also randomly have us recite the code of conduct…

• I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

• I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.

• If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and to aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.

• If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.

• When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

• I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

Tags: survival – SERE – Air Force – military – code of conduct

A column about breaking in. First issue covered… Agent Declassified.

This time at Comic Book Resources. And interviewed alongside Jim Valentino this time. Some fun snippets…

Jeffery Stevenson: Why are they needed? Well, the story would be pretty boring if nobody needed them to deal with terrorist threats. We’d have to change the title to “Desk Force 1.”

…

Jim Valentino: What I did was give Jeff the basic concept – “This is who they are, this is the direction I want the book to take” – and then got the hell out of his way. Jeff totally understood the concept right from the get-go. And this could be the single easiest book Kris or I have ever edited, because he just nails it every time. Pacing, dialogue, plotting – everything is just spot-on first time through.

Tags: Task Force 1 Shadowline Image comic military science fiction interview

It’s still a work of fiction, minus encounters with mutants, the supernatural, aliens, magic, or super-genius time-travelling were-octopi pygmies, but there’s a hint of possibility for practically all the tech seen in TASK FORCE 1, including the stuff used by the terrorists. At any moment, you might get hit with the thought, “damn, that really could happen.”

There’s a lot more information about the book there, plus 10 pages of previews, the first three covers, and even a page from issue #2 (their link for that doesn’t seem to be working properly right now, but you can find the page here).

Click here to go to the rest of the interview and the preview pages.

Tags: Task Force 1 Shadowline Image comic military science fiction interview

In recent years, I (officially) found out I suffered from allergies. Went through most of my life without knowing. I just thought I got sick a lot and that congested sinuses were normal. Turns out I was allergic to quite a bit… a lot of tree, grass and weed pollens, Dust mites. And cats.

Oddly enough, I grew up in a family with a lot of pets (and my mom actually breeds Great Pyrenees now)… some of which just happened to be the cute, mischievous furballs of the Felidae family. Being a cat owner again wasn’t really an option to keep my allergies in check, but now, there’s a new option. Read and be amazed at the scientific advancement of the… hypoallergenic kitty.

From a Boston Globe article posted over at truthout. What I don’t like about this article is that they never give a full accounting of recruiters. It played them up as all being the “lie, cheat, and steal” types just to get warm bodies in the military.

Some do, some don’t. It all depends on the recruiter. Some are geared toward just pulling in bodies and making quotas. Those are the ones you usually hear about as liars and cheaters because they pissed people off. But there are also a number of recruiters that are good folks trying to find people that really want to serve and can fill much-needed vacancies in the service. They want to match up jobs with people that want to be there… that’s their job.

I’ve met a number of them when I was working on computer systems at Headquarters Recruiting Service for the Air Force (and had to go out to recruiter sites to update software), and they’re just people… people with a job to do. Some are pushy and some are even willing to discourage potential candidates for the right reasons.

One recruiter actually let me talk to a classroom full of students, and he gave me an open forum to discuss my experiences in the military. I told them about destroying my knee, about the kind of things you go through for POW resistance training, about seeing bodies lined up at the port mortuary, about getting persecuted by the civilian populations around some military bases (just for being military) and about nearly getting killed just following orders. But I also told them about the confidence I gained, about the hundreds of friends I made that I could always count on, about how I had gained experience in a career field I was already getting civilian job offers on, and about finding the extra bit of discipline I needed to chase my dreams.

Just like any job, there’s good and bad, and the military’s no different. For some people, it’s still a good career option. But I doubt you’ll see many of the counter-recruiters encouraging people to join the military even if it could be a good career possibility for them. That’s not in their job agenda description.

Okay, so it’s not quite that dramatic. If you keep track of the latest comic book news through my Comic Headlines page, you might have noticed that the Newsarama headlines haven’t been showing up for a while. And you might have noticed a lot of Newsarama headlines just showed up this morning. Finally tracked down the problem and got it fixed.

Been working on a lot of code lately for a few special projects… some of it you’ve seen samples of with the updated “About Jeff” and “About Seth” sections and the Task Force 1 preview. The rest will be revealed in time…

Now for the other quick stuff:

• Take Back Memorial Day. Please take the time to honor the fallen this Memorial Day. From the first patriot to die for this country’s independence to the current victims of IEDs overseas. From the support personnel caught by sniper fire to the combat medic dying to save another. To every jarhead, grunt, squid, and zoomie that lost a life in the service of their country.

• Yes, I’m affected by the Veteran Administration’s data breach. And so is my wife. And my friends. But not my mom (she was discharged before 1976). There’s a chance nothing will happen, but if you’re a veteran and worried about it, you can find some helpful tips in this article at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The quickest and easiest thing to do is to call one of the three credit reporting agencies (numbers are listed in the article) and establish a fraud alert on your account. That’ll make sure that any company requesting credit will need to call you first.

• Underwater Counter-terrorism Training

• From an article where Ames Laboratory researchers detect secret files lurking within digital images:

But what if files could be hidden within the complex digital code of a photographic image? A family snapshot, for example, could contain secret information and even a trained eye wouldnt know the difference.

That ability to hide files within another file, called steganography, is here thanks to a number of software programs now on the market. The emerging science of detecting such files steganalysis is getting a boost from the Midwest Forensics Resource Center at the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory and a pair of Iowa State University researchers.

Ahh, “thanks to a number of software programs now on the market.” What about those programs from the early to mid-90s? Even if their detection system is truly groundbreaking, it’s just weird to see them playing up something that’s been around for a while as some new threat or “an emerging science.”

• And he said unto them, let the chickens see.

Well, I meant to write up something on Monday or Tuesday, but I was dead on my feet. A zombie road warrior with work and deadlines and a craving for all-you-can-eat prime rib (and after getting your “money’s worth” of prime rib, you don’t really feel like doing anything but lie there and ponder the other horrors of the universe). Anyways, flew back from Kansas City last Friday night, got up early Saturday morning to drive from Ausitn to Dallas for the CAPE convention, drove back down to Austin Sunday morning, and then caught a 6:30am flight back to Kansas City on Monday. It was a damn lot of traveling. Was it worth it?

Definitely.

CAPE is one of those small comic book shows with tons of friendly attitude and lots of heart. A show that makes you feel even more excited to be part of the comics industry. Richard and his staff at Zeus Comics put on a great show, and I had a wonderful time talking to guests and fans alike. Met a lot of great people up there and had a small reunion with some old friends (Chris and Tom from Half-Ass Publishing and Kit Lively, who I first met at a convention many years ago). Forgot to bring up my box of Steampunk Faeries for my table there though, but it turned out well anyways… I had a full-issue preview of Task Force 1, which got a lot of people’s attention. Ended the day by heading out to dinner with a bunch of people from Gail Simone’s YABS messageboard (including Gail and her husband Scott) and then went to the CAPE art jam after that. The creativity in that room was truly inspiring, and I was actually so charged up from it when I got back to my hotel room, I cranked out a few scenes from my new screenplay before falling asleep.

As for CAPE 3 in 2007… I’ll be there, long drive and all. Count on it.

And it’s back to Austin tomorrow… that’s the life of a road warrior. Oddly enough, I’m kinda getting used to all this travel.