Friday, May 28, 2010
The Friday Challenge - 5/28/10
This week in The Friday Challenge
Guest columnist Sarah Pottenger delivers the sort of nuts-and-bolts column on the mechanics of writing that we so often promise but so rarely run. Do you need some simple, easy to remember, and clearly illustrated examples of when and when not to use commas? Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel reminds us that the clock is ticking and it's barely two months until NASFIC: the North American Science Fiction Convention, which is a sort of back-up WorldCon that's held whenever the official WorldCon is overseas. This year NASFIC is being held in Henry's current home town of Raleigh, North Carolina, so he wants to know: who's going? Who still needs to find a hotel room? Where shall we all arrange to meet? And who's bringing the potato salad? Join the discussion...
Speaking of ticking crocks, both Lost and 24 have finally, at long, long, last, reached the end, and so Ultimate Geek Fu asks the only question that could possibly be asked under these circumstances: was it good for you? Join the discussion...
In one graceful leap, Splattering Guts for Fun & Profit bounds from Greco-Roman galley warfare to computational fluid dynamics. Do you really want to write a scene in which the captain of the Starship Insolvent bellows the command, "RAMMING SPEED!"? Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke indulges in some introspection about this site and concludes that running The Friday Challenge is very much like planting a garden. Nice metaphor and all that, but if such is truly the case, what's he planning to do with all that cow manure? Join the discussion...
Miko takes the win in the 5/14/10 Friday Challenge, "Invasion of the Ring-Stealing, Satellite-Snatching Mechanical Zombies From Outer Space!", but surprisingly, not without some debate. Join the discussion...
Also, Kersley Fitzgerald explains time management as applied to writers, Google gets weird on us, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum. All this and more, this week in, The Friday Challenge!
The Land Before ZIP Codes
We realize you're all waiting for a decision, but the question of which of the four entries won last month's Greater Challenge, "The Land Before ZIP Codes," is still pending, as there is some heated debate going on behind the scenes. Wow! This is work. No wonder professional editors use form rejections! In the meantime, if you'd like to read, comment on, and vote for your favorite among the submitted entries, please do so. Your comments might help us to resolve our collective mind.
tlhutlh Daq Qapla'
Regarding the 5/21/10 Friday Challenge, "tlhutlh Daq Qapla'" (or for those who don't speak Klingon, "Cliff Clavin in the 25th Century"), as of the deadline we have received the following entries:
Ernest T. Scribbler, "The Other Trouble with Tribbles"
Avery, "A Warrior's Drink"
Miko, "A Headless Chicken"
If we've missed any entry, or if anyone snowdogs in an entry after I've written this post, please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP. As always, remember that even if you didn't submit an entry this week—even if you never submit an entry in any week—you're invited to read, comment on, and vote for your favorite entry. Writers thrive on knowing that someone else out there is actually reading their words. (And cookies. They also thrive on cookies.)
The winner will be announced on Sunday.
Geek Confessional
For this week's Friday Challenge, I've drawn inspiration from a magazine I just recently discovered: Home Power, a resource dedicated to small-scale renewable energy, sustainable living, and "living off the grid." Particularly, in a recent issue there was a wonderful, step-by-step, how-to article by a guy who had, using simple tools and common equipment, taken apart and rebuilt the battery pack in his 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid. "I saved more than a thousand dollars over having the dealer do it!" the author crowed.
Buried deeper in the article was his in-hindsight-only step #1: "Find a place where you can park the car and leave it for two months, because you won't be able to move it again until you're finished." That two month figure was not the result of sloth or slop; that's how long it actually took him to tear the battery pack down to its component nickel-metal hydride cells, and then to test, refurbish, and reassemble it, one cell at a time.
I can only stand in awe. I have never done anything even halfway near as obsessive and pointless. True, I have spent an entire Saturday afternoon repairing a ten-dollar coffee pot that I could have replaced with a fifteen-minute trip to K-Mart, and I do know more about the inner workings of typewriters than any sane person living in the 21st century should ever have to know. And yes, my preferred daily driver is, weather and Lucas Electrics permitting, a 35-year-old Triumph, when it would make far more sense to own a Miata or a Z3.
This, I have decided, is a significant identifying trait of GPD (geek personality disorder): the urge to spend hours tinkering with something you could more easily and cheaply replace, just to see if you can fix it. It's universal; it transcends time and place; that's redundant. There is a wonderful scene in an early Vonnegut novel—Player Piano, I think—in which, during a break in the action, the engineers-turned-revolutionaries start tinkering with a broken Orange Julius machine; not because any of them is thirsty, or because they even like Orange Julius, but just to see if they can get it working again. I'm convinced that no matter what the technology is, there is someone who really enjoys puttering and tinkering with it, no matter how long it takes, just to see if they can get it working the way it's either supposed to or used to.
And that is what we're looking for this week. What's your best story of the time you spent a whole day fixing a five-dollar radio, or wrenching on a lawnmower that should have been junked ten years ago, or debugging a program it would have made far more sense to erase and reinstall? Or, if you're not the puttering and fixing type, tell us why you never fix things, or share with us your most aggrataining* story of a friend, relative, or co-worker with serious GPD.
As always, we're playing by the loosely enforced official rules of The Friday Challenge, and playing for whatever is behind Door #3. The deadline for this one is midnight Central time, Thursday, June 3rd.
Have fun!
* Aggrataining: simultaneously aggravating and entertaining, of course
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