Buying Things

Posted by Sharif S on May 20, 2013 in Blog Ends | 2 comments

So a book I partially edited for on came out but only for the e-book market.  Now regardless of how you feel about e-readers, they are going to exist in some form in the future and as a writer you’ll have to sell to them.  It might be a good idea to invest in one in order to see how they work and design your book for them.  But if you’re like me you don’t want to pay very much for it.  So here is a tutorial which can be used for buying most things.

Step 1: Questioning.

What do you want?  Why do you want it?  What is the best solution?

In this situation I want a way to read e-books which is light, portable, and not back lit.

I need it, because I am a writer who plans to be involved in the design decisions of his book in all formats.

Since I don’t want a back lit screen, this removes smart phones, tablets, and computers.

Step 2: Research.

What are the products available?  What are their features?  Which would be best for the price?  What are the reviews?

My research has decided that the Kindle Paperwhite is what I’m looking for.  It comes in 2 models, one without 3g ($119) and one with 3g ($179).  I can’t imagine being so desperate for a book that I couldn’t wait to get to a wifi hotspot to download it.  Also I don’t like the idea of doubling my internet bill for a device with a b&w web browser to be able to access the internet whenever.

But wait, the model without 3g has ads on it.  You have to see ads from Amazon in order to subsidize the lower price of your Kindle.  Well, it costs $20 to officially remove the ads.  Hackier methods are probably just a Google search away.

So if you don’t care about ads or plan a jailbreak then you’ve just saved about $60 just by making an informed decision.

Step 3: Shop

Choose the store you’re going to buy the device from.  What are their policies?  Do they have a rewards program?  Do you have a magic discount credit card with them?  Do they use ink cartridges as currency?

While most office supply stores are pretty much the same.  I go with Staples, largely because of locations everyplace I’ve lived and thus an ease of turning in ink cartridges (although, this purchase will be scarce since my mom finished her PhD, empty inks have been scarce and the cache has run out).

Using inks usually require attention to the calendar and patience.  At Staples you can turn in 10 cartridges a month for $2 each and they last for 3 months.  So math tells us that you can get a maximum of $60 off of anything.  Staples treats this like CASH so you can combine it with coupons.  Which brings us to the next step.

Step 4: Coupons

Do I have coupons?  Which ones can get me the best deal?

Now this isn’t some extreme couponing stuff where you buy like 500 gallons of detergent for $5.  This is just a simple way to bring the cost of your product down.  Look in your mail or newspaper and see what they have for you.

I don’t have any coupons so I just Google search or go to Retailmenot.com (Honestly, from web domains to pizza, you should always Google for promo codes).

After some math and looking through the coupons, this one will save me the most money (~$24)

 

Step 5: Purchase

If everything works out right and you used your maximum ink empties, your Kindle Paperwhite should be under $45 after tax.

Step 6: Ebay (optional)

Repeat these steps.  After 3 more months of dropping off used inks (if you have access to this many), then you can buy another Kindle Paperwhite for $45.  Sell it for $90.  Then all of this comes out to free.

 

Edit: Some of you may have noticed the fine print of the coupon says something about not being valid for Kindle purchases.  If you’ve noticed that then you’re smarter than me who skipped the basic “read the fine print step” and ended up looking dumb at checkout. 

Checkout woman: This can’t be used on Kindles.
Me: Why not?!
Checkout woman: Because it says it cannot be used on Kindles.
Friend: She just called you dumb!

However, this was a general tutorial that can be used for anything.  A woman behind us at Staples used the same method to buy a coffeemaker.

 

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Underrated Never Talked about Skill for Writers: A Rambly Sort of Thing

Posted by Sharif S on May 15, 2013 in Blog Ends, Writing | 4 comments

Today in class I started bringing up theory again.  Recently I’ve noticed my professor looks at me and smiles when I bring up some obscure topics and essays (I don’t know if she did that all semester or just felt nostalgic because today was the last day of class).  This time it was a piece by a Korean feminist talking about masculinity in oppressed cultures.  She said to me, “I’m always amazed by what you can bring to the conversation.”

Later tonight I went to visit a friend in the hospital.  A week earlier she was just an acquaintance.  In the hospital I argued with a nurse about why her pain wasn’t being managed and why the doctors seemed to think post-op pain of a 9 out of 10 was “normal” and didn’t need treatment.  My mom was a pain management nurse and now teaches nursing at a university.  I learned the lingo.  I learned how to ask for drugs without seeming drug seeking.  I learned how to advocate for my friend.

On the drive home I thought about my teacher’s words.  I realized something I decided was probably the biggest gift to myself.

I came up with two rules for myself:

1. Whenever I didn’t know something, I would ask about it.

This includes what words mean, things I claim to be an expert on, and things that people would probably prefer not to talk about.

2. I would let people talk to me about any subject.

I let my cousins and some of my friends teach me about cars.  I’ve let my sister (a women’s health nurse) teach me about different speculum, benefits of clear plastic over metal, and that some of them have lights.  My mom taught me about pain management in hospitals.  I’ve had people talk to me about all kinds of subjects from Apple products to humor theory to rollercoasters to Wutang Clan.

If you don’t want to hear about something, it’s probably, because you don’t know enough to appreciate it.

These rules will help you develop a sense of curiosity and wonder for the human creature.  Something that should show up in your writing.

Now people will go out and people watch.  Wonderful activity, but also very shallow and superficial.  You’ll only get the surface without context.  If you talk to a person, they will teach you about entirely new ways of seeing the world, maybe these ways aren’t always positive.  Of course this is granted they even want to talk to you.

Most people want to talk about things.  Some people will even talk to you about the worst tragedy to ever happen to them.  More people will tell you these things if they feel you’ll listen and understand.

I won’t tell someone to stop talking.  I’ll interrupt, because I’m so excited about the conversation, but I won’t tell them to stop talking.

It’s beautiful.  The human being.  I was with a girl and angry at the world.  I said, “I have never felt so misanthropic.”
She laughed (and not just at how angsty I was being), “You’re not a misanthrope.  You’re an anthropologist.  I’ve never seen someone so in love with people.”  This was a surprise to me.  I didn’t realize this was true.  I also didn’t realize she could ever show this level of understanding about me.  At least I used to think that.  It must be untrue since I fell in love with her.

Talking to people, reading their blogs will expand your mind more than anything (Even if it’s starting to get unfocused, rhapsodize-y, and digressive).  You’ll never know what you’ll learn and from where.  Did you think you would find a passionate, sincere, intellectual blog about the human condition with a bunch of ponies on it?

I’ve talked to a drunk punk rock bassist in the Inland Empire about his view on the world, it was disparate from the views of a privileged girl I talked to in Orange County, but there is always confluence.  We want the same things: love, respect, to feel special, safety, etc.

We all have the fear of time and being mortal adding pressure on our desires.  From this is conflict.  From this we do our worsts to each other and even our bests.  When written with justice to the characters, this conflict will allow you to see yourself in the worst of people as well as the best.  We are all the same, it’s the priorities and the situations that make us different, whether by nature or nurture.

There’s a price to this, the more you learn what people want and their motivations, the harder it is to judge them.  Although, this seems positive, keep in mind that these people will make you mad.  They will hurt you.  You will feel mad and stay awake at night.  You’ll wish you were just wondering why they would do something to hurt you, but you’ll know why.  You’ll know their motivations, what they want in life.  You’ll know that if you were them, desperate for the same petty things, then you would hurt other people for them as well.  It would be hard and wrong for you to hate them for being who they are.  So you don’t take any action, even though you’re hurt.

With this understanding there’s nowhere for your hate and frustrations to go.  You’re stuck with them.

Sorry, where was I?  Oh, yeah, people will reveal more to you than they realize.  They will tell you their ideologies, their secrets, their experiences even if they don’t intend to.  And isn’t understanding how other people think and act what character work is all about?

That’s not necessarily a rhetorical question.  Let me know how you think about anything I’ve brought up.  Clearly, I’m interested.

PS. For more on this subject read Virginia Woolf’s short story “An Unwritten Novel” to get the value of people watching and some of its drawbacks.  For the benefits of talking to people and how you can learn things about their character that they themselves don’t even realize they are saying read Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

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Equestria LA Panel

Posted by Sharif S on May 12, 2013 in Blog Ends | 2 comments

Hi everyone!

This post is scheduled to be posted a few hours before I give my talk at 2:15 0n creative writing basics at Equestria LA in Tail Hall.  If you’re attending you can download a digital copy of the lecture slides for free here.  If not, you can still look at the presentation anyway.  I have handouts as well as the presentation itself including all of the videos for you to look at on your mobile devices during the talk or at your leisure afterwards.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me!  mlpwritingismagic[at]gmail[dot]com  (replace the thingies unless you’re a spambot).

EQLA Power Point without videos

EQLA Power Point with videos (146mbs)

EQLA Presentation PDF Color High Res (26mbs)

EQLA Presentation PDF Color Low Res (14 mbs)

EQLA Presentation PDF Grayscale (4mbs)

 

Hope you enjoy!

Sharif

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A Thought on Interpersonal Communication

Posted by Sharif S on Apr 30, 2013 in Blog Ends | 0 comments

I was on my colleague’s blog last week.  She wrote her stance on cursing.  I made a comment which inspired her next blog post about the bi-directionality of human communication.

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Equestria LA Panel

Posted by Sharif S on Apr 27, 2013 in Blog Ends | 0 comments

UPDATE: So complications with a panelist’s flight, and because I’m a local, my panel got pushed back to SUNDAY!  Which is great because before I was up against the Voice Actor’s (Actress’?) Panel.  So it was looking like NOBODY was going to come!  But Kira and probably other unseen angels looking out for me in the EQLA staff made things happen for everyone!  So they’re awesome, and because of these awesome people instead of teaching an empty room I will have a room full of bronies who are too poor to buy anything at the auctions.  Essentially writers.  So it’s perfect!

I’m so excited!  There’s so much to do!  I have to practice, edit video, make a Power Point!  Hahaha! This is going to be so great!

I will be talking Saturday at 3pm Sunday at 2:15PM at Equestria LA in Anaheim!  This is my first pony convention!  So, um, you should buy tickets.  You should go!  It will be fun!  Even if you miss my panel come say “hi.”  I’ll run into you and give hugs!  I’m a hugger!

I couldn’t have done this without the help of Spenser, Kira, and perhaps other unknown bronies from the Brony Clubhouse.  Thanks for teaching me what friendship could mean!  I’ll try not to mess it up.  I won’t mess it up.  This is going to be awesome!

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Crazy Week

Posted by Sharif S on Apr 25, 2013 in Blog Ends | 0 comments

Hey everyone,

This post will be a little different.  I just wanted to talk about my week, which was pretty crazy.  Mostly my weeks just involve things on Netflix in between homework and independent projects.

Monday:  My short story “Lagomorph” was work shopped by a guest instructor David Francis because our normal instructor Judith Freeman couldn’t make it.  Although, it was very well received and the world was loved, there were a lot of great comments from my classmates and Mr. Francis.

I went home to try to write something like 8 more pages to my already written 2.

Tuesday:  I woke up early and I finished my first 10 pages of my first real attempt at a feature length screenplay.  They were shitty, but entertaining.  I now have a copy of my screenplay with Syd Field’s notes on it.  He mostly wrote that I’m really good at dialogue and my pages failed to have the most important things you need to have in the first 10 pages, dramatic need of your character.  Which I knew I needed.  I’m that guy who is always talking about the dramatic need.  But I panicked to be honest.  Screenwriting isn’t my strongest genre.  So my deadline made me lose my shit.

I work well with deadlines in fiction.  The first draft of “Lagomorph” was finished hours right at the deadline.  Most of which written within 12 hours of it.  But with screenwriting, it is a different beast.  With fiction you write a story logically, and it will flow.  When you write a screenplay it’s like you’re writing a story to a flow.  One is like Eminem on a bus writing words and performing to a beat later.  The other is like George Watsky writing a song to a beat.

Wednesday: I got e-mailed from David Francis.  He was saying how he was still thinking about my short story and was giving me more suggestions about many of my choices in the piece.  We e-mailed back and forth.  Although, many people would see it as “This guy kept messaging me to tell me how bad my work is,” I look at this as, “This author was intrigued enough by my story to keep investing his time to make sure that it becomes something.”  This is both a testament to  David Francis’ character and my draft of the story.

Later someone on Facebook who I only kinda knew from chance encounters in the program, posted something about her thesis being trapped on a laptop which had suffered an attack from a cup of coffee.  She needed help.  Last time something like this happened, a girl I kinda knew needed a ride to the dentist and I volunteered.  She is now one of my closest friends.  So again I offered to help her.  Her hard drive was whirling in the enclosure, but my computer couldn’t access the files.  She thanked me anyway with beer and introducing me to her friend.  So I made 2 friends in one afternoon.

Also I work got a humor piece looked at by one of my writer friends while she was at work.  So she got paid to read my manuscript.  If you workshop with someone who works at a writing center or tutoring service that offers free edits, turn their work hours into a workshop and help them get paid and have more free time.

Thursday: I got a call from my community college tennis coach.  He was asking how I have been and said it was around the time of the Ojai tournament.  He wanted to hear from “The Legend of Ojai” (me).  This title was not earned through tennis ability.  I’ll tell this story at another time in another form.

Most of this day was studying and homework and preparing for my reading on Saturday.  My friend Angie canceled on our plans to play tennis, so I was free to hang out with The Brony Clubhouse who were hanging out at the Buffalo Wild Wings right by my house.  We sang karaoke.  I did “Prince Ali” from Aladdin and at Cayci’s request did “Material Girl” by Madonna.  Some girl thought it was cool to record me.  So if you see video of me singing “Material Girl” kidney punch that bitch.

Of course later Spenser sang “You Got a Friend in Me” and stole the show.  I also got to meet some bronies like Dan.  I got to catch up with other bronies that I’ve met before who are cool and I can never spend enough time with them like Briston, David (Discord), Tyler, Rina-Chan, Nick, and a dude named Jeremy.  I’m sure I’m forgetting people.  Brony Clubhouse crew is like overwhelming with cool people.

While there, actually, some guy approached me to take pictures of some toys people at our table had.  They were custom painted OC’s.  I said sure.  As he was taking the pictures he said, “I’m going to make fun of you guys on /b/.”

I said, “Don’t worry.  Bronies are the internet.”
He said, “You guys are the cancers of the internet.”
I said, “You realize if you post that on 4chan that everyone is just going to ask where they can get their own.”
It was noisy, and I don’t think he heard me.  So if you see OC pony toys on a cup of Sprite, then that was us.

Friday: This day started rad.  I found great parking and I had my first meeting with my thesis adviser, Trinie Dalton.  Getting a thesis adviser is always scary.  I’ve heard horror stories (My adviser never meets with me.  My adviser made me write a horror novel and I hate horror novels!  My adviser was literally on drugs the last time we met).  Trinie was really cool!  She understands what I want to do with my writing.  She knows the type of writer I am and is flexible about my multi-genre thesis.  I decided to push my luck “I want to include a comics section to my thesis.”  She was down.

One problem, she scheduled a meeting right before EQLA.  I told her, “I’m going to a MLP convention and I may or may not have a panel that I may be giving on creative writing.”  She was like BAM!  RESCHEDULED!  YOU TAKE CARE OF THAT MY LITTLE PONY CONVENTION!

Go back to my car to see a parking ticket.  I also noticed that someone hit my car and scratched the paint.  I was on the 110 going home and picked the 101 to Universal Studios in order to cheer myself up and inspire me to write my next 10 pages of screenplay.

I lost my phone there.  I found out when I go to pick my friend Mike (from Westcoaster) up and I couldn’t call him.  He called my phone though:

Woman: Hello?
Mike (kinda drunk): You’re not Sharif!
hangs up.

So I called my phone and it is with the Sheriff’s department in City Walk.

Saturday: Late that night Mike and I watched “Red State,” ovened a frozen pizza and rehearsed for my reading the next day.

Instead of going to awesome shit at the LA Times Festival of Books, I went to Hollywood to get my phone.  That night I read to a packed auditorium.  A small auditorium, but with every seat filled.  Most of the people were my friends, whom I had guilted into coming or who came because they loved me  (more on this later probably).

The reading went really well.  I met a brony named Michael who came to check out my reading of “Best Pony.”  Afterwards he came to me and said that we need to get a reading of “Best Pony” on Equestria Daily.  I might be biased, but I agree with him.

Sunday: More book fest.  More panels.  Worked the MPW booth a little bit.  My friend Mike got some shit signed by the people who do “Knott’s Preserved.”  I dropped Mike at home and did a mad homework blitz.

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