Facial recognition. Cool or Creepy?

I went and saw the latest Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol and regardless of whether you liked it or not I saw something interesting in the opening scene. An agent is trying to find someone in a crowd, but he hasn't as in olden days studied the person so much he can pick him out even in a crowd. He has a way to scan the entire crowd with his phone and that identifies the target. Wild and crazy, right? Handy for agents anyway.

Then I saw this completely serious article that is a discussion of the privacy concerns of facial recognition. I realized as I started reading that there are already sites like Flickr and Facebook using facial recognition software.

I started thinking are the days of privacy winding down to an end. Will we give up anonymity for security in finding the latest bad guy?

Even more interesting, will we give up our opportunity of anonymity for convenience? After all, isn't it handy when Facebook finds the person and says start typing the name to tag the person. You don't have to do all the work of a graphic artist just to show your friends the picture you took of them last night.

I don't have any plot items in mind, but it seems that I am not alone in thinking the idea of facial recognition can be abused a staff attorney at the Federal Trade Commission is asking questions too. I wonder if you could include in a Sci-Fi story that detective use facial recognition to catch cheating spouses via the internet or tapping into security camera networks.  I could see a plot point where government agents gone bad hunt people on the run.
I haven't read anything using this in the story line but I'm sure I will.

No more blending into the crowd, huh?

Painting damaged by drunk lady's butt

So I first saw this headline and thought, "Oh, poor dumb drunk lady. She had one too many and was in a crowded gallery. She must have brushed up against some artists' painting with her sequins or something."

Oh, how innocent I am. No, this lady was drunk and angry and these were paintings valued at $30 mil! Now we've all been angry, but this lady must have some kind of chemical reaction with alcohol to reach these heights, or ahem,  should I saw lows. I'd wonder if she dated the artist, but he's been dead since 1980.

Also this was not a gallery showing it was a museum. I'm betting they think twice before they serve alcohol to the patrons again.

So the shocking thing is this lady didn't just get inebriated and bump into a painting, she actually dropped trou and put some effort into this even perhaps forgetting anatomy lessons of the past and trying to urinate on it. Really? You're a girl. The painting is not bothering you.

I don't know that I particularly like abstract expressionism either but after all it is just paint on canvas. Losing ones britches and, uh, rubbing oneself on a painting seems like going a little far. It doesn't say, but I have to admit I'm curious what the museum security guards do in a case like this. Making half naked ladies stop rubbing paintings with their derriere=awkward day on the job.

All of this buys her a charge of felony criminal mischief. Mischief indeed. Keep your pants on!
Article 

Sherlock and tradition

So do you like originals, the traditional, the classics? Does the new and innovative, the different, get you jazzed?

I went to see the The Dark Shadow this weekend. The second of the "new" Sherlock movies. Disclaimer: I suspend my disbelief easily. I had a good time. I enjoyed both these new Sherlock movies. My mother on the other hand hated the first one and no doubt will not be attending the second. She likes Sherlock old school style.

I have watched the old Jeremy Brett Sherlock interpretations, black and white versions from days before I was born, I've watched PBS versions and I've enjoyed myself. This is also true of another old friend, Hercule Poirot from Agatha. I've also read books by these greats of mystery and enjoyed them.

While I have no doubt the authors, were they alive, would have all kinds of opinions on the interpretations of their characters, I wonder does it always have to be the original to be good? I have a feeling our Sherlockian purist friends out there are not impressed by this modern version of Sherlock. Yet I hear the echo of those original books in him to some extent. To give the producers of the movie credit, there's no way to please everyone, so you just gotta jump in the water. (pun intended if you've seen the film).

It begs two questions. 1. Is only the original legit? and 2. Who says which one is the original?

A similar debate is raging in certain church circles too. Music traditional or new? It seems like the two sides square off quite forcefully on the tradition and new debate whether they are inside the church or out. People have strong opinions.

I have to ask as someone who can take a story for what it is or a song for that matter, can we not have it both ways? Does this make me wishy-washy? I can watch the old versions of Sherlock and enjoy a good story. I can watch the new one and enjoy a good story. For me it's just another version, another interpretation. Maybe it's just taste and these suit mine. Even when my brain says, Hercule is too fat, or Sherlock is too buff, it's the story that keeps me. I like plot.

The debate perhaps boils down to: is it a good story, or a good song or not? Though a certain amount of that is in the eye of the beholder and whether you were able to suspend your sense of doubt and skepticism long enough to watch. Or whether that song said something to you that clicked deep inside.


It renews my sense of wanting to write a good story with good characters and for people to engage with it!

Ebook impact on my reading

So in 2011 I took the plunge into ebook land. It was premeditated because I knew I would be moving to a place where English books would be hard to find and expensive. I chose the ipad because it also worked as essentially an extra laptop in the house, and it has some usefulness in my day job as well.

My first book was a free classic. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by one of our grand dames Agatha Christie. Enjoyed it just as much digitally as I've enjoyed her work on paper. I went to see if all of her books were free in ebook form only to get my first lesson in ebook marketing. Make the first one free, hook them, then charge full price.

I was a bit frustrated when I looked for specific books and didn't find them in the Apple Ibookstore. It also was hard to just browse. I think I should try to browse from Itunes and I'd enjoy it more. I was delightted to discover that Nook and Kindle have Apps for the ipad which opened up a whole new world. I now feel like I can visit different bookstores depending on what gift certificates I have or what mood I'm in or where an author makes their work available. I'm not limited.

I tried some different books that I wouldn't have risked money on when I experimented with booklending.com that lends via the Kindle. A little weird to figure out but then the books appeared on my app. I also borrowed a couple I couldn't finish. A rarity for me. I have not tried - yet - the library lending programs yet. I did download Overdrive but my home town library changed systems before I could borrow, so on to yet another app. Library borrowing: a blog for another day.

When I finish reading a book now, I have the internal debate of what's next. Paper or ebook? I don't want to deplete my paper shelves too quickly. I also consider how much am I going on the train or am I going to go to a Spanish tutoring class. If I'm going to class, which means the train and taking notes in class, I'll have my ipad anyway, so it's better not to add a book to the load. I am jealous of others on the train with a Kindle. It's much smaller and can be handled with one hand which I can't manage with my ipad. The weight of the ipad makes me think twice about dragging it with me everywhere. I have to get bigger purses and stronger shoulders if it is going to go automatically with me. The good news is I just downloaded the Kindle app to my phone, so I can read there too without taking the ipad. This makes me a bit more inclined to buy my books on Amazon, but I think I may have a nook app available for te phone too. I need to see if I can see my ibook cloud on my phone (not an iphone, so I doubt it.)In general I think I'm buying more on Amazon.

Something I enjoy in ebooks is that I can tap a word to get a definition instantly without leaving my book. I love this. I always read books and thought I should look that word up (Thanks, Elizabeth George), but then I didn't want to interrupt my reading to go do it. I also like marking great passages or turns of phrase that are good characterization. I don't like to deface paper books, so it's nice to mark things without the sense I'm making a mess in my book. I'm not good with straight lines or tiny printing in the margins, what can I say?

Here's an idea that would never have occurred to me pre-ebook. I might try to find a Spanish book as part of my journey of learning the language. If I can do the word look up thing, like I do in English, it would be a great learning experience. Maybe. Might be too much work in the end and reading is after all my mental release and recreation.

My Books of 2011

Here's my reading list for 2011. Not including whatever book I start tomorrow, but I likely won't finish one tomorrow so I think it's not too premature to post my list. I read 8 more books than the previous year which surprised me. I've only been keeping track the past couple years. I know I had a phase of one week when I was younger, but now we have the internet and other distractions.


I know that non-fiction slows me down because it just doesn't keep me coming back for more and often I am reading it at the behest of someone or some project and it feel obligatory not relaxing. I do force myself to read it because I know I should at times as well. I prefer to use reading as a relaxation though and not to "better myself."

I read a couple travelogues which I know technically are nonfiction but they flow for me like fiction. A good one is one of my favorite things to read.  I tend to enjoy them more and read them faster if they are humorous. So in this category for 2011: The Narrow Dog to Carcassonne wins. Delightful.

It's hard to pick a favorite in the fiction category because when I look at the titles they each say something different to me about the stories and then where I was myself at that time last year. I slept in more beds than I can count (with only one person I might add) so life was a bit topsy turvey last year. Historic favorite: A monstrous Regiment of Women. Really liked Down River and The Case of the Missing Servant opened up a new world of Indian humor and mystery. Take the Monkeys and Run was the best humorous mystery I read this year. Death of a Cozy Writer feels like the beginning of a new favorite author find.

1 A monstrous Regiment of Women, Laurie B King
2 The art of deception, Ridley Pearson
3 Telling Yourself the Truth by Backus and Champion, finished in 2011
4 Expectations and Burnout, Women Surviving the Great Commission, by Eenigenburg & Bliss, finished in 2011
5 Thrilled to Death, How the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure is Leaving us Numb, by Archibald Hart
6 - 12 'Christian' Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy: Relief from False Assumptions, by Cloud and Townsend
7 Desert Lost, Betty Webb
8 Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers
9 The Rosewood Casket, Sharon McCrumb
10 A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller
11 Freedom from Tyranny of the Urgent, Charles Hummel
12 Grace Under Pressure by Julie Hyzy
13 Brush with Death, an art lovers mystery, by Hailey Lind 
14 Death on Demand, Carolyn Hart
15 Driving over Lemons, an optimist in Spain, by Chris Stewart
16 Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff
17 Chamomile Mourning, Laura Childs
18 Fire and Ice, Dana Stabenow
19 Rikki Tikki Tavi, Kipling
20 Digital Disciple, Adam Thomas
21 The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie
22 The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents that Will propel the Future Church. Fritz Kling
23 Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
24 Think Twice, Lisa Scottaline
25 Down River, John Hart
26 Narrow Dog to Carcassonne, Terry Derrington
27 Hemingway Cutthroat, MIchael Atkinson
28 How to Write Killer Fiction, Carolyn Wheat
29 Say it With Poison, Ann Granger
30 The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence.
31 Straight, Dick Francis
32 The Case of the Missing Servant, Tarquin Hall, Vishi Puri mystery set in India.
33 Murphy's Law, Rhys Bowen
34 Take the Monkeys and Run, Karen Cantwell
35 Brett Battles, The Cleaner
36 The Killing Hour, Lisa Gardner, kidnapper-killer using odd environments
37 The Summer Snow, Rebecca Pawel, post Spanish Civil War
38 Stalker, Faye Kellerman, police procedural. Peter Decker lieutenant
39 Woman to Woman, Sharing Jesus with a Muslim Friend by Joy Loewen (Jan 1, 2010)
40 Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane
41 Missing Persons, Clare O'Donohue
42 Still Life: An inspector Gamache Novel, Louise Penny
43 Last Breath, Michael Prescott
44 Shameless Promotion for Brazen Huzzies, by Roberta Isleib, ed.
45. Death of a Cozy Writer, G.M. Malliet
46. Retirement can be Murder, Phil Edwards

Forged Doctor's Note, funny news item.

What cheek! I love bizarre stories where criminals go beyond the bounds. Well, they go beyond anyway or they wouldn't be criminals.

This lady forges a prescription and writes a bad check -- I'm assuming for the drugs. She gets busted and doesn't fight it. No contest.

She shows up the day of her sentencing with a note from her doctor that says it should be delayed. The DA - gotta hand it to him - calls the doctor to verify. Another forgery.

When the judge reports all this in the court room, the woman collapses. Really? If it were me, I would have poked her with my toe and been like whatever. Carry her away to jail.

But our government has to err on the side of safety, so they took her to the hospital and rescheduled the sentencing.

Crooks never cease to amaze me what they will try or say. Watching Cops is always flabbergasting what people say and they expect us all to believe it. Hilarious.

The Article. 

Oil Theft? Really?

I love Massachusetts and especially Boston. I've visited a friend who lives there probably 20 times. There's a funny gruff friendliness and sarcasm that runs through the general public when you're standing in line or in a public place. Love it! There's the mix of old style, old family Irish and Italian and then the more recent immigrants that keep the region spicey and interesting. So this article sparked my imagination about uncaught crooks stealiing of all things USED COOKING OIL. So this triggers my imagination. First of all I had a brief two week experience with restaurant cooking oil. It involved frying tortilla chips and sopapillas and attempting to clean up. I'm telling you grease was oozing out of every pore and dripping out of my hair by the time I'd spent a few hours doing this. So I'm trying to imagine the experience of stealing the USED cooking oil. This seems like a slippery, smelly, messy experience. Ripe for a comedy scene in a movie. Another thought that comes to mind -- I can't imagine you just dump this stuff in your furnace or car. Doesn't it have to be processed? So do you take home say 500 gallons of greasy goo and have to stew it or strain it or something? Do you do this in your garage? In the end is the effort truly worth the $1,000 that MAYBE you saved? Seems like a lot of work, stink, and effort for what is not exactly a grand haul. I don't imagine there will be a follow up article if they ever catch the culprits but I'd be curious to see the industrious thieves. I wonder if they will smell like old grease. What if they caught them because of the smell of processing or cleaning it?

Unpacking my blog

I've been reading about promoting a book and OF COURSE a blog is an essential tool. This one started as a place to account a new side of life living in a foreign country, but over the years there's been all kinds of themes here.

The advice about promoting a books says your blog shouldn't be about writing (unless that's your audience) but should be about life, and you,  or themes in your book and other things you enjoy. It's for people to get to know the author and also themes from the stories.

So my nattering on about writing isn't the ideal. I'm sure I'll continue to put an update in here now and then, but it's also a good writing challenge to make me get off the writing theme and write on other subjects. The thing is I'm not sure what else interests me that would get people jazzed about reading my blog.

I like weird news bits like one piece of a Florida 90 year old who shot her neighbor. She thought they were an item, but he was 50 and had no idea. In my opinion, Florida has some of the weirdest news bits and that's why my Work In Progress (WIP) is set in Florida. Lots of potential for funny bits.

I'm intrigued by crime stories too. That's kinda weird to blog about all the time.
Other things I like:
• food
• decor
• reading (oops doe that just go back to writing, though?
• dogs
• Spain (where I'm living now)

My book that is in editing now and will be the first to appear on Kindle and other ereaders hopefully near you next year is set in Africa. There's some weird news stories out there involving wild animals and parks in Africa too. I suppose if I connected to those we could start "buzzing" about the book - Killed in Kruger.  I say "we" because it will take all of us to start a buzz.

I'm open to input here, if anyone has suggestions. I gotta get jazzy!

Tried something new

I took a month out of life to go increase my Spanish language skills which involves a lot of discussion of grammar. That's for my day job but it's interesting and extremely taxing on my brain. I realize I've forgotten all the names of the parts of grammar and exactly what the rules are even though I know how to use them.

So now I turned around and started volunteering to help people increase their English skills. Since I was just in classes, I feel like I know what I found really helpful. It's just conversational English so I don't feel pressured to make all the grammar crystal clear, and I'm having a good time.

One of the hardest things for all of us when we're learning another language seems to be getting it into a conversational mode. Most folks can study and read the language, but getting it to come out of your mouth is another thing. Everyone - globally it seems - is afraid of embarrassing themselves. I'm struggling with how to get conversation flowing among the ladies I'm teaching. We've been simply listening to questions and answering them. That isn't truly conversation. We are having a good time though and that counts for something among my new Spanish and Bengali friends. This week we continue the discussion of food.

Editing

I decided that I didn´t want to put out a half baked book, so I am undertaking the process of finding an editor. I did not know what to expect and I am a bit overwhelmed. I gathered names from a writers´list serve I read. I tried to stick to the ones with personal recommendations. One person had recommended getting a sample edit so you can see if you will be a good match with a potential editor.

I started out with this and didn´t realize I needed to disclose that I was looking for several samples. One editor was unhappy with me and refused. I felt stupid and ignorant even though I meant nothing negative from the way I was going about the process. The editor has good connections so I believe she´s the real deal.

One sample feels a tad too light and one too deep. Another strong writer I know is saying maybe another pass myself for another rewrite. I realized myself that I have not read this version outloud which I think is a very good editing exercise. I´ve done it with parts of the book just not this draft. You´d be amazed the errors you hear and catch this way. All of this cuts into writing my new WiP which I have started. I´m excited about the new work and not as much about hashing out the one I think is "done" one more time. The thing to do is remove the emotions and give the book the best chance possible to be its best.

I will choose an editor and make sure Kruger gets its day in the world for people to read, but maybe I´ll read through it again too. Finding an editor is a new part of the writer process to learn and I´ll try not to beat myself up on the way.