Back in… oh, it was probably 1984, I first tried my hand at a series of short stories set in a post-catastrophic future, in which micronations (but they were not called micronations back then) were the last surviving bastion of order in a world in which environmental and economic disaster had created billions of refugees.
I had just read a book about the coming ice age (it looked legit), so I threw that idea in.
I had been reading The Prisoner of Zenda for the first time, too, and I sort of wanted to mix the small operetta nation/state of the book with a sort of futuristic and cyberpunkoid stories.
Hussars and Hackers, if you will.
So I imagined this small Alpine nation, called Drachenstahl (which means something like “stolen from the dragon”), served by airships and with a solar/geothermal energy economy, in which a small unit of “technology cops” operated – people charged with keeping an eye on the diffusion of new technologies and the abuse of those technologies. Continue reading
Category Archives: Armchair adventuring
Earhart in the Marshall Islands?
I started reading about Amelia Earhart back in university, after stumbling on a slim book called I Was Amelia Earhart, a fictionalized account of Earhart’s final days.
Most obviously fictionalized because nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart after she disappeared somewhere over the Pacific in 1937, together with her navigator Fred Noonan.
The book was strange, not exactly what I had expected, but what the heck, there was a mystery in there, one I had heard mentioned for ages, but never got into.
So I started reading on the subject. Continue reading
Researching Egyptian Art for Fun and Profit
And talking about courses…
Today I decided that Dutch is not the language for me. I tried it on both Duolingo and in a MOOC from Futurelearn, and in the end I surrendered. I can’t make it.
Not at this time.
A pity, really, but I’ll save it for the summer to give it another go.
On the other hand, I am about to start a 30-hours introductory course on ancient Egyptian art – because enrolling in an online course is still the best way to research a novel.
And a course on Egyptian art will help me with both the current AMARNA project and the Corsair story I am preparing for early next year.
The course is offered for free by the Open University in collaboration with the British Museum, and I’ll also get me a certificate of participation in the end.
What’s not to like about this?
The Longevity Dividend
I just finished an online course about the strategies for a successful aging.
I’m over fifty, after all, and without a hope in hell for a pension and a healthy retirement, I will have to keep myself in working order until the day I die.
Better start early.
The course was an absolute wonder – lots of ideas, lots of suggestion,m some great interactions with my fellow students, and at least one concept I’ll take away and keep close at hand: the longevity dividend. Continue reading
Storium and the Writing Game
I mentioned Storium in my previous post.
I found out about Storium when I got hooked up into it as a result of my taking part in the 7th Sea Second Edition Kickstarter.
I took a tour, and was positively impressed.
Basically, Storium is a cross between a storytelling game, an old choose-your-own-adventure game book and a collective writing experiment. Continue reading
The nomad barter list
I stumbled on a conversation, last night, in a forum for nomad workers.
In case you missed it, cybernomadism or nomad working are the names usually given to those that have a location independent job or cybercommute while traveling around.
I was a small-scale nomad worker in the first decade of the 21st century, when I moved between universities to peddle my post-grad and post-doc courses, while working via the web with various clients and colleagues.
Anyway, last night’s discussion was on the following: what skills can you trade on the road?
In other words, what knowledge would you be able to barter for food, lodging, services or what else. Continue reading
The Garbo Blogathon: Queen Christina (1933)
She is certainly the most iconic movie star of all time, and this is the Greta Garbo Blogathon, hosted by IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD.
As usual, I invite you to point your browsers to the blogathon page for a complete list of the participating blogs and a lot of great articles about Garbo and her movies.
And once you’re done, come back here, because we are going the swashbuckler way again— well, sort of.
We’re gonna talk about the 1933 pre-Code classic, Queen Christina. Continue reading
Karavansara 