Shipping out Lore Bits Today!

I’m busy packaging up Lore Bits today for the Kickstarter rewards.

Zuffy Event Calendar died. I finally bit the bullet and killed of the events page.  I had put a lot of time and effort into it.  But it seems that no one was interested in advertising on it or helping out with the costs.  So it had to die.

I also experienced quite a bit of technical problems with Time.ly’s event calendar.  Hundreds/thousands of 404 pages.  Google would not stop indexing it because Time.ly created so many virtural pages that google would index it 300,000 times in a week.  Yah, you might be jelly of that indexing, however, what it does it create a huge hosting problem.  With that many hits from robots, it was upgraded to a larger hosting package.  Much more expensive than the basic hosting it had previously.

Do not recommend Time.ly.

I also took time to remove some of the directory pages.  It cleaned up the website and will allow me to focus exclusively on the blog.  The blog was the most neglected part of Zuffy Robot.

We’ve been enjoying sense8 on netflix.  It’s much better than Jupitor Rising, so take a chance on it.  I love space opera, so jupitor rising was a disappointment.  It’s a lovely movie which can play in the background while I’m reading a book or playing games.  The editing was poor and the story made no sense in spots.  I felt as if I watching the perils of pauline at times.  They pulled the initial release date and reshot scenes for months and re-edited it as well.  I’m wondering if the initial edit was the best one.  Example Sean Bean’s daughter is on for a micro second goes off for pizza then never returns.  You could do a whole movie about her and what her reaction is when everyone disappears and the house/farm is trashed.  Her father doesn’t even mention her in the rest of the movie.

It looks like finally in sense8, the wachowsky’s have time enough to tell their story.  Statzinky(?), who produced/wrote babylon is also producing sense8.  Perhaps, he had an influence on how it was edited.  I hope they do more work together, it’s a good result.

We saw Howl’s flying castle last month.  I highly recommend the anime classic.  Highly romantic fairy tale.  It stole my heart.

 

Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico

The Very Large Array in New Mexico is one of those surreal places that looks like a dream instead of a real place. Recently, we were able to travel to New Mexico. We were driving down the freeway to visit Trinity, which is only open to visitors twice a year. My guy noticed a sign that said:

Very Large Array VLA – Take this Exit

As soon as we got to the hotel that night; he googled it and was extremely excited to learn that we were so close to an icon. No one had mentioned this very cool thing that was right by Trinity and we had been planning the trip for a year.

The VLA is run by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  It’s an internationally known observatory that has been around since the 1970’s.  It has been featured in many movies and shows, including Contact, The Messenger and others. If it seems like there is more antennas in Contact, it’s because the filmmaker added more via photoshop.

 

Jodi Foster Contact

The place itself was built on a former lake bed at an upper elevation in New Mexico. The antennas are about 95 feet tall, can be moved to form four primary formations, and incredibly huge to see in person.

This is the scale while you are standing next to them. Notice that you can also see the railroad tracks that they use to change the formations. They have specially designed vehicles that pick up the antennas and move them about.

Upclose VLA

The day that we visited; it was in the B position. The different antenna positions allow more flexibility in what they can view.

Since it is a radio telescope observatory; the data that is gathered is string of numbers. The numbers are then converted into usable data that astronomers use in their studies and papers.

Since we went on the same day that Trinity was opened, they had a large open house at the VLA.  (They are about a two hour drive from each other.)

There were tours by astronomers, docents who explained the fancy sundial, and we got to go into the antenna control room.  The operator explained that the telescopes are in operation 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

We learned on the tour that anyone can make a proposal to have the VLA look at a specific item. It does need to meet some standards and I would suppose it would be helpful to have a basic knowledge of astronomy to make an effective pitch to the acceptance committee.

Here is a link to the process/forms that you need to fill out:

https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla/docs/manuals/propvla/obtaining

We also learned that astronomers also make poor tour guides.  We were left behind by the tour guide in a maze of an office building.  We walked through people’s offices, hallways and then ended up joining another tour, then blindly wandered outside.  Turned a corner and our group was on a balcony overlooking the antennas.  We caught up just in time to be sent out to a nearby antenna.  Good Times.

Very Large Array

Here is some more information about the location and budget friendly tours.  I’d suggest packing snacks or a lunch because it is an isolated area. They request that you put all cellphones in airplane mode; because the cellphone activity messes with the telescopes.  Plan for the tour to take a couple of hours.  The tour guides can take you into the buildings and control room.  The self guided tour does not have access to the buildings.

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/

https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla

 

Kickstarter Lessons

Earlier this spring, I decided to do my own kickstarter.  I had created some shiny game tokens called ‘Lore Bits’, and I wanted to share them with the world.  Along the way, I learned a few things.

  • Even Kickstarter experts can be wrong. No one can truly predict if your project will succeed or fail.  Mathmatically, the Lore Bit’s kickstarter was going to fail from all the projections.  However, towards the end; kickstarter sends out a 48 hour email.  My email was pinging like crazy the last two days!
  • Marketers like to contact you.  A lot.  Read any proposals, do they even mention your company?  What about your kickstarter?  I bet 90% are vague like ‘we like your project.’  Choose whether you think someone who can’t be bothered to mail merge your product name in to the email; will do a good job marketing it.
  • Keep up with the updates.  Honestly, I think my once a week updates contributed to the success at the end.  I hadn’t abandoned the failing project.  Kept them upbeat, told them about my other website where they could purchase them, and kept plugging along.
  • Not once, did my project get put on the front page of Kickstarter.  That is usually the kiss of death for most kickstarter projects.  What?  You can’t see the nearly 50% that are failing?  Did you think that was a coincidence?  Consider that possibility.  How will you drag people to your project page? 🙂
  • I should mention this:  it’s not kickstarter’s job to make sure you are funded.  Harsh truth, but a good number fail.
  • Great pictures are helpful.

Lore Bits Magnets 002

 

  • Listen to people who send you emails and make comments.  Most of them have funded a lot of projects or have their own projects.  Set aside your ego and make necessary changes.  Explain those changes in full in the FAQ or Comments section.

I might add more later.  There is always something to be learned. 🙂

Have a Shiny Day!

Laura

Ten Tips for attending Cons

Going to a new Con or event can sometimes be intimidating for people.  It seems like everyone already knows someone else.  And why didn’t anyone tell me that there were so many room parties?  How do I attend them?  Arrgggghhh!!!

Comic Cons and Literary Scifi events can be annual tradition that have been around for more than 60 years.  That’s a lot of history.  Some people meet up with their con friends every year for over 10 years.

Which can be intimidating to a shy geek who has just discovered that their favorite actor is signing autographs at the con.  Everyone seems to know the ropes!

Here are 10 tips to break the ice with other people:

1.  Be aware of your reaction to large crowds.  The larger ones like the New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con have over 100,000 people attend.

The NASA open House in San Franscisco that we went to had over 180,000 people attend.  Shuttles were overflowing, we had wait in line for over an hour for a shuttle.  Once the shuttle battled it’s way to the base, we had to wait another 45 minutes to get into the base.  For us pampered Seattle flowers, the California Sun drained us.  Did we meet anyone?  No.  Did we see plenty of our tribe?  Yes.  Geeks aplenty.  Would I want to go back every weekend?  Heck no, too many people.  The water ran out, the gift store was over run by mobs, and we couldn’t see the displays for the most part.  Most of the displays had lines of over an hour.

Last Month we went the VLA in New Mexico.  It’s the Very Large Array radio telescope facility.  Just as large, maybe larger than the NASA base.  We were in a small tour group.  We got lost, we ran into lectures by astronomers, we got to see some really cool equipment up close.  They let us into the telescope control room the operator told us about his job.  Wonderful experience.

Know your crowd tolerance.

2.  If you cosplay, read the con rules.  Some cons require you to preregister for any contests.  Others have rules about how much skin you can show.  Others have stringent rules about hall cosplay.  Knowing the expectations can make it a better experience.

3.  Read up on the Guests of Honor for the Con.  It’s a small world and you might find yourself in the elevator with them.  Small talk is less awkward if you at least know they are the guest of honor.

I once had an awkward moment with JA Jance, a prolific author.  She was signing books in an extremely loud electoronics store which has since gone out of business.  She was sitting there at the table.  I was the only one there.  I approached.  I asked her where the toilets were.  After I read her books ten years later, I slapped myself.  I could have done better than that. 🙂

4.  Double check the food situation.  At the NASA event, it was so large, we couldn’t even find the food trucks.  An extreme situation, but check to see if they will have food trucks, the nearby restaurants are overrun, etc.  Most cons make some money if you purchase from their vendors.

5.  Gaming Cons.  Look and relook at their websites.  Many game cons require you to preregister to play any games.  It’s all the name of organization.  But you will be sad to find out that you can only watch games.

6.  Ask questions at Panels.  The panel discussion folks have been focusing on these topics for months.  They know all sorts of stuff.  Ask a few questions to draw out more details.    The Q & A portion is just as important as the talking head part.

7.  Act respectively towards others.  Maybe you think Maid Cosplays are a bit silly; that doesn’t mean that you need to loudly deride someone who has spent months on their costume.  The same thing goes for other fandoms.  Sportsmanship during Game Cons.  Even in the parking lot, cutting someone off can create a bad vibe.

8.  Remember that the other people are also shy and geeky.  They might be thinking you are the unfriendly one.

9.  Vollenter.  Most Cons are run by vollenters.  This can be the best way to meet new people, meet the guests of honor and make a difference.

10.  Make a flexible plan to figure out what you want to see and do.  Some Cons are a one day experience.  Others have multiple days.  If the con prepares some quality panel discussions, I think it calls for multiple days.  If they have mostly vendor space set up and not so many events, it might be a one day event.

So set some reasonable expectations, make a plan, and be open to meeting other people in your tribe.

(Insert Strongbad Joke here.)

Lore Bits – KickStarter

This is the part where I get to plug my own product!

Paper Butterfly Forge, in addition to running Zuffy Robot, also makes shiny game counters.  We are pretty excited about them.  And why would we be?

10 colors, fun to use, and available through:

Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, TheCraftStar & the www.paperbutterflyforge.com website.

Kickstarter is reviewing the campaign now.  Fingers crossed that it goes live.

Kickstarter Product Pics