Archive for May, 2010
The Upcoming Decades writing challenge
May 26th
As a child I had a futuristic short story published in some forgotten book, and I felt inspired to do another another story for the next decade, and the one after that, and few decades more.
The short stories have to
- contain at least 300 words.
- have a bit of daily life scenario
- the world as it is then
- a hindsight on the previous decade
Content tips: technology, education, politics, natural environment, society, etc…
For the years: 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050
So.. a bit like that other story, except written with a mature mindset. Sadly I do not think I can go back to being a child again. It makes me wonder how those who are current children view their world for upcoming decades.
New FCF update
May 16th
Hey all, the new FCF has a new chat/shoutbox (two-in-one!) and a new layout. Go check it out!
Africa’s century
May 13th
From How Africa will change the world at theglobeandmail.com:
- Nigerian phone subscribers exploded from 400,000 to 70 million in nine years, helping Mobile Television Networks become a global telecom player in the process.
- It is a dramatic illustration that, historically, Africa’s growth has seldom been gradual but rather in leaps.
- Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest growing population, a consumer base capable of benefiting from the diminishing costs and simultaneously pervasive benefits of technology.
- Africa controls the world’s largest stock of precious metals.
- To grow further, Africans need the things Europe needed after 1945: infrastructure; energy; integrated markets linked to a global economy; and a vibrant private sector.
Africa will become an important continent on many fronts – as a market, supplier, tourist destination, generator of ideas, source of clean energy, and home to unique biodiversity and cultures. Africa will always be humanity’s common place of origin, the unique home base for our global society.- Africa is already a leader in innovative uses of technology to deliver banking and financial services to the poor. The coming years will see even more innovation in putting news and information in the hands of the people. And that will build a stronger, more capable, more reliable Africa.
- African women – by joining forces, by fighting stigma and discrimination, by changing mentalities – are rising up and should eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. This is already happening across the continent.
- Africa also has a chance to pioneer a new green economy. While industrialized countries remain largely dependent on coal and oil, African countries – with their abundant solar, wind and geothermal resources – can become important users and exporters of clean energy
- But as the damage created by current models of economic growth, consumption and waste disposal and their unsustainability become more obvious in richer countries, Africa will be seen as an integral part of efforts to save the world from itself, as the globe’s largest provider of low-carbon energy, including solar, hydro and thermal.
- At the moment, Africa is viewed as part of the problem, not the solution.
- The big surprise is going to be the recognition that Africa is essential to a safe and secure planet.
Where are the floating houses?
May 11th
When I was eleven our class was assigned to write a story about the future. Apparently this was for a city writing contest for elementary kids and the best stories would be compiled into book. I wrote two full pages without a sweat, and the teacher selected me and two other classmates. He thought I had the best one. I can barely remember what happened after that. Months later my mom and I were invited to the party at the city hall. There were so many people in that small room in the back of the city hall. Even the mayor was there for the book release event. There were journalists photographing. I got one copy of the book and opened it.
…Except they spelled my surname mistakenly in the book and I remember having been upset, because my name is easy! They messed up by inserting a random t in my name! It’s not like I have a foreign name, so why the mess up?! I was the proclaimed spelling wonder among my classmates. Why can’t an adult spell my name correctly?!
However, I remained quiet about that, since I was far too impressed and shocked with the entire happening! I got my story in a book! This was probably where I got my huge inspiration to continue writing fiction.
So I asked my mom about the book, who indeed thankfully kept the book and the original (it had no spelling mistakes) saved, but I was most surprised by the title of the book:
The city, the street, the society. Maastricht in 2010
…well! That’s in the present. It’s basically about how the city will or should be like in 2010. There are tons of complainers in the book; mostly about the lack of multiculturalism, things that need to be changed, the locals who live here don’t accept outsiders, lack of disco, blahblahblahboring… and suddenly! Sci-fi creative writing from elementary students! According to my mom, out of all elementary schools we were the best.
A translation if you can’t read Dutch:
Laura: “Floating houses were invented 5 years ago and that was very useful. On the ground it won’t become that busy any more. With the atmosphere there were in no problems, because of the silent cars. Bad gasses are no longer used on the Earth and you only get your driver’s license at the age of 25.
While looking through the super strong crystal windows I noticed a girl who could run 5 meters with each step. That’s probably due to the C5 pills.
I push a button and suddenly the doorbell rang. A robot is standing before me, and he asked in dialect to pay up 25 euros. So I gave him the 25 euros and stuck it in his mailbox. He put down the groceries and flew away. What I found between the groceries was a lottery ticket and if you won, you would get a free trip to the moon. The moon probably became fertile, I think? But the food also changed a bit. I didn’t get normal food, but eating pills. You had to do it like this: you put the pill in your plate and sprinkle some water on it. For example, a hamburger appears on it.
I sat down in front of my 3d-television and watched the journal. The journalist said there was poverty on earth and that they invented a video phone in New-Mexico.
It’s only 7 ‘o clock, so I sat down in front of my school computer. You didn’t need to go to school if you had a computer. The exercises you don’t get will be explained by the teacher. I was ready at twelve ‘o clock, that’s two hours earlier than in the year 2000.
Then I read in the news paper that the hurricane Gregor had been in Mexico. That’s pretty bad, but maybe in 100 years everything has already changed.”
LOL. I frowned several times. (Driver’s license at 25?!)
The other boys had pretty much the same crazy and over-active imaginations about the future. More >
Have no fear.
May 11th
These are some good quotes I’ve seen over the past weeks. You may have seen them come by on twitter. I decided to do this, so I won’t have to go through my twitter for these quotes. Maybe I will add my thoughts, such as the last two.
“Do you have advice for songwriters like me?”
“Enjoy music: treat her like the incredible gift that she is! …and write honestly. Pain, joy, anger, love, fear- don’t dumb your feelings down; express them in your art. Be Brave.” – Jon Foreman
“At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.” – Søren Kierkegaard
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” - Harold Wilson
“Too many people are thinking of security… They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” -James F. Bymes
“The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The last two hit me quite hard, since this came up in one of the classes we had about technological security. In the Western world a trend exists that instills fear to the society in response to danger (whether it be terrorism, “foreign danger”, local criminality, etc). Okay.
Let’s change the perspective shall we. More >
Hope in spite of pain
May 9th
Lately I’ve been looking at life from a different angles… call it soul-searching or whatever, but having an eye-opener for once in a long time has been especially refreshing. This is what came out of it.
Although this is yet another try at blogging, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do it again. Who knows what will come out of this. I have another journal around somewhere on the web, which is mostly for the communities I’ve joined there as well as for making fandom-focused posts. I don’t think I will say goodbye to it, but I do think it’s an end of an era (Echo: End of an era!). I would have been wandering in a graveyard if I hadn’t made this change.
Sunken Glory is or was the title to a chronicle of stories which I am figuring out at the moment. Glory is a ‘glorious’ or ‘worthy’ thing, that was sunken into a ‘hopeless’ state. It’s kind of inspired by the title of The Beautiful Letdown album by the band I fangirl a lot.
Okay, I’m aiming to build some readership by plugging this thing into twitter or that other journal once in a while. Can’t hurt to have some people reading! Since I’m anything but talkative, I hope to give an understanding to what I’m experiencing and thinking about. Another reason is that I’m possibly moving away in the summer and go in a different direction in education.
Today was Mother’s day, and in a way I’ve become a “mother”… so to speak, something I never thought of becoming in a reality, and yet felt the need to so. It grew into a desire. I posted the mail today, and hopefully will get more info in two days. More on this Thursday, probably. I feel very excited about this!
