Friday wants a team-up movie with Black Widow and T’Challa’s Security Chief.
I don’t know if it’s tacky to mention my own stuff here, but I’m going to anyway. Earlier this week, I posted some of my pics as desktop wallpapers. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!
Now, on to the rest of the links.
I met Lar DeSouza when he was artist guest of honor at ICON in Iowa, back in 2014. Later that weekend, I met him again as Sailor Bacon.
You see, back in 2013, Lar was fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis research, and promised his fans that he’d dress up in the cosplay of their choosing if they raised at least $10,000.
Which they did.
He’s continued to raise money for MS research — and to dress up as Sailor Bacon — ever since. He’s also offered incentives like custom artwork and dyeing his beard an additional color for every extra $1000 raised.
If my math is right, Lar and his fans have raised around $40,000 in total to fight MS.
There’s even a new Sailor Bacon plush, with a portion of the proceeds going to MS research.
Fighting MS by con light,
Winning breakfast by daylight,
Rainbow beard that is so bright!
It is the one named Sailor Bacon!
The MS Walk was May 1 this year, but it looks like you can still donate.
I love that geeks and fandom not only work so hard to do so much for good, worthwhile causes, but that we find weird and random and fun ways to do it.
My wife wanted to go see Captain America: Civil War on Mother’s Day. Because she is awesome.
I don’t have the time for a full review, but had lots of thoughts I wanted to put out there. And hey, what the internet really needs is one more place for people to discuss the latest Marvel movie, right?
If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to be spoiled, turn back now…
SPOILERS AHOY
For a while now, I’ve been looking at the nicer DSLR camera lenses and drooling a bit. As a late birthday present for myself, I went ahead and purchased an L-series 100-400 mm lens, which arrived on Friday. Naturally, all productivity came to a screeching halt while I ran around to try it out. If we’re friends on Facebook, you may have already seen some of the results.
The lens is both bigger and heavier than I expected. I can take pictures and get a bit of a workout at the same time. It’s got three different stabilizer modes that I need to figure out yet, and long-range handheld shots are tricky, but I’ve gotten some pictures I’m very happy with.
You can see a few more, or check out larger versions of these, at Flickr.
For those of you who do photography, do you think I should worry about watermarking any of these? I’ve never bothered before, but I’m still very much an amateur trying to figure out what I’m doing.
Back in March, I posted about Janet Kagan’s work, which I love. Unfortunately, most of it was out of print.
Well, Baen Books has released her work in electronic form, which is awesome! They even put together a collection of her shorter work!
Amazon | B&N | Baen Books
Amazon | B&N | Baen Books
Amazon | B&N | Baen Books
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy some ebooks!
Friday has a late birthday present showing up later today!
As some of you know, I’m a bit of a photography hobbyist — that is to say, very much not a professional. But it’s something I enjoy, and something I’d like to get better at.
It occurred to me as I was looking at my mostly-outdated press kit pics that authors need author photos.
Some authors pay professional photographers for their author photos, and that’s great. Others go through shots their friends have taken and try to find the best ones. And sometimes we just panic and snap a bunch of selfies and hope for the best, because the editor wants it right now and I can’t find anything and I’m panicking and why can’t I just send a picture of my cat instead?
Anyway, as an idea, what would you think of me offering to do photo sessions at future conventions for authors? I’m not sure exactly how this would work, but it would be good practice and experience for me, and I’d send the authors their pics and rights to use them however they need.
While I’m not a pro, I like to think I don’t completely suck. Here are some of the pics I’ve taken over the past couple of years that people seemed to like. (Keep in mind, these were generally snapped in the spur of the moment, so I didn’t always have time to move for better lighting or background and such.)
What do you think? What are the downsides I’m missing? I figure I’d need to be clear up front that I can’t guarantee perfection. On the other hand, I can probably promise that you’ll get your money’s worth. Ideally, folks get decent photos they can use, and I get to have fun practicing and getting better at something I enjoy.
I figure I could either do it informally, with folks emailing me ahead of time to set something up at a convention, or else talk to the con about maybe getting an hour or two on the schedule to either shoot outside or in a program room or…well, it would probably be best to scout locations beforehand, to be honest.
Anyway, feedback welcome and appreciated.
I’ll be at the Southfield (Michigan) Public Library tomorrow, May 4, at 6:30. I’ll be reading something still-to-be-decided, talking a bit about writing and my own process, answering questions, and then selling and signing some books.
All I know for certain is that I need to remember to wear one of my Star Wars shirts…
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many SF/F Being Awesome posts.
For close to 20 years, Balticon and the Baltimore Science Fiction Society have been raising money to provide books to kids — particularly kids who might not otherwise be able to afford them — and to school libraries as well.
I spoke with Kelly Pierce, who’s been coordinating the Bobby Gear Memorial Charity Auction at Balticon since about 2002. The auction raises the bulk of the money for Books for Kids each year.
In the beginning, BSFS Books for Kids worked with RIF (Reading is Fundamental) to buy and hand out the books. When RIF stopped operating in Maryland, BSFS Books for Kids chose to continue, and to distribute the books themselves.
The auction is named in honor of Bobby Gear, who was a BSFS volunteer and teacher at Buck Lodge Middle School, one of the first schools to benefit from the generosity of BSFS Books for Kids.
Since it all began, Balticon and BSFS has probably raised around $50,000 to provide books to libraries and kids in need, with the bulk of that money comes from the annual auction.
Think about that for a moment. Think about how many books this group of fans has passed out. Think about how much that means to kids who might not be able to afford books of their own.
This is what I love about fandom. People don’t just get together to celebrate the stories we love. They pour in hundreds and thousands of hours of work to help others, to share those stories and books with others. To share that love.
For more information:
Thank you Kelly for taking the time to talk to me, and thanks to everyone who’s volunteered and donated and supported BSFS Books for Kids over the years.
Do you have a suggestion for a group, organization, or event to be featured on the blog for general awesomeness? Email me at jchines -at- sff.net, or through my Contact Form.
Friday just splurged on a late birthday present that should show up by the end of next week…
