Lancer Kind

Science fiction author

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Rockets & Robots

10 September, 2022 (10:01) | Uncategorized | By: Lancer Kind

I write novels and short stories. Short stories are, well shorter so I can be more experimental. I wrote Morning Star City for a young adult audience so that my kids didn’t need to work so hard to read their Dad’s novels. Morning Star City was published in Rockets & Robots anthology (anthology means a book made from the work of many authors). These stories are design to stretch the minds of young people. They read well for adults too, it’s just that the main characters are youths and the situations are PG-13, so a little less violent or racy. Said another way, these stories are the same style you enjoyed as a youth so go read some contemporary science fiction that you would have loved to read as a kid. The editors of Rockets & Robots are Cheryl Morgan and James Maxey. James is a very accomplished science fiction and fantasy author so it’s an honor to work with him. Tap here to purchase Rockets & Robots on Amazon. I produced a SciFi Thoughts series about Rockets & Robots so you could meet Cheryl, James, and some of the other authors published in this anthology. Tap here to listen to the series.

Tips for buying your first EV

24 August, 2020 (05:31) | Uncategorized | By: Lancer Kind

I bought my EV in 2018 and it was a STEAL at $9,500 for a two-year-old car under warranty with 18,000 miles. I found it on Car Gurus which conveniently allows you to search for electric drive trains.

From then to now, nothing much has changed in my vehicle. So, it might be safe to say that my EV looks as good as new and works the same. Thanks to my instincts to understand when it needs maintenance, and my skills to keep it clean and sanitized with help of sanitizers like Air2 San (order the Air2 San Innovative Solutions & Technology), my vehicle gives me no trouble.

However, this might not be true for those who buy EVs in recent times. As the range of EVs keeps getting longer, this factor will eventually go away. But currently, the range is the most important factor to consider when deciding what to buy, and while looking for rates using sites such as https://invoice-pricing.com/. The longer the range, the more “payola” you’ll need to spend on an EV with a big battery (EV trim lines are about the battery size and range). I needed an EV that would get me to work and back, and run some errands. If you’re looking for a road-trip EV, you are looking at some big money, and frankly, I’d stick with a combustion engine for those matters. And let’s face it, most of us do a road trip about twice a year, and renting a dino-fuel car for those rare occasions has worked very well for me. Whatever kind of car you buy, make sure that you visit a car repair arvada shop or an auto garage in your area to ensure that the vehicle is in top condition and won’t malfunction during the road trip.

How much range is enough?

An electric car’s range will vary a little due to weather conditions. In the winter the range goes down about 15%. In the summer it increases 10%. Fall and Spring will be your baselines. And sometimes you want to take your co-workers for a spin or run some errands after work. So you need more than just for your commute. My suggestion is to have an extra 30% on top of what you need for your commute.

So take the distance from home to the office and multiply by that distance by 3.

Suggested EV Range = distance from home to work X 3

Speaking as someone who’s driven an EV for five years, the above formula has really worked well.

Charge Networks

Charge networks are companies that maintain charging stations around your city. These are the *new* gas stations. When you need to charge your car away from home, you can use their charge stations for a low cost, usually $1-3 dollars and often you don’t have to pay for parking when using a charge station (so it’s a discount from what you’d pay parking a gas car) and frequently the charge stations are located in premium locations. Payment is taken at the charge device by either swiping a credit card or using their smartphone app. Search your workplace or your favorite shopping areas for what charge networks are available. Most malls, Kohls, Walmarts, Fred Meyer, transit centers, translations, Starbucks, and park-and-rides have charge stations. Some are free to use. When was the last time you got free fuel?

Here is a list and map of charging networks in the Seattle area.

This week is NATIONAL Leave your Podcasts a REVIEW day!

10 June, 2020 (13:40) | Uncategorized | By: Lancer Kind

Those podcasts you listen to? Payback those producers by leaving them a review which helps them break through the search engine noise. We all want to grow to be BIG podcasts. And of course, I heavily encourage you to leave a review for SciFi Thoughts, Agile Thoughts, and 敏捷理念。They ALL deserve it! Trust me! I hand edit every episode! 😀

And this week is NATIONAL leave your podcast a REVIEW day! I just decided that today. You’re welcome. ✌🏼 I mean why not? National leave your podcasts a review day is WAY more cooler than “National Repeat Day”. And June 9th is National Running Day, and what better thing can you do while running than listen to a podcast? So what day is this “National leave your podcasts a review day?” It’s the day you open up your phone or computer and take care of business!

So seize the day! It’s time to pay back the karma of all that free content you’ve been enjoying! Give your podcast producers some love in the form of stars! And LOTS of them!

How to leave a glowing review? It depends on how you download your podcast. Let me break it down for you.

Apple Podcast Review via Web Browser and iTunes

To leave a review on Apple Podcast, you need to use the Apple Podcast player on the phone or computer, and follow these steps:

  1. Click on one of the following show pages: SciFi Thoughts, Agile Thoughts, 敏捷理念
  2. Click on “Listen on Apple Podcasts”
  3. It will prompt you to open iTunes – allow the popup and switch to iTunes/Podcast.
  4. In iTunes/Podcast, click on “Rating and Reviews”
  5. Then you can do exactly what you would do on the Podcasts App – leave a star rating and review!

Apple Podcast Review via Podcast App

To leave a review on Apple Podcast, you need to use the Apple Podcast player on the phone or computer, and follow these steps:

  1. Open Apple Podcast App
  2. Go to the icons at the bottom of the screen and choose “search”
  3. Search for the podcast by name (examples: “SciFi Thoughts”, “Agile Thoughts”, “敏捷理念”)
  4. Tap on the SHOW, not the episode
  5. Scroll all the way down to “Ratings and Reviews”
  6. Tap on “Write a Review”

Then you will be able to rate on a five star scale and write a written review! You can also leave a review without leaving a rating (but the rating is definitely important!)

MacOS Podcast player

Other places you get your podcast?

Stitcher and Google Play don’t take reviews. If I missed your favorite podcast aggregator drop me a tweet.

Agile Grande, writing chapter 4

31 March, 2020 (14:44) | Agile Grande | By: Lancer Kind

Dear reader, I know you’ve missed me. 😥💧I haven’t posted since December and that was 2019, a whole year-number away. I’m sitting in my studio seeing the Seattle spring sun chasing the winter blues away. Not that I’ve had time for winter blues. I’ve been busy with various this-es and thats-es and now I’ve started writing chapter 4. The chapter you’ve been waiting for. (Naturally, after 4 you’ll end up waiting for chapter 5 as well. 😜

If you’re a LeanPub reader of Agile Grande, I’ve been especially BeASTLY to you! And if you’re not a LeanPub reader, click here to become one so I can be BeASTLY to you too!

Agile Grande

In chapter 4, we left the story (I’ll keep out spoilers) with Kartar struggling but closer to developing something to help management to overcome their biases. Unfortunately he’s got other problems too because Dharma had to be bailed out of jail and the Chinese Ministry of State Security (the Chinese spy agency) has sent a destroyer and an officer to track down how they’ve been embarrassed by being a party to blowing up America’s new border wall with Mexico. (The American president is quite upset.) MSS has sent their top officer, the beautiful and mysterious Daxian (call her Danni). She is an expert of an ancient systems thinking system called fengshui which she’s uses to hunt down the Party’s most wanted and she is hot on Kartar’s trail.

Unfortunately, dear reader (I’m getting to the BeASTLY part) at the end of chapter 3 Kartar appears to have come to a tragic end in the Arabian Sea.

“So that’s it?” you ask. “The story ends at chapter 3 then?”

Agile Noir

Well, if you know me or have read Agile Noir (another novel where Kartar learned his Agile chops from a Hindu godman, available in the US, India, and China) then you’re going to be certain I’ve got a chapter 5 and a chapter 6 and….

So what’s coming in chapter 4? In it, you’ll learn the following:

  • Systems thinking
  • Whole Product Focus
  • And the above bullets will happen despite Kartar appearing to be lost at sea, a Chinese destroyer on the hunt for him, and Mr. Cherneski taking apart Kartar’s cross-functional teams back in Long Beach

“So what the hell?” you might ask. “What am I going to do in the meantime while you’re writing chapter 4?”

Calm down. Calm down. Let’s not be hasty with the pointing device. Here is what I can offer you immediately:

And later, when I need a break from writing and software engineering, I’ll produce another systems modeling video that shows the entire systems model I used when designing Agile Grande’s story. It’ll be announced here at LancerKind.com when it’s ready.

Your pal,

Lancer Kind

Agile Grande Chapter 3 has been released

29 December, 2019 (15:19) | Agile Grande | By: Lancer Kind

Kartar’s being tailed by a very large Russian. The Chinese Ministry of State Security thinks Kartar stole their Semtex to blow up Trump’s wall. Mr. Cherneski is reversing Kartar’s organizational transformation. And Kartar agonizes for a way to overcome his management’s cognitive biases.

The writing of Agile Grande continues:

You can read what’s been written at LeanPub for free. Get a copy now because maybe later I’ll charge a MINT! For the best reading experience, I recommend reading epubs with an iPad using Apple’s Books (Books used to be called iBooks).

More about Chapter 3:

The hero, Kartar, realizes he’ll never get management to stop undoing his organizational change work until he finds a tool to break through preconceived biases. He starts working on an idea that he needs to use a visual system of analysis to switch people’s brains from the slap dash system one thinking to the more rational system two, but he gets interrupted by a large stranger who has followed him from Long Beach California to a container ship in the Arabian Sea.

Mr. Cherneksy, the VP who is making millions by taking advantage of his organization’s complexity, prepares his son, Studebaker, to help him use this new Agile transformation to his advantage. Cherneski also discovers that Kartar’s daughter is dating his son.

And then there is Dharma, Kartar’s daughter. It turns out she is “raising the bar” on the amount of trouble a daughter can bring to her father.

Another complication shows its teeth…

Chinese destroyer

The Ministry of State Security watches the news too and they aren’t happy about the negative attention about PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Semtex that found its way to the USA and blew up their president’s favorite infrastructure project: a wall between the US and Mexico. So they’ve put their best dachshund on the job: Daxian. (Pronounced “Dah-she-an”.) This agent, an expert of geomancy, is hot on Kartar’s trail and has a Chinese destroyer at her beck and call.

Daxian isn’t your ordinary MSS officer

What could go wrong?

Remember Star Wars THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? When at the end, Luke loses his hand, C3PO gets blow to pieces, and Han Solo gets frozen in carbonate? Chapter 3 is that moment. And by the end of this chapter, you’re going to be left wondering if Kartar will even get a chapter 4.

What’s to come if Kartar lives to see chapter 4?

  • More about Dharma’s secrets
  • Kartar learns to use systems thinking in a social manner that overcomes biases
  • Kartar learns why “whole product focus” is so important
  • Kartar discovers how to solve multi-team agile (systems) problems (critical for enterprises wanting improve their delivery performance)