20 April, 2024 (03:04) | Uncategorized | By: Lancer Kind
Film previewing in Manhattan Kansas
By working with director Hal Dace and Epistrophy Pictures, I have got my second IMDB credit and I’m super happy! The first one was for the Miss Wisenheimer’s and the Aliens, an animated science fiction movie that as of present time, exists as a short film. The Xenophobes, co-written by myself and director Dace, is a live action film, the filming which started in fall 2021. It was awesome seeing a studio put together and meeting actors, sound and camera crew and the works. I want to thank them all for the efforts they put in. And of course I want to thank the producers and investors that put in the cash to make the production possible.
This Sunday, April 21, the film will be shown in an AMC theater in Manhattan Kansas, near the location where filming happened. If you’re in the area, you can see the film for free at 3PM. Here are the details, and please if you drop in, say “hi!”
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.
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?
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:
It will prompt you to open iTunes – allow the popup and switch to iTunes/Podcast.
In iTunes/Podcast, click on “Rating and Reviews”
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:
Open Apple Podcast App
Go to the icons at the bottom of the screen and choose “search”
Search for the podcast by name (examples: “SciFi Thoughts”, “Agile Thoughts”, “敏捷理念”)
Tap on the SHOW, not the episode
Scroll all the way down to “Ratings and Reviews”
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.
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:
Seattle LeSS Meetup (we are doing virtual meetings with Zoom and have had attendees from Canada and Australia)
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.
