Lancer Kind

Every time I use an online bank, 401k, or some other service, I shudder. They ask me a bunch of personal questions about my favorite color, whether I wet the bed when I was young, and if I played dress-up with my sister’s barbies. Should that get into the wrong hands… I could be ruined.

I got my third letter yesterday that another company has let my personal information fall into the wrong hands. Sure, maybe someone makes a mistake every now and then, but this is my *third* letter from a third company! It’s frustrating that this keeps happening to me. These companies really ought to get some consulting or auditing services in to get a handle on what’s consistently going wrong – check out these Extra Resources to learn how such companies can become more compliant with the rules and laws in place to protect personal data that they store and process from being breached.

I have a lot of 401k scattered about due to my job-changing lifestyle. I couldn’t collect it all in one account as of yet because timing is important when it comes to rolling over your 401k. That being said, planning for your retirement is incredibly important which is why I am making sure that I have financial resources in place for my retirement now. It is important to remember, however, that there are a variety of different retirement plan options out there. Are you in the process of planning your retirement finances? Take a look at this useful guide for an overview of some of your options: https://www.sofi.com/roth-ira-calculator/. One of my friends sent it to me and it might also be helpful for you.

The letter is upside down to keep the hackers away 😉

My first letter came from Fidelity for my 401k. I’ve forgotten who the third corp is that somehow left my SSN and other unmentionables lying around. Giving your data to these companies (with which we let handle our financial futures, BTW) seems as secure as posting it on Craig’s List.

I think David Brinn was right, that we are going to get a transparent society whether we like it or not. As he said, the question is will it be the right kind of society: one where the citizenry is transparent to the government, or one where everyone is transparent to everyone else, like the state and the people are equals.

Today, we all can Google each other to find out what our Internet lifestyle has been like. It’s really amazing actually. If the FBI or NSA had developed Google, we wouldn’t have ever been able to use it. It would have been labeled as a tool for National Security and the electronic “spying” would have all been one way. But since we all can use it. It’s fair game. I like that!

But with domestic spy programs, suspension of Habeas Corpus if you are considered a terrorist, extraordinary rendition, the government is still in the driver’s seat. If you ever get the opportunity to spy back, you’ll be punished, just like Rubico when he spied into Sarah Palin’s email inbox.

That isn’t fair! Rubico was just doing some warrantless spying to make sure she isn’t a secret terrorist. That’s why we have citizenship arrest.

The battle is still being fought on what kind of transparent society we will get. I say get a membership with the ACLU. They’ve probably even read the Transparent Society. I doubt anyone in the White House reads much of anything beyond the cartoons.

Please comment if you’ve recieved similar letters. I have a feeling that the hackers aren’t just after me.

I’m not trying to be arrogant or take credit for anything YouTube has done. Not only did I not think of it, I wasn’t even an early adopter of watching YouTube. Once I started, I was excited because I’m certain if this thing was around when I was ten, I would be hosting my own talk show by now.

Being a SF fan and kid writer (I started a newspaper in my school and got my mom to do all the typing… she’s pretty cool eh?) I was a gadget guy, and I talked my dad into buying a video camera (VHS) with a flying erase head (that means I could pause while recording, and then restart the recording without noticeable jerks and jolts). I used that camera for shooting things like time lapsed storm clouds, my brother and I acting out videos, computer generated effects (yay Amiga!) and various other projects that you see on a regular basis on YouTube.

Amiga 500

But without YouTube, my celebrity didn’t reach beyond my immediate family or high school. If I had YouTube, I could have expanded my reach to boring many more people in America! I could have been a child star! I could of, but now YouTube is a completely different place than when it just started. Content creators who have been on the platform for years have seen great success, however, there are so many channels and creators on the platform that it has become very difficult for you to reach your audience. Fortunately, there are social media growth tools that allow you to buy Youtube clicks in order to expand your online presence on the site.

Anyway, having YouTube now is better late than never. Now I have a my own YouTube channel, I have meetings with myself pretending I’m part of a board of pretentious asshole studio heads (just like on Max Headroom) and make decisions about what YOU should be watching.

Yeah, like anyone really knows what people want to watch.

Who would have thought that the Numa Numa guy would be an Internet sensation!

He has a million views which is about 999,999 more people watching his stuff than mine. He even has spawned derivative videos like Puss in boots, or Vader. Of course, just like on TV, Numa Numa with a sexy girl gets way more hits. Even if this one is nearly a Rick Roll. (Follow this if you don’t know what a Rick Roll is.)

So now I have global reach with my channel. I’ve had nearly 200 visitors view Debunking the Moss Myth which is a teaser about a short story called “Moss Memoirs” that is part of the Ruins Terra anthology.

Moss that is in a hanging mood

Not only are most of the people not part of my family, they are from Australia, Japan, China, and Canada. So I’m excited about YouTube. It’s like anyone out there can have an idea and just get it out there, and not have to bother visiting a boardroom of pretentious studio execs who pretend to know what America wants to watch, which I think is pretty cool! (I’m still angry they canceled Moon Lighting, Star Trek, and Fire Fly.)

Why should NBC have all the fun in figuring out how we should waste our time. We all want that opportunity.

Though it’s really interesting that just like NBC, so it goes with YouTube: the sexy girl always gets the hits. The harsh truth is that sex sells, whether that be on YouTube, TV, or on a site like https://www.tubev.sex/?hl=de too. Though all is not lost. Because a sexy girl can be trumped by a water buffalo (warning: you need to watch the whole thing all the way through because the ending is unexpected), or a college student being smacked down by the cops (warning: you may learn that despite what your mother told you, life isn’t fair and neither is our government).

Not that I have anything against sexy girls; I like to look at them as much as the next guy, whether that be on a website like www.hdpornvideo.xxx or in real life. But it’s nice to know that people are complicated enough to want to know what happens to a little water buffalo.

Click photo to see sexy girl showering.

Video of Lala in the shower

This year’s World Science Fiction World Convention was in Denver, only 1 timezone away from Seattle.  So why would I try to stay away?  What could be more fun to a science fictionist than hanging out with a group of other science fictionists?  Well it costs money for one thing.  So I did the responsible thing and emailed someone who was going so they could talk me into going: Eric T. Reynolds.  He’s the editor of the “Ruins Terra” anthology which had published a story by me (which makes him pretty damn cool in my book) and he said he had put together a panel for all the great writers that contributed to the anthology.

As if that wasn’t enough, I consulted with a fellow fictionist, Larry Hodges, and he suggested that not only could we room together, we could be Rising Stars together.

My resistance evaporated.

Mr. Hodges with his impressive array of magazine publications

Lancer scolding Mr. Hodges

The convention was great!  I used to live north of Denver and in the nine years that I’ve been away, things have gotten weird over there.  As you leave the airport, you see a giant statue of a white horse rearing up, its eyes glowing red.  And I mean really red! Apparently, not only have the Denver Broncos got new uniforms, they’ve have gone goth!

Then there is the mystery of the giant blue bear outside of the Colorado Convention Center.  Most bears (like the Coca-Cola bears, or even the Chicago ones) are nice and lovable icons rather than the communist meat eaters as they are portrayed on the Colbert Report.  But look at this thing!  For what other reason would a four story giant blue bear be reared up on its hind legs and peering into the convention center, other than its going to bust in and eat science fiction fans like they were yummy snasages?

I’m excited.  Virtually excited and excited for real.  Published in Speculative Realms, Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way is “KanjiKiss,” a story I wrote about a country boy who moves to futuristic Seattle and gives up his flesh life to live with a woman in virtual space.  I wonder if he’ll have to mow the lawn or take out the garbage during his virtual life?  I don’t know.  That’s another story.  

It’s fitting that this is a virtual book party.  You get to try and trap me online and ask the tough questions like, why I wrote the story, or what was I smoking.  And maybe you’ll decide I’m cool enough to have written a story you’ll want to read and you’ll buy the book.  (See it over there on the right-hand side of the webpage?  Hint!  Hint!)  

Even if you don’t buy the book, maybe you’ll have fun socializing with the other authors, and maybe you’ll find them cool enough to read a story by them (they are pretty cool, BTW) and decide to by the book.  (It’s the one with the purple cover, still over on the right-hand side of the wedpage.)  

Oh, and even if you don’t have enough scratch to buy a book, by showing up, you are automatically in a drawing to win a free one!

Now back to that guy in KanjiKiss who fell in love with a Japanese woman whose Dad drug her to Korea (she doesn’t like it there much, that’s why she’s meeting men on the Internet).  Do you think he’ll have to take out the garbage?  I mean he gave up everything he had to be with her.  What more does a guy have to do to prove his love?  Comment ladies?

Details on the party:

Date:                            1 September 2008

Time:                            For as long as it’s 1 September 2008 somewhere in the world

Place:                           http://www.runboard.com/bspeculativerealm – people who wish to participate will have to become a member of the forum, however, this shouldn’t be a problem as membership is required in order for me to contact the winners (see next point)

Prizes:                          3 copies of the book will be given away on the day (authors and staff will be excluded from the draw)

Check out the postings and the chat room and see who you run into.

==>Lancer—