Of Monsters and Writing (by sarah)

I have managed to do the 30 + hour challenge I set myself for this month - I have spent the equivalent of an hour a day working on my Monster Inspiration game and have produced some interesting pieces of writing from the testing 🙂

I still need to type up the rules - fine tune timings a bit and find enough money to order in some timers, build the website and get some more dice but basically I think I am there with at least this phase of the game!

I would like to get some more colours of monsters up and going but as they would constitute as add ons/other games they are not urgent!

I'm afraid I slightly side tracked myself with getting to grips with the concept of Script Frenzy which is Aprils main challenge! I am foing a Comic Book script for part of the Punks story. I have been story boarding this and have about 10 pages sorted so far. For Script Frenzy I need to produce a 100 page script which I am taking to mean I need a 100 pages of comic 🙂

(Oh and there is a board game designed to go with the cards for a more involved game type of game - rather than writing exercise type thing - but that is going to be quiet complicated to pull off!)

Graze Box – Yummy Goodness :) (by sarah)

Due to my immune system and general health it was recommended that I might benifit from this company called Graze - they deliver healthy snacks to your house! It arrives in the post and is just there and wow - vanillia seeds!!!!

There are different nutrition plans you can go on 🙂 I'm on the immune system boost and the energy - they are low GI snacks meaning they are brilliant for diabetics and stuff (from my understanding of things at least!). You can select what you do and don't want to receive 🙂

Anyway I am really really impressed with them and they've given me a code to give out so people can get like a free sample thingy it's:

http://www.graze.com/p/KTV38LQ

Caroline Herschel (by sarah)

Caroline is the sister of the more famous astronomer Sir Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel but though he is known and well respected she is often seen as just his assistant.

Born 16 March 1750 to what really amounts to a rather abusive family in Germany she owed a lot to her brother for rescuing her at risk of his own freedom. He bought her to England where he had already started to establish himself as an astronomer. The siblings were basically self made financially and work hard.

Though she started off just assisting him she ended up carrying out the brunt of the work rising before her brother to write things up and generally going to bed after him.

She also made a great many discoveries on her own and even after her brothers death worked hard to varify his discoveries something that is often seen as dull but is if anything more valuable to the world at large. She produced a catalogue of nebulae which she recieved a Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828. This helped her nephew John Herschel in his work - she took on the role of raising John and was the honoured guest at his graduation dispite an initial falling out with her sister-in-law.

Caroline and Mary Somerville were also elected as the first honorary women members of the Royal Astronomical Society In 1835. She obtain many other rewards and has craters and asterial bodies named after her - she was still going at 96 with the astronomy!

During work with her brother they both sustained physical hardship and injuries such as frost bite and in Carolines case being impaled on a peg holding down the telescope 🙁

She was a brave woman who had to over come alot on a personal front, her brothers hogging of the lime light is more an artifact of the age they lived in than a reflection on them. But even in such an age she won awards that would not be awarded to a women again in well over a hundred years.

And though she did not have any children she none the less raised a child and continued in her scientific endervours without neglect of his needs.

This is why I have chosen Caroline for this years Ada Lovelace Day - whilst I was in the meteoritics department I came across articles about her and it inspired me to keep going 🙂

Second Generation Prototype Testing (by sarah)

I got a my monster cards through from Moo 🙂 and have been spending an hour here and an hour there playing the game myself with my Dad or who ever's about to try and get the rules down pat!

It is being far more productive for writing than I ever thought it would be 🙂 So I think the next step is going to be getting enough money to order the timers - I have a few boxes to be getting on with and can muster dice together as well. Once I have the timers and a formal version of the rules I can start selling it. I am going to be using it at writing workshops too - but just for single person writing it works so well!

I then need to do make my website - I have permission to use the background I want and I have all ready done the graphics so it is really a matter of buckling down and getting everything in the place and linked to the correct things!

I need to do a little bit of experiment with the outer part of the packaging too 🙂 This may involve me having to print some stickers which unfortunatly will be more upfront expence :/

Still it is getting there 🙂

I am wondering if I can get all of that fitted into the 10 hours I have left to work on this challenge this month 🙂

Ada Lovelace Day 2010 – Join in! (by sarah)

Last year me and Alaric took part in Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate women in technology and the sciences. We did various blog posts on inspiring women.

This year the event is back! March 24th will once again see me blogging away, come and join us - why is this important - why should women have a specific day? Because unfortunately their contributions are not always acknowledged to the degrees they should be and young girls need to see that there are other females in these areas and that it isn't just the realm of men.

It's about showing them people like themselves - I suppose positive role models 🙂