Technology in the aid of the writing process (Part I)

A while ago, I embarked in writing a novel. Since I'm relatively technologically savvy, I decided to look for good solutions (software) to help me in the writing process. The main conditions were that it has to be free, run in multiple platforms and preferably open source.

The first thing I started used was Storybook. Without much experience I considered it to work rather good, written in Java (I disliked that) meaning multiplatform and free with some paid features. Management of chapters, scenes, timelines, characters, location, items and more stuff. All that sounds rather handy together with the possibility to export to various formats. Sadly, in their newest version, the paid features took a bigger chunk of features including ALL the export functions! If I cannot take what I wrote out of the software, it's a useless software. And I don't have any problem with paid premium features, but that level of blackmail is too much for me to take.

Other alternative I found was yWriter. This software has basically the same set of features than Storybook without the annoyances of the paid restrictions. The files are even stored in a widely used format, so there is no lock in. The main downside of it is that it doesn't run anywhere but Windows, so after a while I stopped using it. But for a Windows based writer I fully recommend it.

Beside these two, I did not find any other straightforward solution. At some point a while ago, I found Booktype, but it's a bit more complicated and fully open source. Also, it seems to do more things at the level of publishing, like managing different electronic formats. I haven't tried it yet, but looks very worthy and surely I'll try it in the future.

Since I was not really satisfied with the two solutions I found, I decided another strategy based on plaintext and a wiki to keep track of characters, locations and so on. Maybe it's not as coherent and with nice displays as in Storybook or with the extensive set of features, but it's more flexible, works in any platform, allows straightforward versioning and avoids any lock-in. And if I want some fancy features, I could implement/program them.

In the second part I'll describe my current solution and workflow. Both, the solution and workflow are highly adaptable to others without needing a lot of knowledge regarding computers and technology.

Goodreads as a platform and on becoming a book reviewer

I'm member of a social (hate that word) network centered on books called Goodreads. Mostly to keep track of what I've read (and slightly brag about it), have some statistics and eventually discover new books to read. I don't really participate in the community by writing reviews and engaging with other people, but I do rate all the books I read. It was evident for me, that as a platform it can be an interesting one for writers to engage with a group of [their] hardcore readers (I doubt that the percentage of non hardcore reader in that network is high) for marketing purposes, beta-reading and reviewing.

About two weeks ago I was approached in in this network by an author. This author suggested, that because I read and rather liked a dystopian setup in a certain book (the rating was "I like it" 3 out of 5 stars), I could also enjoy his own new book. He continued by offering me a free electronic copy, no strings attached, to read which I clearly accepted and received... how to say no to a free book. Marketing operating.

Later, one week ago or so, I was again approached by another author after rating rather poorly (just two stars that later changed to three) his book and for the first time writing a very short review. The review was more like a few impressions/opinions about it. He thanked me on my honest opinion and informed me that he hoped to have taken care of those observations in the sequel. Making the story short, he offered me to do a review of the sequel which will be soon published. And of course I accepted and already started reading.

It feels a bit like in high school when I had some deadline to read a book and then, in a similar fashion, having to write something about it. I hope to do a good job and a honest review, and who knows, also to keep doing more reviews. And maybe, some day, I'll get to be a beta-reader for one book. Or maybe to use this community for my own review and marketing purposes when I manage to finish my own books some day in the future.

For now I can add one more thing to my list of accomplishments (actually when I finish it of course), be a proper reviewer.

Sponsored by Sweden

Besides Volvo, H&M and Ikea are probably the most famous brands from Sweden (maybe some would like to include their women, and others more musically inclined, could say Abba). Since I've been in Germany, I've been kindly "sponsored" by Sweden.

Throughout the last two years and a half, the share of my belonging have been increasingly from Sweden (although not necessarily made in Sweden). Nowadays, I would estimate that between furniture and clothing, over an 80% come from a Swedish company.

And this does not stop only in tangible objects, but also about my culture consumption in the form of books like the Millennium Series from Stieg Larsson, or music bands like Pain of Salvation, Opeth and Wolverine.

I don't know why it seems I have this subconscious preference and/or fascination with that country. It somehow started more than ten years ago still in high school, while doing a school project and ending researching about public expenditure in Sweden focused on public education.

Stockholm by night.

This year I had even the "chance" (it was more like "game myself the opportunity") to go to Stockholm, capital city of Sweden in mid winter. As can be seen above, the water around the many islands composing Stockholm was partially frozen. Hopefully I make it there again in some more hospitable season.

And who knows, maybe I end up living somewhere there in the future.

Little iPython notebook test

After wanting to experiment with the iPython Notebook for a while, I finally decided to do it to produce a step by step analytic calculation. This calculation involved some standard Gaussian integrals and I performed it half a year ago with the help of Mathematica (via their web interface) and some old good pen and paper.

So, as a proof of concept as a learning experience I sat down to replicate in a coherent way what I already had done. First started watching these three video tutorial performed at the SciPy Conference in Texas this year (part1, part2, part3) to get acquainted to magical notebook.

A screenshot of the iPython Notebook. And yes, it runs as a sort of web service!

To add support for symbolic mathematics (CAS) I used SymPy. The result of my little experiment can be seen live here. I have to say, that after some experience with other notebook like environments (particularly Maple 10 years ago), iPython notebook is awesome! I have to recognize that I had my doubts about the browser based environment, but it gives so much flexibility and annexed technologies to make use of (for example JavaScript and CSS).

I cannot recommend it enough to free yourself of Mathematica-like closed environments and to have a fully powered programming environment along. I will definitely continue using it, probably mostly to produce other interactive tutorial-like material in physics.

For more information and examples, this is an online renderer of notebooks and here a gallery of interesting notebooks curated by the people behind iPython.

Wil Wheaton - Why it's awesome to be a nerd

My transcription on the following answer by Wil Wheaton on the question "Why it's awesome to be a nerd?"

Hi Violet, my name is Wil Wheaton. It’s 2013 and you have just joined us recently on planet Earth, so welcome. I’m an actor, and I’m a writer, and I’m a dad, and your mother asked me to tell you why it’s awesome to be a nerd. And that’s an easy thing for me to do, because that’s who I am.

I don’t know how the world will be like by the time you understand this. I don’t know what’s going to meant to be a nerd when you’re a young grown woman. For me, when I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird, that took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science and I loved playing board games and reading books and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just kinda [riding] the planet through space. And when I was a little boy, people really teased us about that, and made us feel like there was something wrong about us for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m kind of a professional nerd, and the world has changed a lot, and I think a lot of us have realize that being a nerd, or being a geek is another word you’ll hear and I should use the words interchangeably. It’s not about what you love, it’s about how you love it.

So there’s gonna be a thing in your life that you love. And I don’t know what it’s gonna be. It might be sports, it might be science, it might be reading, it might be fashion design, it might be building things, it might be telling stories or getting pictures. It doesn’t matter what it is. The way you love that, and the way that you find other people who love it the way you do is what makes being a nerd awesome. The defining characteristic, of us, the people in this room, and I’m gonna ask your mom to turn this camera around in a minute. Go there go on. The defining characteristic that ties us all together is that we love things. And some of us love Firefly, and some of us love Game of Thrones, and some of us love this things you’ll be able to go to see in your history books. [] Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anime, or games, or fantasy, or science fiction. Some of us love completely different things, but we all love those things, so much, that we travel for thousands of miles, which is probably easier for you but it’s still [] for us. We’re still on fossil fuel, I don’t know what are you going to be []. And it’s difficult... we come from all over some cases all over the world so we can be around people who love the things that we love the way that we love them. And that’s why being a nerd is awesome. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that that thing that you love, is a thing that you can’t love. Don’t ever let anyone tell you “You can’t love that, that's for boys. You have to love this because you’re a girl.”. You find the things that you love, and you love them the most that you can.

And listen, this is really important. I want you to be honest, honorable, kind. I want you to work hard, because everything worth doing is hard. And I want you to be awesome. And I’m going to do my very best, to leave you a planet that you can still live on.

Como perderse con estilo

Hay maneras y maneras de perderse en una ciudad intentanto llegar de un punto a otro. En este caso particular, hoy intentaba llegar desde el punto A al punto C (ver mapa). La trayectoria es bastante directa si uno va por el camino simple.

Pero para hacer el trayecto más entretenido e interesante, decidí hacer parte del trayecto curzando a través del parque. Sin saber bien por donde iba, me adentré cada vez más con mi bicicleta por el parque hasta que terminé en el punto B detrás del estadio de Colonia.

Trayectoria aproximada Ver mapa más grande

He de decir que como andaba con tiempo de sobra a disposición, no me preocupé y disfruté del paisaje por el parque/bosque con árboles y lagunas. Al final no me quedó más alternativa que devolverme y reubicarme en la ciudad para utilizar el camino simple y poder llegar a destino.

Espero para la próxima cruzar por el parque pero no desviarme tanto de mi camino, en particular si efectivamente tengo que llegar a una hora determinada.

Germany the right place?

Many times I wonder whether I'm in the right place. Every now and then I have strong doubts about that. Although I know this is a good enough place.

For example, on the 30th of March, the first international tabletop gaming day (link) was organized by a Youtube channel Geek & Sundry. In the following pictures, a map of activities being held in USA and in Uk+Germany shows the lame amount of them in Germany.

Sure, the channel is English oriented as it's based in the USA, but even in the Netherlands with far less population they have a decent number of activities registered.

Just four lame events registered in Germany.

It just make me wonder...

Post Scriptum: I've been learning that Germany is nowadays not as great as everybody thinks. There are a lot of details that maybe some day I'll address here.

Riverside - I Believe

Riverside - I Believe

I learn to understand
Getting harder to pretend is ok with me

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

You make me so real
I don't have to shut myself in this cage of me
I see what I haven't seen
I wanna share my place to hide
My place to feel
With You

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

I learn to understand
If only I was worth waiting for...