I just picked up a new toy for my multi-device digital life. I got the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard, K760. It is a bluetooth keyboard, designed primarily for iPad, that has a solar panel to recharge its internal batteries.
All of these things are awesome.
It is small, but not so small it is uncomfortable to type on. The keys seem sturdy, and it is solar re-charged. This means that the search for AA’s while on travel will be kept to a minimum.
But here is the great part: it has three device buttons on the top left. See, you pair the keyboard with your iPad and your iPhone. Need to connect to iPad? hit 1. Need to connect to iPhone? hit 2. So, right now as I am writing, I have my phone playing music. I hit 2, jump to the phone, change the volume, and then hit 1, and am back on the iPad. My hands never leave the keyboard. Pretty cool.
And it has one more button left! So I can pair it with one more device. Sounds like an excuse to get a new toy if I have ever heard one.
So? So why did I get a keyboard for my phone? Well, first off, I am a geek. Second, i anticipate it will help make certain programs, like Byword and pages, more useful on my phone and iPad. I can now type faster and longer on these devices. Being able to type on my phone will be especially useful on an airplane, where there is barely room for me, much less a computer in front of me.
Will this replace my laptop? Doubtful. Instead it is providing another option for my travels. And options, I believe, are important.
I mention it is solar powered? techno-hippie all the way.
In college I started a series of short stories with mythological characters put into a more modern setting. It was a fun project. One of the stories involved the myth of Admetus. You see he found out he was going to die and that didn’t go well with his weekend plans. So, naturally, he doesn’t want to do it. Well, the gods say, if you can get someone else to take your place, you can go that concert instead (you know, just like shift swapping). So he asks his parents, they say no, retirement is too cool. He asks everyone and they are all too busy.
But then his wife says she’ll do it. Which throws a wrench into the whole affair, because she’s the reason he wants to keep on living.
The modern story I began writing was a bit more dramatic. In it, the wife is dying. She has heart failure. The doctors are frantically looking for a donor, but she is getting worse. Then the husband finds out he is a perfect match. He gets a gun, goes into the hospital and blows his brains out.
Then I saw it on an Ally McBeal episode.
My second published story was called “Angel Watch Over Me,” and was found in Sinisteria Magazine. It was a small press magazine, and this was the first print issue. A brief synopsis: A girl is sitting on her bed while her parents are fighting. An angel shows up. They talk for a moment. There are gunshots from downstairs. The angel gets up and goes to kill the abusive father.
Now watch this:
In my heart, I’d like to think that Seth Green somehow had that issue of Sinisteria and thought the story rocked. Then, one day, while dreaming up funny skits with his toys, he thought “if that were the tooth fairy, that would be HIGHlarious.”
Just like that.
But that probably wasn’t the case. Ally McBeal writers didn’t steal my notebooks at night. There isn’t a snitch amongst my friends who posts my best ideas for other artists to take.
Other examples? Sure. I had started a project where I was re-writing the end of Wuthering Heights, but with zombies; a space carrier based future where my main characters were fighter pilots; a tale of a radio signal that scrambles people’s minds and turns them violent. I wanted to make an opera using Tupac songs.
And it isn’t just me. Similarities between stories exist throughout. Brian Keene’s The Rising and 28 Days later; Hunger Games and Battle Royal; Avatar and Dances with Mecha; all of these things were created independently, yet share some other connection.
That connection is, of course, us. We, as humans, do not live in a vacuum. This world, this life, is absorbed by us every day. On top of that, we are, as a species, creating more art, publishing more art, spreading more art, than ever before.
This is why you cannot copyright an idea. You cannot own an idea. You can only own the specific implementation of that idea.
Will I give up on my implementations? Some I have. Others I have postponed. Even with the similarities, these ideas are still mine. And with time, I expect to bring all them out. Some will be altered now that time has passed, but some will be as I originally envisioned.
The hospital. I’d grabbed some supplies and some papers, and headed back out towards the tower. Sam is back on the radio. He sees me, and sees I have found something.
Guard it with your life, the Doctor says. I think that means if I see zombies not to drop the papers while i run for my life, but i’ll ask for clarification when I get there.
Maybe I am getting numb, I think, but it seems to be getting easier.
I have a way with timing, I have learned. Sure there are a thousand stories I could related about my poor timing events, but this one should demonstrate it. As soon as that thought was done two things happen. The first is that this pain starts up my left leg. It isn’t quite a cramp, but close. The second is that Sam’s voice comes back over the radio.
There are zombies coming. Great I think. They are catching up, he says. Fast zombies? Great. Fast zombies suck. Run, he says, run, and I do.
Runner 7 comes on the radio, tells me they are sending people with guns to provide cover, but whatever I do, don’t stop. She’s right behind me.
She? I hear Sam talking, through the mumbles and the “oh no”’s and my general panting and hard breaths I catch on who is behind me. The previous runner 5. You know, the one who I was told was really fast?
Apparently the pseudo-afterlife hadn’t taken that away from her yet.
My leg is on fire, and I have a simple realization: i can’t do this much longer. The gate opens and I see my fellow living emerge with guns, bringing me in.
Welcome to Abel, I hear. Let’s hope I’ve made the right choice.
I mention this game is great? Go get running shoes and go for it. iOS now, Android on the way.