Kiwi in US Writing Market

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I had originally written this post for a site called EpicFantasy.org. However, since the post went live back on April 25, 2016, the site has gone down. As such, I’ve decided to include the post here on my personal blog instead. So here goes:

Kiwi in US Writing Market

New Zealand… Aotearoa, as the native Maori call it — the land of the long white cloud. It’s a country filled with majestic beauty: a mountain range that spans the length of half the country; volcanic lakes and desert terrain; beaches within a few short minutes drive of any major metropolis; secluded forest bush that takes you back in time; and farmland everywhere you turn. Many settlements could be frozen in time, and with the exception of the cars driving down the street, you would never know that you were in the 21st century. New Zealand has become the film industry’s location of choice with many historic and fantasy blockbusters filmed here, including The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and the epic drama The Last Samurai. (Sorry to burst the bubble, people, but the images of Mount Fuji in that film were actually of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont.)Read More→

Space… The Final Frontier…

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The geek in me is getting incredibly excited. I’ve seen the preview for the new Star Trek movie coming out this week and, oh man… I CAN’T WAIT!

Yes, I am a BIG Star Trek fan. I won’t go as far as saying that I dress up like the characters or anything, because I don’t, but I love the stories, I’m in love with the characters, and I get excited with the big space battles. But more importantly, I have many fond memories that are all connected to Star Trek.Read More→

Juno and Radio

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Last week, I was invited to talk about NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter on AOTR The Jen and Rick Show, an Internet radio show on K98Talk. The links to the show are found below.

The episode file has been deleted during the archiving of old AOTR episodes.
AOTR Presents Jen and Rick Junos 5 Year trip to Jupiter and Hillary Skates
(First Aired on K98Talk, Tuesday, July 5, 2016)

In my preparation for the show, I realised that not many of my readers, or the listeners of the radio show, will necessary know why Jupiter is so important to astronomers and our understanding of our planet. As such, I've decided that I need put my PhD in Astronomy to good use and start a new blog series about Jupiter and what NASA is attempting to do with the Juno mission.

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Can’t is an evil word… It shouldn’t exist.

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Recently, scrolling through my Twitter feed, I came across a post about the wonderful word can’t.

If you say you cant, you are only bullshitting yourself

(As much as I would have loved to shown you the original tweet, the user has long since left Twitter.)

You ignore the little bit of swearing, but of course I had to reply.Read More→

Remembering the June 2011 Christchurch Quake

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Today marks the fifth anniversary of two strong quakes that shook the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. On June 13, 2011, a 5.7-magnitude quake was followed by a 6.3 quake only a few hours later.

After a long string of quakes and aftershocks that had riddled our existence for nine months, it wasn't surprising that many of us were nonchalant about the events of that day, but as I look back at it now and realize how fortunate I was.

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