News & Notes: But I Like the Crowds!

Want to run in Central Park without the crowds? Try getting up earlier: http://t.co/5Akm51fW3G pic.twitter.com/tgPxSQCyjn
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) February 28, 2015

But I like the crowds!

I'm so enjoying the Bangor (Maine) Police department's FB page. It's a masterpiece of social media. https://t.co/EcTheHPrdn @BANGORPOLICE
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) March 1, 2015

I'm not surprised.  Bangor is one of the youngest, hippest towns I've ever been to.  We spend a day wandering the shops and pubs every time we go to Maine.

Lt. Bill Miller of Engine 14 comes out with a scared, cold cat and reunites it with owner. Nice. pic.twitter.com/sIwBpFyBYX
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) March 1, 2015

America's mortgage-insurance giants are making bigger profits than before the crisis http://t.co/HiXW2H5YHk pic.twitter.com/h5ZmXx9CrN
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 1, 2015

We talked a little bit about that on Friday.  I suspect we're in for another crash, but it might take ten years to develop.

G.O.P. Race Starts in Lavish Haunts of Rich Donors http://t.co/HqAwzA5vam
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 1, 2015

It's gonna cost at least a billion dollars to run.  Where else are they going to get the money?  Or, to put it another way, if you want to ensure you have access to the political process, make it so that your money is the critical component to its functioning.

Any way you slice it, modern politics is becoming a pay-to-play scheme.

Prices are falling around the world. That is more worrying than it sounds http://t.co/3c7FWQxHPy pic.twitter.com/uoAYVtJQP3
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 1, 2015

This is asking the wrong question.  The question isn't, "Why are prices falling"?  The question is, "If every central bank on earth is printing money to stimulate their economies, where the Hell is all of that paper going?"  Because it's obviously not going into the pockets of average consumers, else prices couldn't be falling.

At a certain level, prices are falling because oil is cheaper, and the price of oil is factored into almost everything due to transportation costs.  This probably explains most of the price change, and it's not deflationary--as the article implies it might be--it's a true price correction based on a decline in the price of inputs.  There is therefore no need to correct the imbalance with monetary policy.  It still leaves some question, though

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The Adventures of Sneax & Elaina Emboo.

I republished my book yesterday.  Having spent part of last week working with a guy in my gaming group on the story, we eventually came to the realization that I needed to update Chapter 1 to better introduce Sneax and her storyarc.  Multiple people have told me that the story gets better as it goes along, but that Sneax is not initially very likeable because she's initially hard to know.  

Of course, I immediately accused my friend of identifying more strongly with the richer, more successful protagonist and her problems because he himself is reasonably well off and successful, but like any good friend, he brushed that off.

The  real question in the first part of the story is, "Why can't Sneax go back to the orphanage?" And the initial problem with the way I laid it out is that this is never given as an explicit story question.  I assumed, rather, that people would just realize that conditions in the orphanage were horrific and terrible.

That was dumb.

I think I fixed it, but of course, the final arbiter is the reader.

Want to see more?  Check out Sneakatara Boatman and the Priest of Loki.  It's available for the Kindle and Kindle App right now.  Then let me know what you think.