People can’t understand why a man runs. They don’t see any sport in it. Argue it lacks the sight and thrill of body contact. Yet, the conflict is there, more raw and challenging than any man versus man competition. For in running it is man against himself, the cruelest of opponents. The other runners are not the real enemies. His adversary lies within him, in his ability, with brain and heart to master himself and his emotions.

- Glenn Cunningham (two-time U.S. Olympian)

*Love Always, Sarah*

So I got the Celtic THunder: Heritage CD for my birthday….and I am in love with the song The Galway Girl. So I edited a picture of Damian with some of the lyrics. But I changed it to the Galway BOY….even though he’s from Derry, not Galway..but oh well

What’s a fella to do, when her hair is black and her eyes are blue.

Those are the real lyrics. and here’s the picture!

*Love Always, Sarah*

Hipster tree….. ’nuff said.

*Love Always, Sarah*

Look how cool they are! See, this is why there’s a disgusting amount of TV shows are about cops. Because these people just look so… so… stylish. I bet they could survive a zombie apocalypse without even trying. They wouldn’t need to find a Wal Mart or nothin! People like these guys get respected even if 2/3 of the world’s population is undead.

Image from this NY Times Article. They’re at a mosque. And they’re shuttin’ it doowwwwn.

-Rika

This is the lllaaasssttt Joan of Arc quote. Don’t fret though, I have more…just not from Jeannne DArc (Joan of Arc’s real name).

“Since God has commanded it, it is necessary that I do it. Even if I had an hundred fathers and mothers, even if I was a King’s Daughter, it would be necessary that I do it…Since God has commanded it.

Joan of Arc was talking about leading her country in battle but this applies to any of God’s commandments.

*Love, Sarah*

I asked people what they thought change smelled like. They gave me the following flowery responses:

Some people think change smells like the changing of seasons. The sweet smell of flowers waters your eyes as they usher in allergy season. The distinctive scent of perspiration kindly lets you know summer is on its way.

Still, others think change smells like burnt toast. Blackened toast is unwelcomed and useless, just like change can be.

Everybody is wrong. Change smells like metal. That distinctive smell of your pennies and nickels after you accidentally washed them. I was talking about coins. I guess no one took me literally.

…

So every year at about this time, us writers make our dramatic comebacks. We haven’t been writing for about a month and a half (some of us longer) and yet we still come back triumphant and determined until our schedules get the best of us.

This year I’ve decided to do a little show and tell for my dramatic comeback.

You see that? That is our prototype of our new tote bag. I’m so skilled.

So I was at California Pizza Kitchen the other week in Oahu and I saw the Black Pearl in the harbor. I very nearly died. Especially when I was able to visit one of the other sets of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Show and tell over. Now it’s time to get down to business.

THINGS YOU’RE GOING TO SEE AT OUR WEBSITE

• Investigative journalism AKA using means like espionage to find out information you otherwise wouldn’t know. Like what’s in Calister F. Well’s freezer. Even we don’t know what’s in there.
• Cause of the month. Yeah, we’re going to turn you into an activist. Because you’re either an activist, or a nonactivist. (I stole that quote from the documentary The Cove. Best. Documentary. Ever.)
• Cool Nearby Future gear. You aren’t an activist without a t-shirt or bumper sticker that says so.

Welcome back, my friends. The season of blogging has re-arrived.

-Rika

Image by Newsweek.com

IMF? You heard a little about them? Nope, I’m not talking about the International Monetary Fund. I’m talking about the Impossible Missions Force. Word on the streets is that they’re screwing up our economy- and Greece’s- because they’re too busy blowing up buildings, fancy Italian sports cars, and paying for Tom Cruise’s- er, Ethan Hunt’s hair gel. Apparently their “if it is larger than a bread box, blow it up” philosophy is costing the government big bucks. What, you thought the economic trouble in Greece had to do with our government’s stimulus package? Psh!

You see, everyone’s blaming the federal government for the fourteen-figure national debt we’ve got going on now (which is in turn responsible for the stimulus bill and all the crazy worldwide economic crisis-es), but really it’s the Impossible Missions Force. I mean, after the fifth surveillance van in 24 hours gets blown to smithereens, the Impossible Missions Force is already knee high in debts and knows that it has to go rob a bank or something to keep it’s debts from piling up.

And it’s not like the US federal government is just throwing money at random problems or going on wild goose chases for nuclear bombs or is responsible for fourteen figure debts and it’s not like they keep raising the debt ceiling or screwing Americans over with inevitable taxes once our government goes broke and can’t pay anybody back…

Yeah, the government couldn’t possibly be as bad as the Impossible Missions Force and their twenty minute long explosion-ridden escape sequences…

Or could they?

-Rika

[Citation: This post is inspired by this Newsweek article]

Have you ever been to Disney Land? I am sure most of you can say you have.

Well one of my favorite attractions by far is the house of innovations located in tomorrow land I believe.

It shows inventions that are predicted to be invented in the future with examples.

Yes, this is not a ride but more of a museum of the future.

Next time you are in Disney Land I would very much recommend you visit it!

“Take a glimpse of how you’ll be living in future. You won’t find traditional furniture styles

or natural materials in the House of the Future. Everything is ultra-modern and almost entirely synthetic.

It’s a demonstration of style and technology.” (yesterland.com)

Who wouldn’t love a dresser that shows you in your clothes before you actually put them on.

Who wouldn’t love a futureistic kitchen!

All of the inventions seem as if they are real.

Who knows maybe in the future they will be! I am sure scientists are already

trying to make the inventions displayed in Disney Land!

Ladies and gentlemen, there are several things that are known to cause apocalyptic situations:

1. Evil dictators
2. Nuclear warfare
3. When good TV gets canned

When Glee, the show with barbed wire wit and snappy music numbers, and Chuck, the action-packed spy thriller/comedy with an endearing romantic angle, both encountered cruel and unusual hiatuses, the world went into shock. This shock kept building and building until the beginnings of the apocalypse showed themselves as the world began to fray.

Last week, I sat in The Nearby Future’s conference room, pitching this theory to our new contributor Sarah, and our notoriously lazy writer, Calister F. Wells.

I lowered the lights, walking dramatically in through the back of the room as the powerpoint began.

“Earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai province. 100,000 will have to be relocated. 9,900 injured, dead and missing. In New York hospitals, there has been over 50 nurses strikes. The mortality rate in those hospitals during each strike is bumped up by about 20%, or 140 deaths. Icelandic Volcanoes delay flights. All of these disasters have occurred in the past month. Do you know why?” I ask.

“Coincidence?” said Sarah.

“All of this is a precursor to a full-out world war?” Calister asks, almost hopefully.

I roll my eyes and continue. “No. Because, my friends, TV is crap. There are some shows out there that are so horrible they’re popular. Take Burn Notice, for example. It was on Saturday Night Live specifically because of it’s lack of plot and the fact no one knows what it’s about.”

“True. It’s so cheesy it’s entertaining,” Sarah says cheerfully.

I continue, sitting on one of the tables in the conference room. “But Chuck and Glee are two survivors of the dark age of television. They’re the shining light of humanity. And they’ve both been put on hiatus. The world cried themselves to sleep after Glee’s four month hiatus was announced. Terrorist acts were coordinated against television networks after not one, but two hiatuses sent Chuck fans into a frenzy. Not to mention how the network continued to toy with the emotions of Chuck fans as the will they/won’t they renewal talk going on. We seriously considered breaking up with NBC after they kept flirting with the other man, Parenthood.”

“What does this have to do with worldwide disaster?” Calister asks, doubtfully as he takes a sip of coffee from his Nerd Herd mug.

“Because,” I say, slapping the desk for emphasis, “the world is in ruins! Without Chuck, without Glee, the timer is wound! The countdown begins. Earthquakes, volcanoes, missed flights, absentee nurses. Disasters begin adding up. Think! If Chuck and Glee didn’t return this week, the damage could have been catastrophic. It’s the snowball effect. Without good TV, we’re as good as dead.”

nbc.com

Chuck: Sarah, I need to tell you something.

Sarah: What is it, Chuck?

Chuck: We’re on hiatus.

Sarah: (In Shock) No… That can’t be…

Chuck: It does. And you know what a hiatus means…

Sarah: It means the possible end of everything we care about. Like each other.

Chuck: And the world.

Sarah: Sure, that too.

Chuck: Do you know what this means for us?

Sarah: What?

Chuck: War against NBC. Are you in?

Sarah: Let’s do this.

And as Calister argued that it was just coincidence and Sarah just smiled and shook her head, I realized that I was on to something here.

NBC, if you’re reading this, you better greenlight Chuck’s season 4. Nobody likes Heroes anyways. You’ve got bigger things to worry about. Like the world. And saving it. Y’know, what Chuck does in his sleep?

-Rika

bibliography:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236916

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2010/04/15/icelandic-volcano-creates-headaches-for-british-travelers.aspx

http://www.newsweek.com//frameset.aspx/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fworld%2F2010%2Fapr%2F15%2Fchina-earthquake-death-toll-rises

The Media loves a good ghost story. They love nothing more than to lure people into their inky clutches and scare them silly with apocalyptic promises and new and improved weight loss tactics.

This week, Yahoo!’s helping of Doom included a solar eclipse that threatened to throw the world into turmoil because science and superstition isn’t getting along.

Over in India, pregnant woman will be hiding inside as the solar eclipse happens, fearful of their baby developing a birth defect if they go outside.

The politicians and astrologers and everyone with their head on straight predicts bad things are going to happen- because the overly-superstitious people believe so strongly in ever impending doom. They predict domestic violence and possible assassinations of political figures could be a problem in places such as China and other Southeast Asian nations.

In a nutshell? Take this direct quote of a quote from the article:

“The probability for unrest or war to take place in years when a solar eclipse happens is 95 percent,” announced an article that attracted a lot of hits on the popular Chinese web portal Baidu.com.

That proves it. All this chaos would be lessened if people calmed down. I know it isn’t easy to just tell people that, as their fear of eclipses are grounded in their religions. But still; it does seem a little silly.

Mmm. I think I’ll have some ketchup with my serving of Doom. Yum.

-Rika

(Article Citation)

This year The Nearby Future staff has written a collective 48,747 words! Here are your favorite articles from staff members with the most page views (not counting Jala, because she writes pages, not posts).

• Rika’s best articles: “Corn“, “Stress: Side Effects Include…”, and “The World is Not Coming to an End“
• Calister F. Well’s best articles: “When In Rome, Think Like the Greeks”, and “Humming the Song of the World’s Destruction“
• PLOTG’s best articles: “Personal Rights Conflict With Hollywood’s Big Bucks”, “Teens and Their Sleep“, and “The Pledge“,
• Hope’s best articles: “HPV Vaccine“, “Izze: A Healthy Alternative“, and “Clocky: Crushing the Dreams of Snooze Button People Everywhere“.

And even though she doesn’t write for us anymore, big thanks to contributor ‘Ashley Lampost’ for her wonderful article about cars!
Looking forward to a great new year,

-Rika

Note: Each article that has won this prestigious award will bear the following picture upon it’s page:

During the creation of my 120 paged literature piece, I stumbled across an important question.

Is there a website out there that lends a hand to all of us leap-year impaired souls out there who can’t for the life of themselves remember when it is a leap year?

Why yes!

http://isitaleapyear.com/

We actually have real news here. *Gasps*

It’s a dangerous world out there, and sometimes the most important survival skills you need may not be widely known. But, thanks to some people willing to devote some time and effort to help you people out, there are some great websites out there created for the benefit of the people.

I mean, where would we be if we couldn’t tell the subtle difference between cheese and a post box? (Click here) And our favorite vampire film, Twilight, has reeled in 70.6 MILLION dollars in from opening weekend alone. (Take that, Bolt!) If you haven’t seen it already, you should consider going. It’s amazing. Same with the soundtrack. Buy the soundtrack.

But what’s inspiring about the Twilight story is how that even though the movie had no widely known stars, not very much violence, was created by a small film company with a not very well known director on a tight budget, it was a hit. I think that the story of the movie breaking records even though critics didn’t expect it- at first- to do well, it did. A true underdog story!

To give you an idea of where Twilight stands on the opening-weekend box office list of recent movies, here’s a nifty chart from Yahoo! News:

1. “Twilight,” $70.5 million.

2. “Quantum of Solace,” $27.4 million.

3. “Bolt,” $27 million.

4. ” Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa,” $16 million.

5. “Role Models.” $7.2 million.

6. “Changeling,” $2.6 million.

7. “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” $2 million.

-Rika

 November is here, and you can be sure that your very own Rika is spending many hours typing out her… interesting plot that includes segway chase scenes, herds of elephants, and a box. A square box.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? NaNoWriMo, of course! Read about it here.

Rika has put together a little toolbox for everyone trying to win National Novel Writing Month, aptly named, “The Nearby Future’s NaNoWriMo Toolbox”

Note: I still have to create pages and find the links for all of the stuff with a strikethrough.

• The desktop calendar. What better motivates you than a witty calendar reminding you that 50,000 words won’t write itself? [Click here for a ton]

• Random Generators Source. Don’t name your supporting characters Bill and Sally. Go to the random name generator and computer will name them for you! Click here for a full list of Rika’s favorite generators! (Plot, characters, conflicts, loglines… there is a generator for everything.)

• Creative search engines. Google is for the non-artistic types. Google Loco is such a great search engine, you don’t even have to know what your searching for! The Mood Swings search engine is great for everyone… convicts with severe emotional problems, people who feel like trespassing on government property, or writers.

• Dictionaries. We all know that writers love words, which means they love dictionaries. Rika has about 10 dictionaries, and is constantly looking through the library’s encyclopedias and other reference books. (Even the online ones!) I don’t give a flying fig newton for those, but I guess writers do. Here are a couple of Rika’s favorite online ones.

• The radio. Not just any radio, but www.pandora.com radio. It’s a free, customizable, no-annoying-DJ ranting about his wedding last weekend and it’s in high quality. And it’s Calister F. Wells approved. (Rika likes it because it’s a good source of ‘inspiration’.)

• Other websites. Rika has this strange love of Yahoo! Answers saying that “It’s the only website where I can put people and their problems into my novel without them knowing!” I think that being a writer is being a borderline stalker.

So there you have it, all of you people who are going to be writing for a whole month (or at least saying you are), now you’re one step closer to ‘winning’ NaNoWriMo.

-Calister F. Wells

I’m a supporter of the McCain/Palin ticket because of one issue: life. I’m pro-life because I agree with the saying “It’s a child, not a choice.” I don’t give a flying fig newton about their other issues because at this point it’s becoming harder and harder for the government to fix the mess our world is in. I don’t believe any ideas will be able to change our current problem.

Even though I care about only one issue, I decided to do research on some of the other issues John McCain is supporting… in the form of a video!

The day we swap our tree-eating newspapers and magazines for a sleek, colorful e-reader will be a fine day indeed, and not only for environmentalists!

The bad news? It will be awhile yet. Although new e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle or the Sony Reader are fancy, they are still bulky pieces of metal that can’t fully step in and dominate the Sunday morning paper.

The three top problems of these gadgets are:

1. Most e-newspapers aren’t in full color
2. Takes too long to load
3. Not interactive enough

Liquavista is working to create LCD displays in full color using a process called electrowetting, and other companies are trying to get their products up to the standards already set.
I’ll keep you posted on this latest development!

-Rika

We all know this time was going to come: when even something you witness with your own eyes could be altered and changed until it was no longer the truth.

Photo editors and video editing programs are making lying in plain sight a whole lot easier- and with the growing power placed in the hands of the editors, a question of ethics is brought up. Is it right to twist what is real to turn it into something appealing to the eye or comedic.

When this argument comes up, airbrushing is brought to the table, too. Airbrushing photos in magazines to add superficial beauty to celebrities is argued to be a demeaning force in teen girl’s lives. Is it fair to give them something unrealistic that they set their standards to? With an already harsh, judging High School atmosphere and crazy hormones, adding seemingly flawless celebrities is not helping their self esteem.

Although editing videos frame by frame to alter images is expensive, it is done. Once again, questions are drawn as videos are edited in such ways that are taking things out of context.

What do you think about these questionable techniques? Should we let the media continue to lie in plain sight without consequence, or should we put in place some law that has to let the reader or viewer know if the images are altered?

~Rika