Nowadays we equate Halloween with costumed kids running around on sugar overload. However, the night before All Hallows Day (1 November) used to be about something not nearly as scary but probably a bit more meaningful. It is a brief moment in the course of the year when the curtain that separates this world from the next is at its thinnest, when some of us on this side of the living see those on the other side or, even more disturbing, those others can slip on over to our side of the neighbourhood.
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Halloween initially was a ceremony to honour our ancestors, a day to remember the dead. More ominously, the Celts believed it was a day when the normal laws of space and time were temporarily absent and the dead could hop on over to celebrate with their families. What their families might have thought of that is another issue entirely. Mexico and ancient Egypt also had a day to acknowledge the deceased.
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Of course, we can’t talk about Halloween and forget the truckloads of vegetables we carve up every year. We can thank the Irish for our Jack-o-lanterns, although they originally used turnips. The intricately butchered veggies were used as a way to provide light for Jack, a tricky fellow who even managed to outwit the devil himself. Sadly, Jack's tricks caught up with him and St. Peter denied him access through the pearly gates. The devil didn’t want him either, so Jack wonders around, quite lost but still full of tricks.
So what tricks do you have planned this Hallows Eve?
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Dragon's Mind received a glowing review from Reading in the Window Seat, just as I'm in the final editing stages for its sequel. Yeah, Dragon! Click HERE and read all about it.
And finally, your truly (yup, that would be me), was interviewed on Diverse Pages, a book site that promotes books with main characters of colour. Pop on by and leave a comment HERE.
How would you celebrate if you were in Nairobi with me?!
Who’s your favourite singer, is he / she
human or hologram and are you sure? Don’t be too quick to answer. You never
know: you may be cheering on a holographic image. That was certainly the case
when in 2010, a Japanese hologram belted out pop songs to sold-out concerts. I
know, tough to believe. So take a look:
Yes, that’s a hologram (of sorts), a trick
of light that creates an image that looks three-dimensional and, in the case of
Hatsune Miku, sings and interacts with a crowd of fans. While she does have
certain cartoonish features, Miku is impressively solid looking nonetheless. I
wonder if rock stars shuddered and actors groaned, because if this technology
gets any better, movie directors and music agents might start eyeing the low maintenance
holograms who’ll work any hours, anywhere in any role for a very low hourly
rate of a few watts of electricity.
I stumbled upon this video clip after
writing Dragon’s Mind, and I was thrilled when I found it. I was also relieved
that one of the key technologies in the story actually exists (and not just in
my imagination). Dragon is an intelligent operating system that uses a
lab-grown brain as his main component. But when Dragon is connected to a
projector, the hologram he selects for himself exposes a dirty secret with big
impacts: his brain wasn’t created in a lab but was extracted from a murder
victim.
The story in part relies on this projector
technology and the solid looking hologram, as it allows Dragon to interact with
the other characters in a human-like manner. It’s particularly key in
developing the relationship between him and Myth, the daughter of Dragon’s
inventor.
So thank you, Hatsune Miku and Cryton Future Media, for proving that Dragon’s Mind
isn’t as farfetched as I first thought.
