I pay attention to fashion trends. Folks that have read my book, SLIPSTREAM, have said that I go into "clothes descriptions" probably a little too much. That being said, at $350.00 a pair, this shoe by Adidas called the JS Roundhouse "handcuff" seems like the perfect accessory for the book Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James.
They hit stores in August and people are getting pretty angry about the shoe, saying that it's racist because it promotes ideas of slavery. You should checkout the Facebook comments on the Adidas page.
Would you be upset to see kids wearing "slavewear"? It's going to happen. They'll probably be the most popular shoe around as boys strut about their high schools in their skinny jeans. I'm saying "boys" because I can't see a real broad appeal for girls in these shoes. But...I could be wrong :)
Opinions? Do you find them insensitive? If money were no issue, would you want your kid to wear these shoes or would you be offended by them?
Have a great Wednesday. I look forward to reading your comments.
Near Shanghai, the Songjiang district has become a popular weekend destination for many tourists with its natural beauty and sprawling landscapes. And now the Songjiang Hotel might just become the newest and greenest attraction. While it may look a bit sci-fi, this hotel was designed for the real (green) world, with many sustainable features in mind.
The 400-bed resort will be located in a 100-meter-deep quarry located in the province and will contain restaurants, cafes, sport facilities, and even underwater public areas and guestrooms. Water will play an important part in the design, featured in many areas around the hotel. Waterfalls, underwater aquariums, and green areas will be integrated into the design to match the existing facing of the quarry.
The reuse of an already existing site means that the environmental impact will hopefully be smaller. The entire hotel is to be covered in a green roof, while the building will use geothermal energy for it’s electrical supply and heating. The quarry will also provide a good source of heat control and shelter from the environment.
The design of the building is meant to reflect the natural landscape of the quarry. “We drew our inspiration from the quarry setting itself, adopting the image of a green hill cascading down the natural rock face as a series of terraced landscaped hanging gardens.” said Martin Jochman. Needless to say, with such a cool looking site, you’d expect to get a design which will take advantages of it’s very extreme location, and you’d be correct. The hotel, will feature amongst other things: bungee jumping.
Anyway, I saw this online and thought I'd share. It looks like it's straight out of a science-fiction movie or maybe even Star Wars. Would you like to visit a place like this?
SPOILERS: I'm chatting about my book. You have been warned.
At left is a drawing I worked on and never finished. Hence the "missing background". He's cartoony. I drew it probably ten years ago, I think (maybe longer than that). I honestly can't remember. Don't be cruel people!
Anyway, consider this my "concept art". I have other concept art sketches...some in color...some in black and white...that I've done over the years to help me visualize my characters.
This is what Kolin could look like (it's difficult to find the right picture in my mind). He's the guy that Jordan (my protagonist in SLIPSTREAM) falls in love with (yes there are gay people in my book...run away now). They do gay things together too...not just picking out window treatments.
Kolin kills people for money. He's really good at it too because he's had lots of practice. The suit he's wearing is called a killsuit. It's one of the gadgets that my friend Donna Hole alluded to that I use in my book when she reviewed it. So what is a killsuit? Well it's something that you wear when you intend to kill people. Kolin's a professional assassin. He uses guns, swords, knives...he's really good at murdering folks.
It's a very special piece of equipment that has many properties mostly associated with the metal it's made from.
It's tailor-made so that it fits like a glove. Rather than a boot, the individual toes are separated so that the person walking can get a sense of the unevenness of the ground. All the information is relayed up to the helmet which isn't pictured in the drawing. I imagine it looking kind of similar to the way a mantis-head looks, with a visor of glass. All the suits controls are chosen via a tongue pad in the helmet. You stick your tongue out and select buttons that sit right in front of your mouth.
It's made of corobidian. This is a fictional Avalonian metal. It's a superconductor so you have to wear grounding arm and leg bands. Otherwise just moving around generates electricity. You run around and lightning coils around your body. Corobidian is really light...light as a feather...but stronger than any known metal. It takes tremendous heat and power to forge so suits are incredibly expensive. If it gets superheated, it can give off a fume which is a deadly poison.
The arms are supposed to contain weapons. On one side is an energy net. On the other is a blade that can be ejected from a casing. All weapons are made of cibrian metal. This is another fictional Avalonian creation. Unlike corobidian, cibrian is extremely hard. It's heavy, so unsuitable for armor. But any wound it creates will never heal. Ever. If you get cut by a cibrian blade, you will bleed to death. It's just that simple. There are no exceptions. I don't even use magic or anything like that to get around this rule. Cibrian inflicts permanent damage. Period. End of story. Also a sword made from cibrian is likely to never break. I can't foresee a future where I will go around this rule. And thus far, I haven't explored using cibrian bullets yet. And cibrian cuts through all other metals EXCEPT another cibrian blade.
Anyway, I use these suits extensively in the first book, SLIPSTREAM. Each suit has a color that is matched to the person and it alternates with the color black.
Mild disclaimer => I own a Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard and a Razer mouse and they do a great job. What you are looking at on the screen of amazing device below is Firefall, a full-fledged online first-person shooter for the PC. Razer (the company that makes some of the coolest gaming gear) says Firefall, and other PC games, will run on its Project Fiona tablet in Windows 8 (time to say adieu to Windows 7).
Yes, I'm a geek, nerd...or whatever you want to call it. THIS does excite me. I know Patrick is probably rolling his eyes. In one sentence...this is not the tablet for you if all you want to do is play Angry Birds.
Here's the skinny:
1) Under $1,000. That's important because it competes with the iPad and is obviously going for the same market.
2) Intel Core i7 CPU--WOW! Quad core baby (all i7 processors are quad core in case you didn't know).
3) SSD memory. This is tech speak for Solid State Drive. You know those flash drives that you use to store your manuscripts on so you don't lose them when your computer chokes? Picture that only larger, roomier, with no moving parts and instantaneous retrieval and upload of information. My gaming p.c. has had solid state drives for two years. They're incredible.
4) Dolby Home Theater Audio on a Windows 8 interface. Damn. Plus you can play most p.c. games for Windows on this tablet using Ivy Bridge.
5) Dual stick controllers and feedback. If you are shooting a machine gun, you'll feel it vibrate.
Are you excited yet? Watch the video below and you'll see how the keyboard and mouse hook up to it to create a full transformational tablet to p.c. experience.
Have a great Thursday. Tomorrow I'm playing host to author Ciara Knight because I begged her for an interview. :)
