Do you like taking MOOC courses?

I'm a geeky bookworm. There you go, simple as that.

I enjoy learning and reading new things for fun. Reading books is just a huge source of fun for me, and I feel sad that I spent so much of my life devoid of the joy of ebooks because the technology didn't properly exist yet.

Now, I have a college degree, and in 14 months, I will graduate from my Masters degree as well. Again, that is really cool.

But for all of the cool stuff I learn that is fully applicable to my degree, I never get to have any fun. My degree was different from the average undergrad where you could take a dozen intro 101 courses and learn a little of what you want. Had I had this option, due to the nauseating amount of college credits needed to graduate (almost 500!), I would have never finished undergrad ever.

So, I got the degree, but didn't really get to enjoy "the college experience". My Master degree is another fluke. To this day, I have only set foot into the university that will recognize my degree a whopping total of 10 times, half of which were quick 10 minute visits to pay the reinscription fee. I have never seen the massive library that the school boasts. Heck, I don't even have an ID card as such. It's been 2 years, and they still haven't sent us one in the mail and I was too lazy to get one myself when I had the chance. Bummer.

Therefore, while I don't have a lot of free time, I do enjoy taking a MOOCs course here and there. Most of the courses are not directly related to my degree, but given my degree involves a lot of Chemistry and Physics, I have found relatable knowledge from MOOCs I have taken as seemingly unrelated such as the CSI esque Real Life Criminal Investigation MOOC I once took (spectrometers used in crime labs to identify chemicals follow the same physics as some of the medical equipment I use on a daily basis).

I took a Harvardx course on Public Health a few years ago for fun, and while there were things about the course I feel like I had to disagree with, the website sometimes sends me brochures when new courses pop up.

Today they just sent me one about the Cairo pyramids in Egypt. It seems like a fun course, it's free and it's a set-your-own-pace sort of deal. I really can't enjoy it right now because of time constraints, but in case you want to learn more about the ancient pyramids, you can click on the image below.

Enjoy!

Is Mortal Engines a failure as a film?

Quite frankly, I have never, ever heard of this movie called Mortal Engines before, but there is just something about this film that has earnestly intrigued me.

For starters, It's based on a 5 book series by an author named Philip Reeve where the first book was published quite a short time ago, back in 2012, but it was already competing and won awards as far back as 2002.

I am not familiar with this author. I tend to stick with reading indie titles, a huge part of the reason because they are more likely to be on Kindle Unlimited and thus making it more likely that I could actually afford to read them. Philip seems to have written quite a lot of books. A quick search on his Amazon Author Central page states he's written probably somewhere around 30 books, and it looks like he's exclusively Trad published.

Some things have indeed intrigued me about his book. The first novel only has around 280 reviews on Amazon. Now, don't get me wrong, while it's a really amazing feat for any author to get even 100 reviews for a book, much less almost thrice as many, I just find it to be bizarre that this unknown book managed not only to sign a Hollywod script deal, but it was a member of the lucky 10% of books with a signing deal that actually ended up being turned into a film.

Meanwhile, books with more than 500 ratings don't have film or tv deals despite strong fan followings and attractive plots that would have chances of selling tickets in cinemas. Just look up any moderately successful LitRPG title and chances are they have over 400 reviews and chances are they could sell tickets, at least for the majority male audiences.

One thing that also stroke me a bit odd was the fact that this book is not just a YA title (well, I have not read it, I'm only basing myself on the Amazon category... maybe it's middle grade), it's also from a genre that has very few films: Steampunk.

Yes, Mad Max Fury Road did well in the movies (that doesn't mean I find the movie to be enjoyable to watch), but there are very few Steampunk films, and even less directed to younger audiences.

Risky? Indeed, but it's a nice breath a fresh air that at least a few Hollywood producers are willing to risk a flop by giving new ideas. The fact that they are delving into making movies from genres that aren't comic book superhero flicks is also welcoming.

Now, I have not read the book, and have not seen the film either. Therefore, I can't judge how good it is.

However! Sometimes Yahoo! articles are quick to blame a failing movie sales due to being a bad film. Pacific Rim did very poorly in the US (apparently Americans simply didn't find the movie to be appealing in some way), but Mexicans and Chinese audiences loved it, and not just because it was directed by Guillermo Del Toro and taken place in Hong Kong instead of NYC. I never get tired of seeing that movie on tv, and it's mostly because of the character interactions. I haven't seen the sequel though. Heard that it sucked.

Many people forget that films are not released on the same day worldwide. Some movies with high risk of being mercilessly bootlegged are released pretty much everywhere, but it's not a rule of thumb.

This movie has not premiered in Mexico, and according to the Cinemex movie franchise website, there is no date of release yet. Mmmm... Oh wait! It will premiere Jan 1st (darn, I work that day >_>), but it's only available at Cinepolis cinemas. It's like the movie is doomed from several angles at the same time. Not released worldwide at sufficiently similar dates, and due to licensing problems, in at least Mexico, it will run in only 50% of the country's major cinemas.

I am indeed curious to see the film, just for the sake of supporting more lesser known books to be turned into movies, and if there is a producer lurking around here, feel free to read An Ominous Book, it's available at Amazon and caters to the Young Adult audience. ^_^

Draconian ways to fix page numbering in word documents

Along with countless other indie authors, I used createspace for my paperbacks. Expensive? Verymuch for mexican standards when you include shipping. But the chance to print on demand to save storage space is practical.

Amazon bought the site several years ago and both sort of worked independantly. Createspace offers nice easy to use templates as well.

However, Amazon is now integrating both services and the transition has been problematic for many autors. The bugs prompted me to wait until I had no other choice and even today it is still buggy.

I have several books deemed unsuitable for kdps publishing standards. Mostly the page numbering issues which have been problematic because word is very jumpy and psychotic placing the page numbers automatically it feels like.

Okay, so maybe I should ditch the casual pc user and learn a real software like InDesign. The issue comes with finding the free time to learn how to properly use it which I don't have right now.

Nobody on the internet seems to know how to get around this issue. Last Friday I was fiddling with the bloody program and found an insanely tedious way to fix the paging issue to keep up to Kdps demands and retain the overall style I personally like.

I have sent the fixed files for books 1, 2, 3 for Amazon to approve. I should have books 4,5,6 within the next few days which might take longer because they are longer novels.

Book 7 is also almost fully formatted up to kdp standards. I will draw a cover within these next few days and hope to have it finally published!!