PERSPECTIVES OF AN ASPIRING NOVELIST: Revenge of the Nerds

SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVEL I'M WRITING

LEVI McPHERSON, a graduate student of analytical chemistry at the University of North Central Florida, is approached by agents of the Homeland Security’s Counter-terrorism Unit. The agency is recruiting Lee to study and expose the loopholes of screening instruments in airports. Struggling financially, he accepted the offer, making him a paid, benevolent hacker of the nation’s gateway. Yet Levi is horrified when an Airbus from Los Angeles disintegrated in mid-air.

At 40, when everybody’s career trajectory is going up, Levi’s still a poor graduate student, struggling financially. His research projects however, are worth million dollars. Researching the highly classified and heavily guarded secrets of detecting traces of explosives, what Lee know was a goldmine. The agency's offer is his financial break . So Levi tackles the problem like a scientist, detailing the loopholes of the aviation security and turning what he knew into a big time money machine.

JIM and JONATHAN of the counter-terrorism unit, where nowhere to be found after Charlotte International Airport, a hub of Delta Airlines closed abruptly because of instrument malfunctions in their security lines. And in a post-Osama Bin Laden’s era, the biggest blow to the United Stated after the 9/11 disaster comes unexpectedly when a passenger plane blew up in the skies of Washington D.C., in the heart of the nation.

Levi knew it was only the start of more troubles, so he recruits his fellow graduate students to counter the future attacks. They have to think like criminals—and scientists too. With the help of FBI counter-terrorism experts, Homeland Security and Transportation Security Agency, the team races to close and plug the loopholes Lee identified.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Revenge of the Nerds

I was sporting a shirt which has a print in front saying "NERD" and in the back of the shirt is booger and the number 69.

Man, this is a classic movie but some of my friends don't know the movie, specially my students in my lab. Checking the profiles of my students from Facebook, their birthdays explained why. Most of my students were born 1987-89, and Revenge of the Nerds came out 1981.

You are getting old if the movie you watched before are classified classic already. Remember when you first heard the music of Frank Sinatra from your Grandpa's collection? You gave your grand pa the weird look. That's probably what happened with my students also. What the hell is the connection between nerd and booger?