April 2, 2024
I actually logged in to WordPress and found a couple of legit comments that somehow completely escaped my attention for several days… Thanks stupid Jetpack nonsense. One was from Jeff Cann who said:
“In my 11 years of blogging, I’ve alternately craved becoming one of those viral bloggers making a career (or at least some extra bucks) as a writer or just a writer who creates for himself. I think wordpress is a dying platform, which I find sad, but I think they’ve done it to themselves. Their ridiculous writing prompts leave ‘bloggers’ merely answering questions without a lick of creativity. I’m sure my focus will change at some point in the future, but for now, I’m creating content that matters to me knowing its appeal is quite limited. Like you, I’m looking for the right ears, but given the size of the internet, that’s a needle in a hay-field.”
My response, rather lengthy:
“I’m not sure that WordPress is “dying” per se, but they certainly aren’t doing the blogosphere any favors with their “prompts” which don’t really spark any true creative output. As a company they’re doing a lot of things I don’t like — my site is self-hosted so I don’t deal with the crazy amounts they’re forcing people to pay even to use the most basic features of WordPress. I too tried to go “viral” with a lot of my knowledge on various subjects, and had some success at least in the pageviews department, but I never “made it” promoting other people’s IP’s, products, and services. The best way to be a writer, I’ve found, is to just write what it is you want to write, no matter what anyone else tells you. People can suggest topics here and there, of course, but I have come to realize that, yes, the internet is huge, but in some ways, that’s an advantage. You don’t need a particularly large “tribe” to be nominally successful online. I’m in a position now where my writing doesn’t have to pay bills, but as I was discussing with my wife last night, if 1,000 people give you $100 a year, whether it be through Patreon, YouTube ad revenue, other subscriptions, etc. that’s $100,000 — minus fees and whatnot you’re looking at $75-80K which is still quite liveable. And you get to do your own thing and not worry about a thing. Turns out a lot of sponsors these days care more about eyeballs than the actual content, and individual patrons, I think, are the greatest thing to ever happen to online media. I just don’t bother with a Patreon or anything like that because I don’t need the money — I’d rather people who would otherwise sponsor me to support the people who need it to pay the bills. :)”
Also, Stuart Danker happened to realize that an “anonymous” comment was actually me.
“Daww, so it’s you! Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment! And am always honoured to ever be featured anywhere, so thanks for taking the time. Am not really an editor though. Am just the deputy editor. Which is the exact reason why I’m getting cold feet for the post above me. Because I don’t think I’ll ever hack it. Maybe I should make my own way in fiction somehow, lol.”
My response: “I think you’re a brilliant writer, Stuart. Just keep doing you and don’t worry about what other people expect from an “editor” or whatnot. If things don’t work out at your current job while you’re doing your best work, then it wasn’t going to be a long-term solution anyway. You’ll find your way to somewhere where YOU are appreciated for YOU and not what they “expect.””
…
Speaking of Stuart, I realized I hadn’t commented on his latest post, which I actually did have something to say… this time it commented properly! So I Wore All Black For A Year To Improve My Social Skills (Stuart Danker)
“There are lots of people who only wear all-black. I’ve known quite a few of them, and I don’t think there’s anything weird about it. It’s one less thing you have to think about, coordinating outfits and whatnot. And as you said, sticking to a single color still allows you plenty of options; it’s just that you start thinking about what you’re actually wearing in a different way.
However, I’ve never really believed in the “limitation breeds creativity” concept. In my view, limitations simply make you more resourceful. Of course, such resourcefulness can lead to creativity, but I believe it’s more of an indirect relationship than people realize. What some people call enforced “limitations” or “restrictions” are more akin to “streamlining” and simplification of certain processes, which allows you to spend more ENERGY and FOCUS on being creative. So yes, I suppose you could say that limitations and restrictions help creativity, but it’s a bit of an oversimplification of a much more nuanced concept 🙂 In any case, you’ve found what works for you and that’s great!”
The right wing is trying to build a parallel economy — and while I wouldn’t say they are winning, they’re somehow succeeding… How anti-vaccine activists and the far right are trying to build a parallel economy (NPR)
Why is there so much lead in American food? (VOX) – The applesauce parents are feeding their kids in 2024 might well contain enough lead to make them… um, not well. See, all these “regulations” are dead letter bullshit! Just because the lead isn’t from HERE, doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from SOMEWHERE. Just like we banned asbestos, And yet, it’s still in building products we use here, made ELSEWHERE!
…
I asked Copilot: “if aliens turn out to be anthropomorphic versions of earth like animals, which do you feel would be best suited for space travel?”
Copilot’s Response:
“If extraterrestrial beings resembled anthropomorphic versions of Earth’s animals and were embarking on space travel, certain adaptations would be advantageous. Let’s consider a few animal candidates:
1. Birds:
– Birds possess lightweight skeletons, efficient respiratory systems, and strong muscles for sustained flight. These adaptations could be beneficial for space travel.
– Their hollow bones reduce weight, allowing them to fly with ease. In space, where gravity is minimal, this lightweight structure could be advantageous.
– Birds also have excellent vision and navigational abilities, which could aid in interstellar travel.
2. Insects:
– Insects are remarkably resilient and adaptable. Their small size and exoskeletons make them well-suited for cramped spacecraft.
– Their ability to survive extreme conditions (such as vacuum or radiation) could be valuable during long space journeys.
– However, their small size might limit their ability to manipulate tools or operate complex systems.
3. Octopuses:
– Octopuses are highly intelligent and have complex nervous systems. Their problem-solving abilities could be useful during space missions.
– Their flexible bodies and multiple arms could handle various tasks, such as repairing equipment or conducting experiments.
– Octopuses are also capable of camouflage, which might be advantageous for stealthy exploration.
4. Tardigrades (Water Bears):
– Tardigrades are microscopic creatures known for their extreme resilience. They can survive extreme temperatures, radiation, and even the vacuum of space.
– If we could scale up tardigrades, their resilience could make them ideal space travelers.
– However, their lack of complex sensory organs might limit their ability to navigate or communicate.
5. Dolphins or Whales:
– These marine mammals are highly intelligent and social. Their communication skills could be valuable during long space missions.
– Their streamlined bodies and ability to swim efficiently might translate well to zero-gravity environments.
– However, adapting them to space habitats would be challenging due to their need for water.
6. Chameleons:
– Chameleons have remarkable eyesight, allowing them to focus independently on different objects. This visual flexibility could aid in navigation.
– Their prehensile tails and gripping feet might help them move around spacecraft.
– However, their slow metabolism might be a drawback for long-duration missions.
Remember, this is purely speculative, and the reality of extraterrestrial life could be vastly different from anything we’ve encountered on Earth. Regardless, it’s fascinating to imagine how different animal adaptations might translate to space exploration!”
I do feel that rather than Vulcans the first sentient aliens we may meet would be bird-like in nature. Interesting that tardigrades are mentioned… Discovery went to town on subspace tardigrades after all. Anyway, it makes no sense for all these aliens to be so human. Seriously, science fiction needs to get more imaginative…
April 3, 2024
After yet another tough night I couldn’t stay asleep, I woke up with more ideas. One was “weaponizing goodness” which is such an unexpected pairing of words I don’t know where to go with that.
Another is how decision making processes and solution possibilities exist on a continuum and aren’t always clear from certain angles. I can expand on this a bit further. A lot of advice that might be “good” and sound as general purpose and perhaps even boilerplate doctrine simply doesn’t always apply to the myriad infinity of possibilities when it comes to situations that make such advice relatively not impactful or even misleading.
There’s a lot of advice and “wisdom” (I use that word so loosely here) out there that I can see where it’s coming from, but so often it’s so narrowly focused and biased, even when it’s widespread, that blindly following it as doctrine is extremely risky. It’s not that doctrine in and of itself is a bad thing. But because of how easily biased and narrowly focused it can be, it can be adjusted by even those with good intentions to ruin lives. Such as my own.
Take for example relying on a two thousand year old book, with much of its content derived from sources twice or thrice as old, for guidance in everyday life. It’s not that the content is bad. But as a general rule, it’s so often taken out of context… that you can open up to a random page and find a divine little bird chirping in your ear… no, that’s the human propensity for finding patterns in things where they don’t actually exist. [It’s known as bibliomancy.] After all, many ideas and concepts can interact in unexpected ways. Everything in the universe is interconnected by some number of degrees after all.
… basing doctrine off of an ancient set of documents is dangerous. Even if the documents themselves are useful to study and can provide insights that can be both unexpected and potentially enlightening, you can’t use them as doctrine to try and run an entire society. Doctrine must necessarily evolve and adjust with the passage of time and the necessity of adapting profitable change. New translations only twist context even more dangerously to the point where the words begin to lose their initial efficacy and even more gets “lost in translation” from the original Hebrew or Greek, themselves often the result of translations from older archaic languages.
Really taking any one book or set of books as doctrine without consistently seeking new sources of wisdom is perhaps the dumbest and yet most common thing human beings do as a species. They don’t even have to be books necessarily, they just have to be some sort of generational source of doctrine; eventually you have situations where your “holy words” don’t apply quite right and you get madness…
So, in modern times, we are still often depending on doctrine derived from aging documents that no longer provide guidance for modern problems those documents’ framers never considered. Even the American constitution is showing its age. The efficacy of the doctrines so many people still rely on as their foundational beliefs and bedrock for how to deal with everyday matters is being lost, so people are freaking out. We need new doctrine but no one is stepping up and providing it…
…
Aside: Emily and I both had bad dreams where we were back in bad situations from which we’d somehow risen above. And yes, here we are… but how unbelievable are our stories? Well, as I’ve been saying, if you tell the truth and you’re branded a liar, that’s on them. Liars need to have something to gain. We don’t. Most people really don’t have anything to lose but their own sanity, and in thinking they have things to lose that have no real value, they lose their sanity too.
… Really loving how Darkseid in Injustice 2 is like the most broken character ever… he has a minion who does most of the damage for me now! (He’s Mr. Darkseid)
April 4, 2024
Great article from Chuck the Writer, that’s actually from 2000, about Weird Al: “Weird Al” Yankovic: Polkas, Parodies, and the Power of Satire – Chuck The Writer
I definitely have something to say on this one:
“I actually didn’t become aware of Weird Al until my high school years around the release of his Couch Potato album — yeah, I was a weirdly sheltered kid because my parents didn’t let me watch MTV, so whatever I knew about a lot of popular music was through my friends at school. I immediately fell in love with A Complicated Song, Trash Day, eBay, Ode to a Superhero, and pretty much every other track on that album. I soon dove into his entire discography… this was during the beginning of the MP3 era when you pretty much could find every song from every artist, in various shades of legality. Interestingly enough, this article predates my own fandom!
Weird Al’s parodies not only gave me some much needed humor and wit during some rough times in my life — my teenage years were absolute hell — but also helped me to recognize potential parodies in other songs. While I’ve never gotten serious about writing parody songs myself, I would say that listening to his songs and studying the parodies in detail helped me to become a better writer of verse, lessons that would inevitably translate to my writing skills overall. In any case, I don’t know that I would have the sort of sarcasm I do in my writing today were it not for these deep dives into Weird Al’s lyrics. His songs got me out of more than a few funks, for sure.
I learned a lot from this article. Your research is incredibly deep and really sets the stage for Weird Al’s rise to fame. While I knew some of the context of his origins, I wasn’t born until the late 80’s, so I missed a lot of his most famous moments in person. I’ve had to live them vicariously through YouTube videos. I’m a big fan of his UHF film. His biopic that was released within the last few years, though, I have mixed feelings for. Parodying his own life was neat and seeing Harry Potter play him was actually quite a treat. Daniel Radcliffe was phenomenal and convincing in the role! But that movie ended in such an unsatisfying way for me, and this real biographical piece is much more inspiring. Who knew an accordion player could go so far?
Some things I learned from this article: I never knew about the Peter and the Wolf satire classical album — the things you learn from deep dives! I also learned why there are so many references to 27 in Weird Al music videos. Also, when were cassettes 39 cents at the drugstore? Oh, what times were the late 70’s!
It’s great to experience an era when albums still mattered. Now we have hit singles with nonsense lyrics and droning copy-pasted beats. Even in the 90’s albums were losing their importance. We need real parody again. But I don’t think we’ll ever have another Weird Al, sadly enough.”
…
RJ released a video about programming language surveys. I can’t believe how much is paid a year for programming in Clojure. I don’t even know what that is!
I commented: “I never knew about these surveys. Your videos have really opened me up to the true depth and diversity of the programming language sphere.”
He has a whole dataset of the most popular languages, how many times they’ve been in the top 25, what average programmers of that language make… wow.
April 6, 2024
People are, in fact, smarter than they think. I see this on the daily, in the form of YouTube comments on thought provoking videos. It’s that people aren’t encouraged to not be content with mediocrity of understanding their own minds and environments in any constructive, meaningful way. I know I’m onto something bigger here, but from thought to word there is often so much lost in translation…
…
“Ideas don’t come from any one person,” I told Emily via text. “They exist independently of us. It’s just that some people happen to put them in a way that we immediately latch onto them, ascribing their origin from a particular individual, when in fact, those ideas already existed in the universe. We just hadn’t publicly announced them yet. Someone beat us to it. Consistently in YouTube comments, I’ll read bits with the same sentiment. Like, hey I was thinking this but you put it better than I ever could.
“But it’s not that these people are inherently better at coming up with ideas. They just happened to say something that conveyed a particular idea that was already nascent in our own minds. We just don’t always know what words to put with particular thought patterns because we haven’t encountered them before. This is why reading is so important; by familiarizing ourselves with a greater variety of language and thoughtforms, we come to understand a wider breadth of our own self-discovered knowledge through a sort of linguistic osmosis.
“If we relied on only words or pictures to convey ideas, we would only ever have an entirely superficial understanding of how anything works. Thus, we discover the problem with our education systems, we just need to know whether the best answer seems to be A, B, C, or D. But who came up with those four options? All four of them could be entirely incorrect… there’s just a “best answer.” Unfortunately, a “best answer” is all we’ll ever have, no matter how clear and concise someone may put forth their thoughts.”
I know I’m onto something here.
“Essentially, no single individual can know everything about anything they come in contact with on a daily basis. For example, I couldn’t tell you the chemical composition of the adhesive that makes masking tape such a valuable tool for both painting and shipping [trading] cards, and leaves little to no residue behind. Obviously I could find that out. But I don’t need to know that for it to work. Just because you don’t know how a thing works doesn’t keep it from working. Most of us only have a cursory knowledge of almost everything, because it’s simply not possible for any one of us to know everything. That’s just information overload. Things just work… and yes, we need some people to know why that is, but you and I don’t have to know the atomic weight of every element in every material we use in our daily lives. You CAN’T know everything, but you CAN know things that will improve your understanding of why and how things do what they do. Even if it’s not perfect, we have to often be content with good enough to get by.”
…
I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about ancestors. I’ve always believed, much as my Wampanoag brothers and sisters before me, that those who came before us are still here in some form, non corporeal but still very much around. What Christians refer to as God is actually a collective consciousness of the disembodied energies of those who have passed on. We know that consciousness is separate from the body.. we don’t know how it works, but we know there is a “soul” within every living beings. How else, for example, do animals have such uncanny instincts? How do they know things before they happen? It’s because they don’t… they are told through the aether. Just because we can’t see things doesn’t mean they’re not there.
All praying does is open ourselves to the greater universe around us… the Taoists figured this out a long goddamn time ago. There is a “Force” all around us. God, who the Christians perceive as God, is the very binding force that keeps the universe together, the infinite gravitas and creative spark. I’ve always believed that God lives outside of time entirely, which is, surprisingly, also a Christian belief.
Remember, Christianity is as much derived from Paganism as it is Judaism. There’s a lot of great stuff in religion. There are lots of good Christians. Good people, kind people, who try to live by the example of Jesus Christ. I commend these people for trying. But the issue is… these same people can become hate mongers at the flip of a switch. It’s because the “Other” is simply not accepted by conservative religious folks — regardless of their creed. Christians don’t look out for each other like Jesus wanted; instead they police each other through bullying, hazing, and rejection. That’s not Christian. As soon as you hate someone for no other reason that you don’t understand them, you’ve already failed and you’re already a follower of the Darkness.
Individual consciousness is a slippery thing. Where one person ends and another begins — this is why I believe in reincarnation — is very hazy. We are all born with some sort of information coded into our DNA.., even scientists have admitted that a lot of our DNA is “junk” they can’t figure out. [Some of it is actually leftover genetic material from ancient viruses, actually.] It’s not junk. Whatever force gives life consciousness is giving us instructions for what we’re meant to be. That’s what I believe.
And yes, I believe in reincarnation. For all the people who have gone from this world, that’s a major waste of energy. I believe that many souls cycle through many bodies… I don’t necessarily believe that they go into animals or whatnot… but what do I know? Just as any system of energy, the energy will go where it’s needed most. People really hate the idea that if they lead a shit life they will be reborn as a worm. But the worm is, for all intents and purposes, just as important to the order of the world as the average human being.
Who is to categorize life as greater and lesser? Life is life. Consciousness is consciousness. I believe that most beings are in fact intelligent… they simply don’t have the means to communicate what they’ve learned and experienced with us. That doesn’t mean they don’t have sentience.
I was thinking last night that Nature is, by its very nature, a very unfair and dangerous place. It’s incredible that human beings persist on this planet at all. We’re awfully stubborn buggers. You can’t possibly calculate the odds of you being you. Each of us is a miracle that we exist at all. Our little blue planet is an aberration far as our science can tell. The more we learn, the more isolated and alone we feel in an ever-expanding universe. We abhor the growing vacuum, thus we try to fill it with whatever we can. The “junk” in our DNA, ironically, could be the key to some ancient biological clue.
…
Content doesn’t work like the Borg. You can’t assimilate good content and just mash it all together to add its distinctiveness to your own. These shows are written so blandly and rely so heavily on older content that A) new fans won’t realize and B) geeks will jack off to it. I am in neither camp. It’s like stuff happens, see you next week. People can’t find anything wrong with it because it’s just and then this happens then this happens. It’s popcorn entertainment at its very most mediocre.
April 7, 2024
We struggle each and every day with things unarticulated, that cast long shadows over our perceptions of what’s right in front of us. So in response we often keep turning our heads to look over our shoulders, watching the past creep up on us even as it is truly further behind… we are often closer to our past than we ever are to our present, often backpedaling from our future simply because we know that we’re not quite getting things right, yet we are too stuck on a lack of vocabulary or grammar to explain why we’re stuck in the first place.
[I did put that in my “Bits and Bobs” collection for my collect works, but it bore repeating here.]
…
While I understand the spectacle of a solar eclipse, as I’ve seen a couple myself, the absolute madness surrounding this April 8th event is actually frightening to me. People are paying outrageous money to stay near the best viewing places. People are putting their lives on hold, and in some cases even putting their livelihoods at risk, to view a celestial event that has no bearing whatsoever on humanity. Perhaps the rush is entirely religiously driven, but there’s more to it than that. People are looking for an answer and seem to be somehow hoping that an eclipse will bring some sort of catharsis.
I don’t think social media was anywhere close to what it is now during the last eclipse… There are also more major cities in ideal viewing positions, too. And it seems we all need a distraction from our increasingly chaotic pro-entropic day to day.
…
The first thing I’m watching on Nebula is from an old favorite creator of mine, Lindsay Ellis, who has devoted her time to this platform. It’s called the Ballad of John and Yoko. It’s an hour and forty one minutes…
It starts with a great quote from Epicurus: “The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.”
Now this is a quote: “I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.” – Mark David Chapman, who is the man who killed John Lennon.
I didn’t realize Lennon was only 40 when he was shot. And the guy who shot him just sat there on the sidewalk reading catcher in the rye. Apparently Yoko Ono was a target too. And of course people took advantage of his death… it seems to me there was a conspiracy.
I know Yoko didn’t break up the Beatles. Obviously. And yes she did contribute to Imagine and Merry Christmas (war is over). It was sad to watch them break up. But these things happen. I’d argue that if Lennon hadn’t been shot, that rumor never would’ve become so prevalent.
When their manager Brian Epstein committed suicide, that’s when things started falling apart. I don’t think Yoko’s heroin use helped things though and she was always there. She was just not helpful.
The real person that ended the Beatles was Allen Klein, The Rolling Stones manager. Three of the Beatles hired Klein, Paul hired his girlfriend’s dad. This is why McCartney went off on his own in 1970. Never quite realized just how mean John was to Paul…
That was a hell of a documentary. Must explore further.
…
I was just thinking of this just now…
Open your mind for a moment
To the possibilities
Of what you will leave
For those who are left behind
Perhaps your name will
go down in infamy but
More likely entirely forgotten
But that does not mean you
Were not worthy of remembrance
After all there are those you leave behind
And often, so often,
It’s only once those are left behind
Recognize what you brought to them
What you gave, when they took so much
Only remember the best
Or just the very worst
But in time a clearer picture
Comes to those
Who are left behind
Oh god, am I trying to be a poet again?
Well, sometimes words come to me in short bursts, phrases that often pause before they continue and inevitably some will never finish, taking a deep breath and exhaling only silence. I’m trying to make sense of the absolutism that I see, the polarization, the hordes gathering in anger. This is not how people were meant to come together, in these decentralized yet massive armies fueled by displaced anger. The levels of existential angst are combustible and highly toxic. There are many moments in which I simply wish to fade away for a time, only to return and see that the dust has settled… but it will not any time soon. But as things are desperate as they appear? I think not.
The opportunities are more plentiful than ever before, the tools to profoundly maximize our creative potentials, visions can come to life through the combined computing power of powerful algorithms that somehow can tell us things about ourselves we hadn’t yet realized. Technology is only as useful as its application, only as powerful as the previously powerless who learn how to claim it for themselves. I see the case studies of the pros of tech greatly outweighing the cons, if we shift our minds back to first principles and start from our end goal, working backwards in a sort of mirrored alternate universe, where somehow we meet who we are becoming in the middle and end up where we meant to be in the beginning. The reductionism and anti intellectualism must be expunged from our common speech, and we must take a much more holistic view of one another and be much more critical in dissecting what we are told. Yet we must also be less critical of ourselves and those who are lost, sometimes more so than we are.
… I was dreaming about being in some mage arena game where the levels were places from my youth, my backyard and grandparents’ houses as they appeared many years ago, other locations included places in Weymouth, etc. What a bizarre episode.
April 8, 2024
I woke up this morning after a long night of dreaming about old good friends and wondering what they’re up to now. Then I began to wonder just how fragile most human connections seem to be. But in fact, we are all connected to one another even if we don’t see it. So much of human connection is in the background, often even invisible. None of us is truly entirely isolated. It is the society that I reject, not the people themselves. Most people are failed by their society, not the other way round.
Today is a day most people are putting their lives on hold to witness an hour plus celestial spectacle. Emily doesn’t even care about it. Perhaps that’s a sort of hipster view. I’m still fascinated by it, but more because everyone else is too. But I know rather than see people coming together for it, many will be fighting one another, total strangers become obstacles, to get a better view.
If we’d just all come together, corny as it may sound, and just hold hands and remember we’re all on this little round rock for some greater purpose… there is greater purpose, and that is the purpose that we discover for ourselves. Even if all of what we know really is meaningless in the end, the fact that things do have meaning to us means that paradoxically, everything is meaningful.
I’ve spent the past couple years regretting spending too much time on diversions. But I’m starting to think that such regret is mostly unnecessary. Sure I should’ve been spending more time on less hollow pursuits. But all these diversions have held some sort of meaning for me. There is something that draws me down rabbit holes that often lead to crash into paywalls and experience great frustration [with the commodification of everything]. But I’m realizing now that it’s not that I’ve been wasting time, but rather simply not allocating it properly or attacking my interests with the correct mindset.
The greatest mistake is getting stuck in loops. If you’re always making progress, no matter how imperceptible it may be at the moment, you’re already doing something right. It’s far better to fail than succeed at being mediocre at some repetitive task. The whole “one percent better” idea I’ve adopted since 2020 seems entirely silly, but I guarantee you that I’m living proof of adopting such a mindset. I’m always learning. I’m always trying new things. I never allow myself to settle for the same comforts over and over; they have their place, but I’m always searching for new connections, even if they are invisible.
I wonder just how many people are touched by my words, but remain silent. That’s really the issue; too many of us remain silent, and while we may have the right, we have a duty to say something.
True creative freedom is often a tricky ocean to navigate. Many people live by the mantra that limitations and restrictions breed greater creativity. The only restrictions I place on myself are guardrails, not taking the same paths that guarantee failure again. The real problem is that what most people do is run the same well dry rather than build on their core ideas and take them to a more perfect state.
So many stories are never allowed to conclude, while others are stopped short well of their deserved fulfillment. You can’t escape entropy entirely; so many things I’ve done are lost to time, but the act of having done them does indeed affect all future things I do. The present is shaped by our past, yes, but we can still in the moment decide whether our mistakes will define us or if what we take away from those mistakes will allow us to refine our approach from this point forward.
I wonder what I’m even doing with my website. I wonder if publishing books is even productive. No work is ever going to be perfectly finished. I will continue to create commentaries on my own work as long as I live. There’s always an angle I haven’t considered. Oftentimes new information simply wasn’t available at the time a piece was written; whether it hadn’t appeared elsewhere doesn’t matter. So many things are hidden from us, but there are infinite possibilities and permutations to discover.
We must remain vigilant and not let things we can’t describe fully, or even at all in the present moment, pass us by. We will often only have the faintest images of most things we encounter, impressions that our senses acknowledge but archive almost immediately. Going forward I must make it more of a point to be more perceptive about these faint impressions that I get, because I might just learn something valuable.
I had this notion yesterday that I should have no qualms about just letting all my work be available for free. After all, it’s not like I need the money, nor are my ideas all that commercially viable.
My greatest flaw in my past writing, and perhaps one that will still annoyingly manifest itself going forward, is my tendency to mash ideas together. The reason it’s so hard to stick to an outline, at least for me, is that none of my ideas exist in a vacuum. Often they commingle with one another in unexpected and often befuddling ways. A lot of ideas may not appear to go together, but that’s only because there are several degrees of separation we simply haven’t recognized yet. We all inherently “know” more than we think; we just haven’t discovered the key to this hidden knowledge just yet.
Therefore my focus now is not so much of a limitation or restriction, but a sort of map that I’m redrawing along the way. I have promised myself to watch more educative materials and I’ve kept my promise to myself on that. The only reason I allow some diversions to still occupy my time is that I require time for my brain to catch up with some of the denser material I take in.
…
There’s a video about how anti-trans hate is an integral part of fascism. I do agree with this statement. The thumbnail even expands on that point, trans people are just an addition to the list fascists blame for society’s problems: blacks, Jews, Asians, migrants, women, etc. it’s the framing of the “Other.”
Here’s the thing, though. How can you go on for two hours on that subject? See, you can be biased towards an end even if your original premise is correct and lose sight of why people actually give into fueling such obviously bigoted hate. That’s something this particular creator does; she should know better, but she creates these vast monologues that, in effect, make us hate fascists even more. How does that make us any better? In fact, my view is that calling more attention to such hate only allows that hate to grow.
The best answer to fascism is to allow it to burn itself out, wither and die, and not even pay any mind to it. It’s not about just turning a blind eye to it — no, not at all. It’s about being aware that hate is a prison and we must not allow ourselves to build a cell for ourselves hating those who don’t realize their own mistake. I’ve done it myself, hated those who hated me. You have to love in spite of the hate.
What really bothers me is when people that call themselves activists are in fact making the problem worse. Their hate is only justifying other hate, and the snowball effect is growing quickly. I don’t hate these people who, in fact, have good intentions for the most part. Some are just screaming for attention, sure, but I actually think most people that think guns are the problem really don’t realize the real problem is the hate that they unintentionally perpetuate. By giving up guns you actually leave yourself more vulnerable. You’re willfully sacrificing a defense against hate and tyranny. Guns are tools, not symbols of fascism. More people are killed by bullying than guns. Far more see their spirits crushed and they may as well be six feet under, either living a painful and sad lie or committing crimes just to scrape by.
I actually believe that we are on the right path when it comes to creating platforms for creators that aren’t corporate sponsored. But the great irony is that at some point, these nascent platforms themselves become corporate, just like Substack, and the fascists start digging in their tendrils. Fascism isn’t just evil, it is the absence of humanist philosophy. Evil is the absence of good. We don’t create evil; it just fills the vacuums we allow to occur. The worst part is many fascists started with good intentions, but allowed their anger and frustration to become displaced on innocent others while enabling the rotten apples among us free reign to terrorize and abuse as long as they tow the company line.
That’s right folks: fascism is a corporation. And it’s been here for a long time, long before World War Two. Many of the Darkness’ greatest supporters are in control of the top few of the world’s corporations. We need to stop throwing money at these gacha machines disguised as “gaming” and the empty promises of popcorn content from major corporate streaming services. What’s sad is these platforms have creative teams with great ideas, but they’re lost in the “Franchise building” and meta contextual references. We need to divert our funds towards projects we care about. I’d rather the money go to Pokemon Red and Blue solo runs than failing corporations that are underwater billions in debt…
Let’s bail out one another, not the fiat currency printing machine.
April 11, 2024
I had this to say on RJ’s album musings [not sure which one exactly, I was bad at saving links back then]:
“I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable music fan, but it seems that I have this particularly nasty blind spot in the late 80s and early 90s. Considering I was born in 1987, that probably explains at least some of this. It may surprise you to learn that I’ve never heard of The Stone Roses before today. To learn that their debut album is so widely regarded as a top 10 album of all time is even more remarkable to me.
It doesn’t surprise me that you’re rather ambivalent about best album lists. I personally believe that music is such a subjective art by its very nature that it’s practically impossible to create a best of list that anyone will agree with the top 50 or so. I remember a list that had OK computer by Radiohead at number one, and I love that album, but I can’t possibly say that’s the number one album of all time. The Beatles were an absolutely once in a generation group and even I am not sure that any of their albums except perhaps abbey road belongs in my own personal top ten.
In fact my top ten albums fluctuate seemingly day to day. Unfortunately, I find that I barely even listen to proper albums any more. I tend towards just listening to my favorite singles, or even covers of those songs. I really do appreciate series like these album musings, because I do remember in the 90s when albums still really mattered. I have a fairly extensive vinyl collection and a solid German turntable and yet I haven’t spun any discs recently. The convenience of streaming platforms has really turned my music listening habits into more of a background ambience than a truly religious experience as it was for most of my teen years and young adulthood.
Keep these great music related videos coming. I don’t often take the time to comment, but I certainly do watch them.”
Sheesh. I wrote a book. Anyway he greatly appreciated it.
April 13, 2024
Regarding a Nebula video about whether math is invented, discovered, or both:
Math is great because there are a lot of things you can discover that will always be true, through proofs and whatnot. There are mathematical relationships in everything that we discover, we don’t invent the relationships but we do invent frameworks by which to explain them. But what’s most fascinating is how theoretical math born in a vacuum can eventually be proven to describe a relationship out in nature that it was never intended to describe or illustrate.
We’re inventing systems to describe things; it’s a sort of universal language that relates fundamental patterns found in nature. Pattern matching and categorization are part of human nature. So we invent the categories, a way of thinking that we impose on our universe. Perhaps reality is at its core mathematical, and we just are figuring it out and using the “platonic world” of proofs to help navigate it.
The presenter wasn’t named and the video was sort of existing in a vacuum, an artifact of nebulas formative days I suppose. Kind of a shame, I like how she explains things. Turns out she is still doing stuff on the platform. Her channel is called up and aEmily — odd that the original wasn’t connected to that video. Her latest video was from leap day about “trajectoids” which I’ve never heard of. They’re the product of an algorithm that creates a shape that can follow almost any path you can come up with.
And while I don’t consider myself great at any sort of math, it’s still useful to understand math as much as possible… After all, everything that underlies our universe is math. Even language has underlying math to it.
April 14, 2024
I found something interesting on Pocket about Kakeibo, which is a Japanese financial journaling practice that introduces mindfulness to documenting your income and spending. It’s pretty straightforward but I do like the way that it frames everything you spend money on as areas you can work towards goals and actually improve upon.
I also like that the practice separates leisure from culture, which are usually combined. It’s about being “financially naked.” I also like the idea of putting a 24hr wait on purchasing something. Get out of the practice of impulse buying… like what I used to do with trading cards or still occasionally do on a video game, usually with bad results.
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Another article caught my attention: “10 things incredibly likable people never, ever do (and why you love them for it)”
Here’s the list
- They don’t blame
- They don’t control
- They don’t try to impress
- They don’t cling
- They don’t interrupt
- They don’t whine
- They don’t criticize
- They don’t preach
- They don’t live in the past
- They don’t let fear hold them back
I think I try to do all these things. Yet people don’t like me. When I do any of these things they are usually unintentional. And I think most people when they do these things aren’t even aware that they’re doing them.
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William Shatner agreed to be part of a documentary at age 93 because he admits that he doesn’t have long. He’s turned down plenty in the past, but since this one is crowdfunded he saw it as an innovative and intimate project worth participating in.
“This documentary is my love letter to my family,” Shatner said. “I wanted to be honest with them about how I felt about what I did, and answer the questions form my soul. I’m not sure that other people who do this have that attitude. This came from deep within me. It’s kind of like I’m naked in a way, but I thought that was the best way to go.”
He decries the current state of our world, “marveling at the ‘preciousness’ of a world that has evolved over billions of years, then decrying its ‘extinction’ that is happening ‘by mankind’s own hands.’”
Shatner on death: “The occasion of your death is meaningless. You’re one of billions upon billions who lived and died on earth… Our ignorance is so profound. And the more we know the more we realize how stupid and how egotistical human beings are thinking we’re the only ones.”
Echoes of Star Trek five here, the one point that I somehow took away when most people didn’t from the film: “If we consider that we’re born alone, we all die alone… Do we ever find a partner in life that is so close and meaningful that you’re not alone?” [Yes, but that’s a true rarity.] “Or is our condition to be alone and to endure it, because that’s part of the pain of life? There are enjoyments, which abound: good food, good company, good work. I mean, there’s so much joy waiting for us. Can we mix the two together and participate in all of it? Can we participate in the sadness and loneliness that we all feel and still vibrate to the magic of life?”
Wow. It just keeps going: “I’m looking out a window right now as I talk to you… I see green trees. I see a city. I see mountains. I see the sky with the birds, that the Earth is throbbing with life, and it’s waiting to be discovered. What makes me so sad, which was brought to mind when I came off of the spaceship that I went on, was the absolute realization. I’ve known this, but it was dramatically shown to me when I looked down at the planet: how intricately connected everything is.”
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Lifehacker has a great article about productivity tips they have gotten from books so you don’t have to read them… this isn’t to promote laziness but to offer actionable advice in a digestible form by drawing on many different sources: I particularly like the 168-hour method, thinking of what you can get done in terms of weeks not days. “How do you allot your existing time over seven days?” It’s a more holistic approach. Notably, that includes the weekend, which too many of us waste.
I also really like flow theory… I’ve never gotten in the flow quite as much as I’d like to… although I’ve discovered “the flow” by accident when I’ve written some of my best work.
The other methods mentioned are GTD (getting things done), the “action method” (from which I gleaned my own back burner, actually), “zen to done”, deep work (a concept I really want to dig into further, which may allow me to make the most of my fatigue ravaged body), “eat the frog” (interesting analogy), and the Power Hour technique (which I sort of do by going hard as possible for an hour on a very specific intentional project).
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Interesting article from Vox called “how to be enough” by Allie Volpe that has the subtitle “our obsession with self-improvement is making us miserable.” I say that people are just doing it wrong, trying to take all this advice wholesale without gleaning what’s useful for them. People overwhelm themselves when it’s just about being your best self, not reaching for some imaginary high standard set by others.
I do agree however that there is a “hyperfixation on the self” that can become quite unhealthy… you do have to recognize how you can contribute to the universe on top of whatever self improvements you make. Self-criticism and self-loathing are signs that you’ve gone too far. We overcorrect in fear of not correcting enough.
I particularly like this: “Even the most well-meaning goals can be taken too far, like turning a joyful hobby into a soul-sucking side hustle.”
Volpe mentions that aesthetic trends may be intentionally perpetuated to inspire us to buy into some products in order to participate. This is a very interesting and possibly quite valid argument. I think aesthetics are more than just marketing ploys but it’s easy to see how they can be manipulated for disgusting amounts of profit.
The takeaway, which is a pretty good one, is to “find the balance between appreciation and aspiration.” This comes courtesy of Tal Ben-Shahar, founder of the Happiness Studies Academy.
April 15, 2024
What creates ‘undignified’ or ‘superfluous’ labor? Well, the obvious answer is that jobs are created as temporary placeholders for more permanent positions, or jobs are created as an expense sheet item, and are either redundant or could be folded into other roles. This is what allows big companies and corporations to “downsize” at a moment’s notice. It’s a sad reality of how business people can manipulate profit and loss statements to their advantage, especially to a board of directors and/or investment group. But that deserves its own very in-depth and well-considered essay…
… I’m a seeker of rabbit holes, even if unconsciously. But I can’t tell you how many essays have obvious sequels just begging to be written. And I wonder why I never feel satisfied with anything…
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I probably should write an essay called ‘Don’t Blame the Teachers, Blame the Educators’ Yes, those are NOT the same thing at all. It’s a trickle down effect; teachers, at least for the most part, have good intentions that are thwarted by the machinations of policy and politics. Also, schools should NOT be run as a business, at least not in a traditional sense. That’s a whole can of worms I don’t want to open right now!
As Emily was saying, the current school system that we have now came out of the Industrial Revolution, with industrial giants like Carnegie offering gobs of funding if you train kids to work in a factory setting. In and of itself, that isn’t really a bad thing. But now it’s incredibly outdated. Plus, in the last fifty years, we’ve forced a liberal arts model on top of it, which just causes kids to become confused.
Now, we have educational programs for free like Pinkfong that teach kids preschool and kindergarten material at a much younger age — yes, that was the intent of those programs. It’s a lot more than Baby Shark; it’s actually a genius program that is educating kids at an even younger age than ever.
The problem is that now kids go to school and there’s no point for them to be there if they’re going to be forced to listen to the same stuff being taught that they already know, but in a far less engaging way. So schools have basically become babysitting services. It’s not the kids’ fault; it’s that we’ve evolved as a society to a point where our kids get superior education at a younger age than any previous generation. We need to adopt a more Montessori approach to education… and we have the technology to do so, especially with VR classrooms becoming a reality… This could be a whole book.
Schools still resort to making an example of kids that don’t fit the mold… which then entreats bullying, and you wonder why schools don’t want to deal with it! They want to keep kids ‘in line.’ But in line with what? An outmoded system that was built for an industrial-based society that no longer exists? We need to be embracing high-tech and understanding that kids are coming into schools with far greater knowledge bases than ever.
Kids aren’t stupid. I get the pushback about digital education all being recorded being an ‘invasion of privacy’. But those records can only be seen by the teachers and parents. Also, most kids aren’t going to act out if they know that it will be on record, and those that cause a problem are immediately dealt with through independent learning. Parents need to be held MUCH MORE ACCOUNTABLE than they are. That’s the real problem.
… Developing a platform VS building a brand. I believe the former is more important, because while brands are trendy, platforms are much more solid and are what will survive the test of time.
April 16, 2024
I’ve long dreamed of writing the next great American novel. I want it to be the perfect embodiment of the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten: write the book that you want to read. It will mirror many things I’ve actually experienced but changed a couple key details about setting and circumstance, but the inner conflict and external problems remain pretty much the same. As much as I love my fantastical creative universe, my story must begin in something resembling reality, but just off kilter enough that right away, you know something isn’t quite right.
… RJ now has an album discovery grid. He has it split in four blocks, aware of/listened to, aware of/didn’t listen to, not aware of/did listen to, and not aware of/didn’t listen to. 2007 was a fucking amazing year for music! I need to look at album of the year dot org and really dig for stuff I missed.
April 19, 2024
On Medium, I found this great article about the 7 giveaways you’re using ChatGPT to write. Obviously he got “tapestry” and “fostering,” but he also got a couple others to watch out for…
I didn’t realize it overuses “transformative” — doesn’t really come up for me. BUT, “this is about” or “all about” I do recognize. I edit this out any chance I get. “Think of X as” is another GPT giveaway. As is “not only / but also” which I also always rephrase. Also, yes, the sentences ChatGPT makes can get super long. The problem is I tend to make very long sentences, too. So, in my case, that’s not a dead giveaway.
The same author, James Presbitero Jr., has another interesting idea called the 3 layers of AI augmentation. When is it “okay” to Use AI in Writing: The Three Layers of AI-Augmentation | by James Presbitero Jr. | Medium
It’s pretty self-explanatory, but it’s an interesting concept.
Although so much of Medium is locked behind a paywall, they do give you enough to make the member-only posts useful. If I get really going on here, I don’t mind paying $50 a year to get access to them. But there’s this post that’s members only, but right away that has this great quote: To live, to truly live, is to prove you’re alive — Watts, Rittenberry, Camus, Jung | by Thomas Oppong | Personal Growth | Medium
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” – Alan Watts.
I needed this quote today. Sometimes I don’t feel present at all, especially when I’m writing. I’ve just felt so disconnected…
I want to write about so many things: how scapegoating is out of control, why entertainment is soaking up stupid amounts of money that could be much better spent on actual needs…
April 20, 2024
Storytellers need to stop ripping off other stories and be more like Lucas… blend existing formulas to create something new. Yet all the teachers today preach the hero’s journey as gospel and that’s so immensely limiting. There’s a reason Tolkien stopped when he did. It would only cheapen what came before. This doesn’t mean you can’t do good spin offs. But they need to be anti-entropic and either offer a new take on the original core idea or take the same or similar setting and elements and evolve or shift the core idea in a way that complements or expands on the original work meaningfully.
Like Stories of Old did a video on this at great length and I agree with him that we need to stop being so obsessed with perpetuating franchises and get back to just telling good character based stories and only borrow when we can pay respect to the original source material in earnest and to great effect.
The highly derivative works of fiction being produced today have continued to discourage me from pursuing my own creative universe. But today’s world needs more powerful contemporary stories and while there are still great works being made, they aren’t rising to the top as they should. Even the Apple TV show Franklin that I like is starting to feel a bit too formulaic as a drama. But it’s at least interesting to see where creative and artistic liberties are taken for the sake of keeping the audience invested. I’ve always found real history better than the fictionalized retelling but if you think about it, the history we learn is almost always a biased narrative.
… I’ve noticed that great artists always figure out their core ideas as their basis for creation. Up until now I wasn’t quite sure what those are. But now I have some core ideas that I’m sure to keep building upon: those being introspection, actionable advice, and fair and measured justice for all. I have plenty of themes to talk about and none of them involve reviewing Magic cards for their metagame viability or analyzing sell through rates for various collectibles. Those are distractions from what needs to be said in a way it seems only I can say, through the zany wacky characters I seem to come up with out of a hat, like an overzealous magician trying to birth fantastic new chimeras every night. I mean, if you really think about it, great stories are often chimeras of existing tales. The trick is to make them relatable to a wide enough audience or a passionate niche one, but not always at the same time.
… [Taking] one idea at a time but only to a satisfactory and actionable conclusion, not embellishment for its own sake. What I encounter on a daily basis, the endless cast of villains I battle with both within and without myself, is much stranger than fiction and perhaps I need to just add a wee bit of cartoonish witticism to painting a picture of the rapidly devolving entropy all around us.
But it’s certainly not all bad.
It turns out most people are just too near sighted and weak willed to better their own odds of survival and make up for their currently wasted potential as sub-creators within our fantastically absurd world. If the universe truly can think for itself, we must play a key organ in its orchestral splendor. We each have significantly more agency than we think, but also ironically enough, much less than we’d like to believe.
… Listening to Jess of the Shire read Leaf by Niggle made me sob uncontrollably for a couple minutes. The allegory of the workhouse really got me. I knew it was supposed to be purgatory, then Niggle’s heaven was his work completed and perfected. I’ve felt like I’ve been in purgatory my whole life, now I have all the time to finish my work but not the energy. And I worry like Niggle I’ll go on my “journey” before I’m ready. But what really made me cry was that the neighbor who never really appreciated him in life became his best friend in “heaven” but back in “real life” Niggle became a footnote that eventually faded entirely from history. I worry that will happen to me, but perhaps, the very act of creation is what creates our future heaven. It’s given me a lot to consider.
April 21, 2024
Interesting article about why books deserve more than a “reductive rating scale” like stars.
A One Star Review For Star Reviews | by PYPE dreams | Books Are Our Superpower
I highlighted “They are meant to leave people with questions or discomfort.”
Most people also highlighted this: “To reduce a book to an average star rating is diminishing not only to the author’s (and editors, contributors, etc) hard work and vision, but also the experiences of the audience.”
I do agree why publications refuse to use star ratings. Books are much more nuanced than a star rating can accurately describe.
I also agree with the authors’ proposed alternate metrics: purchases and rentals over time & whether the reader finished the book or not and whether they were unable or uninterested in finishing it.
Another article by the same author had this: “Being in a cemetery is like being surrounded by books, full of intersecting stories and lives; adventures, languages, tragedies, histories, and dreams.”
April 22, 2024
Sifting through Medium and Pocket to find good stuff to note…
I Made One Simple Financial Change and It Lowered My Spending (The Atlantic, paywalled now)
This is about increasing the pain of paying, making a journal of every transaction forces you to think about it more. This is similar to the thing I read recently about the Japanese financial journaling technique… One interesting note here is that a financial advisor suggested putting the potential purpose on the sheet BEFORE purchasing. You can’t realistically do this for every item at the grocery store, but for discretional purposes, it’s not a bad idea to “preload” purchases you’re considering.
I don’t worry about this with Emily and I, everything we’re getting is property improvement or something we immediately need, or something that brings us joy. But it’s still good to think about, especially if I choose to source future investments.
Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy – The Atlantic (The Atlantic, also now paywalled) – It does seem paradoxical that the most successful people aren’t often happy. Look at Emily and I, and in fact, we were talking about this yesterday. I feel like it’s envy. There’s also “social comparisons” – which aren’t an accurate objective yardstick of anything useful. Instead, stop comparing yourself to others and you’ll naturally gravitate towards things you instinctively enjoy doing.
The three things people need, according to the author being interviewed are “mastery, belonging, and autonomy.” He also suggests a fourth — “the attitude or worldview you bring to life.” This is a really interesting concept. He suggests this should be an “abundance-oriented approach” rather than the much more common “scarcity-minded approach.” It’s not that a scarcity mindset is inherently bad — but, I would add, in many cases in modern life it holds us back and leaves us giving into things like FOMO and opening us up to the tantalizing empty promises of gambling and other addictions. True happiness means finding something to do on a regular basis that is meaningful, something Emily and I struggle with immensely. I’m at least dedicating myself to keeping my writing process going, even as the fatigue strikes me down as I type this.
I like this, children don’t get “distracted by all those extrinsic yardsticks.” I absolutely love that phrasing. The author brings up an example of a child playing with a car for three days, but then becomes more interested in the box it came in. I’d argue that you pay as much for the box as the contents, and the child is simply more aware of the possibilities of play that come with the complete package.
April 23, 2024
“I Resonate With That” [NAILS ON CHALKBOARD] (Anne Helen on Substack) – apparently people really hate using the word resonate as a verb. But that’s how I’ve always understood it to be used. I try not to use it as much as most people do.
An effortless way to improve your memory (BBC) – best way to improve your memory? Take 10-15 minutes for quiet contemplation. I kind of do this when I get up and walk around after working on an essay. Meaning that when I try to do other productive things with my breaks, I’m actually messing up my memory.
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Notes on the following: Use the “1 Hour Rule” to Catapult Yourself into the Top 1% of Income Earners. | by Hallel K. | The DIY Learning Collective | Medium
“One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.” — Earl Nightingale
Huh. Interesting how I always ensure I write for an hour a day. No wonder I’ve come so far as a writer in three years. It’s been blowing me away reading things I wrote just two years ago… I’ve definitely tightened my focus a lot! So maybe putting together one hour study guides is a good idea… That free ebook series, One Hour History, is a great example of this!
This is also brilliant: “If you read a book in your chosen field for one hour a day, that would translate to 1 book per week. 1 book per week translates to about 50 books per year” — Brian Tracy
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This line actually made me sad… What Actually Matters in Your 20s | by smoul | Practice in Public | Medium
“Your twenties are not about proving anyone wrong, they’re about finding the things that make you happy.” … It took me until my mid thirties to do that. I have a lot of lost time to make up. Perhaps we all do.
The same author apparently has taken absurdity to heart. To wit, she quotes Camus:
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion”. — Albert Camus
I commented on this excellent post, along with 100 others… “I read “The Stranger” in my psychology in literature English class in my senior year of high school. But I didn’t really embrace absurdism until a couple years ago, now well into my thirties. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who has taken Camus’s philosophy to heart.“
The comments on this article are fantastic…
April 25, 2024
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” – Voltaire
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Great quote here: You Become What You Focus On. The following quote is 2000 years old… | by Wizdom App | ILLUMINATION | Medium
“Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people’s weaknesses.” – Epictetus, stoic philosopher.
Another good one from Epictetus in his A Manual for Living: “If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.”
This is kind of what I’ve been going after lately: “When you acquire knowledge, you do it with intention and a specific focus.” – from Wizdom.
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I’ve never heard of this to-do list method. But I like it: 9 Minimalist Habits That Will Save You Hours | by Wizdom App | Medium
Ivy Lee Method:
- List your six most vital tasks for tomorrow.
- Prioritize them.
- Tackle them in order, one at a time.
- If some linger, roll them over to tomorrow.
That way you never have to finish all of them, but you stay mindful of what you need to do and not let things slip through. I might start using this strategy.
Here’s another great quote from that article:
“…our ‘mind factory’ is for having ideas, not holding them. Holding onto ideas disrupts our production capabilities.”
I never thought of it that way. No wonder I feel compelled to always write down ideas. Letting them rattle round really does screw me up. So, “capture any thought that excites, interests, or energizes you.” I’ll just use pages most of the time, but I may start using apple notes for really short stuff and just peruse them each morning. I’m too cheap to pay for Notion. [I’d rather just use old school commonplace books, anyway.]
April 26, 2024
I had this crazy idea called The World As Seen by E.B. White which was to feature characters based on Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and Trumpet of the Swan, but 21st century versions, like their descendants. It’s really loosely based, with original characters and settings inspired by the originals. But these short stories, interspersed with some brief essays, will be based on things he wrote about… there will be a journey to Walden Pond for example… I decided against doing this series, but I like where I was going with the concept.
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Interesting take on writing from an actual teacher: A 5-Part Plan to Improve Your Writing
“We need to approach any writing task as if we were writing a ‘ranty’ email or internet reply to someone who has just disagreed with us on a topic we feel passionately about.” – Dan Cleather
He also mentioned as a potential key point of an essay being this: The myth of scientific objectivity weakens public trust in scientists…
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Jess of the Shire is right in her video about canon.
What Counts as “Canon” in the Lord of the Rings?
It’s useful for consistency. But there is always the chance that you lose something when you explain away some of the mystery. Tolkien rewrote the Hobbit to fit with Lord of the Rings after all. With my own stories I’ve always had the “shattered timeline” so why do I feel like I have to be uber consistent?
Every story can exist in its own bubble after all. Canon is a very loaded term these days and honestly I think we bug out far too much about it… we should enjoy the stories for what they are and as they were intended to be!
April 29, 2024
Watching a great video from Hello Future Me about resurrection in stories:
How To Resurrect A Character (and not suck!) | On Writing
“Easier to get into hell, than to get out of it…” what is the cost? Is our mortality key to our humanity? We have to justify why the resurrection happened for a narrative and thematic reason. What is lost? Is there willing any voluntary suffering or sacrifice? What do you elevate and what do you leave behind?
Resurrection can even be a punishment, taking away someone’s choice or right to die. The problem is when the stakes are cheapened by meaninglessness like Palpatine in the Rise of Skywalker. Characters are often brought back for fan service, and this is really not good… great stuff. Lots of good ideas. Easily accessible education. He even breaks down the points.
- “Resurrection stories are often less about the resurrected character than those around them — their grief, what they’re willing to do to avoid it, and the relationship we have with death. Alternatively, resurrection can be a beautiful expression of love or other positive things conquering death.
- “Resurrection often explores the place of death in the human condition…”
- “We tend not to mind resurrection if there is a large cost associated with it — either to a character or in effort spent in the narrative, or if we believe in what the resurrection represents thematically.”
- “Sometimes, a character will come back worse, but they can also come back stronger, wiser, or more even divine. Death can be a purifying force while resurrection is a renewal.”
- “Resurrection can cheapen the stakes. Consider relying on alternate sources of tension or punishing characters in other ways.”
- “Death… gives weight and meaning to certain ideas. Does resurrecting your character undermine that? Does bringing them back ask more interesting questions than the meaning their original death provided? Often, the answer is no, especially if unplanned.”
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