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 |    Not for the faint of art. |
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Complex Numbers A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number. The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi. Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary. Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty. ![Merit Badge in Quill Award
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| I love depressing music. To paraphrase the Doctor Who episode "Blink," "What's wrong with sad? It's happy for deep people." I'm probably not all that deep, though. The things I like, they're mostly all right there on the surface: good food, good drink, money, movies, music, and video games. I'm no philosopher; I don't even have a liberal arts education, having opted instead for a very practical engineering degree. And yet, when I hear a sad song, it makes me happy. I don't know why. I did notice on my first cross-country trip, years ago now, that my playlist is probably 75% songs about travel, the road, or cars. This has been true even before I spent days gripping a steering wheel, blinking into the setting sun, alone with my music and my thoughts. But a good 90% of my favorite songs are what some people call "depressing" and I call "awesome." But hey, you already knew I was a Springsteen fan. So like I said last time, I had to take an emergency trip to Atlantic City to hang out with an old friend who's going through a divorce. He needed it. I'd just as soon never go there again. See, I've been to all the classic gambling hotspots in the US: Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City. Vegas is all about overdoing everything; it's exuberant and bright and it's like that rich friend you have, or would like to have, who laughs at everything, drives a Ferrari, and flashes a Rolex. Reno is... depressing. And not in a good way, not like the Tom Waits or Johnny Cash songs about the place. One time, driving through Reno, I spotted a billboard advertising a Morrissey concert. That's right; Reno is so depressing that they had to bring in Morrissey to cheer it up. Atlantic City makes Reno look like Disney World. Used to be, AC was the only place on the East Coast to gamble, so people went there from all over. Lately, though, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut and even bloody New York have legalized gambling to some degree or another, which leaves Atlantic City with very little reason to exist beyond sheer inertia and classic Jersey stubbornness. But they still have bars, and blackjack, and usually you can avoid the scam artists wandering in off the streets for long enough to let casino security kick them out. And, unlike Vegas or Reno, if you look out the window you can sometimes see the ocean, and forget for a moment that those waves will one day drown the city in a flood of sharks and used needles. Sometimes the only purpose of a place is to remind you of how good you actually have it. Or - maybe - substitute "song" for "place" and now I might begin to understand my taste in music. Everything dies, baby, that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back. |
| https://www.thecut.com/2018/10/on-waking-up-early.html I have some unsolicited work (life?) advice, which is that if you don’t know how to deal with a problem, or a whole host of problems, try getting up obscenely early. Like 5 or even 4 a.m. Just for a little while, at least, like maybe three or four years. What a coincidence, because I, too, have unsolicited work/life advice, which is that if you don't know how to deal with a problem, drink. It's easier than getting up early - though not cheaper - and has the added benefit of keeping you from thinking about your problems. And as we all know, if we don't think about our problems, eventually they go away. Things like work, family, and friends, for example. If you think about it, those are the sources of 95% of your problems. (The other 5% usually stem from making stupid decisions, such as not drinking.) Even if it doesn't work to stop you from thinking about your problems, at the very least it makes you more likely to open up to the bartender about them. Bartenders love to hear about drunk peoples' problems; otherwise, they wouldn't be bartenders. Be sure to tip well. Since you might not be able to compute a proper tip at the end of the evening, just slip her a $20 bill now and then (or, if you're British... well, I can't remember if Brits tip bartenders or not, so come to the US and then tip the bartender.) As if this weren't enough, drinking will keep you from doing something really douchey like waking up early or starting CrossFit training. If you do happen to wake up early, you'll have a hangover and you'll need to pee. Just remember, don't look into the mirror while you're in the loo. Self-reflection is for sober people. Meanwhile, you'll find that you're awake, on average, for the same number of hours every day, regardless of when you wake up or when you go to sleep, so don't freaking sweat the whole catching-the-worm thing. After all, as a wise person once noted, "The early bird might catch the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." Oh and hey, quick note - I have to go on an emergency trip to Atlantic City (a good friend of mine just got divorced and he needs to drink), so if I don't post over the next couple of days, that's why. |
| With Halloween coming up, I got to thinking today: What would truly frighten me? Partly, this is because of a Cracked article that covers a topic I've been talking about: http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2580-6-reasons-sleep-paralysis-most-... (Cracked used to be better. Now they mostly suck, but they do occasionally have decent articles.) While sleep paralysis is certainly terrifying at the time it happens, I don't lie awake at night dreading it, it barely affects the rest of my life, and I wouldn't call it the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. But when thinking about what the scariest thing that's ever happened to me might be, my brain draws blanks. Possibly this is out of self-preservation - I don't want to remember something that scared the living shit out of me (note: I've never been frightened to that literal degree). Some people are afraid of spiders or snakes. Spiders, snakes, large insects, wasps, and so on certainly startle me, but once I get over the initial WTF, they're all actually pretty cool. Not that I'd want to pet them or anything, but they're fascinating. Or take the clown phobia thing. For some people, coulrophobia is a real thing. I like to joke about it, not as a way of facing my (nonexistent) fear of clowns, but just because it's inherently funny. I probably shouldn't joke about it because it's mean, but hey, I am what I am. I even spent a night in the infamous, haunted Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada  once, and the only scary part of that was that it was 17 degrees F outside and it took me an hour to figure out how to make the room heater work.I'm not afraid of death. I've been too close to it too many times to fear it. I'm certainly not excited about the prospect, but it's inevitable, so I don't worry about it. I'm kinda terrified of dementia, though; both my parents died from it after long, slow declines and I do not want to go through that or put my friends through it (not a genetic issue; they were my adoptive parents). And now I have to face a harsh truth: even if I did know what I was most scared of, I'd be reluctant to write it down or tell anyone about it. Not because writing would make it so; that's superstitious hogwash. But people suck, and someone would find a way to use it against me. Like if I said "there is nothing in the world I fear more than ducks," I'd get spammed with Geico ads.  (Ducks are awesome, by the way. Also inherently funny. I've said before that if you're not sure how to make something funny, just throw in a duck.)So I guess this entry is going to end unresolved. You don't get to know my biggest fear. On the other hand, I'm not sure what it could be, either. |
| https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45968935 Humans like to restrict what they eat. I'm not just talking about dieting to lose weight. I mean, like, kosher or halal, or vegan or vegetarian or pescatarian or lacto-ovo-whateverthefuck. Or sticking to organic only, or "natural" only (that rant is for another time). It's as if they have too many choices and have to narrow them down to stay relatively sane, or maybe just to maintain group identity. I don't like to limit myself, though I'm not the adventurous type who tries disgusting foods from other cultures. My own culture's disgusting food is good enough for me. Offer me some balut in the Philippines, and I'll politely decline. That rotten fish thing they eat in Norway? Nope. But other than the very subjective "don't eat disgusting food" restriction, I have developed one simple rule about eating: I refuse to eat anything that's smarter than I am. Now, not to brag or anything, but I'm incredibly smart. Okay, I'm bragging, fine. Point is, I'm smarter than the vast majority of humans. (That doesn't mean I'll eat them, though. Probably.) But after seeing how cuttlefish act and organize themselves in the ocean, I decided they're smarter than I am. So, no cuttlefish. Well, it's not like there are a lot of places that serve cuttlefish, but chances are that calamari in the Italian place down the street is actually cuttlefish, not squid. Not that it would matter; squid are pretty damn smart too. Also octopodes - I think if they lived on land we'd end up enslaved by them. Dolphins are smarter, certainly, though I haven't encountered actual dolphin steaks anywhere. Cats, definitely. Not dogs - except maybe border collies; those suckers can solve partial differential equations. I think that's actually what they're doing while they're herding sheep, just to keep themselves from being bored. Not just counting sheep, but integrating them over time. Doesn't matter - I don't eat dogs for other reasons, such as "carnivores taste terrible." Other dogs are merely trainable, which doesn't necessarily correlate with intelligence; after all, if I could train you to sit and play dead and fetch a ball on command, would that be proof of your intelligence? I don't think so. Anyway, to bring the subject back to the link I provided above, it seems that even though I've decided not to eat anything smarter than I am, still, somehow, I regularly end up eating crow. |
| https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/22/cant-sleep-perhaps-youre-ov... What are the signs that you may be overtired? If you get into bed at night and find your mind is still racing with what has been going on through the day, overtiredness could be to blame. During the day, you may find it difficult to concentrate or to see the wood for the trees in your professional and your personal lives. You perhaps catch a lot of colds, especially when you’re winding down for a holiday. You’re irritable and you find yourself reaching for sugary snacks to keep yourself going during the day. I wrote a few weeks ago about sleep paralysis. It was tempting, when I was experiencing that more often, to avoid sleep as much as I could in an attempt to avoid that condition. But I noticed that, for me at least, sleep paralysis was more likely when I ran a sleep deficit, not getting enough sleep and staying awake too long. So I forced my rational mind to overcome the fear, not something that's easy to do. For years, I never got enough sleep. I used to wish for time enough to catch up. Between working late and over weekends, having a social life, and wanting to play video games, the only thing that gave way in my life was sleep. I never really kept track of how long I'd sleep on an average night, but it couldn't have been more than 6 hours and was more likely closer to 5. And inevitably, around 3 to 5 pm, I'd crash hard at the office, sometimes even nodding off at my desk (never got caught doing that, at least as far as I know). My lack of sleep was only because there were so many things I wanted to do in a day that I simply couldn't fit them all in to 24 hours. What I never got, though - what I never understood, even a little bit - was the idea that sleep is some sort of weakness. "I'll sleep when I'm dead" is something I've actually heard a lot of times, as if sleep was something to be ashamed of. I suppose it's just another expression of uniquely American puritanism - the idea that we have to be productive at all times, and sleep is not productive. I never really wanted to be productive, just busy. My sleep schedule is still fucked up, but instead of getting too little sleep, I'm getting - not too much, I suppose, about the standard 8 hours a day - but it's broken up. Sleep in late afternoon, around the time my system used to crash when I was working and not getting enough sleep, then wake up, do stuff, and finish the sleep cycle in early morning. That's why I keep doing these blog entries after midnight - I'm awake, my mind is as sharp as it gets, and I'm still usually hours away from another sleep time. At least the sleep paralysis hasn't hit in a long time, but getting other people to understand and accept that this is my cycle is a bit of a chore. I have the advantage of working for myself and generally being able to set my own schedule, but the vast majority of people don't. I wonder how many psychological problems could be reduced if people could just find their own cycle and abide by it. |
| On October 23, 2077, the bombs fell. The Fallout games follow an alternative timeline that branched off from our own just after WWII. In that fictional world, technology and culture took a different path, leading to nuclear war on this date. The games themselves are set some years after the event. This illustrates the importance of having a backstory for your narrative. Video games are kind of an interactive story, and the ones like Fallout are compelling especially since they have a (relatively) consistent history. There's a strong theme of comedy woven through the games' narrative, mostly dark comedy. Sometimes it's subtle, like encountering a ruined bathroom with an "Employees Must Wash Hands" sign above a sink containing a pile of skeletal hands. I don't think the games would work as well without the humor elements; if you're going to write about something as dark as nuclear armageddon, there had better be some laughs along the way. With all the other fun and exciting ways we're all doomed, nuclear war seems tame these days. Hell, nuclear winter might even be the solution to global warming, right? And we can turn anything into an adventure if we try. What's my point? I don't really have one. I just make it a point to observe Fallout Day every year. Because war... war never changes. |
| https://www.npr.org/2018/10/21/654426576/cant-find-an-affordable-home-try-living... I'm always amused at how pictures of this sort of thing always present a pristine living space. Looks nice, doesn't it? Almost inviting. I've sometimes wondered if a lot of domestic problems are caused by people needing their own living spaces to look like the ones in magazines. I wouldn't know, though, because I've never tried to be that thorough in cleaning or organizing. Takes too long, and then entropy takes over and you just have to do it again and again. I dislike repeating tasks; that's why I learned computer programming. I thought that once I retired, I'd have more time to pay attention to my living space, but no - it turns out it wasn't a matter of available time, but a personality defect. Like the time I thought I only ate fast food because I was too depressed to bother cooking and cleaning up after cooking, so my doctor put me on antidepressants, which only made me eat more fast food and suffer side effects from the antidepressants. I asked her if there was a pill to fix laziness, and she laughed like I was making some kind of joke. Anyway. I've been saying for years that the solution to the high cost of housing in these areas would be communal living, but oh no, can't have that, so they zone against it. Understand, living in something like that would be a nightmare for me, but I do realize that most people aren't introverts. The tiny house thing unnerves me as well - there is no fucking way you can get me to live in something like that, even alone, for more than a night or two. But then, I'm financially comfortable and not faced with finding my way in a world spiraling into oblivion. So good on them for finding something that works. I think one of the stupidest things we've ever come up with as a society is the idea that we should work in one place and live in another, and spend half your day commuting between the two. What rocket surgeon came up with that nonsense? Car manufacturers? Live where you work. Arrange society so more people can do this. Still, I'd love to see a picture of one of these spaces after a bunch of unrelated people have been crashing there for a month. Hell, even a week. I guarantee you I'd see hard evidence of the tragedy of the commons. |
| 23 charts and maps that show the world is getting much, much better https://www.vox.com/2014/11/24/7272929/global-poverty-health-crime-literacy-good... It's worth looking at that link. I don't dispute any of it - I probably should, but I can't be arsed to check anything - but here's the thing: We're doomed anyway. No amount of incremental progress in any area changes this simple fact. If we don't do it to ourselves, a giant meteor or the Yellowstone Supervolcano or a nearby supernova or some other calamitous event will do it to us. Sooner or later. Besides, most of this good news - people living longer, child mortality decreasing, poverty decreasing, violent crime decreasing, etc. - means a greater increase in population, which in turn means that we'll hit a Malthusian catastrophe that much sooner.Ain't I just a ray of melanoma-inducing sunshine? |
| I'm getting more than a little tired of crap like this: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/weddings-cheese-radio-what-will-millen... This just in: the popularity of things waxes and wanes over time. Film at 11. (That's an old-person reference.) Actually, the whole concept of "generations" irks the living shit out of me. Baby boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, whatever. It might as well be astrology. "Aquarians are killing meat!" "Capricorns are killing Christmas!" For example: most of the definitions I've seen put Boomers ending with people born in 1965 and Gen-X ending in 1985. If you go by this, then someone born in 1966 would have more in common with someone born in 1985 than they do with someone born in 1965. Similarly, someone born in 1985 would have utterly different interests and experiences than someone born in 1986. This is obvious nonsense. Okay, sure, we're all products of the times we grew up in. But that doesn't mean we're stuck in them. Sure, I didn't have a personal computer until I was 12, and mobile phones weren't a widespread thing until I was fully an adult. But that doesn't mean I didn't embrace these technologies wholeheartedly. And yes, I like a lot of music from the 70s, but I also like a lot of music from the 90s and noughties. And the 60s. And the 50s. Good music is good music and doesn't have a "decade." And bad music will always be bad music, like 90% of the horsefarts they forced into our earholes in the 80s. Music to me isn't so much about how it fit into my life but about whether it's a good song or not (which I'm aware is somewhat subjective, but the point is it has nothing to do with the release date except in terms of its historical context). Also, people grow up, they get older, they retire, they die. Usually in that order. They're still freakin' people. There will always be fads and trends as long as there are people around to follow them, and young people have always had different interests than older people. I don't know if this is just a marketing thing gone rogue, or if some shadowy cabal is trying to find another way to keep us divided and unsatisfied, the better to sell whatever they're selling, but seriously, it needs to stop. Bad enough they've wedged liberals and conservatives apart to the point where we're literally killing each other; all we need now is for "Millennials" to get so pissed at "Boomers" that they'd rather implement euthanasia than deal with taking care of the elderly. So, give it a rest. Old farts, stop kvetching about "kids these days." (I reserve the right to do so ironically, of course.) Kids, stop blaming Boomers for wrecking the planet. And for fuck's sake, don't fall for marketing hype. |
| https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2018/10/19/How-has-alcohol-changed-i... (I can't do my usual article-quoting because apparently that website doesn't trust me enough for fair use copy/pasting.) Now, here's an example of science reporting that, while I agree with its general theme, isn't good science. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin enumerating everything this article is doing wrong. This doesn't help the Cause, people! We need real science, not vague generalizations, crappy evolutionary psychology, and statements of untested hypotheses. At least the article isn't all full of puritanical rubbish. I attribute that to it coming from the UK, a place that wisely got rid of its sticks-in-the-mud. Unfortunately, said sticks colonized America and so we're stuck with the result. And now I want a drink. |
| I went to see First Man today, that movie about Neil Armstrong and the space race. Saw it at Alamo, of course, the theater with the beer taps, so I was able to get good and buzzed first. (See what I did there? I'm way too proud of that one.) Spoiler alert: They land on the Moon. I should note that Ryan Gosling really bugs the hell out of me. I don't know why. Maybe it's because he was in Blade Runner 2040. He looks like someone who gets his lunch money extorted on a daily basis. Still, I think he nailed this one. Okay, look, I'm just going to say it, even though I've said it before: I think the moon landing is not only the most significant achievement in human history, it's the most significant achievement that can ever be in human history. It's the moment that we first set boots on another world, satisfying the human desire for exploration and horizon expansion. Hopefully there will be more such moments, but that was the first. Yes, the discovery of extraterrestrial life (as per my last entry) will probably be the greatest discovery, but I'm making a distinction between achievements and discoveries. That's arguable, I know. But it's why I went to see the movie. It didn't disappoint on that front. It irks me that no one seems to be able to talk about the movie, or the events it depicts, without someone bringing up the "moon landing hoax" nonsense. (In this case, it's me bringing it up; it still irks me.) I'm not sure I've ever been able to articulate exactly what it is about that garbage that pisses me off so thoroughly, but I think the movie helped me figure it out - mostly because it focused on the human elements involved. Using little more than a slide rule and a straightedge, we sent dudes to the moon in a rocket with the name of a god of the land on a mission named for the god of the sun. But these names were symbolic - this was a purely, epically human adventure. No gods transported us to another world. No demons, no monsters chased us into the heavens. No angels, no devils; only people. And that's what bugs me about these conspiracy nuts. They offend me on a basic, visceral level. To deny this achievement is to deny humanity itself, to condemn us forever to mediocrity. It's as if to say, "Look at Earth. Look how we can't get anything right. It's impossible to believe that we can ever achieve greatness; therefore, we didn't, but we could fake it." It's the same sort of contempt for our potential that leads people to believe that aliens built the Pyramids, or fairies built Stonehenge. Because sometimes skyscrapers crumble and bridges buckle, because we still bicker among ourselves and kill and enslave, because we pollute the oceans with plastic and poke holes in the ozone layer, obviously we can't do anything right, according to these loudmouths. But we contradict ourselves. We are large; we contain multitudes. We are destroyers and creators alike. We are thieves and we are philanthropists. We can bring darkness, and we can bring light. We are the monsters, and we are the gods. |
| https://www.livescience.com/63843-look-harder-for-aliens.html I like Star Trek and Doctor Who as much as anybody, and more than most, but the more I learn, the less I think we'll find spacefaring aliens anytime soon. What it comes down to for me is only one factor in the Drake equation. If you don't know, the Drake equation isn't anything like a real mathematical equation. It doesn't describe anything in physics or astronomy or any other science. It is merely a starting point for thinking about the possibilities for extraterrestrial life. Let's take a look at it (from Wikipedia ):The Drake equation is: N = R∗ ⋅ fp ⋅ ne ⋅ fl ⋅ fi ⋅ fc ⋅ L where: N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible (i.e. which are on our current past light cone); and R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations) fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space Before I go any further, I'm going to call "intelligent life" anyone who can build spaceships. Like us. So we can stow the inevitable jokes about not finding intelligent life on Earth for a bit. And we're not talking about dolphins or cats or other superior species; just the ones who build spaceships. My point of contention is fi. We have exactly one data point for this: us. And it took 4-5 billion years from Earth's formation for us to appear, and Earth came into being about 10 billion years after the universe began. That's a long damn time, especially compared to the 60 or so years that we've been building spaceships. And here's the thing that bugs me: some humans like to think of their species as the pinnacle of evolution, but the evidence for that is lacking. It's a matter of perspective, you see - certainly we've been successful from a species survival standpoint, but so have roaches. Intelligence - technological prowess - is obviously not a requirement for species success, and given the existence of nuclear weapons, I'd argue that it's no guarantee of it, either. The ecosystem would do just fine without us (some would argue it would do better, but that's not my point right now). Nor is there anything that mandates the evolution of technological ability. Life went on long before that particular trait came into being. So we don't know. It could happen a lot. Maybe it only happens rarely. With only one data point, we have no way of knowing. Perhaps it's a little like winning the lottery - you only have a one in (some astronomical number) chance of winning it, but once you've won it, your chance of having won it is unity. And we're looking at the cosmic lottery from the perspective of having won it. Therefore, it hardly matters what the other terms are, if the chance of intelligent life developing is only one in 10100. That's as close to zero as doesn't matter, even in a universe as inconceivably large as ours. And the Drake equation is focused on our galaxy alone. Even if every other fraction in the equation is effectively 1, and even if there's a trillion stars in the galaxy (estimates tend to be lower than this), if that one factor is 1 in 10100, we could easily justify the number of technological civilizations in our galaxy to be 1. Do I think there's other "intelligent" life out there, somewhere? Yes. I've said so before. Big universe and all that. But if it's not in our galaxy - nay, even if it is in our galaxy and, say, on the other side of the core - it might as well not exist for all that we'll ever be able to contact it or vice-versa. Absent, of course, revisions to the known laws of physics. To be clear, even finding a goddamn microbe of non-terrestrial origin would be of earth-shattering importance (hopefully not literally). I think it likely that this will happen, given how short a time it was from the formation of Earth to the first stirrings of life thereon. But it hasn't happened yet, so we are still in the realm of speculation. I hope I'm wrong. I really do. And I think it's important to keep looking, if only for the other things we can learn from the search. But maybe we also need to work on becoming the superior beings we wish we could believe in. |
| Just take a look at this news story: https://wreg.com/2018/10/15/video-deputy-orders-man-to-stop-filming-in-his-own-h... TATE COUNTY, Miss. -- A Tate County man wants answers after he said two Tate County sheriff's deputies entered his home uninvited and one demanded he stop filming them. Cardravious Crump said he had just hosted a Halloween costume party at his mother's house about an hour before the deputies arrived Sunday morning. Now, I could get into a discussion of law enforcement overreach or individual rights, but screw that; I want to talk about the truly important part of this story, which is: The dude's name is Cardravious Crump. I'd say "you can't make this shit up," but obviously, someone did. I don't even care if it's the name his momma gave him or if he came up with it himself; if it's his legal name or if he's trolling the cops. Doesn't matter. Someone created that name, and it is a masterpiece. |
| Upon looking at my Amazon account today, I saw: "Customer since 1997." That's right. My Amazon account is now old enough to drink. Which is ironic, because Drunk Me keeps buying surprises from Amazon for Sober Me, like Doctor Who boxed sets (complete with sonic screwdriver) and lame Halloween costumes. And, once, a breathalyzer. I really should get an ignition interlock breathalyzer for Amazon. I guess I haven't been drunk enough to do that yet. But now, Amazon is old enough to do it for me. |
| It's halfway through October, so of course now I get an idea for NaNoWriMo. I suppose that's better than getting one halfway through November, but still, that means either no Prep, or Prep on my own, which would be fine except a) I've never done NaNo without going through the preparation process first and b) I'm used to writing some combination of fantasy and/or science fiction, and this one isn't. Hell, I don't even read anything without some elements of fantasy or SF (or at least supernatural bits, which is weird because I don't accept the existence of the supernatural) in it, so I have no idea how to write true-to-life fiction. I suppose I could find a way to incorporate said elements, but that would also take the story in a direction other than the one I'm considering. Might be worth it, though. I mean, fiction is fiction, right? On top of which I have three "successful" NaNoWriMo projects that are badly in need of editing, and my whole rationale for not doing one this year is that every time I think of writing something new, my brain just wants me to finish the projects I've already started. If I were writing the story of my life, my brain would be the primary antagonist. Stupid brain. |
| Time to get into Grumpy Old Man Mode. I'm going to go get my cane so I can shake it at appropriate points. https://www.becomingminimalist.com/craft/ This article is unmitigated claptrap. Here are nine ways to begin crafting a life you don’t need to escape: 1. Make Relationships a Priority. Wrong! *shakes cane* Make money a priority. People will let you down. All of them, eventually. Not all the time, and it's certainly possible to have friends and family, but know that they will let you down. This is like living in Florida - perfectly fine most of the time, if a bit humid and surrounded by crazies, but eventually you'll catch a hurricane. It's perfectly natural, and you'll recover, but it sucks when it happens. Money, handled properly and intelligently, will never let you down. 2. Remove Unneeded Possessions from Your Home and Life. Spoken like someone who's never had to worry about replacing shit. My parents lived through the Great Depression. They never, ever discarded anything that might be useful. My dad's workshop in the basement contained an assortment of screws, nails, springs, hinges, etc. to put hardware stores to shame. When something broke, he'd use the scraps to fix it. Once you throw away something, and it turns out you need it again, you have to spend money to get it. This is not handling money intelligently. I'm not saying to keep around old pizza boxes or every pasta sauce bottle, but if I had to buy a new tube of superglue every time I needed it because I threw it away after using it once, I'd go broke. There's also the life cycle thing - I have a working hypothesis that everything goes through three stages: First, it's brand-new and in high demand. Then, for a while (the timing depending on the thing in question), it's commonplace, ordinary, and for most people, disposable. Finally, it's valuable again because it's old and most people have thrown it away. Keep something long enough, and you bridge right over the second stage. It doesn't matter whether it's a home, a car, a soda bottle, a comic book, a stamp, or some random item picked up at a store - at some point, it'll be valuable again. And finally, I have a crap memory, so "stuff" is the only way I can remember that something happened and how it made me feel at the time. 3. Make Your Work Your Job. "When your work is also your job, you have achieved a sweet spot in life." Yeah, and when you're riding a unicorn and smelling its awesome glitter rainbow farts, you've also achieved a sweet spot in life. Utter nonsense. The only purpose of a job is to make money. Save as much as you possibly can, and you'll end up in a place where you no longer need a job. That is the sweet spot in life. 4. Or, See Your Job as Part of Your Work. Okay, I'll relent a little bit here. A lot of jobs are psychologically damaging. Find one you don't hate, if you can. 5. Guard Your Time. Yeah, this directly contradicts their point #1. Relationships mean you're running around dealing with other peoples' problems. A little bit of that is okay. Too much, and you have no time to deal with you own crap. 6. Take Care of Yourself. "What matters at the end of our life is not the house we lived in, the car we drove, or the possessions we purchased. What will matter in the end is how we treated others." I'll give them this one. Intelligent use of money doesn't mean spending it on things; further, accumulating possessions thinking they'll make you happy never works. And it is important to treat other people well. Still, it doesn't work to deny ourselves the occasional splurge. And I can make the argument that what matters at the end of your life is that you lived it on your terms, not your mother's, and certainly not those of some random new-agey writer on the internet (or some random curmudgeon like me). 7. Appreciate Your Season in Life. I'll "season" you, you little whippersnapper. *shakes cane* 8. Understand the Reality of Trials in Life. Avoid drama at all costs. Remove from your life every possible source of unnecessary drama, even if that source is family. Especially if that source is family. You'll still have "trials," but they'll be a lot easier to deal with if you're not also dealing with your sister's ex-husband's shenanigans or bailing your brother out of jail again. 9. Find Happiness in Your Every Day. Crap. The best way to be happy is to not think about happiness or try to be happy. Then it comes easily. Forget "mindfulness," forget about trying to "live in the present" (there is no such thing as the present, and the future is unknowable; consequently, only the past is real). Take joy in the simple things, like watching kittens play or seeing other people suffer karmic justice. Also, I've found that everybody who talks about needing to "escape" has kids. I don't have kids, so I don't feel the need to escape. I like to travel, sure, but I go to places, not escape from the place where I'm living. You can talk about all the joy you get from your kids all you want, but I'm not buying it - I see the problems they cause. In conclusion, don't be a dick, but also don't be a pushover. Make your own choices. And stay off my lawn. *shakes cane* |
| I've been meaning to get around to reading these two articles: https://medium.com/taking-note/rewire-your-brain-to-beat-procrastination-30b7d17... But procrastination can lead to negative consequences, from mental fatigue to missed deadlines that frustrate my manager. How did I become addicted to something so potentially destructive? And how do I recover for the sake of productivity? The answer to both questions is the same: neuroplasticity. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/6-different-ways-youre-procrastinating-an... Occasionally, theories crop up that procrastination isn’t all bad. Can’t it be useful sometimes to wait until midnight to start on homework that’s due the following morning? Doesn’t a tight deadline motivate you to work faster and more efficiently? To fully answer that question (which is “no”) it’s necessary to understand what scientists refer to as “delays.” One of these days, I'll finish reading them. What worries me more, though, is that they cropped up on a list of recommended sites for me. Said recommendations usually include articles about things like upcoming superhero movies, the benefits of drinking, information about cats, and the latest discoveries in science. In other words, they know me so well. So why am I suddenly getting crap about procrastination? Are they just now getting around to realizing this fundamental aspect of my character? Eh, whatever. I'll figure it out some other time. |
| So this happened: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medieval-re-enactor-fatally-impales-self-with-his-l... I've never been in the SCA or gone to any SCA events, but I tend to have friends with that proclivity. Hell, my ex-wife was part of that group. Add in the guy being from my state, and also close to my age, and I started to wonder if we had any friends in common. Well, it turns out that one of my closest friends had known the deceased since 1991 - a lot longer than he's known me - and that Barclay had mentored him in several skills, including the holy art of brewing. I've reaped the benefits of this art a few times, so while I didn't know the guy myself, it's not farfetched to note that his life affected mine. It's easy for "normal" people with "normal" hobbies to make fun of incidents like this, as if no one's ever died or been injured from football or street racing or whatever it is that normal people do. And they forget that this was a person with a family and people who cared about him - all that seems to matter to them was that he died doing something nerdy, so they can feel superior. From what my friend has told me, Barclay was a multitalented individual with a great deal of knowledge and skill. Said knowledge and skill wasn't applied toward socially-acceptable activities such as chasing balls around or foreclosing on poor peoples' houses, so the bulk of society could safely dismiss him as one of those weirdos with padded swords and funny names. It doesn't help that I just got to the episode of Supernatural that features LARPing - really bad timing on my part. An escapist fantasy story mocks people who like to immerse themselves in escapist fantasies; it's almost as if the writers have no conception of irony. Yes, I know that SCA != LARP, but the Venn diagram has a pretty big intersection. Life is fleeting and any of us could kick it at any time. We should all be so lucky as to go out doing something that's aligned with our own truth. Preferably at 103 and not 53, though. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/man-dies-in-tragic-accident-in-medieval-recreation... |
| One bit of popular entertainment that I enjoy is film and TV adaptations of comic books. This is a good thing, as there's a lot of that going on these days, from both of the classic publishers (now part of entertainment giants Warner and Disney) as well as a lot of independents. Sure, some are better than others, but that's true of every genre. But, if you remember from a few days ago, I hate commercials. By which I mean, I really despise them with the all-consuming fire of a thousand pulsating Wolf-Rayet stars, and I will go out of my way to avoid them. This isn't a problem for many of the shows that I like, such as the Defenders tie-ins from Marvel, which are on Netflix and thus included in the cost of my subscription, ad-free. I get around it for other shows, like the DC adaptations including Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, because I bought the seasons from Amazon. See, as much as I hate ads, I don't pirate things. I haven't been published yet (and probably never will), but if I were, I'd be pissed if someone infringed on my creative output, so I don't do it. But I have no problem paying reasonable amounts for content that I enjoy. Therefore, I won't, for example, pay HBO just so I can watch Game of Thrones, but I do pay CBS so I can watch Star Trek and Salvation. Other people have other priorities, of course. Make me pay for ads and I will cut you. (As I mentioned before, CBS does show some commercials even on the higher subscription tier, but they're short and not for consumer products and there's only one of them per episode so I'm putting up with it for now.) Anyway, point is, the aforementioned DC adaptations (produced by The CW) have started up their new seasons again, and I was looking forward to doing what I usually do, which is buying them from Amazon. The episodes would arrive there the day after they aired, which was fine. But for some reason, they don't seem to be doing that this season. Pisses me off. I tried, though. I tried watching The Flash on the CW's website. That at least had the advantage of being free, though with ads. I couldn't get past the first group of interminable and intelligence-insulting commercials, and judging by the pips on the player, it looked like there were something like 8 clusters of ads I'd have to sit through to get content. All I can say about that is fuck that. So I guess it's back to Netflix to watch old episodes of Supernatural (coincidentally also a CW production), which I had never seen before. It's not bad, but it's not my usual thing, and I was really looking forward to some cheesy superhero stuff. But this proprietary streaming shit is getting out of hand. Even Disney and Apple are getting into the game, and soon probably everyone else as well, so by the time it's done we're back to the cable TV "channel" nonsense. I already know I'm not going to get a subscription to everything, so there will certainly be popular entertainment that I'll miss out on. Oh well. Nothing different there from a life spent without cable TV. At least Doctor Who is still available through Amazon. For now. |
| Or is it Dungeons and Flagons? I can't right now. Y'all already know I'm a nerd, so it shouldn't surprise you that I'm in a D&D game. This particular game is run online because we're not in the same town. Which is usually fine because at least we're in the same hemisphere. It's kind of difficult to schedule a game when some of us are in India, which is squarely in the other hemisphere and like 11.5 hours opposite us. But some of my fellow gamers have had visa issues. You might have heard of some problems in that regard. Anyway, at least some of the visa issues have been resolved so we started up again. My character is a Drunken Master. I've always wanted to role-play a Drunken Master. The best thing about it is that I get to use role-playing aids (usually single-malt Scotch). Tonight, I might have gotten a bit too much into method acting, so I'm just going to leave this here as it is and go pass out. |
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