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Happy two year anniversary!
Today's my birthday.

Give yer olde mate the gift of review!
  •   2 comments
Wow.....happy birthday. You share it with my adopted father (who passed away in 1979)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you have a fabulous day! *Hug*
Characters who are moral grey or who are gradually brought to their darkest side have always been among my favorite.

Do you have any novel, film, series, videogame suggestion which do this well?
As a European I've realized, despite the US influencing us at every level, how little we know about
the history of the United States.

Maybe we old-timers of the Old World are a bit revanchist after all...
  •   1 comment
I don't know much about other country's history either. Ours is rather convoluted... the colonists... the North and the South... the Boston tea party eh yeah throw in some John Brown and there ya have it ha. Melting Pot! I find it very interesting to watch and read about I just don't retain it much. Old timer huh *Wink*
I often get the chance to talk with a friend about pop culture and she told me something which made me think.

She said that if J. K. Rowling were to publish Harry Potter today she would still be hugely successful, but not as successful as she was when HP went out in the first 2000s. That's because, according to her, it was still an age where it was possible to really make it big with books as writers had fewer entertainment media to compete for people's attention, while today things have changed and an author can really get worldwide attention only if his/her work gets adapted into a Netflix series.

I half agree with her thesis, but what's your take on it?
  •   1 comment
Speaking as a writer, I hope that isn't the case. Though she isn't wrong about competing with other forms of entertainment. And studies have shown that people just don't read books like they used to, not even with e-readers and audiobooks. It's definitely a sad trend that really needs to change. *Think* I wonder if we as writers can come up with a way to change this.

As for J. K. Rowling, I don't know if I entirely agree with that comment. I still think Harry Potter would still have been a success today, it might have just taken a bit longer for HP to be discovered.
I went to shop for new clothes and the shopkeeper joked about the fact I spend more money on books than fashion.

I told her "Well, books usually don't go out of fashion fast as clothes do, and they make your mental habit cooler."
When money starts flowing the ink might run dry.
I've always loved stories told by multiple characters and my favorite strategic videogame campaigns have always been the ones that put you in the shoes of the various parties involved in the conflict. At school I was often the "neutral" element who interacted with all the many cliques and groups in which my mates divided themselves. And I just love to break stereotypes and see what's behind the "tatemae"

Maybe that's because, as some say, I was born under two zodiacal signs and so my blessing (and curse) has always been sitting on the fence.

Yet, perhaps, as one can't clap by using only one hand you can't fully understand the world if you lend your ear only to one side.
  •   1 comment
Yummy food for thought.

And I’m sure you have more and better friendships because of this.
I wish to thank all the judges of the September Show Don't Tell contest.

Being SDT one of my top priorities when I started writing, I'm now more comforted I might be on the right track.

Still a lot of things to learn and to do, so onward towards less cringy tales!
  •   3 comments
Signal detection theory?
Scottish Dance Theatre?
Social dominance theory?
Sun-dried tomatoes?
Specially Designated Terrorist?
Second demographic transition?
Scheduled downtime?

What is SDT?? *Sob*
I mean, Show Don't Tell, obviously! *Whistle*
Scottish Dance Theatre sounds rad.
Sometimes you find some pretty wise maxims on the internet:

- Friends who don't want you to think are not your friends -

I think I agree.
  •   1 comment
same here
We usually think an AI willing to kill humans would have to launch nukes or build killer robots...

But in truth there's a quicker way to wipe out our current civilization.

We are already increasingly using algorythms to manage the financial operations at Wall Street and other stock exchanges.

An AI would just have to start playing with our money to disrupt our socio-economical infrastructure, and since all wars are based on economics we would be at each other's throat in no time.

To win without giving battle, as Sun Tzu would say.

  •   3 comments
Completely true.
Thanks for this little bit of sunshine. *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* *Laugh* . . .
Well, some call me the "worst case scenario expert"

But in truth I usually think about the worst to enjoy more what's best in the present.
That definitely works for me. *Thumbsup*
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I just love Shakespeare...

Not only he was one of the most inventive craftsmen of insults ever, but his works remind us of how humanity deserve them all, even after five centuries of so-called "progress"

We speak daggers and use nukes.
Some friends of mine told me I should think about writing something longer than short stories.

I don't feel I have the skills yet, but I'm beginning to jot down some possible ideas
for a novel, or at least a longer story.

Today I was thinking about a possible fantasy one. No chosen ones or quests against evil, though.

Something inspired by Catharism, the fall of a Norse colony in Greenland, with a pinch of Buddhism
and Malthus in the mix.

Hope it doesn't blow up in my face once I try to mix them...up...
  •   6 comments
Thanks Alexi, but I think the Nano would not be a good idea for me, at least for now.

I don't like too much the kind of pressure it puts on you (even some pieces I wrote for contests ended up feeling "stunted", at least according to some readers), and while I recognize it serves some people well, I do not know if it's my case. I prefer to work at my own terms, at least at the beginning.


Hi Xarthin, understand, some like to go at their own pace and some like being under pressure. I guess I like the punishment, although you can go at your own pace, you just finish it after the month of NaNo. I like the challenge.
*Thumbsupr*
The peak is one but endless are the roads.
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The internet is full of people telling other people to graduate in STEM as "everything ending in - studies - is bad for you"

But maybe STEM too are a sort of studies. Since Science made the bomb and the final aim of Technology, Engineering and Math is to create an all purpose AI able to replace humans in each and every field, we could say STEM are a sort of "Humankind Suicide Studies" related field.
• Edited
Yesterday I saw a Christian and an Atheist in a bar arguing about the existence of the afterlife.

They were both so dead sure of their beliefs that at first didn't want to get involved but as the volume of their voices was reaching heaven I had no other choice but to butt in.

"You see... there's only one thing we can be dead sure about this subject: no living thing can be sure of anything when it comes to the afterlife.

You believe there's something because your religion tells you so, even if you have no proof.

And you believe there's nothing after that because science tells you so, yet no scientist has
empirically proven through experimentation and data analysis the soundness of this thesis. Believing
in the non-existence of afterlife without scientific proof makes you a follower of the cult of "Scientism"

In short folks: die and see!
  •   1 comment
Reminds me of this book, You Have to Die First. lol. And this is why they call it FAITH, or lack thereof that they ah call something else *Think*

*Laugh*
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