Monday Miscellanea, 3/13/23

What Happened Last Week?

The weather has warmed up to normal levels finally, which mean that Eric and I ran and threw every day last week and played ultimate on Friday. Spring league starts this week, we play on Thursday, but other than that we don’t know too much. Organization for league started later than it should have and registration was slow and smaller than usual. This week I’ll have all kinds of updates to make to the website—teams haven’t even been published yet!

The Western Ultimate League season started on Saturday. The Sidewinders, our local professional women’s ultimate frisbee team, won both their games! Which is good news because the college basketball season is at an end for Nebraska fans. (I have a tendency to mark time via sporting events . . .)

Ended up playing too much Minecraft, as I do.

Random Links

• Invisible Disability and the Horror of Pain in Crimes of The Future and Criminal Bodies: Life With Disabilities is the Crime of the Future – Two articles on watching Crimes of the Future (2022) through the lens of chronic illness, which is part of how I experienced the film.
• Food for the Gods | 1909 Recipe (via YouTube) – I’m a terrible baker, but I love watching other people do it. Also, historical baking is fascinating.

Writing Check-In

Craft articles of the week: The 5 Turning Points of a Character Arc
Which led to me to realizing that I was over complicating my plot. Since I’m going to start (what I’m calling) draft 3.

Monday Miscellanea, 3/6/23

What Happened Last Week?

Just been plodding along. Last week the weather was chilly and rainy. Haven’t gotten out as much as is probably good for me, but the weather is supposed to be warmer this week and spring league is (probably) starting next week. I’ll have additional VOTS work this week (probably).

Random Links

The Comfort of Liminal Spaces (and The Desire to Disappear) (via YouTube) – I’ve been thinking about liminal spaces a bit, especially since watching Skinamarink (2022). It seems that a major factor of why people find Skinamarink scary is that they find the long shots of empty hallways, classic liminal spaces, unsettling. It occurred to me that I don’t have that reaction to liminal spaces. I’ve worked a number of jobs in empty, or nearly empty, buildings. Also, since I am not a driver, I’ve spent a lot of time after events, waiting to be picked up. Weirdly, I don’t find these places creepy. While I don’t agree with all of the YouTuber’s assertions, I do find liminal spaces kind of peaceful.

Let Your Readers Think For Themselves – Against using thought verbs, like thought, realized, knew, and the like. As with all writing advice, YMMV. I think (cough) that good writing includes both brevity and exposition. Contrast is a good thing.

Writing Check-In

It’s been a rough time for one of my flash fiction pieces. Two rejections in just over a week!

Still working on my NaNoWriMo project.

Monday Miscellanea, 2/20/23

What Happened Last Week?

What did happen last week? I didn’t do as much work as I should have, watched a few movies, and wrote a few blog posts. Today, I’m creaky and fatigued, as sometimes occurs.

A Good Thing

The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, my alma mater, won two basketball games. At this point in the season, after losing two starters, beating higher ranked opponents is cause for celebration.

Random Links

There’s been a lot about about AI generated content in my corner of the internet (and most corners of the internet).

I am begging people (and now, apparently, the NYT) to understand how chatbots actually work. They are not alive, they are word prediction machines. If they weren't sold to us as "AI" you wouldn't be so dang credulous https://t.co/YsGQlDbtlw

— Ryan North (@ryanqnorth) February 16, 2023

• ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web – I believe this piece by Ted Chiang is mentioned in North’s above Twitter thread, but it’s worth noting again.
• A Concerning Trend – The editor of Clarkesworld magazine on the trend of junk AI submissions to short story markets.

Writing Check-In

• The Influence Character One of the Most Important Roles

Still haven’t finished my novel. I should do that this week. Maybe. Contemplating a short story based on an open call. No word on outstanding submissions.

Monday Miscellanea, 2/13/23

Faleigh’s Base

What Happened Last Week?

At the end of last year, I started watching “plan with me” videos on YouTube. I wanted schedule/productivity ideas because, well, I’m always playing around with my task lists. A few of the YouTubers I watched use the MäksēLife planner. I’m not one to spend $70 on a planner, but I was intrigued by their goal-setting system. I availed myself of some of their free downloads, did their “compass” assessment, and promptly discombobulated myself for the week. (I really enjoy Cindy Guentert-Baldo’s channel. She’s middle-aged and very down to earth.)

It was a relief when Eric started up a new Rebirth of the Night (RotN) Minecraft server. RotN is a mod pack that adds tool-using zombies and occasional mob invasions, and makes everything a bit harder. The above picture is my base by the end of Sunday, suspended above the water for anti-mob purposes, with a lovely harvest moon setting in the background.

A Good Thing

The lunchtime ultimate frisbee pickup group had its annual-ish potluck party on Friday. I organize it: I ask Ned (fellow player) if we can use his backyard (he also kindly grills for us) and I have everyone bring something to eat/drink. We play a little ultimate frisbee and then have lunch. The turn out is usually pretty good and, though I fret every year, there is always plenty of food. Friday was no different and it was nice to hang out and chat with people after the game.

Random Links

A couple downer links this week:

• This book is considered pornography in Ron DeSantis’ Florida
• There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America

And I’ll follow those up with my usual reminder to vote.

Writing Check-In

NaNoWriMo Project: It’s all new writing from here on out. If I get stuck this week, I should probably consider working the “Cali Gothic” story.

Monday Miscellanea, 2/6/23

Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Pexels.com

What Happened Last Week?

Ever have one of those weeks when things go a little wrong? When maybe you minorly screw up just about everything? Yeah, that was last week for me. Nothing went terribly wrong, but nothing was quite right either. By Thursday/Friday, I was in a foul, foul mood.

Good bit: Eric started DMing a Gamma World campaign using GURPS. Gamma World is a post-apocalypse setting and is full of mutant animals and puns. My characters is a blind bipedal human-sized guinea pig with radar vision named Ray Carls, Jr.

A Good Moment

I was up early enough on Friday to catch some of the sunrise. The sky was particularly lovely in shades of peach, mauve, and deep blue.

Random Links

Books edition, apparently:

• Bookshelf etiquette. How to arrange your books – Or, you know not. But seriously, if I had enough room and enough bookshelves, I’d probably organize by fiction/nonfiction, “genre,” then alphabetical by last name.
• There’s Nothing Wrong With Anyone’s Personal Library – In college, I acquired A LOT of books. I’m still living with the consequences.
• Maybe the Book Doesn’t Need to Be “Disrupted” in the First Place? – What I’ve always wanted from “enhanced” books is something more along the lines of Power Moby-Dick: extensive annotation via hyperlinks. Unfortunately, it’s rare when an ebook has a properly formatted and linked table of contents. Forget soundtracks and video clip, I just want easily navigable footnotes.

Writing Check-In

Writing-related link of the week: Five More Creativity Exercises for Writers

NaNo project task list:

• Finish the new interstitial scene I started last week.
• Rewrite last remaining scene from the November draft.
• Write the ending.

Monday Miscellanea, 1/30/23

One of my favorite pictures of me playing ultimate frisbee, from late January 2019. Pic courtesy Chikara Kakizawa.

What Happened Last Week?

As I predicted, I had a lot of ultimate frisbee things last week. Winter A/B league fully started, so I had some of the schedule and “B” division teams to post. I also had a couple updates for our yearly New Year Fest tournament. I played pickup twice. Dave, who was the co-founder of the pickup game I’m now running, is in town. He retired to Michigan a few years ago and is snow-birding this February/March.

A Good Moment

Friday pickup was again a bit of a highlight. I didn’t play very well, but we had a good turn out, my body was feeling good, and the weather was pretty perfect. (My life is so boring.)

Random Links

• Coffee with milk may have an anti-inflammatory effect – Hmm, maybe I should start putting a little milk in my coffee.
• Viral Videos of Alleged Vaccine Side Effects – “A” occurs and “B” occurs. This does not necessarily mean that “A” and “B” are connected.
• Yuga Labs Claims Its Bored Apes Have Copyright, Even if It Never Filed for Protection – The more interesting question is: are images that are created by an algorithm from pre-made assets copyrightable anyway?

Writing Check-In

Some writing-related links:

• 6 Lessons Learned From 4 Years of Writer’s Block – I’ve called the last few years a writing hiatus, but I suppose block is a word for it too. Funnily enough, I can see a parallel between “plot” blocks and “creative” blocks. Both can involve a twisting of logic into something that doesn’t feel like reality and is wrong.
• Novel subplots – Not sure I agree with everything here, but that’s how writing advice goes.

I’m not really where I wanted to be at the end of January, but that’s what happens when a week and a half gets eaten by apathy. I intend to continue working on my NaNoWriMo project. I have two scenes left to rewrite and a whole lot of new material to add. It’s more like rewrite a scene, add a bunch, rewrite a scene, add a bunch, so I’d really like to have both of those rewrites out of the way by the end of this week.

Monday Miscellanea, 1/23/23

Calendar for January 1899 (1898) by Rijksmuseum is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

What’s Happening?

Last week, I played Minecraft less and read and wrote more. I also napped a lot. It’s been cold in Phoenix, meaning it’s been 60F-ish degrees in the daytime. Perfect sleeping weather.

This week will probably be busy. I’ll have AB League and New Year Fest updates to do, and Dave, a friend and fellow ultimate player, is back in town as a snowbird. He was the founder of our lunchtime ultimate frisbee game, so he’s itching to play.

A Good Moment

I’ve only played two games of ultimate frisbee this year thus far, both Friday pickup. I had a couple of nice catches last game including a tipped throw that I snagged inches from the ground, while managing to stay in the endzone.

Random Links

So many of the things I read last week were depressing. These links aren’t:

• The Other Lives of Adam and Eve – Some weirdness from the Public Domain Review. (Since I’ve written a couple of biblical “retellings,” does that mean I’ve created apocrypha?)
• The smörgåsbord saga – I love the history of things you don’t usually think about.

Writing Check-In

I got a nibble on my short story.

Will I finish the rewrite/draft of my NaNo project in January? 😬

Writing related link of note: Latest Updates to Amazon Author Central in 2023
I really need to update, well, everything at Amazon.