Writing is my life’s passion and has been since the day I could pick up a pen. I could not function without writing. There are more important people, but there are not more important things.
To quote a friend, “If I were stranded alone on the moon, I’d write on the moon.”
Because I’ve written so much and studied so much I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I would like to publish and I’m good enough to publish. Problem is I’m so damned protectionistic and I get stuck in these obsessive loops. Sometimes I’m obsessed in a productive way but this is the other side of it, rewriting until I burn out. I am currently burned out.
Most professional writers actually do have a thing where they can just get on with it because they have a deadline or some inner strength driving them to write even when they feel like shit about what they’re writing.
I have a much harder time with that, which is why I question whether I have any kind of future as a professional author. I have a friend published with the big three and I don’t envy her life at all. Meanwhile on the self-pub side there are authors churning out crap at a rate of 2-3 books a year. And their readers don’t care that they’re shit, maybe because they don’t know how much better it could be, maybe because there’s some magic thing about what makes most women read romance novels that I don’t understand.
I absolutely love romance as a concept, I’m very harsh on it in execution, and my own books are no exception. Add on to it the pressure of this particular novel about this particular subject, it’s just so personal and I’m so close to it and because it’s a social issue on top of that I feel like…l have to get this right. And of course it’s triggering to write about. But I have to do it. This is what I was put on this earth to do.
One of the reasons I want to find out about ASD is because I think it might be holding my writing back. There’s not much I actually do that isn’t intended to support my writing in some way.
When I can’t write I have a harder time self-regulating and I’ve been wondering whether writing is actually, all this time, an autistic hyperfixation.
People, especially older generations, who bitch about, “You can’t even joke about any more!”
They usually use Archie Bunker as their example, which… we’ll get to that.
If you think offensive statements are no longer a part of comedy, you are completely out of touch with modern-day comedy.
I, for my part, fucking love comedy. In the last two days alone, I have heard:
-gay jokes
-trans jokes
-Jewish pedophile jokes (it was Ira Glass!)
-jokes making fun of women who shop at Trader Joe’s
-in that vein, lots of jokes at the expense of liberals
I just don’t know what to tell these people other than, “You’re full of shit.”
As for Mr. Bunker, the whole point of that character was that he was an antiquated, racist, sexist jerk and everyone around him thought he was an ignorant ass.
So when I see people complaining about how you can’t do Archie Bunker anymore, I’d like to say congrats! You are the modern-day Archie Bunker!
Archie Bunker was a mirror to show the US its darker side. Not a hero. People were supposed to be ashamed if they realized they acted and sounded like him. Not see him as a role model.
It could be. It is definitely worth having somebody with credentials look at. For various reasons, I sometimes develop a hyperfixation. This is usually a very unpleasant experience and has bad results.
For the last couple of days, since I got tired of listening to the same music on my phone over and over, I decided to give Spotify a try. It’s not too bad, but OMG the ads! And it’s not just that, but it’ll play a bunch of ads, then tell me I’ll have 30 minutes of uninterrupted music, then after one song plays, I get more ads!
In the words of a famous fictional swordsman, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
For those curious, it’s from the interview with Ira Glass on Mike Birbiglia’s Working it Out podcast. I watched it on YouTube. It was an excellent interview if you like Ira Glass. He’s actually really good friends with Mike Birbiglia.
Inna and I love Spotify, but we pay for it so the only ads I hear are in-podcast ones. Really worth it, I’d do without Netflix before I would get rid of Spotify.
So this belongs in micro-rants as it’s probably not even worth a mini-rant.
Of my two favorite pair of shorts, one is now in the trashcan & the other should be heading there. I also pulled out my rain bibs to wear this weekend; they need to be replaced soon, too.
Yep, paying for ad-free Spotify is very much worth it for me. I’ve got something like 141 hrs of music on my playlist. I often run the music for my store (otherwise we’re at the mercy of unpaid Google Home listening) and it’s great to have stuff my staff and I enjoy and have different stuff all the time.
I used to love Netflix, but I’ve gone off it lately. Nothing interesting
I need to replace the finial on my mailbox post. I have purchased a replacement, which came with a screw on the base for attaching to the post. However, there is already a large screw where the old finial had been attached, and I am unable to remove it. So I tried to locate a handyman who will hopefully have a better gripping tool to unscrew the existing screw. Angie gave me a list of local handyman services, so I selected one and requested a callback for an estimate.
They called me today, and the minimum fee for a hour’s service call is $138. I’m hoping that one of the others will be more reasonable.
I’d gotten an email from Amica this afternoon saying they had paid the collision center. Getting all excited, I called the shop to see if my car was ready.
No. They’re still waiting for five parts. I hope they’re not having to come in from Korea.
Good news, then: turn-based party RPGs have been in a huge renaissance for a few years now. Baldur’s Gate 3 is the most high-profile one, but there’s also Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin 2, Wasteland 2 and 3, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader, Pillars of Eternity 2, and more that I’ll surely think of as soon as I hit “Submit.”
Really, no better time for fans of turn-based CRPGs than right now.
Ordered a new bathtub mat to replace my old one which had developed a small tar. The new bathtub mat is noticeably thinner and less comfortable. It seems like every time I have to buy something new lately I can never predict that the quality will be assured.
Unfortunately I need new everythings so this experience will be something I need to get used too.
I got a fairly drastic haircut Monday afternoon (went from near bra-band length to above shoulder length). My co-workers are generally noticing in maybe 15-20 seconds when they see me for that long.
