I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Linkee-poo hand trapping some art and my brain hurts

Writer's Digest best podcasts for writers. Hey, I listen to a few of those. Insert generic "writing advice" advice about how everything is not for you/won't work for you, what works for you won't with others… choose what works, discard the rest (but keep it in mind because it might work later, or might work for someone who asks you about writing advice).

And speaking of one of those podcasts, the recent Ditch Diggers podcast with DongWon Song and Jennifer Udden talked about #PitMad and #DVPit twitter pitching sessions. I had never heard of this, but there it is. Usually by the time I hear about these things it's in the "Oh, we're so over it" kind of way. But here are two Writer's Digest articles about them. As with all pitching and querying, follow the goddamn rules and maybe start researching how others have used it so you're ready for the next sessions.

So, sometimes people ask me why I love the SF/F community. This is why. "During Evan's proton beam treatment… the 8-year-old has to a wear a mask to cover his face so the beam hits the same spot each time… Being a 'Star Wars' fan, he decided to have his mask painted to look like that of a Stormtrooper. He also wears a Stormtrooper uniform to every proton beam appointment to accompany his mask." Two staffers also escorted him to his first therapy in full Stormtrooper gear (those are nice costumes, not some Drugmart Holloween thing). Giving a little kid the power to go through proton beam therapy, that's why I love this community. I'm not crying, you're crying. Shut up. I've helped fit those masks/blocks (depending on where the cancer is, there are different immobilizers). I don't know if I could do that. Fuck cancer. (Grokked from Mark Hamill)

"The thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft just did what we thought was impossible. After 37 years of inactivity, NASA just received response from spacecraft 13 billion miles away, NASA said in a statement on its website." So now we might be able to extend her mission until basically the batteries run out. Not that she's near anything, but hopefully we might get more data about the inter-solar space she's flying through. (Grokked from Warren Ellis)

"A longtime analyst for Fox News is leaving the network, saying that he could not 'in good conscience' remain with an organization that, he argued, 'is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.'" What took you so long to realize that? Because, really, it's been a propaganda organization from day one. Maybe they finally just went too far to the right (because that's how conservatives operate, always moving the goal posts to the right).

"The ever-escalating Stormy Daniels saga took another strange turn Tuesday night when CNN brought attorneys for the porn star and Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, into its studios and let them rip into each other on prime time television." You know lawyers… bitchy little girls. For there being "nothing there" the Trump side sure is fighting tooth-and-nail.

"From time to time, transformational leaders take office. They show everyone else exactly what can be done and how to do it. That’s Larry Krasner right now – and he’s showing the nation how to dismantle mass incarceration from the inside out." Some will call him "weak" on crime, but that depends on how his memo is implemented and the actual results on the street. (Grokked from Julie)

"In the first major change to Section 230 in years, Congress is voting this week to make Internet companies take a little more responsibility than they have for content on their sites." This is why you need to be careful how you write laws, and why most people don't understand why some laws go to extreme lengths trying to define a concept.

"A secret 'gingerbread house' deep in a forest sounds like something from a fairy tale, but investigators in Seattle say the one they found was anything but. Now, 56-year-old Daniel Wood faces charges of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to the Seattle Times." (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is investigating possible campaign finance violations by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)." Not that these things come to any big conclusion or penalty. But still, for the party of supposed "fiscal responsibility" they sure do have their problems. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)

More from the ACLU suit of Kris Kobach. "Kobach’s battle against the ACLU was supposed to be a showcase for his claims of widespread voter fraud… Instead, the trial devolved into a comedy of errors, with Kobach’s witnesses frequently contradicting his claims or getting humiliated by pointed questions they couldn’t answer." (Grokked from Xopher)

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