The Okay American Eclipse

I live in the path of the recent solar eclipse in an area of 100% totality. I was able to see it. I also saw some of the news coverage. One man talked about how emotional it was, which he didn't expect. One of the reporters mentioned how emotional it was, too. Mmm. I don't think so. I saw other people talking like that as well. I hate to say this, but it was just an eclipse. It wasn't an emotional experience. It's a big shadow. Shadows don't make me emotional unless they're coming up behind me holding a weapon. :) I was playing this video game one time that had a day/night cycle, which created moving shadows. I was standing alone on this planet during a rare moment when I wasn't running or driving, and I saw what looked like someone's shadow walking up behind me. That was more emotional than the eclipse. That scared me, because it was technically possible for that to happen, although it was mostly a solo game with no other players. When you're the only person on a planet, and you see the shadow of a helmet, it gets your total attention fast. It turned out to the tip of a hill.

One of my friends on Facebook said the eclipse was beautiful. I thought that was a good and much more reasonable comment. The eclipse was neat. The problem was it didn't last long enough. It didn't get as dark as they said it would either. There was a band of light around the horizon. The clouds were gone by then, so there was no surrounding sunset effect. Basically, almost nothing the experts said would happen actually happened. It gave me the realization that they don't know what they're talking, because they've never been through one. They were only reporting something they've read about in a book. It's not the same thing.

After all the hype it was a bit anti-climactic. I saw two or three stars during the darkest part. Just when I was getting used to it, it started getting brighter. I couldn't believe it had been two minutes already. It made me feel sorry for the people who drove a thousand miles or some long distance. A lot of people did that. A lot of people put so much time and money and effort into what ended up being a two-minute experience.

Have a great weekend.

Why the Russia Story is Fake News

I don't much politics, but...

 

Ever since the election, Democrats have been trying to link Trump with the Russians despite the fact that the previous administration issued a report citing no link. Why does the story continue? The Democrats are weaker than they've been since the 1920s. They can't do much politically, so they're resorting to non-political tactics such as rioting, burning cars, smear campaigns, racial incitement, etc.

Here's why the Russian tactic is fake news. If there had been any proof whatsoever that Russians tampered with the election, the results would have been thrown out and new elections held. Period, end of story. The fact that that did not happen proves there was no tampering. At least not by the Russians. The government would have been legally forced to do the elections over. However, this would not have affected most people. Like the Republicans and Democrats do when they cheat in elections, the Russians would have targeted specific districts. Only the results in those districts would have been thrown out. What would have happened was that counting of votes and certification would have proceeded normally in nearly all districts except for a few. New elections would have been held within a couple of weeks. It would all have been over in time for the December tally. None of that happened, because there was no tampering. By the Russians, I mean. The normal tampering was there and will not be investigated.

One may argue that the reason there was no proof of Russian tampering is that that an actual investigation would have exposed Democrat and Republican tampering. That is a valid point. Did you notice there was no real investigation into it? Because it would have expose the real cheaters. It was all talk and accusation by politicians with no substance. Have you noticed the story keeps going as a series of accusations while never finding anything real? That's part of the political tactic. The government has always met with Russians. It's their job. Hillary did it all the time. Creating a news story every time the Trump administration tries to do its job in relation to Russia is completely dishonest and purely a political strategy.

While I'm on fake news, I should mention the racial tensions. During his terms, Obama almost never spoke about racial matters except in statements that were carefully designed to incite racial strife between whites and blacks while at the same time were carefully designed to leave Hispanics and other races out of the incitement. Have you noticed that the racial tension since Trump took office is only between whites and blacks while being careful designed to leave Hispanics and other minorities on the sidelines? Have you noticed the incitement is being ramped up only since Trump took office? If I were a conspiracy person, I would believe that the money behind the KKK stuff is coming from the Democrat party or its allies. We know they were running ads on Craigslist for rioters after the election. We know they were funding riots. The KKK thing seems like a continuation of that political tactic. The Democrats are the only winners in this.

If the racial tension were grass-roots and real, it would be between other races, too. We would see blacks against Hispanics, whites against Asians, multiple races against Muslims, etc. We're not seeing that, because the money behind the racial strife isn't paying for that. It's being spent to incite whites and blacks against each other the same way Obama was doing, when he was in office. Hispanics are the largest minority now, not blacks. If there was genuine racial tension, wouldn't it be between whites and Hispanics, since they're the largest groups and have the most opportunity to rub each other the wrong way? Hmm.

Trump has spoken out against racism for years and was even given an award at one time for his hard work hiring so many minorities. He cares about the color of people's money not their skin. Have you noticed all the accusations of racism leveled against him while he has never said anything racist? Like the Russian thing, it's a series of accusations with no substance. It's a Democrat political strategy.

The point of what the Democrats are doing with all this fake news and racial strife is to drown out real news. Trump has been fulfilling campaign promise after campaign promise. I saw the other day that over a million jobs have been created under Trump. Stories like these are being ignored or distorted in a sea of fake news. If Trump were a Democrat, all we would hear from the media would be stories of his accomplishments and how amazing he is.

Have a great weekend.

Feedback for AoE

Here's the first page of AoE. This is the latest draft, not necessarily the final draft. I ran it through this. The asterisk is where the feedback stopped.

      Keelia sat down on a park bench beside a man in a dark suit. “The fox runs swiftly.”

      “Except in deep snow.”

    “Unless it's Christmas in July,” she objected, following the script that appeared as a transparent overlay in her vision.

      “Do you have the package?”

      “Do you have the money?”

      The man removed a thick envelope from his suit coat and opened it, thumbing a stack of old-fashioned Benjamins. Keelia pulled out a sealed, matching envelope. Warily, they traded. The man stood and moved to leave.

       “Aren't you going to check it?” She put the cash in a pocket of her maroon blazer where it would vanish and be credited to her game account.*

He paused and turned his face toward her, never directly looking, merely showing profile. “You know the penalty for a double-cross. You'd be tracked down like a dog.”

      Keelia grinned as he walked away. They had written that line because of her. In Avatars of Espionage beta, she thought it weird that the non-player character, a computer-controlled person, didn't verify the delivery and had questioned him. The system flagged it. The developers added the extra response. Every once in a while she ran the A Timely Delivery mission just to hear him say the words.

     “Are you done with that quest yet, Alice?” Noemi asked in group chat, which functioned at any distance in the game world regardless of geography. For tonight's missions the group were all in Reality City.

The feedback was this:

"The concept of a code phrase has been pushed almost entirely into humor at this point so it’s likely going to be tough to set a serious scene that opens with an exchange of code phrases. I’m being a bit nitpicky, but the script is not transparent (presumably) or it would be extremely difficult to read. The description of the exchange seems like stage directions because there’s no emotional context to what’s happening. This tense exchange turning out to just be some sort of exchange of game credits is a bit anticlimactic. I think you’re trying to rely too much on mystery when you would probably do better with a straightforward opening."

I haven't had time to absorb this yet and think of a way to change it. Nevertheless, it's YA for teenagers. They don't know all the clichés and tropes yet. To them, a code phrase would probably be cool, but hmm. Most of this page is a disguised prologue. Shh. The exchange isn't the story. Its purpose is to set a certain tone for the rest of the book and establish expertise of the main character. Does that mean the story starts in the wrong place? Maybe so. Starting it somewhere else would mean major changes or a complete re-think of the first chapters. The transparency thing is technically correct, but in computers a window that can be seen through but still read is always referred to as being transparent. However, to accommodate normal people, I'll change it to nearly transparent. Anticlimactic. Probably because it's a disguised prologue. That may be another indication the story starts in the wrong place. That or I shouldn't worry, because teenagers haven't seen it all before, and won't notice a thing. It depends on the market, I guess. No emotional context/stage directions. Hmm. The character is following a script she has followed multiple times. The emotional payoff is after that in the grin. Nevertheless.

I suppose the prologue could be dumped altogether and the story start with final paragraph of page 1, but that would require some rethinking. Could I work that tone into the rest of the chapter instead? Hmm. It wouldn't be the same, but...

So, anyway. These are my first rough thoughts on the feedback. I haven't had time to ponder them deeply yet. The problem is that changing things is changing them to fit what publishers like not what readers like. Today's standards were not true yesterday and will not be true tomorrow. Readers like what they like. They don't care what publishers like. I suppose it's going to come down to whether I try to sell this book to a publisher or to readers.

Overall, I was hoping for better, but it's helpful stuff. It gives me things to think about and direction for improvement. What I really need is to be able to afford an editor so I can fine tune my skills. Or a mentor.

Have a great weekend.

Coasting

I decided to do this after all. Some of the feedback for the first week have been posted but not mine. I tried this last year, and mine was never posted. This year I wasn't in the earliest submissions and almost skipped it, but I changed my mind. If the feedback shows up and is good, I'll summarize it next week or provide a link to it. If it's bad, I'll probably do the same.

It's official. The owners of the Braves have given up on this season. The trade deadline passed with no last-minute deals. The team had a good chance to make the playoffs, at least for one game. Making it to the World Series was out of the question, of course. It's a shame the owners don't care about the game or the fans. They're in it for the money. I boycotted the franchise for a while until they replaced the team manager with someone better. Sadly, the owners are going by the just good enough principle, which is based on a scientific(?) finding that people will use an inferior product that's "just good enough" as long as the product works. The finding discovered that products don't have to be "the best", as long as they're not broken. People will put up with a lot. It was in the news a while back, if you want to try to find it. The owners consistently field a team that's just good enough to keep the profits rolling in while not caring if it's the best. As long as you promise to patronize the team's sponsors, I give you permission to walk your dog the rest of the season.

I've mentioned a path in life God may have shown me. I was waiting for confirmation, because it seemed a bit improbable. This week I received two negative confirmations. One showed me something about it that was definitely not in line with the word. The other didn't appear to be. Bummer. It would have been incredibly challenging but amazing. I'm extremely disappointed. Nevertheless, God could change the circumstances of those things into something that could be his will. If he does, I'll let you know, but it's not something I'm praying for any more.

Last week I mentioned a major announcement that should be coming this week or next. It hasn't worked out the way I hoped. Back around 2009 I took a DNA test. In 2013 I had the best match so far, but I couldn't see all of the man's data. Part was public and part private. That was right after my dad died. I didn't feel like emailing the person. He had the wrong last name. Much later I did, but there was no reply. Last week I got an email. In the data I can't see, he said there was a 53% chance I was his brother. Whoa!

He was born in a foreign country, when my dad was in the navy. We swapped a couple of emails. I asked him to set the permissions so I could see the rest of the match data. He said he would but never did. I provided some information. I haven't heard back from him. Since then, I've done some digging and discovered my dad was not in the man's birth country the year before he was born. He may be a first cousin and not a brother at all. It's a 50/50 chance either way. I may have a brother, or I may not. I have no idea when or if he'll write back.

Have a great weekend.

Those Magnificent Victorians

AoE has moved into the test reader phase. As you'll recall, the main character is trapped in virtual reality. The A stands for Avatars. More on E later. I still haven't decided whether to run the book through this or not. I tried it once before but never received feedback on step one.

In the book there's a Victorian house. Sample images here. It's not a big part of the story. Specifically, it's an Eastlake Victorian "with modifications". Since I've learned more about that style of house, I may change it to a Queen Anne in the final version. The house in the book has a tower. Towers and turrets seem to be a bit of a staple with Queen Annes. Regardless, it's a setting in virtual reality and not a main part of the story.

It turns out I quite like the Victorian style. I've decided, when I'm rich, my house will be a custom-built, modern Victorian. I saw this company on This Old House. They make reproductions of old houses. I don't see a Victorian in their lineup, but if they specialize in old houses, someone else does, too.

I really like Victorian woodwork. After studying pictures of it, the individual pieces look relatively simple. A door frame might have three grooves carved into it. The trim around the gutters isn't very complicated. Patterns might be circles, starbursts or simple swirls. Individually, they're not very impressive. When the pieces are all put together, however, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. They create a luxurious feel that feels like home to me.

Of course, in my modern one the rooms would be bigger. The stairs would not be too steep or narrow. Wood paneling would be minimal at best. Wallpaper. I used to hate wallpaper. I'm still not a fan of every style of it. However, when it's done right, it adds to the luxurious feel of the house. There would be some wallpaper. I think the problem with wallpaper is two-toned paper. For it to start looking decent, it  needs at least three shades of color to give it depth. And it can't be too busy. Three color values creates dimensionality and makes it feel more like a piece of furniture than a flat two-toned paper.

After researching Victorians and then seeing a modern home, the modern ones feel sterile and empty. Even in an empty room, the woodwork in the Victorians is a decoration on its own. They don't have an empty feel to them. I watch some of the house hunting shows. In modern houses, if a room is empty, it's really empty. Whoever is viewing a house has to work to imagine the space being beautiful. They have to speculate on paint colors and furnishings to even be able to imagine living there. Or the real estate has to do the thinking for them. Or the seller has stage the house with furniture that is sometimes rented just for that purpose. When the owners move in, they have to fill the space with knickknacks and tchotchkes to make it "feel like home". And they take all that for granted without realizing how sterile modern houses really are. In the Victorians that feeling of hominess is build into the house already. Furniture is almost a bonus. A million decorations to imprint the owner's personality into the setting aren't necessary. It's kind of like the house itself says it all. Maybe the house represents the owner's personality instead the knickknacks. I'll have to think about that more later.

So, this has been the summer of distraction. I mentioned a while back a path for my life God may have shown me, very distracting. I'm still waiting for some kind of solid confirmation. This week has had another distraction that I can't talk about now, but it looks like it will be a major announcement in the next week or two. More on that then.

Have a great weekend.

AoE Status

I finished going through AoE, the next book, again. I'm not sure it's "perfect", but it's in decent shape. There will be at least one more going through after tester feedback. I'll probably run it through Novel Boot Camp writing workshop. I tried that last year and never got any reply to the first submission, which was the beginning step, so I'm less than enthusiastic about trying again. There was a bit more unpleasantness with lack of updates and direction, but I'll keep that to myself. Let's say it seemed a bit disorganized from the outside looking in. Maybe this year would be different.

At the moment, AoE has been uploaded to CreateSpace. I'm still waiting on them to approve the file. Once they do, I'll order paperback tester copies. Once those arrive and are checked to make sure they printed correctly, I'll mail them out. There was that time CreateSpace sent me a copy that was so wrong it was obvious they didn't even look at it before shipping it to me. I had to eat the cost. Despite that, they're really easy to work with and a great way to get physical copies that aren't too expensive. Sending a file to testers is free, but I much prefer a real book. Reading off a screen is not the same as holding it in the hand. And it's a little souvenir they might appreciate. The book should be in their hands at or before the time Novel Boot Camp starts, which is the 31st. Assuming I actually participate in that. Would it be more of a nuisance(like last time) than a help? I'll have to think about it.

I'm not sure, when AoE will be out, but it shouldn't be too much longer, if I can figure out a cover.

It's about time to start going through the mystery/romance again. It's shorter than AoE, which is about YA length. I expect it to be reasonably fast depending on how much dialogue versus prose there is. Being a different genre, I think it had more prose than AoE. We'll see. Maybe turning some of the prose into dialogue would be a good direction.

I'm a bit pressed for time this week, so I'll let you go.

Have a great weekend.

Cat Whisperer

A stray kitty has been coming around some. I feed him dry cat food and every once in a while wet. I'm not completely sure he's a stray. He's really friendly now that he's used to me. Maybe I'm a cat whisperer. He's pretty thin to belong to somebody, though. At some point I decided to call him something besides new kitty but wasn't in a hurry. I finally looked up popular names from the 1880s to the 1930s. It's amazing how many of my relatives and other people I know have or have had names on the lists. After two or three days I narrowed it down to Nelson. That's a good solid name, and I don't have any relatives named Nelson. I started calling him that.

I had previously mentioned to my mom I was going to name the stray cat. When I told her he was Nelson, she had a fit. A woman she used to go to church with lives across from a widow whose deceased husband was named Nelson. So what? I can't name the stray kitty Nelson, because it might offend somebody she doesn't even see any more? I ran through some of the other names on the list until I found one she didn't object to: Patrick. We have no relatives and know no one named Patrick. So, I started calling him Patrick. He seems to recognize that that's his new name, although I'm not certain yet.

So, I was talking to my mom yesterday. She's had a change of heart. She's not sure he should be named Patrick. /facepalm You know what? If I have to change it again, I'm changing it back to Nelson. The moral of the story is you can't worry too much about what other people think. If your stray cat should be named Nelson, that's what you should call him.

Guess what Facebook told me today. "Matthew, we care about you and the memories you share here." Really? They care about me? Me? Then why can't I set preferences for the news feed? How come they won't stop showing me Buy and Sell Groups Near You, when I've Xed them all out I don't know how many times trying to get it to stop? Why do they keep recommending other pages to me at all? Why won't they stop showing me what people on my Friends list "Like" or "commented on" or were "mentioned" in, etc.? I don't care about any of that. Why won't Facebook stop showing me "Suggested Post" listings? I did a search for a car in Microsoft Edge this week. Now in Google Chrome, I'm seeing "Suggested Post" ads for that car and the website I used for the search. How is that possible? I went to a website for some Victorian era research I was doing. I'm seeing ads for one of those sites, too. "Matthew, we care about you..." Sure they do. When an older man on my Friends list is now Friends with the 100th underage girl, I don't want to see that any more! That's not caring about me, Facebook!

A bit of a rant there. The Zuckil made me do it. But seriously, I'm really starting to hate Facebook.

So, I finished up the second round of AoE and began the third. It's not going as fast as I'd hoped, but progress is being made.