Voting and Open Cultures

I voted yesterday. It's sad how a good chunk of the U.S. population throws away their rights. Back in my day...

Well, people didn't give much of a shit back when I voted in my first election either. It was the Ohio primaries of 1984 if anyone was wondering. But my parents, grandparents, and the older aunts and uncles truly believed in their civic duty. Especially, the great uncles who fought in World War II.

What has changed over the last forty years is the incredible rage and hatred I see in my fellow citizens. Everyone's worried that someone is taking something away from them, or they don't like sharing the costs of things that affect everyone.

Some of the reviews I've received for my books are eye-opening and cruel. Readers especially hated Aisha and Rey from the 888-555-HERO series for not being white or not being manly enough. Yet, Summer from the Seasons of Magick series has been put on recommendation lists for readers who are into non-white interracial romance lists. Even funnier, I don't think some readers have realized the majority of characters in the Justice series are Native American.

That doesn't stop these flash mobs from going after other creators. Ubisoft's head of the Assassins Creed franchise has lost patience with the racist outrage of the latest version of of the game. Color me baffled by this "woke" bullshit being spouted. The Assassins Creed team has used historical figures in the past in its game. Yasuke has hit a nerve with the Neo-Nazi movement in the U.S. though because he was a real person, a former slave who became a samurai in the 16th century.

Japanese culture has celebrated him for years. I backed a Kickstarter for a book and comic to bring his story to life. There's an animated series about him on Netflix. Yasuke is not completely unknown.

So what do the complaints about Assassins Creed come down to? Racism, pure and simple. Black and brown stories are being told, and the Neo-nazis just don't like it.

As the Ubisoft executive said, open cultures are the ones that survive. If we closed the U.S. borders over the years, there's so many awesome things we wouldn't be able to experience. Mainly food. I can't imagine my birthdays without lasagna.

But to the assholes, all I say is "Tough noogies, people." The world is changing, whether the bigots want it or not, And like the original Nazis, the racists will become a footnote in history.

Oh, and if you didn't vote yesterday, I don't want to hear you bitching!

If I'm Quiet. . .

I ran into a little problem with my (relatively) new computer. When DH was shopping for my holiday present, he bought a laptop with a 512G hard drive. It should have been plenty of room. I don't store or stream videos on my work machine.

However, I started back into practicing cover design. I also downloaded a cheap copy of Corel Drawing for this purpose. Plus, I do keep my music on my work laptop because I use it for white noise or creating a mood while drafting.

The next thing I knew, I ran out of space. Literally. I rolled backup folders and files to portable drives. I rolled off used editorial art and photos. I double-checked that I hadn't copied a handful of movies from my old laptop to the new one. So as of right now, I've got 13.9G.

I can already tell you it's not enough to last through the rest of the year.

With DH's guidance, I open up my laptop to check if I had room for a second solid state drive. No extra slot.

*sigh*

So, I broke down and ordered a 2T SSD. Now, I need to do some surgery on my baby this weekend and move everything from the old drive to the new drive. It'll be just like last year when I shifted everything from my old laptop to the current one.

If everything goes right, I'll post on Wednesday. If it doesn't...

Well, I'll still post. I've already updated the battery and bought a mouse for the old laptop. The touchpad no longer works and needs to be replaced. However, it was cheaper to purchase the new mouse. But the point is that I've got a functional backup is anything goes wrong.

If I'm successful with this project, Baby Blue is next on the list for a harddrive upgrade!

Wish me luck!

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Alicia Keys is so fucking talented!

NaNoWriMo, Sort of

 

I've put off this post because I wasn't sure for the longest time how to handle it.

A former writer friend, who has since passed away, introduced me to National Novel Writing Month nearly twenty years ago. Initially, the program helped steer writers in WRITING A COMPLETE WORK in 30 days. The work is not expected to be perfect, but the writer was expected to do their best. The idea was helping writers to get past their biggest hurdle, which was simply finishing a story.

Over the years, things were changed, like introducing alternate goals such as completing an ongoing wip. Programs for teachers to use for their creative writing students were added. Camp NaNo's were introduced in July and then April. Originally, there were useful prizes, like discounts to print books through Ingram Spark.

Now...

The so-called rules were were adjusted to the point as to become meaningless. Some accused NaNo of marginalizing people by having rules. However, rules are often needed to develop discipline. And that need for discipline was booted to the moon.

Encouraging kids to write was an awesome development. Until pedos used the program to target and groom the underage writers. And when the kids tried to report their experiences, they were blown off by their municipal liaison.

Like many other social sites, the online discourse has turn mean and in some cases, violent. This is not a political space. You're problems with real life shouldn't impinge on a people attempting to learn art techniques. Art itself is open to interpretation, but techniques are not. A writer needs to learn the rules in order to effectively break them.

Don't get me started on the NaNo board's stand and the subsequent backlash concerning artificial intelligence.

And the co-called prizes are now discounts for software that doesn't actually help new writers write the freakin' book from companies that are looking to use a new writer's dreams and desperation to rip them off.

So, what do I do this November?

Well, I've started the first draft of a new book. I'll use NaNo to keep track and hopefully hit the requisite 50K goal. But I won't promote it, like I have in previous years.

And next year...

I will wait a see if NaNo's parent organization improves. If not, then this will be my last encounter on NaNo.