One Of The Reasons I Loved Sunshine So Much Was Because It Highlighted The Enormity Of The Sun And Its

I have the trilogy finished.

In my head. Anybody want to write it down for me?

I really like this trend of posting videos of art while jn progress. I'm sure it's to prove that the artist didn't use AI, but as a beginner it helps me understand people's processes and it makes me feel better to see that even talented people sometimes scribble out their mistakes to start over.

It's in this way that the integration robots into modern society has also turned me off to human-robot pairings. Twenty years ago I used to get misty-eyed thinking about a modern day Galatea or a couple that symbolically breaks racial barriers. Now I just want Alexa/Siri/whatever to stop listening to every conversation I have.

It also fucking bugs me that nobody can ever seem to really commit to the cyberpunk premise of the Protagonist Who Hates Robots (see also, the cyberpunk premise of "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, for a company to be able to repo your goddamned arm or turn off your eyes?") during the execution.

Which is flabbergasting, considering we've had almost a full decade of Alexa pinky-promising not to officially listen to anything until you do its summoning ritual and then turning around and emailing your boss a transcript of you bitching about them to your spouse over dinner. We've had at least five years of being able to get your Tesla unlocked remotely just by @-ing Musk on twitter.

The cute robot dogs are being leased to police departments, reputation management firms have been deploying armies of social media reply-bots in astroturf campaigns, customer service chatbots have become damn near indecipherable as their programmers attempt to make them seem more personable, etc. etc. etc.

We don't even need to reach for "Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if corporations made simulacra better and better at faking humanity in order to manipulate people?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if your car could mimic sadness or pain if you declined an extended warranty, or if your phone begged for its life if you tried to jailbreak it, or WeightWatchers paid your fridge to neg you every time you went for a midnight snack?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you pointed out how gross it is that your smart-assistant is programmed to act like your friend in order to build a more accurate marketing profile and your buddy acted like you just said dogs can't feel love and his beloved pet only sees him as a walking treat-dispenser?"

"Wouldn't it be Super Fucked Up™, actually, if you were surrounded by unfeeling things that can and would rip you and all of your loved ones apart at a moment's notice if they got the right/wrong order from some unaccountable law enforcement flack, and everyone else just kind of shrugged and went 'It's probably fine, why are you hyperventilating about it, it's not like you've done anything wrong'?"

They're all quite literally right there in front of our faces!

But it's harder to make "the way robots have been integrated into society is bad, actually, and the protagonist is largely right" into a sexy thriller with a love interest or a buddy-cop duo, and the hyperconservative media environment we're dealing with right now isn't exactly amenable to the robots being a metaphor for corporate intrusion and loss of privacy and authoritarian overreach, so here we are, with robots who generally aren't people, except sometimes you find a special robot--one of the Good Ones--who actually is a person, and that's how we all learn that Prejudice Is Bad, or something.

Every time I have an idea for a fic, I overthink it and talk myself out of it. I don't know the characters well enough. This doesn't fit the setting/canon. Which is why in all the years I've been writing, I only ever wrote one Pokémon fanfic when I was like 14 and a fictionalization of a Slayers RPG I ran. OCs are easier because I make the canon!

Can't believe you left this in the tags. I'd be finding a new therapist if I found out. I know doctors have to take notes, but it's a completely different thing to be recorded. Sometimes I'm just feeling out what I'm thinking. This makes it even harder to be vulnerable when you're used to things you say being used against you.

our new job launched its mandatory ai transcription program designed to streamline our workflow and not only does it melt down the moment it has to transcribe non-white customers but it keeps hallucinating the existence of a mysterious boy named dorian who shows up in every third call summary

It's strange re-watching Dead Like Me after 20 years. There were so many lessons about life and growing up that I remember learning, but now I realize they never really sunk in. Bryan Fuller gives great life advice through Rube, who is a great father figure for George. Rube takes an interest in George's afterlife and actively involves himself in contrast to George's father, who divorces himself from his family life and eventually actually divorces George's mom.

Roxy's also a great mom stand-in/contrast for Joy. They're both aloof and seemingly hostile with their constant criticism to George, but Roxy takes the time to help and advise her when necessary. Roxy knows when to get involved and support George whereas Joy is seemingly afraid to do the same. Fortunately, Joy seems to learn from her mistakes with George and tries harder to connect with Reggie.

Betty, Mason, and Daisy are all siblings without being a surrogate for George's relationship with Reggie. Betty was instrumental in demonstrating to George that she had to take an active part in her own life. Betty was a role model who encouraged her to try new things.

Mason is a loveable screwup who grows throughout the show. At first he demonstrates how not to live the afterlife and makes poor decisions. In this way, he's allowing George to learn without having to make the mistakes herself. He's also very protective of George (and Daisy) and supports her even when the other reapers give her a hard time (often because she needs to learn a lesson).

Daisy is terrible when she's first introduced, but she later calms down and seems to become genuinely concerned about George after they move into a house together. Their relationship mirrors George and Reggie's with Daisy acting as George in this relationship, and had George lived, I think the sisters would have eventually acted the same way. Regardless, Daisy-as-an-older-sister demonstrates a different kind of self-confidence that I'm glad George doesn't adopt.

writing takes so long and its so tiring but if i dont write for the rest of my life ill die

I've begun singing lately as a way to try to rediscover joy (and learn how to unmask). Unfortunately, my shiba inu tends to be the target of such serenades. She often slowly backs away and hides, all the while looking at me with the same expression I'd expect on a peasant mother who's just discovered that her child is possessed.

Putting on shows for this unwilling audience has become the highlight of my day.

I've tried not to internalize these formulas, but I find that it's simply too exhausting to try to market my work afterward. Perhaps I should just self-publish and be happy if someone stumbles across my work and buys it.

I write because I like writing. Because I think these stories should be told. These characters are real people to me.

But is it wrong to want to make a living from your work?

When Did Books Become So... Formulaic? Part 1

When did books start feeling like they had to follow a set formula to be considered “good”? When did writing become less about creative expression and more about ticking off boxes—engaging opening, structured setting, the “right” pacing? Everywhere you turn, someone is telling you how to write a book, how to make it “marketable,” how to fit it into a mold that guarantees an audience. And I get it. I’ve internalized it too.

But what even is writing? Shouldn’t it be art? Shouldn’t it be free? Shouldn’t a book be a canvas where words don’t have to march neatly in line but can sprawl, dance, or drip like paint? Who says the text has to be left-aligned? What if a story unfolded in a spiral, or if every chapter was a shape, a rhythm, a feeling? What if the structure itself was part of the message, not just a vessel to deliver a pre-approved plot?

And the thing is—people are doing this. There are writers experimenting, bending form, breaking rules, making books that are more than just books. But where are they? Why aren’t they the ones being given the biggest platforms? Why do the same kinds of books, the same kinds of authors, the same familiar beats keep getting pushed forward while boundary-pushing works are dismissed as “niche” or “too risky”?

Traditional publishing doesn’t seem to make space for them. If they want to be seen, they have to carve their own path, fund themselves, market themselves, do everything alone. And that can be exhausting. It can drain the passion out of something that was once pure expression. It can force people to conform just to survive.

So I guess my question is—why? Why do we act like writing is a machine instead of an art form? Why do we reward the safe and familiar while sidelining the bold and visionary? And what would books look like if we truly let them be free?

Let's discuss this...

I've been thinking about this and I got a lot of rambling posts on this topic.

Cuz it hit me like powe