Month: June 2023

A Theory Of The Case: Are We Experiencing ‘Soft First Contact?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Something…strange…is going on. It seems as though my Tik-Tok feed is full of UFO sightings just as Congress is taking the UFOs seriously. It’s enough to make you wonder if Something Is up.

And what might be “up” is something akin to First Contact…but in a very gentle way, ambiguous way. The idea would be to bust our cherry in the softest way possible so by the time Hard First Contact is necessary, we won’t be so spooked and scared by it all.

But all of this is EXTREMELY speculative. And, most of all, it brings up the question of, “Why now?” I have no idea if it’s actually happening, much less have an answer for, “Why now?” But the case might be made that relative to the metrics of some sort of galactic civilization, we’re heading towards something akin to the Singularity and, as such, we are ready for some sort of First Contact.

But I still find all of this very dubious. I guess I want something a lot closer to Hard First Contact before I will give all the bullshit being seen about UFOs here or there any credience.

Just About At The Midpoint…AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have set a very tight deadline for myself — June 30th — to finish this Public Beta. But I think it’s probably going to be July 4th before it’s done. Or not. Maybe it will be sooner, maybe it will be later.

But I do know that I definitely feel “in the arena” trying to get this thing done on a deadline — any deadline. Things are going well, but I have a lot– A LOT — of writing to do to meet the deadline I’ve given myself.

What I’m trying to do is just find the scenes that are the worst and re-write them, but that’s not working out so great. I find myself rewriting scene after scene — with the help of ChatGPT (not writing the scene, but writing the scene summary) because it’s the only way I’m ever going to finish any of us.

I’m afraid I’m going to lose steam and it will be clear at the midpoing that I started to lose energy. But maybe not. Maybe I can power through all the way to the end. It’s just probably going to be June 7th, not July 4th by the time I wrap this baby up.

But I’m really going to try. I really am. I’m — MAY — put an all nighter tonight or tomorrow night in an effort to do something of a sprint.

‘Vague’ Beta Reader Process Post

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a least *chance* that I might actually make my deadline with the beta reader process. But I’m going to have to stop getting drunk so much and actually buckle down and get some work done. I have a limited amount of time if I’m going to pull this off.

But, they say write drunk, edit sober, so lulz. But I do hope to get a lot of writing done tonight and tomorrow. Then — may — do one last read through of the novel before I start to print out physical copies for people I really want to be able to hand such copies to.

This novel is definitely novel-length so, lulz, I’m going to have to be careful about such things. I may even have to buy another huge thing of paper to be able to hand all these physical copies to people. One issue is, I don’t know if I’m going to wrap things up by June 30th or by July 7th. I HOPE to wrap up the Public Beta draft by June 30th….but….that is very debatable.

I don’t want to rush things TOO much. And I’ve said all a long that I considered July 4th my deadline and because of when July 4th falls — and a few other considerations –I won’t feel too bad if I start to distribute physical copies the weekend of July 7th.

Republicans Are Radicalizing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just in the last few days, it definitely seems as Republicans — especially House Republicans — have begun to radicalize. There has been a noticeable shift in the tempo and mood of House Republicans of late. They’ve done everything from censure a prominent Democrat for a dumb reason, to put impeachment on the table for Biden, to announce they’re going to “expunge” Trump’s two impeachments.

That final thing is of note because it’s pretty much a value-free proposition but for one thing — once they do it, our politics will be even more fucked up because we won’t be able to agree on the facts when it comes to Trump’s impeachment.

The Right and all their podcasts, will say Trump is no longer impeached twice, while all of us living on planet earth will say, “Yes he is!” But that is besides the point to House Republicans — they will have their talking point to use to suck their own cocks on all the many, many Right Wing podcasts floating out there in the aether.

All of this begs the question — what is the endgame? I keep saying autocracy or civil war/ revolution…but I’m always wrong. So, I dunno. Time will tell.

‘Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste’

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here are two more bonkers hot takes I’ve seen from Far Right idiots over the recent events in Russia.

I don’t know what to tell you. The United States is careening towards either becoming a full-fledged autocracy like Russia under a MAGA autocrat….or we have a revolution / civil war.

At the moment, I honestly don’t know which option we’re going to take. But I do know that late 2024 – early 2025 is going to be very, very bumpy.

….and just like that…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Welp, it’s over. The Wagner Group is turning around and going home. Apparently, because of a deal brokered by the president of Belarus. It was all very exciting while it happened, but now we can go back to dreading Biden being impeached for something stupid in the near, near future.

I will note, however, that Putin has been shown to be very, very weak. This could be the precursor to something much bigger. Or not. Who knows.

Not me.

God Save Tsar Harry I?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has just not really had a very strong sense of self. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t really even latched on to nationalism so much as a more personal, meh ideology of simple Putianism. That’s what I would credit with how lackluster the support for Putin has been since the Second Russian Civil War began a few hours ago.

So, if I was running the Wagner Group, I would really lean into giving people a reason to believe again. A bigger dream for them to become a part of. As such, I would say, “Help me overthrow Putin, and we’ll have a Tsar again.” Now, the issue is, who would be Tsar? There are a few “pretenders” to the throne who I don’t think anyone takes very seriously but, here me out, through Queen Victoria there is a person you could use — Prince Harry.

Now, this is very funny for a number of reasons, chief amongst them being the Wagner Group is a bunch of thugs and fascists and I don’t think they have it in them to do something as historically cool as put Prince Harry on the throne of new Russian Empire.

But that’s kind of besides the point — pick SOMEONE — to be the new Tsar and then say, “Ok, we’re going to bring back all the trappings of empire if we take power.” There are a few centuries of regalia and tradition established around Empire in Russia and I would tap into that. I would also definitely use that cool white-blue-white flag I’ve seen around some as the new flag of Russia.

I am not suggesting I’m an expert in Russia or Russia history, but just as a casual observer I have noticed that since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia just hasn’t really had much of a national identity. And bringing back the Tsar would definitely fix that problem for Russia. If it was a *constitutional* monarchy, well, all the better.

How I Would Win The Second Russian Civil War — Bring Back The Tsar

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Please actively ignore this. I don’t know anything about anything, but I just have to get this out of my system. Thanks.

Ok, so, if I had about 25,000 troops, here’s how I would topple Putin. We know that Prigozhin and the Wagner Group controls the general Rostov-on-Don area while some of his forces are making their way to Moscow. Well, I would consolidate what I had in in Rostov and then start to expand from there. For me, the key thing would be to have a ready access to more men.

Also, I would think up some sort of ideology that might get people’s juices flowing. So, I dunno, I would say that if I took over Russia, I would bring back the Tsar or something. That’s the thing about modern Russia, as far as I can tell, it continues to struggle with it’s collective sense of self.

Bringing back a Tsar would definitely give Russians something to fight for again. He might even call his group The Whites or some such, to evoke what happened in the first Russia Civil War.

Anyway. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Hollywood’s Real A.I. Problem

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The real A.I. problem that faces Hollywood is not what you might think. The issue is not so much it taking creative jobs, it’s that most of what Hollywood creates at the moment with people is, well, rather formulaic.

As such, it’s very easy to assume that very, very soon most of Hollywood will AI generated and no one will notice because of how bad what Hollywood generates at the moment is.

It sucks, but it definitely seems to be the future. MidJourney keeps getting better and better and there will come a moment when MidJourney is hooked up to the moving imagine and ChatGPT and…ta-day….99% of Hollywood is AI generated and the average person won’t even notice.

MAGA Is A Bunch Of Pussies — In The End, It Will Be Blues You Have To Worry About

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is a two stage scenario whereby America….uhhhh….has a kind of bumpy historical moment?

Stage 1
Trump wins in November 2024 and it becomes clear he’s going to be a tyrant. So exercising their Constitutionally protected right to Revolution, Blue States — and Blues across the country — work actively to topple “Magadonia.” There’s a functioning General Strike. Blue States actively work to overthrow Trump’s tyrannical reign. Because of how conflicted things are, the U.S. Military — except, maybe, Mike Flynn’s brother who controls the Pacific Command — stays out of all of this. It all happens pretty quickly and a Constitutional Convention is called with the specific purpose of renewing our democracy. The reforms implemented are fair and equitable.

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Stage 2
The PROBLEM is, that MAGA cocksuckers will freak out and because they want to fuck their guns, they do a counter-revolution just as we all think everything is figured out — we have a secession crisis. Then, well, things get totally out of control and before you know it, America looks like Afghanistan.

Good job, everyone!

Anyway. I can’t predict the future. But I do think we should keep an eye on Blues just as much as Reds. I do think — and hope — that we’ll just peacefully slip into a MAGA themed autocracy without any violence. Too many wealthy, smug liberals won’t stand their ground to be the leadership of a Blue Revolution. So, lulz.