Month: July 2023

Struggling With The Fate Of Two Of The Six Novels In This Millennium-Like Series I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have finally finished the public beta of my first novel, I find myself really thinking hard about what I’m going to do with the other five novels in this project. I find myself vacillating wildly between eliminating two of them and being absolutely sure that I have to keep all six of them.

I change my mind on this subject just about every few minutes.

At the moment, what I’m going to do is start to root around in the last two novels to get some sense of what can be salvaged. Remember, I worked for some time on what is now the last two novels in the series and, theoretically, I could zoom through those two last novels once I decide to focus my full attention on them.

Novels three and four are also really strong. It’s novel two that I really find myself having a lot of problems with at the moment. There are some logistical issues about what I exactly plan on having happen in book two that I would have to work out.

But I — think — all I need is the help of a manuscript consultant. I have found way too many manuscript consultants are rather snooty — assholes (at least to me — even because they think I’m a drunk crank who is not worth their time.

The Myth That Joe Biden Missed An Opportunity To Be A ‘Statesman’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With the news that the U.S. economy is doing exceptionally well, despite the “vibes” telling us everything sucks, I’m reminded by how people on the Right have complained that Biden has been to partisan.

People who talk like this obviously pretty much just want Biden to be something he’s not — “statesman” is code for “Joe Manchin.” Given how divided the country is, and how 38% of the Republican electorate is all-in on the idea of fascism…I just don’t see how Biden becoming some darling of the non-existent Center would have worked.

Yes, he could have said he wasn’t going to run again. And, yes, he could have muted some of his more center-Left policy movies…but who would have that placated? You have an entire MAGA bullshit echochamber designed specifically to juice the MAGA base at any perceived “woke” slight.

As such, Biden would be pretty much only making the Green Room at Face The Nation happy if he tried to “statesman” route. The country is tearing itself apart and we’re either going to become a MAGA-themed autocracy or we’re going to start blowing shit up.

I think and hope we just become an MAGA autocracy. I hate violence too much to think otherwise. But there is a real risk that the most powerful nation in the world is going to destroy itself over “vibes.”

A Butterfly Effect?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am always looking for weird ways that changes in society can change other aspects and I think it’s at least possible that all these laws regulating porn online might cause some unexpected changes.

For instance, is it possible that if it’s a lot more difficult for young people to see porn online, that we might have an uptick in raunchy movies? Or even maybe Playboy might increase in cultural relevancy? Or something like that? Something whereby some of the shitty developments in our culture might be fixed because there’s not a constant stream of easily-accessible porn online?

Or not.

Maybe I’m overthinking this too much. Maybe what I’m noticing says more about me being an old man than something that is easily fixable by the butterfly effect. But it would be nice if maybe some of the fun of pop culture that has been drained out of it because of the “woke mind virus” came back.

I don’t blame the rise of “woke” culture for the lack of T&A and general fun in pop culture, but I’m kind of desperate. It would be nice to have the joy that was found in 80s and 90s American pop culture come back in a big way.

But, like I said, maybe this is it. Maybe we’re in a real life Black Mirror episode where we can never have any T&A in raunchy movies and we’ll just drift into a future where all of our movies are either superhero movies or the occasional low budget horror movie.

My ‘Revolutionary’ Agenda

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m a nobody. But I do like to make abstract concepts concrete and here is what my “revolutionary” agenda would be if I had the power, should Blues have a revolution starting in late 2024 – early 2025. Remember, I’m assuming this happens after Blues have won a Blue Revolution. So, these would be taken care of via Constitutional Amendments.

SCOTUS Reform
I would increase the size of SCOTUS to 13 to match the number of Federal circuits. I would also require retirement ages for Justices. I would also have a very strict code of ethics for the court too.

Mandatory Financial Disclosure
This is specific so someone like Trump would have to release his taxes.

Sitting Presidents Would No Longer Be Above The Law
I would make it clear in the Constitution that someone like Trump could be criminally charged, even if they were in office.

Mandatory Mental Evaluation
This would be specifically so someone bonkers like Trump could not allowed to run for POTUS or be POTUS.

End to Gerrymandering
This would really help make political life in the United States better.

Increase the size of the House
This is a simple reform that would have a huge change in our politics for a number of reasons.

Public financing of elections
I would have very strict public financing laws built into the Constitution so a lot of the problems we currently have would no longer exist.

Limit the length of Election cycles
I would figure out a way to limit how long the election cycle was allowed to last.

Eliminate the Electoral College
This would really help fix a lot of problem in modern American politics.

Limited Second Reconstruction
Red States that fought — and lost — the Second American Revolution would be reconstructed to be more democratic — I’m looking at YOU fucking Texas.

Constitutional Convention
I would see this as an option only if there were safeguards in place to prevent it from going rouge.

SAG-AFTRA & WGA Need To Hold The Line Against A.I.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While the DGA may have folded, the SGA-AFTRA and WGA need to hold the line when it comes to the studios and the use of AI. If they don’t get concrete, specific carveouts for humans in the recorded arts….that’s all she wrote. Hollywood as we know it will burn to the ground and if you want any form of human-generated entertainment, you’re going to have to go to Broadway.

You would have to be a clueless, shortsighted fool not to see where AI is going at the moment. MidJourney already is very close to crossing the uncanny valley. Turn those still images into video and use ChatGPT6 (or whatever) to make an totally digital movie and there won’t be any need for humans in the recorded arts at all.

The only humans making a living from recorded entertainment will be, well, the suits. They will hire AI programmers and that’s it. And, in the end, there’s a chance that video games and Hollywood will fuse into “immersive personal media” where everyone “plays” their recorded entertainment using an Apple Vision Pro.

That definitely seems to be our future at the moment — unless, of course, SAG and WGA hold the line and cause real pain for the Hollywood studios. Of course, there is a real risk that Hollywood studios have the high ground and all they have to do is just wait until AI technology reaches the point until no humans are needed.

It could happen within 18 months.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. If nothing else, Broadway stars might become what Hollywood stars are today — talk about a black mirror episode!

Yes, Yes, I Know The Public Beta Of My First Novel Sucks

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The reviews are beginning to trickle in and, well, people think the public beta of the novel sucks. But quality really wasn’t the point. The point was to just FINISH something, ANYTHING so I could move on to the next phase in the process.

So, as such, I can now begin to work on not only the third draft of the novel, but other novels I have rolling around in my mind. I have decided to focus on reading and development until around September 1st. That way, I will be really tan, ready and rested when I do plunge back into writing.

I have also pretty much accepted that I have pretty much one more year before I begin to seriously query this first novel. And I will query the novel in the context of a number of other novels I want to do something with. I’m ready to rock ‘n roll, as they say.

My storytelling ability has really improved a great deal since I started this process several years ago. Now, to take things to the next level by really giving things a lot of thought.

One person who read some of the public beta said it was really, really bad. It was almost like she was embarrassed for me. Which, of course, put me in a really bad mood that I have yet to recover from.

But I have to accept that I have to improve. I have been doing this novel in a total vacuum — for the most part — so ANY input one way or another sort of rattles my cage because I’ve been very delusional about how well the novel has been going.

The Real Calendar

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here is the real calendar:

January 1 – February: a blank, slack void
March – July 4th — The actual year.
July 5 – Labor Day — the nadir of the year
September – Halloween — People are thinking about the coming holidays
November – December –events zoom past.

So, it definitely seems as though, lulz, the year is just about over now. Barring aliens landing on the front lawn of the White House, I think we should officially begin to worry about What The Fuck Is Going To Happen To America In 2024 – 2025.

I still don’t know. It could go either way. It really could.

For all my talk about a potential civil war / revolution, I just don’t think America has it in her to do such a thing (which is good.) I think we’re going to re-elect Trump, turn into an autocracy that that will be that. Trump will destroy what’s left of our democracy, pull us out of NATO — and probably South Korea — and America will become an autocracy like Russia.

That is what I predict as of summer, 2023.

Dwelling On Book 2 #writingcommunity

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have the general plot of Book 1 of this six book project down pat, I can seriously begin to think about Book 2. I have a general idea rolling around in my mind, but I fear I’m going to need to talk to a manuscript consultant AGAIN to actually get anything finished.

If all else fails, I can always skip the next (2?) books and get right into the the situation where things get a lot more interesting. I’m really torn. Really. One moment I think it’s obvious that I need to skip two books and within a few seconds, I’m telling myself I can’t do that because there are two really good books I could write in the same universe.

What I MIGHT do is compromise — start to work on the four book while in the back of my mind thinking about what I might do with the second and third book. Maybe? The only reason why I might do this is I need keep my momentum going and I don’t want to waste a few months spinning my wheels struggling to figure out how to come up with the plot of a two novels when I could zoom through three novels pretty quickly.

So.

I don’t know what I’m going to do.

What’s more, I really need to work on a novel or two that has connection to this novel I’ve been working on for years. Something that fits the metrics of being shorter and in one male POV.

UGH. Just thinking about all that bullshit puts me in a bad mood.

Anyway. I still have a few more days before I’m going to get nervous and really start to throw myself into writing within the context of development. I should be reading RIGHT NOW, but it’s something of a struggle to calm myself down and sit somewhere to do it.

Overthinking Dua Lipa’s ‘Naked Dress’ & Her Desire To Be A Hollywood Actress

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Any rumination on Dua Lipa’s “naked dress” has to put it in context. For all the buzz around the dress, it’s not THAT naked. Don’t get me wrong, it’s rather revealing — and gorgeous just like Lipa herself — but other women, like Kate Moss and Rihanna, have shown more sheer skin in public in real terms.

To me, the point of the dress is to generate buzz….in Hollywood. Lipa is telling Hollywood directors that she’s ready for her closeup because she’s not afraid of showing T&A on the big screen. Which, of course, reminds me of how Tay-Tay will probably never get her EGOT because if she showed ANY T&A, her fan base of liberal white women would grow so enraged that that would break the Internet.

Dipa has perfected the art of being sexxy in a way where she doesn’t actually show what people think she’s showing. If she’s not wearing a skin-tight Mugler one-piece that has some skin tone stripes to it, she’s grinding on a mic stand in a very covering faux mini-skirt.

And, in real terms, she’s barely showing areola and it’s very clear that she’s wearing a very-wide thong under the dress. If she was really in a naked dress, all there would be in covering of her mons pubis would be a lot of strategic dress sparkles.

So, like I said, to me, this naked dress’ true audience is Hollywood, not us nerds. She’s trying to take her career to the next level by being an actress. She’s already in the Barbie movie, so it would make a lot of sense for her to push with all her might fully into being a full-blown movie star.

We Have To Accept That If America Collapses As Part of a Revolution / Civil War Starting in Late 2024 That The DPRK Will Lob Nukes At Us

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m always, always wrong. And I can’t predict the future. But it definitely seems possible that the conditions are there for a revolution (Blues) or a civil war (Reds) starting in late 2024, early 2025. If this happens, it will be because the country is just too unstable to handle another election cycle.

If we do have a civil war or revolution, our enemies are going to take advantage of this particular crisis. The one country with the means, motive and opportunity to really fuck us over is the DPRK. I could totally see them lobbing a few H-bombs our way if we collapse into chaos.

Anyway. I hope I’m wrong. I really do. I don’t want any violence at all to the point that I’m will to accept autocracy in the US if that’s the only way to avoid it on the macro level. If we’re an autocracy then, of course, ICE will come after me and put me in a camp but, lulz, I’ll think of something.