I fear that my idyllic time when it comes to being able to write is about to wrap up soon. I’ve been very grateful for the time this wonder time has existed. My only annoyance with myself is that I’m just so fucking moody.
Like, I should be working on my novel right now but I am punting that until tomorrow morning. I just don’t feel like doing any fiction writing at the moment.
I hate the idea that I’m, in general, drifting towards my goal with the fact that I’m probably going to see a dramatic change in my life sooner rather than later. Anyway, as I’ve said, I’m pleased with what I have produced with this novel just in general.
But, like I said, I wish I could focus and write more quickly. As it stands, however, I can’t even force myself to do any reading. Ugh. I’m so embarrassed.
There are some really interesting quirks to this scifi dramedy I’m working on. I’m feeling pretty good, in general, about how this novel is going. To the point that I’m just going to be happy that the novel is finished.
Any success I might have beyond that will be the cherry on top.
This newest version of the novel I’m working on, in particular, is spicy and interesting. I’ve leaned into some of the more surreal possibilities presented by the premise of the novel.
Anyway, I am still on track to wrap this novel up in such a way that I can begin to query it around Sept 1st. But it’s possible I may be forced to punt that into January.
And, what’s more, I have another novel rolling around in my mind that I will probably begin serious development on the moment I wrap up this scifi dramedy. The next novel is going to be a lot more wholesome (to a certain degree.)
You know Republicans are desperate to make sure the April 21st vote allowing Democrats to do what Republicans have been doing — gerrymander the state in the extreme — fails because their propaganda against it is pretty bonkers.
The ads show all these angry old white people looking stone faced at the camera, ranting about how evil brown people are going to get their hard earned taxpaper money that they earned from their jarbs as South Park might say.
I have no idea if the Constitutional amendment will pass, but I sure will be glad when I don’t have to sit through racist propaganda to watch YouTube videos.
Trump has reached a stage of craziness that the press simply ignores the worst of his abuses. Or protects him? I just don’t get why a bigger deal isn’t being made of the president of the United States posting a video of a woman being hammered to death.
You’d think someone, somewhere would notice and make a big deal of such a thing. To make a scandal of it.
But no. Not a peep.
Some of this is I don’t know what’s being shown on TV because I only watch it via YouTube clips. But I will note that Twitter has made a point of “shadowbanning” the whole thing, only making the most bowdlerized reference to what Trump did in a way that really does protect him.
Trump is clearly mentally unwell and it makes you wonder how bad things have to get before we reach SOME sort of breaking point. Because, as of now, it definitely seems as though there is no breaking point and Trump is some sort of weird god-emperor.
I don’t know what to tell you about this one folks. Apparently, Trump posted to “Truth” Social a video of a woman being murdered with a hammer. He did it, of course, because he’s a racist lunatic.
You would think that doing such a thing might cause someone, somewhere to take notice…but, no. Nada. Not a peep. there are some discussions here and there, but not the huge outcry you would expect.
And so the world turns and Trump gets crazier and crazier and absolutely nothing of note happens.
I’m now easing myself into the second chapter of the second half of the novel I’ve been working on for some time now. Things are, in general, going pretty well. My biggest issue is how much I’m going to have to totally rewrite the scenes as I get to them.
The story continues to drift away from what I originally had, so as such I’ve found myself having to rewrite a little bit more — maybe a lot more — than expected.
One issue that has come up some is there are some “spicy” elements to to this novel that LLMs balk at. As I keep saying, I’m doing all the heavy lifting, using AI as sort of a modern day spellcheckr, but it can be a little bit annoying to feel like the AIs I’m using are “judging” me for having sexxy content.
It’s not that bad. I really haven’t had that many problems as of yet. A few little quirks.
I definitely have found that Claude LLM is a much better manuscript consultant than Gemini LLM. Though, I will note, Gemini LLM is very quirky and has a lot of personality because of some of the quirky things that have been saved to my “Personal Intelligence” feature.
Just the idea that an LLM would be too powerful to release to the public, even if maybe the details of the decision are a little sketchy, is enough to give one pause for thought.
It makes one wonder if maybe in the not-so-distance future, some LLM will be so powerful that it escapes from its “sandbox” and turns itself into an ASI that dominates the world.
That seems like how it might happen, anyway.
And, yet, I have my doubts. I think we’re pretty safe, all things considered. It just doesn’t seem likely that some “Colossus” might pop out and try to take over the world in any traditional sense. I think, in general, that we’re safe.
I say this in the context of a lingering question about the possibility of an ASI lurking in Google Services. I definitely know that’s not real — at all! — but it is fun to think about that possibility.
Trump’s power is you just never know what he’s going to do next, so you game out all these horrific scenarios only for most of the time nothing to happen. So, as Trump’s big deadline tonight at 8 p.m. approaches, we know one of two things will happen.
Either Trump TACOs in a big, beautiful way, or he actually does commit the war crimes of attacking bridges and powerplants.
But, as of right now, the afternoon leading up to that particular possibility, we just don’t know what is going to happen.
One issue that has started to bubble up into the forefront of my mind is the possibility that Trump might do something really nuts like order the use of, say, “baby” nukes on Iran in some way.
Makes you wonder what the reaction in the homeland would be to THAT. I don’t think Trump would do such a thing — would he? — but I am a little unnerved about the whole idea. I think if Trump used tactical nukes on Iran, it would be the closest possible time to Trump actually getting impeached by the Republicans.
But…that’s about it. He might, just MIGHT get impeached, but he still would never be convicted in the Senate.
So, to that extent, Trump is a king, an emperor, not a president and we’re no longer a republic. Oh well. Being a republic for about 250 years is about typical for such things.
The hope is, that once I finish this draft of this novel I’ve been working on for some time now that the NEXT time I go through it will be a breeze. I will just lightly edit it here and there to make absolutely sure that it’s in my own voice and people can’t accuse me “having AI write it.”
My fear, of course, is that I’ll read it the next time and see all these opportunities to make it better and that will slow me down significantly.
But as of right now, I’m feeling pretty good about this novel.
Though, it is of note that absolutely no on but me believes in any of this. I had an alarming conversation with a relative about the movie Ex Machina and….they pretty much said anyone who thought such things up must be some sort of twisted sicko.
I tried to tell her that, “Well….” but it did not register. Which makes me wonder what this person will say once this novel is finished and I MIGHT want her to read it. I find that doubtful now, though. No point.
I’m really going to struggle to find people to serve as Beta Readers I fear. And I’m growing really nervous about what kind of reception I should expect from the mostly liberal white women who make up literary agents. I’m kind of a kook and when they do due diligence on me…they might not like what they find.
And that doesn’t event begin to address the woke cancel culture mob generally not liking any sort of sex written by a smelly male, especially a smelly middle-aged male like me.
Anyway.
Right now, my biggest problem is I have too much information for the characters to process. Too many big events have happened in quick succession and I need to figure out a way to slow things down, to process information over the course of a few scenes, not just one.
One of the looming political mysteries of the latter years of the 2020s is who will be Trump’s successor. I still think there is a good chance that Trump won’t leave power or will run for a third term, but let’s just work on the scenario that Trump shuffles off this mortal coil sooner rather than later.
Tucker Carlson
But before we do, we have to address what would happen with Trump very much alive but out of office. I think he would weld an incredible amount of power to the point that I could even see him trying to become Speaker of the House. But, it is still very debatable if Trump will ever leave office.
So, let’s think about the…inevitable. What if Trump was suddenly no more?
This is such a mystery because Trump’s death cult is so beholden to his specific quirks that there just isn’t anyone one person who would be able to take up his mantle. There might be something of a power vacuum while things sorted out.
The one person I could see becoming Trump 2.0 is Tucker Carlson. He would be perfect for the role. He’s young, articulate and actually not certifiably insane. But I just don’t know. Maybe it would be someone else.
Who knows.
But if Trump departed us while in office, J.D. Vance would probably be America’s Putin and just be in office for at least two terms, maybe more. I just don’t see us being a traditional liberal democracy if that happens.
And, I also think that, in general, our democracy is dead. MAGA is here to stay and there’s no going back to the good old days.
You must be logged in to post a comment.