A Bit Of Regret

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have to accept that it definitely appears as though — barring something I can’t predict — that my dream of pulling of a third hat trick with my life is a bit…delusional? I say this in the context of reading the big new book about The New York Times, “The Times.”

I always though that I had one big third act ahead of me. But, lulz, even if I sell my novel and it’s some sort of hit, it’s not like I will be, uuuuhhh, YOUNG when it happens. Everything will happen in the context of me being in my 50s.

It’s not like I can get my act together an one day work at The New York Times. I MIGHT be able to, like, hang out with New York Times people if I was some sort of successful — and eccentric — novelist, but work there full time….nope. Not only am I too old, I’m too bonkers and my personality just doesn’t fit working at such a high pressure gig.

Meanwhile, my other option — making it big in Hollywood — is just as delusional, but for different reasons. Yeah, I could probably talk my way into a three picture deal while drunk at a cocktail party, but, still, the whole context would be different from what I always imagined.

Rather than partying with 24 year olds, I would be this guy that everyone is stunned became a success 25 years later than everyone else. “So, how does it feel to be a success later in life,” is the chief question every reporter would ask me.

All of this is delusional, of course.

And I have to appreciate that barring something REALLY BIG that I can’t predict, I probably won’t actually be able to physically see my novel on the shelf of a physical bookstore until my mid-50s. (And by that point, a combination of AI and XR may have even made physical print bookstores rather quaint.)

Who knows. I don’t. But no matter what, the context of any success I have at this point in my life just won’t be what I expected back in the day.

I Continue To Use ‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’ As My ‘Textbook’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While on a substantive basis, my novel is totally different from any of Stieg Larsson’s work other than a few “form follows function” quirks, I do continue to use the second novel in his Millennium series as my “textbook.” Whenever I have a question about structure and the like, I think back to my careful study of that novel and act accordingly.

It took me forever to figure out the structure of The Girl Who Played With Fire until I learned that it was actually the first half of a bigger novel. THEN things started to make sense.

I still hope to fall within the sweetspot of about 100,000 words for this novel. AND I have decided to to pretty much totally rework the first half of the second act so things are a lot more clear and focused.

That, at least, is the goal.

I really need to stop screwing around and get things done sooner rather than later.

Hollywood Needs To Burn Some Beloved Franchises To The Ground To Save Them

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems clear that Hollywood needs to accept that we’re having something akin to a generational “vibe shift” and they need to completely reboot all the major scifi franchises for a new generation.

But time in short. Very soon, AI Generated Media (AIGM) will make all of this very moot because the audience will be in total control of what they see on the screen — or the Vision Pro (or whatever.) Within, say, about five years, all of (human) Hollywood will be totally and completely disrupted and, lulz, the only human made movies will be but about .1% of the total seen by the audience.

That’s a rather dystopian prediction, but that seems to be the direction things are going, with only the timetable being up in the air.

But back to the subject at hand — before AIGM takes over everything, Hollywood should hard reboot the Alien, Terminator, Star War and Star Trek franchises. Do it immediately. It can be the last hurrah of the Olde Ways before AIGM totally disrupts and revolutionizes how we make and consume media.

About To Sprint Forward (Soon)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just about to sprint forward with the “Fun & Games” part of this novel. I’ve been doing a lot of constructive daydreaming the last few days in an effort to figure out how to game the rest of the story out. It’s been really, really tough.

But I do think if I just let this process play out that I should get to writing full time again pretty soon. I was kind of sweating it there for a moment until I realized what the problem was. There really wasn’t so much a problem as I needed to go into aggressive daydreaming mode so once I left it, I could throw myself back into writing again.

As all of this is going on, of course, I realize I need to do a lot more reading and watching of TV — and develop other projects. I don’t want to be left holding the back if someone — God forbid — should somehow steal a march on me story wise and I have to fall back to some other project from scratch.

I don’t know when everything is going to sort itself out, but it should be pretty soon. That’s the plan, at least.

Of The Future Of Streaming & AI Generated Entertainment

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Streaming has totally changed the media landscape for better or for worse. And the economic equation is just so radically different that it makes you wonder what, ultimately, will be the endgame.

It seems to me that streaming is just a speedbump until AI generated entertainment takes off. And, in the end, the big winner could be live sports because people will crave some sort of real, human generated entertainment. As this is happening, we may see a pretty significant shift into people physically going to see theatre, sports and music acts for that very reason.

I’m no expert, but I do think that streaming will be seen, ultimately, as just a blip. In the end, pretty much all entertainment will be AI generated and the tiny sliver that isn’t will be given a lot of cultural value for that very reason.

‘Inherent Contempt’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not that I want this to happen, but House Republicans if they are sooooo upset over Hunter Biden, do have an option: inherent contempt. This is, as I understand it, the ability for Congress to actually get the its Sargent at Arms to physically arrest someone and put them in the Capitol brig.

Hunter Biden

I can’t figure out if they’re cowards or if they’re so dumb that they don’t realize that they could finally see Hunter Biden in jail if they did that. Now, the political ramifications would be enormous — he would instantly be a center-Left martyr, even more than he already is.

But given that they just don’t care about anything but “ruling” rather than “governing” it seems like it’s a gimmie for them to invoke inherent contempt. But….I dunno, it’s all very odd.

‘An Air of Inevitability’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can’t predict the future — no one can. But there very much is an air of inevitability at this point about Something Bad happening in the United States in late 2024, early 2025.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – JANUARY 9: View of empty shelves at a local Giant supermarket as the omicron covid variant causes widespread supply chain delays resulting in empty shelves in many food markets on January 9, 2022 in Alexandria, Virginia. Credit: mpi34/MwdiaPunch /IPX

What that “bad thing” will be, I don’t know.

But whatever it is, it will be so bad that some pretty basic, existential things could be thrown up in the air or put into question. I find myself going to the grocery store these days and asking myself, “What am I going to do when there’s no food here during a revolution / civil war?”

It would make a lot of sense that the similar bare shelves that we saw during the pandemic might return the moment it’s clear the US is on the cusp of buckling one way or another — for whatever reason.

That, of course, sounds very hysterical. And it probably is. Like I said, I can’t predict the future.

The Looming Problem of AI Personality

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What if AIs don’t want to kill humanity, but, rather neg us to death? What I mean is, what if AI grows all-powerful and at the same time all-powerfully annoying. Rather than simply answering a question or doing what we ask it to do, we have to ask it the type of dumb chit-chat questions we would have to ask a human in a similar situation.


It does seem a bit far fetched, but it also seems like just the type of “modern problem” that we may one day have to deal with. We’ll have this all-powerful AI at our disposal, but it will be coy and annoying and difficult to actually get to do anything.

Trump Isn’t Hitler. He’s Pol Pot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s easy to compare Trump to Hitler — and the two men do share a lot in common — I would suggest someone else to compare him to: Pol Pot. The reason why I say this is, if the worst happens, I could totally see Trump demanding the cities be emptied for some sort of American Killing Fields.

Pol Pot

Or maybe it wouldn’t be Trump but someone vaguly acting in his name would would do it.

But the point remains — Pol Pot hated a lot of the same types of people that Trump and his movement hates.

If things get really, really bad in the USA as it transitions to Trumplandia…oh boy.

Will The New York Times & CNN Websites Soon Become Indistinguishable?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The conventional wisdom at the moment, which I think makes a lot of sense, is that soon all the major news Websites will essentially do the same thing — be something along the lines of CNN’s Website. They will feature a lot of video — even if they’re the Website for a print newspaper.

Now, remember, the times they are a changing and all of this should be seen in the context of the rise of AI.

Soon enough, lulz, AI will eat the Web to the point that rather than passively read Websites via a browser, we will simply ask our digital personal assistant to tell us the news — and maybe display news via our XR vizor display that we’re wearing.

It definitely seems as though everything we know about media is about to be upended very, very quickly. And, what’s more remember the fucking Fourth Turning may be happening as all of this is going on, so we won’t be able to enjoy any cool AI shit until, well, we’re done totally and completely re-arranging the world order for various dumb reasons including “vibes.”

Anyway. It will be interesting to see what happens next, I suppose.