I smell a rat.

Is Ginger up to no good, here?

Anytime you introduce a character by counterpointing her with a rodent or weasel, that says something bad about the character.

How to form a writers' group.

My writers' group has been the best educational experience of my life. I won't give the name of the group, because we're on the edge of being victims of our own success. We have a simple game plan. Write, read, critique, and meet to do it face-to-face every week. Members bring their work in, pass out copies and read it aloud one-by-one. That's the procedure for fact, fiction or poetry. If it's a screenplay or stage script, the member assigns parts and has people read them aloud. A person can read or play out 2,000 words maximum. Then the rest of the writers can either give live critiques or write them (and any corrections) on the copies, which are also used to make minor corrections.

And I've been finishing 2,000 words every week. There were two weeks I took a vacation because the novel went off track and I was stressed-out over it. But I came back with the story straightened out and ready to progressed.

Amanda Todd revisted.

I ran across a youtube video that made my blood boil, and I got up today thinking of how I could answer, though probably in 500 characters or less.

The video is from T.J. "The Amazing Atheist." I used to subscribe to his channel, until he took views that I found to be shameful to the very name of atheism. Now he reminds me of Rush Limbaugh.

T.J. doesn't like all the sympathy Amanda Todd got. He pointed out that for what she did (being video'd online flashing her tits when she was 12) she didn't deserve the sympathy other people who get bullied deserve.

I think there are things that make Amanda Todd's bullying much more heinous than other cases. Misogyny is the main one: despising a female for her sexual choices and refusing to forgive her even after the she's dead. What she did as a minor was wrong but didn't hurt anybody. That's all that needs to be said. Nobody died, nobody was deprived no families were broken up because Amanda Todd flashed her tits. What she did was a misdemeanor for juvenile court.  

The actual bullies were in league with a pedophile, who knew exactly how to manipulate them. Where was the bullying and harassment for the adult who persuaded a minor to flash her tits, then used it to extort more nude videos from Todd?

Then those misogynistic, pedophile-enabling bullies wouldn't back off when it was clear Todd was suicidal. That's deep hatred. That's a hatred that comes from the dark evil corner of the human soul where genocide originates. That's the sort of hatred that should put a person in Hell. It makes me wish there were a Hell just so such hateful people would end up there. I hope it would be in the same pit of torment as the pedophiles. As far as I'm concerned, the people who kept harassing her after she became suicidal and made suggestions on how to succeed at it stopped being mere bullies and started being accessories to murder.

What's more, they won't stop hating her after she's dead. You still have posts saying she was a slut and doesn't deserve any sympathy. That is some major league despising there. I think if I were subjected to that and I couldn't get away from it, I don't think I could survive.

So, the argument goes with T.J. that Todd doesn't "deserve" pity as much as some other dead, bullied kids. Oh, horrors, T.J., a slut is getting something she doesn't deserve! Like getting something one doesn't "deserve" doesn't happen millions of times to millions of people a year. I'm sure Amanda Todd's sense of entitlement is bloated as a result of all the honor. If only she weren't dead, it would obviously make her a spoiled, bratty bitch.

Who says feeling bad about Todd makes it impossible to feel bad about other bullied kids? If people didn't have to argue against the late-comer bullies all the time, you probably wouldn't notice anybody missing any sympathy.

Nobody says Amanda Todd is a role model for anything, but what happened to her was a tragedy. What was done to her, far out of proportion to what she did,  was base human cruelty as much as any lynch mob. Tragedies invoke pity, and like people can control their emotions and just aim them surgically. That's not the way it works. Often, our emotions lead us, and there's no rationalization or judgment about it.

Amanda Todd's death wasn't just a case of bullying. It was misogynistic bullying, by both males and females. It was a case of pedophile-led misogynistic bullying. It was a case of persistent, pedophile-led, misogynistic bullying. I think I've made my argument that it was more despicable than most and is in a category all its own. And to anyone who says her morals negated sympathy, I say fuck you all.

The wrong tool, the wrong job.

It's said that doing a job properly requires the right tool, such as, the aphorism about not bringing a knife to a gun fight. In this country, citizens are obsessed over a particular set of tools: firearms. They talk about how likely it is a gun will be used in stopping a crime, and about how people should be given a choice about it.

Guns are specialized tools. An actuary can figure it out the risk, but what are the odds that you're going to get mugged or burglarized as compared to the odds that you'd lock your keys in the car? If the latter happens, you've brought the wrong tool to the situation.

Why so much sex and violence?

I read about the harshest most brutal scene I've ever written at my writer's group last week. It was full of blood, sex and violence, and violent sex, and even bad language. I wrote a graphic scene of a female werewolf raping and savagely murdering a human male, and that worried me. To my surprise, reviews were glowing. I was still too stressed when I got home to even look through them, and waited for two days.

At this point, I can't afford to censor my muse. Right now, I try to write what comes directly from unconscious, and then work to get the phrasing right and tone right. That's the short answer. More to come beneath the fold.

Is the Internet itself a surveillance tool?

The revelations in recent months about government surveillance has shocked people here and abroad. Besides the NSA, the most recent one is that the DEA Special Operations Division fishes the internet and cellphone conversations, and when it hears something incriminating or suspicious, passes it onto the appropriate local agency to then find evidence of the crime and hide where the investigation originated. This "investigation laundering" totally turns the 4th Amendment and the concept of “probable cause” on its head, and its done for criminal cases, not terrorists, not national security. It denies people a fair trial in several ways, one being that they can't confront their accusers.

There are reports of other government agencies scrambling to get their hands NSA information for use. I don't blame them. Let's face it. If the government is allowed to gather such information-- if anybody is-- the question of using it becomes moot. The temptation would be too strong, because it would be idiocy not to use it. Especially in moralistic “equivalent of” wars like the War on Drugs. If it's such a high moral cause, as the government treats it, what possible excuse is there to not use it?

Why does my personal NSA agent keep screwing up?

My NSA agent: artist depiction-- xenus-link-sleuth.en.softonic.com/

 
To My Personal NSA agent,

I hate to keep complaining, but you've made another mistake.

I made reservations for a trip to a Convention in September, but I made them for the wrong day. So, I had to change the reservations, it cost me $20 and a trip to Greyhound to correct it.

How could you possibly let me do that?

Keeping on task

I know a fellow writer turning pro, I'll post about his work sometime in the near future. He got an agent, which in itself is a pretty good accomplishment. After a few months of waiting, his agent was negotiating with a big publisher where at least a few of the editors loved his work.

That's good news, soon to be followed by bad news. A week from last Saturday, he had a “minor” heart attack. It was somewhat fortunate, because it turned out he had a whole bunch of artery blockages. It's better than a "silent" heart attack, where a part of your heart dies without saying anything, and much better than a "loud" major heart attack. He's only 44, and is a health nut and martial arts expert. You talk about being struck just on the edge of success. He must have a very strong family history of heart disease to have that happen to him.

He went through his multi-bypass operation and is now recovering, but what a scare and ordeal. And no, I don't know what's happening with the book deal. He hasn't shared that.

Depth

My mood slid this week. When I'm depressed, I don't talk to anybody. Speech seems to be the first thing that's suppressed. However, I can write, and seem to even write better when my mood is in the toilet.

However, there are exceptions. Writing was hard last week. I struggled to get through a scene, and I felt it took a thorough panning at my writers' group. I was so tired I couldn't even defend the installment. Others present might not have seen it as too bad, but for me, considering what I tried to do, it was torture.

I know I haven't written here much. My attention has been focused more on completing a list of tasks. Like, I donated some junk that had been cluttering up my place and my storage cubical. I sold my car for a bag of beans and a can of cat foot. With a partially blown engine, the car wouldn't sell for more than $100. I have to admit parting with it felt like a real step down. My hand shook so much I couldn't get the key off the ring.

Those are the kinds of things I've been doing. However, between those and writing, I've been neglecting physical activity, and I spend ninety-seven percent of my time alone. I don't have a psychiatrist or counselor right now, because the community mental health center I go to is between interns. They get rid of them every year and it takes 2-3 months to get any in. So, when I'm down, there's really not much support. And I'm having just as much trouble socially as I ever did. That part does depress me because it has never actually gotten better. There was a time that I tried harder, though, and regretted it.  

So, I'm taking a break. I'd call it a vacation, but I'm not vacating anywhere. I'm replacing writing with exercise for a week, and for another week (if I can stand it) I'll probably be playing Civ, since that seems to raise my mood.

So, I'll come back to writing fiction two weeks. 

Skull dump.

I saw a movie the other night, John Dies at the End. It started out so well. The first several scenes were comical, that is, written gags, verbal and physical, with punchlines. Those scenes were hilarious. They raised my hopes so much. Unfortunately, after the beginning, it stopped being comedy with some horror elements and started to be just campy horror. They needed to go more one way or the other, either make it more comical, or make it less comical and more horrifying. In a way, it reminded me of Phantasm, a schlocky horror movie of the '70s; except that movie wasn't deliberately made to be campy. There's something about willfully making a movie to look and sound bad that ruins laughs, especially if you're paying to see it.