"Project: Spiral" - Chapter 1 (part 2)

If you are new to Project:  Spiral, then click here to read the Prologue, or click here to read from the start of Chapter 1.  Otherwise, welcome back!

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Writing Prompts: SpOOooOOky Sarcasm Edition

I kinda liked how the last batch of writing prompts turned out, so I'm doing another one - but this time, they're horror-themed!  These are fewer in number, but also longer, so you can judge the quantity/quality ratio for yourself.  Mostly hot takes, plenty of sarcasm, and maybe I'll even be able to tie a few together like last time!

Voyager 2 Is Leaving the Neighborhood!

We interrupt this regularly-scheduled blog to bring you (somewhat) breaking news:  Voyager 2 is nearing the heliopause!

"What's the heliopause," you ask?  Why, it's the very outermost - wait, didn't I write about this before?

Yes, I did.  Back when Voyager 1 did it.

But now it's Voyager 2's turn for a day in the spotlight!  I'll spare you the gushing (as I've already done it), and leave you with some further reading links:

• Wikipedia on the Heliosphere
• NASA on Voyager 2's update (5 Oct)
• NASA on the Voyager mission in general
• Gizmodo on Voyager's continuing discoveries

I'm gonna go contemplate interstellar distances for a bit.  Cheers!

TERF-Busting #1.5: The Cotton Ceiling, Really.

Last time on TERF-Busting, I introduced the Cotton Ceiling and talked about it a bit more than I did when I mentioned it in Transphobia Busting.  Today I'll be critiquing FactCheckMe's (FCM's) essay on it, and wrapping up this installment.

We're getting there, believe me.  (Image from femonade.)

The basic idea is that FCM has a well-formed piece that happens to not work, which is a shame because I actually agree with most of what she's written in her introductory matter.  It also sounds like she's dealt with or at least heard about some shitty trans folks, which always sucks because hurt people hurt people & all that.

101 Interesting Things, part fifty-six: Periodicity

The periodic table of elements is something I was aware of in grade school, but I didn't realize why it was called that until high school chemistry class.

I thought I had a joke lined up for here, but I'm not sure, because

I periodically forget them.  (Image taken from Wikipedia.)

My chemistry class was basically a college class, though - like, to the point that in actual college chemistry class, I didn't buy the textbook, own a calculator, or go to half the lectures (my buddy & I signed each other in because we're the fucking worst), and I got the highest grade on the first exam after being the first one done.  This is not to toot my own horn, I'm saying that's how much stuck despite my slacker habits because my high school chemistry teacher was awesome.  So I don't know what a "normal" high school education in chemistry is like, but I think this is interesting, so I'ma riff on it today.

"Project: Spiral" - Chapter 1 (part 1)

Chapter 1:  Genesis II - God Takes a Mulligan.

WARNING:  This is the first draft of Chapter 1.  It has since been revised.  I'm leaving it up because I like it.  The current version of Chapter 1 is located here.

In the beginning, there was nothing.

    (Boring, I know.  Don’t worry, it gets better.  Eventually)

Then God said (well, me - not God, exactly), “LET THERE BE - umm - SOMETHING!”

    And magically, there was!  (Well, not “magic” per se, but it’s a lot easier to explain that way.)

    So it didst cometh to pass that on the first day, there was “Comic.”  It didst sucketh, but lo, it got better, in accordance with the prophecy.  (We’re not quite there yet, though.) And for a time, it was good. But then things happened, like schoolwork, and girlfriends, and parties, and jobs - you know, stuff, life - and Comic was no more, and darkness didst falleth upon the land.

    But God (me again) didst not stoppeth thinking about Comic, and the more God thought, the more God wanted to do it over, but better this time.  A cycle of mental refinement and rewriting didst then spiraleth in upon itself, like unto the flushings of yon toilet (whichever one is closest to you, really).

    On that first day, God (still me) was but a child of seventeen years.  The spiraling is now done, but the tale has not yet been told. But there is no more Comic - now, there is only “Book.”  And the Old Fan and the New Reader didst both readeth Book, and they didst looketh at each other with a great befuddlement and ask, “Hey, isn’t this a little bit self-indulgent at this point?”

    Which, I mean, sure.  All novels are, to some degree, but this one probably quite a bit.  But if you think about it, even God (real God this time) probably wrote the Bible on the recommendation of her therapist.

Oh, and if you find yourself offended that I called myself God earlier, or that I referred to God as a woman just now, don’t worry - God is imaginary.  Nobody got mad at gender-swapped Superman, they just said OK and got on with their lives.  Didst getteth on, whatever. So be more like comics fans. But not the current 21st-century comics fans who get butt-hurt every time something comes along that’s not For White Straight Cis Men Only.  They suck. I mean like the 1960s comics fans who - wait, they may or may not have opposed school integration, and I do not want to go on a wiki walk about that right now, so how about we just forget about it?  The point is, chill the fuck out.

If you are OFFENDED, ANGRY, or THINKING A SENTENCE STARTING WITH “WELL, ACTUALLY” right now, then please put down this book, go have a snack, and lie down for a nap.  You’ve earned it, champ. You don’t want the rest of what’s in here.

If you are WEIRDED OUT, KIND OF INTRIGUED, or - best case scenario, here - MILDLY AMUSED, then click here.

TERF-Busting #1: Introducing the Cotton Ceiling

I mentioned the Cotton Ceiling in passing at the top of my second post on Transphobia Busting.  Today I want to dig a little deeper.  As I deliberately disregard the meta-gaming tactic of worrying about driving traffic to places I oppose (otherwise I wouldn't be able to get any real research done on opposing viewpoints), I'll just be directly linking to this femonade article, and addressing it will be the meat of today's post.

And this is the diagram I'll mostly be talking about.  (Image from femonade.)

As usual, this is aimed primarily at people around middle age who have heard of trans issues but don't know a lot about them and don't have the time to bite deep into research & discourse.  There will also be a good deal less cussing today.  Maybe not any!  As a final caveat, I'll be supplying some examples from my personal life, adding to the pile of reasons I keep a crowbar separation between this blog and my professional life.  Let's get started!

Writing Prompts: Sarcasm Edition

I'll be at my girlfriend M's house through Christmas and don't expect to get a lot of writing done, so this post is actually coming to you from the past!  Except every post I guess is technically from the past (thank you, paraphrased Mitch Hedberg).  Point being, I'm cranking out almost two months of writing, and I wanted to flex my creativity a bit, so I looked up a list of creative writing prompts to get away from all the science and trans stuff I've been writing about lately.

Except all I could think of was either erotica, something way too personal, or both, or sarcasm.  Guess which one this is?  Oh, shit, you prolly already saw the title.  Pardon me while I facepalm, and check below the cut for some hot sarcastic takes.

"Project: Spiral" - Prologue

Prologue:  The End of a Long Day

Inside.  June, 2001.

    An elf, a dwarf, a half-giant, and a ninja walk into a dark tavern in the middle of the night.  The dwarf drinks ale, and the rest drink water. Around a single lamp, the elf speaks of magic and metaphysics, but the others are far too exhausted to pay much attention - except for the dwarf, who is happy to have his ale and asks way too many questions.

    The four are tired because they have had a long day:  between them, they have spoken with a prophet, killed bandits and monstrous creatures in the woods, matched wits with a magic mirror, been betrayed by their erstwhile companions, slain a nest of goblins, explored ancient ruins, and dispatched a rogue necromancer, all while dealing with immortal assassins who are after their souls.  But on the bright side, most of the people they have run into think they are demigods, which buys them a measure of goodwill and forbearance - and a good thing, too, because the dwarf and the ninja were more or less literally born yesterday.

    On top of that, there is the orphan they robbed, the lone goblin they befriended, the peace treaty they offered to negotiate between the local townsfolk and the restless natives, and the fact that the ninja might be losing her mind - all of which may or may not have happened, depending on how you read this book.

    The elf is a mystic, and Sees all these possibilities and more.  But she has spent the last several months locked up in a cavern with only the crazed necromancer for company, so she is understandably beyond caring at this particular moment.  Right now, all she really wants is a long, hot shower.

To READ THE FIRST CHAPTER, click here.

If you came here from CHAPTER 8, then click here to go to Chapter 9.

TERF-busting 0.5: TERF Origins

I've decided that I'm going to do Trans Tuesdays instead of Trans Thursdays, so with that housekeeping out of the way, let's get right back to it!  Last time, I covered the raison d'être of this series and gave an ever-so-brief overview of the waves of feminism, so today I'll be reviewing trans women's role in the second wave and how TERFs came to be.

New Book Announcement - "Project: Spiral"

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, my best friend and I started a webcomic.  It was fun, and we liked doing it, but soon we got too busy with college and just couldn't hack it any more.  I, for one, loved to draw characters and fight scenes, but hated drawing backgrounds all the time.

We put it down, and I had a couple false starts with it later on, but I never really let it go in my head.  I kept revising things and changing things around, only ever writing down a few key ideas, but I kept those pages.  And it occurred to me recently that, while I don't have the time to do a comic any more, I could certainly do it as a book.

I got a few pages in, and the thing that struck me most forcefully was how good and natural it felt.  Like, I can't believe this is the first time in the last 15-odd years that I thought to do the story as a book.  And now, the more I think about it, the more it fits, so I'm going to start posting about that.

As when I was writing The Quantum Mechanic, I'll occasionally post about other things, but probably most of my posting is going to be about this for a while.  I know there will be a burst of activity at the start, and then I'll feel kinda "blah" about the whole thing when it hits the work phase, but there are other things to write about so that should carry me through.

Anyway, it's called Project:  Spiral, and it's an adventure to do with self-discovery, mental health, tropes, and games - all with a little "Choose Your Own Adventure©"-esque twist.  If those things appeal to you, then stay tuned!

TERF-Busting #0 - Introduction

TERF stands for "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism/ist," and is a term that was coined by a cis woman to describe a troubling trend in radical feminism that she had noticed for some time and decided to name:  that some radical feminists ("radfems") were being super transphobic.  This was weird, because second-wave feminism ("the one we don't talk about") was pretty trans-inclusive all the way in the beginning, and...

You know what?  There's a lot to unpack just there, so I need to start earlier.

"Who ordered the SWERF & TERF?"  See, the lobster is for trans folks,
and the steak is for misogyny-laden metaphors.  (Image from Wikipedia.)

A bullet list of links will go here when I'm reasonably into this (looks like we've got Trans Thursdays going, which really makes me wish I'd chosen Tuesdays instead), but for now just know that a general introduction is below the cut.