skepticlysm

Tag: sci-fi

  • Now We’re Playing with Portugals

    Now We’re Playing with Portugals

    • “Retire 17.5 years early by moving to Portugal!”
    • That ad popped up in Instagram first thing this morning.
    • Ah, yes please?
    • No, I don’t speak Portuguese, but …  I can learn enough to buy groceries, order from a menu, and get bus and train tickets.
    • Plus, five years and you can become an EU citizen!
    • Having lived in Europe … Yes, I would move there and never come back.
    • The terms of my current indenturedship do not allow for such hopes, but …
    • Yes, yes I would.
    • Steph and I trade house listings from Norway and Denmark.
    • You can get a place for less than $200k.
    • Sure, you’re living in the artic north, and close to those desperate Russians, but … it’s affordable and the scenery is a helluva lot better than Oklahoma.
    • The thing I keep stressing to my daughter … do your best to not go into debt, because debt keeps you from freedom.
    • Debt and fear of financial insecurity has kept me from acting on many things I’d like to have done.
    • Anyway, what’s up.
    • Happy Tuesday.
    • Yesterday, saw some random article telling me NOT to post anything personal on Facebook or social media.
    • Duh.
    • Those darn hackers!
    • Again, I have f-all for them to take, but … what’s the point of social media if you can’t be, you know, social on it.
    • You do not connect with people if you’re not sharing.
    • They’re going to have to call social media something else.
    • Or at least all this shit that’s been monetized.
    • We’re going to have to boot up old versions of social and get back to its roots.
    • “They” have made it hard.
    • I saw this Instagram video, a guy (bupc_boopsy) I’ve seen before who posts GenX stuff.
    • He talked about posting on social like I do, how we do it, and more importantly, why.
    • “Social media is the equivalent of that yard with all the bikes parked on it.”
    • “We were the background noise of society.”
    • “There are so many GenXers on social media because it’s the first time in our lives anyone has asked us what we think.”
    • “We’re not here to be recognized, to be influencers, we’re just here to be seen, to shout into the void and to finally hear somebody yell back, ‘Dude. Same.’”
    • The reel resonated.
    • (I’ll put the link in the comments.)
    • Dude is doing what I’m trying to do, only I don’t like to be on camera.
    • The type-written word or nothing.
    • But I can build community, by god.
    • Which is odd coming from an introvert.
    • I’m kind of an extroverted introvert.
    • Depends on who’s around.
    • At some point, I’ll flip the audience switch from Friends Only to … everyone.
    • Maybe.
    • I’m not sure I want to add the non-filtered dumbfucks to the comment section.
    • (Same on the Discord.)
    • So yeah.
    • Not the Monday rant.
    • I think you should expect ranting on Mondays.
    • Sorta my schtick.
    • That’s my crazy.
    • After I finished yesterday’s list, got all that out of my system, I started a new Word doc with notes.
    • I’m writing from that.
    • Next up, books.
    • After watching the show, I threw a couple of those Dept. Q books on my Kindle.
    • 2025: the year of book sampling.
    • Because I’m having trouble sticking.
    • Again, it’s me, probably, not the books.
    • I’ve started three books in three days.
    • “Navola,” Paolo Bacigalupi
    • “Nettle & Bone,” T. Kingfisher (mentioned yesterday)
    • “Modern Divination,” Isa Agajanian
    • Other than the first one, those other two were on the TBR list.
    • “Navola” started pretty good.
    • Might stick with it.
    • My reading reflects my mood: restless.
    • The “Project Hail Mary” trailer looked good.
    • Book accurate.
    • And it was a fun book.
    • Much closer to “The Martian” than “Artemis” was.
    • Dude has a simple writing style, but it’s jam-packed with well researched knowledge.
    • Simple is good, and I enjoy his stuff.
    • Off the cuff, I feel like I read more sci-fi than fantasy.
    • I’m not sure it’s true.
    • Probably closer to even.
    • Goes in cycles.
    • Like last year, I read all that Gibson and Doctorow stuff.
    • Which reminds me …
    • Now is a super good time to read “Little Brother” if you haven’t.
    • That trilogy is good stuff, and current events relevant.
    • But yeah, sci-fi is good.
    • I wish I wrote it.
    • During the pandemic, I started a short about AIs (not A1s) going for joy rides in implanted humans.
    • Need to finish that.
    • It’s more of a novella than a short, but definitely not a book.
    • Gotta get the book out of the way so I can work on some other stuff.
    • Stay on target.
    • Tons of good sci-fi to read.
    • Gibson.
    • Doctorow.
    • Scalzi (“Old Man’s War”).
    • Simmons (“Hyperion”).
    • The annual reread of “Dune.”
    • The semi-annual reread of “Ender’s Game.”
    • Those “Murderbot” novels are a good time, though overpriced.
    • (There’s a good story about those books saving the life of the author …)
    • And on and on.
    • Youtube fed me an electronic artist, Caught In Joy, yesterday after I watched that trailer.
    • Digging it so far.
    • Retro-atmospheric electronica.
    • I started to go look him up because of the AI thing, but seems to be legit because I was not fed it by spotify …
    • Ugh.
    • We’re living in a Gibsonian dystopia.
    • Yay?
    • Okay, I’m out.
    • Gotta head to the hospital … to get the PICC removed!
    • Wooooooooo

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DLYE3V4umZO