Tuesday News 07/04/2020

Warm(er) weather is coming. Will it really bring hope? We’ll see.

They keep threatening us with the freakin’ 24-hour curfew, and they keep changing what they’re saying. It kinda feels like they have no idea what to do and like they’re trying to blame this group or that, thus turning people against each other.

It might be a good idea to stop at that.

Current mood?

And other than that?

I’m working a bit, and stocking up on necessities. Not like a crazy hoarder or prepper, but they are threatening us with a 24-hour curfew for 8 days, or 14 days, or who knows how long, and with no ability to go out and buy groceries (I wonder what happens to garbage, should we throw it out of our windows and create a new health hazard?).

I’m also reading, though it’s hard to focus.

Currently reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Nothing like post-apocalyptic fiction during the pandemic.

Recently read: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick. Unlike most of his books, this one isn’t exactly science fiction, and yet, it’s so much Philip K. Dick. Which means, it’s wonderful. Beautiful. Go on and read it.

Currently watching: I’ve recently watched a course about Facebook ads targeting, but other than that, nothing.

Currently working on: orders from clients, when I get them. And trying to keep slightly mad still within the realm of slightly.

Yes, I’m being melodramatic. I’m anxious, and also annoyed, more than anything else. Actually going mad? Nope. Nowhere near it.

I’ve petted a cat today. You can’t go mad after petting a cat, everyone knows that.

You can stop rambling, though, which is what I’m going to do now, and then I’ll go back to that post-apocalyptic world.

Friday News 8/3/18

So, what’s new?

I’m still having fun at Medium. Fresh stuff I posted there includes:

“Where Do You Get Ideas?” Part I

“Where Do You Get Ideas?” Part II

A Great Thing Happened After My Story Got Rejected

Follow — Unfollow? No, Thanks

The Sleeping Beauty and Her Mother-In-Law

The first four are articles, the last one is a new story (inspired by the fairy tale, as you can see from the title).

I’m still playing at Unsplash, too. My submissions were accepted and are now searchable in their database. 22 photos so far, I’ll add more soon. Check them out (and use them if you like them!) here! Cats, dogs, sea, street art, sunsets, snow, fun stuff!

Recently, I’ve watched some TV series. Patrick Melrose was a pretty good drama, though Hugo Weaving manages to steal the show from Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the main character. Don’t get me wrong, Cumberbatch is good, but Weaving made his highly abusive character both scary and charming at the same time. It’s not the kind of charming you’d enjoy, and yet, there you are, first feeling uneasy, then scared, then, possibly, terrified, but leaving isn’t as easy as one might think it is, and you’re still kind of drawn to that charm… Scary. And well done.

The Punisher was another interesting one, although they made it look more like a story about a guy suffering from PTSD and sometimes getting violent, than it is about, well, Punisher. While it was interesting to watch, I miss the Punisher who’s a psychopath going after the bad guys (hey, it’s fun to read about, and it’s a more interesting character study).

The fourth season of Black Mirror was a good one, too. Of course, not all the episodes are equally good, but the season does offer a variety of stories about the dark side of technology, humans being bad, humans being good, love, families, parenting, survival, vengeance, humans trying to fix a mess that is or isn’t their fault… Watch it, if you like.

Wednesday News 7/25/18

I’ve been playing!

As mentioned in the previous post, I have published a new story, Things That Make You Go Woof, on Medium. After that, I’ve published nine more stories there (old ones), and today, I’ve posted the first part of an article talking about what inspired me to write those ten stories. The next (and the last) part will be published on Friday; it’s already written and in the “Drafts” section, so you can count on it actually appearing in two days.

I’ve been playing with photos, too, and uploading them to Unsplash. You can check my account here; so far, there are 10 photos because of the uploading limits, but there will be more. One of the photos is the same one you see at the top of this post; the rest are dogs, cats, sunsets, snow in the playground… Since they’re on Unsplash, you can use them as you like, totally free.

What else is new? I’ve attended Japanizam (now called “Balkan Asia Convention”), and had a great time at various panels, and surrounded by cosplayers.

Her first cosplay!

chimenya_cosplay and me

A very friendly dog

Ninja didn’t mind posing

And finally, I had the opportunity (and happily used it!) to watch Ederlezi Rising, a Serbian Sci-Fi drama (it’s in English, so you won’t need subtitles or a translator). Right now, it’s going from festival to festival; if you get a chance to see it, and if you’re in the mood for a movie about a relationship between a human and an android, I recommend it.

Wait, a relationship between a human and a robot? Well, yes, Sort of. Here’s the official description:

Ederlezi Rising is an exciting science fiction story set in near future about the pioneering space mission to Alpha Centauri undertaken by the multinational Ederlezi Corporation.

Ederlezi recruits Milutin, a Slav cosmonaut trained in the newly reformed futuristic Soviet Union, and accompanies him with Nimani, a female android programmed to fulfill whatever Milutin desires. Bored by an endless succession of different sexual games and pre-programmed behaviors, Milutin decides to reboot Nimani and make her work only based on custom settings generated from her experiences with him. That way he turns her into something closest to a person that an android can ever become. However, upon becoming a person, Nimani gets depressed and destructive. Milutin realizes that Nimani may not only jeopardize their mission but also lead to self-destruction.

The thing is, Milutin refuses to acknowledge that Nimani is an android, not a human being, and that she can’t possibly become a “real woman”. Instead, we get an android who is pissed off because its operative system and a huge chunk of the data it needs to fulfill its task (to keep Milutin stable and fit for his job) were removed, and a man who keeps telling himself that he has “made a real woman out of an android” and “liberated her”. And that is a very interesting relationship, with the human unable to truly understand the android, and the android unable to truly understand the man it’s designed to help.

Do watch it, if you get a chance.