Regular readers of this blog will know that my journey toward becoming a published writer (and hopefully soon a published novelist) has been one of endurance and perseverance rather than overnight success. In other words, a bit of a slog.
Just like every other writer in the history of the world. At least 99.9% of us.
That said, in the last few months, good fortune has smiled on me. Or the hard work has paid off. Or a little of both.
I read recently fired ex-Google employee James Damore’s “left bias” manifesto with much interest. I think a lot of people (especially younger white males) feel the same way he does.
Damore’s memo starts off with some reasonable assertions that there are statistical psychological differences, on average, between men and women. No problem there, even though some of the broader generalizations struck me as outlandish, and weren’t backed by evidence. Damore goes on to assert that Google has a politically and culturally left bias, which makes me wonder what he was thinking when he signed up to work at a Silicon Valley tech company. Finally, Damore makes the leap that because the gender and ethnicity gaps in tech are not solely due to bias (but also because of innate biological differences), that Google’s diversity programs are discriminatory, and therefore they should be eliminated or opened to white males.
As regular readers know, my family gave up our car about a year-and-a-half ago. Our lease ended, we turned in the car, and we didn’t get another one. The idea was to go one month without a car and see if we could get around with biking, walking, public transportation, Lyft, and the occasional rental.
Overall the experiment has been a success. I’ve written about the experience at length in the followings posts:
A few months ago my story “The Fo’dekai Artifact” was published in the online speculative fiction zine Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores. Since the site is subscription based, I wasn’t able to share the story via direct link unless you were subscribed (and some did subscribe because of my story–thank you).
Anyway, some good news for science fiction/fantasy/eldritch fans who read this blog … editor Fran Eisemann has kindly offered me some free subscriptions to give out to readers. I’m not sure exactly how many, so sign up while the links are hot:
No worries.
Over the past couple months I’ve been maintaining two new lists:
I update both on a weekly basis, along with progress towards my current goals. The point of the new lists is to get better in touch with aspects of my life that are effecting my emotional state. And to find ways to deal with the former, and enhance/magnify the latter.
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