Outsiders

If anyone asks me why I voted for Trump on 2020, I am going to point them to this ad. A couple weeks ago some guys in California put up a Trump sign on the hills above the 405 freeway, near the Getty Museum. LA County officials took it down, even though it was on private land, under the guise of “it disrupted traffic”. Flimsy excuse. Then they made this video of putting the sign up and overlaid a Trump speech. The results are fantastic.

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Hold my beer

A while back I read Scott Adams’ book How to Fail At Everything And Still Win Big. It’s a discussion of how he went from lowly engineer in a cubicle at PG&E to creator of one of the most popular and successful comics (Dilbert). In the book he talks a lot about having a system, rather than goals. He argues that a structure or system for your life will be better in the long run than some big goal sitting out there on the “someday” horizon. In other words, have a system for your days, weeks, months. So, get up. At least put on workout clothes because that will feel like you’re going to work out and you will be more inclined to do so. If you put the goal of working out everyday on your calendar, you’re putting unnecessary stress on yourself. Instead, just get up and put on the work out clothes. That’s the system.

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Can’t stop the signal

Glenn Reynolds, a.k.a. Instapundit writes a regular column for USA Today. This week, for the first time, USA Today refused to run his column. He posted it in its entirety on Instapundit and it’s also now up at PJ Media. Because censorship is vile and must be fought at every turn, I am also reposting Glenn’s column below. As Mr. Universe said in Firefly, “You can’t stop the signal, Mal.” Keep the signal going.

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Cursebreaker Part 21

I missed sending in a prompt for Week 42 at More Odds Than Ends, so I picked up one of the spares. The prompt I chose was: The architect who specialized in designing hidden rooms. I was looking for one that would allow me to easily insert it into the Cursebreaker story. I think I know where this story is going now and I’m going to be working on finishing it up. That is…I will after I wrap up Book 2 in the Academic Magic series (at least get draft one finished), and finish and submit two short stories. I am busier than I was as an academic and I don’t even have any grading or prep to do! At the same time, I am extremely grateful to be this busy and to have avenues opening up in front of me. It has been amazing to discover this creative streak in myself that I never knew existed before. So much fun!

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Cursebreaker Part 20

Week 41 for the Odd Prompts and once again, I got a prompt from Leigh Kimmel. These prompts are making me think! And that’s not a bad thing…but, brain hurt. Anyway, this was Leigh’s prompt: Under Pressure” is the title of a song by Queen and a novel by Frank Herbert — connection? For extra credit, also tie in Billy Joel’s “Pressure” and ZZ Top’s “She’s Got Me Under Pressure.

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Fear again

I wrote about fear back in May (wow, it’s been that long?) and wrote several times since about Karens and fear, masks and fear, and fear itself again. It seems like the spring, summer, and now fall has been one long battle against fear. For some of my friends, fear is winning. They are afraid to go out as they once did because Wuhan Flu. They’re afraid we’re turning into a fascist/authoritarian/dystopian state…or Russia. They’re afraid of the changes they see around them…whether those changes may be for good or ill.

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Cursebreaker Part 19

Right now, I haven’t been doing much writing besides the prompts from More Odds Than Ends. But, that’s still a good thing as I’m making progress on Cursebreaker (of a sort). Since today is Monday I am (once again) setting out a daily schedule for myself, and doing my damnedest to stick to it. I am a professional procrastinator and that gets in the way of a lot of productive work. I have noticed that I have to keep reminding myself that this is not the same as writing research articles. I really LIKE writing fiction. I honestly do. But I think there’s something about sitting down to write that pulls me back to the mind-set of my academic career. And that mind-set disliked the research and required article-producing end of things.

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