Things that need to be done for better inter-peoples communication.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they view themselves, the people they are a part of, or a particular outside group. This is an extension of “show me your friends and I will show you who you are”. It is about how you talk to your friends.

Illusions of life, celebrity, and society, part whatever of millions

As I believe much of the trimmings make clear, I started this journal with one very specific purpose in mind. To add my voice and perspective to the so-called debate about autism civil rights. I say so-called debate because as any person who pays attention to the proper meanings of words can tell you, debate implies something. It implies that there are two (or more) sides to the argument, and both have a certain amount of demonstrable merit.

Some closing thoughts for the month.

July is an odd part of the year from my perspective. My mother was born in the last week of it, and I was diagnosed with diabetes exactly thirty years to that day. I have already resolved that if my dream of being in the Human trials for a cure for diabetes comes true, I will ask them to do that procedure on my mother’s birthday. She will “get it”.

Last night I said “the hell with it”, and went to see Prometheus again…

I often do things that do not make sense in light of my present circumstances. And going to see Prometheus for a second time, from a financial perspective, is one of them. But see it again I did, and I thought that I would share my reflections with you. Because the film has been out for several weeks now, and everyone I know whom I wanted to preserve surprises for has seen it, I will be divulging things that can be considered critical to the plot. Consider yourself warned.

Revisiting the classics: A look at A Scanner Darkly

Okay, A Scanner Darkly (the film) is not that old that it really should be called a classic. But is one anyway. The novel on which the film is based is now thirty-five years old. The film turns six years old in July of this year, which should tell you something about the lasting dark appeal of the novel. Now, I will step up to the plate right here and admit that I have not read the novel. Unlike some assholes I can name, I did not rush out and buy an e-reader the second they were brought out because it is the hip, “noooooooow” thing to do. And unfortunately, controlling the flow of literature into a country like Arseholia is even easier than controlling the flow of unapproved films or music.

Writing about characters having sex

There are three basic types of scene other than exposition that are essential to any fantasy novel (or science fiction, or war, or spy, you name it). Battle scenes, if written well, can keep the writer going for as much as a tenth or even a fifth of the total length of their novel. But one of the big challenges of writing a battle scene, to put it simply, involves investing enough development in your characters to make your audience care about them. Exposition scenes are one way to make this investment. In fact, in the early stages of your story, they tend to be the only way. Explaining to your audience why it is that one character cares enough about the other to invest the time to get to know them helps the audience to care about that character enough to care when something significant happens to them. Telling the audience a story about why a character does what they do, and why they do it a certain way, is also a good way to deliver exposition. It is not enough to tell an audience that your veteran character is obsessive about washing himself. You have to explain that during, say for example the Battle Of The Sleeping Village, a particularly troublesome event resulted in him spending hours stuck inside the rotting carcass of a River Troll. Hence, he now washes his entire body in hospital-grade soap at least once after every time he spends a significant period of time outside of his home.