Day: June 1, 2024

  • Weekly Round-up, June 1, 2024

    A flower and a bee outside our house.

    [A small bumblebee, laden with pollen, attending to a flower outside our house]

    Happy June, everyone. And happy Pride Month! This past week was, for lack of a better word, good. I had a productive and relatively stress-free (and short, thanks to the holiday) week of work. I read a lot. I wrote a little. I spent quality time with my girlfriend. I relaxed with our cats. And I put the finishing touches on our raised bed/container garden. Not bad for someone who will turn 55 in a few days.

    And best of all, Donald “Trouser Trumpet” Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump, being a coward, is crying foul and saying that it was rigged, and that he was the victim of a witch hunt, etc. To the surprise off nobody, his brownshirts are already threatening the jury, the lawyers, the judges, etc. Basically all the things he has been saying from the first time anyone ever told him “no.” Which was probably when he was about four years old, and that’s apparently when his personality stopped developing.

    Just to be clear: Trump has never been a victim of anything except delusions of adequacy (and possibly child abuse, considering the father was very much like the son). Not once. Not ever. There has never been a witch hunt. There has never been a conspiracy. Trump and his coprophages, bootlicks, and other assorted enablers have spun a wildly false narrative of being downtrodden fighters against overwhelming odds.

    MAGA behavior is textbook “predatory victimhood” which is part and parcel of the supremacist mindset (white supremacist, male supremacist, Christian supremacist, etc.) Anyone who is a member of an in-group, who tries to spin being a member of that in-group as really being part of an out-group (vis. the people complaining that there is no “straight people pride month” to counteract June being Pride Month), is a person whose every utterance, indeed their entire world-view, can be dismissed without further consideration. Ignorant cowards, one and all.

    And that’s all that needs to be said about convicted felon Donald J. Trump, and his ilk.

    Reading

    The Black Company by Glen Cook. This is a re-read. It is of a similar vibe to how I want one of the novels I am working on, so I wanted  to get my head into that space before I dive into a major re-draft this summer.

    Writing

    I spent some time moving the more promising of my NaNoWriMo drafts to new folders in preparation for re-writes and edits. So more prep for writing than actual writing.

    Weekly Writing Prompt

    Subject: Music, Addiction
    Setting: Library
    Genre: Weird Fiction

    Listening

    Back in 2000, when I worked at CyberNet Engineering at the beginning of my career as a web developer, I listened to “Flat Beat” a LOT! The rest of the album, Analog Worms Attack, is excellent as well. You can listen to the entire thing here.

    Analog Worms Attack was released in October 1999, just weeks after the official start of my career, which began when I volunteered to build the first website for my employer at the time. The fact that I only lasted about six months in that role should tell you how well that went.

    I only lasted about eight months at CyberNet, which should tell you everything you need to know about how THAT job went as well. Thus was my career born in pain and sadness.

    But at least I had Flat Eric to help me through the worst days.

    Interesting Links

  • May 2024 Books and Reading Notes

    May was a pretty good month for reading. I had some down time and managed to fill it with books, like I did regularly when I was much younger.

    Acquisitions

    New books arrived in May 2024

    1. Eva Baltasar (Julia Sanches, translator), Mammoth (And Other Stories) [2024.05.07] – This is the most recent addition to my collection from my subscription to And Other Stories.
    2. Vanessa Angélica Villareal, Magical Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders [2024.05.18] – This was an impulse buy I made after seeing the title mentioned favorably by Jeff VanderMeer on one social media account or another.
    3. Zig Zag Claybourne, Breath, Warmth, & Dream (Obsidian Sky Books) [2024.05.20] – This was a Kickstarter reward from a recently-completed campaign. I met Zig Zag at ConFusion, back in, I think, 2016. He is a superb writer and overall a most excellent human being.
    4. Dinara Mirtalipova, Russian Tales: Traditional Stories of Quests and Enchantments [2024.05.28] – This was a birthday gift from my partner. It is gorgeous!

    Reading List

    Books I read in May 2024

    Books

    1. Ian Monk and Daniel Levin Becker (editors), All that is Evident is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo 1963 – 2018 [2024.05.08]
    2. Daniel Suarez, Kill Decision (e-book, re-read) [2024.05.10]
    3. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic [2024.05.13]
    4. João Gilberto Noll (Adam Morris, translator), Atlantic Hotel [2024.05.16]
    5. Sarah Hans, An Ideal Vessel [2024.05.18]
    6. César Aira, The Proof [2024.05.20]
    7. Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind [2024.5.28]
    8. Glen Cook, The Black Company (e-book, re-read) [2024.05.31]

    Short Prose

    1. Oskar Pastior, “Rules of the Game”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.01]
    2. Hervé Le Tellier, “A Few Musketeers”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.02]
    3. Pierre Rosenstiehl, “Frieze of the Paris Métro”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.02]
    4. Jacques Jouet, “Poem of the Paris Métro”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.02]
    5. Harry Mathews, “Sainte Catherina”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.02]
    6. Jacques Jouet, “The Republic of Beau-Locks”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.03]
    7. Ian Monk, “We Did Everything”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.03]
    8. François Caradec, “On the End of Time”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.03]
    9. Paul Fournel, “Novels”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.03]
    10. Anne F. Garréta, “N-evol”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.04]
    11. Olivier Salon, “Invisible Cities: Lille”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.04]
    12. Jacques Roubaud, “Arrangements”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.04]
    13. Frédéric Forte, “99 Preparatory Notes to 99 Preparatory Notes”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.04]
    14. Pablo Martín Sánchez, “Metric Poetry”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    15. Étienne Lécroart, “Eodermdromes”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    16. Harry Mathews, “Narrative Sestinas”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    17. Étienne Lécroart, “Counting On You”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    18. Hervé Le Tellier, “Liquid Tales”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    19. Bernard Cerquiglini, “A Very Busy Year”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.05]
    20. Olivier Salon, “Shark Poem”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    21. Ross Chambers, “Brief Encounter”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    22. Daniel Levin Becker, “Writer’s Block”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    23. Jacques Roubaud, “⊂”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    24. Marcel Bénabou, “Our Beautiful Zeroine”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    25. Paul Fournel, “The Beautiful Appetite”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.06]
    26. Valérie Beaudouin, “Northern Line”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    27. Michèle Audin, “Caroline, October 21, 1935”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    28. E. Berti & P. Martin Sánchez, “Microfictions”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    29. Daniel Levin Becker, “Epithalamia”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    30. Frédéric Forte, “The Pitch-Drop Experiment”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    31. Clémentine Mélois, “Louise”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.07]
    32. Michèle Audin, “No One Remembers”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.08]
    33. Ian Monk, “Return(s)”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.08]
    34. Eduardo Berti, “An Ideal Presence”, All that is Evident is Suspect [2024.05.08]
    35. Jim C. Hines, “Daddy’s Little Girl”, Patreon [2024.05.29]
    36. Jim C. Hines, “Gift of the Kites”, Patreon [2024.05.29]