Mark – Marked Up

Impulsive Anger

I’ve finally figured out what irritates me so much about Cultivation books: The cultivators spend so much time, effort, and pain doing all sorts of complicated techniques to grow stronger, but as soon they feel insulted – legitimately or not – all that discipline flies out the window and they fly into an impulsive rage.Continue reading “Impulsive Anger”

OK, Boomer

What Grocery Stores Lost When They Ditched the 1970s Layout contains a lot of interesting factibbles. It also contains a lot of opinions. This quote needed some trimming. It’s section 6. Ask anyone who grew up shopping with their parents in the 1970s about the deli counter and you’ll usually get a smile before theContinue reading “OK, Boomer”

Justification

Humans are really good at justifying themselves – especially to their own self. We all do it. The one that drives me nuts is “if I don’t kill this guy, my kid will suffer.” That’s all well and good when “this guy” is a knife-wielding maniac attacking your kid. It’s more than a bit differentContinue reading “Justification”

When Would You Pick?

If you were to die today and were offered the chance to be injected into your own mind at any point in your life’s timeline, when would you pick? Before you had your children? For me, that one’s easy because I don’t have children. Chances are very high that, even if you try to avoidContinue reading “When Would You Pick?”

Obstacles

A story is basically a description of how the intrepid hero overcomes the obstacles between him and his goal. I have not been explicitly writing down the obstacles. That shall change. In my OutlineThingy document, I have the cross-chapter arcs and the chapter goals. I have not written down the obstacle. I will now toContinue reading “Obstacles”

Integration

I haven’t been writing of late because I’m trying to figure out what happens in book two because it affects how book one ends – and I’m getting close. The biggest problem is that I’ve apocalpysed Earth and granted people superpowers, but governments do not go quietly. For every intrepid werewolf, there are fifty superpoweredContinue reading “Integration”

Redemption Interrupted

This is an interesting story arc: The usual redemption arc continues until redemption. Getting halfway there and going off the rails back to the original personality is probably far more common in real life, but it’s very unusual in fiction. I haven’t gotten to the “Ends badly” step, yet, but I’ve read the April seriesContinue reading “Redemption Interrupted”

My First Jelly

While I wait in hunger for the bread to cool, it occurred to me that I haven’t posted since before my computer died (power supply bit it). So, here we are. Much like the peas, this is not for self-sufficiency. I mainly want to cover up a chain-link fence, so why not grape vines? That’sContinue reading “My First Jelly”

The Fenris Effect

Not the self-fulfilling prophecy part. I’m not sure if my universe will have prophecy/divination or not, yet, but I really don’t like it. Dune did a good job with it, so it is possible. I just don’t like the idea of it. It makes the future and free will weird. I’m talking about the “I’mContinue reading “The Fenris Effect”

Specific and Particular 2

Yet another “two”. They may not be AI indicators. The most recent book I read used “particular” a lot. Perhaps it’s regional? British maybe? There were also a few “sorted” as in “resolved/straightened out”. Americans don’t say that. There were enough Archmage Reborn that they caught my attention, but I didn’t make explicit note ofContinue reading “Specific and Particular 2”