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Test Post.
Mar. 29th, 2022 09:11 pmThere is absolutely nothing to this entry other than to see if this will also make it to other outlets I use.
This Is Me Posting About Not Posting
May. 16th, 2019 11:43 pmIt looks like Livejournal and Facebook are still refusing to play nice.
FreeWill Sells No Wine AFTER Its Time
Jan. 7th, 2016 01:53 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of January 7, 2016
A bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc wine from 1947 sold for $304,000. Three bottles of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1869 went for $233,000 apiece. The mystique about aged wine provokes crazy behavior like that. But here's a more mundane fact: Most wine deteriorates with age, and should be sold within a few years of being bottled. I'm thinking about these things as I meditate on your long-term future, Sagittarius. My guess is that your current labor of love will reach full maturity in the next 18 to 20 months. This will be a time to bring all your concentration and ingenuity to bear on making it as good as it can be. By September of 2017, you will have ripened it as much as it can be ripened.
My New Year's Resolution is to get some projects going on Amazon Studios. More about that after I recover from my current case of head crud.
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Sagittarius Horoscope for week of May 28, 2015
Petrarch was an influential 14th-century Italian poet whose main work was Song Book. It's a collection of 366 poems, most of which are dedicated to Laura, the woman he loved. For 40 years he churned out testaments of longing and appreciation for her, despite the fact that he and she never spent time together. She was married to another man, and was wrapped up in raising her eleven children. Should we judge Petrarch harshly for choosing a muse who was so unavailable? I don't. Muse-choosing is a mysterious and sacred process that transcends logic. I'm bringing the subject to your attention because you're entering a new phase in your relationship with muses. It's either time to choose a new one (or two?) or else adjust your bonds with your current muses.
My morale has been very low lately, and I have to apologize to the human race that I've been very poor company to keep. I'm mulling over re-configuring Chillin' Out for a possible Kindle Store, and other news in my life has me trying to figure out the usual depression and demoralization from outright self-loathing and anger. I don't know what would make me feel better.
FreeWill Gets Industrious
Apr. 7th, 2015 08:38 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of April 9, 2015
The English term "engine" refers primarily to a machine that transforms energy into mechanical power. But its roots are in the Old French word engin, which meant skill or wit, and in the Latin word ingenium, defined as "inborn talent." I'd like to borrow the original meanings to devise your horoscope this week. According to my reading of the astrological omens, your "engine" is unusually strong right now, which means that your cultivated skills and innate talents are functioning at peak levels. I suggest you make intensive use of them to produce maximum amounts of energy and gather more of the clout you'd love to wield.
I do want to start writing again. I just hope I have some good opportunities.
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FreeWill Sleeps With Kings And Counselors
Feb. 17th, 2015 03:38 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of February 19, 2015 In Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a lawyer hires a man named Bartleby to work in his office. At first Bartleby is a model employee, carrying out his assignments with dogged skill. But one day everything begins to change. Whenever his boss instructs him to do a specific task, Bartleby says, "I would prefer not to." As the days go by, he does less and less, until finally he stops altogether. I'd like to propose, Sagittarius, that you take inspiration from his slowdown. Haven't you done enough for now? Haven't you been exemplary in your commitment to the daily struggle? Don't you deserve a break in the action so you can recharge your psychospiritual batteries? I say yes. Maybe you will consider making this your battle cry: "I would prefer not to." |
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Sagittarius Horoscope for week of January 22, 2015
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) didn't like to work hard, and yet he was also prolific. In fact, his desire to avoid strenuous exertion was an important factor in his abundant output. He got things done fast. His most famous opera, The Barber of Seville, took him just 13 days to finish. Another trick he relied on to reduce his workload was plagiarizing himself. He sometimes recycled passages from his earlier works for use in new compositions. Feeling good was another key element in his approach to discipline. If given a choice, he would tap into his creative energy while lounging in bed or hanging out with his buddies. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, I recommend you consider strategies like his.
"Looney Tunes", huh? Maybe I ought to find some cartoons to watch.
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FreeWill Reduces For Resolution Season
Jan. 13th, 2015 01:47 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of January 15, 2015
In 1939, author Ernest Vincent Wright finished Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel. It was unlike any book ever published because the letter "e" didn't appear once in the text. Can you imagine the constraint he had to muster to accomplish such an odd feat? In accordance with the astrological omens, I invite you to summon an equally impressive expression of discipline and self-control, Sagittarius. But devote your efforts to accomplishing a more useful and interesting task, please. For example, you could excise one of your bad habits or avoid activities that waste your time or forbid yourself to indulge in fearful thoughts.
I'm already giving up a habit for my New Year's Resolution. Maybe there's another thing I can cut out.
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Placeholder
Jan. 8th, 2015 09:04 pmNot much in the world I feel like posting about, so this is an archived picture from Tampa Bay Online/The Tampa Tribune of the ship Jose Gasparilla at the Gasparilla Invasion.
FreeWill Puts It On The Page
Nov. 5th, 2014 10:13 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of November 6, 2014
P. G. Wodehouse wrote more than 90 books, as well as numerous plays, musical comedies, and film scripts. When he died at age 93, he was working on another novel. He did not suffer from writer's block. And yet his process was far from effortless. He rarely churned out perfection on his first attempt. "I have never written a novel," he testified, "without doing 40,000 words or more and finding they were all wrong and going back and starting again." The way I see your immediate future, Sagittarius, is that you will be creating your own version of those 40,000 wrong words. And that's OK. It's not a problem. You can't get to the really good stuff without slogging through this practice run.
I didn't even think about NaNoWriMo this time around. But my problem is that my long spans of quietude aren't long enough for actual work. They come to crashing halts when the furnace fires up.
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Another Link For The Page
Apr. 30th, 2014 05:48 pmhttp://www.roleplayer.me/frustratedpilot
http://www.roleplayer.me/749134
Again, there probably won't be much there for a while.
PS: http://www.aniroleplay.com/frustratedpilot <- Or here either.
"At the beginning of it, an ascent to greatness and a descent into madness both look exactly the same."
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(Linking to an NPR Post ABOUT THIS, I added:)
I remember when OMNI magazine had an article about a fiction-writing artificial intelligence named Racter.
I remember when OMNI magazine had an article about a fiction-writing artificial intelligence named Racter.
Elsewhere today I on Facebook I linked to an article about a thesis-writing app that has suddenly become a tool for abuse among scientific scholarly “authors”.
Allow me to connect some more dots here. Upstairs, I have a lectern dictionary I snitched from my brother, who acquired it in a neighbor’s garage sale. One of the features of this dictionary is a bibliography of the World’s Great Books, as judged in the 1950s when the dictionary was compiled. Over 2500 books are included, all now public domain.
In theory, a battery of artificial intelligences can figure out all the story genres you like, and then mine the public domain for paradigms on which to construct new material especially for you, in manners that particularly appeal to you. They would make a whole new canon—just for you.
Sagittarius Horoscope for week of October 24, 2013
"If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark." That helpful advice appears in Norwegian Wood, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Now I'm passing it on to you, just in time for your cruise through the deepest, darkest phase of your cycle. When you first arrive, you may feel blind and dumb. Your surroundings might seem impenetrable and your next move unfathomable. But don't worry. Refrain from drawing any conclusions whatsoever. Cultivate an empty mind and an innocent heart. Sooner or later, you will be able to gather the clues you need to take wise action.
"...We're gonna make our own lightning!"--Neil Diamond
"If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark." That helpful advice appears in Norwegian Wood, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Now I'm passing it on to you, just in time for your cruise through the deepest, darkest phase of your cycle. When you first arrive, you may feel blind and dumb. Your surroundings might seem impenetrable and your next move unfathomable. But don't worry. Refrain from drawing any conclusions whatsoever. Cultivate an empty mind and an innocent heart. Sooner or later, you will be able to gather the clues you need to take wise action.
"...We're gonna make our own lightning!"--Neil Diamond
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Semi-Useless Fact
Jul. 21st, 2013 12:47 amWindows supports just over 3800 kanji (Japanese ideographic characters--the majority of their writing system).
Thinking? Allowed? FreeWill Weighs In
Jul. 16th, 2013 11:26 amSagittarius Horoscope for week of July 18, 2013
The Sagittarian writer and artist William Blake (1757-1827) made drawings of many eminent people who had died before he was born. Julius Caesar was the subject of one of his portraits. Others included Dante, Shakespeare, and Moses. How did Blake manage to capture their likenesses in such great detail? He said their spirits visited him in the form of apparitions. Really? I suppose that's possible. But it's also important to note that he had a robust and exquisite imagination. I suspect that in the coming weeks you, too, will have an exceptional ability to visualize things in your mind's eye. Maybe not with the gaudy skill of Blake, but potent nevertheless. What would be the best use of this magic power?
Fat lot of good it does to have an imagination in times when nobody else wants you to get ideas.
The Sagittarian writer and artist William Blake (1757-1827) made drawings of many eminent people who had died before he was born. Julius Caesar was the subject of one of his portraits. Others included Dante, Shakespeare, and Moses. How did Blake manage to capture their likenesses in such great detail? He said their spirits visited him in the form of apparitions. Really? I suppose that's possible. But it's also important to note that he had a robust and exquisite imagination. I suspect that in the coming weeks you, too, will have an exceptional ability to visualize things in your mind's eye. Maybe not with the gaudy skill of Blake, but potent nevertheless. What would be the best use of this magic power?
Fat lot of good it does to have an imagination in times when nobody else wants you to get ideas.
It's been so long since I was blogging regularly that I feel overwhelmed with the idea of trying to fill in the backlog and get to topics I missed when I couldn't post. So I'm not even going to try. Besides, I want to hear from those who still read me.
My question to you: if you use YouTube, what are the must-see channels for you? I only subscribe to a couple dozen myself, but most of these don't update regularly or have a lot of content.
After I see your responses I'll add some of mine as a postscript.
PS: http://www.youtube.com/user/irb (International Rugby)
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopGear (Top Gear)
http://www.youtube.com/user/criterioncollection (Criterion Collection)
http://www.youtube.com/user/SEGABBch (Sega's Border Break game)
http://www.youtube.com/user/cbseyelab (CBS Eye Lab [Prime Time Program Promos])
My question to you: if you use YouTube, what are the must-see channels for you? I only subscribe to a couple dozen myself, but most of these don't update regularly or have a lot of content.
After I see your responses I'll add some of mine as a postscript.
PS: http://www.youtube.com/user/irb (International Rugby)
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopGear (Top Gear)
http://www.youtube.com/user/criterioncollection (Criterion Collection)
http://www.youtube.com/user/SEGABBch (Sega's Border Break game)
http://www.youtube.com/user/cbseyelab (CBS Eye Lab [Prime Time Program Promos])
