November was not great! A day program I was trying to get into was not what I was hoping it to be. A friend is in the hospital, due to a stroke. (He’s recovering, but the first few days were scary.)
I got into a fight with my brother that ranged from his not understanding how vaccines work, to his belief I am an “Progressive NPC Harpy” and his equally sincere belief that there is no such thing as racism, and his insistence that I watch his creepy conspiracy videos. (Not his videos he made mind, just videos he thought would “open your mind to the truth.)
No, I am not kidding. Brother does not know how vaccines work. Specifically the Pfizer vaccine. If I understood his thesis correctly, he’s under the impression that the vaccine put virus spikes in his cells, and that’s why he’s sick/immunocompromised. This is at base because he also does not understand mRNA, that he has mRNA already and what the vaccine did, or what it’s supposed to do is teach his cells how to make…I guess you could call them “samples” of the virus so the immune system can go, “ayup, that sure is something I’m gonna have to stomp to shit.” He got mad that I looked up this claim, and then looked up the doctor (Dr. Charles Hoffe) who made up the claim. The doctor who is facing a “disciplinary panel” for making various false claims about Covid and the covid vaccine. (Brother says that Big Pharma framed him.)
Brother got big mad at me, because I was researching on the fly, while he was telling me stuff, but refusing to watch his conspiracy videos. My position for not watching his conspiracy videos was that if I didn’t agree with what he was telling me, I was also going to disagree with the conspiracy video. (And I was still going to be fact checking as best as I was able.) Brother decided my research based counterpoints were “strawmen arguments.” (Brother uses various argument fallacy names at random to “prove” he’s right and you are wrong.) There was also something about the FDA getting Freedom of Information Acted about the Pfizer vaccine. (FDA: It’s good to go, but we can’t show it because reasons. Doctors: Show us the data! Judge: show them the data. FOIA: Everything is going according to keikaku.)
Basically:
Me: …but this article here says something completely different?
Him: It’s all lies, the media is hiding everything, big Pharma is in control over everything.
Me: ooookaaaay.
Also:
My problem with “Big Pharma”: price gouging
His problem with “Big Pharma”: It is all lies and chemicals!
Also, according to him, there is no such thing as White Supremacy or White Supremacist organizations OR any form of social inequality or racism. Because everything is about IQ. (Which um. Sure is a take!) We did not get to have the extended argument about how IQ tests don’t really measure intelligence, they just are basically just confirmation bias machines. (A primary problem is that an IQ test doesn’t tell you how smart someone is, just what they know. Ex. I would probably not test very well for anything related to math, because I don’t retain math procedures very well, and when I am stressed, numbers tend to switch around, and I forget steps. This in turn would lead to an overall lower score. Same for grammar or history or science–my memory is crap! So I’d test low.)
We did not get to that because I got very annoyed with him, and decided to pretend to have watched one of his videos. And that I suddenly completely agreed with him about everything. This was terrible of me, but I am not sorry, even though he was one of my primary Patreon patrons. (For no known reason as he does not read or even like my writing, and also my being liberal is very clear in my writing? Like, extremely clear? And conservatives, particularly conservative men in my experience get extremely scary if you mention “liberal” in their presence. (I am not joking or exaggerating. A conversation I was in got super creepy-threatening with someone I stupidly got into a conversation with.)
Brother said I experienced that because the dude who answered my comment didn’t know if I was “evil” or just “deluded.” Then he ranted about communism and feminists and liberals wanting men to go into women’s bathrooms. We have mutually decided to no longer interact in any way, shape or form. (I have been told that if he’s going to call me a Harpy, I should bring upon him the judgment of the gods and steal/wreck his things.)
Anyway, so that took the wind out of my sails for most of the end of November.
In regard to the day program I was hoping would be interesting and useful…it was neither. Okay! First I was not able to attend because the place had a fire and then extensive renovations, that took over a month to complete. The second is that…I was not very impressed by the activities on offer. As an example, one of my primary interests was the creative writing class.
The problems I had:
- I already knew a lot of what was being taught, and what was being taught was insufficient for even a refresher.
- The only bits of writing I had were two book reviews. Teacher A’s response to both of them were the following “That sounds like a real book review.” (Thanks, it was in fact a really book review.) “Is that a real book?” (WTF Dude?)
- Teacher B kept putting forth the concept that we do not think with our brains. And the possibility that someone else was thinking for us. My feel about this was a visceral desire to run out of the room screaming.
- I was mostly writing fiction. Everyone else was writing memoir. And while I also write memoir, I wasn’t much interested in doing it for the class.
- No one was even trying to follow the prompts. I resent being the only person trying to follow the prompts. Because I am generally terrible at prompts.
- The only thing I was really learning was how to avoid saying that might sound too critical or “mean.” (The game group I’m in is much better for that, I think?)
The first couple weeks of December has been going okay, though there was a small misunderstanding regarding the provenance of a selection of Excessively Awesome Merino Wool Socks. (I was under the impression they were a gift.They were actually one of the first packages Younger Sister needed held for her and her husband as they are having RV Adventures, and lack a fixed address.) I ended up getting a small cheesecake for my birthday. (Happy Birthday to me! I am now fifty. I have no idea how I feel about this.)
Most of my writing and writing-adjacent work has been reading galleys and writing book reviews. I have a few ideas for meta posts, but I’ve only been poking at them. I am doing some major and minor revisions/edits of Lord of the Black Mountain.
Edits so far:
- I’m expanding on some worldbuilding details that have “come to light” due to playing the Protagonist in an rp on Discord.
- I’m correcting typos and making sure other minor changes have been repeated through the text.
- I am revamping some plot points, and also my worldbuilding notes, which need work.
- No I am not changing the third person present tense.
Another writing project is going to be writing pomodoro fic snips. In an ideal fantasy world where I have no problems with executive function, it will be daily. In the actual world where I have trouble getting around to feeding myself, it’s probably going to be every few days or once or twice a week, depending.
The self Promo is:
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