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@BillySmith@social.coop cover
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BillySmith

@[email protected]

I'm an engineer/musician/artist/designer/bricoleur/womble. :D

Now blogging at https://write.as/billysmith/

Currently working on #OSHW for the primary industry sectors; #Agriculture, #Aquaculture, #Energy, #PowerGeneration, #PowerStorage, #Sustainability, #Regeneration, #Resilience, #TerraForming.

You can't solve a #SocialProblem via TechnicalMeans, so i've focused on creating solutions that people can choose to build themselves. :D

#ADHD #TeamADHD #Womble :D

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18+ suddjian , to random
@suddjian@social.coop avatar

5.4 — How do you handle highly intimate scenes?

Same as any other writing, if something interesting is happening I want to cover it. If not, skip!

The intimate details of a sex scene reveals a lot about a character, in fiction and irl. How do they navigate the encounter, what mistakes do they make, what do they discover?

18+ BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@suddjian

A question for @bookstodon :D

KitMuse , to bookstodon
@KitMuse@eponaauthor.social avatar

Thoughts about writing action scenes. I feel like I don't have the brain power to wrap my mind around all the action, who goes where, who does what?

I'm wondering if this is related to my extra spicy neurodivergence.

Does anyone have any tips or tools they use? Wonder if I need to dig out my D&D miniatures?

Thoughts my fellow neurodivergent authors?

@bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Take a look at some of the dance choreography techniques used in improvising physical theatre.

Looking at fight choreography gives a better idea about the sense of space that your characters are operating within.

Also worth looking at Tempo from Chess:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_(chess)

Some of the Shaw Bros. films have some really good examples of applying the principles of Tai Chi to whole battlefields. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Also worth looking at some examples from Theatre.

I saw some of Annouchka Bayley's early directing work, where she transformed Medea as a single-person performance, to a duo performance, all the way up to a full opera troupe.

Same story, same timeline of events, but completely different flavours of expression when working on a different scales. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon @actuallyautistic @neurodiversity

Another approach is to use a specific piece of music as the notional soundtrack, which will define the rhythm of the action.

There's some really nice examples to be found with Kill Six Billion Demons, where the author mentions the pieces of music in the hover-text attached to the pictures. :D

https://killsixbilliondemons.com/ :D

CommonMugwort , to bookstodon
@CommonMugwort@social.coop avatar

@bookstodon Can anyone recommend an entry point to Wuxia for a middle-aged European steeped in Western Historical Fantasy - a great story, well-translated and easily available?

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CommonMugwort @bookstodon

It depends upon the translation you find.

Some of the translations come across like radio plays without the incidental background noise, so always feel a little incomplete.

That said:

"Cultivation Chat Group" is a cultivation-based story set in contemporary times.

"Martial Peak" is a great tale that would suit a fan of Western fantasy.

"I Shall Seal The Heavens" is also very good. :D

"Top Tier Providence, Secretly Cultivate For a Thousand Years"

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CommonMugwort @bookstodon

They're all web-novels with manga/cartoon versions.

"Martial Peak", "I shall seal the heavens", and, "Top Tier providence" are all complete.

"Cultivation Chat Group" is still in progress.

The web-novels fit really well with the format created by Charles Dickens. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CommonMugwort @bookstodon

It's the same as Oliver Twist was originally a weekly release, published chapter by chapter. :D

But using a website instead. :D

KitMuse , to bookstodon
@KitMuse@eponaauthor.social avatar

I need your help . One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

@bookstodon

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

In Richard Morgan's "Woken Furies", the third of the Takeshi Kovacs stories, there's a chapter-size vignette of Kovacs visiting a data-storage-facility for uploaded humans that is based on a Buddhist monastery run by a sect known as "The Renouncers".

And in the "Altered Carbon" book, there's the Roman Catholic Church's attitude towards uploading.

"Can you upload the soul?" :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

Ghibli's "Spirited Away" is a really nice version of a shamanic initiation.

Look at the background characters in the crowd-scenes in the bath-house, and you'll see ancient and modern versions of the Tulpa's. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

Neil Gaiman's "American Gods".

The book is great, but only Season 1 and 2 of the series, as season 3 was heavily interfered with, as in designed to crash'n'burn.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@punklawyer @mozz @bookstodon @KitMuse

The Golden Age of Sci-Fi is 11-14 years old. :D

sarahf , to random
@sarahf@mastodon.social avatar

"People say they want real justice... so we fob them off with a slightly less unjust system of justice. Workers howl that they're being flayed like donkeys... so we arrange for the flaying to be a little less severe and slash their howling entitlement, but the exploitation goes on. The workforce would rather not have fatal accidents in the factory... so we make it a teeny bit safer and increase compensation payments to widows.

... (1/2)

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@sarahf @bookstodon

oceaniceternity , to bookstodon
@oceaniceternity@sakurajima.moe avatar

@bookstodon I'm currently Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. I must admit I don't find his idea of a universal drive for power compelling.

It relies first and foremost upon an invisible subconscious that we cannot reach or touch inside all of us that tells us to always seek more power. And that anything other than we do is just justification for our power grabs.

My problem with this is how... When you start out looking for it it is easy to say that anything anyone does is a power grab. Getting out of bed is an excercise of our dominion over gravity etc etc..

Does a child draw letters in the sand merely to signal that they have power over sand? Is wearing cool and shiny boots a way of signalling social power over others? Maybe. But in my mind it is unlikely to be the most compelling reason behind everything... Solely because most people do not behave like cartoon villains. Or even cartoon villains trying to camoflage themselves.

I admit. I am only 70 pages in and a very novice philopher at best. But as it stands... I don't think a drive to power as envisioned by Nietzsche is a universal truth.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CoranDeo @bookstodon @oceaniceternity @Scienceisnotopinions

The desire for control on an individual level is a desire for autonomy.

For self-control, against being controlled by others.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CoranDeo @Scienceisnotopinions @bookstodon @oceaniceternity

Demonstrating their own will-to-power by conditioning other people to surrender their autonomy.

Have you come across this Public-Service-Warning film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVHPVe525Q

Knowledge of the techniques used, can act as a early warning signal, so you know when to GTFO.

If you see the red flags, then leave.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

Or the corporate cults like the ones from California.

Similar training techniques used to constrain the range of acceptable questions.

Another approach can be found here:

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

It's a longer set of articles, but the section on the Sociopaths is directly relevant to the original toot about Neitzsche, while the section on the Clueless fits with the members of the MLM systems. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

Forgot the pic :D

weirdwriter , to bookstodon

I cannot believe that this is already a proposal, advertisements in e-books! I was making an offhand prediction from a college essay I did years ago, but then, someone actually replied with this. This is a literal nightmare come true! US20120084150A1 - Ebook advertising and related techniques - Google Patents https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120084150A1/en @bookstodon

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@weirdwriter @bookstodon

Anyone who implements this is going to get their arse sued into oblivion. :D

This creates a whole new range of attack surfaces where there were none before. :D

Drive-by malware installation has been a thing for decades, but this patent extends the range of potential routes.

I can't see any insurance company providing anti-hacking insurance cover for the resulting mess, so the business model is screwed. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@Yuki @bookstodon @weirdwriter

Don;t give them any more ideas... :D

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Meanwhile in ..... having been subjected to a infestation & a problem in the , now the organisers are picking a fight with Paris' riverside stalls that they want to absent themselves from the banks while the opening ceremony as their stock boxes are apparently a security risk...

How this will play out for the Paris mayor & Olympics management remains to be seen

@bookstodon

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@negative12dollarbill @riggbeck @ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

I live in East London where the Olympics took place in 2012.

The local property taxes had been increased in 2007 to cover the costs, but the local borough still went into debt to cover the costs.

We'll be paying this off for decades.

ExcessivelyDiverting , to bookstodon
@ExcessivelyDiverting@romancelandia.club avatar

50 books to read before you die

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/news/50-books-to-read-before-you-die/ss-AA1hbkwi#image=1

@bookstodon

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@ExcessivelyDiverting @ukaunz @bookstodon

That's mostly because you're talking on an English-speaking forum, and most people with English as their first language don't have great literacy in other languages.

It's a shame as there is some great writing out there. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@ExcessivelyDiverting @ukaunz @bookstodon

I wasn't talking about the literacy of the people posting, but more about the second-language skills of the people here reading, including myself.

Trying to read different English translations of the same works, as well as reading translations of English works into other languages, and i know that my language skills are not up to the full range of subtleties that are expressed in those languages.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@ExcessivelyDiverting @ukaunz @bookstodon

It's also, that a large number of people from the USA and the UK, are in situations where English is their ONLY language... :(

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