Art DOOOOOOOOOOM

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Oct 262022

It’s a long video, but it’s interesting to listen to an artist rail against AI text-to-image art generators. The guy knows that his field is as endangered as a factory workers; even if AI never get *quite* as good as human artists (doubtful), the sheer volume of art – images, music, videos, whole movies – will simply overwhelm the pitiful output that a finite number of humans can produce. Hell, my “War With The Deep Ones” stories, currently something like 400 pages, could be overwhelmed by ten thousand pages of adequate AI-generated content on the same subject in a matter of seconds. Once AI “writers” are there, I stand no chance of making a dime off fiction. I suspect it won’t be too long before “US Supersonic Bomber Projects” could be written and fully illustrated by an AI, with a thousand-page tome full of readable, factually accurate descriptions and beautiful general arrangements and inboard profiles and full-color 3D renderings. Humans like myself have some current advantages due to the fact that most of the archives are not scanned and available online… but *that* probably won’t last long. On the other hand… as AI start taking history-writing jobs away from humans, these humans will have neither the incentive nor the funds to go to archives or pay archives to scan stuff. So it may be that a number of archives end up closing the doors and turning off the lights due to lack of interest. And thus history that *could* be written won’t be.

Hmmm.

That’s a gigantic metaphor

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Sep 072022

Reminds me somewhat of DC’s recently finished-but-canceled “Batgirl” movie:

World’s biggest cruise ship is set to be sold for scrap before first voyage as owners go bankrupt: $1.6BILLION vessel was built with 20-decks and a WATER PARK

The “Global Dream II” cost more than *billion* dollars and is structurally complete but currently lacking in finishing touches (reportedly $200 million dollars to go). It’s 1,122 feet long and design to carry nine THOUSAND passengers. What astonished me the most, apart for the utter failure that this represents, is that it was apparently built indoors. The cruise line that paid for it went bankrupt and apparently could not find a buyer for the ship, so it’s to be broken up for scrap. The waste involved here is breathtaking. Think of all that could be done with a vessel like that. Granted, it’s a civilian cruise liner, and that comes with certain definite limitations; any idea of turning it into a combat vessel (it’s certainly big enough to be a creditable aircraft carrier) kinda go right out the window. But perhaps it could have made a dandy hospital ship. Or a floating apartment block.

It reminds me, because of course it does, of my “War With the Deep Ones” story “Champion of the Seas,” which you can get here:

War With The Deep Ones: Champion Of the Seas

Huh. Slapped together a new “War With The Deep Ones” tale

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Sep 022022

I haven’t completed a WWTDO story since 2018, but a few days ago I completed an all-new one: “The Camp Commanders Conundrum.” This followed after cracking open my WWTDO folder and taking a look at a number of incomplete stories last saved four years ago… a few of them carried out to some length… and I can’t for the life of me remember where I was going with them. D’oh. Hopefully as the Wu Flu cognitive effects fade away and my noggin returns to normal some memories will reemerge.

The first books worth of stories was completed in about a month four or more years ago; I then started work on two different books. The first book was a collection of separate stories from the first few days of the war; the second book would have covered a span of some months. The other book I started was something of a prequel. A third book, with nothing yet written, would cover a span of a few years, up to the end of the war (no spoilers on how it ends, but it’s in the Lovecraft mold, so go ahead and guess). I’ve another Book 2 yarn in mind that I might scribble down soonish, as well as returning to the incomplete ones. I think that when I’ve got the third book finished I might take a stab at finding a publisher. Shrug.

Lovecraft: bulletproof

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Nov 092021

Arkham Reporter, one of the more sadly underappreciated YouTube channels, discusses matters related to H.P Lovecraft, cosmic horror, etc. Refreshingly, he has not knuckled under to the woke mob, and has put out a number of videos over the years discussing various efforts to smear, cancel, erase, mutilate or subvert Lovecraftian horror. But his latest video provides a large measure of hope that Lovecraft will be able to survive in a way that Star Wars and Star trek have not: Lovecraft is in the public domain. There is no Controller of The IP. nobody dictates canon. This means that *anyone* can write stories along the same lines as Lovecrafts; anyone can use his ideas, even his characters. Good writers or bad, people who respect Lovecrafts work, or people who hate it and him, it’s open to all. And the only thing that elevates one story and buries another is the fandom. If your work sucks… it’s gone. HBO can crank out as many hours of nonsense where The True Monsters are not deep-sea abominations or uncaring cosmic gods… but white people. And the fandom, if it decides that that’s crap, can ignore it. HBO can’t declare their rubbish to be *the* canon. My own “War With The Deep Ones” tales can be worthy of either the Nobel or the dumpster; it’s not up to some cabal of progressive-infected corporations to decide.

Lovecraftian cultists

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Jul 082021

An interesting description of the various cults and cultists that pop up on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. The idea that people would worship hideous monstrosities that want to wipe out mankind is of course nuts… and of course entirely believable. The YouTuber here points out the similarity between the fictional Cthulhu cultists and adherents to a modern day *real* cult of some notoriety.

In my “War With The Deep Ones,” cultists make a few minor appearances in the first book I wrote. But they would have put in much more of an appearance in later books… as the world goes down, the nuts come out. As we have recently seen.

Can we expect a new round of riots?

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Oct 012020

If you want an example of “why don’t the cops rely on tasers” coupled with “why did they shoot him more than once,” well, Chicago delivers:

I was always reasonably sure that a taser, if it hit a guy, would stand a *real* good chance of immobilizing him. But added, ummm, mass seems to provide a cushion of sorts. And that guy took a *long* time to fall once they started riddling him with holes. I suspect pharmaceuticals may have played a role.

The Twitter video goes a few seconds longer and is substantially more graphic. If you’re in the mood to see someone shot in the throat shooting up a geyser of blood, hey, this is your lucky day:

Incredible video released by @ChicagoCOPA tonight. Police confront man wanted for stabbing a citizen nearby. Man clearly has large knife, overcomes effect of Tazer and charges sergeant with knife. (Graphic) #Chicago pic.twitter.com/uZ0nO2G2E1

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) October 1, 2020

OK, back to Lovecraft

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Aug 242020

As some may recall, a few years ago I wrote a lot of Lovecraftian short stories in a relatively short period, all in the “War With The Deep Ones” series. For those who don’t remember, I had an idea for a book – actually a series of books – that deal with the rise of eldritch horrors from the “Cthulhu Mythos,” their efforts to wipe humanity off the Earth, and mankinds attempts to fight back. As most of my projects go, this one sputtered out due to an inability to find much interest among publishers and life introducing other challenges such as a need to make money, health concerns, a major move, a need to make money, the sudden appearance of not one but two aerospace history book contracts and a need to make money.

But the events of 2020 make it clear that we really are living in a world of Lovecraftian madness. I’ve an idea for another piece to be set in the WWTDO plotline; rather than a story per se, it would be an inter-office memo attempting to explain the 20th and early 21st centuries by way of the influence of Cthulhu’s influence driving people mad. Because BEHOLD:

KENOSHA MAYHEM RAW — Marxists with assault weapons stop armored sheriff’s vehicle…

This is Lovecraft’s world; we’re just living in it.

“The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.”

Self-publish on Amazon, they said…

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Oct 092019

A number of people have told me to try self-publishing my books on Amazon. Stories like this one just add to the pile of “why bother” reasons:

Amazon Bans ‘A Shifting Alliance’ Ad for Featuring “Inappropriate Display of a Weapon”

According to section 7.13 of Amazon’s Creative Acceptance Policies, which was updated in the wake of the Dayton and El Paso terror attacks, ads featuring weapons are prohibited in order “to protect our customers from uncomfortable or shocking experiences.”

Curiously, while Amazon explicitly prohibits “images of firearms demonstrated as firing or having been recently used (for example, bullets visibly exiting the weapon, smoke or other residue shown around the barrel),” it allows for “non-violent depictions of non-realistic firearms that are fantasy weapons, including fantasy/sci-fi firearms such as ray-guns and phasers.”

Of course, a more immediate road block for me self publishing is that I have absolutely zero talent or skill in the areas of graphic design or painting or anything relevant to the task of creating a good book cover. Shootin’ irons going kerblam wouldn’t really fit on a “Zaneverse” cover, but they’d be all kinds of appropriate for “War With The Deep Ones,” what with it being a war and all…

But then some power mad SJW scoldmonster would find – or invent – some rule that takes a giant ump on my work. Feh.

War With The Deep Ones: Interstitial Tale 14. The end of an era.

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Jul 082019

And here endeth the lesson. Read the final installment after the break.

Lemme know what y’all think in the comments. I slapped all these separate posts together at one time and scheduled them in advance… so for all I know I’ve been run over by a Mack truck and yer never gonna get to see anything else from the War With The Deep Ones. But assuming I’ve miraculously survived the last two weeks and retain enough cognitive function and physical capability to do anything about anything… does this seem like something you’d buy a paperback copy of? As a reminder, the first “War” story is Honolulu, the second is Champion of the Seas. Feel free to check them out.

Of course if I *am* dead, then I don’t care what people want. What with being dead and all.