terminate

Now, allegedly, a container ship can drag its anchor and sever communication cables, Putin can revise his definition of what construes a right to retaliate using nuclear force, and Ukraine can launch a bunch of British-made Storm Shadow/SCALP log range deep strike missiles into Russia. Meanwhile, US manufactured land mines are being laid all over Ukraine.

Terminal effectiveness in the jargon. 

Novel approach

 

I've been reviewing a couple of novels recently, one recently published and the other undergoing its last revisions. This process is interesting and similar to the one I use with my own novels before they fly.

As an experiment, I've decided to write a non-fiction book about novel writing based on my personal experiences. I once helped out with a book about railways for a local charity, but sadly, it never saw the light of day.

So here I am with a handsome stranger poised outside the city walls of an unknown world. There's some kind of drone in the sky, and the stranger looks like he's having a rough time.

Now, I need to think of a Non-Fiction Book structure. Something like:

Introduction

1: Laying the Foundation

2: Plot Development Mastery

3: Character Creation and Development

4: Setting and Worldbuilding

5: Finding Your Unique Voice

6: Scene Construction and Pacing

7: Overcoming Writer's Block

8: Editing and Revision Techniques

9: Navigating the Publishing Landscape

10: Marketing Your Novel and Building an Audience

Conclusion

We'll see.

The circle of scroll

 

I decided not to immediately immerse myself in a new social media system. After leaving the twits, I thought about the multifarious options but then decided... Nah. I'll just keep my old userids to avoid impersonation.

I can get most of my 'updates' from other sources, and anything particularly platform-dependent will be re-syndicated through many channels. Like those nauseous Chinese phone-video things.

So I'll be the person with few friends who doesn't spend hours chasing around after cats riding on Roombas.

The internet is still made of cats

ain't no sideshow now

Without his makeover, here's a multiple convicted felon, a chronic liar who tried to overturn the last election and unleash a violent mob on the nation’s Capitol, who calls America “a garbage can for the world,” and who threatens retribution against his political enemies. Amazingly, he won.

Millions of voters in the states that mattered most chose him anyway. His inflammatory rhetoric about invading immigrant hordes, the macho posturing against a female opponent, and his promise to boost an inflation-battered U.S. economy may sound fanciful, but it stuck in heads. 

He might have appeared as a Sideshow Bob, but his killer malevolence in his Mar-a-Lago lair, leaked slime and a loser's bile.

Like a bad dream, this creature has achieved an unthinkable resurrection. Sixty-three million Americans voted for Trump in 2016; and seventy-four million in 2020. We wait for this final count followed by his threats of retribution and revenge. 

Biden didn't help and threw Kamala Harris a hospital pass and even then didn't shut up. She had just over a hundred days, which was insufficient to get further than a confused deadlock.

I couldn't have predicted the winner's victory from the incessant social media and mainly vacuous analyses. But if America wants a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, once-convicted huckster from New York who lives on a Florida golf course surrounded by stolen secrets, then that's what they deserve.

He's no real interest in the convictions of the G.O.P. candidate. An out liar in every possible way and one the most racist, sexist, and xenophobic titular heads in history. He'll seek pledges of personal loyalty from all of his appointments, like some movie godfather. 

And of course ensure he is released from all of his court cases, before he starts on his enemies. He can liberate  his supporters from the 6th January and use the military to dissuade protests. Anyone with a hint of 'independence' can be fired and his thinking on womens' rights are plain to see. For overseas matters, add big tariffs.  Trump thinks about the money and will kompromat into Putin's hands, where he is regarded as a useful idiot.

'retrograde with the reprobate' - doesn't fit on baseball caps though.

Devil came down to Georgia?

twitter abandoned at last

I've abandoned twitter now. It surprises me it has taken so long. The 'free speech' version has become infected with banal and often offensive tweets, many of which now vector to other time wasting platforms like tik-tok and similar.

There's no point in going to another copy platform either. I'd rather rely on the information that I select than on what a publishing bot increasingly curates.

The dilemma is that like Hotel California, I can check-out but never leave. I experienced this once on Meta, when I dropped a Facebook id which was quickly harvested by someone else. It is best to simply leave the twitter userids languishing but still under my ownership. Oh yes, and I'll keep my automatic posts to the platform, but really don't think I'll need to read it again.

And I get back so much free time.

rookie cleat mixup

 

Time was, when I knew my eggbeaters from my MT-51s. No longer the case. I needed some new cleats for my bike shoes and ordered a set online. Shimano shoes? Surely Shimano cleats? 

Bong. The ones I needed had to clip into Crank eggbeater pedals. I knew it as soon as I'd unscrewed the old ones, put the new ones in and went - click. Except it didn't go click. 

More a sort of scraping sound.

So now I've replaced the old cleats with new Crank gold cleats. The picture shows the 'before image'. More a sort of rust colour.

The new ones work perfectly. I've already done about 20 miles.