In which I yell at a cloud

In which I yell at a cloud

Posted inRants, Uncategorized
Yes, I'm fine with my crummy old pay-as-you-go cell phone. To tell you the truth, I'd be fine even without that. I don't need to text with you all day. You don't need to reach me wherever I happen to be. Go away. I love video games. I have played them my entire life. But video game players are the worst people in the world. The second worst people in the world are Star Wars fans. Also, I am a huge Star Wars fan. Speaking of Star Wars, we went from the prequels, which would get you attacked if you…
I’ve got to get the hell off Facebook

I’ve got to get the hell off Facebook

Posted inRants, Uncategorized
More and more these days, I'm finding myself reconsidering my relationship with Facebook. It has nothing to do with privacy issues (though they are quite real), Facebook's sketchy business practices (ditto), or a desire to have a smaller Internet footprint (as an author, I actually need a larger Internet footprint). It's not even because I do social media marketing on a freelance basis, and hence burn myself out on surfing Facebook (I do it under a different account than my personal account, anyway). It's because the atmosphere is turning me into the kind of negative, cynical, angry person I long…

Twitter hashtags are (still) not news

Posted inRants
A few weeks back, I ranted a bit about Twitter hashtags being mined for shitty "news" by shitty websites. It's more than a pet peeve. Pet peeves are minor annoyances. This isn't a minor annoyance. This is a form of Internet cancer. Today, thanks to the wonders of Farking, I came across a great blog post by someone whose Tweet became the "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!" social media story of the day, a minor nothing that was turned into yet another misleading and false tale of Internet anger thanks to shitty news on shitty websites. You might remember a story…
TWITTER HASHTAGS ARE NOT NEWS, DAMMIT!

TWITTER HASHTAGS ARE NOT NEWS, DAMMIT!

Posted inRants
Unless you've been unplugged for the last 24 hours or make it a policy to ignore anything related to geek stuff (in which case why would you be reading this blog?), you've probably heard about the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag making the rounds on Twitter. Stories about it are blowing up social media right now, and understandably so, given how shockingly offensive and ridiculous the movement behind "Boycott Star Wars VII" seems. The story goes like this: there is a growing movement to boycott Star Wars: The Force Awakens because, those behind the movement say, it's an anti-white movie that glorifies minorities…
So I have to be an accountant, too?

So I have to be an accountant, too?

Posted inRants, Writing
When you daydream of being a Writer, sitting at home doing Important Work and actually getting paid for it, you most certainly DON'T daydream of filing tax documents, managing bank accounts, chasing people for money, and other such nonsense. Yet you're sure as hell going to end up doing it, and plenty of it, too. They never tell you this. (Never mind who "they" is.) No one explains that if you plan to make a go of supporting yourself as a freelance writer, your days will be just as filled with "business" stuff as they will with writing. They never…