The Journal: Feelin’ a Little Snarky

In today’s Journal

* I can’t make this stuff up
* The Perfect Society, the Perfect World
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up:

“Jeff Bezos says flying in space changed his view of Earth.” from an article at Space.com

Now there’s some news, eh? Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.

That quote reminded me of line I heard one time in a presentation delivered by a meteorologist. He was talking about releasing weather baloons, and he actually said, “And as the balloon rises, it gets farther from the earth.” (grin)

Of course, nobody’s immune to such inanities. In one official Marine Corps (FMF or Fleet Marine Force) manual titled Lessons Learned from Operational Experience in the Republic of Vietnam, one line read that as a result of a years-long study, leadership had determined that the chance of a helicopter being struck by groundfire increased as the helicopter’s altitude decreased.

But back to another quote.

“‘[The earth’s atmosphere is] this tiny little fragile thing, and as we move about the planet, we’re damaging it,’ Bezos said, referring to greenhouse-gas pollution.” from the same article at Space.com

Ahem. No word as to whether he acknowledged that he had just launched himself into suborbital space atop rockets that added to the problem for absolutely no reason but so he could have a gander.

UPDATE: Bezos apparently used a rocket engine that did not add to the pollution problem. See JR’s comment on this post. No update regarding whether he took the trip primarily to have a look around.

Finally, John Milton once wrote, “For neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone.”

A wonderfully poetic sentiment, but completely inane. For my money, discerning hypocrisy isn’t that difficult, and it certainly isn’t invisible except to those who choose not to look. Just watch what a person does vs. what s/he said, and always believe your eyes over your ears.

Again, nobody’s immune. Any other inanities out there?

The Perfect Society, the Perfect World

In commenting on a post over at The Passive Voice (one that has nothing to do with writing, so it is not listed below), I hit upon a story idea. If you want it, you may have it:

Imagine a world in which everyone was issued a mask at birth and required to wear it 24/7/365 (or 6) nobody would have caught CovId when it was first released. Or the flu. Or tuberculosis. Or or or…

Perhaps in a future world, masks will be surgically attached at birth so people finally will  be able to live forever. Duh! The perfect society! How has anyone not thought of this before? (As another commenter wrote, “This is public health, not individual liberty.”)

Of course, with masks in place, from birth-zero people would have to receive sustenance via feeding tubes (a new normal) plugged into conveniently placed ports in the skin. But that’s only a good thing too. Everyone could be placed on an approved diet. The entire nation would soon be rendered healthy.

And of course the government could attend to any unruly segments of it easily by simply changing the diet to alter the DNA or RNA (or include minute amounts of arsenic), etc.

Of course, not everyone would be on board with this new perfect world. So there y’go. Two story ideas for the price of one. Maybe even a whole series.

As a final note on all the hubub, in a poem I wrote about humans and Earth one time, the last two lines were “And the universe moseys past, hands in its pockets / wondering what the fuss is all about.”

I have a copy of the National Geographic “Map of the Known Universe.” On that map, drawn to scale, our nearest celestial neighbor is a scant 1/4″ away. Yet if Earth and her infestation of humans suddenly disappeared, not only would nobody else care, they wouldn’t even notice. I look at that map occasionally to ground myself in precisely how important I am in the overall scheme.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “The Other Half of the Secret” at https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/07/the-other-half-of-secret.html. Notice how long it takes to work through licensing issues, or rather, how slowly licensing takes place.

See “True Crime Thursday – You Got the Wrong Guy” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/07/true-crime-thursday-you-got-the-wrong-guy.html. Interesting info on what to do at the end of this short post.

See “Nanoarchitectured Materials: The New Kevlar” at https://leelofland.com/nanoarchitectured-materials-the-new-kevlar/.

See “Disabled space enthusiasts can now apply for Zero Gravity space training” at https://www.space.com/astroaccess-zerog-flight-disabled-astronaut-training. (In case anyone out there is disabled or other-abled and interested in applying.)

See “Jeff Bezos says…” at https://www.space.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-spaceflight-earth-fragility.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 740 words

Writing of WCGN 4: William J. Pinchot (tentative title, novel)

Day 1…… 1965 words. Total words to date…… 1965
Day 2…… 2624 words. Total words to date…… 4589
Day 3…… 1824 words. Total words to date…… 6413
Day 4…… 3160 words. Total words to date…… 9573

Total fiction words for July……… 56481
Total fiction words for the year………… 585160
Total nonfiction words for July… 14590
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 140380
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 725540

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 12
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 65
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.

 

2 thoughts on “The Journal: Feelin’ a Little Snarky”

  1. To correct the statement that Bezo’s rocket added to the problem, that’s not true. His rocket burned a pure mixture of Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen. This means the exhaust was water vapor. This is why there was no smoke trail as the rocket ascended. I watched the flight and had to read about it after. It’s quite interesting and pushing the way we look at rocket fuel going forward.

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