Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 94

Theater of the Absurd

Through a mutual friend, I got something ESR said, and it struck me as profound:

“Voltaire can be inverted. If you’re willing to commit atrocities, this is a sign that you believe absurdities.” –

Eric S. Raymond

The context was a discussion of AI and AI advancements but that is not important right now.

The important thing is the actual meaning of those words.

We’re surrounded by not particularly bright or educated (though a lot of them are very credentialed and confuse that for...

It’s Bob’s World. We Just Live in It

*Look, I’m an old woman, so let me get the health talk out of the way first. This one is definitely not auto-immune as younger son had it first — and is just getting over it after two weeks — and now Dan has caught it from me. I’m better today. Yesterday the thought of crossing the room to get a book, say, was too much effort. Today I managed the dishes, a load of laundry and intend to sort clothes. The house is a screaming pigsty, but it will wait till tomorrow. Yes, I feel like I can, but...

It’s Alive

Or at least not dead. I’m not even — really == worse I just had a really bad cough over night, so didn’t sleep much, (mostly because I’d forgotten to buy cough syrup after the great coughening induced by blood pressure meds.)

And this morning I was really, really odd. I felt I couldn’t even. So this is the first time I got online all day.

I’m assured from watching this crud progress with younger son that the cough is the last stage and might drag three days, but I’ll be sure to have ...

The Moment Before

Have you ever been in a car crash? I have. It was a nothing thing — okay, it totaled the car, but I walked away — but it’s at the basis of my driving anxiety. Sometimes I manage the anxiety. Sometimes I’m incapable to and don’t drive for years at a time.

Which is stupid, because I know what caused that crash. We’d moved an hour and a half away. We’d left my car at the old place, and drove back to get it on Saturday morning very early. So early I forgot my glasses on the bedside table. I ...

I Am Not Doing An April Fool’s Post

There will be a post after this, but not April Fools.

This one is a brief update on everything: FIL still lingering, though at the stage that you have to check the monitor to make sure he’s still breathing. He stopped being responsive, etc. once husband had left. We don’t wish him death, but there is pain involved and he’s doped out of his mind, and it’s just…. lingering.

Meanwhile cold/flu/wtf I got from younger son (he’s such a SHARING boy) has progressed past the fever stage, which mean...

All still the same

Against all expectation my FIL still lingers.

And I was sixty years old when I learned a high fever won’t let you sleep.

Anyway, it seems I’m too tired to do anything but can’t sleep…

So….

A Weary Morn

*First to get the update out of the way: My FIL did in fact start accellarating towards death, once Dan had said goodbye. He’s not expected to live till tonight. We’d thought he was waiting to say goodbye to his only living son, and that seems to have been it. We are coping as best we can. It is, of course, very hard on Dan.

No, it’s no peaches for me either, (Note I skipped Insty posting last night) but it’s orders of magnitude easier.

Meanwhile I either managed to catch younger son’s...

Life, the Universe and WTF?

Or if you prefer, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Because my life is a novel, there is an overarching theme playing itself out throughout all the events right now. I’m not going to rewrite the report of it, because I just did it over at Mad Genius Club.

If you want a detailed-ish report of what is going on, head over, I’ll wait.

Back? Cool.

I feel a bit like I was hit on the head with a spar today. Now a great part of this is that I have slept about 3 hours, and unfortunate...

Fog Of War

I’m tired. Today, while trying to write I was struck by a weird combination of anxiety and mourning, for no reason I can figure out, except perhaps exhaustion. It kept me checking the news every 2 minutes, also for no discernible reason.

And when I sat down to write a post, it seemed like I couldn’t find a theme, until started searching for a post to use as a blast from the past. And then I ran across this post from 2015 which I excerpted bellow.

I was suddenly and startlingly aware t...

And Words Are All I Have

I am a woman of words.

“Of course,” you’ll say, “You have to be. It’s your job.” Meh. It is and it isn’t.

Being good with words is a good bonus for a fiction writer. Though honestly, it is not only not needed but it’s a double edged blessing. I mean, it makes it easier to produce readable wordage relatively quickly and easily, but on the other hand, you can get tempted to use too many of them and make them way too important for the book. So your story gets submerged in words, gasping ...