POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Homo sapiens galacticus – IDEAS from the 2025 Seattle WorldCon

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/. These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

From the 2025 Seattle World Science Fiction Convention (aka WorldCon) “Pocket Program”, I found Galactic Settlement by Hitchhiking Among Passing Star Systems “Ditch the faster-than-light travel, cryosleep, or generation ships! Every few hundred millennia, a star passes so close to Sol that comets from the visitor’s Oort cloud fly through our solar system. In those intervals, travel between solar systems is easier. Thus, we—or aliens—can settle the galaxy in spurts: hop to a new system when it’s close; settle and grow in the new system; and when that system passes other stars, seek new footholds. This hitchhiking spans the galaxy in under a billion years. We’ll discuss technical, biological, cultural, and ethical factors that arise in such a future.” [Brian Tillotson: Fundamental Physics & Advanced Space Settlement. Physicist whose career spans 40 years of developing advanced concepts for space and aviation. In that time, he’s used dirt as rocket propellant, levitated water with a magnet, and deflected shock waves with a birthday balloon. He has over 30 technical publications and over 100 U.S. patents (plus one fiction piece and a poem).

Such a civilization would have to be extraordinarily stable…for Humanity it wouldn’t work AT ALL. The entire of our current Human civilization is approximate 300,000 yrs from nondescript primates to 6000 years of recognizably ‘civilized’ Homo sapiens. We wouldn’t have had the chance to leave YET… “every few HUNDRED millennia”…

This of course, is the broad, panoramic image of an advanced civilization hopping and skipping through galaxies, colonizing them as they go, spreading their seed.

I see two challenges here: first is that WE are the result of one of those colonization efforts, and when we eventually leave the Solar System to colonize new worlds…or should I say, “strange new worlds”, as giving STAR TREK a nod as a legitimate result of the expansion of galactic settlement. Humans, Klingons, Andorians, Tellarites, Cardassians…the whole pantheon of “strange new civilizations” are a realistic result of the expansion of the borders of a sort of “progenitor” intelligence. The show even touched on that possibility in the Next Generation episode “The Chase” (Season 6, Episode 20).

The other possibility seems more likely: it’s pretty much wishful thinking and vain hope that Humanity will survive long enough to spread beyond our tiny planet and its atmosphere. Even the ISS is technically still in Earth’s atmosphere: “…402 kilometers above the surface, the ISS is still within Earth's atmosphere, albeit in a very thin part of the atmosphere called the thermosphere. The thermosphere has a very low density, meaning that atmospheric molecules are scarce…”

But what MIGHT a civilization have to be like to “colonize a galaxy”?

First, of course, they would need to have extraordinarily long live – measured in MILLIONS of years. Their rate of reproduction would have to be very slow. Even Earth’s Greenland shark wouldn’t be a great candidate: “This species is the slowest on Earth to reproduce, taking approximately 150 years to reach sexual maturity and begin breeding.” While a typical shark who would have been ready to make babies just this year would have been born in 1875. A blip in the life of a galaxy…

But lets just give it a shot…say a Human civilization took 6000 years to mature, then advance far enough in it technology to see an INTERGALACTIC flight as being reasonable – let’s be generous and give us a 1000 years. So, sometime in the 31st Century, we could be ready to go. (Given the PAST 1000 years, I’m not sure that’s a realistic assessment of Human capabilities, but let’s keep going with it.)

1000 years ago, you and I would be recognizably Human-normal looking, so no problems there. We’d probably be more-or-less like ourselves. “In the last 1,000 years, humans have seen several evolutionary changes: smaller teeth and mouths, lactase persistence to digest milk into adulthood, adaptations for living at high altitudes or in response to diseases like malaria, increase in average height and the loss of wisdom teeth.”

We’d pretty much look the way we looked today if we were able to set off on an intergalactic colonization tour. But what kind of changes would have to happen between 2025 and that remote future where we could send SHIPS into space to settle an colonize the GALAXY; becoming a sort of Homo sapiens galacticus. THIS

Inspiration: POCKET PROGRAM https://seattlein2025.org/files/SeattleWorldcon2025PocketProgram.pdf; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station ; https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/space-mysteries-how-does-the-iss-stay-in-orbit-without-falling-to-earth ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_human_evolution#:~:text=Human%20traits%20that%20emerged%20recently,8%20Further%20reading 

Image: Personal file. Credit: ©Caleb Wilson, October 12, 2025, all rights reserved

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 691

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: dark lord
Event: “In November 2012, satellite photos revealed a half kilometer long propaganda message carved into a hillside in Ryanggang Province, reading, ‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’. The message, located next to an artificial lake built in 2007 to serve a hydroelectric station, is made of Korean letters measuring 15 by 20 meters, and is located approximately 9 kilometers south of Hyesan near the border with the People's Republic of China.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/north-korea-hillside-homage-kim-jong-un)

Ardian Goodpaster tapped on his tablet-computer – t-comp – and said, “Look, you have to read this!” He held it out to her.

Noemi Zweifelhofer grunted, hunched over her own t-comp. She said, “Doar stai un minut!”

Ardian’s eyes grew wide and he whispered in German, “Ich denke nicht, dass Sie Rumänisch in diesem Augenblick sprechen sollten! Wir sind in genug Schwierigkeiten, wie es ist!”

Noemi finally looked up, her dark eyes flashing and said, “Do you think speaking in English would be all right?”

Ardian snorted, “Better than speaking Romanian. We can get in trouble for that…”

“You don’t think believing that Kim Jong-un is an incarnation of The Dark Lord will keep us out of trouble?”

“I didn’t say I believed it – just that it seems…logical given what Mom and Dad say about how he acted when he went to school here.”

“Your mom and dad were his friends! He hated my dad!”

Ardian shook his head, “I’d probably dislike your dad, too if he stuck my head in a toilet and flushed it…”

“That was a kid’s prank!”

“…fourteen, fifteen and sixteen times on ten different occasions in honor of the illustrious North Korean leader’s birthdays?”

Noemi glared at her best friend, then burst out laughing. Finally she said, “All right, it wasn’t a kid’s prank. But all of our parents agree he was creepy and mean.”

Ardian tapped the t-comp and said, “You really believe that the inscription means what they say it means?”

“‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’?” He stared at it then slowly shook his head. Noemi continued, “I know my Korean is adequate…” Ardian snorted, but she overrode him, “But I’ve cross-referenced this in half a dozen dictionaries.”

“So what do you think?”

She zoomed in on the image of the inscription then swung to the right, saying, “When it’s written like this, left-to-right and with the order of the characters – and given that the archaic form was used intentionally, it reads, ‘Long dominate Kim Jong-un, Darkest of the Dark Lords’.”

“And no one else in the world reads it that way?”

She held out her iPad, “I wouldn’t say that.” Their eyes met and for a moment locked. Ardian felt the blood drain out of his face. She handed him her own iPad. “Read it.”

He kept his eyes on hers then finally looked down. The headline was in German, from a recent edition of Die Welt. “Different Interpretation of North Korea’s Paean of Praise?” He read, looked at her.

“Scroll to the next document. Two weeks later.”

He did and read, “Interpreter Found Murdered”…

Names: ♀; ♂ Today, both are entirely Swiss names

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

Slice of PIE: “Free Guy” Is Just “Stranger Than Fiction”…But With VR Headsets…

 

I WILL NOT use the World Science Fiction Convention Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…

My wife and I love both “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006) and “Free Guy” (2021) movies. In case you’re too young to watch old movies, here’s the plot of “Stranger than Fiction”: “IRS auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.” This film stars some real names: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman (none of the “Free Guy” targets know who he is), and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (For the 2022 generation: Ferrell is best known as the Elf in “Elf”…; Emma Thompson is best known for lots of things, but for the target audience of “Free Guy”: Professor Trelawny at Hogwarts)

“Free Guy” (2021): “In the extremely popular video game, Free City, a NPC named Guy learns the true nature of his existence when he meets the girl of his dreams, a human player. This player's interactions with Guy has massive effects on him, the game, and real world as they play it.” This film has some big names as well, Ryan Reynolds (for the target audience, he’s Deadpool); Jodie Comer (Rey’s Mom in STAR WARS: “The Rise of Skywalker”); and Taika Waititi as the Calm Blue Rock Guy in 2 of the AVENGERS movies…

SO…how are “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Free Guy” basically the same movie – one made for people who read books, then other for people who play video games?

A fairly short list of events in both movies might serve my argument:

FIRST:
Harold Crick in “Stranger Than Fiction” is a fictional character – both in the movie; and in the book in the movie.

Guy in “Free Guy” is a fictional character – both in the game; and in the real world.

SECOND:
Harold figures out he’s a fictional character. Guy does as well.

THIRD:
Guy finds out he’s going to die when the game shuts down (or before if Antawan catches him). So does Harold – but his person isn’t a real villain. She’s an accidental villain. Actually, Dustin Hoffman serves as a sort of “low-key” villain, insisting Harold HAS to die if the book is going to be a fabulous piece of literature.

FOURTH:
Both Guy and Harold object to dying.

FIFTH:
Someone CRAZY is in charge of Harold’s story – she just thinks she’s writing her newest novel. Guy’s not even supposed to BE a character – until he puts on the glasses and goes from being a Non-Playable-Character to a FORCE in the video game…albeit, he’s not technically controlled by ANYONE at first. Then Antwan sends his controllers in.

SIXTH:
They both meet the story creator eventually – Harold at the very end, Guy when he falls for one of the creators after he has the glasses.

SEVENTH:
Neither Millie nor Keys; and not Karen Eiffel have ANY CLUE that their fictional characters are in fact an artificial intelligence and a real person…until the very end and they are ALL totally freaked out.

EIGHTH:
Both Harold and Guy have a happy ending: Harold gets Ana; Guy gets Millie…and then it turns out he’s actually KEYS…who gets Millie and Guy gets his best friend back.

There are only two differences:

Karen Eiffel and Millie/Keys are HORRIFIED to find out that Harold and Guy are REAL. While Karen lets Harold survive getting hit by a bus instead of dying; Millie and Keys set Guy free (actually all of the Free Life characters).

Karen Eiffel isn’t actually evil, Antwan is.

So, if it’s been done twice, in two very popular and award-winning movies, what are they trying to say to us?

“Free Guy” was almost universally considered a fluff movie – pure fun, no thought, just a good-old time. Esmerelda Gomez at SocioMix however, disagrees: “…the NPCs are more than coded programs for gamers to play with…this theme is centered on civil rights being messed with…by the government…[and] how citizens will fight for them…interactions and movement for change create more room for others to have the ability and rights to…live better lives.”

“Stranger Than Truth” is instead considered a piece of existential thought: “…there’s something very poetic about the understanding of one’s place in the universe, but it’s far more dramatic when such understanding occurs only days before that life ends…Each of these characters ends up doing little things to save one another. There's an underlying theme that the things we take most for granted are often the ones that make life worth living and actually keep us alive.”

The two quotes above might be swapped – STT is certainly about free will and civil rights, and how interactions and movement create room for others to have better lives. FG is certainly about understanding one’s place in the universe, and it absolutely IS more dramatic when Guy understands just before his life ends.

For both, I’d say that there is indeed an underlying theme that the things we take for granted are things that make our lives worth living.

And so, I rest my case…

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_than_Fiction_(2006_film), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Guy, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264654/, https://www.sociomix.com/diaries/entertainment/the-philosophy-of-the-movie-free-guy-on-reality-purpose-and-change/1633291983#:~:text=Free%20Guy%20Displays%20The%20Change%20An%20Individual%20Can%20Make.&text=Yet%20Guy's%20interactions%20with%20other,the%20NPCs%20he%20interacted%20with.
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg/220px-Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg/220px-Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 690

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: inside a computer system
Event: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23343-interspecies-telepathy-human-thoughts-make-rat-move.html
Old Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_(1971_film)

Amelia Qasoori curled her lower lip, tucking it under her teeth then tapped them as she stared at the Apple 27 inch Cinema Display screen. She tapped another key on her computer.

Artem Torres tossed his backpack on the lab table, peeked over her shoulder then went to his own computer and booted it up. His screen was much smaller however and there were multiple images. All of the images were of rats.

Amelia glanced over at him and wrinkled her nose and said, “I don’t know how you can stare at those ugly things all day long.”

He smirked at her and said, “I can open the cages and play with them if you’d like.”

“You’re both obscene and disgusting at the very same instant,” she said, leaning closer to her screen and tapping a section of an image. The screen was covered with tiny squares.

“What’s even more disgusting and obscene is that we’re trying to do the same thing with organic and inorganic matter.”

Amelia nodded slowly as she tapped another square then made an entry on an old-fashioned yellow notepad with an even older-fashioned pencil. She made a few more notes, then typed for several minutes. The images on the screen whirled wildly and when they were done, Artem leaned back on his lab stool, looked at the image and said, “I don’t see any difference.”

Amelia made a raspberry. “That’s because you’re a wetwareologist. You people couldn’t feel your way off a kindergartner’s graphing calculator.”

“That’s not true! I use computer modeling all the time!” He waved at his smaller computer screen. “Just because everything I do is reality instead of virtuality doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

“I’m not talking about ‘importance’ here, Art! I’m talking about relevance. What I do is relevant. What you do is...cute in a sort of old-fashioned way.”

From behind them, a stentorian voice spoke, “My two favorite high school geniuses continue to banter mindlessly, ignoring my strict instructions to MELD the techniques and technology to form something new.”

Artem and Amelia jumped to their feet, spinning around. In unison they said, “Hello, Dr. Willard.”

He nodded to them and passed between them. He was tall. Unusually tall, well over two meters tall. He patted both of them on their heads. “So, my tremendous twins, what do you have for me today?”

“Look, Dr. Willard, I can make a fine rat robot for you! There’s no need for...”

“Dr. Willard, if you get me some really great tech who won’t talk back every time I ask for something, I could have a ‘borg rat ready for you in two shakes of a…a...”

“A rat’s tail, Mr. Torres? There’s no need for me to have a biological brain, Ms. Qasoori?” He stood back and studied her screen. Then he stepped sideways and leaned forward to study Artem’s screen. Straightening, he said, “What I need, dear pupils, is a seamlessly integrated part organic-part inorganic creature to do a very, very interesting job.” He favored each one with a cold glare, then left the lab, adding without turning around, “A word from me can get you into the most select graduate study programs in the world.” He stopped in the doorway, and still without turning around, said, “A word form me can get you barred from the most pathetic study programs in the world.”

Names: ♀ Australian (NSW), Pakistan; ♂ Russian, Spanish
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 34: WOMEN IN SPACE (echo sound like from the Muppets show, “Pigs in Space…” see link below)

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…I read the articles noted below in “Today’s Source” and the thought struck me – I know “eventually” there will be trees, and flowers, and air, and water, and houses, and horses…you get the picture. But what’s life going to be like for the Asteroid Pioneers? The people who move there, set of the “stuff of pioneering” and then starting families and “working the land”?

Our own pioneers came from lands that had been DEEPLY developed. The English of the “original Pilgrims” came from places around London – at the time one of the most developed places on Earth. “Colonists bound for the American continent came from various European cities, with prominent groups originating from cities in England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany. These included major ports like London for English settlers, Paris for French colonists, and Seville for Spanish expeditions, as well as smaller towns and regional centers that provided settlers for specific colonial efforts, like German towns for settlements in Pennsylvania and Virginia.”

That was just in the part of North American colonization that we are most familiar with.

Already on the continent were colonists from the “…North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000 to 19,000 years ago). These populations expanded south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, either by sea or land, and spread rapidly southward, occupying both North and South America no later than 14,000 years ago, and possibly before 20,000 years ago. The earliest populations in the Americas, before roughly 10,000 years ago, are known as Paleo-Indians. Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been linked to Siberian populations by proposed linguistic factors, the distribution of blood types, and in genetic composition as reflected by molecular data, such as DNA.”

So, the fact of the matter is that NO ONE ON THE NORTH OR SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENTS are actually…you know, native to the continent.

At any rate, it will be a guarantee that NO ONE who settles on the asteroids will be “from there”; though I can imagine arguments a few tens-of-thousands-of-years-from-now about who are “native asteroidians” and who are the “invader asteroidians”…but that’s a subject for a science fiction story someday…

For now, we can make an assumption: the first asteroidian colonists will be lots of single people of all genders, colors, orientations, and types. NONE of them will want to bring their children into space on barely developed worldlets, in fact, barely more than rocks hurtling through space – though some of the LARGEST will be fairly substantial. THE largest one we currently know of is, of course Ceres, whose diameter is roughly the distance from my home to Winnipeg or Thunder Bay, Ontario.

So, let’s take a smaller asteroid – someday Ceres might be the Capital of Asteroid Nation, but for now, we’ll be aiming at smaller asteroids that will be simpler to mine and to “colonize”. Assuming you start off with a “colony” of miners whose jobs will be dangerous (ie, deadly) at first while they “figure things out”. (Mining will NOT be like it is in Northern Minnesota on The Iron Range (aka “Da Raynch”) – where strip mining is now the norm (though, what is “the norm” today is NOT what it was at the height of the Iron Rush roughly seven decades from 1895 to 1962. It’s far smaller. BUT: that Rush saw the establishment of dozens and dozens of cities, towns, and suburbs.

But the original settlers were company workers: aka “men”…as mining was considered too “dangerous and difficult” for women. There were, however pioneers! “In 1943, while attending beauty school in Chicago, Mildred ‘Mickey’ Jansson’s father ‘petitioned’ her return to Hibbing. So, at age 20, she headed back home to work the jobs vacated by the young men serving in World War II. She and a young woman named Virginia Gordon became the ‘first and second hire by Mr. Henry ‘Hank’ Hughes’ at the Butler Brothers mining company near Mickey’s hometown. The women did a variety of labor. They loaded ore cars, repaired gas shovels, drove trucks. She served as a ‘guinea pig’ of sorts by “pre-testing” many of the jobs at the mine—proving them suitable for women—before subsequent females were allowed to take on the tasks.”

Fascinating, eh? So, what does the future hold for the colonization of space via asteroid mining? I’ll be looking at it more in future posts! (Next Time? "The Old Family Asteroid!" Hmmm...)

Today’s Source: https://explorersweb.com/asteroids-into-space-stations/ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_European_colonization_of_North_America , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopling_of_the_Americas#:~:text=It%20is%20believed%20that%20the,level%20during%20the%20Last%20Glacial , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exceptional_asteroids , https://www.mesabitribune.com/mine/the-ranges-first-female-miner-paved-the-way/article_81696fda-0972-11ee-9707-af79cb86d809.html PIGS IN SPACE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHHN34emJsY
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Interesting Stuff The Might Apply To Mining Asteroids: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgej7gzg8l0o 

Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 689

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: auto-cannibalism
Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cannibalism

Kari leaned from behind him while the movie in Forensics flickered on the screen in front of the class, whispering in his ear, “You know, if you bite your fingernails, the pieces will poke through your intestines and you’ll get a bleeding ulcer.”

“Shut up,” Mark hissed back at her.

Mr. Stanton looked up from the paper he was correcting and scowled at the two of them.

After class, Kari tapped Mark on the shoulder and said, “You’re the one who asked me to bug you about it.”

“Yeah, but…” he stopped talking as a pair of freshmen boys ran like elementary kids down the hall, cutting between him and Kari. It was a good thing, Mark decided. He’d almost told her the real reason he wanted to stop biting his nails. Or horking his snot or sucking the blood from a hangnail or any of the other instances of him eating his own flesh and blood. It started out as accidental. He’d been playing boot hockey over Christmas break and he’d been whanged in the nose and gotten a fierce nosebleed. Swallowing the blood to keep from grossing everyone out by spitting it on the ice had started something inside of him.

“‘Yeah, but’ what?” Kari asked when they pulled together again.

Mark shrugged and said, “I’ll tell you at lunch.”

Inside, he heard his Inner Voice say, “No you won’t. You won’t tell anyone about me. You just keep feeding me and when I’m big enough, I’ll come out and we’ll take over the world…”

Name Source: Local, Minnesota 

Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: A Glimpse Into How I Wrote My Christian, Hard Science Fiction Novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, Julie Czerneda, and Lisa Cron. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

On February 1 in 2009, I started what for several years was an entry on my blog: I wrote a novel in very small parts. It’s now October 26, 2025 -- almost 16 years later and as of today, it will be published in seven-and-a-half weeks.

What began as a vague idea, MARTIAN HOLIDAY paired with the definition of a Roman holiday: entertainment acquired at the expense of others' suffering, or a spectacle yielding such entertainment (Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary @2009) and a paragraph 2200 words long, grew into 1: Paolo -- Robinson City and continued until it became a massive novel...

The final word count stands at 230,000 words. 

What started out with a single character in a single domed city on Mars now involves seven main characters (one set of four “modified” clones), plus at least one close friend. Also making an unexpected appearance are Artificial Intelligences (six of them, one for each Dome on Mars plus an extra who coordinates the Federation of Ice Miners, Mechanics, and Technicians…)

The novel is so far beyond what I expected, I am in fact, in awe of what I created. There are four million Humans and Artificial Humans on Mars; there’s an anti-religion called the United Faith in Humanity – an idea out of which grew a Manifesto: “UFiH (spoken, ‘You-fee’ banned Christians, molesters , Jews, rapists, Buddhists, murderers, Muslims, thieves, Hindus, and embezzlers. While it doesn’t say so specifically, an ardent UFiH-er implies that it is "‘of course’ against racists, sexists, or any other kind of ‘-ists." They’ll swear that the intent is to prevent fanaticism and taxing a young civilization – but the honest ones will admit that part of the injunction is against mind or heart, and the other part is against biology.”

Over the past sixteen years, the civilization expanded, technology arose that I’d never considered: sybils, mindbombs, gMod disks and transports, airships, and in addition to the Domes, there suddenly appeared Stations (which became Quianshao, as well as Outposts…

And people! Lately I’ve wondered if my intent was to write an antiracist novel. My Artificial Humans (the slang word is inti) are property and are deliberately made blue-skinned so they can’t hide from the natural-born Humans (aka utes (= uterine-born)…the parallels are obvious and I hope I’ve written them with sensitivity and diversity. I’ve written elsewhere on the blog about my quest to become both a better writer and to not shy away from issues of race and racism: “POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: “It’s a Mistake To Write About People of Different Ethnicities…” (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/07/possibly-irritating-essay-its-mistake.html). Not only did I teach at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school, we (my wife and I, and at one time two kids and a foster daughter…and various long-term guests…) live in a city that was recently head-lined for both US news programs and on the BBC News headlines: Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, as of 2021, the MOST racially diverse city in the state (https://www.homesnacks.com/most-diverse-cities-in-minnesota/). Thinking of race is something that is, here, LEARNED-or-else.

At any rate, my Mars, the Mars of the United Faith in Humanity is in crisis. As a result of a concatenation of events – intentional, as I threw together the Book of Esther, the Book of Daniel, the martyrdom of Stephen (as told in Acts chapters 6 and 7 (as well as Acts 8:2, 11:19, and 22:20), and various parts of the life of the Apostle Paul as told in the Pauline Epistles (and yes, I DID go to Bible College (at the time it was known as Golden Valley Lutheran College, which grew out of the old Lutheran Bible Institute).

I’ve been working on it for the past sixteen years, but because I was stressing out, I stopped doing the story as blog entries and set it aside, combining all of the entries into one document. Then I stopped because I had NO idea what to do next. The file sat idle for another two or three years until, about a year ago, I set out to finish it.

Taking the raw story, I colorized everything I’d written about each of the characters. Daniel and his partners, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego became Artificial Humans – DaneelAH (in honor of Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw), HanAH, AzAH, and MishAH because their Hebrew names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Ashpenaz, the Chief Official in charge of the captured Hebrews, gave them the Babylonian names Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I also changed the gender of Azariah and Mishael to women; and Queen Esther became Consort Aster. Then Stephan became Stepan Izmaylova and Paul became Paolo Marcillon.

Paolo’s sections were all red, Aster’s all purple, Stepan’s green, and DaneelAH, HanAH, MishAH, and AzAH all became blue. After identifying all of the sections of each character (or set of characters), I grouped them all together. That was done about five years ago, at the beginning of the summer of 2020.

It was daunting because my plan was to rotate the story through the four storylines, occasionally crossing them, but with the intent of everyone being in the same place at the same time for one final event. But what event would that be? What could possibly bring such disparate characters to the same place at the same time? As the story had evolved, they were scattered across the surface of Mars – Aster was in Opportunity Dome; Paolo in Robinson Dome then Burroughs Dome, and finally Bradbury…then up to Ísgrunnur on the North Dune Sea…Stepan was in Burroughs, and DaneelAH, et al started in Malacandra and ended up everywhere else…I’d never thought far enough ahead.

So, I created a Revolution that Paolo first, then the others were working to turn into a Reformation of Martian society into one that would include Humans, Artificial Humans, and Artificial Intelligences as equal partners in the colonization and eventual terraforming of Mars. Of course, I had to include the Face on Mars – but not as something woo-woo. It’s really there, though not actually a “face”. It’s something more.

You’ll have to read MARTIAN HOLIDAY to find out starting December 23 -- a couple months from now. If you DO have specific questions, post them in the Comments below. I’ll answer them – directly if they don’t concern the plot; and in a roundabout way if they do!

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 688

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: elves, gnomes and Halflings
Event: http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/07/02/icelandic-town-hopes-angry-elves-have-been-soothed-by-songs/

So…a guy – call him Geir Laxness – is born in Iceland and grows up. He’s got no mom and lives alone with dad, who is an anthropologist.

They’ve travelled a bit, so he’s seen a lot, but he’s always been shy. He reads lots of fantasy and likes LORD OF THE RINGS a lot and can even read the Icelandic translation (which his few friends think is weird). One of his heroes is “Snorri Sturluson, a descendant of Egil’s Saga’s hero, but this remains uncertain. The standard modern edition of Icelandic sagas is known as Íslenzk Fornrit.” His online name is “Snorri”.

He skypes other friends all the time and has contacts all over the world. Him and his dad are at a conference in Minneapolis, MN. It’s his first time in the US interior and he manages to get away from Dad and go to a fantasy and science fiction bookstore called “Uncle Hugo’s”.

It’s across the street from a REALLY intriguing International Marketplace and he figures he’ll pop over there and see what’s up…

That’s when he witnesses a murder: a group of white kids, tattooed and heads shaved, on skateboards, attack and kill a black man and an Hispanic woman. They disappear back down a staircase to a bike trail below.

Geir tries to help, but doesn’t know to call 911 in the US, so he does what he can. The woman presses a folded sheet of paper into his hand as she dies and says…

Names: ♀ Iceland
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS/SLICE OF PIE: RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE Is ACTUALLY Speculative Fiction! (PART 1)

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

I hated Westerns – the movies, the TV shows, the outfits (EW!) Cowboy hats and horses (EW! EW!) The whole schmear! I couldn’t stand them – Gunsmoke? Bonanza? The Wild Wild West? Wagon Train? Rawhide? Have Gun – Will Travel?

I loathed all of them and would rather spend my time picking my toenails than watching ANY of them.

Then I discovered STAR TREK (I wasn’t TOS (= The Original Series) because at the time, it was the ONLY STAR TREK. I was a fan from the first show and the influence on my then-11-year-old-mind (I was 9 when ST premiered and my Dad didn’t let me watch it until I was “old enough to watch it”…which was when I was 11-going-on-12 aka Season 3 (and FINAL season). I was in love with it and with science fiction. Imagine my horror when I discovered that Gene Roddenberry had pitched STAR TREK as "Wagon Train To The Stars"!!!!

In the blog I’ve frequently reflected on my launch into science fiction culminating years later in my being a published SF writer (with my upcoming new-and-FIRST-TIME-SELF-published novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY (see post below)).

In an attempt to broaden my reading horizons, I’ve been picking up cheap or free novels and other books when I find them at clearance sales, or at the GOODWILL. I try and grab books I wouldn’t willingly pay money for and maintain some vague hope that “I might read it someday”. So, one day, I (somewhat reluctantly) grabbed a dog-eared copy of a Western book I HAD heard of, obviously, RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE. What I didn’t note above, is that it has the cover flag, “THE GREATEST WESTERN CLASSIC OF ALL TIME!”

OK, I was sold. I brought it home and shelved it, promising to read it “someday”.

A couple months ago, gritting my teeth and wincing at the lurid cover of three cowboys riding horses and brandishing rifles, I cracked it open.

The first sentence did NOT grab me (I leave it to the reader to find a copy and read it (or GOOGLE it)). I kept reading, hoping it would get better. Much to my surprise, it actually DID get better. In fact, by the time I was done, I’d become convinced that it was essentially a SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL.

First of all: alien life forms: horses. I KNOW horses are from Earth! I’ve even ridden one! My brother has a bunch of them and my niece has ridden competitively. But…I’d never really reflected on what exactly a horse WAS. It was a genetically manipulated, living, breathing TOOL. Horses at the time of RIDERS (1912 when Grey wrote it and even MORE so when it takes place, in 1871). 154 years ago were NOT show animals or expensive pets. They were work animals and bred to serve humans in multiple ways and to the best of their deeply bred abilities! They were cared for, but not coddled. They were USED. They were valuable because of what they did, not what they looked like...they were, again, TOOLS.

So, how about this, let’s leap 154 years into the FUTURE: the year is 2179…

Some SF books that take place at that time? NEUROMANCER (W Gibson); GREEN MARS and BLUE MARS (KS Robinson); ENDERS GAME (OS Card); THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS (RA Heinlein) to name a few.

ROTPS is as alien to me as Mars becoming a livable planet, or Earth military recruiting children to fight wars against bug-like aliens.

The world Grey had to imagine was a half-century earlier than his own…

In 1871, Utah was only a Territory! In fact, at the time of the story, there were only thirty-seven US States and California had been one for only a couple of decades. The West was made up of a patchwork of territories and not under US law. They were, in fact, the Wild West. Intellectually, I suppose I knew that – but Grey brings the world of the purple sage to life no less so than Anne McCaffery brought the alien world of Pern to life – and with places, peoples, and incidents even MORE alien that Pern, because I know that Utah actually exists here on Earth.

Example: I suppose I’ll start with the most obvious by first setting the stage: my wife and I love watching movies. We dislike R-rated movies, but will sometimes watch them because of the “historic artistic importance” of them. We recently watched two versions of A STAR IS BORN. We thought we’d start with the newest first – staring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. We didn’t know much about Lady Gaga except her name, but we’d enjoyed several of Bradley Cooper’s movies in the past.

The language? (Let me set the stage here: I worked in an near-inner-city high school and the “feeder” middle school as a classroom teacher (sciences of various kinds) and as a school counselor for 41 years. My son was in the military for 12 years, and my daughter works with teenagers as a therapist. I am no stranger to “the-F-word”). But in this one movie, that singular word is used 74 times. (I’m sure you’d love to argue, so here, write to Hunter Harris at VULTURE (https://www.vulture.com/2018/10/how-often-does-bradley-cooper-say-fuck-in-a-star-is-born.html).

Oddly, even though he’s writing about COWBOYS on the range, not a single one drops an F-bomb. Or an A-bomb. Or an S-bomb...If that’s not ALIEN, I don’t know what is…And there’s not a single OTHER cuss word in the novel. It’s SO squeaky clean (of course the censors in 1912 would have NEVER published a novel with blue language!), that I could give it to my six-year-old grandson to read without fear.

OK – I got that out of the way, so next week, I can delve into the alien world of RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE…and I expect to be just as amazed reflecting back on it as I did as I gradually fell in love with the strange, alien world in this elderly story.

Inspiration: Finally reading RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE by Zane Grey
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/616z0KpAjRL._SL350_.jpg

A really BIG WEEKEND WRITING UPDATE!!!!!

 

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 687

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.

SF Trope: complex planetary ecology
Event: “large-scale carbon capture and sequestration projects” (http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/20/gore-rejects-geoengineering-climate-change-panacea/), http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jul/18/iron-sea-carbon

Logan Andrist frowned and said, “What do you mean they’re going to dump iron into the lake?”

Nkokoyanga Pomodimo, far from her land-locked home in the Central African Republic held tight to the railing of the re-purposed iron ore freighter – a laker – as it dipped down into the swells of Lake Superior. She said, speaking loudly over the rushing wind around them, “The iron will cause algae to grow wildly. As they grow they need more carbon dioxide. As they suck up the CO2, they store the resulting carbon-rich sugars and then keep it when they die and sink to the bottom of Superior...”

“I know what carbon sequestering is! I’m a limnology major...”

She shook her head in the wild winds and shouted, “This is glorious! Feeling Gaia beneath your feet is the most...”

“Wouldn’t that technically be Poseidon? Besides, who gave them permission to do this?”

She turned to catch his gaze and he recognized her crazy, angry look as she cried back, “Who gave all you rich white colonialists the right to pollute and rape our world?”

He didn’t want to shout. What he really wanted to do was kiss her right then and there in the cold spray from the Lake – but he didn’t want a broken face, so he shouted, “I didn’t do any of that! Why are you yelling at me?”

“I’m not yelling at you,” she shouted. “I’m yelling TO you!”

“What’s that,” the nose of the laker dove deep, nearly flooding the deck and driving a mountain of spray over them. The water was frigid despite the hot August sun burning down on them through breaks in the scudding clouds. He wiped his face clear of water and finished, “Supposed to mean?”

“You’re not to blame, old friend, but you are responsible! That’s why the captain of this tub is an old white man!”

“Professor Buddlorem’s driving the ship? We have to go save all of our lives!” Logan let go of the railing; Nkokoyanga grabbed him and pulled him tight.

“The computer is doing most of the driving! He’s just playing captain!”

Logan eyed her warily the said, “How are we supposed to get all this iron into Lake Superior?”

‘Ko’ grinned and shouted, “Now that’s the tricky part!”

Names: ♀ Central African Republic, Gbaya; ♂ Minnesota, Minnesota
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

Out of Town for the weekend -- back next week!

 NORTHERN MINNESOTA this weekend with wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson

Lake Mille Lacs, near Isle!

Wonderful time, mostly!

See you next week!

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 686

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: Fantastic Comedy
Current Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpIJNGMh0IQ

Aarav Tlak shook his head and said, “Horses don’t talk.”

Kyla Das sniffed and said, “Shows what you know.”

“There’s no such thing as magic; there’s no such thing as a talking ani...”

“To reiterate what I said, you’re showing your ignorance by making such a categorical and sweeping statement. Are you including animals who have been trained or recognize commands?”

“Of course not! Animals can be smart and trainable, they just can’t talk.”

She gave him a long look then said, “So you’re saying that no animal on Earth can communicate?”

“No! You’re twisting my words. Animals communicate in a thousand different ways – some we can’t comprehend, like elephants talking below our level of hearing. But you’re talking about...about...about...talking like we’re talking and animals don’t do that.”

“How do you know?”

“You know what I’m talking about!”

“I could say that you’re a bit of an animal,” Kyla said with a smirk.

“I am not!” Aarav exclaimed.

She snorted then said, “You’ve never had to deal with yourself after you and your gf haven’t had a chance to make out.”

Sputtering, Aarav exclaimed, “That’s not fair!”

“That’s what criminals all say.”

He glared at her, took a deep breath, glared a while longer and finally said, “Proof would be you introducing me to some animal and then me and the animal having a conversation.”

“You’d accept that as proof?”

He gave her a funny look and she burst into laughter. Blushing furiously, he said, “Of course I’d accept it as proof! I’d hardly be a dispassionate scientist if I ignored an actual animal actually speaking to me.”

“Any animal?”

Aarav scowled, “I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. What do you mean by that?”

She held out a stethoscope and said, “Put these into your ears.”

His eyes grew wide, he took them in hand, and said, “This isn’t funny anymore.”

“It’s not supposed to be. Warm up the end of that thing and put it on my belly – and prepare to be amazed.”

Names: ♀Philippines, Bangladesh; ♂ India, Croatia

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

A SPECIAL IMPORT FROM MY OTHER BLOG: Guy's Gotta Talk About Type 2 Diabetes

Few of you who read my blog POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS, know that I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes about four years ago. At the time, I was writing on another blog about my life married to my wife, who was diagnosed with breast cancer some 11 years ago; some time later, my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease; and finally I was identified as a having Type 2 Diabetes. Being who I am, I dove into researching all three of these with all of my intellect and skills of doing online research.

The main reason was that I felt I NEEDED TO DO SOMETHING other than sit around with my hands tucked under my butt. For the fourteen years I wrote on GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT..., I kept the two blogs separate.

But I felt it was necessary to post my GGTA blog here on PIE...not ONLT that I am absolutely certain that what I wrote is liable to irritate SOMEONE, if not the reporter who wrote the British newspaper THE GUARDIAN's article as he'll never read it...nevertheless, if he DID, I'm sure it'd bug him (even just a tiny bit.), but because it's important.

It's important for people to know that they CAN MAKE CHOICES and that no matter how oppressive our world is (though it's our own perceptions that have led so many people I know to despair that the world TODAY is worse than it has ever been in all of...well, at least recent history...anyway, this is just to let you know that I've imported this from my OTHER blog because I think it's important for me to say this...

FORTUNE MAGAZINE on 10/13/25

"Lay’s drastically rebrands after disturbing finding: 42% of consumers didn’t know their chips were made out of potatoes"

https://fortune.com/2025/10/10/pepsico-lays-rebrand-consumers-didnt-know-made-of-potatoes/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNZ6v1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFaUjVGbFlEdHdFcEpSN2t0AR4plAGexWZ-aJD0zVs8IhBT9_lIGoDGd2_8m0EXZCIIvNsORmsk_QdE1Q5uoA_aem_TWzYlg9UvqBILTax6a3AwQ

OK -- go ahead and read my essay below -- you'll understand why the article above supports my argument below...

Taken from:

10/12/25

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #36: Indictment of an Insincere Rant I Read In An Old Issue of The Guardian

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

FROM Sunday, December 4, 2022

ANY diet I submit to will be for the remainder of my life. I WILL NOT say I get this whole thing of living with my diabetes yet. I’ve had Culver’s and Dairy Queen treats. I don’t live in a monastery on a mountain top! But I need to control them. I need to substitute FRUITS and vegetables for sauces and rice. Make better menu choices that EMPHASIZE meat and vegetables rather than rice and nacho cheese…(we’re going out tonight, Mexican!)

Like I said, I’m not good at this yet. But I’m working on it. It’s just I have to remind myself that I CAN’T dawdle anymore. This I important. I’ve damaged my body with 65 or so bad habits…

In case you were wondering? This isn’t the last you’ve heard me on the subject of “diet” – and I’m not preaching at you. I’m trying to figure out how to live longer with my diabetes!

ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER…

[As I get a bit ranty in a few paragraphs, I’d like to say that I am NOT a fan of Big Pharma and have been known to rant against THEM at times. But I really, really really dislike insincerity exhibited by people who have a captive and sympathetic audience…]

I now take Ozempic (see LOTS of my previous posts!) and a veritable cornucopia of drugs that help me help me live a happy and productive life.

So, let’s start with the one I’ve had and heard DIRE warnings about. First words from the (OBVIOUSLY EVIL AND ENTIRELY CORRUMPT Pharmaceutical Establishment)

“Metformin-containing medicines are available by prescription only and are used along with diet and exercise help control blood sugar in a number of ways. These include helping the body respond better to the insulin it makes naturally, decreasing the amount of sugar the liver makes, and decreasing the amount of sugar the intestines absorb from food. It is available as a single-ingredient product and also in combination with other medicines used to treat diabetes. See FDA Approved metformin- containing Medicines. Common side effects of metformin include diarrhea, nausea, and upset stomach.”

I’d like to note here that these are ALSO side effects of having children, working a job, eating too much, exercising too much, NOT exercising enough, and tax season.

The deep concerns of others is that metformin will cause Vitamin B12 deficiency, metallic taste, and weight loss (HOW IS THAT A CONCERN??).

The main concern of our fringe friends is “Lactic acidosis, a potentially life-threatening buildup of lactic acid in the blood”. This can make you feel very tired, breathless and faint, so your doctor may check the vitamin B12 level in your blood. If your vitamin B12 levels become too low, vitamin B12 supplements will help.

So, while researching this, I was stunned to read the following in that paragon of British Journalism, THE GUARDIAN: “The American Diabetes Association takes millions from companies that stand to profit from our reliance on drugs. Is that affecting their guidance?”

After several paragraphs of ranting about drug makers and the GLORIES of “just tell people to eat less carbs and no one will need any Type 2 Diabetes drugs ever again!!!!” (That was never written, but constantly and consistently proclaimed)> The closest the author (“Neil Barsky, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and investment manager [and] the founder of The Marshall Project.” (Wikipedia writes: “… a journalism nonprofit intended to shed light on the United States criminal justice system, as well as to promote prison abolition.” How this makes Mr. Barsky an expert on Type 2 Diabetes (he is a Type 2 diabetic), I’m not sure as I’m also a Type 2 Diabetic…)

He states emphatically: “The ADA is far from the only obstacle to widespread adoption of a low-carb diet. Absent a national health education initiative that links carbohydrates to the diabetes epidemic, low-carb clinicians will be a voice in the wilderness. It can be challenging for many people with diabetes to forgo the breads, sweets, pastas and starches that form the basis of many diets. And given the dearth of healthy eating options on the shelves of many American supermarkets, some clinicians I spoke with, each of whom was dedicated to their patients’ wellbeing, said it was more effective to simply prescribe their patients pharmaceuticals.”

So, aside from it being “challenging” to anyone who is Type 2 diabetic; and the (really? Where does this man live? He can’t shop at the places I shop – like CUB, Rainbow, Target, and other easily, widely present grocery stores) “the dearth of healthy eating options on the shelves of many American supermarkets”…they’re all there. Even at the corner FASTANDEASY Mart…they OPTIONS are there.

The problem is that the Human Species has EVOLVED to find the EASIEST way to get their calories. This writer, in order to BLAME OTHERS for his own condition, finds it easier to PREACH the idea of “BLAME OTHERS” for the choices most Americans make all the time, every time, and if you check the annual profits of MacDonald’s and any other restaurant on Earth, available to the fabulously NOT wealthy. According to him, “The losers are the millions of people with diabetes who suffer amputations, blindness, neuropathy, often daily shoot themselves with insulin and eat carbohydrate-rich foods because they simply are not informed about their healthier options. It is not too late for the ADA to, loudly and in no uncertain terms, tell people with diabetes the truth.”

I’m unsure what conclave of Humans entirely insulated from First World societies this writer lives in, but writing this, he provided a MASSIVE boost to the millions of First Worlders searching for someone to blame – instead of choosing not to stuff their faces with fattening, truly horrible foods rather than saying to themselves, “Nah, I don’t need to order two triple-burgers with the works, and a quadruple order of fries with cheese sauce, and my favorite flavored sugar syrup water! I sure wish someone told me that there were sensible alternatives! No one ANYWHERE HAS EVER MENTIONED THAT I DON’T HAVE TO EAT SO MUCH THAT I FEELING LIKE PUKING…or fall into a FOOD COMA the moment I sit down in my overstuffed recliner…”

And as always, I’ll remind readers (and Mr. B) that when I point a finger at anyone, I’m firmly aware that the other three fingers are pointing directly back at me…

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/17/ada-american-diabetes-association-big-pharma
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #34: Shane Tourtelotte “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”

I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Shane Tourtelotte– with a few from myself…

I’ve been reading Shane since his first story was published in "Mortal Instruments" in the ANALOG February 1998 issue. He went on to write some forty-two OTHER stories, mostly for Stan Schmidt at ANALOG.

When Shane and famed SF writer, Michael A. Burstein (I'm also a fan of his!) wrote the short story “Bug Out!”, BURSTEIN NOTES: “...we needed an idea for a story. Shane brought with him the beginning of the idea for it. As soon as I heard the idea, I started to contribute more ideas to go along with it, Shane did as well, and we realized that this story would work as a collaboration.”

“But, I'm inherently a nonlinear writer. Shane, on the other hand, likes to start a story from the first word and keep writing until he reaches the end. It did turn out that we both work with outlines, we decided to write an outline for the story first, with each scene numbered. Then one of us took the odd-numbered scenes and the other one took the even-numbered scenes. That way, on a particular day. Shane could write all his scenes from beginning to end, and I could bounce around within my scenes and write whatever I wanted . Then we figured we would trade scenes and rewrite each other.”

Me: To tell you the truth, I’ve NEVER written ANYTHING with someone else. While it worked well for them, it seems like it was more than a LITTLE serendipitous! Honestly, I’ve pretty much hidden my adult SF writing from most people – except of course, my family! My daughter asked me to be a first reader for both her trilogy and her most recent gryphon fantasy; which I happily did! She’s now my publisher as I’m going to take a stab at publishing MARTIAN HOLIDAY myself... (for anyone who’s wondering: “On Mars in 2517, five million Humans live under The Five Domes. But a million others are not considered Human and live hidden lives. There have been 400 hundred years of relative peace. But the Unified Faith in Humanity and finding alien artifacts proving that Humans Are Not Alone is about to change Mars. Revolution seethes. On the brink of upheaval, three natural Humans, four Artificial Humans, and an AI might lead instead...a Reformation to save Mars.”)

Shane Tourtelotte said: “Stanley Schmidt wrote a book entitled Aliens and Alien Societies” I have this book! “…‘Engineering Organisms’…he discusses various means of locomotion in animals…One paragraph on water mobility mentions jet and rocket propulsion, used by some octopi and squids, adding, ‘it's a little hard to see how (the usual sudden and irregular squirts) could be adapted to routine, continuous, long-term transportation. Two pages before that, he also notes that ‘science fiction writers take statements like that as challenges.’”

“Well, I certainly did. My solution was peristalsis; rhythmic muscular contractions that gets your lunch where it’s going could also serve as a continuous propulsive mechanism. It would take a lot of specialization to make it work well, but hey, so did flying. The next idea arose because I imagined these alien creatures as being of whale-like size--naturally more interesting in a story than having them the size of trout.” This mental exercise resulted in the short story “Live Bait”, which appeared in ANALOG’s July/August 1999 issue.

I had a similar experience with my story, “Fairy Bones”.

I live near a park reserve, and while there are no sapient fairies who live there, there are (during certain years) abundant fireflies. That’s the foundation of the story. I add a grandmother whose grandson is “forced on her” while his parents are off planet, and he’s obviously surly and pretends disinterest in everything his grandmother is doing.

She’s doing research into a unique lifeform she’s discovered in the nearby marsh and asks him to help. Bored, he reluctantly agrees – and discovers that she’s been capturing and categorizing creatures that look remarkable like our image of fairies.

She and her grandson bond over their adventure together and end up being a tight pair – and also intent on keeping their secret…while at the same time knowing someone ELSE knows the secret, too. 

There's more than ONE way real life can spill over into story life!

References: https://www.sfsite.com/01b/mb288.htm , “Fairy Bones”, November 15, 2015, CAST OF WONDERS (podcast) https://www.castofwonders.org/2015/11/episode-181-fairy-bones-by-guy-stewart/ Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEA ON TUESDAY 684

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: “Grave Clouds for the variant where the weather is simply miserable at graveyards and other creepy areas, and which is possibly a sister trope to this. See also Evil Is Not Well Lit…”Current Event: http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/scary-graveyard1.htm

Niaria Xiong-Walker squinted, trying to see through the gathering mist that apparently hung over the cemetery every night. She said, “How can mist hang over this place EVERY night? Fog’s a function of temperature, humidity, and dew point.”

Seth Bakhsh stood near an obelisk, pitted from ages of lower-than-water pH acid rain that drizzled from the Rochester, NY sky on a regular basis, giving it the dubious distinction of the being the American city with the most rainy days and its unofficial slogan, “If it rains, it’s Rochester”. He said, “It’s the oldest municipal graveyard in the US and has 400,000 dead people in it. Don’t you think that all those ghosts might have an effect on the weather?”

Niaria snorted and said, “They don’t even act as creeped out as you are doing in my parents old village in Nigeria! You’re a wimp, Seth!”

He snorted just as loudly, “I prefer to think that I’m prepared for all eventualities – even ephemeral ones.”

Shaking her head, she tapped her tablet computer and plugged in a cord. “I’m going to see if there’s any truth to the old wives tale that cemeteries are always foggy and creepy at night.”

“How many have you tested?” he asked. He usually ignored her scientific researches in favor of tapping her fascination in anime movies by presenting her with the latest rerun of her favorite Miyazaki film.

“Sixteen,” she replied.

“What?” he stepped from the obelisk, saying, “This isn’t the first time you’ve done this?”

“Duh,” she grabbed the tip of the cord and pulled, a long sensor extended, glowing blue.

“What’s that?”

“A data staff. It collects information and feeds it into a program I wrote.”

“So you can detect monsters?”

“Nothing so solid. Ephemerals. Like you said.”

“Ghosts?” he breathed the word – and his breath fogged in front of his face. “How come it’s so cold here?”

She shook her head, “Because the temperature’s low, dummy.”

“No – I mean it wasn’t cold a second ago and now I can see my breath.”

She looked at her tablet then back up at Seth, “The data confirm your sensations.”

“Duh.”

She looked around, scowling. “But there isn’t any reason…” As she said the words, something congealed out of the fog. It wasn’t humaniform, more like a lizard-like; possibly saurian, large as the obelisk.

Seth said, “It’s coming out of that gravestone...”

“It’s a monument…”

“Whatever it is, I think it has big claws.”

Names: ♀ India, Hmong, English-Scottish; ♂ Hebrew, Pakistan
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 33: Seeds For Science Fiction

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…While working on a new short story that takes place in the skies of a “super-gas giant” planet called RIVER.

PLUS: I’ve been searching my writing lately to find our WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY.

PLUS: Humans will live in society and while it’s clear societies change, we seem to think that all the things we dislike most will vanish – because somehow, OUR vision of a perfect world is the ONLY one and EXCLUDES anyone who would disagree with us…(read: “me”)…
In the skies of River, a story developed that had a weird and at the same time FAMILIAR milieu…mining on the Iron Range and what that wrought from its heyday and what it left behind when the iron was mined, corporations moved on the strip mine OTHER societies, and people were left standing mute in the wreckage of worthless piles of rock and poisonous taconite tailings…

I wrote to the editor of a website I stumbled on during my research and found LOTS of soil for my imaginary world!

“To the Current Editor of the Minnesota Reformer:

“I'm retired and a writer now, and while building a society that lives in the skies of a gas giant in another star system far from the Solar System, I started to think of what it was that formed the foundation of the society in this remote place that supplies the "universe at large" with gases and compounds birthed from the skies of the planet River.

“I realized the kind of place in my science fiction story would have some similarities to the Iron Range.

“So, I wanted to delve into the motivations of the kind of people who would move to and live in such a far-off place, and work under such challenging conditions as those of the iron mines. In my imaginary world, they are also divided into two very different societies. I read Aaron Brown's essay and suddenly realized I had a much better view of the humans who were living in this very alien world and in sometime conflict with a wealthier, more stable part of their world — and living with tensions very similar to those I saw around C-I between the Range and the Cities.”

OK – lots of introduction for a simple idea. While River is an imaginary gas giant, it has a plethora of abundant lifeforms both naturally adapted to it, and lifeforms that Humans have engineered to live in the skies of River. In this story, called (at the moment!) "Hunting For DNA”, the main character is a young adult who has discovered a friend who has interests aligned with his own – which is to get a SOLID sample of the DNA of a natural denizen of River called a “hookhunter” that feeds on much smaller creatures called bobbing shrimp. He wants better sample because there are rumors that the DNA of the hookhunters contains genes that may be infinitely cloneable – in other words, it may create tissue that is immortal.

So, his “girlfriend” Murri is excited to help him. Unbeknownst to HIM, she’s not as interested in getting samples of hookhunter DNA as she is in getting samples of HIS DNA…because she’s been hired to do so because Gordon himself is an artificially structured Human. His dads know. Murri knows.

He doesn’t.

All good, right? But I’d only put a TINY bit of research into developing the society that Gordon, Murri, his dads, the hookhunters and the bobbing shrimp…and several dozen OTHER lifeforms and characters I’ve developed…live in.

And now, all of a sudden, based on memories and reading I’ve done on the interaction of the Iron Range and the Twin Cities…I have the society of a world slowly coming into focus…

I’ve meandered enough for now. Expect more later!

Today’s Source: https://minnesotareformer.com/2021/09/28/the-humbling-of-giants-the-rise-and-decline-of-the-iron-range-essay/
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Interesting Stuff The Might Apply To Mining Asteroids: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgej7gzg8l0o 

Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg