Day in the Life of an Idiot

For sabotabby who is probably still on vacation and anyone else who might be interested, here's a link to our American Flagg episode of Mona Lisa Overpod: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4yFxNh4m8xcnHhLC3MB38Z  

Speaking of podcasts, I had a very odd interaction with a potential panelist on a panel I proposed for Diversicon. I've been, as you know, gentle reader, fairly obsessed with doing programming committee work for a completely DIFFERENT covention, and so I haven't much talked about the fact that I will be one of the Guests of Honor at Diversicon 32, along with Naomi Kritzer. Diversicon is a local to me (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) convention and is coming up soon!  September 5-7!  

So, what happened was this: I got an email from someone in programming connecting me with a potential panelist. The initial email was very straight-forward. This person has been writing radio plays for a podcast down in Florida called the Radio Theatre Project. Sounds like a decent fit, right? But, this person added this to their communication with me, "I'd be happy to talk to Lyda and come up with a presentation" (emphasis mine). I wrote back and said, "Sure! I'm happy to try to figure out a way to combine our similar expertise into a panel of some sort.  My podcast isn't fiction and I do none of the technical aspects of recording, editing, or producing it, but I'm sure there are some commonalities."

Immediately the other panelist seemed to want to back off, however. They talked about how "my audience" might not be interested in the things they were doing and that the two types of writing were fundamentally different. I acknowledged that, but tried to encourage this person, anyway, by saying that, yes, that's true, but podcasts are a thing in general and I'm happy to spend some time on the panel talking about the things they do and the things I do. This seemd to mollify this person, briefly.

BUT then they proposed getting together for a coffee to hammer out our "presentation" or to at least come up with talking points.

I have to admit, y'all? I was very confused by the continued use of the world presentation.

I had to write back and say, "It's a panel discussion, right? Something informal and off-the-cuff?"  I told them I am always happy to pre-consider questions that might highlight this or that, but, like, this is one of those situations, I thought, where "this meeting could be an email." I did, however, try to say this kindly and suggest that while I was not against getting together for a coffee, per se, a panel discussion (if that's what we were having) wasn't probably worthy of something so intense. 

I guess I pissed his person off somehow? I didn't mean to!

But, surprise, surprise, this person has now declined the offer to be on the panel with me.  Which would be FINE, except for the fact that they felt the need to leave with this parting shot: "I listened to your MLOP 27: American Flagg podcast about cyberpunk. It is very focused and detailed. It offered a wealth of information for fans of serious science fiction. I'm not a serious sci-fi fan. I don't have the background and experience to speak about this kind of podcast. I've also found the easiest way to kill the humor in almost anything is to analyze it." 

Like, is that directed at me?  Or is this person saying that they don't want to analyze their own humor for fear of destroying the fun in it? (Their radio plays are humorous, apparently.) I decided to go with the latter, because it does no good to make enemies in a convention pool as small as Diversicon's. So, I told them how sorry I was that they have chosen to opt out and hoped that we could at least meet and chat at the con. 

But the entire exchange was so baffling, you all. I know this person at least a little. Their name is familiar to me. They are NOT a stranger to the local science fiction and fantasy scene. They know what SFF convention panels are. The fact that they kept calling it a presentation has actually made me a little terrified that I'm actually going to be the ONLY person on this panel. SHOULD I BE PREPARING A LECTURE/PRESENTATION?????  I am now a little fearful that maybe I should be!

I wouldn't be paranoid about this, but this has happened to me in the past. 

I once proposed a panel for (I think) MarsCON about manga and manhwa and, when I arrived at the convention and got my hands on the program booklet, I discovered that I was, in fact, the only person talking about this subject FOR AN HOUR. Luckily, in that case, it wasn't until the next day and someone (Anton, probably,) had asked me if I needed any technical support for my panel/presentation and I said, "Okay, yes? Gimme some way to run a powerpoint presentation," and I went home that night and MADE ONE UP. I think I had exactly 5 people in the audience, but they were happy to see the covers of some titles I recommended, etc. 

JFC.

If it is just me... what am I going to talk about for an hour by myself about podcasts? I mostly listen to fiction podcasts, but if people are there, as this proposed panelist suggested for my particular podcast, I don't know that there's enough to actually say about what it is that we do. I mean, Ka!lban does most of the hard work and I just show up and talk about whatever it is we've chosen as a topic. That's it. That's my entire experience. I don't know how this could possibly fill an hour!

I guess I'll find out!

 I had planned to post about the books I've been reading lately yesterday, of course, but in a good news/bad news sort of way, I ended up writing so much on the new novel that I lost track of time. As I was telling my writing accountablity Zoom group, I don't quite know what happened, but I hit a voice that I'm super comfortable in (not previously a POV character) and I'm running with it.

Enough about that. 

I've recently gotten very into audiobooks. After finishing The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (which I sort of disliked, though not enough to quit listening to it), I picked up We Have Always Been Here by Leah Nguyen. I also somewhat disliked We Have Always Been Here. I never cottened to the main character/narrator, Park. I found her (at least how she was read to me) to be an unlikely combination of paranoid and clueless. Like, the book opens with Park having been poisoned. Because Park has been bullied all her life, she doesn't put much mind to this, even as weird shit starts happening all around her on the ship, including other people being attacked, she never goes back to "I wonder if any of this connects to what happened to me?" I don't know about you? But I hate when main characters don't seem interested in solving the plot and/or generally forget clues that, to the reader, seem like Big Deals. And being poisoned one day and having your mentor tell you "I have a project that is going to take up all my attention, you're now the main psychologist" feels like the sort of thing that a paranoid person should reallly start deep dive investigating. you know? Don't get me wrong. Park investigates the crap out of everything else going on in this ship, but she never connects any of it back to things that happen to herself. Worse, the big reveal at the end made me realize that had she done so, she would been directly led to one of the main villains.

But, the androids in the story get a good ending. They were who I cared about, so it worked out for me.

I'm now listening to The Sculpted Ship by K. M. O'Brien. I've been describing this book to people as a science fiction version of Legends & Lattes. The stakes are so low in The Sculpted Ship that if I were not already a fan of slice-of-life manga and thus have built-up a huge tolerance for people just wandering around and doing tasks, I probably would have fallen asleep listening to this. This is not a criticism per se, however, because, given the current political situation in the United States, a story that is essentially about THINGS WORKING OUT is exactly what the doctor ordered (for me, anyway.) 

I'm not quite finished with it and there does seem to be a little intrigue a foot here in the last 20% of the book, but I am hopeful that things will just work out as so many things before this have. That would be fine with me.

Speaking of slice-of-life manga, I read two "wandering around in a post-apocaplyptic world" science fiction manga in the past week. I read Usuzumi no Hate / The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse by Iwamune Haruo and Shuumatsu Touring / Touring After the Apocalypse by Saito Sakae. Both of which I would highly recommend, with a few caveats. The Color of the End has a plague in it and there is a lot of death and dying, including suicide. Likewise, Touring After the Apocalypse has its dark/sad moments as well as some suicides. Weidly, despite those warnings, I found both of these manga to be hopeful and "quiet" in a "let's appreciate life while we have it" kind of way. Very appropriate for flower viewing season.

I also read a couple of family dramas:  Otona no Zukan Kaiteiban / Adults’ Picture Book New Edition by Itoi Kei and Kashikokute Yuuki Aru Kodomo / A Smart and Courageous Child by Yamamoto Miki. Both of which I liked, but mileage may vary. If you're at all interested in reading fuller reviews of any of the manga I've mentioned, feel free to check out my manga review site: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/

Speaking of manga, a quick plug for the old podcast. Yesterday we dropped our twenty-first episode, this time discussing the cyberpunk manga classic Blame! (https://open.spotify.com/show/11brxmJZjf3gnzltvwXI7H) I guess, I technically re-read that recently, too. Weirdly, despite the fact that the podcast is a lot of squee, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Blame! Technically, Blame! is also a lot of wandering around in a post-apocalyptic world, but it feels far less hopeful. In fact, the vibe is grim. It is interesting and pretty and action-packed, but it might not be what the soul needs right now, if you catch my meaning.

I think that's it. Otherwise, I've been writing a lot and prepping for Minicon. 

You?

 I'm currently in another screen waiting for my podcast co-host to show up. 

Willow (our cat) is in the hallway, just outside of the room I record in, meowing at me for attention. Meanwhile, I have no idea if I'm in the right place because some time ago my co-host got irritated that I never seemed to remember when we were recording and asked if he could access my Google calendar, so we could sync up. Good idea! Only, I used to always attach the Zoom link to my calendar notification. Now, it and the alarm to remind me to show up are gone.

Not a huge problem, just a small irritation. 

Last night I slept for crap because I decided in my infinite wisdom that it was a good time to catch up on John Oliver and, thus, I spent much of the night last night waking up in a heightened sense of existential dread. 

Should be an interesting show today!

 It's Wednesday again, so it's time to check in with what people are reading or have read.

As usual, my reading has been heavily focused on cyberpunk-ish titles. Last week, I mentioned that I had started listening to an audiobook of Body Scout by Lincoln Michel.  This book gets approximately 3.5 stars on Goodreads and that seems fair and accurate to my opinion of it. I'm not really a body horror or a basebal fan and this book has a lot of both. Even so, I found the characters very compelling, probably because I am generally a fan of the noir detective, which our hero Kobo, is not exactly, but he is certainly cast strongly in the mold of. lcohen , you said you might be interested in this because you like baseball? I hesitate to recomend it to you, however, because there is not only the aforementioned body horror, but also a LOT of violence. Our hero gets beaten up a LOT.

I failed around, like one does, after finishing Body Scout, not sure what I was in the mood for next. Eventually settled on another audiobook that is equally dark and is definitely cyberpunk, called When the Sparrow Falls by Fred Sharpson. The audiobook narrator is amazing, first off (he has a very cool British accent), and secondly the story is incredibly compelling in an 'always-having-to-watch-your-back authoritarian future' way. Like, no one likes the old Soviet Bloc vibe, but you can totally understand why a story set in a future world like that would be INTENSE. In basic terms, the premise of this one is that our hero, Inspector South, a low level cop-type bureaucrat in a Luddite/Human Supremicist enclave, gets assigned the job to escort an AI driving a body that looks exactly like his dead wife's around, things get weird and tense fast.

The actual book blurb probably does a better job of describing it, however. I recommend looking that up.

Kai1ban, my podcast co-host for Mona Lisa Overpod, and I have the next two episodes already recorded, so we had a skip week this week in order to continue research a few more titles for our Cyberpunk & Horror episode. I've been asking around various social media sites for good recommendations of cyberpunk short stories with a hint of horror, and I got a good list... which I am only just starting to work my way through. One story that I read that I'm not entirely sure qualifies called "Talk to Your Children About Two-Tongued Jeremy," by Theodore McCombs. It's about the danger of school bullying, if that bullying came from a learning app, and how a certain social economic class is hyper-focuses on getting their kids into The Right School, etc. I really liked it and what happens in it is tragic and awful in places, but I'm never sure what magic quality makes something horror rather than just "kinda dark," you know?

I just looked to see what I had read in terms of manga... and, speaking of horror, I am horrified to discover that I haven't reviewed anything for almost a month!  Yikes! Well, that's another thing I will add to my to-do list today, which is see what I can find in terms of cyberpunk manga with horror vibes (and, yes, I've already read Blame!)

And you? Are you reading anything that you want to share? Anything you want to complain about?

 Shawn and I have a notebook full of allegorical names for a farcical mystery we are never going to write. These are names like Scott Free and Helena Handbasket. I wonder if General News is in the list? I should check. It's been a while since we added a new name.

But, on to the actual general news (as opposed to the allegorical one.) I don't think I have a huge amount to catch you up on this week, but it's been a while so I thought I'd catch you up on the goings-on arounds these parts.

Tuesday ended up being a skip week for the podcast. While my co-host tested negative for COVID, he did come down with something nasty enough to keep him off the air. What was ironic about that, is that I had Shawn reschedule her pre-op appointment because it had conflicted. Then, suddenly, neither of us had anything to do at that time. (Well, I mean, Shawn went to work, but it was a very, "Damn it, we coulda..." sort of thing.) It has been, I think you'll see, a week like this.

Wednesday, I was scheduled to record with Cheryl Morgan--my editor and publisher over at Wizard's Tower--for her podcast. That went really well, but it was funny the extent to which I'd forgotten a lot of the plot of Resurrection Code. 

Yesterday, I had both an in-person Wyrdsmiths (my writing critique group) and I hung out with my friend jiawen for a couple of hours, which was nice. We talked about everything from WisCON to the recent presidential debates, volcanos, and our various lives and such. Good times. 

Then I went for a very short walk and now I'm hot and tired. Dang exercise, making me sweaty!

 If you're following along as Kai1ban and I talk about cyberpunk, we dropped a new episode yesterday afternoon celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of William Gibson's Nueromancer: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QmYty2vDu8KnA92lJ1yFx. I initially wondered if we'd have anything new to say about it, but we actually talked for almost 2 hours about just this book (well, and of course, the ideas and concepts it spawned.) For perhaps obvious reasons, I ended up talking much more about my own writing in this one than I have on previous podcasts, which always makes me feel weird, but there's simply no question that most cyberpunk writers were, in their own ways, affected by this book.

Anyway, if you are so inclined, please enjoy.

If not, carry on!  

 First of all, the obligatory reminder that if you'd like to listen to me and my co-host, Ka1iban, talk about the original Ghost in the Shell anime movie from 1995, you can do it. Here's the Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yZxXGcx2E6EAga4k5pmMa. You can also listen on Spreaker, iTunes, or anywhere fine podcasts can be found. 

If you listen, please review and/or rate us, subscribe, and all those good things.

/advertisement

This last week, I continued to keep on reading and listening to the cyberpunk stuff--so, here's what I got through:

The big standout was Feed by M.T. Anderson. I listened to this as an audiobook, which is what I would recommend as the best way to consume it, hands down. The production value on the audiobook is phenomenal. The story is, in part, about social media taking over your brain, and so there's a point where the narrative is broken up with fake advertisements, which are so well done that I initially mistook them for real ones--I thought my phone had flaked out or I'd hit some pop-up. It took several seconds before I realized that these were fake and tailored to the novel. So, that part was EXTREMELY well done. And perfectly hammered in the point of the book, because my brain is so used to being interrupted and bombarded by ads that initially I went into "don't pay attention to this" mode and didn't fully register that my audio book should NOT come with ads. And, of course, we all believe that we're SO good at multitasking, which we all know is at least partly a lie was laid bare by this whole thing. Like, we think we are so adept at tuning advertisements out, when, really, we are subconsciously absorbing them... as I was until I woke up to the fact that this was part of the narrative.

Wake up Sheeple, indeed. ;-)

I finished reading the physical book of 36 Streets by T. R. Napper and... mmmm, I loved the setting of this book a lot. It's a cyberpunk Vietnam, specifically Hanoi. But, the main character never gelled for me and the grim not only stayed grim throughout, but got WORSE. Like, people I had invested in and lied died stupid deaths. So, not what I would call a satisfying story and the text never asks any of the interesting questions of cyberpunk as far as I was concerned even though the main character, Lin, choses to erase huge portions of her memory in order to "fight unencumbered." All of which, to me, felt needlessly macho instead of some kind of treatise or reflection on personhood. 

I listened to the short story "Seb Dreams of Reincarnation" by Aimee Ogden which is a great story in the vein of David Levin's "Damage." In which people's minds become space ships. Seb, the titular hero, was once a ship and now he's trying to cope with being a human again and not really doing great--at least not until he takes up the hobby of manning drones. It's a story I want people to read, so I won't spoil it, except to say that the ending is EXTREMELY heartwarming. 

I also re-read the short story "Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling, which is a story that's sort of like Naomi Kritzer's "Better Living Through Algorithms" (though, obviously, Naomi does it better.)

I gave up on the audiobook The Electric Church by Jeff Somers as it suffered the same problem of T. R. Napper's book, which was excessive machismo. A problem, as much as I hate to admit it, at least in cyberpunk written by men. 

I started to listen to the audiobook of Warcross by Marie Lu, which was liking until it became a millionaire boyfriend novel. I'm going to stick with it, but I am adjusting my expectations.  

Other things in my queue: 

• Armada by Ernest Cline (audiobook)
• Accelerando by Charles Stross (audiobook)
• Jennifer Government by Max Berry

And, of course, I'm going to have to rewatch Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Innocence for the next podcast. 

So, what about you? What are you reading lately? Anything good? Anything AWFUL?

 So, I talked about this here, but it's now live. Our first episode can be found on Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/mlop-count-zero--60266166, but we should be appearing on Spotify, Apple Tunes, and all your other favorite podcast streaming networks shortly. 

I might be having too much fun doing these. I have secretly always wanted a podcast and now here we are. I am so, so grateful to my co-host Ka1iban for doing all the technical stuffs. I listened to the opening of this and it is so very clear that he (and all the folks at Just Enough Trope) are professionals!

Anyway, busy day today. Have to run. Talk to you tomorrow!

By chance, I was trying to find one of my older fics. You would normally just go to AO3 and start scrolling, but I have a lot.

I mean, A LOT.

So, it is actually sometimes easier for me to just Google my own work. So, I popped in the title I was looking for and discovered that TWO of my Bleach fics were featured on a PODCAST.

"Berry Barista" and "The Loss of More Than Power," were called out as part of the "Ichigo's Harem" by The One True Podcast, Episode 19 (you will have to scroll down, I could not find a direct link. Not that I expect anyone but me cares to listen to this whole thing). The first part of the podcast just explains what Bleach is and why there are so, so many ships that sail with Ichigo, the main protagonist. The story that the guest speaker talks about wishing she could write, is, in fact, "The Loss of More than Power." and then she gets into her recs. And, let me tell you right now, there is literally nothing quite like being simultaneously called out as "I don't think they have updated in a long time," and "It is so good. SO GOOD." 

Yep.

My fan fic career in a nutshell. 

At any rate, the other thing I forgot to tell you all about is that as part of Shawn's work, she is doing a course in "Design Thinking." It's one of those certification programs that requires a lot of projects. One of them was to design and BUILD a tinfoil hat, I have to admit that I kind of dig the craft parts of this course? Previously, Shawn and I had to do a brainstorming session with post-it notes. I mean, I say "Shawn and I' because technically these are supposed to be "team" projects, but, of course, no one is in the office right now. So, she's been tapping me to be her team.

The good news is that I kind of dig it.

Here's me modeling the cooking tinfoil hat, for the discerning conspiracy theorist who likes to cook and is fond of anglerfish.


It has a recipe hook, a fancy fish tail counter weight, a spoon holder, drip pockets, and so much more!!

Also, as my friend Laurie Winter pointed out when I posted this to Facebook, the other feature of our hat is that the aliens can not implant their recipes into your brain!  Bonus!

We sent a series of these pictures to Mason, who left for college and Connecticut the day we sat down to do this with, "Here's what happens when we are left with an empty nest."  We got back, "??? ARE YOU OKAY?'  

...for What are You Reading Wednesdays?  If they do,  I can tell you that I'm listening to something that an article in the New York Times turned me on to. It's a podcast from 2015 or so called "Afroqueer Podcast"  I know almost nothing about the continent of Africa and so thought this might be an interesting way to celebrate pride month while also raising my own awareness about a part of the world that I'm astonishingly ignorant about.

I've listened to four episodes so far and it's difficult to say I'm enjoying it, since some of the content is difficult and painful, but I am definitely learning stuff.  And, of course, some of the stories are extremely heartwarming as well. 

Otherwise, it looks like the "why can't I see Lyda's pictures?" mystery has been solved. I also forgot I have a premium membership to DW? So, I will now attempt to avail myself of the photo uploading option that is native to this system. I don't have anything in particular that needs showing off, but I will test with a picture of my cat:



Image: snaggle-toothed, orange boy cat hanging over the edge of the rocking chair, giving the camera a slightly crazed glare.

Does everyone see it?