Why DA is sometimes Disappointing

Every day I put in a few minutes on DeviantArt—DA, which has become like taking an early morning stroll, for me.  My state of mind when I close it down ïs often different from one day to the next. 

Most of the guys who post art on the site, are posting fantasies: fantasy women which populate their Manga stories, or their video games. 

I'm imagining fantasy protagonists, too, but I need girls who are more than just decorative!  I can imagine a lot of these DA women standing around, looking encouragingly at the guys, —and maybe the girls.  But I'm looking for a girl who would join me in an adventure!  Take charge, some of the time; be a real participant!

A lot of the images depict intense girls, who seem preoccupied with their looks—especially if their hair has been done up in a fancy style.  Girls wearing complicated clothes, are not so bad; girls like to wear something weird every now and then; that's fine.  But those images of high-maintenance girls are such a waste of time!

You Know Who else is Super Cute?

September 21, 2024.

Ilona Maher!

Who is this, you might ask?  She was playing Rugger for the USA at the Paris Olympics, and almost as the end of the match, found herself in possession of the ball.  She got off the ground, and ran like the blazes for the touch line, and scored a touchdown!  It was duly converted, and the US won bronze.  It was so fun watching Ilona hustling with the ball!

I'll find a Pic for you!

https://youtu.be/GNBG2aMvlRw?si=89wZHhMde974oSOc

She's adorably klutzy, but very WYSIWYG, a forthright person.  She tends to talk super fast when she's excited—which is pretty much all the time—and that seems normal with athletes; girl athletes, anyway. 

I might not have said that she's on Dancing With the Stars at the moment. 

Kay

Caitlin C!

This girl is an amazing athlete!

When I just learned about Caitlin Clark late last year, and thought how cute she was, and learned how well she was playing this game about which I knew only: Ball, and Basket, I never realized I was biting off more than I could chew. 

It's more than just making baskets, obviously; there's fouls, and free throws, and 3-pointers, and all sorts of crap that I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!  I never wanted to know all about this game; I just knew a little about it from playing with a little cousin, who wanted me to play with her all the time, so we played something called Around the World.  I don't even know whether little kids these days play that version.

These days, when Caitlin gets into trouble, the internet throws a ton of information at you—you know our friend the internet—and I'm getting snowed with unwanted information. 

I'm learning what a nice person this girl is, and her sense of humor; so no nonsense!  In some ways I feel so lucky that I stumbled on such a cute person to 'Fangirl' over.  On the other hand, I don't even know enough about the game to explain what happens. 

I'm beginning to learn about the other members of the team, Lexie Hull, who is kind of an egghead from Stanford U, Aliyah Boston (not sure she really has two consecutive 'a's in her name) a big, friendly teddy bear of a girl who really likes to look after Caitlin; Kelsey Mitchell, and other players who have her back, and so on. 

Lexie Hull and her twin, Lacie

Kay

The Debate

9-11-2024

I was cringing as I watched the debate last night.  Trump was pushing out lies so fast that Kamala Harris could not even express her amazement fast enough.  But the talking heads who analyzed it later were all in agreement that Kamala had won handsomely.  (I couldn't handle it, so I went to bed early.  And while I was gone, guess what?  Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris!)

If the election were to be held today, Trump would be toast. 

Kay

E Books, and Language

As with many persons who have grown up in literate households, all through my teens, twenties and thirties, I corrected grammar, spelling and syntax errors everywhere I found them.  When I was younger, I was brutal, not caring how I might have embarrassed anyone.  Since I had been a teacher, though, I have tried to be more tactful.

But I'm beginning to realize that the problem is becoming enormous.  People who post on popular media don't check what they post; they use 'he' as a pronoun for a woman; they leave out words, most commonly articles (the, a, an)—but in some foreign languages I have since come to know that articles actually do not exist (Russian, for instance), so sometimes posts with that sort of omission could originate from people of foreign origin, or indeed from abroad. 

Articles on sports, particularly, are incredibly chock full of jargon, and are difficult to read, unless one becomes accustomed to reading sports News.  I think that those who aspire to becoming sports commentators learn to talk that way, as a means of establishing their credentials, and naturally write that way as well.  It could be that men are not as careful about their language as are women, and most sports writers are men. 

Also, I have noticed that sports articles on Fb are filled with prejudice.

My Facebook feed is now redolent with articles about old- time movie stars.  Fb loves those sorts of posts, and probably pays whoever posts them something.  If I happen to like (or love) those posts, I will soon get a million of them, all poorly written. 

Similarly with stories about aging rockers. 

I'm Really Pleased

This morning, I was scrolling my way through my Fb feed, when I saw an article on Caitlin Clark.  (They throw lots of CC posts at me.  So predictable.)

This article was unusual.  It was easy to understand, it didn't have a ton of statistics, it wasn't filled with abstruse basketball terms that I didn't understand.  Best of all, there was hardly any mention about how much money Caitlin Clark is earning the WNBA, something that is common knowledge, but something which I find a little crass. 

Instead, there was a lot about how Caitlin's presence in the Indiana Fever has increased attendance at their games, and viewership of women's basketball all over the US and all over the world!  (I guess, even if no one talks about money, indirectly it all translated to increased earnings; but this is a little more classy.)

There was some mention of Caitlin's supportive teammates, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.  (I personally love Boston; she has such a friendly grin, and she is so supportive of her team!  She's lovely to have in that team.  I can easily understand how hard it must be to have Caitlin show up and make them all look bad.  That was at the beginning; pretty soon they were all playing well; I guess just as soon as Caitlin got confident about her teammates.) 

There was a feature about Caitlin that emphasized that she was an all-round sportsman (or sportswoman), a musician, and a pretty good dancer!  They mentioned her favorite popular musicians, but I only caught the name of Drake.

But, alas, that awesome post about Caitlin: it got whisked away, before I could comment and say how well-written it was!

Kay

Galactic Voyager is Set to Depart Soon!

When I wrote Galactic Voyager, I wanted it to be in our very near future; I wanted all the science to be essentially familiar from high school physics.  It was set (to depart Moon orbit) in the 21^st Century (I was writing around 1999), which means around this year!

Now, of course, nobody has the will——or the budget, let's be serious——to consider such a thing as to outfit an enormous space vessel 6 miles long, and send it off in an open-ended voyage.  I was young and naïve, and I thought it wouldn't be too impossible.  If I were to write it now, I would postpone the departure of the Voyager by about a hundred years.

I haven't been able to get a nice cover image for the book.  I wanted the view from the rear window of the piloting nacelle (a sort of cabin out on an arm, that stays put, while the ship rotates).  I think I could afford to pay for a nice piece of art.  I might need two artists: one to draw the Voyager, and the other to draw a few people inside the nacelle, looking out through the window. 

K.