Fuck you, Peter Sprigg

I'm an FSTDT regular, so I believe I have some experience with pieces of opinion that are fuelled in equal measure by stupidity and hatred. And I must say, this excretion from the mind of one Peter Sprigg is a remarkable example of both qualities.

Sprigg cites a number of articles that note something that is not really surprising. Namely, that suicides amongst teens that identify as LGBT are more common the less accepting their environment is. But, he chooses to focus on another unfortunate fact, that LGBT-identifying teen suicides rates are higher than those of straight teenagers.

And what does Sprigg suggest as a solution? Why, that we should discourage teens from identifying as queer, of course!

It really shouldn't need pointing out how remarkably ass-backwards that is as a conclusion from the evidence. I shouldn't need to say that breeding an environment that says that you shouldn't identify as gay is a textbook example of hetero-normativity, i.e. that thing we already know causes more suicides.

I also doubt my pointing it out will enlighten anyone, because this is the kind of conclusion you get when you are a homophobic cunt who doesn't give a fuck about what happens to those icky queers. Sprigg is not genuinely interested in reducing LGBT teen suicides. He's looking for a way to deny that the obvious idea is, hey, let's do the one thing we know works and try to build an environment more accepting of alternative sexualities. After all, he is blogging for an organization whose entire raison d'être is the exact opposite.

Still, because I have a thing for beating my head against metaphorical walls, I did leave a comment explaining why he's wrong. Maybe one of those idiots will be temporarily less blinded by their homophobia and be able to think relatively straight for a few seconds. Probably not.

Evaluation: Fehu

Blergh, another week skipped. Void's origin story hit a roadblock, I have no idea how to go on from there.

Good news is, I got a decent idea for... another Vurok origin story! I have to thank James Patterson for it, really, I was reading a book of his and it was so lame my mind started figuring out ways it could be improved. And, lo and behold, I came up with a magic system for the Vurokverse I like much better than the previous one. Which means, yes, finally Machi gets point-of-view and a story, and it seems to be flowing much easier than Void's.

The magic system does have some potential for easy overpowering, so I will have to keep checks on that. Vurokians are not supposed to be demigods. But other than that, it's cleaner, it makes more sense, and it's allows for things like unusually powerful magical effects that cannot be replicated at will, which is useful. I don't want to have to keep track of every little thing mages can do and then have to make sure they aren't conveniently forgetting their powers according to the demands of the plot.

The upcoming scene might just be the first time one of my Vurok characters gets mentioned by birth name. Or at least by a nickname based on the name. I've yet to have a point-of-view character whose real first name is known (except possibly Denise, depending on what you consider her "real" name to be). Ana was going to be the first, but I scrapped that story and then Golden Sky was told from Jack's perspective (Jack is also a fake name, incidentally). So yeah, possible milestone. I get excited by the weirdest thing

On the title, Fehu is the first rune in the Elder Futhark, which seemed an appropriate title for story about beginnings and magic. Plus it gives me a potential naming scheme for further stories along that line, though I doubt I'll go with it.

Evaluation: Void Origins 2

My most insincere apologies for not having anything up last Monday. Truth be told, I had made little to no progress with the story. And, my internet connection had been unusually slow, which ate up time I'd normally use to write. Plus it annoyed me.

As it turns out, all of the above remains true, but I thought two straight weeks without updating was slipping into bad habits. So, the state of the thing so far:

It's less than one page long so far, partly because I've only written anything 2 or 3 of the last 14 days. Also partly because I changed my mind about the direction the plot was going, so I rewrote about half of that one page today. I'm still in the awkward "trying to ease into the main plot" stage, but I've passed a small hurdle.

I'm still not too sure about where the story goes from here, which is a bad sign. Right now, the big problem is that there is an entirely different story developing in my head. I'd work on that, but: The main character is overpowered, there is little to no plot, and it's heavy on visuals. Meaning, I cannot write it. So instead of imagining how Void gets out of the family business and discovers his powers, furthering the plot of the current Psychflare, my brain prefers to think about Nameless Protagonist killing bad guys with his magic weapon. I suck.

But anyway. I know what the main stimulus for that is (fanfiction I'm reading), so in a few days it should be done with and maybe I can focus on the stuff I want to focus on. We'll see, as always.

Hola, facebook

Punto crítico fue alcanzado. El martes fue mi cumpleaños, y de las personas que suelo considerar mi grupo de amigos, un gran total de 0 se acordó hasta que los invité a casa a festejarlo. E incluso ahí, les tomo un rato darse cuenta el motivo de la invitación (no lo dije en el mensaje, específicamente para ver que hacían). ¿Su excusa? Feisbuk no les recuerda mi cumpleaños porque no tengo cuenta.

Por endeble que sea la excusa, es innegable que las circunstancias descritas anteriormente ya no son ciertas. Creo que soy el único del grupo sin facebook, cosa curiosa ya que también fui el primero que lo tuvo. Un desfasaje temporal. El punto es que, si todo el resto está en facebook, y me hinchan las bolas para que vuelva, tal parece que la opción recomendable sería volver.

Así pues, rindiéndome a la tiranía de la sociedad (representada por seis boludos con mala memoria), acabo de reactivar mi cuenta de facebook.