Good morning, friends and fans!
Welcome to another “Peek Into My Week”, a behind the scenes look into the (I hope) interesting events occurring in my daily life!
July 12, 2021.
For the most part, my weeks are the usual ensemble of dreary routine events – work, book marketing, finding time to write, highlights, lowlights, tinkering on Dolly (my 1962 Beetle and daily transport), arguing with my wife about dinner, tripping over cats, or rearranging the furniture – but just occasionally something interesting happens, interesting enough to want to tell someone about!
Here then, for your enjoyment, is my recollection of noteworthy events in my past week!
Monday:
My, How I’ve Changed
Monday was a bit of a confused day for me… you see, I got changed into different sets of clothing no less than five separate times! Since I was off work that day due to my employer adopting a 50-50 approach to the COVID thing for the time being, I’d settled back to enjoy the day doing things I like doing. I started off by getting dressed in my pajamas (as I sleep in the buff!). After a leisurely breakfast and some time spent behind the PC while waking up, I got changed into my workshop clothes because I wanted to work on a specific project while I had the time – and then I was called back in to work to do something. Rats!
Anyway, I changed out of the workshop kit, into some work clothes, hopped into Dolly and cruised to the office. I wasn’t there long, not even a full hour, and then cruised back home again before 1pm. Back in my workshop gear again, in the actual workshop, I realized I needed something from Builder’s Express… back into my neat clothes again, into Dolly, and off to Newton Park I went! And then, once back home again, back into the workshop kit again… What I actually achieved on Monday afternoon on that particular project took about an hour in total… and then I slipped back into my woolly warm pajamas for the evening! Done with everything, I settled down to watch Top Gear with my Querida and our three kittens!
News From Hally Park Publishers!
I had some feedback from Clair at Hally Park on Monday morning – the editing work is progressing nicely, and I had to send them the cover images and materials I’d used to make the cover for “A Way Of Life“, my late dad’s book I edited. I’m excited about this, because it means his book could end up in local SA schools quite soon, which would be really amazing!
Tuesday:
Case In Point
On Monday I posted the article “More About Panic! Horror In Space” in which I explained why “Panic! Horror In Space” wasn’t really pure horror, but was in fact more of a parody or satire of horror. Instead of apparently clarifying that point, it drew a half-witted response which essentially proved the main point behind my ire at having to explain things this BASIC to people who should at least have a high school level of English reading skills and comprehension!
To provide another example, previously I had to explain that yes, I really did mean to spell “Steaks” in the title of “High Steaks” the way I did, because it was a PUN! I did so because people simpletons on Facebook and other websites sharing my books were pointing fingers at my posts and shares and laughing about how stupid I was because I’d “spelt the word wrong”! How stupid was I to go through the entire publishing process, cover design and formatting and marketing, using the wrong spelling of a word in the title? Hmmm. Apparently not as stupid as the plonkers pointing and laughing – at their own window-licking stupidity, apparently.
This new example of the stupidity out there – worst of all from a fellow writer – just set my blood boiling again! I mean… seriously!
To anyone with more than three brain cells (and none out on loan to relatives), the title “Panic! Horror In Space” should immediately evoke parody and satire – a fact which should also be made obvious if the browser took the trouble to read the back cover blurb.
People have in general become far too literalist, unable to grasp the subtleties of language – or to “read between the lines” as the saying goes. Instead of looking at deeper meanings, they simply accept what they read at face value (which explains the rise of religious extremism and fundamentalism, and recent events in several countries at least, in a BIG way).
This has made being an intelligent writer using wit, puns, sarcasm and satire quite a difficult enterprise… which really shouldn’t be the case in an age when Humans are looking to colonize the moon and Mars – but then at the same time, legions of people idiots are currently convinced that the Earth is flat, Australia doesn’t really exist and is some kind of scam, and birds are really miniature robots created by the government to spy on them. I don’t even really know where to begin. It’s all a huge stinking mess – and failing flawed education systems lie at the root of it, being sufficient only to create masses of drones incapable of independent, creative and critical thinking. The individuals they produce can read, yes – some can even write – but it’s mostly flat, two-dimensional drivel, like the bland unimaginative content of magazines or instruction manuals – or religious rubbish spewed out by orangutans in cassocks.
People these days – and I’m including my own generation in this – don’t seem to be very literate anymore. I mean, if the vast majority of people out there are really that fucking stupid (and I really, really hope they’re not, because then I might as well pack it all in and end it), is it worth me even bothering to write anymore?
Secondly, this person’s cheap shot at my cover design for the series really doesn’t faze me: I don’t give a rat’s ass for what people too stupid or literalist to grasp my writing anyway – or to produce anything equal to it or better – think of the cover, so take your two cents worth of useless armchair criticism and jam it where the sun don’t shine, y’hear? People like these are the reason why I have to keep writing silly articles explaining puns and sarcasm and wit and parody and satire.
Wednesday:
I was super-lazy on Wednesday, and aside from fiddling on Dolly for about an hour in the morning, I didn’t do much. I went out for a little cruise by myself (as Kay was still working at the time) and took a trip along the beachfront and then picked up lunch on the way home. It was a nice relaxing experience for a change – I can’t remember when last I just did something like that, it’s been a long while. When I got home again, I got back into my pajamas and bundled up on the sofa to munch Hawaiian chicken burgers with my Querida. While she finished work in the office, I passed time on the laptop doing some admin. We topped the evening off with the three wise guys from Top Gear, so a good day was had by all.
Thursday & Friday:
I went back in to work on Thursday. It was a bit of a mad rush, so I didn’t get round to doing anything else! Quite a few of my colleagues were off sick or in isolation with COVID, so although it was generally quiet, there was still enough to keep me busy. I literally occupied three different seats or wore three different hats on Thursday and Friday – and was also informed that I’d also be wearing a fourth come Monday. Needless to say, none of this left me with much time for writing!
Progress On “African Assignment” Too!
On Friday I was asked by Clair from Hally Park to send in the cover materials for my dad’s short story collection, “African Assignment“, which I duly did. The fact that they’re working on these stories is a good sign that they’ll be among those being sent to the Dept. of Education under their contract to supply suitable reading material for students! Wouldn’t that please my old Dad, knowing that some of his works might be featured in school literature alongside all the usual big names?
Saturday:
After the usual morning run for weekly groceries, I started organizing our movie and series collection while Kay started a new 3d Diamond picture – her new hobby! This took longer than I expected to be totally blunt, in fact due to the size of the files that had to be moved between mobile hard drives, I only finished at 3am on Sunday morning! While I was waiting for the PC to do its thing, I also designed a few things I wanted to make and fit to Dolly!
Our kittens also felt the cold on Saturday, and since we were both in the lounge for most of the night, they kept us company there!
I really doubted I would be up to doing any of that on Sunday, even though I managed six hours of sleep!
Some Humans Are Really Monsters
“Overdue?” One said indignantly, as though I were stealing food out of his hands on the way to his mouth. “Lobsters don’t feel pain, they don’t even have a brain.”
Why was this fellow so outraged and put out by the idea that he – or more likely, a chef hidden away in a restaurant kitchen – might not be allowed to boil poor lobsters alive anymore? Did he think it would somehow affect the taste? It wouldn’t. It would just remove unnecessary cruelty from the equation. Does the speculation that a creature might not feel pain justify cruelty? What sort of sicko uses that as justification for indulging in cruelty? A psychopath perhaps? Or a sociopath? Neither apparently – but someone far, far worse: an under-educated, self-absorbed, narcissistic twat – who for all intents and purposes deserves to be on the receiving end of their own cruelty.
“You might not either,” I replied, “but I still wouldn’t want you to be boiled alive.”
Sunday:
Cheers!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2021.