I'm sure this is a wildly long shot but I don't suppose anyone here on the fediverse lives in the Northern Utah area or has contacts here who would be willing to replace a throttle position sensor on an 18 year old Kia for charity so that a middle-aged queer struggling with mental health issues doesn't have to deal with a 3 hr round trip commute to work when it's a 60 mile commute?

📚 New Project Update
Think I'm towards the final third of book two of the Far North series. Very exciting! Greenhouse Museum is collected, edited, formatted, and ready to be released at the end of next month too. As for our forays into spiritual research? Once I get through this series, it's going on a pause. Lastly, talking about the fear at Twitch and the future of what our streaming time might look like.
Hope you check it out!
https://byrdbrnz.me/project-update-july-2024/
#Writing #WritingCommunity #Blog #Projects #ProjectUpdate

@Daojoan @vegetarianzombie This! I mean writing for yourself. The same thing happend to me. Once I just started writing for my own pleasure, the words come so much easier 🙂

Now crowdfunding for Space Dragons: Luxorian's Crew!

Dragons pull spaceships at faster-than-light speeds in my new space fantasy novella.

It's Pay-What-You-Want and the book is fully written and edited. Please help me fund it!

https://ko-fi.com/post/Crowdfunding-Space-Dragons-Luxorians-Crew-A-cos-Q5Q0YG3UU

#vkofi

Fediverse, due to my wife's thyroid cancer returning we are relocating to Seattle (from Illinois) -- where we can receive familial support and she can get treatment.

To that end, I'm looking for #infosec jobs in the area, but I'm looking to step back from what I've been doing so I have a bit more flexibility to help her and our son. So, hybrid or even full remote, but probably not a senior level position.

I've been consulting and that's been good, but it's too unsteady and too much work on unknown schedules to continue while she is undergoing treatment. I'll also be applying through standard channels, but I hope someone here can lend a hand.

#getfedihired

If you follow me, you have a sense of humour. If you're reading this, you're a reader. I’ve put this story online, free, gratis and for nothing, it's a twelve minute read. If you like it, maybe you’ll be curious enough to risk 99p for one of my short story collections. Maybe you’ll be smart enough to save some money by buying a compilation. Maybe you’ll be brave enough to buy my novel. Whatever happens, I hope you enjoy ‘Vincent'. http://aarondavid.co.uk/Vincent.html #freeread #shortstory #funny #pleaseboost

If you like to read I also have some subscription serials at as little as $5/month at https://kitauthor.com/muse-happens (fantasy, portal, time travel)

or M/M/M/M shifter erotic romance at https://spicyebooks.com/spicy-members/

I love sharing some of my author friends with y'all. Check out E.J. Russell

Fantasy, Paranormal, Sci-Fi

E.J. Russell –grace, certified geek, mother of three, recovering actor–writes romance in a rainbow of flavors. Count on high snark, low angst and happy endings.

Reality? Eh, not so much.

More Info: https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/e-j-russell/

#AuthorSpotlight #Bookstodon @bookstodon #author

Book Promotion: Thrilling selection of stories - murder, mystery, suspense, thriller - that you can download free and discover your next favourite author in your favourite genres. #bookstodon #writing #goodbooks #steampunk #mystery #reading #action #amreading #fedibookfair #vigilante #amateur #guns #reader #murder #adventure #detective #private #future #readers #suspense #contemporary #whodunnit #sleuth #classic (9404) https://books.bookfunnel.com/gomery-kimber-mystery-suspense/q8jgfzgf9a?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

The last two days of the Summer Fair for Low Spice & No Spice Romantasy!

Two days left to grab those fantasy romance books for free (in exchange for your email)! They all go away on August 1st.

Hop on over to BookFunnel and browse to your heart's delight.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/summerlowspiceromantasy/pvv6cd6lcn

Feel free to boost!

#Romantasy
#LowSpice
#ReadersOfMastodon

If anyone knows how to get in touch with author Y.M. Resnik (Cast of Wonders, Worlds of Possibility, khōréō, Interstellar Flight, Diabolical Plots, etc), please let me know!

We'd like to accept one of her stories but the email we have on file keeps bouncing back!

"Mr. & Mrs. Mahi" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16227342) started out looking like another great Raj Kumar Rao movie.

But then towards the middle of the movie I started seeing issues. The main character is a guy who loved cricket but couldn't make it. He then realizes that his wife is great at cricket and starts coaching her.

However, the way the story goes, for most of the movie, the wife doesn't appear like a character on her own. She's just an extension of what her husband wants. His dreams, his desires.

When the wife makes it in cricket, the husband isn't happy for her success. Instead, all he cares is that he is not known as the architect of her success.

I became very annoyed at this point. Why couldn't the husband just support his wife? Why did he need everybody else to know that he was the reason his wife became a great cricketer?

I loved the movie up to that point because he'd found somebody with whom he shared something he loved. But when he started using his wife as a means to achieve his dreams and started resenting her, the movie just soured for me.

There are multiple issues with the movie was written — how the father treated his son, how the husband treats his wife, how the wife's father treats his daughter etc. And I do realize that they needed the conflict for the movie to have different notes and not be monotonous.

Once past that wobble though, the ending was great. So I guess overall, it's worth watching if you can bear the rough patch in the middle.

#Movies #Hindi #Sports #Cricket

I am going to bed in a moment because I start work at 5:30am tomorrow, but managed to stay awake long enough to post the latest chapter of City of Unnumbered Stars, and it is... the dinner!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57429055/chapters/146946844

#writing #scifi #writingcommunity #originalscifi #ao3 #fiction #sciencefiction

The wife and I played more "No Man's Sky" this weekend. It's interesting to me that the new game update has been out maybe slightly over a week and it's already had two bug-fix updates on PS5 since then?

We originally had a couple of crashes while playing the game. Didn't have any crashes so far after the latest update. So maybe the crashes are fixed? I guess we'll see ...

But the game's still enjoyable 🙂And this is an 8 year old game.

#Gaming #PS5 #NoMansSky

Still looking for #LilyTheCat, who disappeared June 28 in West Menlo Park. She may have been accidentally or deliberately transported or force adopted.

She’s a very popular cat who has dog friends and even likes small children. For dozens of kids, she was the first cat they ever held.

If you see her, please help her come home so she can once again be the middle school yearbook mascot.

https://lilythecat.org

@Deus I am not sure "which" movies you categorize as "such" but I hope you have a great day too.

@Deus And your point is that "Star Trek", which is all about inclusion, should stick to certain races/groups and not force inclusivity? Or something else?

I'm failing to grasp your point with regards to how this is supposed to work for "Star Trek". Care to explain further?

@Deus But isn't "forced DEI" also a POV thing? People of a certain race/group might feel that they are under-represented, or people of a race/group who were over-represented previously might feel that they are sidelined because a previously sidelined group is now given prominence.

None of this has anything to do with "Star Trek" (IMO, of course) since "Star Trek" is about inclusion. So why kwetch about the very thing that is a cornerstone of the franchise? 😛

@crcollins

@Deus

Ah, ok. Thanks. Being respectful is important. I guess we'll see how the film turns out. Most stories don't require a certain race, etc, as plots are focused elsewhere. Particularly in action or scifi. The roles should go to whoever auditions best. Michelle Yeoh can act circles around most actors, in my opinion, & has already developed a great character on Discovery.

@jefframes Yeah, not sure if they lifted it or not ... it's certainly possible that two different groups came up with the same thing at different times 🙂

Like the whole VMS -> WNT thing. I've been fascinated by both that and HAL -> IBM thing but never really knew if either was just coincidence or deliberate ...