Hadn't submitted anything in about 20 years anywhere. Last time I submitted a short story was when I was in Sri Lanka.

Submitted a short story to @clarkesworld Very fast turnaround. 72 hours. Rejected 🙂

Onwards to the next one!

#AmWriting #Writing

I'm working on the next short story in this series of stories set in ancient Sri Lanka.

The stuff that I don't remember (or had never heard of) is fascinating. I'd read most of the Mahavamsa legends but am now reading alternative stories with different interepretations.

#AmWriting #Writing #LKA

Today's probably going to be an idle day ... a bit of cleaning, catching up on movies, and then preparing for getting back to writing tomorrow.

I think I've found the rhythm that works for me ... and yes, it's the same rhythm that everybody has followed for ages 😛

Had to stop working weekends.

The invstigation of the ML app for detecting auto-immune diseases went nowhere yesterday. It's too tightly coupled with specific (paid) services. I don't like that.

Might look at the source and try to extract the basic functionality at some point ... when I have a bit of time.

#ML

I've been laid off.

If somebody needs a person with almost 13 years in IT, knowing PHP (7 y.), JavaScript/jQuery (5+ y.), HTML5+CSS3, SQL, slight knowledge of Python and React and experience in fields like 2D design or sound production, please tell me. I've worked with SCADAs, CMMSs, corporate travel and congress management, e-commerce, food and industrial sectors. Business proficiency in English; can speak Catalan.

I can learn quick. Either on-site work in Valencia, Spain, or remote from anywhere in the EU. Inclusive company is a must. Can provide CV in English.

#FediHire #HireMe #employment

I'm setting up a machine learning (ML) model locally to figure out autoimmune diseases for my wife.

(More details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1ij5yf2/how_i_built_an_open_source_ai_tool_to_find_my/)

The project is here: https://github.com/OpenHealthForAll/open-health

It's set up to run as a docker file.

Trouble is, you can't use a locally installed Ollama instance with it. You have to run Ollama on docker.

But ... Ollama on docker (on macOS) does not use the GPU. So it's slow. Very, very, slow.

So finally ended up figuring out how to run the project locally, use a Postgres insance (which is needed by the project) via Docker, and to use the local Ollama.

It all seems to work, but won't know for sure till the wife wakes up and can use it. Yay!!

#ML

Last week was a long writing week. So going to take a break.

Sepnd the day setting up an interesting project I saw on Reddit which might help the wife. I'm curious as to if it will or not, but a bit of set up required first.

And also get some neglected chores done 🙂

Spent most of yesterday plotting and re-plotting the new short story. Each time I'd go, "I think this is it" but let it percolate a bit and I find a different angle that worked.

I think I finally have the plot sorted out. I like it. Now to see about writing that ... on Monday.

#AmWriting #Writing

When I wrote the first ancient Lanka short story (which I submitted today, yay!) I hadn't thought about the overall timeline.

Now that I'm considering more stories, I need to figure things out.

I realized most people outside probably don't know who Vijaya is.

So I need to have a story which sets up who Vijaya is, how he came to Sri Lanka and the effect of his arrival. So the next story is probably going to be about that.

That also will be (timeline-wise) the last story in the series. The one I wrote already will be the first.

The rest will fall somewhere in between 🙂

#Writing #LKA #Stories

Submitting (instead of self-publishing) has its own workflows ... like needing to put everything in standard manuscript format.

Working on a couple of LibreOffice templatest to handle short stories and long manuscripts. If anyone wants them, would be happy to share 🙂

#Writing #LibreOffice

The short story is finally done! It's as polished as I think I can make it at this point.

I did 2 (or was it 3?) passes on it yesterday and the wife did as many too.

Haven't submitted fiction in 20 years or so, but I think I'll try @clarkesworld and see what happens ...

On to the next story in the series!

#AmWriting #Writing

Did two edits on the short story and the wife did one edit. She thinks that this is the best thing I've written so far. And that's encouraging 🙂

The ending is better now, but still feel that it needs a couple more edits.

#AmWriting #Writing

Finished the short story yesterday, final word count 4,400 words. My guess is that I did about 3,500 words yesterday but it's hard to tell with the edits and changes.

Not quite happy with the ending. So needs a bit more work. And a couple of edit passes. But getting there?

#AmWriting #Writing

Apparently, using em or en-dashes is seen as a sign of AI generated text.

I use em dashes a lot in my writing.

Fed some of my writing to an AI text detector with an em-dash in it. It says 31% likelihood of AI generated text. Remove the em-dash, and it says 0% likelihood of AI text 😛

#Writing #AI

Wrote about 2300 words yesterday for the short story but had to scrap most of it since I realized that the story won't work that way.

Went back, rethought the whole thing and have what I think is a better ending. But have to write that one all over again 🙂

#AmWriting #Writing

I'm writing a short story about ancient Sri Lanka, before the Mahavamsa, about the Yaksha, Naga, Deva tribes. The story is going so well, that I'm thinking of making this another series ...

Question is, what do I call the series? "Old Lanka" or "Lore of Lanka?" Other? Opinions?

#Writing #SriLanka

Spent most of the weekend re-organizing my writing information — putting plots, characters, and ideas into a wiki and setting up submission info.

But also wrote about 800 words on a new short story. Hopefully, will finish that today.

#AmWriting #Writing

Been looking at consolidating all my writing info in a few locally hosted apps so that all data is on my machine.

All writing info (plots, characters, research) on Wiki.js - https://js.wiki

Submissions management with NocoDB - https://nocodb.com

#Writing #Tech #LocalData

"The Recruit" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16030542) new season is as fun as the last if you turn your brain off and accept that the CIA is really stupid & has holding cells where people can climb into the vents to escape 😛

Sit back, relax, enjoy the ride. But don't think too much.

#TV #English

I really hate idiocy-driven storylines and while interesting (if you turn your brain off) "The Night Agent" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13918776) takes the cake for this genre.

Almost all of the characters in this show don't have a single suspicious bone in their body.

In fact, if the characters were replaced by high-schoolers, the'd probably be more suspicious of the motives of the people they deal with, or excercise more security precautions. These (supposedly) trained government agents certainly don't have any clue as to what they're doing.

But, if you turn off your brain, it's fun ... for certain values of fun 😛

#TV #English