All in all I think that this version is a lot stronger. It takes what had been a good smash cut for the first segment and breaks off what comes after, leaving the isolation that follows a little more evident. The second segment is a little bit lighter than I would normally shoot for, but it works for what is taking place, and what the character is going through as a mental process. The third segment will be coming soon, but I’m still working on how to blend what I have to start this chapter with where I want it to go.

I’ll have to give it a few readings before I can really figure it out I guess. At least I like my own work well enough to be amused by it, so I image I could have worse problems.

– Vid

Some of you may be aware how I feel about non-linear stories, or telling sagas out of order. Sometimes it can be handled well, and I’m hoping that in this case I’ll be able to do the same.

The thing I’ve demanded that you read is a link to the Media page, which then routes to a new project I’ve posted called the Red Star Chronicles. It’s the story of a single person’s struggle with blending in to a world that he doesn’t belong in while also dealing with the psychological struggles of his own identity. It can be pretty heavy reading from start to finish.

But Supernova is funny! I promise. Anyhow, go and read it. I have it saved in .pdf format so you can put it on your A-Readers and iNooks and the like. Right now I only have chapter one listed, but I’ll be posting the others as I finish them, and you can be sure there will be a lot more to come.

Because [expletive] it all if I am not proud of this body of work.

– Vid

Little is worse for an author than losing the self value of their words. I know that there are plenty of people out there who call themselves artists who may or may not think that it lends credibility to their works by saying “oh this sucks. It’s not worth a [expletive]. I can’t believe I put time into it.” For the record, I’m not calling anyone out on this specifically, but that is obnoxious. Because nine times out of ten they’ll pass what they did on for critique anyway.

This is either the most manipulative method of getting someone to read the thing you think they won’t be interested in, or you’re putting up a wall to protect yourself from the possibility that they may not like what you did. So take some [expletive] pride in your own work. If you really think it’s crap, do better and then show people. Otherwise don’t waste our time with it. I know that there’s a lot of stuff in my works that I’d like to do better, so I keep trying. I don’t feel the need to show off an unfinished project. Sometimes that means things don’t see the light of day.

Sometimes that means that I deal with the consequences of looking forward to something that’s never going to happen.

Sometimes that means I’m disappointed. And then I have to deal with that. And that sucks. But it sure doesn’t suck nearly as much as sitting around, and waiting for everything to be done itself. Assertiveness is a great policy. Take action over the things that you want. Go out there and [expletive] grab it. Demand it. Point at the nearest person with a copy of your completed work and say “YOU! Read this thing I wrote.” Then, when they disappoint you by giving you a reaction other than what you were expecting, take it and work with it. Did you want this specific person to be impressed by the thing you did? So much so that you’d change everything that you did to impress them?

If you said yes, then the thing that you were working on wasn’t nearly as important to you as the opinion of the other person, and you are working on the wrong thing.

I know I was. And that’s where all that time went.

– Vid

In short, if confirmation is really what you hang your plans and social interaction on, a [insert communication device here] works both ways. Stop griefing the person who stuck to the original plan because you forgot and they didn’t remind you. You forgot. And trying to blame the party that remembered is uncouth, and certainly uncalled for. For the record, the previous statements were not made with malice towards A or 2. Simply commentary on backwards social practice.

It isn’t reasonable that we have grown to require plans to be made, scheduled, and then also confirmed. Making the plans and scheduling them in the first place is confirmation enough. If you are of a mind to take down these plans into a calendar, to write them down in some place that you will refer to later when making plans, then you have already confirmed your plans.

I have on several occasions had my presence requested for technical support. Fixing computers is kind of this thing that I do. When you call me, and ask for assistance, and I schedule an appointment, I will be there. If I do not show up, that is my damn fault. But when you decide to skip out because I didn’t call and confirm that I would be there, because you requested my presence? Guess what? [Expletive] you. That’s what. If I were Geek Squad you would be getting charged for my [expletive] [expletive] time. And it would be a lot more than I charge.

Trust me.

– Vid

Same [expletive] error.

So I figured maybe this had to also leave space for character name, federation, corporation, and other unknown formatting things. Cut it down to 1,743, tried again, and got the same error.

Well, to make a long story short ( ha, puns! ) I eventually managed to get it to keep. Final character count is at 1,598 and it saved without issue. See, I was doing this because I’d put one in place in game earlier, and was okay with it, but for some reason EVE decided to erase it. Not sure why, maybe because I tried to edit it later and forgot to save or something. Still, either way, I figure I’d explain my little row with it’s coding ( coding and I are arch enemies ), and provide a copy of it here for easy referencing later. So, here is Rotevni’s brief history.

Rotevni’s life story reads a bit like a comedy of errors. Born in the late 20th century, Maxwell discovered at a very young age that he had two very unpopular things; a wise mouth, and a scientific progenic mind. Expelled from nearly every public and private academy, he crashed classes, studied on his own, performed experiments, and built facilities and inventions with his own funds.

Late in 2012, there was a very energetic explosion centered in Rotevni’s lab, removing the entire British Isles and the Northern coast of France. He managed to escape by forced jettison of an I.C.E.C. [Interorbital Croygenic Escape Capsule] which threw him past the atmosphere. First found several decades later, by that time Britain was but a memory and no one even knew his name.

With few resources to his name, he worked for various groups. Bringing his very advanced methods of scientific thinking into the current of the time before yet again some strange accident in his new lab would freeze him and throw him through space for more decades. This cycle was repeated frequently. Eventually, both the distance he traveled, and the time he was lost were so great that when he was found, the I.C.E.C. was mistaken for an antiquated and heavily damaged capsuleer pod. With no records, he was entered into the cloning system through a debt work-off program with the Federal Navy Academy.

Industrious, a workaholic, and generally lucky, Rotevni paid off his save-debt in lightning speed. His own man again, he hoped to get back to what he loved most; inventing, and changing the industrial scientific complex.

Hope you enjoyed it. And if you didn’t, then I have some beachside property in the Andromeda galaxy that Rotevni would love to sell you. Only temporally relocated once!

– Vid