Oakfairy

HELLO, FELLOW CISGENDERED MENS,

It is I, your male-identifying cohort, Chnurk Mandog, and it’s time we had a little talk.

Before we begin this talk, though, I’m gonna tell a story.

Recently, I was in Florida, aka, America’s Moist Dangly Bits, and while there, I was on Sanibel Island, which is known in part as possessing the best shelling beaches in the world, and also offering up tiny invisible bugs called no-see-ums that appear in a shimmering cloud and buzzsaw you down to your bones. While on a shelling beach, I witnessed many things, including pretty shells, a dead rat, several dead stingrays, and a vicious red tide. I also witnessed this:

A family was walking up along the top margins of the beach. Meaning, away from the water, up by the trees. It was a father and a mother, both I’d guess in their late-30s early 40s, and a pack of four boys. Presumably, their children, or maybe clones, I dunno. The boys were chasing lizards, and one of the boys came up to his father and said, “DAD CAN I GRAB A LIZARD’S TAIL?”

And the father said, “Yeah, just don’t let him bite you.”

The boy ran off to join his lizard-hunting brothers.

Thankfully, the lizards were faster than these shitty kids, and the boys became so irritated and bored with not-catching lizards that they fucked off down to the water’s edge, instead.

My own son was with me, and I asked him, “Do you think you should grab lizards by the tail?” And he asked me, “Won’t that hurt the lizard?” And I said, “I dunno, probably.”

“Will they bite you?” he asked.

“Does that matter?” I asked. And when he looked up at me confused, I explained:

“The effect of the action on you is not as an important as the effect of the action on the lizard. Doesn’t matter if the lizard bites, because it’s not okay to go grabbing living things, because they’re not yours, and because you might hurt them.”

Our son, a little burgeoning rules lawyer, seemed pleased with this answer, and I felt, yay, a teachable moment. Huzzah and hooray.

The day went on, as days tend to.

But I was bugged by the event because I felt like I should’ve said something. Not to my own son, but to that dickhead dad and his dickhead boys — normally, I have a very strong DON’T PARENT OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN creed in place, because you can do what you want with your kids and I will handle my own, thank you. I’m not the Worldfather, I’m not your Parent Cop, and we all make mistakes. Just the same, I felt like those little fuckers are probably out ripping tails off lizards because their father couldn’t be bothered to tell them that wasn’t nice to do.

Later that afternoon, we were at a grocery store in the island called Jerry’s — and outside of Jerry’s is an array of other shops, a little courtyard, and maybe six cages that play host to various parrots or parrot-like entities. My son and I were toodling around outside while my wife was in one of the stores, and together we walked up to one of the cages, which contained, if I recall, a squawking blue-and-yellow macaw.

An older dude, maybe early 60s, was standing there next to us.

On the cage hung a sign, clearly written, in big, bold letters:

WE ARE ON A SPECIAL DIET.

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS.

The older dude was noshing a pastry of some kind. A danish, I think.

And as we’re standing there, he took a piece of the danish, and thrust it through the cage bars to the parrot. Literally moving his hand three inches above the sign that clearly tells him DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS YOU FUCKING DING-DONG in an act of willful ignorance.

As the bird moved to the food, I snapped at him:

“You’re not supposed to feed the birds.”

He shot me a look, confused. Maybe angry. Said nothing.

I continue:

“It says right there on that sign you’re ignoring. They’re on a special diet. Don’t feed the goddamn birds.” He stared at me, mute, and I said, “Are you listening?” Slowly, his hand retracted before the bird was able to claim its inappropriate pastry snack. The man continued to look at me, not saying anything, and he then hurried away toward his wife. As he scurried off, I explained to my son loudly, because I’m a jerk, “YOU CAN’T FEED BREAD TO BIRDS BECAUSE BIRDS DON’T EAT BREAD. YOU DON’T SEE BIRDS BAKING BREAD, DO YOU? NO, YOU DON’T. BREAD CAUSES MALNUTRITION IN BIRDS.” My voice got louder and louder as I said this, to ensure that the old man heard me. My son, who is now reading actual words, said, “It says right there on the sign, don’t feed the birds.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Yeah,” my son said.

“Yeah,” I said again, righteous.

I’m sure as soon as we walked away, Ol’ Danish McGee probably wandered back up and shoved a gobbet of cheese danish into the macaw’s beak. But at least I said something and I felt a little better about that, even if it didn’t answer for the jerkwad boys who were ripping tails off lizards.

You might say, Chnurk, what is the point of this story?

To which, I point to this as a partial answer:

IN WAKE OF WEINSTEIN, MEN WONDER IF HUGGING WOMEN STILL OK

Now, of course, obviously what I’m doing here is I’m leading up to something, and that something is not that women are lizards or birds, nor do they have tails or special diets, but rather, hey men?

You need to keep your damn hands to yourself.

Your touch is not a gift.

Your gropey, searching hands are not charity, they’re not a favor, they’re not God’s Benevolence, they’re just your dumb hands, and you need to keep them — and all your other parts, especially your stupid probably very ugly dick — to yourself. This shouldn’t be difficult. It’s literally a lesson we taught to our own son at a very early age: “Don’t touch people who don’t want to be touched.” And that want to be touched part is not only essential, but rather, it’s essential to realize that only vigorous consent can alert you to the desire to be touched. It’s not implicit. It’s not in her eyes, it’s not whispered on the wind, as if by magic. It’s spoken by the mouth, or written on a piece of paper — if someone asks for a hug or some other kind of physical contact? They want the hug. If they don’t, you can ask them proactively: “HI, MAY I HUG YOU?” and if they say yes? Hug them appropriately, in the Normal Hugging Way. If they say no? Then do not touch them. No-handsy, no-touchy. This shouldn’t be difficult. These are preschool rules, man.

It’s not even an insult if she says no. It’s just a choice. A choice born maybe of trauma you can’t see. Or a choice based on preference or predilection. Or maybe it is an insult, maybe she doesn’t like you, maybe you’re an asshole, maybe this, maybe that. It doesn’t matter. A no is a no. You are owed nothing. She is not yours. The world is not yours. More to the point:

Life is not your buffet line of sexual opportunity, jerks. Women are not in a stable for your mate or mistress selection. I once watched a dude at a grocery store hit on a blind woman (I am ashamed I didn’t say anything to him, honestly), and what I said then remains true now: women are not just sockets for your plugs. This is true everywhere. It’s true at the grocery store. It’s true in your own home. It’s true at work! I know! At work. But isn’t the workplace just a meat market where you, the Hunter-Gatherer, will select your Ladymeat from the Ladymeat on Display?

No! No you fucking ape, it’s not. The women there in the workplace are there to work. That’s literally it. They are autonomous, independent individuals, just as you yourself are an autonomous, independent individual, dude. That’s true no matter their gender, their color, their able-bodiedness — they are not yours to touch or ogle. Your own autonomy extends to the margins of your own body and no further. And, by the way, since I have a number of writer and other creative folk following along, please note too that our workplaces are a little more fluid and flexible — conventions and conferences, for instance, are our workplaces. They, too, are not your sexual buffet line. The women there, be they fans, volunteers, readers, writers, artists, whoever, are still not a box of lusty chocolates from which to choose.

Keep your shitty demon hands to yourself. They are in time-out. Stick them in your pockets if you must. Duct-tape them together. Burn them with cigarettes if they seem motivated to stray. Keep them hidden or someone is going to rightfully chop them off.

Listen, I get it. You’ve been told, or at least shown, that the WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER. All you gotta do is grab it, pop open its shell, and suck down the meat that you have claimed for yourself. Grab all the lizards you want, dominionist man! Personal liberty says you can feed that parrot whatever the fuck you want, mighty parrot-conquerer! You can feed that parrot danish, or dishsoap, or your own dick, why not? Why can’t you fuck the parrot? You are God-chosen caveman! Club what you choose and take what is yours! Women are there for your pleasure and your breeding, ha ha ha right? Christ, my own father would drive his big-ass pickup truck close to other cars so he could stare down women’s shirts. We’d go to a couple local bars, and — in full view of my mother! — would flirt with waitresses, slap their asses, that kind of thing. He never said to me, “Son, women are yours to do with as you please,” but he certainly demonstrated that. And that kind of demonstration continues today, all around us. “Rape culture doesn’t exist,” someone surely believes even as we elected an admitted sexual predator to the highest office in the land, a guy whose only spoken moral is, “You can do anything,” and that includes grabbing women in whatever way he chooses. That sexual predator is now endorsing a secondary monster, Roy Moore, who is credibly-accused of child molestation in a way where he was banned from the local mall. (But not banned from the Senate, I guess!)

And here you might be saying, whoa whoa whoa, how’d we get here? Clearly that is different. Clearly there are stratum at play here — nuance is essential, right? A guy who forces a hug is nowhere near the same as a guy who picks up 14-year-old girls and tries to force sexual acts upon them? And you’re right. Points for you. They’re not the same. The matter of degree in difference is considerable, in much the same way that slapping someone in the face is way different from blasting out their middle with a shotgun blast of buckshot.

And yet, slapping people is still wrong.

And it’s still an act of violence.

The difference between what our president has admitted doing — or what Weinstein did — and inappropriate sexual misconduct in the workplace is obvious, but both actions come from the same place: the belief that you can do what you want, that you can touch who you want, that you do not require consent to do so.

That is incorrect.

JFC, men. Stow it. Stick your hands in the nearest glove compartment, then have someone — preferably a woman — slam the compartment shut in a way so violent that it dismembers your monster hands and contains them in the prison of that glove compartment.

I have no greater point than that. The world is not your plaything. That extends to women, to each other, to all humans, to the creatures of this world, to objects you do not own, to really every damn thing under the sun that is not a part of your body or purchased by you with cash-slash-credit. Yes, you can hug women, if they consent to being hugged. With vigorous consent, you and all other consenting parties can slap all your parts together in whatever configuration you find most delightful. Affection is not dead. It’s just meant for people who actually want it. Why the fuck would you want to give affection to someone who doesn’t want it? What the fuck is wrong with you? Put your hands away. PUT YOUR STUPID HANDS AWAY. AND YOUR MOUTH AND YOUR TONGUE AND ALL YOUR BITS.

And seriously, also, your dick.

Seriously.

Seriously.

Put your dick away.

Nobody wants to see that thing.

Even people who want to see that thing really don’t want to see that thing.

No, no, I’m not saying to be ashamed of your dick, I’m just saying, unless you get an email where the font is in 144-point size Comic Sans and it says PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR DICK AT THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY, I WILL GAZE UPON THIS DICK DIGITALLY OR IN FULL 4K REALITY, and it has a signature of authenticity underneath that is notarized by three licensed sources, stop showing people your stupid dingle.

Teach this to your children.

Tell this to the men in your life.

If you see something, say something.

The end.

To be perfectly honest, I was looking forward to some time off.  Nothing crazy.  Maybe a month.  Or six.  While a lot of my fellow writers start going stir crazy after a few directionless weeks, I have no problem sleeping in, spending time with my girlfriend and the dogs, and reading into the wee hours.  And that WAS the plan but, prior to leaving Vancouver, my agent arranged for sit-downs with some of the local production companies.  I figured, why not?  If nothing else, I would know what I’d be missing.

Anyway, great meetings all, and one in particular in which I was presented with the opportunity to help develop something.  I liked the project a lot, but especially liked the people involved – and, at this point in my career, that’s what I’m looking for: interesting projects and good collaborators.  As they used to say on Stargate: “LTS” (Life’s Too Short).

And time off, apparently, is even shorter.

So, after reviewing the project and offering my take (and, of course, assuring them I wasn’t THAT crazy), I was hired.  David Ray and I spent about a month fleshing out the world, the backstory, the characters, and arcs.  We delivered the overview, received some input from the broadcaster and production company, and prepared for the writers’ room.

I elected to bring in local-kid-makes-good Alex Levine, a former script coordinator on Stargate (and practicing lawyer before that!) who ended up making quite a name for himself in his days as a writer and Co-Executive Producer on Orphan Black.  Yes, he has an impressive track record.  But, more importantly, he has a great head for story and characters.

Which he has proven over the past two days of spinning.  He, David, Samantha, and I dedicated Monday to waiting for the white board to arrive broad stroking the major story beats.  Then, today, we ate pastries David picked up from the Italian bakery across the street focused on individual character arcs.  I figure tomorrow, we’ll finish up the character arcs, then dedicate Thursday and Friday to fleshing out our first episode.

And, once that’s done, it’ll be smooooooth sailing.  I’ll write an outline, possibly a revised outline, and then go to script.

Can’t reveal much about this project except to say that it’s a compelling, character-driven SF series chock full of surprises, humor, and warmth.  Every sci-fi show I’ve worked on in the past – SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and Dark Matter – has been, at its heart, about the family.

I have no doubt – you’re gonna love it!

There are three types of lies: omission, where someone holds out on the facts; commission, where someone states facts that are untrue; and paltering, where someone uses true facts to mislead you. It’s not always easy to detect, but there are a few telltale signs.

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In the almost eight years she’s been living in Canada, Akemi has mastered many aspects of western culture – its unreliable transportation system, the English language, Beef Wellington – but there’s one uniquely North American oddity she’s yet to grasp: the knock-knock joke.  And yet, despite her repeated failures to fully grasp its nuanced set-up and delivery, she keeps trying.  Like last night, when she insisted we, once again, go down the knock-knock route.  After some reluctance, owing in large part to the fact that my storehouse of knock-knock jokes is almost bare, I conceded.  The results were, if not exactly predictable, certainly not that surprising –

“Knock knock,”I said.

“Who’s there?”she asked.

“Boo,”I said.

“Who’s boo?”she asked.

I sighed and explained to her that the correct phrasing of her response should be “Boo hoo?”, thus setting up the classic follow-up: “You don’t have to cry about it.”

A realization seemed to dawn.  “So you have to think of something that ends in hoo?”

“Well no – ”

“Like tofu,”she said, pronouncing the “fu” in tofu as she often does, with an “f” so soft it could be misinterpreted for a “hu”.  “Or kung-hu?”

“No – ”

“Knock knock,”she said.

“Who’s there?”

“Toe.”

“Toe who?”

She frowned.   “It doesn’t really make sense.  A better way would be – knock knock?”

“Who’s there?”I asked.

“Something soft,”she replied.  “And then you guess tofu.  You see?”

Yeah.  No.  I tried again: “Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Lettuce.”

“Lettuce who?”

“Lettuce in!  It’s cold out here?”

She frowned.  “Why lettuce?”

“Because lettuce in it’s cold out here.”

She started back at me, genuinely mystified.  “That’s not a joke.” Uncomprehending: “That’s funny?  That’s not funny.  I think my kung-fu joke you didn’t like is better.”  And then, after some consideration, a sigh of resignation. “The knock-knock joke – it’s very hard to nail it.”

I don’t even want to get her started on puns.

Today I’d like to tell you a story about a book. Some of you might not have met it before. But to many of us here at Worldbuilders, it is an old, familiar friend….

It’s a book that has been with the fundraiser since the beginning….

2008: A Gift from Gaiman.

In 2008, on a whim, I decided to try raising money for Heifer International on my blog. Things quickly spiraled out of control as other authors pitched in, spreading the word and donating books for me to use as donation incentives.

The pinnacle of the coolness/madness came when Neil Gaiman mentioned us to his vast legion of readers. He also donated a rare, numbered, slipcased ARC of Stardust to the cause.

Unfortunately, mail was delayed because of the holidays, so we couldn’t use the book until….

2009: Stardust for the People.

So the second year of the fundraiser rolled around, and I had this book. This beautiful book. This beautiful, *rare* book.

I was still doing the fundraiser pretty much by myself then, and I was having a really hard time deciding how best to use it. I knew we could auction it off and raise at least a thousand dollars, but that didn’t seem right somehow.

So I decided to put it into the lottery, where anyone who donated at least 10 bucks to Heifer International on our team page would have a chance of winning it. That seemed fair to me, more egalitarian.

Then something strange happened: the person who won the book gave it back to us. Their one stipulation is that we auction it off next year, so it would raise more money for Heifer. So….

2010: Stardust on the Auction Block.

Year 3 of Worldbuilders, we auctioned off all manner of things. And, as the previous winner requested, we put Gaiman’s Stardust ARC up on eBay too.

After some fierce bidding it sold for over $2500 to a lovely guy named Dan. There were many high-fives in Worldbuilders central. We were sad to see the book go, but $2500 bucks buys a lot of goats.

But when I e-mailed Dan to arrange shipping, he said he wanted to donate the book back to Worldbuilders.

I asked Dan if he was sure. He said he was sure. I asked Dan how he got to be so cool, and he said he was inspired by the story of how last year’s winner re-donated the book.

But most of the credit, he said, should go to his mom. She always made a point of donating to charity even though she never had a lot of money. Not only that, but she was a dyed-in-the-wool geek like the rest of us: she read fantasy and sci-fi, she played Infocom games…

From everything I’ve heard, she sounds like my kind of lady.

Dan told me she had passed away recently, and most of the money he inherited from her went into buying this book. He told me she would be proud and happy to know that the money will go to helping as many people as possible through Heifer.

His only stipulation was that we put the book back into the lottery next year, so anyone could win it….

2011: Stardust Full Circle.

Year Four of Worldbuilders, we put the ARC back into the lottery with much cheering. After picking the prizes, I called the winner, Maayan, to set up shipping (because you don’t want something like this to show up as a surprise on someone’s doorstep).

Maayan tells me no.  She wants it back in the fundraiser. It’s sort of a thing now.

I thanked her kindly, and sent along a box of books as as “Thanks for being cool” present.

Then something weird happened….

2012: Stardust as Statistical Anomaly.

In 2012, we put Stardust back in the lottery again. Mostly because I like the idea of this amazingly cool prize being something anyone can win.

At the end of the fundraiser, we pick the prizes and when I’m told who the winner is, I give the assistant holding the papers a look loaded with grim, fatherly disapproval, telling them in the gentlest of terms that they’ve fucked up and are obviously using last year’s spreadsheets.

She assures me that isn’t the case. She shows me the sheets, and the ticket numbers.

This is bizarre math, people. This is like Heart-of-Gold level improbability. Maayan had won again.

I called her. She was shocked, amused, and flustered. So we sent her the book.

And she sent us back a picture.

Here’s what she had to say:

I was really extremely surprised to win the Stardust ARC two years ago, because I don’t think I’ve ever won any kind of online contest before. I was actually sitting in a hot tub on a ski trip to Colorado when Pat called, and my friends got to watch me make the craziest faces while on the phone. A few weeks later, Neil Gaiman sent me a little card with a picture he had drawn in it, which was so nice of him.

When Pat called me this year to say that I had won again, I’m pretty sure my first words were, “No, I did not!” Surprised doesn’t begin to describe it. If I win again this year, I’m going to start to be suspicious of your randomization algorithm.

Worldbuilders is such a great fundraiser, and Heifer International is an outstanding organization. I’m thrilled to take part. Thank you to Pat Rothfuss for putting it together, and thank you to all of the authors and artists who donate the prizes! I’ve enjoyed reading the fruits of your generosity.

Then Maayan sent it back to us again.

Thanks so much, Maayan. We’re glad you at least got to touch the book that seemed so desperate to meet you.

2013: Stardust In the Lottery Again.

Year six of Worldbuilders, Stardust chose a new person to love. It chose Jennifer.

She was overjoyed, happy to have won it, and just as happy to return it.

That was the year we had a cool idea – we instituted a Library Card system for the Stardust ARC.

When I was a kid, every library book had one of these. Even now, all these years later, seeing one fills me with a strange joy.

Neil graciously agreed to sign the cards for us.

What’s more, we had all the previous winners sign the cards and pass them on after keeping one for themselves of course (Maayan got to keep two).

This way, if the winner chooses to return the book, they still get a memento of the experience: signed by all the people who have loved the book before them as well as the original donor, Neil Gaiman.

2014: Stardust Makes a New Friend

In 2014 Jeff’s name was drawn as the winner of the Stardust ARC. He donated it back again, and we sent him much love in return as well as his own signed Library Card.

The more we do this library card thing, the more I love it.

2015: Stardust Returns Again

In 2015, Stardust went to a wonderful supporter named Don.

It was the first year Amanda called the winner. She had a great conversation with him, he told us to keep it, and we sent him a box of goodies and his library card as a sign of what he won. He has his library card, and we still have a beautiful, signed Stardust ARC.

2016: Stardust ALMOST goes to France

Last year, our winner was a lovely guy named Lucas. He lives in France, and had a lovely phone call and email exchange with the Worldbuilders team, and they sent him a box full of books, including the French editions of a couple of books from The Tinker’s Packs.

He has his library card, and we still have a beautiful, signed Stardust ARC.

This year’s winner will get their very own library card signed by Neil Gaiman and the other winners.

So, without further ado, allow me to add today’s book to the lottery.

• A numbered ARC of Stardust in its own slipcase. Signed by Neil Gaiman.

Not much remains to be said here. It’s a beautiful book with its own slipcase. Numbered 28 out of 250. Signed by Gaiman.

If you donate to the fundraiser you have a chance of winning not only this book, but also thousands of other books and games donated by authors, publishers, collectors, and fans.

Every $10 you donate gets you a chance to win. So if you donate enough for honeybees ($30) you get three chances to win. Donate enough for a goat along with the training and materials to care for it ($120) and you get twelve chances to win. Donate enough to provide clean water for a village ($300), you get 30 chances to win.

So. If you’d like to be part of a fine tradition of people being awesome, winning books, and making the world a better place, you can head over and donate right now.

Brandon Sanderson’s fans have come to expect big things with each new novel he releases. Like, literally big things: his latest, Oathbringer, the third volume of the Stormlight Archive, clocks in an an astounding 1,200 pages. More astounding: not a one of them is wasted.

Sanderson rose to popularity on the back of his admirable work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after Jordan’s passing in 2007, and has since become known as the premier American author of big, fat epic fantasy novels. Fans love the intricacy of his worlds; the casts of thousands that fill his pages; his layered, complex magic systems; and his plots, which twist and weave and leave you a little breathless.

I recent caught up with the author to chat about Oathbringer, the intersection of religion and fantasy, what it’s like to write epic fantasy in 2017, and what’s next for the Stormlight Archive.

“I feel like one of the big dangers for epic fantasy is growing so large you stop being able to tell a complete story in each volume,” Sanderson said, referencing the latest, largest volume in his already huge Stormlight Archive. However, he said, he has an advantage over forbears like Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin—he’s seen what they did, and where they went wrong.

“When [readers] have to wait on new installments, and they’re not each coming to a satisfying conclusion, there’s this sense of being lost at sea. Something feels off. At least, it felt off to me during those middle volumes of Robert Jordan’s series,” he said. While he doesn’t think it affected the overall quality of Wheel of Time, he saw it as a warning sign when he began work on his own ambitious multi-volume epic.

He asked himself: “Is there something you can do about that, having seen how it’s gone for authors in the past?”

Epic fantasy has a tendency to grow unsustainably from volume to volume, he said. “When you’re adding plot elements with each volume, and they’re always bigger than the last, the series can collapse under their own weight. When I was designing the Stormlight Archive, I gave myself a couple of pressure valves.”

Sanderson knew from the get-go the Stormlight Archive was going to be long—he never seriously toyed with a trilogy, like Jordan and Martin so famously did. He came up with a plan, full of those “pressure valves” to help him mitigate the issues of those other epic fantasy series. The Stormlight Archive is projected to be 10 volumes long (with additional short stories, novelettes, and novellas woven in along the way), but Sanderson split it into two shorter, five-volume series. “After the fifth book is done, [there’s] not going to be a reset button—I hate reset buttons—but we are going to take an in-world breather.”

Then, with the sixth book, readers will return to the world of Roshar at the beginning of a new arc that will connect heavily to the first.

“A big story is just a bunch of little stories connected in interesting ways.”

“A big story is just a bunch of little stories connected in interesting ways. When I write a Stormlight Archive book, I plot each book like I would plot a trilogy. So, between the covers of Oathbringer is an entire trilogy.”

In addition to the trilogy-within-a-novel, Sanderson also sprinkles in interludes of a handful of chapters featuring characters who aren’t generally connected with the novel’s overall plot. He considers these a “short story collection” within the larger novel. Each book is then “built up of the different sub-stories of the different characters, and they’re all building blocks that are becoming a bigger and bigger thing. What I love about epic fantasy is the knowledge that people will read and treat something like a trilogy as an entire single whole.”

Knowing people are going to read the whole thing back-to-back means authors can do things they couldn’t do otherwise. “This is why I forced Tor Books to publish these books as these big things, rather splitting them up (as, marketing-wise, I’m sure they would prefer),” he said.

Sanderson wrote the first draft of The Way of Kings (referred to now as “The Way of Kings Prime”) in 2002. He considers it a failure as a novel because it was made up of small pieces of many stories, but didn’t tell a complete story. “When I re-approached The Way of Kings for its 2010 release, I started over from scratch and said, ‘I’m only going to do one character’s backstory per book, and I’m going to let that backstory interweave with the overarching story of that book.'” He realized success for the series was allowing those stories—the backstory and the present story—to “play off each other, or mirror each other in interesting ways, giving each volume its own distinct identity.”

Though he writes some of the longest epic fantasies on the market, Sanderson admitted bigger is not always better.

“It can be better, but smaller can be better, too. It depends how you write.” Sanderson’s goal with the Stormlight Archive is to find a balance of the two, an intimate story within the larger narrative. In Oathbringer‘s case, it’s about Dalinar. “We’re finding out how he became the person he was at the start of The Way of Kings, following his journey in Oathbringer as he’s changing into someone else, and using those journeys to mirror each other.”

Oathbringer is distinctly a novel about change—about the breakdown in social hierarchy during times of war, and the upheaval of society, government, and religion. At the same time, it is also an examination of nationalism and xenophobia. These themes  are particularly resonant in 2017. Has this changing socio-political atmosphere affected how Sanderson approaches these topics?

“I often say that fantasy isn’t a reflection of the past any more than science fiction is a reflection of the future.”

“I often say that fantasy isn’t a reflection of the past any more than science fiction is a reflection of the future,” he said. “In most cases, it’s a reflection of the now told through a [fantastical] lens. We’re using these high fantasy stories to explore how we see the world. These things have a deep and profound effect on me as a writer. At the same time, I’m of the school of thought that my primary goal is to tell a good story, and to make sure the characters feel real. The topics that I’m tackling have to be topics that are important to the characters.”

It’s a cyclical thing, he said. His concerns and worries reflect on what he choose to write about, and affect his characters. “It’s a product of what’s on my mind—but at the same time, it’s trying to tackle it through the lens of who these people are and what’s happening to them.”

“It’s not like I’m sitting down and saying, ‘What tropes need to be subverted?’ It’s more about what my instincts and passions decide need to be subverted.

Sanderson also believes this is affected by the general tropes and themes of contemporary epic fantasy (versus the books he grew up with in the ’80s and ’90s.) He likes to subvert them in ways that he finds relevant or interesting. “It’s not like I’m sitting down and saying, ‘What tropes need to be subverted?’ It’s more about what my instincts and passions decide need to be subverted. The masters of the past have done a great job, so where can I go that explores something new? Or something that’s already been explored, but through the eyes of somebody living in 2017?”

Religion plays a huge role in the Stormlight Archive, and also in Sanderson’s life. He’s a practicing Mormon, and spent two years in Seoul, Korea as a missionary  for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s this misconception—since Dungeons & Dragons was demonized by evangelical religious groups in the ’80s, and again with Harry Potter in the mid-2000s—that religion and fantasy don’t mix. But that’s simply not true, and Sanderson is a prime example.

“I’m trying to create a story first. The biggest effect my religion has on my writing is me wanting to say, ‘Okay, what annoys me about [what I see] when someone like myself [is portrayed] in a book?’

“The greatest compliment someone can give me is that when they read about one of my characters, who [may think] very differently than Brandon Sanderson, they say, ‘Wow! [Brandon] must be X, because he got this character right.’ That’s the best thing you can me as tell a writer. I think that’s part of the calling of a writer, to make sure that we’re doing that. We arrive at interesting questions, and interesting answers, by having people butt against each other who have different philosophies on life. Nothing changes unless there’s friction—unless there’s another option out there forcing you to look at it and actually consider it.”

Sanderson described what he considers to be the three main pillars of modern fantasy: epic fantasy in the mold of J.R.R. Tolkien; portal fantasy in the mold of C.S. Lewis (or Lewis Carroll before that); and the gritty movement spurred by the success of George R.R. Martin. Two of Sanderson’s pillars were popularized by authors who were deeply religious (Tolkien and Lewis).

“There’s this grand tradition of people who are religious looking at fantasy as a way to explore the world.”

“There’s this grand tradition of people who are religious looking at fantasy as a way to explore the world. For some reason, though, particularly in the ’80s, it became a thing that there was this antagonism.”

Sanderson is often asked how he got into fantasy while living in a deeply religious household and region. Was the push-back against Dungeons & Dragons not happening in Nebraska where he lived?

“It went through my hometown,” he admitted. But it was never something his parents were worried about. “I remember playing [it], and my mom coming down and checking on us, and then later on hearing someone say, ‘You let them play that game?’ She was like, ‘Um, yes? They’re sitting and interacting with one another. They’re actually, you know, being social. And there’s even a girl there!’ I had good parents, who were able to actually look at the thing and ask], ‘Is this damaging to my children? No! It’s actually really good for them.'”

As an adult, he looks back on that time and wonders if the pushback wasn’t part of the appeal. It was a safe counter cultural activity for kids like him. “I knew there wasn’t anything bad about it, but other people thought there was. I could be a bit of a rebel, a bad boy, but not actually go out and do crack.”

Fantasy has always had a strong, passionate intersection with religion. Modern fantasy was popularized “by people who were deeply religious, while at the same time, other deeply religious people think it is the worst thing to ever happen,” Sanderson said, contemplating the abyss that separates the two groups. “But that’s just how humankind is, right? You take any great thing, and someone else is going to tell you why it’s awful.”

Hostility and cultural divide is at the heart of Oathbringer. Sanderson digs into the conflicts between nations and cultures, even between races, but, one of the most unique and interesting aspects to his writing—in the Stormlight Archive, but also a lot of his other work—is that he doesn’t do so by visiting myriad nations. Despite their length, the Stormlight books are generally set in one location—whether that’s the Shattered Plains in The Way of Kings or Urithiru, the ancient home of the Knights Radiant, in Oathbringer.

“I read so many travelogues when I was younger,” he said. He wanted to try something different. “What I’m really interested in is different worlds colliding with one another. I really like how turning the setting into a character changes how a conflict plays out.”

“Back when I was in college, I [said], ‘We need to get rid of books with elves and dwarves!’ I’ve come around a lot since then.”

That’s not to say that travelogues don’t have a place in modern fantasy, he was quick to point out. “Back when I was in college, I [said], ‘We need to get rid of books with elves and dwarves!’ I’ve come around a lot since then. If people want to read and write books about elves and dwarves, I’m sure there are cool stories still to tell. Go for it!”

But Sanderson is more fascinated by the nooks and crannies of the intricate worlds of epic fantasy. He’d rather dig deep than travel wide. “I’ll read these travelogues and think, ‘That’s a really interesting setting. What if you had to live there? Let’s dig into that.'”

The Stormlight Archive is set on Roshar, a planet besieged by “highstorms” with the power to batter society to rubble. Roshar is unusually hostile, and was actually inspired by science fiction. Sanderson believes “fantasy as a genre would be served by having a few more science fiction setting principles applied to its worlds.”

“Granted,” he added, “whatever an author wants to write and do a good job with, I think, is valuable to the genre.”

Meanwhile, he’s more interested in taking a “science fictional” approach to worldbuilding, exploring alien ecologies and figuring out how they might play out.

“Fantasy works backward: take something that’s impossible, make it feel plausible.”

To Sanderson, the biggest difference in worldbuilding for science fiction and fantasy is that science fiction takes what we have and tries to extrapolate what’s plausible. “Obviously not all science fiction tries to do this, but it’s an easy rule of thumb: take what we have, extrapolate the plausible. Fantasy works backward: take something that’s impossible, make it feel plausible.”

So, Sanderson wondered, what would happen if you took that science fiction approach but started from a place of fantasy. That’s just the question he’s looking to answer in the Stormlight Archive. “The genre could be served by a little more of this sense of wonder to the way the environment looks, rather than just taking for granted it’s going to take place in a world that feels vaguely familiar.”

The Stormlight Archive is part of the Cosmere, a vast interconnected series of books (containing, but not exclusive to, the Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Warbreaker, and the Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul). At the end of the Stormlight Archive’s second volume, Words of Radiance, Sanderson fans were surprised to see the emergence of Nightblood, an awakened sword that was first introduced in Warbreaker. The ultimate easter egg for those invested fans. Is this the start of a new trend? Are we going to see more obvious crossovers between the Cosmere books?

“The short answer is, yes,” Sanderson admitted.

The long answer, however, is a bit more complicated. He was inspired to create the Cosmere by reading comic books during the ’90s. “It was really cool when you got to see [comic book characters] cross over between different series, and really frustrating when an editor would say, ‘If you want to know this story that we’re dangling in front of you, you have to read this whole other thing.’ So, I wanted to try to tell the grander story—the bigger epic happening behind the scenes—without feeling like I’m laughing at readers who aren’t in the know.”

When he set out to write the Cosmere books, he drew a line in the sand: “I want to make sure that I am not making enjoying any given series require reading of another series.”

He also revealed the relationship between the Stormlight Archives and Warbreaker is “very special,” and different than that between the other Cosmere books. Warbreaker was initially written as a prequel to the first draft of “The Way of Kings Prime.” He became fascinated with the character of Vasher (Kaladin’s swordmaster in “The Way of Kings Prime”), and wrote Warbreaker as a prequel—only for the Stormlight Archive to end up getting rewritten and published afterwards.

Over time, you’ll see more of these connections, because Sanderson feels he’s at the point now where he can start bringing in outside elements without feeling like he’s laughing at his more casual readers.

But, he stressed, he’s not trying to recreate The Avengers.

“What I’m trying to build is something a little more like Star Trek—where you have different cultures and different planets who all have their own interesting stories.” 

“People do ask this, because that’s the big shared world thing that’s gotten really cool in recent memory. What I’m trying to build is something a little more like Star Trek—where you have different cultures and different planets who all have their own interesting stories. Over time you get to see the influence of those different cultures as they butt against each other. It’s not really a ‘gather the heroes’ type of story; it’s more of a ‘here’s an evolving universe where you can see the different places influencing one another.'”

Sanderson is fascinated by the trend toward globalism in our world, and it has a big impact on how he approaches building the Cosmere. “[There’s] this idea nations are no longer distinct entities, but are so interconnected with other cultures that it becomes really strange to talk about what national identity means anymore. It’s a different thing than it used to be. If you live in Germany right now, your national identity is very different with the EU [than it was in the past] because you have this different layer.”

Oathbringer is the latest entry in the Stormlight Archive, but it’s not the last. So, what’s next?

“I finished Oathbringer in June. I’m giving myself until December of next year to work on other things.”

“I finished Oathbringer in June,” he said, “so, I’m giving myself until December of next year to work on other things.” He splits his time 50/50 between the Stormlight Archives (which take about 18-20 months to write) and his other projects.

“I’ve finished the third Legion story,” he continued. “Those are my bizarre little detective stories.” Now, he’s working on a followup to his YA Steelheart series. After that, Sanderson will move on to the fourth volume in his “Mistborn Era 2” series, which takes place a few hundred years after the original Mistborn trilogy.

“Right about then, I should be ready to dive back into the Stormlight Archive.”

And so, back to Roshar.

Oathbringer is available now.

The post Brandon Sanderson Discusses the Past and Future of the Stormlight Archive appeared first on The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog.

Igår uppdagades att det finns ett Qualcomm-verktyg i Oxygen OS som genom ADB och tillgång till rätt lösenord kan ge telefoner från OnePlus rootaccess. Det så kallade EngineerMode upptäcktes även på enheter från andra tillverkare som Asus och Xiaomi.

OnePlus har nu svarat på upptäckten. De berättar att det mycket riktigt rör sig om ett diagnosticeringsverktyg. Enligt OnePlus utgör möjligheten att roota enheter genom verktyget ingen större säkerhetsrisk, då USB-debugging behöver aktiveras och det behövs även fysisk tillgång till själva telefonen.

Tillverkaren skriver dock samtidigt att de kan förstå att vissa fortfarande känner oro. Därför kommer de skicka ut en OTA-uppdatering som tar bort möjligheten att roota systemet genom EngineerMode.

Inlägget OnePlus svarar på EngineerMode – rootfunktionen kommer tas bort dök först upp på Swedroid.

Mozilla claims its updated web browser is twice as fast as its last one, and uses a lot less memory than the competition—Google Chrome in particular. It’s called Firefox Quantum, and it might give the web’s most popular web browser a run for its money.

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I’m still scrambling to catch up with everything after last week’s book release. Huge thanks to everyone who supported, signal-boosted, posted reviews, came to the events, and so on.

A lot has been happening, and I don’t know that I’ll be able to talk about everything I want to, but I’ll try…starting with the sexual harassment/assault accusation against George Takei.

We’ve seen a lot of these stories coming out recently. It feels like the Weinstein revelations helped to break the dam of silence, and we’re beginning to hear from victims who have been suppressed for decades.

In the case of Takei, model Scott Brunton accused Takei of groping his genitals while he was unconscious. There’s also a suggestion that Takei might have drugged him. This allegedly happened at Takei’s house in 1981.

Takei has denied the accusation, saying he has no memory of ever knowing Brunton.

However, a radio interview with Howard Stern a month earlier included the following exchange:

Stern asked Takei if he had ever grabbed a man’s genitals against his will.

Takei paused, said “uh oh” and laughed. Stern repeated the question and Takei said: “Some people are kind of skittish, or maybe, um, uh, afraid, and you’re trying to persuade.”

Stern’s co-host, Robin Quivers, asked if Takei did “this grabbing at work”. Takei said: “Oh, no, no, no, it wasn’t at work. It was either in my home. They came to my home … it didn’t involve power over the other.”

#

Like many others, I’ve admired and respected George Takei for ages. I recognize that I very much don’t want to believe Takei did this.

I also know false accusations, while they do happen, are rare. And while Takei’s interview says nothing about drugging people, he does admit to grabbing men’s genitals against their will, which he justifies as “trying to persuade.”

As I said on a friend’s FB post, I’m still processing. But I’m seeing a lot of reactions that are troubling as hell.

1. “I’ve met George Takei and he’s always been a gentleman” and “I’m friends with Takei and don’t believe he could do this.”

Harassers don’t go around wearing signs that say “I drug and grope people against their will.” They don’t greet everyone they meet with a hearty handshake to the genitals. Abusers tend to be very good at maintaining a pleasant, friendly public persona. The fact that you’ve never seen someone behave inappropriately doesn’t mean it’s never happened.

And yes, Takei has been outspoken against harassment and abuse and such. Unfortunately, there are predators even among anti-rape, anti-harassment circles.

2. “Why would Brunton wait all these years before saying anything?”

This is the same criticism being thrown at accusers against Moore, Spacey, Weinstein, and so many others. There are too many real, valid reasons to list here, but some of them include:

• Fear of the consequences of speaking out
• Shock and confusion over what happened
• A desire to “get on with your life” and not relive the assault
• Believing you’re alone
• The power difference between you and your harasser

3. “This whole thing is turning into a witch hunt” and “It’s McCarthyism all over again!”

Why? Because there are so many accusations and revelations coming out?

We as a society have spent decades silencing victims of sexual harassment. What the hell did you expect it to look like when the dam finally began to crumble?

Victims of harassment — particularly women — have been saying for ages that this is a huge problem. Most of the stories we’re seeing involve multiple victims coming forward, and most of their accounts are corroborated by others. The Takei accusation feels like an outlier in some respects, since to the best of my knowledge, Brunton is the only one to have spoken out against him.

What pisses me off the most about this deflection is that when people try to defend Takei by calling it a witch hunt, they’re undermining everyone who’s been speaking out about their harassment. They’re suggesting all of these victims are lying, caught up in hysteria and publicity.

If you want to say you don’t believe a particular allegation, that’s one thing. If you say it’s all a witch hunt, then intentionally or not, you’re joining everyone else who’s silenced victims and helped to perpetuate this harassment and abuse for so many decades.

#

Like I said, I love George Takei and his work. I don’t want the accusation to be true. But Takei’s interview is troubling as hell. And so are some of the knee-jerk defenses I’m seeing from others who simply don’t want to believe.

Getting an apartment in San Francisco is a competitive nightmare, which is why I was excited to find that the landlord I had been texting with to set up an apartment viewing just happened to be friends with another good friend of mine. She didn’t tell me, and we aren’t Facebook friends: I found out because she has her…

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Recently, we asked people who worked in the food service industry if there were any insights about their job they wished restaurant patrons would know, and we got some great answers. Whether it’s about tipping, food orders, or how you should and shouldn’t treat the wait staff, these are the secrets to being a good…

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Idag tänkte jag dela med mig av 4 tips för att nå sina mål och 4 vanliga misstag när man inte når sina mål.

Mina inlägg om produktivitet och målplanering är bland de mest populära, och något jag verkligen älskar att skriva om också, så nu kör vi!

4 tips för att nå sina mål

1. Bestäm klart och tydligt vad du vill
Att VETA vad man vill är superviktigt. Det går inte att uppnå ett mål om man inte vet vilket det är! Vill du ha ett nytt jobb? Tjäna mer pengar? Bygga mer muskler? Gå ned i vikt? Bestäm och skriv ned så att du har definierat målet klart och tydligt.

2. AGERA AGERA AGERA – gör man något så händer det något!
Steg två är att utföra en verklig handling för att komma framåt. Skicka in en jobbansökan, registrera en ny blogg, betala ett medlemsskap… vad det nu kan handla om. GÖR DET! När jag mäter min produktivitet räknar jag sällan alla fails och försök, den goda viljan räknas ej, endast resultat. 

3. Analysera och experimentera och håll dig till fakta
Det är viktigt att titta på resultaten med nyktra ögon. Funkar det inte? Erkänn det, säg till dig själv “det jag gör nu fungerar ej, vad kan jag ändra?” Det är jätteviktigt att våga överge en strategi som bara inte funkar. Vet många personer som vill gå ned i vikt men i stället går upp och ändå inte överger den dysfunktionella metoden. Var inte en av dem.

4. Ändra kontinueligt TILLS det fungerar!
Testa, testa, testa tills det funkar. Det är inte farligt, gör bara en ny plan om den förra inte funkade. Det är inte hela världen. Eyes on the prize!

4 vanliga misstag

1. Motstridiga eller otydliga mål
“Det hade varit trevligt att känna sig mer fit”
“Det hade varit kul att göra något annat”
“Jag tror jag vill dansa mer”
“Till våren ska jag börja med ett intresse!”
“Jag vill bygga muskler och gå ned i vikt!”

Det är viktigt att sätta mer exakta och gärna detaljerade mål. Hur definierar du fit? Hur mycket är mer? Eller tillräckligt? Särskilt män verkar ha problem med att till exempel sätta en målvikt och istället säga att “det spelar ingen roll vad jag väger, det är kroppsformen som räknas” men bättre att bara bestämma en siffra.

2. Du har inte GJORT något KONKRET
Jag fick den här aha-upplevelsen 2006 tror jag det var, att alla mina planer och saker jag ville göra stannade i mitt huvud. Analyzing is paralyzing. Jag hade i ett decennium skrivit tusentals sidor dagbok och gjort vadå? Inget? Så fort jag insåg detta köpte jag biljetter till Arvika-festivalen, bara för att bryta cirkeln.

3. För mycket känslor – för lite fakta
Det bästa man kan göra när man inte når ett mål är att skala bort ALLA känslor och bara titta på data. Bli superpragmatisk och lös problemet oavsett hur det känns eller borde vara. 

4. Ifrågasättande istället för lösningar
“Varför funkar det inte?”
“Det funkar ju för si och så”
“Varför funkar det aldrig för mig?”
“Det borde funka!”

Deta är exempel på extremt dåliga frågeställningar som inte leder någonstans. Ta förståelsen en annan dag och titta på fakta. Funkar det inte så funkar det inte. Punkt. Testa nått annat, gå vidare. Fastna inte i ältande.

Detta var mina tips inför helgen, kanske dags att sätta lite nya mål nu till vintern? Man måste inte vänta på nyåret! Jag har själv satt massa nya mål för min kroppsviktsträning, dansandet, mitt boende och andra saker som jag tänkte fixa INNAN 2018! 

• Jag har skrivit en liten E-bok om det här som heter “Nå dina mål nu” som du hittar här.

Dela inlägget!

Inlägget Att lyckas med sina mål! dök först upp på Martina Johansson.

Looking longingly toward Nordic cultures for solutions to American problems is practically a cottage industry at this point. Between Scando design principles (more light, less stuff); sustainability initiatives (The Netherlands have figured out how to feed us all); education (Norwegian forest schools, anyone?); and…

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Dear L.J.,

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Jag skrev och dementerade en artikel i SvD som handlade om mammografins förträfflighet, och började i min research läsa lite allmänt om Cancerfonden. En sak fångade min uppmärksamhet, nämligen hur de räknar överlevare. När jag tänker på “att överleva cancer” så tänker jag på att man fortsätter leva, är frisk och sen kanske (längre fram) dör av något annat. Så tänker inte cancerfonden, föga förvånande egentligen. De tycker att “överlevnad i 5 år efter diagnos” är samma sak som “överlevnad”. Dvs att patienten lyckades dra ut på plågan i 5 år med otäcka behandlingar innan han eller hon ändå dog av sin cancer. Det är såhär cancerfonden fifflar med sin statistik när det säger att “Åh vad överlevnaden har ökat de senaste åren!”

Forskningen går inte framåt!

och den kommer inte att göra det så länge man forskar med tunnelseende och vägrar titta på helheten, som till exempel att högt blodsocker, läckande tarmar, D-vitaminbrist och förhöjda inflammationsmarkörer ökar risken för cancer. Men nä… bättre att förlita sig på mammografi (som i studie efter studie inte fungerar) och cellgifter som dödar hela människan och inte bara cancern.

Vet du vad fördelen med att räkna antalet “överlevare” på det här förvrängda sättet? Det ger en ökad försäljning av cytostatika och andra mediciner för att till exempel hantera biverkningar. “Överlever 5 år efter diagnos” ger ju således mer cash än “Överlever 1 år”. Kanske inte toppen för individen men toppen för statistiken och läkemedelsbolagen.

Bojkotta alla rosa band

Tyvärr stödjer man ingenting vettigt när man köper rosa-bandet-produkter. Cancerfondens koppling till läkemedelsbolagen redovisas inte, men det är allmänt känt att de arbetar för opinionsbildning eller lobbying som till exempel att införa kontroversiella läkemedel. Ett exempel är Herceptin som är väldigt biverkningstungt och lett till tusentals dödsfall.

Astra Zeneca är en stor sponsor av Rosa bandet. Förvånande? 

Rosa bandet används för “pink washing”

Företag med tveksam hälsoprofil går ofta in och stöttar hälsokampanjer för att verka bättre… som till exempel Kellogs, Fazer och andra producenter av rent skräp. Det kallas för “pink washing” och förekommer med massor av produkter och hälsokampanjer. Bli inte förvånad om du ser…

Så lämpligt när cancerceller lever uteslutande av glukos. Låt oss äta mer socker och bli fetare och sjukare. För en god sak givetvis.

Kul svar från SvD

När jag frågade om jag kunde kontra deras mammografiartikel fick jag detta svar:

Ja det kan du, men det är viktigt att det verkligen är ett svar på en tidigare artikel, inte en förevändning för ett eget budskap vid sidan om.

Artikeln jag ville bemöta var skriven av en politiker och en representant från Cancerfonden… så lobbyism gick trots allt alldeles utmärkt?

Dela inlägget!

Inlägget Lobbyism och hyckleri bakom cancerforskning dök först upp på Martina Johansson.

Sömnproblem är supervanligt och oftast inte så svårt att fixa som man kan tro. Därför rekommenderar jag INTE quick-fixar med sömntabletter/insomningstabletter. De löser inte problemet mer än tillfälligt. 

Ställ in kroppen på sömn

Börja släck ned hemmet redan vid 19-tiden. I vår förra lägenhet hade vi speciella natt/kvällslampor överallt med rött sken. Även på toaletten. Vi köpte en remsa med röda små ledlampor och klistrade upp på väggen. Stäng av alla skärmar, eller använd blue light blocking (glasögon, skärmskydd eller appar med gult filter) för att inte störa melatoninproduktionen. Undvik att äta alltför sent, ät helst inte efter 18, och träna inte för sent. Det här kan vara svårt att följa men det gör underverk för sömnen!

Hjärtklappning vid sänggående

Att kroppen drar igång på det här sättet är en försvarsmekanism för hjärnan har inte alls fattat att det är natt, så den undrar varför kroppen håller på och somnar. I ett desperat försök att hålla igång kroppen skickar den ut massa adrenalin som påverkar hjärtats betareceptorer. Rätt medicin för detta är betablockerare i låg dos före sänggående, inte sömnmedicin. Tillståndet kan gå över av sig själv, om man har en bra sömnrutin.

Ångest vid sänggående

Detta är ett annat vanligt tillstånd att man så fort man ska sova kommer på allt elände man måste tänka på, blir paranoid, orolig, nojjig och slutar tänka logiskt. Om man lider av detta är det bra att gå och lägga sig TIDIGT, redan 21.30-22 och följa nedvarvningsprotokollet ovan. Det funkar. Vad som absolut INTE funkar är att vara uppe sent och hålla igång kroppen när den egentligen är trött.

Nattligt uppvaknande

Om man ofta vaknar mitt i natten för att kissa eller dricka, kan det vara att för att man lider av sömnapné. Det är jättevanligt, jag gjorde det före jag började sova med muntejp. Jag kunde vakna i panik av att allting snurrade, eller för att dricka 1 liter vatten. Läs gärna mina inlägg om det här:

• Nytt biohack för förbättrad sömn
• Om att sova med muntejp
• Fortsättning om muntejpen

Dela gärna inlägget med någon som har svårt att sova!

Dela inlägget!

Inlägget Case: “Somnar 3-4 varje natt” dök först upp på Martina Johansson.

Efter rapporten om OnePlus icke anonyma datainsamling vilken innehåller potentiellt känsliga uppgifter, kommer tillverkaren att ändra sitt upplägg. Från och med slutet av oktober kommer en prompt att visas under den initiala uppstarten av Oxygen OS som frågar efter tillåtelse att skicka en analys av användandet.

OnePlus kommer även att förtydliga att det rör sig om just insamling av användningsdata, samt inkludera ett användaravtal som diskuterar insamlingen. I samma veva slutar OnePlus att samla in telefonnummer, MAC-adresser och Wi-Fi-info.

Tillverkaren skriver att de inte har delat uppgifterna med några tredje parter, och att de endast har använt datainsamlingen till att utveckla Oxygen OS och till att kunna ge bättre support. Analysen av användaraktivitet kan stängas av redan nu från Settings > Advanced > Join user experience program.

Inlägget OnePlus slutar samla in känslig data i Oxygen OS dök först upp på Swedroid.

In truth, pretty damn close.

So often, you’ll hear stories long after the fact.  Like how Apple almost brought Stargate: SG-1 back for an iTunes exclusive 11th and final season.  Or how Canada’s Space Channel attempted to save Stargate: Universe.  But in this case, the events are fairly recent  – a last ditch effort to save Dark Matter spearheaded by some old friends.  An effort that, had it been successful, would have seen characters from the world of Stargate crossover into the Dark Matter universe.   Or, technically and creatively, vice-versa.  I kid you not.

Not long after word broke of the syfy cancellation, we had several interested parties reach out to us.  One of the most intriguing of them was was MGM, my former home for 12 glorious years while I was working on the Stargate franchise.   They loved the show.  They were aware of the fanbase.  And they recognized a great opportunity.

Over the course of a week, with the window of opportunity to save the show growing narrower, I had several long and involved conversations with Simon Graty (EVP & GM Domestic Networks at MGM Studios), Kieran Dickson (Editorial Director at MGM), and Jenny Stiven (Consultant, Digital/Social Strategy & Content, Influencer Marketing).  The plan, if successful, would have seen Dark Matter’s fourth season premiere on MGM’s streaming platform, Stargate Command, alongside the upcoming Stargate: Origins series.  Perhaps equally intriguing was the prospect of doing some sort of Dark Matter/Stargate crossover that would rev up the fanbase in advance of further original Stargate programming down the road.

The two things working against us were time and existing contracts, the latter which proved our undoing.  BUT we came so close –

To a fourth season of Dark Matter.

To a sci-fi crossover for the ages.

Ultimately, we weren’t successful, but I want to thank MGM, and especially Simon, Jenny, and Kieran, for reaching out and trying to make it happen.

Today, Ivon and I caught up with a couple of the individuals who orchestrated that attempted 11th hour save (Jenny and Kieran), as we sat down with them, and Gateworld’s David Reed, for late lunch and three hours of reminiscing about the old Stargate  days.

Watch for our interview, and many more, coming to Stargate Command.

OnePlus anklagas för att samla in känslig användardata i Oxygen OS. Analysen kommer från Christopher Moore som under ett hackningsevent lyckades undersöka informationen som skickades från hans OnePlus 2.

Enligt Moore skickas bland annat IMEI, IMSI-prefix, serienummer och MAC-adresser, tillsammans med uppgifter om omstarter och när skärmen sätts på och stängs av. OnePlus sägs även registrera vilka applikationer som startas. Att användardata samlas in av tillverkare är inte alls ovanligt; problemet är att uppgifterna inte är anonyma utan kan härledas till en specifik enhet.

Koden som ansvarar för datainsamlingen ligger i OnePlus Device Manager och OnePlus Device Manager Provider. Enligt OnePlus förs analysen över i två separata strömmar via HTTPS till en server som ligger hos Amazon.

Första strömmen är en användaranalys för att bättre kunna kalibrera mjukvaran utifrån användares beteende. Den andra strömmen berör användaraktivitet och kan stängas av från Settings > Advanced > Join user experience program. Alternativet tycks dock slås på igen efter firmware-uppdatering, trots att det var avstängt innan.

De som tycker att datainsamlingen är olustig kan enligt utsago inaktivera den helt genom att radera appen OnePlus Device Manager via ADB (pm uninstall -k –user 0 net.oneplus.odm), vilket är möjligt utan rootaccess.

Inlägget OnePlus anklagas för att samla in känslig användardata dök först upp på Swedroid.

Bildcred: healthoutsidethebox

Jag har de senaste året/halvåret känt en dragning mot mindre kött, mindre fett och mer plantbaserad kost. Det betyder inte att jag har ätit så men jag har känt dragningen. Den har varit påtaglig. Särskilt i Kina där fettet håller usel kvalité och det är trickigt att få tag i bra kött. Men känslan höll i sig även i Sverige… kände lockelsen till smoothie bowls och gröna drinkar… tills jag fattade vad det handlar om!

Clean Eating är en hjärntvätt!

Överallt på sociala medier ser vi nu #cleaneating och bilder på bär, smothies, frökex och all möjlig icke-mat. Låga kalorier och “gluten free” “suger free” “dairy free” “guilt free”… men VAR I ALLSINDAR ÄR MATEN? Man kan undra om dessa instagramkonton riktar sig till små sparvar, för det är inte mat för människor. Det är lågkalorikost, fetträdsla och viktväkteri i ny tappning!

Var ALDRIG rädd för RIKTIG mat!

Människan är biologiskt anpassad för rött kött, inälvsmat och mättat fett från djurriket inklusive kokosolja, olivolja och avocadoolja som vi också tål. Vi har ingen näbb och går inte runt och plockar upp frön från marken, och vi har inte fyra magar eller idisslar. Våra förfäder åt inälvor direkt från djuret och drack blod och vatten. Det låter inte gulligt när man säger det men så är det. Vi har inte evolverats till en ny art!

Jag spelade in podden sockersystrar i helgen med LCHFingenjoren och Ann-Ida och tog upp min spaning med de här skarpa brudarna. De tyckte inte heller att den här mattrenden är något som gynnar oss, eftersom de till sist bara blir att man sitter och plockar och duttar med maten istället för att äta RIKTIG MAT och RIKTIGA måltider!

Riktig mat ger hälsa och håller beroenden i schack!

Riktig mat dämpar inflammation, håller mat- och sockerberoenden i schack, stabiliserar blodvärden, optimerar hormonnivåer, ger bättre kroppskomposition och ett stabilt psyke.

ALLA som har testat artegen föda håller med om detta. Man får så fina effekter för att kroppen får den näringen den bäst kan använda och ta till sig!

Bildcred: Ann-Ida

Riktig mat är inte alltid vacker

Men grejen är att om du har skalat bort alla dina triggers och kan känna äkta hunger så kommer du bli lite hungrig av bilden ovan. Det är helt sant. En hjärna som inte matas med omega-6-fettsyror och söt smak behöver inte ha bäriga smoothies eller frökex. Den vill bara ha sina ketoner, punkt.

Häng på vårt upprop om riktig mat

Våga äta!

Våga äta ordentligt och våga äta dig mätt!

Våga äta maten din biologi älskar även om den inte är trendig, PK eller snygg!

Våga äta rött kött och mättat fett, våga ketogen kost och se hur din mentala hälsa och kroppskomposition förbättras avsevärt!

Tagga dina bilder med #RealFood eller #DirtyEating, låt inte pippifågel-matstreden vara ytterligare en kvinnofälla med plockmat och låga kalorier så att vi inte orkar nånting, blir inflammerade och ofokuserade. Du förtjänar att vara STARK, SMART och GRYM och för det behöver du NÄRING din kropp kan metabolisera. 

Rensa skafferiet, kylen och frysen. Sätt ned foten. Nu är det nog! Nu drar vi igång en riktig Oktober-Nystart för alla oss som inte skäms för att äta riktig föda!

Är du med!? 

• Inlägg om att våga keto

Dela inlägget!

Inlägget LCHF:are flyr till rumsren “Clean Eating” dök först upp på Martina Johansson.

Heya folks…

The 10th Anniversary Edition of the Name of the Wind comes out on Tuesday, (October 3rd.)

What’s that you say? What 10th anniversary edition?

This one:

(I’ve been signing a lot of them for The Tinker’s Packs, lately.)

It’s a pretty, pretty book. And if you think the front cover looks nice, you should see the back….

Now that, my friends, is how you blurb a book. I’m all blushy.

The book has improved, cleaned up text. An introduction, an author’s note (by me), pronunciation guide, and several appendixes about things like the currency systems, the calendar, the Aturan Empire, etc etc.

Also? It has more than 20 illustrations from Dan Dos Santos like this:

And this:

And two new maps from Nathan Taylor like this:

• Saturday, October 7th

• Sunday, October 8th

That’s all the planned events for now. Sorry if I’m not hitting your hometown, but there’s only so much touring I can do at this point.

If I’m not coming to your neck of the woods, you should contact your local bookstore and pre-order one. (It might work better than just showing up and hoping they have it in stock.) Sometimes bookstores don’t realize how many of you there are, and how enthusiastic y’all are….

Anyway. It’s super late right now. And I’m pretty tired. I need to get to bed.

I’ll see some of you soon….

pat

By Leo Babauta

There isn’t a person among us who doesn’t procrastinate — put off your work for the day, distract yourself, put off pursuing your dreams, put off putting your work out in the world for fear of being judged.

But here’s the thing: most people think that this procrastination is a problem.

Most people stress out about being a procrastinator, and feel bad about themselves for doing it.

Au contraire (that’s French, don’t bother looking it up, it means you’re way wrong).

Instead, procrastination is the perfect place to practice all the most important life skills.

Our tendency to procrastinate is exactly how we’ll see how our minds work, and learn to be better at all the difficulties of life. Because life will always have these difficulties, no matter how much we’d prefer to avoid them, and how we respond to them will determine everything.

Let’s work on our responses to the hardest things in life.

How We Usually Respond

When we procrastinate, this is the usual process:

1. We have something difficult or uncomfortable to do.
2. We don’t feel like doing it, because it’s difficult, uncertain, uncomfortable.
3. Our minds habitually turn away from this task, and find a more comfortable, certain thing to do, like watching videos or playing games or checking email or social media.
4. We run to the easier thing, and then put off even thinking about the other thing.
5. We feel bad that this happens, and start to form a negative image of ourselves. We rain harshness and criticism upon our psyche.

This makes us less likely to do better the next time around. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya.

We can learn to do better.

Procrastination is an Opportunity, Not a Suckfest

So what should we do instead? Ideally:

1. We set a hard task before us.
2. We feel the difficulty, but see this as a signpost that we’re pushing into uncertain ground.
3. We relish the opportunity to push into uncertain ground, and dive in with gusto. (I love the word “gusto,” btw.)

But that’s not where we are. We have to practice in this way:

1. Set a hard task, feel like procrastinating because it’s uncertain and uncomfortable …
2. Start to procrastinate by going to something easy.
3. Once we’ve switched over and noticed that we’re procrastinating … we pause. This Pause is the key to everything.
4. We see this Pause as an opportunity to practice a key life skill, and we light up with joy. And yes, gusto.
5. We practice with discomfort and uncertainty. What does it feel like? Is it horrible? Can we work in the midst of it? Can we open up to the discomfort of it all, embrace the uncertainty, and see it as a beautiful part of what we’re doing?

Slowly, through this practice, we can get better at not running, at staying with the discomfort, at embracing it all, at being patient and joyful in the middle of chaos and the unknown.

Commit yourself to this practice. You’ll find it life-changing and gorgeous.

Practicing with Discomfort & Uncertainty

So you are in the Pause. And you see that you have a chance to practice with discomfort and uncertainty.

Here’s what you do.

You turn toward the feeling — the physical feeling in your body, not just a mental idea of it — and see how it feels. Where is it located in your body? How would you describe the sensation? Can you give it an energy, a color, a sound?

You stay with the feeling, with curiosity. You surrender to it, with trust in yourself. You allow it to be there, with acceptance.

Then you go forth and do the work. The hard thing. The thing you’re completely uncertain about. And accept the uncertainty as part of life, as part of the mission you’re on, because no worthy mission will be fully certain. No hero sets out on a journey knowing how it will end. You’re that hero, and yes, you’re completely up to this mission.

You do the work, notice the discomfort, allow it to be there. You notice your urge to turn away and run, and you don’t follow the urge.

You mess up, and start all over again, like the goldarn hero that you are. You fall down a thousand times, get up two thousand. You are courageous, inspirational, and stronger than even you believe.

One step at a time, you’re expanding your comfort zone, your zone of genius, your hero range. And with each step, you’re getting stronger, and inspiring the world to do the same.

Vad är Ghrelin? Jo det är ett hormon som  påverkar hunger, mättnad och hur tjocka eller smala vi är! Det spelar även in när vi dietar och tränar. Om man kaloribantar till exempel, blir man hungrigare och hungrigare ju mer man bantar och till sist går man inte ens ned något längre. Det finns mindre bra bantningsmetoder, nutrilette, allevo & dylika pulver/soppdieter funkar väldigt bra i början men sedan funkar de inte alls. Man blir helt enkelt för hungrig!

Varför blir det såhär? Det är nu vi kommer in på själva ghrelinet! Det är ett hormon som utsöndras mestadels i magsäcken, men också i hjärnan. Det har två primära funktioner, det ena är hunger och det andra är reglering av ämnesomsättningen!

Strax innan vi ska äta är ghrelin-nivåerna höga – vi är hungriga och redo för mat.

Hungern kommer alltså från ett hormon och inte från hur tomt eller fullt det är i magen. Det hänger ihop såklart, men inte till 100%. Om ghrelinnivåerna hade varit låga hela tiden hade vi svultit ihjäl, vi hade inte velat ha mat och inte varit hungriga det minsta hur tom magen än hade varit!

En seglivad myt om mättnad

Mättnad är hormonstyrt

Experiment har gjorts med råttor och möss som visar att det är väldigt hormonstyrt hur vi uppfattar hunger och mat. Experiment har gjorts med människor också. Bilder på mat visades för människor med sänkta ghrelinnivåer och de kände inget sug eller intresse för maten som visades. Man kunde mäta upp tydliga skillnader i hur maten uppfattades med scanning av hjärnan.

Överviktiga har mer ghrelin än smala

Så, när vi går ned i vikt ökar vilande Ghrelinnivåer som gör att vi blir hungrigare och hungrigare samtidig som ämnesomsättningen går ned. Motsatt mot vad man kan tro har överviktiga låga ghrelinnivåer och väldigt smala lite högre. Det som skiljer är när på dygnet som ghrelinet utsöndras. Smala individer har sina ghrelintoppar under natten, är följdaktligen hungriga på morgonen och äter frukost. Ghrelinet går ned igen och håller sig nere tills det är dags för nästa mål. Kraftigt överviktiga får sina ghrelintoppar senare på dagen och känner inte lika stor tillfredställelse av maten de åt, dvs blir inte lika mätta.

GP eliminerar ghrelinreceptorer

Gastric Bypass (när man snörper av en stor bit av magsäcken) leder nästan alltid till viktnedgång men också till ett annat beteendemönster. Patienten är inte längre lika sugen/hungrig på mat! Det beror på att så många ghrelinreceptorer sitter i just magen, och dessa “försvinner” vid operationen. Vid experiment med opererade överviktiga och icke-opererade överviktiga på diet kunde man se att de opererade kunde fortsätta att minska i vikt obegränsat eftersom ghrelinnivåerna aldrig höjde sig.

PYY3-36 vs Ghrelin

Ett annat hormon utsöndras för att få ghrelinniåverna att sjunka efter måltid, en så kallad “ghrelin-antagonist” peptiden PYY3-36 och det verkar vara balansen mellan dessa två hormoner som avgör hunger/mättnad och kroppsvikt. Det är när samspelet mellan dessa två hormoner ballar ur som det leder till fetma eller kraftig övervikt, dels blir ätandet något som är styrt av så mycket annat än viljan och dels kan det bli så att en kraftigt överviktig person fortsätter att vara överviktig trots strikt lågkaloridiet!

Insulin påverkar ghrelin

Vad påverkar Ghrelin mer än hur länge sedan det var vi åt? Insulin!

Ett svängande blodsocker som kräver insulinpåslag påverkar ghrelinnivåerna till att tro att vi är hungriga fastän vi precis åt! Det är bland annat de som händer när man äter en bit choklad, väntar en stund och sedan blir riktigt hungrig.

Vi ser då att insulinsvängningar och kalorisvält kommer att motverka viktnedgång på en hormonell nivå! Därför är det viktigt att känna in hur kroppen har det, äta när man är hungrig och sluta när man är mätt!

För friska, redan smala personer spelar det inte så stor roll hur man toppar formen (går ned några få kilon) men för personer med låg fysisk aktivitet, ev. sjukdomar, stor övervikt etc. är hormonbalansen nästan alltid rubbad. Som tur är kan man rätta till de igen med rätt mat (blodsockerstabiliserande, bland annat) och fysisk aktivitet – som faktiskt också har hormonell påverkan!

• Läs mer i min bok Magstarkt!

Dela inlägget!

Inlägget Om hungerhormonet Ghrelin dök först upp på Martina Johansson.

It begins. David Tennant is Crowley. Michael Sheen is Aziraphale. They are amazing. #GoodOmens

The last episode of Futurama ended with Fry lovingly asking his wife Leela if she’d like to “go around again,” and now it looks like they’re going to. Nerdist has paired with the creators of the show to create a brand new radio play that ties into the show’s latest mobile game.

Read more...