Secret Identities and Deceptive Motives
We stalled at the corner.
Adeline poked her head around before whipping back into position beside me. She held up three fingers, then pointed across the street and held up five. Three bots ahead, move on five.
I think.
She focused on the street, counting down with her fingers.
Knees bent, I mentally prepared to jog.
Lunar Royalty, Cybernetic Slaves, and Average People in Cinder
Past couple weeks have been chaos with me working on getting a full-time job. Nevertheless, we gotta finish up Cinder by Marissa Meyer with a quick chat on the cultures.
Funny enough, my job hunting relates a lot to this topic. As a contracted designer (and having interned with several companies), I’ve witnessed very many workplace cultures that have their highs and lows. The motivations, mentalities, even the people create the overall atmosphere and determine how one approaches or tries to fit in. Different demographics nestle within said cultures too, bringing even more impressions, practices, and ideologies. Culture can be difficult to nail down unless you look with a wide lens and zoom in gradually. Otherwise, you miss the depth.
When Past Trials Affect Future Progress
Boxes of bolts and screws. Spools of wire stacked. Hooks with tools I’d never seen before.
“Don’t touch that.”
I pulled my hand away, glancing at Adeline on her perch.
Curls piled atop her head in a stretched out scrunchie, she disassembled her newfound part and scraped dried blood off the panels. She’d tap the side of her goggles periodically, a whirring emanating before she pursued smaller pieces in the gizmo.
Quietly setting a stool by her workstation, I tried to understand what was so fascinating about the part. It made a good bludgeon during our escape, but otherwise I didn’t see the importance.
Torrid History of Ender’s Game and the Great Invasion
Sci-fi is an expansive genre with varying degrees of technology, space travel, robots, and more. I personally thought of sci-fi as just robot revolutions. Then I read Ender’s Game. I’d seen the movie several years back, another space drama with complicated characters and a plot that didn’t quite click. Everything absorbs better as words, and so I was drawn into the complexities of Orson Scott Card’s mind.
While the characters are fascinating, they make my head spin. Scott Card has way more tolerance for scientific blah than I ever will (why do you think most of my main characters aren’t scientists?). Nevertheless, I did comprehend some interesting elements between the movie and book, especially in the history of Ender’s Game.
Devolving Culture in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds
Writing is part what you type and part what you consume. Rather than discuss my crazy ideas, I decided to learn culture evolution from a classic novel.
Failing to Improve the World… Maybe…
I blame his meliorism.
Wrists bound, we sat cross-legged in a dank warehouse. Five men circled like vultures, clinging modified machine guns with bayonets and strings of rounds. Their haphazard clothing gave them away as a rebellious sect with little to no leadership. Insulation and wallpaper hung from the ceiling in tattered drapes, garbage cluttering the floor and the scent of urine emanating from every corner. Flies buzzed, indiscriminately landing and nibbling on any bare skin.
I blew one off my shoulder, turning to glare at Liam. “Happy now, your highness?”