Virtually Alone – Thoughts about Apple’s Vision Pro Headset

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It’s touted as the next big device, or class of devices that will become more available to mor people as the technology and prices come down (currently $3500). I don’t doubt the technology will get better. There will be extremely realistic depictions of even the most fantasical imaginings, and games. Also useful applications like displays, TVs, entertainments, etc.

But what none of these touted benefits point out is that wearing a headset or goggles or whatever, is a solitary activity. Because the output is only to one individual’s eyes. To share the VR experience, other people also need to be wearing the device. The irony is obvious: now we can be alone together! 

Why is that a good thing? Why is it better than two or more people watching a movie or TV screen, listening to music, etc? What about interaction? Could the technology replicate the same experience, and its benefits, as a live encounter? Why is it better for us to be in a stupor while our simulations have all the fun, as in The Matrix”?

Recent reports tell of an epidemic of loneliness, estrangement, isolation largely brought on by our devices. Other studies recommend social interaction as healthful, especially as we age.

I predict this and other VR devices will not only get better, but the improvement will not be good for us, but, rather, worse.

This Georgia voter's 2022 in-person vote

**After 8 days since Cobb Cty elections office says they issued our absentee ballots, they still hadn't come. Checking with  them, they advised to vote in person. We live 3/4 mile from the Gov't Center where they do "Advance Voting." Every time we've driven past it, there have been long lines and traffic congestion. Son Pete waited a long time a couple days ago. 

Today, about 9:15am we drove over there and saw that though there were lots of cars and a full parking lot, there were no long lines of people outside the building. I let Joan off to get a place in line while I went to hunt for a parking place. As I was waiting in the lot, a woman walked past and indicated she would be vacating the parking place ahead, 5 spaces from the entrance to the lot! 

As she backed out, I saw a Warnock sticker on her bumper. Good sign.

Went to the entrance and was admitted right away, where I joined Joan.  

A poll worker came by and announced that those over 75 should go to the front of the line and have a seat. 

Within 5 minutes we were getting our voting cards processed. 5 minutes after that we'd voted and acquired our stickers:

Even if I'd had my usual 11am swim time, I would have made it. I've got a couple more hours this morning, some of which I'm using to chronicle this easiest voting experience ever.

And, to give due credit, the process was smooth and cheery. At least at the Government Center on Lower Rowell Road in East Cobb.

Forking the Gullible

**  Finally listened to Life Lessons podcast with Gin Stephens. #104 "Healing with Vibrational Therapy with Eileen McKusick" - As I'd feared, this type of program is extremely susceptible to wu-wu. It's a skeptics's game preserve! Claiming to be "based in science," it is the classic selective collecting of evidence to support a pre-determined thesis. 

This woman sells tuning forks and therapies based on them and the hosts, Gin and Sherri, nod approvingly and gush with approval, neither of them being a scientist, nor apparently a skeptic. Hesitating to post this on one of her youtube vids: 

There is NO scientific basis for anything you sell or promote.Like acupuncture, crystals, tarot cards and the lot. I pity the poor saps who fall for your pitch. Like all scam artists, your "research" consists of selectively assembling scraps of real information in order to support your preferred thesis, while ignoring those that invalidate it.

A Blog for the Ages?

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Having passed my first year of practicing Intermittent Fasting as a lifestyle, I feel I've learned enough to offer support and information especially relevant to older people. While there are examples on other platform of elderly fasters having great success, it's a mixed bag. Many issues with older folks aren't addressed in those forums. I hope to provide that support, authenticated by my own octogenarian status and success with this lifestyle change. 

While weight issues are common among the elderly, there often are other issues with more urgency. These center around health and quality of life. A common mindset of the elderly is the sense of impending doom, which includes a variety of other factors, such as the absence of hope, and fear of the future, a yielding to resignation that often expresses itself as disregard for oneself, both in appearance and in health. I hope to counter this mindset with information on how Intermittent Fasting participates in the human body's own mechanisms for survival to reverse many of the debilities associated with the elderly. It's not a "fountain of youth," so much as a fountain for the hopefulness of youth. 

Can I do this indefinitely?

Writing long form pieces, whether memoir or novel or short story, is a relatively new experience for me. It’s only been since moving to Georgia from northern California that I’ve taken it up. Since then, craft has come under my serious observation, and I’ve sought to improve my writing in a number of ways.

• I joined a local writing group, one specializing in science fiction, because my novel is nominally "cli-fi," being set in a post-climate-catastrophe Earth with little high technology. This proved helpful on many fronts, introducing me to several useful standards for good fiction writing. Personality clashes and a blurt of hot temper, dislodged me from that group.
• I also listen to podcasts that focus on writers and writing, including The Book Review podcast from The New York Times. From these I’ve gleaned many writing tips, as well as interesting reading recommendations, from which I’ve benefitted.
• I use a Kindle e-reader for a couple of reasons: 1) it works best on my "desk treadmill," which is now my only form of exercise; and 2) because it enables highlighting and note-taking that I can later port into a text document so I get a collection of all my notes in one place.
• In addition, I keep a post-it and pencil handy for when I come across especially good turns of phrase or words that I may be able to use in my own writing. I then type them into a plain document I can quickly scan when I’m searching for a good word.
• I think my writing has improved measurably since last year, when I started writing my novel, tentatively titled, "The Lifeboat Chronicles." 

But my latest, and most drastic, trick is one I suspect few others will find acceptable, or think possible. It all came about after considering a critique of one of my SF group submissions. Someone noted I had used "the" several times in one long sentence. There’s nothing wrong with that definite article, other than its overuse in a sentence. But I wondered if I could write a long piece without using that word at all in anything where it is not part of a proper noun. To compound my constraint, I also committed to refraining from using "was" anywhere in my writing. (In fact, you will not find them in this very piece.) 

So insidious are those words that I resorted to creating a macro on my computer that beeps me every time I use them, because they sneak in. I’ve maintained this discipline in writing a chapter that as of this date has gone just above fourteen-thousand words, where "the" and "was" do not appear.

Not only have I demonstrated to myself, that it’s possible to write without those words, but I believe my writing has improved because of it. When I find that those verboten words naturally flow out, I have to stop and figure out a different way to express similar concepts. This slows my writing down considerably. I’ve already written about countering "efficiency" in writing. I still use an iPad and an Apple Pencil to hand print first drafts. But this discipline slows me down even more.

What I feel results is second or third draft quality in a first draft. I still go back and edit, but I never add those two banished words. I think my writing is better because it’s denser. You may not agree. But at this point it satisfies me that it’s a valuable discipline. I just don’t know if I can keep up not using that one definite article indefinitely! 

Short stories, short leash

As a kind of authorial therapy, I took the advice of someone and started writing short stories as a way to exercise my writing muscles and generate an oeuvre. Since January, I've written four stories. Quite prolix of me, I'd say.

But nobody is reading them. It's like extracting blood from a stone to get anyone to read the damn things. I'm tempted to just "publish" them here, on this exoplanet of blogs, where only aliens may drift by randomly over eons of time.

Here's the list:

A Dacha for DonRicco
9-1-2
Almost Adequate
The Glass

I work on these things as though it's my highly-paid full-time job. I refuse to think of it as a "hobby," as one of my writing group members calls it. At 79, I don't need any friggin' hobbies. Everything I do these days is part of my last rites. Fuck you, hobbyists, worthless time-wasters and foolish futurists.

Rejection by friendly fire

The withering effect of a rejection letter is something I've never experienced as a serious writer.

Two ways to accomplish this:

1. Have your first and subsequent submissions published

2. Submit nothing for publication

I just found a third way to achieve a similar effect: ask a friend who is a published writer to read something of yours that you like. Until his reply, I lived in painless privacy.

Now I am a man  — or at least I am a writer still aspiring to be published, posthumously or sooner. He is probably right, of course, about the short story and he took my imposition graciously, standing in for the agent I wish I had.

Not in defense, but as context, the story I showed him came about as part of an exercise routine I'd adopted recently that promised to strengthen my writing skills — kind of weight training for word-lifters. The advice was to write short stories even while working on a novel. I'm not sure how well I built my writing chops, but in writing the story, I had fun. A nice bonus. I'm close to finishing my second story, which I'll keep for when my agent-prince comes. So, my writer friend can relax.

Having recently turned seventy-nine, I'm envious of what my slightly younger friend has accomplished: "three early suspense novels," four self-published on Amazon, a new novel in the publishing process, etc.

One of the harsh realities of aging is having the realization sneak up on you that you have become useless. Not that I was so useful before (religious fanatic et al.), but at least I enjoyed for a while the illusion of fulfilling a purpose.

As someone bouncing along on the tailgate of life, writing prose has become palliative care, and, so far, the drugs are working fine —  except on my overworked tailbone. To get some serious feedback, I've joined a local writing group, which keeps me working on the cli-fi novel that'll probably never get finished. In the meantime, I'll keep writing short stories, for fitness, and possibly for a collection someday. But I'll keep them to myself.