Thursday This n That

Under the heading of things I did not need to know, I heard on TV the other day that koala poop smells lovely.  Apparently, it's all the eucalyptus they eat.  I would think that would make it smell like cough drops - cue the ewww - but that's me.

In college, I took a class called The Psychology of Sexual Behavior.  It was taught by a woman who looked like she ought to be home baking cookies for the grandkids, which made talking about sexual subjects kind of weird.  Anyway, the only things I remember from the class were the factoids she would drop at the beginning of class - like a sperm whale's penis is twelve feet long and three feet in diameter at the base.  =oO

The hardest part about quitting ice cream is that I have the urge to make chocolate cake but chocolate cake without ice cream is just wrong.  It's been 39 days since I last ate ice cream and I only miss it a little.  Sometimes.  A lot when I'm having a rough day.

Yesterday, I had to run a quick errand and on the drive, I got a sudden craving for chocolate.  Would you believe the dollar store has already changed over to Easter candy?  Those unromantic bastards.  Anyway, I snagged a Russell Stover Maple Cream egg and assorted non-holiday chocolates.  I inhaled the egg when I got home.  So fluffy!  Yum! 

I also picked up a Dr. Pepper, which I hadn't had in years.  I also haven't had a carbonated soda in months.  I might've drank a third of it.  It was interesting.  Definitely burpy.  And I definitely don't miss it.

Okay, I think I've chewed your ears enough today.  What's on your mind?

Fiction and Lying for a Living

Let me start out by making one thing perfectly clear...  I am a fiction writer.  I don't 'lie for a living'. 

Never once have I tried to imply that the fiction I write is in any way the truth.  That's what liars do.  They try to convince you that what they're telling you is, in fact, the truth.  No fiction writer I know does that.  We write fiction and we proclaim loudly that this is fiction.  It's not reality.  That would be non-fiction.  Or journalism...

Wait.  Scratch that.  Actual journalism is about facts and reality.  You know, TRUTH.  Not sure what's going on with what they're calling journalism these days.  I'd call it fiction, but I don't want those people associated with my profession. 

Remember back when the so-called memoirs of a certain person caused a hullabaloo because it was revealed that his non-fiction had been mostly made up? 

Remember back when that news anchor got caught making shit up about his experiences and foisting them off as the truth?

Remember when news networks used to carry reports of those embarrassments?

Well, now it seems the news networks have become the very embarrassments they used to report on.  :sigh:

Anyway, fact is fact.  Truth is truth.  Reality is reality.  Nothing anyone says or does changes that.  "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away." - Philip K. Dick.  It also doesn't go away just because someone has tried to replace it with a homemade reality cobbled together out of whims and assertions and bullshit. 

Journalism and news - whether in written or verbal form - should stick to the facts and to truth.  Leave the fiction to the fiction writers, please. We have enough competition amongst ourselves, thank you very much.  And just as we novelists don't lie for a living, you shouldn't be lying for your living either. 

Facts and Evidence and Hearsay

In this country, the law is all about facts and evidence.  You need those things to convict someone of a crime.  The evidence can even be circumstantial, but there needs to be a preponderance of it when all you've got is circumstantial.

Hearsay is flat out.  Opinions, too.

You cannot walk into a court room and say 'I heard someone say that the defendant committed the crime', anymore than you can walk in and say 'I think the defendant committed the crime' - unless you have evidence and facts to back up your assertions.

Seems to me that these days, people are using hearsay and opinions in place of facts and evidence.  Not in a real court, mind you, but in the court of public opinion.  You are tried and convicted without a shred of actual evidence.

"So and so said the person is a murderer, so it must be so."  "I heard someone say this person is a thief, so they are."  "Everyone knows he did what they say he did."  Ask about evidence and facts to prove the assertions and you may find yourself under their guns.

Oh, there's been a lot of hullabaloo about fake news.  If you don't try and convict someone without evidence, then fake news is about as damaging as a plastic spoon.  If you don't treat the media as a reliable witness, nothing they say can cause harm.  If you don't rely on the masses to tell you what is fact and what is fiction, then there's nothing to worry about.  And if you don't think celebrity equals authority, then you might be okay.

Except in this culture today, the news isn't questioned.  The media is truth.  If a whole bunch of people think something, then it must be fact.  And celebrities are gods.

Umm, yeah.

So, when you're out there reading and listening and deciding how to proceed, take a moment to figure out what reality is.  It might take some effort.  It might take you not believing a goddamn thing until actual facts are presented somewhere, somehow.  It takes work.

But it's worth it.

Try every case in the court of your own opinion and base those opinions on verifiable facts.  Demand evidence.  Ignore hearsay. 

Or continue on as you have done, thrashing around and waving your arms and huddling in the fear someone hopes you'll have because when you're afraid, you're easier to control.

Personally, I like knowing stuff and being certain for myself.  But that's me.