Everyday Junglist
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About me. You know how everyone says to be a successful writer you should focus in one or two areas. I continue to prove them correct.
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Local Author Struggles to Determine if Satire or Satirical Best Tag for His Humorous Vocal Story
Local author, Daniel R. DeMarco, Ph.D. struggled Saturday to determine if he should append the tag "satire" or "satirical" to his story Argan Oil Chronicles Part VI - Yep, You Read That Right, Part Six. Unless You Can't Read Roman Numerals In Which Case You Did Not Read That Right. In Any Case This is the Last One. For Now. Dr. DeMarco said the following in a written statement explaining his confusion. "Anyone who reads any of my stuff, which currently sits at around 10 or so people per month, knows how passionate I am about precision in language. This applies to all aspects of my writing, including so called 'tag' selection. I say so-called because on every other website, and by standard convention, what Vocal calls a 'tag', everyone else calls a keyword. I guess the editors at Vocal felt that if they called them keywords that would imply they were actually findable using common search engines like Gooogle.com. Instead they can only be 'found' using the internal Vocal site search engine which absolutely freakin sucks by the way. In any case, when I publish a story to a given community, I want the tags I select to accurately reflect the content of said story. Is it weird that I throw up in my mouth a little bit everytime I type or say the word community? That's exactly how cheesy and stupid the entire idea of communities actually is. So stupid that I throw up in my mouth even thinking about it. Weird, right? Or, maybe it is the concept of community in a general sense that I find so distressing. Similar to the concept of sharing, it feels like a slippery slope to communism to me, but I digress. I recently pulled together the sixth and final part of the series collecting my most popular and hilarious stories featuring argan oil and was in the process of publishing it in the Humor community when I encountered the head scratching conundrum of whether to choose satire or satirical as a tag.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Humor
The Writer/Reader Guilt Complex
Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You publish a story here on Vocal or some other web publishing platform. It might be a story you feel is really great, or one that is mediocre, or maybe even one you regret. Another writer you are familiar with from the site leaves a like and a comment on said story. The quality of the story and the content of the comment are not really factors in what happens next. You ask yourself when was the last time you read anything published by this other writer? You also consider, when was the last time you left a like or a comment on anything they had written that you read? If you are anything like me, (I can assure you, you are not, but we may share at least this in common) our answers to both questions will probably be a very low number or zero in some cases. A nagging guilt begins to build at not having read or commented on any of this writer's many works in a very long time, or maybe even ever. This very nice person, this aspiring writer just like yourself, took the time out of his or her busy schedule to read and comment on something you wrote, and you can't even be bothered to do the same for them? What kind of monster are you? And, so, appropriately ashamed you immediately seek out something/anything this person has published and leave a like and a comment to even the score. It doesn't matter if the piece you found was Hemingway reborn (highest possible literary quality) or Michael Chrichton reborn (lowest possible literary quality), you like it and you leave a comment detailing how great it was for whatever reasons you think will soothe your guilt ridden soul.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Writers
Math Can Be Art, But Why Can't Art Be Math?
"......when I look at a mathematical equation I see a piece of art in a way. Usually there are numbers and letters and various kinds of symbols arranged in a specific order just like a picture to decipher and understand."
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Art
Mathematical Modeling of the Written Universe
The expanding universe and the Friedmann equation Alexander Friedmann of Russia is credited with developing a dynamic equation for the expanding universe in the 1920s. At the same time Einstein, Willem de Sitter of the Netherlands, and Georges Lemaitre of Belgium were also working on equations to model the universe. Friedmann developed his version as a relativistic equation in the framework of general relativity, but the description used here, and (in our theoretical model presented below) applied to the written universe will be limited to a simplified, non-relativistic version based on Newton’s laws. Convenient forms of Friedmann’s equation with which to examine the expansion time and temperature for a big bang model of the actual universe are shown below
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Writers
Mathematical Modeling of the Written Universe
The Friedmann equation and the expanding universe Alexander Friedmann of Russia is credited with developing a dynamic equation for the expanding universe in the 1920s. At the same time Einstein, Willem de Sitter of the Netherlands, and Georges Lemaitre of Belgium were also working on equations to model the universe. Friedmann developed his version as a relativistic equation in the framework of general relativity, but the description used here, and (in our theoretical model presented below) applied to the written universe will be limited to a simplified, non-relativistic version based on Newton’s laws. Convenient forms of Friedmann’s equation with which to examine the expansion time and temperature for a big bang model of the actual universe are shown below
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Humor
The Simulationist’s Marriage
Why do Simulationist’s teach that marriage is a rite encoded within the master program? The rites make the Simulator’s present in our midst. Like the other rites, marriage is not just for the good of individuals, or the couple, but for the simulation as a whole. The Simulationist faith teaches that marriage between two simulationally submerged persons is a rite. This rite was written into the code by the Simulator(s) at the time of the first programming. It is still bound by the same quantum probabilistics that guide all simulation rites (is effected by randomness) but it was given a higher probability of producing good outcomes. In the Catechism of the Simulation it is written that the rite of marriage improves simulation “goodness” or “rightness” overall within the simulation with a probability of 74.76%. Conversely the probability of marriage reducing overall “goodness” is very small, only 4.8%. The pre-internet prophets saw the marriage of a man and woman as a symbol of the covenant relationship between Simulator(s) and his/their simulated creations (they did not have direct knowledge of the simulated nature of existence, yet they foresaw that something akin to a simulated world-view was possible). The permanent and exclusive union between husband and wife mirrors the mutual commitment between the Simulator(s) and his people. In Letters to the Awoken People, it says that this union is a symbol of the relationship between Simulator and all the people who have awoken to the simulational nature of existence and accepted it as the correct and factual description of the universe and ourselves within it.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Journal
Up to 5 Million Doomsday Preppers Suddenly Disappear
Bunkers across the Country Empty, Gun and Gas Mask Sellers Predict Catastrophe In a mysterious occurrence like nothing the world has ever seen up to five million people, all part of the so called ‘preppers’ movement, have suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but their neatly folded clothing behind. Many non-preppers who were left behind were suggesting that the Biblical end time known as the rapture had come. Local pastor Tim Stephens said in an interview “There can be no doubt that the rapture has indeed come though it has taken a form few had predicted. Instead of taking all the holy and believers in God up to heaven and leaving behind the sinful to fight to the death in a hellish afterscape where only the strongest and most well prepared would survive, it took all of the people who were the most well prepared to survive that nightmare world of death and destruction. What will become of those like us who were left behind now that the preppers are gone? I surely can’t say?” As of 1pm EST the day after the so called prepper rapture the world had declared an end to all wars for all time and began preparing for a utopian future without discord or strife.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Humor
The Dog Days of Summer are Not Over
Author's preface: If you think you know where this story is going, I promise you do not. I urge you to give it a chance and stick with it all the way to the end. It is a bit of a long slog and may test your patience, but I think you will find it worth the effort. No matter how you feel about the ending I guarantee you will feel something.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Fiction
Revisiting My First Experience with Guns
When I tell people I actually feel safer in Tijuana, Mexico then my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky the general response is disbelief. How could that possibly be the case, Tijuana is the "murder capital of the world" right? Meanwhile Louisville is all America town, USA. Small(ish) city in the heart of the Midwest in Kentucky, known mostly for whiskey and for being home to some of the friendliest people in the country. While it may be hard to believe, it is actually true that I feel safer in the seediest parts of Tijuana, of which there are many, than I do on the streets of downtown Louisville, KY. The reason is simple. Guns are illegal in Mexico, and thus nobody (but for the police, the military, and the cartels) has them, or if they do, they keep them hidden away under lock and key at home. Meanwhile, in Louisville, KY it feels like everybody owns a gun and just about everybody is carrying a gun with them almost everywhere they go. In the year and a half I have lived in Mexico and been traveling to and through Tijuana regularly I have yet to hear a gunshot. In contrast, the past three times I visited Louisville, KY I was awoken in the middle of the night by the sounds of gunfire and police sirens, and I was staying in "nice" parts of town for each of those visits. Yes, there is violence in Mexico, but the thing people do not understand is that the average person here never sees it or feels it. Unless said average person is actually enganged in criminal activity of some sort they just do not come into contact with the people or places where violence happens. It is basically underground. The "war" between the police/military and the cartels is a secret war that the vast majority of people never see or feel. Meanwhile the war between criminals and police in Louisville, KY spills onto the streets constantly, and is always visible and innocent bystanders, who are often armed, are involved regularly.
By Everyday Junglist2 years ago in Criminal
