Shut Up And Sit Down, Puny Human. Nobody Can Hear Your Cries

Got to love the perfect, repetitive stupidity of Facebook's AI. It will keep on making the same fuck-ups perfectly, the same way, over and over again - and if it runs an interaction service such as the "review" or "appeal" desk, there's no way to get past it to appeal to the much more reasonable intelligence of an actual person with the power to actually THINK instead of just follow an algorithm.

Google - The AI Indifference Engine!

I've had some ill dealings with Google in the past few years, and on the whole they're okay... but what really grates my carrot about them is their penchant for hysteria and control-freakiness. 

What am I talking about? Is it their monopoly of our information? Their near-total control over what we see in internet searches? Well, yes, but that's not the focus of today's rant. Again - what am I talking about?

Let's take a look at two examples, shall we?

Interview With Brandon Mullins Of Moon Books Publishing

This was an interview conducted by Brandon Mullins of Moon Books Publishing on September 21, 2021.

That one time when I got to interview prolific science fiction author Christina Engela

"I’ve had the opportunity to work with many authors over the years of being Editor-in-Chief at Moon Books Publishing and doing freelance self publishing mentorship on Upwork but I’ve never run across someone as unique and uniquely talented as South African science fiction author Christina Engela.

Christina is seemingly an unquenchable font of creativity and positivity who never ceases to amaze me with how much of her heart she puts into her work, or how invaluable of a partner she has become in running Moon Books Publishing.

Christina is more than that though, she has become a close friend and cohort. So now, I get to interview her to see just what makes her tick.... read more.

Christina Engela’s Monthly Newsletter: #56 August 2021

 

Hello friends and fans - here's my latest newsletter! :) 

https://christinaengela.com/christina-engelas-monthly-newsletter-56-august-2021/

About That Blank Check

A topical favorite of religious people, particularly conservative Christians, is so-called 'sexual immorality'. 

 What is that exactly? 

To the rational mind, that would mean sexual-related activity which (so long as all participants are willing, consenting adults) results in harm to another person, or creature.

A system creates shame and then creates a means of absolving the shamed of their shame, provided they adhere to the rules of those who run the system. Convenient. 

Bigotry & Transphobia Stirs In South Africa - Again!

What really grated my carrot this week was part of the public reaction to the news that a transwoman had entered that archaic relic of the patriarchy which shamelessly puts women on show like cattle, the Miss South Africa contest!

It seems that as soon as things are nice and quiet and the bigots have stopped shouting for a little while, something happens to spark them off again - soon as they've more-or-less recovered from the disappointment that expressing racism and using the "k-word" in public gets people in trouble - the Karens come out screeching about how transgender people are somehow unfairly competing against them in x, y or z public domains and spaces, that "he-shes" don't belong in women's competitions (or in fact anywhere), and even that "god" created male and female, and apparently "doesn't make mistakes"!

This sort of idiotic Neanderthal mindset makes me bristle - so much so that it inspired my first LGBT activism-related article in quite some time!

So the news in question was that a local transwoman (a lady from PE called Zoe) is entering the Miss South Africa contest. It was in the Herald on Thursday morning, and by late afternoon every right wing lunatic bigot, transphobic halfwit and pious religious wanker who knows fuck-all about science, gender or what transwomen - and especially transwomen of color - endure in this country (or everywhere else) on a daily basis, started making an effort to vent their unintelligible hysterical bile in public. 

Prisons Of The Future - In Sci-fi, Galaxii, & Their Relation To The Contemporary

Modern prisons have by now been the setting for movies, books and series too numerous to mention. Some writers and movie makers have speculated about what form futuristic prisons might take - and they range from the ambitiously humanitarian and rehabilitative concepts of "Star Trek" and "Magnus, Robot Fighter", to the opposite extreme of positively brutal dystopian prison environments as seen in movies like "Fortress" and "Death Race" for example.

In this article (cross-posted from my author website) I'll be discussing the concepts of crime and punishment, and prison - in reality as well as in sci-fi settings - and the role of these in my own world-building in the Galaxii Series universe.

A Peek At My Week! #6

Time for another Peek @ My Week! :) What did I get up to? What's new, what's happening - and why do Americans laugh when I tell them my car has two hooters? 🤔

https://christinaengela.com/a-peek-at-my-week-6/

Christina Engela’s Monthly Newsletter: #54 June 2021

Hello friends and fans - here's my latest newsletter! :) 

https://christinaengela.com/christina-engelas-monthly-newsletter-54-june-2021/

I'm Back - Over the Pink Eye!

Touching base with fans & friends! :)

Christina Engela’s Monthly Newsletter: #53 May 2021

Here's my latest newsletter! News, upcoming releases & what I've been up to!

Enjoy! :)

https://wp.me/pcoTxI-3Zl

#bestscifibooks #indie #writinglife #bookclub #scifi

Another Round At The Crow Bar #52 April 2021

 Good morning, friends and fans! Here's my latest newsletter - enjoy! 

https://christinaengela.com/another-round-at-the-crow-bar-52-april-2021/

#indieauthor #writerslife #news #scifi #horror

Keep reading!

Cheers! :)

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If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email via the Contact form.

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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2021.

Dead... Beckoning!

The Galaxii Series: Book 3 "Dead Beckoning" by Moon Books Publishings' best-selling author & South African writer, Christina Engela. 

Action! Adventure! Space Opera!

The fearsome Corsairs had waged a campaign of terror against the Human colonies for nearly a century, plundering and dominating the space lanes that crossed the Terran Empire, at will, all the while keeping the location of their base a closely guarded secret. Then one day, quite unexpectedly, the Corsairs luck finally ran out…

After nearly two days of fierce fighting, the Battle of Turtle Island left the skies of the Corsair world darkened with their dead. In orbit, the remnants of the once feared Black Fleet drifted, blazing… while below, the Corsair civilization breathed its last. The Terrans had finally defeated the dreaded Corsairs.

Best Served Cold

Imagine, if you will:

It all began with a what.

What, as it turned out, was a tiny speck racing through the blackest depths of space, catching the faint and distant light of the Sun as it did so, growing fainter and more distant at each passing second. 

The speck was a freight carrier – a loderunner, looking exactly like one of the multitude that traveled between Mars and Earth. This particular one was a brand new ship, which – most unusually – had already been refitted. It had been specially modified – in great haste – to meet the demands and purpose of a new mission, and as a result, most of the ship’s cargo space was now occupied by a passenger compartment and extra fuel cells to allow it to make this extraordinarily long and distant journey to the outer reaches of the solar system. Unmanned probes had gone there before, but probes weren’t ships – they didn’t carry crew… Human beings, in person. Crewed, full–sized Human ships had never ventured this far out before.