birb_cromble
No bio...
User ID: 3236
birb_cromble
6d ago
I don't know about furries, but my editor at the time told me that the "alternative erotica" market is basically 100% driven by women.
So far as I can tell, if you include literary works in the "porn" category, then the average female porn-consumer is faaar more degenerate than the average male.
It kinda blew my mind.
birb_cromble
6d ago
I suspect I need to just write more and edit less until later. At least that's advice I've heard about writing, but I'm not entirely convinced
My biggest weakness as an author is that I am convinced that my output is absolute dogshit. I've thrown out multiple novels that were over 70% finished because I was disgusted with the work. I'll end up in rewrite spirals and give up.
Lately, I've had a lot more success by Just Writing. I don't do anything but write forward until I have every major story beat on paper. Then and only then, do I allow myself to go back and rework things.
I don't think my main character has a sufficiently well-developed personality yet but I made a lot of progress on establishing him better by rewriting scenes over and over again until they felt more interesting.
I do this by doing two things:
- I write character sketches before starting for major characters. It's a pulp tool, but knowing a few things they'll always do, a few things they'll never do, the first thing you'd notice if you saw them, and the first thing you'd notice if you heard them helps a lot.
- If my main character starts driving the story off the rails? Well, then I have good character development and I need to change the story.
birb_cromble
7d ago
Just redneck shit
birb_cromble
7d ago
Graduating class was 216.
I was only there for a year and a half. In that time, we had four lethal overdoses, three suicides, six vehicle deaths (two accidents), one farm related fatality, one murder, and somewhere on the order of 30 pregnancies.
birb_cromble
7d ago
laws against introducing big cats for exotic game purposes.
I've always been a proponent of introducing breeding colonies of charismatic megafauna to the US. I actually brought it up to my house rep once, and I think he thought it was satire.
birb_cromble
7d ago
I don't know if there's a rule for lions, but elephants definitely have requirements in most countries.
Though I think that has less to do with humane harvesting and more with keeping the clients alive.
birb_cromble
7d ago
I don't know about birds, but conservationists in my neck of the woods are pretty concerned about migrating bats. Nobody knows exactly why, but it seems to be doing a real number on them.
I hope there's a solution. I love those little guys.
Not toast, but yeah, I've done some of that.
To be honest, pretty much any POS system is a POS. I swear that the people who design, code , build, and sell them have never actually worked in a restaurant. It's one of the most egregious examples of not understanding the customer I've ever seen. Aloha is particularly bad.
birb_cromble
7d ago
I do software modernization for small companies running stuff that's 30-40 years old.
birb_cromble
7d ago
What kind of lunatic bow hunts a lion? You wouldn't catch me dead with anything short of a .375 H&H, and even then I think I'd be nervous.
birb_cromble
7d ago
I run a consultancy as a sole proprietorship. It's not anywhere close to my primary source of income, but it gets me a nice pop of cash every now and then.
What do you mean doing it for the product, exactly? Like someone starting a pizza place because they love the idea of making pizza?
birb_cromble
7d ago
Oh, I never said anything about writing.
But yeah, also writing. You wouldn't believe what kind of per-word you can get doing werewolf erotica.
birb_cromble
7d ago
That's wild. I don't think I've seen a sign like that outside a farmer's market in quite a while, and even then they'll usually play ball if you're spending enough.
birb_cromble
7d ago
$8 is $8
I'm not gonna lie - that line has gotten me into some real trouble in the past.
birb_cromble
7d ago
What is your opinion on preferred stock?
I waffle between thinking it's a great mid point between bonds and equities in terms of risk, but then I look at the last few market downturns and it doesn't seem like that's actually true. It's hard to tell though, because preferred stock seems like it's uniquely vulnerable to the specific dysfunctions that caused the last few downturns. They're sensitive to interest rates, so 2022 smashed them. They're issued by financials more than other sectors, so the GFC did a number on them as well.
I'm thinking about picking up some PFF or PFXF to dip my toes into this instrument.
birb_cromble
7d ago
Technically I think it's actually staying stable. The administration removed the penny, after all.
birb_cromble
7d ago
After a fairly long stretch of rejections, I just had a piece shortlisted for a fiction anthology. It feels good to have a little success.
It really felt like 2025 was a dead year for hack writers like me, but 2026 might be improving. Any other writers here? How's your luck?
birb_cromble
7d ago
What does 'rgas' mean? I couldn't find any relevant results....
It means I shouldn't try to type on my phone in between sets.
birb_cromble
7d ago
The culture war hadn't planted its flag on my front lawn in 2016, so I can't say for sure, but I do remember that the people in my social circle who had the strongest reactions went on to become staunch culture warriors.
birb_cromble
8d ago
Does Finland have a system where high school is different than the US definition? That sounds almost like my first year of college
birb_cromble
8d ago
It's not printed anymore, but Grover Cleveland was on the $1,000 bill.
birb_cromble
8d ago
I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?
The high school I graduated from was in the state top ten for per capita overdoses, vehicle deaths, suicides, and teen pregnancies. I was suspended multiple times, had six weeks of unexcused absences my senior year, and nearly got expelled once.
I graduated from college. It's not much, but it's a win for me.
birb_cromble
8d ago
Considering how many businesses there are now that refuse to take $50 or $100 bills,
Is this really a thing anymore? I remember it from back in the 90s, but I haven't seen it in practice for years now.
birb_cromble
8d ago
I dunno if that gorilla was cosmically important, but as a marker of the boundary between one cultural era into another, it works extremely well.
I think that's the heart of what I've been wondering. 2015 - 2017 was a wild ride. Things definitely aren't the same anymore. If it happened today, I can't help but imagine that the aftermath would be far more polarized and ugly than it was at the time.
I usually use submission grinder to start.
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