Author: rmkeville@gmail.com

We Are The Old Ones

It’s a very common trope in science fiction: humanity are newcomers to the cosmic scene.  There are empires out there that are older than the existence of our species, or even our planet.  Their technology makes ours look like toys.  Their knowledge and intelligence makes us look like children.  Their personal abilities make us look like puny, feeble creatures.  Sometimes that makes us the scrappy, up-and-coming newcomers that have something the other species have lost, other times – if the writer really wants to rub it in – we are primitive, violent, superstitious savages.  In the right kind of sci-fi (and some horror), some aliens might be literally beyond our comprehension.

It does make a certain amount of sense.  After all, the universe is very old, and we’re only new arrivals on our own planet.  Surely other intelligent life has arisen in the vast reaches of time between now and the Big Bang.  But that raises the question – scientifically expressed in the Fermi Paradox – where are the aliens?  Is there some barrier that prevents spacefaring societies from developing…or life from developing in the first place?

The thought made me very sad.  Afraid for our own future, certainly, but more, the universe seemed dreadfully lonely and sad if we were alone in it.

Then, at the urging of an online friend, I saw this:

(Skip to 9:15 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing)

This was…a revelation.

It seems that the universe, like a living creature, might need to reach a certain stage of maturity before it can have children, and our planet – and thus we – came into being very early in that stage of maturity.

We may be the universe’s firstborn.

We are the Old Ones, the First Ones, the Precursors.  We are the Shadows and the Vorlons.

Before, I thought it would be unfathomably sad and lonely if we were the only intelligent life in the universe.  But if we’re only alone because our younger brothers and sisters and others haven’t been born yet, that’s not so bad.

I just hope that when they do come along, we’ve become wise enough to be a kinder big brother than Cthulhu.

My Perfect Life

So I was walking the beach at Coney Island and I figured out my perfect life.

I’m already two-thirds of the way there, believe it or not.  I’m happy with where I am and who I’m with.  I married the right person, and she seems to think she did too, and that counts for more than anything else.  So call it halfway there just with that, with each of the other two things counting for a quarter.  The next factor is “where I am”, so suffice it to say that our new apartment is better than we even dared to hope for when we decided to rent it.  There’s space and air, storage space in the basement so we don’t have to stuff everything in closets or leave it stacked in corners, a peaceful neighborhood with lots of neat restaurants in it, and it’s all within easy reach of friends and family and parks and our favorite movie theatre and Coney Island.  What more could anyone ask for in that regard?

All that’s missing for my perfect life is to be happy with what I do.
Continue reading “My Perfect Life”

Opening the Ocean at Coney Island – 2018

I had a mystical experience at the shoreline of Coney Island yesterday.

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures or movie clips for you.  But when you’re in the midst of an experience like that, you can only break it by trying too hard to remember it.  My choice was to record it or be in it, and I chose to be in it.

For the record, my general spiritual beliefs can best be described as “heretic”.  Enough to make my religious friends worry about my soul, while at the same time making my irreligious friends worry about my reason.  In my mind, traditional religions can’t bear the weight of their own history and sins.  Even so, I’ve felt power and truth in a lot of places, like an empty chapel in the silence of the night, a room full of Irish people praying the rosary at my grandfather’s wake…and what I experienced yesterday.
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Toronto Terrorist’s Motivations Start To Become Clear

So it turns out that Alek Minassian, the man who drove a van into a crowd in Toronto yesterday, killing ten people (mostly women, as was his intention) was indeed a terrorist of sorts. No, not Muslim, not Christian, incel:

Toronto Terrorist Deliberately Targeted Women

Incel Terrorism: Alek Minassian, Alleged Killer Of Ten In Toronto Van Attack Was Inspired By Elliott Rodger

Incels Hail Toronto Van Driver Who Killed 10 As A New Elliott Rodger, Talk Of Future Acid Attacks And Mass Rapes

For those who didn’t follow that first link, “incel” means “involuntarily celibate”. Yes, there’s actually an online movement of people who feel oppressed because they can’t get laid. Why yes, they’re almost all white men. Why do you ask?

Incels have built up an elaborate alternate reality where they themselves are hideous (when you see pictures, most are pretty ordinary-looking. They just have ridiculous standards – there are whole conversations about wrist thickness), and thus doomed to never have sex ever, because society is prejudiced against ugly white men more than anyone else. This would just be ridiculous and pathetic if they didn’t spend all of their time working themselves up into a frothing hatred of “Chads” (sexually-active men) and “Stacies” (sexually-active women, also known as “Femoids” and “Roasties” [known as such because labia allegedly look like roast beef], who are assumed to deliberately deny incels the sex they deserve out of spite), hero-worshiping Elliott Rodger and planning their revenge on the world that has so cruelly cast them out.

Because Alek Minassian is a white man, the media will try to fit him into the “mentally ill lone wolf” narrative. And he may indeed be mentally ill, but that’s not why he did this. He’s a terrorist. But because his goal – his and his movement’s – is primarily to terrorize women, he won’t be called that.

New Page Up In Promotional Artwork – Angelina And Vicki At The Last

Hey, all.  There’s a new page up in Promotional Art, explaining just what’s going on in that picture of “Angelina And Vicki At The Last”.  Previously, this information was only available on my old blog.

More detail on Angelina and Vicki, the protagonists of Hometown, coming soon!

Sorry It’s Been A While

Hey, all.

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been in touch.  In addition to some life issues that have taken up a great deal of my time and a job that’s taking up an ever-increasing amount of my energy, I’ve been deeply focused on my latest writing project, City of Dreams.
Continue reading “Sorry It’s Been A While”

“Donald Trump Is The First White President”

Ta-Nehisi Coates has published a new article at The Atlantic called “Donald Trump Is The First White President“, and everyone needs to read it now. Right now. And then everyone needs to share it on their social media, their blogs, everything. It is incredibly powerful and it is incredibly important.

Some Places You Can Donate

Hey, all! Time for a little bit of good that’s easy to do.

First, here are two links if you’re interested in supporting arts and culture:

A Kickstarter for Schoolbooks and Sorcery – LGBTQ-Inclusive YA Anthology (Only 8 days left. This one is the most time-restricted. I would very much like to see this succeed, since a dear friend is a contributor. They’re painfully close, but you know how Kickstarter works: all or nothing.)

Donations for Coney Island USA, the arts organization the preserves Coney Island culture, maintains the Coney Island museum, and puts on such programs as the Mermaid Parade (includes pictures of Mermaid Parades past, so may be NSFW)

Then there are some fundraisers to help some online friends of mine.

First, a fundraiser for a friend who’s temporarily down on her luck and needs help making her bills.

Finally, a fundraiser for a friend who has a more specific need for help with his medical bills.

Give what you can and pass the word!