Challenge accepted! Here are my random photos
Apparently LiveJournal is now doing a thing where it selects a handful of photos at random from oyur blog, and asks you to describe each one. Apparently there are still peope here? Hm, cool.
Stock photo; not one of mine
So this is the only stock photo that popped up on my LJ-selected Random Assortment o’ Images.
I used it in an essay about stochastic terrorism, Stochastic Terror as a Tool of Conformity. The idea of “stochastic terrorism” has been in the media quite a lot since the administration of Donald Trump. It’s the notion that a leader or popular figure can complain about some person who has aggrieved him without specifically calling for any particular individual to take any particular action, knowing that someone somewhere will take the complaint as a call to action.
We often associate this with the political and social right and with authoritarian governments. I argue that it happens on the left as well, it just takes a different form. “Stochastic bullying” is essentially the same thing, writ on a smaller scale.
Version 7.0 Xenomorph Hiphugger mold
I have spent years working on the Xenomorph Hiphugger Strapon, a sex toy that looks like an alien facehugger from the Alien movies that wraps around the wearer’s hips, with a squirting ovipositor that sticks out the front.
It was my wife’s idea, and it culminated in a design that went viral on the Internet (I’m told someone enen posted a photo of my wife wearing it to the official Sigorney Weaver fansite, meaning there’s a good chance she’s actually seen it).
You can see that photo and learn more about the project here. The hiphugger is now available for sale!
AI generated image
When the first crop of AI image generators started to be a thing, I wasted a night generating a bunch of images with prompts like “beautiful woman assimilated by alien xenomorph.” This is one of them.
The novelty wore off quickly, I must say.
Me and some of my partners at the Sagrada Familia
A few months back, I had the opportunity to cross an item off my bucket list. I visited the Sagrada Familia, a place I’ve wanted to see since my university days.
The extended polyamorous network vacationed in Barcelona, so not only was I able to see the Sagrada Familia, I got to do it in the company of some of the most important people in my life. From left to right: My crush and co-author Eunice, my wife Joreth, my Talespinner Kitty, me.
Copyright page for The Hallowed Covenant
Eunice and I have co-authored quite a few novels together, including several books in the Passionate Pantheon series of far-future, post-scarcity science fiction theocratic pornography.
Have you ever noticed the block of numbers and characters on the copyright page of a book? That's the CIP data block, the cataloguing-in-publication information used by the Library of Congress and other libraries to know how to shelf the book.
When you copyright a book in the US, you’re required to send copies to the Library of Congress. That means, yes, I have sent porn to Congress-I took this photo as I was packaging up The Hallowed Covenant, the third novel in the series, to send it to the Library of Congress.