A Lady's Perogative: Wounded Aerth...

Is there such a thing as fiction spamming? Lets hope not.

Just posting to let you know that the new story has been started and is up.

Have a great evening and enjoy!

Brian Joseph Johns

Are Tablets And E-Books As Magical As Paper Books?

Imagine a world where people who practiced, possessed the ability to brighten or darken the atmosphere in the place they were with a gesture. Waving one's hands or a even a wand in the air to yield some kind of a result or occurrence somewhere else. By touch to be able to make things across the room come to life or once again become inanimate. 

Does this sound like a fantasy tale with impossibilities that we could never hope for? Think again because we're living in that world right now.

We can take a television remote and click a button to activate the television, turn on a stereo or perform a multitude of other things that would not have been possible many years ago through thin air. We can use a cellular phone to turn lights in the house on or off. Some houses have motion and temperature sensors that keep lights on in a room while they're occupied. We can take a video game controller and wave it through the air like a wand and magically it creates a picture or whole virtual worlds on the screen of your television in response. We can even gesture without a wand and speak words that activate other magic on your television screen, and control other appliances as such with devices like Sony's Eye Cam or Microsoft's Kinect.

We are living in an age filled with magic, though magic of a different kind that stems from our knowledge of the world around us.

Within this world, E-Books and Tablet computers have become immensely popular and are growing in popularity because that means one thing. That more and more people, kids, youth and adults are taking an interest in reading. A drop in readership of the paper counterparts to E-Books in this is a good thing as any magical Druid might tell you: "it preserves the living forest without losing the benefit of sharing knowledge and the many great stories that have been and are yet to be told".

The magic is contained in that act of reading because in that act, we are able to journey to distant places and experience things that we might never get to, but experience them almost like we did. Take the same E-Book and Tablet and read a comic book or watch a movie and it becomes a talking book with moving pictures. That sounds pretty magical to me though a different kind of magic than that of those who really invest the effort in understanding magic.

If Mila (the protagonist from my story A Lady's Perogative) used a Tablet, she'd likely use it for art and she'd find a way to use it that the people who designed it hadn't envisioned for it. That's another kind of magic. The magic of thinking outside of the bounds for which something is apparently defined.

That concept is more important than we realize and that is one thing that likely brings us much closer to real magic and wisdom.

Are we defined by the bounds of our membership or do we transcend those bounds and define them ourselves?

Magic does exist nowadays and it can be found in our technology. E-Books and Tablets are a magical thing because the idea of magic is found in sharing stories and knowledge and if we look a further and listen to those who've already tread the ground in search of the real thing, we might learn something wonderful.

So if hundreds if not thousands of years ago people were writing stories about these kinds of things, were they talking about their future/our present or were they talking about their present?

If we can look at and interpret colour images representing actual memories that are reconstructed in real time from MRI scans of our brain, then who is to say that there aren't people that have learned to do this without the use of a machine and read our minds?

If we can use magnets to invisibly push things around great and small from the metal arm on a fire alarm bell or the tremendous weight and load of a maglev train, who is to say that there aren't people who've learned to do the same things in a meager means?

I don't think that everyone who tries to explain experiences that they've had that most other people shrug off as nonsense are really as such. That is the nature of belief.

Chances are there are many people who have something to share that most who've ruled out the possibility of magic have lost.

Our imagination and our ability to believe.

The universe is alive with possibility so drink of it when you can and if you have a chance, why not read or play or write and create.

In Support Of A Post On A Social Network Yesterday

Yesterday, I missed highlighting a few points that I came across in my online travels and as such I am going to give them the attention that they deserve here.

They are in regard to the policy that Police Officers sometimes have to take when dealing with an armed assailant who is wielding a knife or blade. The post showed an Officer who was in a clinic receiving treatment for numerous knife wounds that he had succumbed to while trying to disarm an assailant. His wounds were severe and horrifying needless to say and those were wounds he received trying to protect both the victims of the attacker and the attacker himself. 

My statements in response for the Police in such incidents follows:

It must be a tough choice weighing between the protection and preservation of innocent bystanders and the protection of the assailant. What most people likely fail to understand is that it is often a choice that has to be made in seconds, if not less. That is a pressure and a huge responsibility that lies in the hands of those officers. Sometimes no matter what choice they make as officers brings them scorn but one thing is for certain, we don't get to experience the alternate reality of what might have happened if they didn't act (which thoughtfully is the poster's point). To show up on the scene and to instantly understand and diffuse the situation is a challenging task. One that few people could likely rationalize or understand. As much effort should be spent celebrating their life saving successes. 

We can't count how many lives are saved after we build the cross walk, but we can count how many lives are lost before its there. 

Thanks to Officers who must make those choices and to the poster for bringing that point up.

Another Identity Theft Heads Up...

I just want to send out a warning that someone else (probably close to my location) may be impersonating my online account, though it might be someone in another location. There are a group that sets up in some neighbourhoods, conducting illegal civilian based surveillance who employ a technology that allows them to steal passwords or view the contents of a computer screen from a distance, even without an internet connection.

I am Brian Joseph Johns, the person who wrote the stories on this site and one can confirm my identity through my friends and family, along with others who know me by my identity in person. This has been the case for a while as there seems to be a club of some form that conducts this kind of activity, swapping the identities of two people against their will. This group has been using this as a means of taking credit for the good deeds of others' while doing little to nothing of their own. Meanwhile you might get verbally throttled in public for their deeds. I am not talking about celebrities of course but people who want to take the identities of others because they've perfected a method of doing so. Keep an eye out on facebook for others who do this, masquerading as a celebrity while not being or representing the celebrity officially or in a context that is conducive of their identity.

The group that I am talking about use this as a method of stealing a person's identity so they can impersonate them in another location, pretending to be that person and to benefit from their activities.

In my current location (in the Sherbourne And Dundas area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada) there has been much activity of this kind and there seems to be some kind of value in impersonating me, while I want nothing other than to be myself (as financially poor and destitute as I currently am). Most of my location information is posted exactly as it is in reality and I live alone. Identity verification is tough when you barely make enough to be able to afford a phone, as that is the prime means that Google use for account verification. The internet acts as my phone for now.

Enough of that as I'm sure there are people who know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, in other news, the final ending and Epilogue for A Lady's Perogative is done, and though there might be a few changes throughout the story to bridge the plot elements correctly and clean it up in the next month, I would say that it's done. I look forward to writing the next instalment which is entitled A Lady's Perogative: Wounded Aerth. The Epilogue gives sets the stage for Wounded Aerth.

Thanks again and have a great weekend!

Thank you once again and Here It Is, The Big Update...

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Most of you are likely lethargic from the effects of dinner. Hopefully you've all eaten well and had a great day.

I just wrote a huge update to A Lady's Perogative, with an Epilogue and a Thanksgiving Day Theme as well that sets it up nicely for the next instalment if you have enough energy to read it. Starting it from the beginning of the last chapter will get you close to the new section.

Remember that it has a new location from the menus at the top of the blog. If you are so tired from having such a great meal that you cannot even move the mouse that far to the top of the page, then here's the link.

I Hope That You Enjoy.

All the best to you and most of all, thank you!

Greeting...

I'd just like to take the time to wish everyone who is celebrating today, a Happy Thanksgiving.

I was perusing facebook earlier and came across a post by someone that I respect and admire that I responded to and I'm going to reuse my response here, as it is applicable to today and to the them of this blog in general and some current issues.

Being grateful is important and yes fortune can turn on a dime, believe me I know that all too well. I like people making art even if it isn't avant garde or underground, there are always those whose creations have or are geared to mass appeal, and that can be a binding thread in a world that sometimes has too few. My hope in any art is that it challenges us to think in some way and that we learn or are changed by it and that by its legacy and prosperity, that it makes the world a better place by it having been created.

Great art isn't always defined by the risks it takes in confronting social values, as making people think about or question those values doesn't require them to be shocked. We see something and maybe we realize something about ourselves in process. Maybe that thing that we see helps us to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, or gives us the confidence to succeed. Maybe its a wake up call about something we should be mindful of. The question is what do we do with what we learn in that way? 

Yes there are people who try to steer or control art and the artist during the creative process so they can see themselves in its reflection and that is the ultimate narcissism as is forcing the painter's brush. The artist should be free to create and if someone shows up in that reflection, that is a sincere (perhaps silent) nod to that person or to people of their demeanor and a way of saying, "the world is better because you're in it" and I see you and you're beautiful. Love yourself. It could just as easily go the other way too. This includes every art form there is. Painting and Graphics, Movies, Theatre, Music, Television, Literature and Verse, Fashion, Sculpting, Architecture, Body shaping, and of course Parenting. There are others that don't get recognized as well, but they're there. The artist though should never feel ashamed or be made to feel narcissistic because they sign their art (or have their picture near it as is the case in most written works).

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? Is art the social mirror or is it the guiding force? I think that it's both. That is why the magical brush of art and creation should be wielded with care. "Be gentle for she is delicate".

Read the story of Echo And Narcissus as I think that it tells much.

Thank you for challenging my views enough to really think about them and express them and enjoy whatever you may be celebrating today. You're a great artist.

Identity theft heads up and updates to come...

Heads Up

Hello readers where ever you might be.

This is just a heads up to those of you who are active online and spend time making your social effort in such a way as much as you do your creative pursuits and your play.

There is a new breed of identity theft that you should be aware of involving others stealing your actual online identity and masquerading with it as you in public in or near your surroundings, or possibly in other parts.

It appears to be a coordinated effort often involving more than one person. 

Those involved may even swap identities and reputation with you in that regard which can have a detrimental impact upon your career and love life if you're not careful.

Keep a good circle of people in person as much as you do online and if you can, get the two to mingle in some way if you can. That way you're ensuring that someone can identify the online you as well as the offline you. It might make a difference in future opportunities and in terms of how you're treated publicly and by peers who don't know you personally.

Updates...

A bit of a busy week coming up, but within the week I plan on making some additions to A Lady's Perogative and Stories From The End, both of which I have moved to easier to find menu at the top of the page. You will also find there a list of links to other great sites, youtube channels and blogs and some other goodies.

Enjoy the rest of your day,

Brian