Bot Speed

Bot speed. This "bot" created by Daniel McKay (image source).

When I was composing a recent blog post, I received a warning message from our friends at Google saying that they had detected an unusually large amount of data requests from my IP address. I had to prove that I was not a bot before I could continue crafting my blog post.

My conclusion: after ten years of Blogger platform blogging, I can now write at "bot speed".

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I was vastly amused when I first read about the idea of writing at "pulp speed". I feel sorry for authors who have tried to support a family by writing stories for publication in pulp magazines. Being paid one cent per word, you had to write fast.

I blog to entertain myself, and so I get to write at my own speed, without trying to meet any deadlines. Of course, the only reason Google might question my internet data rate is because I like to illustrate my stories. My earlier blog post about the Phari Network has over 40 images on a single webpage, which I'm sure violates someone's rules for internet design. While there are only 5,000 words of text on that webpage, with the the images it all adds up to about 2.5 Mb of data, which does not seem like much by today's standards. However, because the Blogger service does not provide a WYSIWYG interface, I must repeatedly use the "preview" feature, reloading that 2.5 Mb from Google's servers again and again and again.

Illustrating Rylla

My largest concern while creating that blog post was an issue that has bothered me continually since about October 2018: should I make an image depicting Rylla?

Rylla is a character that I invented about a year ago. Under normal circumstances, nothing can prevent me from creating illustrations of my fictional characters such as Rylla. Most characters in my Sci Fi stories are either aliens or humans who are the products of genetic engineering and careful control of embryonic development or they might be endowed with the ability to shape (morph) their nanoscopic components into any desired physical form.

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An example that comes to mind is Dr. Zelter. I made use of some images of Olivia Wilde to depict Dr. Zelter. The Image shown to the left is another image from my fan fiction "Contact" television show which depicts Dr. Shella Wye, who I imagined to be an alien visitor to Earth who can disguise "herself" as human, but "she" is neither male or female.

So, why not find an image on the internet that I could use to depict Rylla? The problem is, Rylla is a minor and I'm pretending that she might not want to have her image spread across a bunch of webpages.

Ivory Fersoni

Artist's depiction of
the young Ivory Fersoni

I previously faced a similar problem with Ivory. That is a depiction of Ivory to the right on this page. She grew up to become a slim young woman with hardly any adipose tissue. Eventually she learned that she was not exactly human.

Ivory as I imagine her at Moon Base.

The image to the left is a depiction of Ivory's true facial features. With many Asterothrope gene combinations, her embryonic development had to be shaped and crafted by developmental control nanites, allowing her to pass as human.

Eventually, Ivory discovered the truth about her alien origins and she tried to reshape her body. With the help of facial nanites, Ivory often disguised herself as the actress Hilarie Burton.

Space Energy Missions

Often I depict characters such as Ivory on imaginary book and magazine covers. There is Ivory while using the physical form of Hilarie Burton. Also shown are some of the other folks at Space Energy Missions, including Luri and Betty.

Smade. A recent illustration that was particularly fun to make is shown below. This depicts Smade and two of his family members. Smade lives happily with his many wives and children on Smade's Planet, a world where he and his family are the only permanent human residents. Of course, various folks drop in to rest and drink.

In order to depict Úna, one of Smade's wives, I've made use of several images of the famous actress Courtney Cox.

Welcome to Smade's Tavern!  Mr. Smade with one of his wives (Úna Nybröm) and
one of Smade's children, ready with a cold brew for a guest who has just arrived on Smade's Planet.
Also available from the bar: Fraze and Hannah's Mascarene Rum from Copus. (image source)

Pallis Atwrode (source)

Here in October of 2019, I needed to illustrate several new story characters including Kate and Nova Prekus, Ryjyl Wishwell and Wendy Larsen. I had previously depicted Pallis Atwrode (see the image to the right) as described by Jack Vance in Star King, but I felt the need to find additional images for my stories of Wendy's adventures in the AR Simulator.

The "new" Pallis (source)

There is the "new" Pallis, shown in a fake magazine cover (image to the left on this page). I made use of the model Gigi Hadid for my new depictions of Pallis.

Rygyl Wishwell (source)

For depictions of Kate and Nova, I made use of images of two other lesser known models, Hedvig Palm and Georgia Hilmer. For my depictions of Inspector Rygyl Wishwell, I used images of Adrienne Koleszár. That is Rygyl in an Avente hospital on the planet Alphanor (image to the right).

As usual, if you object to my use of your image to illustrate my fictional characters, please let me know.
Just for Google: a blog post with 50 images.
Next: waiting for the Mind Clone Network

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers

Google+   Gone, but not forgotten

I finally managed to remove the stupid google+ link from the top of this blog!

I had been experimenting and waiting to see how long it would take for the folks at Google to remove the offending link, but the answer to "How long?" was apparently: "after hell freezes over".

Remove the useless Google+ link from your blog's "theme" file (line 161 in the example shown above).
Be careful, don't remove the end of header tag (in line 662 in the example shown above).