Caesar's Commentaries are not tedious. They are not slow, or particularly difficult to read, and they certainly are not short on action. Written by Caesar himself, they demonstrate a side of the man that is rarely emphasized in the numerous biographies and histories centered around him. He is famous for his skill as a general and for his conquests, but he was also a brilliant politician, an adept author, and a strikingly intelligent figure.
Good Reading
Despite the fact that I run a website, and encourage people to share said website on social media platforms and with their friends, families, and enemies, I personally live under a bit of a digital rock. Though that's really an understatement - it's probably a digital boulder - but I couldn't resist putting in that subtle "bit" pun. Even though I know that engaging on social media is among the best ways for me to continue growing the audience for IGC Publishing, I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it.
Lengths and Forms
I've noticed something about my writing recently, a struggle that I've been having but have not fully acknowledged. The problem is this: I'm too focused on the form of the words on the page.
Announcing: Blood Magic Season 2
It is my perverse hope, as an author, that you are currently on the edge of your seat after the tense ending to November's Blood Magic episode, part one of the two part season finale. Don't worry: your plight will be alleviated at the end of December, when the twelfth and final episode in Blood Magic's first season will be going live. From what I understand (which is quite a bit, since I'm the author), it's going to be quite the climax, and the Merolate you've come to know and hopefully favor over the past year will be irrevocably changed.
New IGC Symbol
Some of you have probably already noticed this, but I wanted to make a formal announcement: IGC Publishing has a new logo! Although, I could say that as "IGC Publishing has a logo," since heretofore I've just been using a generic picture of a galaxy as the symbol for the site. Now, after a careful design process, we have our own symbol.
New Novella
If I had to describe this story, I would probably say that it's whimsical surrealism in a science-fiction context, with elements of horror and metaphysics. It is, most certainly, weird. Whatever else it is, that last might be the only completely accurate descriptor, and it is still a really compelling story. Whatever meaning you decide to take, or not take, from The Hunt, I hope that you consider giving it a read soon. Available right here at IGCPublishing.com.
Intergalactic Update
Believe it or not, it's been a year since IGCPublishing.com launched. Whether you're just finding the site today, or you've been with us since the very beginning (of time, all those billions of years ago), all of us here at IGC Publishing are glad you're journeying with us. And by us, I mean me, because I'm still all there is to IGC Publishing, so when I say we, consider it something of a metaphor, or possibly just wishful thinking. Despite being a one person publishing and writing organization existing solely through this website, we've managed to accomplish quite a lot this year. And all of what we've been able to accomplish is really about you, the reader, without whom there would be no point in going through this exercise at all.
Word Creation
Some people might decry this as unnecessary complexity, and in some cases the variability and mutability of language can be a disadvantage. Certainly in science and engineering, it is necessary to be very, very careful and precise with language in order to communicate your meaning, and there are some meanings that cannot be adequately communicated with our language at all, as we don't have the words; it's one of the hazards of trying to talk about the nature of reality using a communication technique developed to tell people where the best fruit is.
Is the Written Word Fake?
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the authenticity of different communication mediums. Its central claim was that, as methods of communication go, text-based methods are generally considered the least “authentic.” That is, according to their cited case studies and survey results, a plurality of people tend to consider emails or text messages to be easily faked, devoid of real emotion or sentiment, and a bit of a cop-out. Now, I realize that I am somewhat biased, being an author, but even outside of the realm of stories I think that the article takes an unfortunately confrontational tract. There are times, occasions, and circumstances that befit any communication medium, and in each one might be better than another, but that in no way detracts from another.
It Adds Up
Today, we’re going to talk about math. No, don’t stop reading: for one thing, I only said that we’re going to talk about math, not that we’re going to do math, and for another, the whole point of this post is to talk about why it’s important not to allow our own perceptions of our abilities to interfere with our actual capabilities. This post in some ways is a follow-on to my post about the importance of reading, and really both of them could be lumped under the topic of education, but I’m not trying to propose a restructuring of the education system here. Reading and writing, to me, is about conveying information, and math is just another way of doing that. However it is done, mathematically or through words, it’s important that as many of us as possible understand both how to create and consume that information.
