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The next issue of the Student Research Journal will be published on January 15, 2024! We are a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal developed and led by current graduate students at San Jose State University's School of information. Our goal is threefold: to empower budding researchers, to publish relevant content of the highest quality, and to build an international community of student researchers.
#StudentJournal
#Journal
#PeerReviewed
#LibraryAndInformationScience #MLIS
#Library #LibraryScience
#ArchivalStudies
#Informatics
#RecordsManagement
#GraduateStudents
#SubmitYourWork
#Submissions #Writing #Science #Research
#WritingCommunity -
Hello Fediverse! We're the Student Research Journal out of San Jose State's iSchool, and our whole team is excited to join the interoperable web!
We are a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal developed and led by current graduate students at San Jose State University's School of information. Our goal is threefold: to empower budding researchers, to publish relevant content of the highest quality, and to build an international community of student researchers.
The peer review process is rigorous, but it's also an amazing opportunity to get feedback on your work from experienced editors. We'll work with you to polish your manuscript into its best possible form.
Check out our website for more information: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/ischoolsrj/
#StudentJournal
#Journal
#PeerReviewed
#LibraryAndInformationScience #MLIS
#Library #LibraryScience
#ArchivalStudies
#Informatics
#RecordsManagement
#GraduateStudents
#SubmitYourWork
#Submissions #Writing #Science #Research
#WritingCommunity -
The next issue of the Student Research Journal will be published on January 15, 2024! We are a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal developed and led by current graduate students at San Jose State University's School of information. Our goal is threefold: to empower budding researchers, to publish relevant content of the highest quality, and to build an international community of student researchers.
#StudentJournal
#Journal
#PeerReviewed
#LibraryAndInformationScience #MLIS
#Library #LibraryScience
#ArchivalStudies
#Informatics
#RecordsManagement
#GraduateStudents
#SubmitYourWork
#Submissions #Writing #Science #Research
#WritingCommunity -
The next issue of the Student Research Journal will be published on January 15, 2024! We are a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal developed and led by current graduate students at San Jose State University's School of information. Our goal is threefold: to empower budding researchers, to publish relevant content of the highest quality, and to build an international community of student researchers.
#StudentJournal
#Journal
#PeerReviewed
#LibraryAndInformationScience #MLIS
#Library #LibraryScience
#ArchivalStudies
#Informatics
#RecordsManagement
#GraduateStudents
#SubmitYourWork
#Submissions #Writing #Science #Research
#WritingCommunity -
CW: Old book anniversary
Ten years ago today I released my first #book Killing is Harmless about Yager's Spec Ops: The Line. It's probably fair to say it changed my life, and forms the foundations for everything I now do professionally--both in terms of how it analyses the game and in terms of what I now see as its major blindspots.
Look, it's nearly midnight and I just realised it's the anniversary and I quickly wrote a twitter thread about it so I'm going to crosspost just this once sorry: https://twitter.com/BRKeogh/status/1594682516748652544
You can still access the book for PWYW here: https://brkeogh.itch.io/killing-is-harmless
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I know that I hung on that windswept tree, with all the worlds in its branches. Nine days and nine nights I wore the deadman’s collar. Nine days and nine nights I bled from a spear-wound in my side.
A wound I put there. An offering of self to self.
The hubris.
I swung, lashed by storm and chafed by rope, bound and blinded. Nine days. Nine nights.
No one came looking for me. No one came to help me. I cried out from hunger, from thirst, before the end.
There was no answer.
Then at last I came unto the edge of the Abyss that is Death, and there at the precipice of an eternal night so dark I felt only my own soul reflected back into me and nearly went mad (again) with the effort of holding my own gaze at last I saw-
THE RUNES
and they burned so bright before my eyes I raised my hands to shield them, to seize them, and I took them up screaming-
and I awoke, soaked through and bloody, tangled in the branches of Yggdrasil, the runes burnt into my skin and my memory,
the noose still hanging limply around my neck.
(My spin on Odin's discovery of the runes, did my best to do the original justice)
#MythologyMonday #trees #yggdrasil #WorldTree #Odin #runes #NorseMythology #mythology #writing #original
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7 books to get to know me (fiction) — or more specifically, the top 7 influences on the #scifi I've started writing!
— Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
— The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
— Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
— Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
— Dune by Frank Herbert
— The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
— Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges#7Books #books #fiction #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #writing #writer #utopia #utopianfiction
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I am officially stupid!
Is there an extension for Chrome/Brave, which prevents you from closing a tab where you have some text in one of edit fields?
I was on a forum; I was writing very very big post; it was difficult because English is not my native and I wanted my post to look readable and adequate.
I was writing..... I saw that for some reason my lines of text are too short and have strange hyphenation. My reflex was to disable word wrapping with ctrl+w (this works that way in notepad3).
And yes! Bingo! I've closed the tab and lost my long (over 4000 characters) post.
So if you recommend me some kind of extension to prevent this I would be very glad.Short disclaimer: I'm blind and so I don't see the layout of a screen at every moment. Edit box is always edit box in any app and so without alt+tabbing or rechecking window title I didn't know if I am in browser or in notepad window.
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@johnnyprofane1 @cinja Agree! I can see the utility of it to get past the inertia of a writing activity. And then perhaps editing or wholesale rewriting seems “easier.”
Overall the inability for LLM to fact-check themselves is both a liability of their technology and their training material. As I tell my son, never blindly trust everything you see on the Internet. That goes for you too ChatGPT! 😁
#AI #LLM #ChatGPT #DemandAvoidance #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #AuDHD
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Here's an editorial on the #JudyHeumann case: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/02/archives/license-miss-heumann.html?unlocked_article_code=0RcQCm49qupBOdOA-h30DzTTDbtMQOu65um8kqYNdmdu5mzoYpc-sHsv097EBwJwu3cHZ8wdZ5vMLpQnTqrEBNSbesAWIh5OQ5h8CDJpm11DLoClflCrLeWFM4ev13wH8rt3t3gFh6Gk95NiwZfVPUi0yheezvT8A9x32Oqo-Fc51d6lGQHV3rMtTzt5bNAgxqUmOB4Hwbup7_q5jh8OL-4Q4rv0CzHp1ueARWC64ih-Q7g3hLntfxF2G1XHQpJGspOrq0XmsFNS76idmDW_B1eKB6yFvKZvxyE-_7A6u4h4SIO9K81wCqxTltXvefVRMYloA12tmocVu8pJbwW3&smid=url-share
“blind student who takes mental notes and the paraplegic who wheels himself through school show a determination that exceeds the courage of more acclaimed hero‐athletes in our society.” - The inspiration narrative is strong.
"in her wheelchair, she can show students, handicapped or normal, that the desire to teach…” - it was a long time ago, but it's wild that writing like this was ever considered OK.
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WHAT YOU WISH FOR #Review
Will remind you of The Menu and The Bear. Will also remind you of a bear reading a menu.
Full Review #Link Below-- This What You Wish For (2023) Review Has Brad Pitt and George Clooney Playing Blind Nurses In The New A24 Film The Nurses Can’t See!
#films #cinema #cinemastodon #Reviews #film #filmmastodon #horrorMovies #Reviews #horrorfam #horrorFamily #movies #movie #funny #humor #writing #writer #writingCommunity #writers #whatyouwishfor #read #article
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#WhatchaReading ? The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett/Noel Streatfeild is an old romance with a blind MMC, so must be approached with caution. It's a bit less offensive than usual though, and I do love her writing.
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Nemedian Chronicles – The Savage Sword Review
By Iceberg
Storytelling is intrinsic to the passage of knowledge from generation to generation. Within our steel-forged corner of the multiverse, a few subgenres tackle storytelling overtly: most often prog but also, as is the case today, power metal. Coming into this review, I was under the impression that the story of Conan the Barbarian was confined to the plot line of an old Arnold movie—I couldn’t have been more mistaken. The Hyborian Age is a sprawling prehistoric world designed by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, set between the fall of Atlantis and the rise of traditional history. Enter French band Nemedian Chronicles and their 70-minute slab of sword and sorcery, ripped straight from the pages of Howard’s tales. Intrigued by the high fantasy concept—and baited by an Ennio Morricone namedrop—I dove headfirst into their debut album The Savage Sword.
Nemedian Chronicles play a brand of power metal in the vein of Hammerfall and Blind Guardian, with a bit of the barbarian stomp of Manowar and the epic sweep of Atlantean Codex. The band is organized in a classic Maiden twin-axe attack formation, supported by a gorgeously arranged orchestral backdrop. Alexandre Duffau puts on a vocal masterclass, with a reedy low register that transitions into powerful full-throated highs, especially when paired with another vocalist (“Born on a Battlefield,” “The Song of Red Sonja”). The rest of the band rarely misses a step in their performances, and their prowess is on full display in album highlight “Black Lotus/The Curse of Thog,” which takes me back to “Egypt” and “The Death of Balance/Lacrymosa” from Symphony X’s V; one of the highest bars in epic power metal as far as this writer is concerned.
Good performances are only one half of a successful concept album, and luckily for Nemedian Chronicles their strongest asset is their ability to sonically immerse the listener in their world. Opener “Nemedian Chronicles” nails the requisite concept album introduction with thunderous tribal drums and orchestrals bolstering a scene-setting monologue; I’m reminded of the beginning of Aeternam’s Heir of the Rising Sun, but even more cinematic in scope. A treasure horde of music follows, from anthemic choruses (“Born on the Battlefield,” “The Thing in the Crypt,” “The Song of Red Sonja”) to triple-time sea shanties (“Tigress of the Black Coast”) to an abyssal of terror in “Black Lotus/The Curse of Thog.” Credit to bassist Guillaume Lefebvre here with not only his stringed duties, but also writing all the music and lyrics, the latter of which frequently directly describe Conan’s exploits. Fans of the source material will find a lot to love here, and anyone who likes to follow clear stories in their music will experience the same.
For all the accolades I lay upon The Savage Sword, I see areas of improvement for the Frenchmen. The biggest, and perhaps most obvious one, pertains to bloat. Nemedian Chronicles’ issue isn’t so much the quality of material that needs to be jettisoned, but the repetition of it (“Monsterslayer,” “The Song of Red Sonja”). Another issue—and your mileage may vary here—is the setting of the lyrics. Alexandre Duffau is clearly an accomplished vocalist, but the sheer amount of words that need to be delivered often seems to overpower the rest of the music for the benefit of the plot; the 9-minute “Tower of the Elephant” is especially at fault here. There’s also a peculiar tendency for the band to suddenly shift the tempo or meter from verse to chorus, which makes some tracks a bumpier listen than I’d prefer (“Tower of the Elephant,” “Tigress of the Black Coast,” “Stygian Sons of Set”).
These most nit of picks aside, Nemedian Chronicles hit all the right notes for me when it comes to memorable power metal. When the closing tribal drums of “The Road of Kings” bring the album full circle, I’m left much more inspired than drained. Listening to this record led me to research the world Robert E. Howard built, which enriched subsequent spins. This is a mightily strong debut from a skilled outfit, and with some tightening in the lyrical and editing departments, Nemedian Chronicles could easily lay siege to our much-vaunted safety counter. I heartily recommend The Savage Sword for fans of the comics or power metal in general; keep an eye on these guys.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: No Remorse Records | facebook.com
Website: facebook.com
Releases Worldwide: February 23rd, 2024#2024 #35 #Aeternam #AtlanteanKodex #BlindGuardian #EpicMetal #Feb24 #FrenchMetal #Hammerfall #Manowar #NemedianChronicles #NoRemorseRecords #PowerMetal #Review #Reviews #SymphonicPowerMetal #SymphonyX #TheSavageSword
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#WhatchaReading ? The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett/Noel Streatfeild is an old romance with a blind MMC, so must be approached with caution. It's a bit less offensive than usual though, and I do love her writing.
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#WhatchaReading ? The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett/Noel Streatfeild is an old romance with a blind MMC, so must be approached with caution. It's a bit less offensive than usual though, and I do love her writing.
-
#WhatchaReading ? The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett/Noel Streatfeild is an old romance with a blind MMC, so must be approached with caution. It's a bit less offensive than usual though, and I do love her writing.
-
#WhatchaReading ? The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett/Noel Streatfeild is an old romance with a blind MMC, so must be approached with caution. It's a bit less offensive than usual though, and I do love her writing.
-
Today is World Braille Day, which celebrates awareness of braille and is a reminder of the importance of accessibility and independence for people who are blind or visually impaired.
Thanks to Louis Braille so many have benifited from his creation and ensuring that children and adults have access to reading and writing all over the world.
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WHAT YOU WISH FOR #Review
Will remind you of The Menu and The Bear. Will also remind you of a bear reading a menu.
Full Review #Link Below-- This What You Wish For (2023) Review Has Brad Pitt and George Clooney Playing Blind Nurses In The New A24 Film The Nurses Can’t See!
#films #cinema #cinemastodon #Reviews #film #filmmastodon #horrorMovies #Reviews #horrorfam #horrorFamily #movies #movie #funny #humor #writing #writer #writingCommunity #writers #whatyouwishfor #read #article #ShamelessPlug #shamelessplugsunday
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WHAT YOU WISH FOR #Review
Will remind you of The Menu and The Bear. Will also remind you of a bear reading a menu.
Full Review #Link Below-- This What You Wish For (2023) Review Has Brad Pitt and George Clooney Playing Blind Nurses In The New A24 Film The Nurses Can’t See!
#films #cinema #cinemastodon #Reviews #film #filmmastodon #horrorMovies #Reviews #horrorfam #horrorFamily #movies #movie #funny #humor #writing #writer #writingCommunity #writers #whatyouwishfor #read #article #ShamelessPlug #shamelessplugsunday
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WHAT YOU WISH FOR #Review
Will remind you of The Menu and The Bear. Will also remind you of a bear reading a menu.
Full Review #Link Below-- This What You Wish For (2023) Review Has Brad Pitt and George Clooney Playing Blind Nurses In The New A24 Film The Nurses Can’t See!
#films #cinema #cinemastodon #Reviews #film #filmmastodon #horrorMovies #Reviews #horrorfam #horrorFamily #movies #movie #funny #humor #writing #writer #writingCommunity #writers #whatyouwishfor #read #article #ShamelessPlug #shamelessplugsunday
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Manfred Trojahn on his opera Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind: ‘Eurydice is a vague person’
In 2011, Dutch National Opera presented the world premiere of Orest, directed by Katie Mitchell. Eleven years later, the Opera Forward Festival stages Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind, for which Manfred Trojahn also wrote the libretto himself. The premiere is scheduled for 5 March 2022 at the Amsterdam Opera.
Again, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is in the pit, but this time Pierre Audi is directing. I interviewed Trojahn after a rehearsal: ‘Having heard the piece a few times now, I wonder if my music isn’t too lyrical.’
Scène from Eurydice – die Liebenden, blind (c) Dutch National Opera / Ruth WalzThe idea of dedicating an opera to Eurydice had preoccupied Manfred Trojahn (1949) for some time. He wanted to tell the story from her own perspective. After all, the Greek myth revolves mainly around Orpheus, who wants to retrieve his deceased lover from the dead. But other interpretations are possible, says the composer/librettist: ‘Of course you can interpret the myth as a metaphor for death, but you can also read it differently, as a metaphor for liberation.’
Experience
In his opinion, Eurydice is a woman of some age: ‘She has gained life experience, which Orpheus lacks. He is a young man with certain conceptions of life, but when it comes to love, he is a blank slate. At the beginning of the opera, he meets Eurydice more or less by chance, on the train. He has seen her, has immediately become interested and sings a sonnet by Rilke, unaccompanied by the orchestra. But she has left him to meet with Pluto, the god of death. – Which signifies she is planning to commit suicide.
The train, which gradually changes into a ship, leads to Hades, ‘the other side’ in the words of the libretto. The chance encounter with Orpheus is also significant for Eurydice. ‘Orpheus is someone with whom she immediately forgets everything she has experienced up to that point’, says Trojahn. ‘At that moment she no longer wants to die. Then she must figure out how to get herself out of this situation, because her appointment with Pluto stands and he will not simply let her go.’
No past
Pluto repeatedly shows up as a troublemaker between Eurydice and Orpheus. To this end, he assumes the appearance of her former lovers, with whom she has had more or less happy affairs. Trojahn: ‘By playing all these different roles, Pluto tries to throw Eurydice, and especially Orpheus, off balance.’
He succeeds excellently: ‘Young men invariably think that the person they are in love with has no past. They lack the experience that life has been lived, they cannot imagine that their loved one already has a history. When that person tells them about former lovers, this is not always easy for them to bear.’
Manfred Trojahn: ‘Young men invariably think that the person they are in love with has no past. Orpheus cannot imagine that Eurydice already has a history, it is hard for him to bear when she speaks about former lovers.’
Insecurity
Trojahn gives an example from his personal life. ‘I remember a story about how my father demanded my mother to destroy the letters of all his predecessors. He simply could not bear the thought that there had been others before him. I have not been able to check this with him myself, though, as I have not known him well. But I know from my own experience that the younger a man, the more insecure he is in life.’
In the opera, Orpheus keeps asking Eurydice whether this or that man was ‘the first’ or ‘the only one’, like a jealous lover. ‘I don’t know if I would call this jealousy’, Trojahn objects. ‘It’s mainly about insecurity. – Though jealousy is a form of insecurity, too, of course. You are not sure whether the person you love also cares about you. Orpheus struggles with such questions. At least in the first act. Things are different when they meet again on the other side.’
Manfred Trojahn & Thea Derks at Dutch National Opera, 23 Feb 2022 (c) Thijs Faas VrzalEurydice in turn seems to play with Orpheus’ feelings. She keeps saying she doesn’t know what she is looking for, who she is waiting for, or who she is on her way to. At the same time she talks about (and to) her former lovers, or claims to love Orpheus. Trojahn: ‘Whether she is playing with him I dare not say, but she is not a straightforward character. She is open to all possibilities. She is a woman who is very vague.’
French kind of vagueness
This, too, is rooted in his own experiences, Trojahn explains: ‘Especially in France, I have met many women who showed this kind of vague behaviour – without me having an affair with them, by the way. It is a playful way of dealing with facts that is strange to me as a German, but which I recognise in people in the arts sector. Eurydice is typically an actress.’
This refers to one of his sources of inspiration, Jean Anouilh’s play Eurydice, which takes place in the theatre world. ‘But even more so, I have been inspired by films such as L’Année dernière à Marienbad by Alain Resnais’, says Trojahn. ‘When a man incidentally meets a woman, he says they have already encountered each other the year before. She, however, can’t remember anything about this. – Or pretends she can’t remember. That is the kind of woman I have tried to describe.’
Emotions
Trojahn often says our human actions are triggered by our emotions. What drives Eurydice? ‘Perhaps she is driven by a wide range of emotions, perhaps even too many. On the other hand, her vagueness and elusiveness may spring from a natural inclination not to be moved or hurt. But I, as author, cannot be the interpreter of my characters, I leave that to the performers.’
Manfred Trojahn: ‘Eurydice’s vagueness and elusiveness may spring from a natural tendency not to be moved or hurt.’
We have to take the latter literally. During our conversation, Trojahn lets slip several times that Audi’s staging has given him other insights. Like the role of Proserpina, who advises Orpheus to leave the dead alone and focus on the living instead. Trojahn: ‘Referring to herself, actually. Pierre’s stage directions made me realise that Pluto may have commanded her to try and seduce Orpheus.’
Orpheus, however, rejects Proserpina’s advances: ‘This shows how attached he has become to Eurydice and how important it is for him to find her and make it clear that he loves her. – Now it is too late. But he is determined to find her. With an even more beautiful performance of the Rilke sonnet, this time accompanied by the orchestra, he manages to persuade Pluto to let him retrieve Eurydice from the dead.’
Blindness
Whether he succeeds remains open. Towards the end of the opera, Orpheus and Eurydice meet in the underworld and declare their love. He says he has found her ‘like a blind man’ and asks her to come with him. She hesitates: should she follow him ‘blindly’, and will she recognise him?
This explains the subtitle Die Liebenden, blind, says Trojahn: ‘First, of course, there is Pluto’s condition that Orpheus may only free his beloved on condition that he does not look at her. Secondly, both lovers are blind all the time. They just don’t get to the point of recognition where you say: I am so close to you now, that I know who you really are as a human being.’
Did the myth lie?
After their final dialogue, Eurydice asks Orpheus to embrace her, ‘this one, everlasting second’. In the libretto we read: ‘Is it a farewell? Did the myth lie? Trojahn: ‘In Pierre’s direction, Orpheus falls to the ground here, but whether he dies remains unclear. This touches on a second layer of meaning: perhaps the story is not primarily about death, but about another kind of continuance for the two protagonists. A way in which they have a chance with each other.
Perhaps not quite coincidentally, the Opera Forward Festival simultaneously stages a production which offers yet another perspective, Orphée’|L’Amour|Eurydice. This forms part of the talent development programme of Dutch Nationale Opera, The Dutch Touring Opera and Opera Zuid. In this version Eurydice writes Orpheus that she is leaving him.
She refuses to be the object of his wallowing self-pity: ‘I am not me because of you. I am not a song you can create.’ She leaves him for good with the words ‘I have never been more alive!’ What does Trojahn think of this take on the story?
‘This is definitely a possible interpretation’, he answers, ‘but it would not interest me. Of course, there is a selfish side to Orpheus’ grief, but in writing uuscha letter Eurydice closes all doors. Nothing is possible anymore, but that does not suit my way of thinking. I am not one for such immovable positions.’
Lyricism and balance
Back to his own Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind. How did he shape his opera musically? ‘It has a very different atmosphere than we know from, say, Orest. It is not about sharp, dramatic contrasts, there is a certain balance.’
‘Ultimately, that too is a French influence, because even in the work of Cocteau or Anouilh, great emotions always remain a little concealed. My opera is very lyrical. During today’s rehearsal, I often asked myself: isn’t it getting too lyrical?’
Liked my interview? A donation, however small, is welcome through PayPal (friends option avoids charges), or by transferring money to my bank account: T. Derks, Amsterdam, NL82 INGB 0004 2616 94. Many thanks!
#EurydiceDieLiebendenBlind #ManfredTrojahn #NetherlandsPhilharmonicOrchestra #OperaForwardFestival #PierreAudi
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I know that I hung on that windswept tree, with all the worlds in its branches. Nine days and nine nights I wore the deadman’s collar. Nine days and nine nights I bled from a spear-wound in my side.
A wound I put there. An offering of self to self.
The hubris.
I swung, lashed by storm and chafed by rope, bound and blinded. Nine days. Nine nights.
No one came looking for me. No one came to help me. I cried out from hunger, from thirst, before the end.
There was no answer.
Then at last I came unto the edge of the Abyss that is Death, and there at the precipice of an eternal night so dark I felt only my own soul reflected back into me and nearly went mad (again) with the effort of holding my own gaze at last I saw-
THE RUNES
and they burned so bright before my eyes I raised my hands to shield them, to seize them, and I took them up screaming-
and I awoke, soaked through and bloody, tangled in the branches of Yggdrasil, the runes burnt into my skin and my memory,
the noose still hanging limply around my neck.
(My spin on Odin's discovery of the runes, did my best to do the original justice)
#MythologyMonday #trees #yggdrasil #WorldTree #Odin #runes #NorseMythology #mythology #writing #original
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I know that I hung on that windswept tree, with all the worlds in its branches. Nine days and nine nights I wore the deadman’s collar. Nine days and nine nights I bled from a spear-wound in my side.
A wound I put there. An offering of self to self.
The hubris.
I swung, lashed by storm and chafed by rope, bound and blinded. Nine days. Nine nights.
No one came looking for me. No one came to help me. I cried out from hunger, from thirst, before the end.
There was no answer.
Then at last I came unto the edge of the Abyss that is Death, and there at the precipice of an eternal night so dark I felt only my own soul reflected back into me and nearly went mad (again) with the effort of holding my own gaze at last I saw-
THE RUNES
and they burned so bright before my eyes I raised my hands to shield them, to seize them, and I took them up screaming-
and I awoke, soaked through and bloody, tangled in the branches of Yggdrasil, the runes burnt into my skin and my memory,
the noose still hanging limply around my neck.
(My spin on Odin's discovery of the runes, did my best to do the original justice)
#MythologyMonday #trees #yggdrasil #WorldTree #Odin #runes #NorseMythology #mythology #writing #original
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I know that I hung on that windswept tree, with all the worlds in its branches. Nine days and nine nights I wore the deadman’s collar. Nine days and nine nights I bled from a spear-wound in my side.
A wound I put there. An offering of self to self.
The hubris.
I swung, lashed by storm and chafed by rope, bound and blinded. Nine days. Nine nights.
No one came looking for me. No one came to help me. I cried out from hunger, from thirst, before the end.
There was no answer.
Then at last I came unto the edge of the Abyss that is Death, and there at the precipice of an eternal night so dark I felt only my own soul reflected back into me and nearly went mad (again) with the effort of holding my own gaze at last I saw-
THE RUNES
and they burned so bright before my eyes I raised my hands to shield them, to seize them, and I took them up screaming-
and I awoke, soaked through and bloody, tangled in the branches of Yggdrasil, the runes burnt into my skin and my memory,
the noose still hanging limply around my neck.
(My spin on Odin's discovery of the runes, did my best to do the original justice)
#MythologyMonday #trees #yggdrasil #WorldTree #Odin #runes #NorseMythology #mythology #writing #original
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7 books to get to know me (fiction) — or more specifically, the top 7 influences on the #scifi I've started writing!
— Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
— The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
— Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
— Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
— Dune by Frank Herbert
— The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
— Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges#7Books #books #fiction #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #writing #writer #utopia #utopianfiction
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7 books to get to know me (fiction) — or more specifically, the top 7 influences on the #scifi I've started writing!
— Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
— The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
— Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
— Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
— Dune by Frank Herbert
— The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
— Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges#7Books #books #fiction #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #writing #writer #utopia #utopianfiction
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7 books to get to know me (fiction) — or more specifically, the top 7 influences on the #scifi I've started writing!
— Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
— The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
— Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
— Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
— Dune by Frank Herbert
— The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
— Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges#7Books #books #fiction #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #writing #writer #utopia #utopianfiction
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7 books to get to know me (fiction) — or more specifically, the top 7 influences on the #scifi I've started writing!
— Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
— The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
— Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
— Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
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What Is a Supply Chain Attack? Lessons from Recent Incidents
924 words, 5 minutes read time.
I’ve been in computer programming with a vested interest in Cybersecurity long enough to know that your most dangerous threats rarely come through the obvious channels. It’s not always a hacker pounding at your firewall or a phishing email landing in an inbox. Sometimes, the breach comes quietly through the vendors, service providers, and software updates you rely on every day. That’s the harsh reality of supply chain attacks. These incidents exploit trust, infiltrating organizations by targeting upstream partners or seemingly benign components. They’re not theoretical—they’re real, costly, and increasingly sophisticated. In this article, I’m going to break down what supply chain attacks are, examine lessons from high-profile incidents, and share actionable insights for SOC analysts, CISOs, and anyone responsible for protecting enterprise assets.
Understanding Supply Chain Attacks: How Trusted Vendors Can Be Threat Vectors
A supply chain attack occurs when a threat actor compromises an organization through a third party, whether that’s a software vendor, cloud provider, managed service provider, or even a hardware supplier. The key distinction from conventional attacks is that the adversary leverages trust relationships. Your defenses often treat trusted partners as safe zones, which makes these attacks particularly insidious. The infamous SolarWinds breach in 2020 is a perfect example. Hackers injected malicious code into an update of the Orion platform, and thousands of organizations unknowingly installed the compromised software. From the perspective of a SOC analyst, it’s a nightmare scenario: alerts may look normal, endpoints behave according to expectation, and yet an attacker has already bypassed perimeter defenses. Supply chain compromises come in many forms: software updates carrying hidden malware, tampered firmware or hardware, and cloud or SaaS services used as stepping stones for broader attacks. The lesson here is brutal but simple: every external dependency is a potential attack vector, and assuming trust without verification is a vulnerability in itself.
Lessons from Real-World Supply Chain Attacks
History has provided some of the most instructive lessons in this area, and the pain was often widespread. The NotPetya attack in 2017 masqueraded as a routine software update for a Ukrainian accounting package but quickly spread globally, leaving a trail of destruction across multiple sectors. It was not a random incident—it was a strategic strike exploiting the implicit trust organizations placed in a single provider. Then came Kaseya in 2021, where attackers leveraged a managed service provider to distribute ransomware to hundreds of businesses in a single stroke. The compromise of one MSP cascaded through client systems, illustrating that upstream vulnerabilities can multiply downstream consequences exponentially. Even smaller incidents, such as a compromised open-source library or a misconfigured cloud service, can serve as a launchpad for attackers. What these incidents have in common is efficiency, stealth, and scale. Attackers increasingly prefer the supply chain route because it requires fewer direct compromises while yielding enormous operational impact. For anyone working in a SOC, these cases underscore the need to monitor not just your environment but the upstream components that support it, as blind trust can be fatal.
Mitigating Supply Chain Risk: Visibility, Zero Trust, and Preparedness
Mitigating supply chain risk requires a proactive, multifaceted approach. The first step is visibility—knowing exactly what software, services, and hardware your organization depends on. You cannot defend what you cannot see. Mapping these dependencies allows you to understand which systems are critical and which could serve as entry points for attackers. Second, you need to enforce Zero Trust principles. Even trusted vendors should have segmented access and stringent authentication. Multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, and least-privilege policies reduce the potential blast radius if a compromise occurs. Threat hunting also becomes crucial, as anomalies from trusted sources are often the first signs of a breach. Beyond technical controls, preparation is equally important. Tabletop exercises, updated incident response plans, and comprehensive logging equip teams to react swiftly when compromise is detected. For CISOs, it also means communicating supply chain risk clearly to executives and boards. Stakeholders must understand that absolute prevention is impossible, and resilience—rapid detection, containment, and recovery—is the only realistic safeguard.
The Strategic Imperative: Assume Breach and Build Resilience
The reality of supply chain attacks is unavoidable: organizations are connected in complex webs, and attackers exploit these dependencies with increasing sophistication. The lessons are clear: maintain visibility over your entire ecosystem, enforce Zero Trust rigorously, hunt for subtle anomalies, and prepare incident response plans that include upstream components. These attacks are not hypothetical scenarios—they are the evolving face of cybersecurity threats, capable of causing widespread disruption. Supply chain security is not a checkbox or a one-time audit; it is a mindset that prioritizes vigilance, resilience, and strategic thinking. By assuming breach, questioning trust, and actively monitoring both internal and upstream environments, security teams can turn potential vulnerabilities into manageable risks. The stakes are high, but so are the rewards for those who approach supply chain security with discipline, foresight, and a relentless commitment to defense.
Call to Action
If this breakdown helped you think a little clearer about the threats out there, don’t just click away. Subscribe for more no-nonsense security insights, drop a comment with your thoughts or questions, or reach out if there’s a topic you want me to tackle next. Stay sharp out there.
D. Bryan King
Sources
- CISA: Supply Chain Security Resources
- NIST SP 800-161: Supply Chain Risk Management Practices
- KrebsOnSecurity: Cybersecurity News & Analysis
- CrowdStrike: Threat Intelligence Reports
- Mandiant Threat Reports
- Schneier on Security
- Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)
- Black Hat Conference Talks
- DEF CON Conference Resources
- Academic Papers on Cybersecurity
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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