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Aboriginal Ancestry, DNA, Family Tree, Genealogy, General Missives

My Aboriginal Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother On My Birth-Mother’s Side

By NeilA 2 Comments

My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother On My Birth-Mother’s Side

Aboriginal Ancestry

I apologize to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as this article contains information about a deceased person and may cause distress.

I’m adopted. In 2004, I got the chance to meet my birth mother as she was dying of cancer in hospital. DOCS in Australia had pulled out all the stops to help us to meet, and I was really glad that I was able to make contact with her and her families before she died.

My existence had been a mystery for her for over 30 years and she was very happy to finally close that door. I was also happy to have some answers as well.

One of my newly discovered aunties furnished me with my genetic history. At the time, the list of names in the files since 1788 filled me with dread to go through, but I finally got around to it today, and have been able to confirm the name of my aboriginal ancestor.

On most genealogy sites she is listed as Yebomel, but on one as Yebomel Gebonel. I don’t know whether that second name is correct or not.

In any case, according to this calculation article at DNA Explained, I’m less than 1% Australian Aborigine.

Here is a rough timeline. I won’t list everyone.

I’m guessing Edward Jerry arrived in Australia in the early 1830s.

NB: I’m not using general genealogy rules here. I’m writing this so that it is easy to understand for the layperson.

1st Generation

Edward Jerry b.1806 married Yebomel of the Kamilaroi Nation (near Baradine, NSW) b.1820
– Margaret Jerry b.1837

2nd Generation

Margaret Jerry b.1837 married Samuel Sorby b.1834
– Elizabeth Sorby b. 1854 (2nd child of 7)

3rd Generation

Elizabeth Sorby b. 1854 married Charles Leffley b. 1857
– Mary Ann Leffley b.1877 (5th child of 5)

4th Generation

Mary Ann Leffley b. 1877 married George Alfred Arnold
– a son b. 1914 (4th child of 4)

From this point, most descendants are still alive, so I’ll keep everyone anonymous.

5th Generation

Man b. 1914 married Woman b. 1918
– girl b.1955 (8th child to Woman, 1st to man)

6th Generation

Girl b. 1955

– Me. b.1971 – Given up for adoption (1st child of 5?)

7th Generation

Me!

As most sites encouraging you to work out your ethnicity percentage tend to stop at 6 generations, I guess my aboriginal DNA isn’t considered large enough. Certainly, I can’t see it physically, as I’m pinkish-white with high sensitivity to sunlight, and exhibiting facial features that seem more Scottish than anything else. Even so, I like the idea that I have a bit of Aboriginal in me as the Aboriginal Dreamtime and traditional Aboriginal healing practices do interest me.

What I was surprised to find when doing my research this morning was that there are a lot of people out there descended from Yebomel.

It also made me think that it is perhaps her that I owe my interest in other cultures to. After all, if she wasn’t that progressive or open-minded to having a relationship with a British guy in the first place, I wouldn’t exist!

If you’re descended from Yebomel, and find this post at some point in the future, feel free to leave a comment about your connections.

Additional: I found out the language Yebomel might have spoken. The original site no longer exists but a backup is available via archive.org here: Gamilaraay Dictionary

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General Missives

Today, the Australian Resident Population Clock Officially Reached 25 Million People

By NeilA

Australian Bureau of Statistics Population Clock

Population Clock

25 Million!

Well, we’ve finally made it. An official estimate of the population of Australia is that we reached 25,000,000 people just after 11pm on Tuesday 7th August. You can check the Population clock link above to see where we’re up to.

I remember about 29 years ago going to vote for the first time, and speaking with a young man who represented the population growth party in my area. At the time, the population of Australia was around 17 million, I think. And he told me that for Australia to be viable and commercially competitive with other nations, we really need a minimum population of 125 million.

100 million to go!

Though, at the rate of increase, and the slow rate of building infrastructure to cater for new arrivals, I’d guess we’d finally hit that magic number in about 200 years. In which case, I’m calling it that the 23rd century will be Australia’s century!

Of course, that figure was based on the economics of the time. Now it’s possible for one person to influence millions of people. It’s possible for 25 million people, working together, to compete with countries of billions. And almost anyone can do it at the swipe of a finger. Do we really need more people?

Overpopulation

This planet has far too many people already, and we really need to do something about overpopulation. We’re almost at 8 billion. World Population Clock. If you’ve seen the pictures of refugee camps with hundreds of thousands of starving people, you know that this is already unsustainable. 700,000 Rohingya refugees. 350,000 Congolese refugees.

But things are already starting to happen to balance the planet out, without many people even realizing it.

The Japanese are consistently in the news regarding their socially constructed depopulation drive. (i.e it’s not a government initiative) But they actually rank 13th in population decline, according to Wikipedia. Here’s the list: Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, Portugal, Hungary, Serbia, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Japan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Poland, Belarus, Italy and Puerto Rico. All these countries are taking one for the team and helping the planet by having negative population growth. Perhaps more countries will go negative and help to balance the planet. (Though, as some of those countries are suffering from the results of war, that isn’t an option I recommend other countries to pursue.)

It’s about time we became conscious about population growth, and found more ways to reduce conceptions. Rather than pursue the economic compulsion to create more consumers, aka the human Ponzi scheme, there should be a social compulsion to reduce consumption. Use less, eat less, do less, have less, conceive less, enjoy life with less.

Move to Mars!

Of course, I wouldn’t be worried about an overpopulated planet if we had started exploring other planets 30 years ago. If we had, there’d be regular flights to Mars and back by now.

So, Space X, NASA, I’m looking forward to those flights to Mars. Happy to do my part by reducing the planet’s population by one and helping to create livable cities on Mars to settle more.

Then again, the outback of Australia has about 10,000 square miles of desert and rocks that millions of people could be sent to, to help build multiple cities that they could then live in. Maybe we could get to that 125 million a bit sooner.

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General Missives

The Joy of Docs

By NeilA

The Joy of Docs

This may come as a surprise to you, but I have just discovered Google Docs. Well, discovered isn’t the right word. Of course, I’ve known about Google docs since 2006, but speed of internet connection and mistrust with the cloud computing universe’s reliability as a whole, has prevented me from really exploring all that docs has to offer.

I just have one main computer which I share with my partner. As we both teach, this workhorse is constantly in use, with probably just 4 hours of downtime a day. We’re both planning our schedules around when we can use it for preparation and other things. So, I can’t start and finish a novel on it. It can only be used for final edits of my stories. Too many expected interruptions means I would be unable to focus on a particularly poignant piece of prose for hours, and it would be better to just sit in a cafe for several hours somewhere instead.

But, with Google Docs, slow WiFi notwithstanding, I can alternate between the PC and my netbook. Previously I would upload a doc file to my PC, begin editing, realize it needed a lot more work, then download it again and transfer it back to my netbook and disappear. Now, I don’t really need to do that. Simply putting it on Docs I can switch almost seamlessly from the netbook at my kitchen table to the main PC near the bed at any time. (We live in a tiny studio apartment.) And if the netbook on my battery dies, Google Docs would have already saved the work seconds ago, unlike my Word settings generally which save every ten minutes.

Still, even 12 years later, I’m not happy with it. Not because the system itself is bad. Far from it. But because, even with the fastest internet Australia has to offer, I still have to wait for Google Docs to update the last few words I just entered. Wifi here still just can’t keep up with my typing speed. It really works its best on a direct LAN connection.

And with Australia’s internet speed on the Speedtest Global Index now at 55th, I guess it’ll still be awhile yet before I can really enjoy Docs via WiFi.

 

 

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General Missives, The Andromeda Effect

What Are You Working On?

By NeilA

What Are You Working On?

In social gatherings, I rarely say I’m a writer, unless I’m at a writer’s meeting. It’s much easier to say I’m a private English tutor, or I make money from affiliate marketing, or I do some voice-over work. Telling them I’m a writer instantly leads to the next question. Now, if I was a romance writer, it would be easy. But, I’m not.

So, here’s my attempt at answering that question. If you plan on becoming a science fiction writer, you might find this helpful.

So, what do you do?
I’m a science fiction writer. I write short stories and novels about aliens.
Really? Sounds cool. What are you working on at the moment?
Oh, it’s a bit complicated.
Try me!
Well, if you’re sure. <deep breath> My latest novel is about an interfrequency starship with a crew of 300 different alien races that has been sent back 2.5 million years and across millions of kilometers to Andromeda where they encounter a conscious planet that has control of the entire galaxy, while in the year 2133, a rogue plant-alien is working to connect across space-time to tap into that planet-creature’s power, and use it to shift the Milky Way Galaxy into a higher frequency, and if the plant-alien does that, it will mean the end of the Solar System, so the ship in the past and the people in the present of 2133 have to find a way to stop it.
Oookaaaay.
That’s in part one. It gets more complicated after that.
Riiiiggghhhtt.

Well, that’s what I should’ve said. Instead, I said something like
Oh, just a simple space opera. A bit like a Doctor Who, Star Trek, Babylon 5 mashup, with some plant-alien enemies! What do you do?

Have a great weekend!

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General Missives, Reference, Science Fiction Ebooks, SF Books

Galactic Central – Philsp.com

By NeilA

Galactic Central – Philsp.com

iPhoneless

In my day to day marketing of Alien Dimensions and other titles, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier for readers to find them. To that end, I was trying to find a way to link Alien Dimensions issue #15’s iPhone listing from the Alien Dimensions website, and from this site.

A bit of backstory. Having used a PC since the 90s, and Microsoft since Windows 3.1, I have yet to delve into the Apple iPhone ecosystem. iBooks is not available outside the restrictive iPhone-user-only interface, and I’ve never had the $ to buy an additional something from Apple that would enable me to get in. (Any spare $ was spent on updating Windows, or paying for Office subscriptions, or antivirus software or… I couldn’t justify running both environments.)

How did I get Alien Dimensions on iBooks when I’m not an iPhone user? Smashwords!

Smashwords enables me to upload a doc file for conversion and distribution to the iBooks system. Unfortunately, as they also distribute to quite a large number of ebook systems, it’s not possible for them to list the links. So, I usually have to find them manually, then work out what part of the link can be used by PC users.

While searching Google for the link (iTunes does not have a search feature for non-iTunes users), I stumbled across Galactic Central. I was totally gobsmacked by the discovery of this privately created bibliography of science fiction, fantasy and weird works, among other things, and took some time off from searching for links.

Totally worth it!

Incredible Database

The site features over 9000 carefully edited indexes of magazines, books and the like, with links to author lists. If you’re an author who has featured in a book at sometime, but haven’t seen your name up anywhere, perhaps this is where you’ll find yourself listed.

I was very happy to see that not only was Alien Dimensions perfectly indexed, but that even some of the things I hadn’t included in the contents in a few issues were listed.

The gentleman is thorough!

But, I think one of the most important things about this site is what ISN’T there.

There’s no advertising, no affiliate links and no requests for donations.

The site is a labor of love, and in the 21st century with so many sites supporting themselves with advertising, this is quite an achievement.

Check out the site here: Galactic Central

Alien Dimensions listing here

My author listing here

And, I did eventually find a way to access the iBooks listings for Alien Dimensions. You can find them on iTunes by visiting my author page here

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Articles, General Missives, Research, Writing Research

Really Getting Into Your Writing

By NeilA

Really Getting Into Your Writing

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wanted to write a story, but had absolutely no experience about how to ‘really’ write it?

Awhile ago, I wanted to write a story about a researcher who was going to use magnets to increase his brain waves to hyperepsilon, but without having first hand experience of that, I needed to find a way to get hold of some kind of magnetic medical system to see which one would work best for the story.

Thankfully, Gumtree regularly features posts by students willing to pay a few dollars to anyone who wants to undergo some of their experiments. For science!

So, I signed myself up for whatever I could get. First, an MRI and MEG scan, followed by a TMS session.

Much to my surprise this enabled me to come up with three different stories.

The MRI

What I learnt from being under this was not only how uncomfortable it was (information easily found online) but WHERE it was uncomfortable. The rigidity of the bed, the inability to stretch for long periods of time. The position of the neck and how that put pressure on the lower back. And the brrzzzz chock chock bang brrzzz chock chock bang as parts whizzed about, recording the responses of my brain.

Each time the equipment moved, I could feel a slight heat through my skin, a mild flicker of my nerves, a burning along the side of my neck tendon, and an aching shudder through my skull. Not to mention the uneasiness of having to squeeze two tiny orange things and push them into my ears to reduce the sound, (still echoingly painful), and the restrictive helmet system that held me in place.

You can see me in the picture above. All that, and I was still freezing in there!

A positive was being able to watch a documentary on the cordyceps fungus, and how it attacked ants. This ended up in the story ExtraForrestrial. Later I was horrified to find this fungus could be bought online in capsules to eat. No thanks!

As I did the MRI experiment three times, I now have that brrzzz chock chock bang permanently engraved in my memory, but I haven’t included this experience in a story yet. Maybe soon!

The MEG

I only had to use the magnetoencephalography machine once, and I can barely remember it. Though, as it was mapping my brain, I’m sure there’s a record of those memories somewhere!

The system made little to no noise, and after the MRI, was quite relaxing. For some of it, I was even in the dark. I felt like I was in a cold plastic egg covered in lots of wires that had to be stuck on and removed. It think the initial coldness of the glue and wires was what surprised me, as well as how long it actually took to get hooked up.

I used this experience to add a bit of realism to the story Cosmic Joke

The TMS

I underwent Transcranial Magentic Stimulation three times too, over a period of several months.

The first stage was to put the skull cap on and glue all the sensors to my head. The gooeyness of the blue-green stuff that was poured into the holes in the skull cap, the scraping of the gel nozzle, as well as the vibration from the top of my skull down to my jaw whenever the scientist clicked the TMS coil, was all a bit disturbing. Imagine having things stuck in your ears, being unable to move, and someone dropping cold dollops of oil into your hair, scratching each dollop with a blunt knife, then hitting you with a tiny hammer!

The first lot of clicks was to locate the exact place in my brain to begin the experiment. To do that, she glued a sensor on the inner part of my thumb, and clicked across my frontal lobe with the TMS coil until my thumb twitched. She knew then that she had found the right spot and could begin the experiment. Sometimes it took awhile to find that exact spot, and the weird part was that I could feel the clicks within my skull. Either that was referred pain, or the vibration resonating within the skull cavity, or it was really stimulating some nerve endings somewhere inside my cerebrum.

Afterwards, she washed my hair, and it took a bit of time to get all the gel out. So, these little things, which aren’t easily found online, were the sorts of things I wanted to include in a story.

From this experience I wrote Still in Beta. 

So, if you get stuck on how to write a story, and can’t find anything on Google to help, maybe you just need to get a bit more involved!

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Articles, General Missives, Water

Previous Projects Post Two. WaterWarner.com

By NeilA

Previous Projects Post Two. WaterWarner.com

When I was doing 18 hour days at my tuition college in 2009, I realised that I could not remember to drink water. It simply didn’t occur to me. There would be a glass of water on my table next to me and I wouldn’t notice it.

Doctors have recommended 8 glasses of water a day, but for most of my life I’ve got by on just one or two (plus tea and coffee) Being only 59kg most of the time meant there wasn’t really anywhere for the water to go. Of course, on hot days, I would drink a bit more. But water tastes blurrgk. (It’s a technical term!)

Great for Writers

So, I hired a programmer to create a simple PC program called Water Water. It can sit on the PC taskbar, and be set to remind you to drink water.

Ideal if you’re like me and you regularly forget to drink, eat and sleep!

The app worked perfectly for XP, but sadly after Windows 7 came out, new settings couldn’t be stored, and I didn’t have the money to update it.

In any case, if you want a program set on default that will automatically make the sound of pouring water every hour during work hours to remind you to drink some water, you can grab it here: Water Warner.

It’s free to download and install.

To your good health.

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General Missives, Planner Diary, Time Travel

Previous Projects Post One. PlanForever.com

By NeilA

Previous Projects Post One

Over the previous 30 or so years, I’ve been involved in quite a number of projects. So many, in fact, that I’ve long lost count. From magazine subscription services to video tape network exchanges to fan club newsletters and a lot more. Some of these have made money, most of these have lost money. But money was never the true intention behind any of them. Usually it was to help someone or fulfill an unspoken need, or simply to fulfill one for myself which I then shared with everyone.

One of those was Plan Forever

Ten years ago I could not find a simple online calendar that could help me find the correct days of the week for dates in the future.

The far future.

So, I got onto a website called Odesk (now Upwork) and hired a gentleman in Indonesia who worked with me to create a php platform that would enable me to check the day of the week for dates up to the year 9999. It took a lot of planning but I wanted an easy way to jump to a hundred years and a thousand years into the future, with drop down menus and more. To make it more accessible, I also wanted a century planner, so you could plan out the next hundred years.

Perfect for time travel stories!

PlanForever.com

After several months and hundreds of dollars, the program finally came to fruition, and I could launch PlanForever.com for planners and time travel writers.

I was so excited by this site, and promoted it everywhere. Spent some money on Adwords, added it to lots of publications, and included it in some emails.

Sadly, there wasn’t much interest. Within about a year or two, Google had made their calendar service a lot more user friendly. And, even though you can’t jump to the year 9999 on Google’s Calendar without clicking on the forward button for hours, it was a lot more popular than my Plan Forever site.

Still, I have kept the site running. I like the idea of knowing the exact day of the week that a character might land in the future (the site can also take you back to the year 0, though it doesn’t have an adjustment for the missing 11 days in 1752) and it gives me the incentive to work on some other time travel stories. I hope there are many science fiction book and script writers visiting the site to double-check their days and dates.

So, if you plan to write a time travel story, and you really need to mention the day, check out the calendar at Plan Forever , and get a more accurate fix on the day of the week.

Enjoy!

If you prefer the printed version, I also released a blank diary in 2014 with a century planner in the back here: Weekly Planner Diary. 52 Blank Undated Weeks. Lined Note Pages & Century Planner.

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ADHD Writers, Articles, General Missives

Apparently, I have Adult ADHD

By NeilA

Apparently, I have Adult ADHD

Self Diagnosed

Just did a test here and got 97%

Did another one here and got ‘high likelihood of ADHD’

Actually, I did these last year and thought I’d double check. Yep, scores haven’t changed. Damn!

So, are there many writers with Adult ADHD? Apart from those writers writing books on ADHD? You bet. Quick list here

Science Fiction Writers with Adult ADHD

Are there many who write science fiction?

Jules Verne is believed to have had ADHD (ref), as has Cory Doctorow (ref), to name but two. (Actually, my Adult ADHD kicked in and I just couldn’t keep searching. Google results were disappointing.)

I’m sure there are others that either haven’t been diagnosed, or like myself, not have the funds to go and pay for an official diagnosis.

Starving artists abound.

ADHDar

When you’ve got it yourself, you can usually spot another person with Adult ADHD. Sometimes, when I’m with a non-ADHD who speaks at a much slower pace, I tend to finish their sentences for them. Occasionally, with someone with ADHD, the conversation doesn’t even get started. We might just use some nods, facial expressions, then move on. Not telepathy, just predicting what the other is thinking in that situation, and working out the ending to the conversation quickly.

It’s definitely a LOL moment.

In my 30s, my Adult ADHD didn’t really get in the way. But now, in my 40s, it’s starting to make life harder and more frustrating. You think school was frustrating, wait til you start hanging out with old people! Most of my friends are in their 20s and 30s with a scant few in their 40s, purely because those in their 40s have already started slowing down. I’m 46 and still partying, drinking, and going to night clubs when I can afford it. Occasionally, I’ll run into another ADHDer in their 50s and we’ll have a pantomath conversation, then forget each other. Most non-ADHD people my age seem to want to discuss renovations, property prices, stock market or sport.

There are a lot of ADHDers at sci-fi cons and comic cons. I get surrounded by ADHD girls in their 20s at these things as I’m older, safer (got that shy conservative look going) but kind of on their level. They enjoy being able to jump from subject to subject every third sentence and have someone follow them, and the conversation never gets boring. I learn a lot and can usually give them some coping advice too. Win win. (Yeah, most of my friends are female.)

Was on a train from Melbourne to Sydney awhile ago (listening to videos while typing a story and checking the news on my netbook and PC) when I overheard a guy strike up a conversation with the girl next to him. He jumped from story to story about his life for 3 hours and she politely listened. I didn’t think much of it at the beginning. Just another talkative guy. Then he mentioned something about forgetting to take his ADHD meds, and I rolled my eyes.

My god, we’re everywhere!

Out of the Adult ADHD closet

So, in 46 years, this is the first time I’ve publicly announced this information. You know, might as well get it out there. Never taken anything for it besides black coffee in the morning and a glass or two of wine at night to help me focus. And I found that doing things that keep your dopamine levels up are sometimes all you need. (Today’s food tends to flat line dopamine levels in ADHD people, so check out foods that can increase dopamine, if you’ve got ADHD, here )

Oh, and I found this link to 11 Advantages of having ADHD as a writer. I agree with all 11. If you’re a writer, and identify with this list, you might have ADHD too! Welcome to the club.

I love some of the stuff by Cory Doctorow – Check out Overclocked. If you know of any science fiction writers who have talked about their ADHD, please list them in the comments below and I’ll go and check out their work.

If you, or someone you know, might need help with ADHD, check out this site: Consequences of ADHD