she’s gone!

Man, I’m gonna miss that little Munchkin face.

She’s going to miss our pups; man, is she ever attached to them.

I love it.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2410 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat
Comics: Dynamo 5 5-6, Invincible 44, Brit v2 1
Music: Frank Black, Frank Black (Black Frank is White)

she’s here!

Grandbaby for the weekend. Apparently, she’s into watching Twister and Back To The Future, and the dinosaur scenes in Jurassic Park.

I mean, I watched Jaws at eight, so who am I to judge?

I could never judge the generations behind me for trying mushrooms or pot, or getting lousy, stinkin’ druink, let alone their choice of age-inappropriate movie.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1497 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat
Comics: Noble Causes 30, Dynamo 5 4, Invincible 42-43
Music: The Fragile (Right), Nine Inch Nails

one million words

A milestone passed. I hadn’t really thought about it until I saw the tally. Over a million words since January 1st, 2024. A little over two and a half years, averaging about a thousand words a day or so currently.

Not bad. Too bad my original estimate was three thousand words a day, which would put me closer to three million, but hey, life, am I right?

Not bad at all.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 819 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat
Comics: Invincible 40-41, Noble Causes 29, Dynamo 5 3
Music: The Fragile (Left), Nine Inch Nails

the sky is orange

We’re in Mad Max now.

I’m so happy to have been born in an age of enlightenment, the most technologically advanced civilization to ever exist, just in time for the apocalypse.

These things are not unrelated.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2555 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat (I want this to be a TV show)
Comics: Noble Causes 27-28, Invincible 39, Dynamo 5 2
Music: Fox Theatre, Sublime

firefucked

So there are wildfires, and my throat hurts, and we’re not even close to them. We’re literally hundreds of kilometres away.

My day, however, as spent rescuing an outdoor cat we were thinking about taking on anyway, when it seemed like she was struggling to breathe in the haze.

We hope we weren’t too late.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 840 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat (blown away already)
Comics: Invincible 37-38, Noble Causes 26, Dynamo 5 1
Music: The Fox, April 10, 2006, State Radio

skullfucked

Heat done give me a headache.

And it ain’t goin’ away.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2337 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Wizard At Large, Terry Brooks
Comics: Noble Causes 24-25, Invincible 35-36
Music: The Four Lads Greatest Hits, The Four Lads (I think there's five of them)

forty nine

One year short of a half-century. Half a century use to seem ancient.

Would that I could start over. What I could do, how I could live, with the things I know now; I don’t mean specific knowledge.

I mean the whole how-to-live thing. What’s important. What to focus on.

When to take action. When to relax.

Wouldacouldashoulda.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1534 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Wizard At Large, Terry Brooks
Comics: Invincible 33-34, Noble Causes 22-23
Music: Fossil Fuels: The XTC Singles Collection 1977-1992, Discs 1-2, XTC

last of forty-eight

I’ve only a year and a day left until I transition into the guy who wore an onion on his belt, because that was the style at the time.

Half a century and the best I can do is rip off Grampa Simpson.

Man, that’s sad.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 749 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Wizard At Large, Terry Brooks
Comics: Invincible 31-32, Noble Causes 20-21
Music: Forty Licks, The Rolling Stones

here’s the problem

And here’s why it so enervating and dangerous.

Accusations of sexual assault are serious – they need to be treated with seriousness, while maintaining the assumption of innocent until proven guilty for the accused. Balance is required.

However, in our hyper partisan, hyper sensitive climate, even the whiff of an accusation can sink a lefty, mostly because the left actually cares about these things. The right doesn’t, as their overwhelming protectiveness of a known rapist and very likely pedophile attests.

Establishment Democrats know this. They know that there doesn’t need to be any reality behind the accusations. That used to matter; Trump taught them that it no longer makes a difference. The accusation is enough. People still think Haitians were eating people’s pets in Ohio, despite the fact that it was an obvious fabrication.

A true progressive, whose message resonated with what most people want these days, won overwhelmingly in Maine. That’s bad for Democratic donors, and the “middle-of-the-road”, centrist Democrats, which is code for corporate sellouts fighting for billionaires and not people.

So, they come up with scandal after scandal against a grassroots campaigner and strong communicator with a message that really hits home for an overwhelming majority. None of it sticks. He addresses things head-on, apologizes, and to me, shows what we want out of people in reality (or should – many lefties want condemnation and eternal torture, not growth and compassion). He wins with seventy-three percent of the vote – an unprecedented asskicking for establishment politics.

In comes the sexual assault accusation. For years, the left has crowed about believing victims, forgetting about the presumption of innocence. For them to suddenly call for sanity and level heads and waiting for actual facts would seem hypocritical, even though it’s clearly the right thing to do.

The timing, like the last batch of scandals, is convenient; an establishment Hail Mary.

And here’s the thing. If it’s true, I hope they charge him and prosecute fully. If it’s not, I hope he sues the pants off her and the DNC.

But ultimately, it doesn’t matter. True or not, it makes no difference – it took him out as a candidate, and gave the DNC a way to wiggle back in their billionaire friendly candidate, who will lose and possibly doom the whole country by losing the Senate. They’d rather lose and keep their corporate donors happy than save the country from fascism.

And there’s the rub. Because the other thing that’s true, and that all of a sudden, a lot of people who are pissed about the timing and convenience of all this are realizing, is that centrist Dems do not care about them – they care about billionaires. For as much as they talk about being for the people, this makes it incredibly clear.

They absolutely do not. They do not respect the democratic process, and their overuse of the words “open and transparent” when talking about the new race for their candidate suggests that they’re monstrously overcompensating for the fact that they’re about to screw three-hundred million people.

So, what now?

New parties? Republicans are fascists, and Democrats so blatantly corrupt that their hypocrisy is now revealed. They are not just the Chamberlain to Trump’s Hitler. They’re fucking Mussolini.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2254 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Wizard At Large, Terry Brooks
Comics: The Pact 4, Invincible 29-30, Noble Causes 19
Music: Fortune Faded, Red Hot Chili Peppers

i still have thoughts

But they’ll have to wait for tomorrow – today, I’ve learned that our newest cat and our oldest dog have odd looking growths on their gums and butt respectively, and now, all I can think is that I’ve had nowhere near enough time.

Hold tight to those you love; they could be ripped away at any second.

In this dangerous world, love is a gift, to be given freely and without remorse.

Until it’s gone.

Then, there can be a little remorse.

Or a lot, if it’s as special as my Mazy and Sami.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1806 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Enchanter's End Game, David Eddings (okay, I know, I know, Eddings is a problematic, kept the kid in the basement and fed him fish heads with my wife kind of problematic, but this was still a strong series, and it ended beautifully.  I teared up a little at Polgara giving up all her power at the end, and then... well. I won't spoil it.  It's a goddamn shame that these days, no one can be brilliant without the caveat of cancellation.  I'm not saying he was right in what he did; I am saying we don't know what his eventual response was - this was all pre-publication.  Maybe he learned from it.  Maybe he grew.  Maybe his philosophies were shaped by his mistakes, in a way that opposed the error of his ways.  All I'm saying is that there are zero people in this world that are perfect; what matters is growth and change, not perfection.  If we insist on perfection, we end up with heartbreak.  Best to take a wider approach).
Comics: Marvel Team-Ups 14, Noble Causes 17-18, Invincible 28
Music: Forth, The Verve (sully on)