Category: culture

slammed into first

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Hit the ground running this morning. You ever get the feeling, you’re running on the edge of a bridge as it collapses behind you, like in some twisted video game or action movie?

As Nazis blow things up down south and Carney proves to be the globalist traitor I worried he might be (still better than Poilievre), I can’t help but wonder just how close to the precipice we are.

If we slow down, if we stop running… are we dooming ourselves to abyss?

Or is time to turn and fight?

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1453 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Quiet: The Power Of Introverts, Susan Cain
Comics: Team Youngblood 22, Youngblood v2 8, Prophet & Chapel 1-2
Music: Wilco Essentials, Wilco (so underrated - Heavy Metal Drummer is the vibe I always wanted)

fun fun

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Everything is wonderful and collapsing.

Shared experiences are kind of fun, as a community, as a country.

I’m not exactly a patriot, but I believe in the values we profess – kindness, strength through community, an independent and welcome demeanour.

Sit down and have a beer beer, bud. We’re going to game six together.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1698 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Faded Sun: Kesrith, C.J. Cherryh
Comics: Grifter/Badrock 2, Vogue 2, Youngblood v2 3, Chapel v2 5
Music: Wicked Nature, The Vines

how proper can we get

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How precious? How far are we willing to sacrifice our happiness to hypocrisy, cruelty or outrage?

How many concessions must we make to others’ feelings?

Is there a limit to empathy? Is there a limit to courtesy?

Sometimes, joking about farts or shit or cum or dicks and boobs is just fun.

What happens when we live for the microaggression, so we can live for our offense? So we can satisfy the dragon of outrage?

Or should the focus be on live and let live, taking a stand when it truly matters, like ICE or concentration camps or the oppression of the minority vote?

Sometimes, a U-turn is strategic, not sexist. That’s all I have to say about that.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1275 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Faded Sun: Kesrith, C.J. Cherryh
Comics: Bloodpool 2, Riptide 1, Youngblood v2 1, Chapel v2 3
Music: Who's Next, The Who

wake

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My aunt died. I’ve only got two; this is the one on my dad’s side and the one that lives near us.

We’ve spent a fair amount of time with them over the years, the kids were all close, even if I wasn’t particularly with her.

Different styles. She was a teacher, very prim and proper; my family torched her family’s house back during the teetotaler’s movement. We were upset (and probably a little drunk) about their attempts to ban our firewater.

And while obviously, that’s all ancient history, it’s funny how that kind of attitude filters down, even if her love of red wine was almost as great as my own.

In any case, we’ll miss her, but it’s been a long road, post-polio, cancer, all that, and she deserves the rest.

We’ll miss you, Jan. I’m sorry you had to to go through all that. I’m sorry my ancestors burned your ancestor’s house down.

Raise a glass of merlot, then. À la santé, and we’ll see you again.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1397 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold!, Terry Brooks
Comics: Brigade v2 14, Youngblood Strikefile 9, Badrock And Company 4, Battlestone 2
Music: Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston (I... have no excuse.  The worst, right?)

thanksgiving

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What am I thankful for?

My dogs. My cats.

My family.

My job, unsteady as it is right now with Carney’s cuts looming.

A world on the brink that hasn’t quite made it there yet.

I can still write.

I am not banned.

I may be in the future.

Fuck ’em. I’d want nothing more than to be censored.

Call me A Clockwork Orange.

Madmenny and a malenky bit of the old in and out, right, me droogs?

Fuck it. Banned books for all.

I am thankful there’s still outrage over that.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1476 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold!, Terry Brooks
Comics: Youngblood 9, Youngblood Strikefile 7, Brigade v2 13, Badrock And Company 3
Music: The Very Best Of The Original Dubliners, The Dubliners

priority treatment

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Squeaky wheel gets the grease, they say, just like the loudest, most obnoxious voice in the room always thinks they’re right, because volume is apparently the only measure of correctness, to some.

Personally, the quietest, least persistent voice is the one I want to hear the most.

I’m tired of being shouted down, and I’m tired of loud people who won’t shut up getting the head of the line.

Shut up, asshole, and get the fuck out.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1615 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Magician's Gambit, David Eddings
Comics: Team Youngblood 13, Youngblood 8, Youngblood Strikefile 6, Brigade v2 12
Music: A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean, Jimmy Buffett

i’m not a bad person

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I’m just stupid and exhausted.

So, in that sense, I’m a lazy, dumb person, which is pretty well equivalent.

At least, if you’re a MAGA, it is.

Slam, bitches. Thank goodness I’m not.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1516 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Magician's Gambit, David Eddings
Comics: Youngblood 7, Team Youngblood 11, Brigade v2 11, Troll II 1
Music: White Crosses, Against Me! (one of the truly great modern punk albums)

creepy

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My daughter just turned on How It’s Made, and it’s about making a fur coat.

This shit is disgusting. Food for sustenance is one thing; we have things that work better than fur now.

What a fucking disgrace.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1505 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Dead To The World, Charlaine Harris
Comics: Team Youngblood 7-8, Brigade v2 8, Bloodstrike 9
Music: Whiskey On A Sunday, Flogging Molly

sometimes it’s tough

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It can be very difficult to get in the head of someone who thinks so much differently than yourself.

Sometimes, it’s worse when it’s someone with whom you should identify, but who you’ve written as having one particular characteristic that’s utterly opposite to your own.

Like, say, a highly liberal man who finds sex disgusting.

Versus, say, me, also quite liberal, but lacks many boundaries. There are no off-limit topics to me.

I have boundaries, but I refuse to censor my life; I may not like the horrors (and perceived horrors which aren’t actually horrors) of the modern world, but I’ll not ignore their reality.

It’s hard for those of us who have spent a lifetime being comfortable wallowing in the dirt to relate to Howard Hughes.

Fear of dirt is as great a fear as any, and if what we all suspect is coming (Trump’s apocalypse) actually comes, well, then, we all better get a lot more used to it.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1460 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Born For This, Chris Guillebeau (I want to like the guy, but there's something just... missing in his style.  It's 'non-conformist', but in the most vanilla manner possible, at least in presentation, which makes even his good ideas a bland read.  Plus, it gets a bit repetitive; how many examples can you give without concrete directions or concepts that go beyond the barest of bones, borderlining platitude?  Ugh, some colour, some fire, man.  I wonder if he regrets using Thiel and Musk as examples, the way I would hope Tony Robbins regrets using just about everyone he's used, particularly Donald Trump.)
Comics: Bloodstrike 5-6, Brigade v2 5, Team Youngblood 3
Music: Which Side Are You On?, Anti-Flag

reconciliation

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I would like to reconcile a lot of things; the question is, how?

Our pasts, personal and ancestral are littered with misdoings and tragedies.

How do we move on? Will we ever reach a point where we can be forgiven?

I’m not sure how to answer that. On one hand, I don’t want to spend my life feeling guilty for things I haven’t personally done, or heartbroken because of the sins of a world past my control.

On the other hand, we can’t just ignore it.

We have to level the playing field, I think.

No more classes; no more bigotry.

When that’s gone, I guess we can lose the last vestiges of shame and guilt and move on to joy and union.

So, a few million years ought to suffice. Where there are people, there will be abuse.

I think the trick is not to blanket the earth in order to deny the sun to the weeds.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1238 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Born For This, Chris Guillebeau
Comics: Image 0, Brigade v2 4, Team Youngblood 2, Bloodstrike 4
Music: Where You Been, Dinosaur Jr.