Category: travel

mom’s birthday cruise

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Well, onto the boat for my mother’s birthday. It’s been thirty years since I was on a cruise ship, and unlike when I was teenager, there will be less drunken idiots fucking around and falling over than before. Of course, there’s still hundreds of middle agers that don’t realize that and getting pissed up anyway.

At least there’s a nice steak dinner at the end of it.

Or would be, if this boat wasn’t rocking so much. I don’t remember the disorientation of sea legs from when I was seventeen. I do remember a friend of mine being terribly ill and asking me incredulously, “You don’t feel that?” to which I replied, honestly, “feel what?”

I thought he was being a pussy (which is a teenage euphemism for anyone suffering who is different than you and is a terribly inappropriate word to use, as anyone with half a brain knows a vagina is both tough as hell and sensitive as shit, which is a wonderful metaphor for something, probably).

Anyway, my head feels the pitch and roll now and so, Adam, sorry, dude. I thought you were being weak; turns out, I was just lucky enough not to suffer the same fate.

Until now.

Target: 400 words
Written: 374 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle
Comics: Nailbiter 5-8
Music: Just A Friend, Biz Markie (I still know every single word - to this day, this cannot come over speakers without me belting out the chorus)

that’s a lot of rain

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Nothing like going on vacation and having it rain inches for twenty-four hours straight.

We did get to the space museum, which was kind of neat, although I’m still conflicted about SpaceX and its association with Musk.

Also, they removed all references to the Challenger and Columbia. Why?

Because it was bumming people out.

Personally, I don’t think ignoring or erasing history is the way to go, and that honouring these brave sacrifices would be a better option, but the U.S. is getting more and more Orwellian every day.

Seriously. It’s like you can feel the people around you getting stupider.

Target: 400 words
Written: 1033 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Unlimited Power, Tony Robbins (I have lots to say about this, but I also have a whole book planned around the idea, so you know... no spoilers)
Comics: Nailbiter 1-4
Music: Just, Radiohead (may be one of my all-time favourite songs, if only for the moral of total and complete freedom and responsibility)

beachin’

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I love returning to the ocean. It is the birthplace of all the life that exists on this world – all of it can be traced to those first few sparks of life in the depths of our water.

I’m a water guy. As a kid, you couldn’t get me out of the pool. You couldn’t get me out of the lake. You couldn’t get me out of the ocean.

The draw is palpable when I’m near water, but especially that natural feel of a lake or ocean, the chill, the sand, the mud and muck, things flitting about you, the salt on your lips.

Bless us, mother Ocean. From your depths, we rise.

Target: 400 words
Written: 190 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Unlimited Power, Tony Robbins
Comics: Cyber Force/Hunter Killer 5
Music: Jump Back, The Rolling Stones (you know, you forget, sometimes, just how many great songs these guys have and you have to wonder... is the devil real?  Did they make that deal?  Is that how Keith Richards is still alive?)

muthafuckin’ scallops

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Oh, man. I have been waiting on Rusty’s scallops for the better part of two years now and they did not disappoint. We got a glimpse of the boat we’ll be taking to the Bahamas as well, while we ate, which is kind of cool.

I haven’t been on a cruise since I was seventeen, so this should be interesting. I’ve no idea really what to expect. We took a river cruise last year, but I gather this is quite a bit different.

Also, since I’m travelling with family and not a bunch of rowdy, drunken teens, there are likely to be a few less shenanigans (but just a few).

Target: 400 words
Written: 146 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Unlimited Power, Tony Robbins
Comics: Cyber Force/Hunter Killer 1-4 (Rocafort is a fucking brilliant artist, isn't he?)
Music: Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper (love, love, love the atmospheric nature of this album.  Skyscraper is definitely getting use in the Mungk playlist)

cape canaveral

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A short haul with Delta, a bad book to read, and a cold, chilly day capped by a pretty good dinner at a surprisingly empty restaurant along the port.

Sadly, there will be no launches this week. That’s always cool, even if it touches on my irritation with Elon Musk and how it conflicts with my admiration of space travel in general, and how cool reusable rockets are.

I am assuming at this point they succeed in spite of him, and certainly not because of it.

Target: 400 words
Written: 408 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Unlimited Power, Tony Robbins
Comics: Hunter Killer 12, Fusion 1-3 (ugh, what a shitpile mess that was)
Music: Juicebox, The Strokes

florida bound

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Let’s start with a vacation. Standard issue, as they say.

Florida. Not Disney World this time, although we are flying into Orlando. No, we’ll go to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, then hope on a big ol’ boat and head off to Nassau.

Lunching with the Kennedys, probably, right?

Sadly, no. We do okay, and we can travel a couple of times a year, but that’s about it.

Most of it is local; we do try somewhere tropical at least once a year.

But… and this is a big one. We aren’t getting paid any more. The price of everything is going up.

Suddenly, it’s not cheap to fly to Jamaica or Cuba. It’s not cheap to drive the I-75.

I get that it’s all greed and short term thinking these days, but how can anyone, anywhere, in politics or business, think this is sustainable? Are they just trying to squeeze us dry and then walk away laughing as everything burns?

I mean, the stupidity and disdain for fellow humanity in such a mindset is appalling.

These are the true criminals; the ones who ought to be ousted from society.

Target: 400 words
Written: 2344 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: 100 Selected Poems, e.e. cummings
Comics: Hunter Killer 8-11 (good concept, in desperate need of a longer development period and a competent editor.  Wasn't Mark Waid an editor?  He should know how to keep things straight.)
Music: Judgment Night, Cypress Hill et al