charity

Is charity the same as kindness? It certainly can be.

It can also be a way of keeping people dependent. Or making oneself look good at the expense of someone else’s suffering.

Is charity truly kindness, or does that depend entirely on circumstances?

Certainly, there are hundreds of charities that exist solely to be someone’s write-off, a billionaire’s scam, a business where the CEO still pays themselves like a Fortune 500 CEO (see Way, United).

An act of kindness does not have to be charity.

It does not even have to be nice. Sometimes, the greatest kindness is telling someone a hard truth. It may not seem kind, but lying to them, or allowing them to continue to live a lie is far more cruel.

Sometimes, the kindness is in saying nothing at all.

Sometimes, it’s not helping at all. Letting someone find her own way.

Sometimes, charity is another word for condescension. Another word for oppression.

Another word for kindness.

Context and perspective are everything.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 570 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne (here we go again with the cannibals)
Comics: Noble Causes 32-33, Dynamo 5 12-13
Music: Undefeated, Frank Turner

poop breath

My baby Sofi is a wicked cute little girl, but she’s fucking gross.

Sami had a reaction to his painkillers and had diarrhea under the bench in our entryway. By the time the smell hit us, Sofi had already eaten every last drop.

Needless to say, face kisses are a strict no for the foreseeable future.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2585 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne
Comics: Invincible 48-49, Dynamo 5 11, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve 2
Music: No Man's Land, Frank Turner (the obsession continues)

no time again

Cat surgery. Hopefully nothing major.

But yeah. Sucks.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1762 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne
Comics: Dynamo 5 9-10, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve 1, Brit v2 4
Music: England Keep My Bones Down, Frank Turner (still more obsessed)

i see we’re back here

Back to having all my time monopolized by everyone and everything else.

Fuck.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1557 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat (I'm already writing the television adaptation in my head)
Comics: Brit v2 2-3, Invincible 46-47
Music: Frank Turner Essentials, Frank Turner (OBSESSED)

frustrating

You know how you spend a bunch of time working on something, then, ten minutes after you finish, you get an email telling you all of the stuff you did, well, the rules have changed and it no longer needs to be done, and those hours you put in?

Yeah, you have to go back and undo it.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 972 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat
Comics: Invincible 45, Noble Causes 31, Dynamo 5 7-8
Music: Frank Sinatra Essentials, Frank Sinatra (you know, I expected to hate this, but... I did not)

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