Friday, August 30, 2019

 Going to be shooting for Gonzo today, so fair warnings. I've communed with the front yard & I spent time with everybody, so I'm in a positive, healthy frame of mind. Again, fair warnings.


If you spend anytime online & especially on Twitter, there is a subculture of people who get off on being complete buttholes, call them "edgelords" or "shitposters" or, if you're old like me, "trolls". Apart from being just awful, what maybe unites all of them, regardless of intentions, is the absolute banal drudgery of all of it. I mean, it's rarely original & when it is, it doesn't take long before it's ground to mulch by ever half-bright screwhead who's mad about jerking off again instead of just enjoying it.

 And it's not just people still calling other people "NPC's" like it's a devastating riposte, it's that their using the same insults & baited comments they did 30 years ago. The pro-racism arguments & jeremiads against any hint of gun control, I heard when I started paying attention back when I was a kid. They merely have the same megaphone as, potentially, the president or royalty or famous people or even just people who've studied something a lot. In that way, Twitter is the Great Equalizer.

 Like that MAGA hat kid from that Conservative Catholic high school in Kentucky smiling that shit-eating smile at that elder from the Omaha Nation We've all seen that smile. I can think of the guy, & if you can't, it was probably you, you smug jackass.

 Another stroke. Not that what is taught & has been taught in nearly all cultures as rhetoric & modern man's conception of "Debate Me", but that is a skill that can be taught to pretty much anyone in a relatively short amount of time. They may not do it well, but that's a whole different discussion. What should be noted is that there's not really all that significant difference between paying attention to Ben Shapiro as it would be almost anyone else.

 With that little bit of wisdom, however, rhetorical kung fu is really not all that impressive. Being a plumber, for example, is more useful than being a political pundit. A cook, more useful still, even when plumbing is no longer applicable. Those are skills that can be taught, that anyone can at least do competently if not necessarily fluently & it isn't necessary. You can be an Artist at cooking &, yes I do believe, at plumbing.

 And maybe at rhetoric or debating or whatever the hell the kids are calling it these days. "Owning" I'm just not making any bets on if this has any cause-&-effect with regards to today's concept of "successful human who should be happy",  & just who does make the nut - & more emphatically - who doesn't but I do think it's worth pondering. Or it may not be, yeah?

It's funny how a typo can change someone's perception, even if it's just a in little bit.

 And now, some music that worked well with the scenario & are highly recommended.

The Eagles before cocaine. Of course I'm fond of this tune due to it's connection to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. This was a good decision. Last year, & I forget the author, but I read a Space Western where magic existed & was utilized by & in fact necessary for being a true cosmic cowboy. I wish I could remember the guy's name, because I would totally read more books like that.

I'm genetically inclined to dig a cheating song, I think. It's something about being several generations of living on God's Little Acre, I feel. Just a thought.

This is where the guy who wrote The Futurama opening theme song got it from. Maybe I just don't know, but that looks like Led Zeppelin-level ripoff right there. I don't get gooey about Matt Groening-created entertainment. I mean, it's okay, but I doubt I could successfully quote anything like I'm apparently supposed to. Reckon not watching The Simpsons regularly until 10 seasons into it has something to do with it.

 And this is where gonzo breaks down.

 Hurricane Dorian has upgraded to a Category 3, & them that know are saying it could be a 4 by landfall. Furthermore, it's acting screwy, so they're not sure where & when it'll hit. Apparently it isn't playing by the rules.

 I've got a bad feeling about this one. I thought Barry would be worse than it was but knew Maria was going to be nasty. I wouldn't say I've picked up a sense of this, but I did go through Bonnie in Florida, along with the just in general brutal 1998 season, & I rode out Issac, which was huge & just sat on us for a minute. Y'all be careful, is all I'm saying. My oldest cousin & her husband just left Florida - Fort Lauderdale, in fact - & she just called to let us know she was cutting short their visit to miss the storm. Do that if you can.

 I don't want to spend too much time on it because I really, really don't give a shit why the guy's being a butthole, he just is, so you can Google "Dave Chapelle" yourself if you're curious. But - & this is not an insignificant "but" - one of his recurring characters was a crackhead, & there is no one more fucked than a crackhead. Maybe a methhead or speedfreak or someone who's hooked on pills, but the point is a crackhead is pretty fucked & he thought that was something to make mockery of & we all laughed along.

 Why was it funny then & the natural emergence mean-spirited now? Who knows. Who cares? It just is, & if you enjoy that sort of thing, well, go get your own damn cookie. I have none for you.

 It reminds me of years back when people got twisted about CeeLo Green changing a word on "Imagine". Certain folks in certain circles I ran in got big mad. A fairly significant word was changed, true, & which made for a notable if small difference in the overall experience. I don't know why anyone was shocked a black guy from Atlanta in the early Aughts is religious, though. I mean, come on now.

 There's been some fooferaw about Elizabeth Warren getting a harder look from the Serious Media because she's surging in popularity. Oh, sure. Along with this comes some criticism of Bernie Sanders' elbows or, more specifically, the ones belonging to the "BernieBros". I'm not going to discuss differences in either policies or styles, but this thing does bring out the shitasses.

 If there's anything all, the biggest mark against Bernie is he hasn't told his faithful "Listen, you bastards, if everyone else decides they'd rather have someone else, you vote for that someone. The guy fired someone because he thought she was fat & thinks he can nuke hurricanes." Got to beware of the faithful, the enemy of the good is perfect, all that sort of thing. Something to study on.

 I need a new drug. This Wellbutrin ain't getting the job done. I'm almost afraid to consider of how much a cliche I am for being unable to depend on the Positive Wave except when I commune with the front yard or seeing new Earths. I love the get stoned & I love to travel. That ain't going to be enough. It is not a tenable situation. I don't know how in the hell I would, but I guess it'd be possible to get it right on my own in one place. Ain't saying that it ain't, I just don't feel like waiting.

 Is there any more news before we blast off for the furthest reaches? Oh, boy, Ole Miss is going to allow the sale of alcohol at football games come Saturday. This comes off a decision back in May to lift a conference-wide ban that dates back to sometime in the '70s, but apparently you don't put tha sort of information in stories for your fancy sports website/magazine anymore. There's data saying incidents of unbridled drunken assholery going decreased at schools that turned the tap back on, but I don't know. Hell, I ain't going. Knock yourself out, dickweeds.

 Now watch me not be able to do this tomorrow.