Friday, September 20, 2019

Friday, September 20, 2019

  The arrogance of people online just blows my mind. You have a podcast, a vlog, or a YouTube channel.  So does everyone else. Seriously, it's ridiculous how much clout folks think these things - which is available to everyone who has internet access - will give them. Especially on Twitter, which is available to everyone with a smart phone & time to kill. We forget that everyone having a megaphone means you're probably not adding anything to the cacophony.



 Rita Mae Brown wrote The Slumber Party Massacre. I had no idea. It was supposed to be a spoof of slashers, but I wonder about that. 'Course, it was made in the '80s, so who knows. Well, Roger Corman produced it, so there you go.

 Yes, I am watching a movie review YouTube thing. I go through phases where it'll be movies or video games or wrestling or comic books, but it never stays in one place. For the movies, mind, it's rarely current reviews & more like deep dives into trash cinema since I neither go to or care about modern cinema.

 This guy is not that good. I'm not going to snitch on the dude - you do you, hoss, have a good time - but I have definitely seen better. These days I like the deep dives & explanations behind the movies, like the guy who does Good Bad Flicks, even though he takes a tedious dudebro take on certain things. Anyhow, something to fill the hours along with the plethora of documentaries on YouTube, but you got to be careful with those. More than once, I've nodded off to Ancient Egypt & woke up to Why The Templars Rule The World.

 Been doing a deep dive into the classic honky tonk, particularly guys like Stonewall Jackson & Charlie Walker. The direct descendants of Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell & Ray Price, plus the Live From Austin, TX selections for Willie & Waylon. Those are pretty good & you should check 'em out if you're a fan of country music. I particularly recommend the ones for the Texas Tornadoes & Tony  Joe White. There also available on DVD & lots of fun.

 As for reading material, I came across this thing called Rookie Privateer by Jamie McFarlane It's fairly entertaining, though not what I usually look for in space sci-fi. It's what's known as "hard science fiction" where real-world physics are adhered to rather than softer stuff like Star Wars or Doctor Who. Long story short, some lifelong friends who're living on an asteroid mining camp make their way to becoming transporters & space pirate hunters.

 It does go into excruciating detail; like three or four pages on one of the protagonists cleaning out his ship's bathroom. But McFarlane manages to make it a pretty quick read, so it flows along quite nicely. The characters aren't earth-shaking when it comes to originality but enjoyable enough. It appears to be part of a series of separate-but-interconnected stories in an over all universe, & I like that. Check it out.

 The Sleep got a-hold of me pretty heavy today. Let Otis out, go back to sleep, stay down until about 1 p.m., hit the gym, & then sleep until supper. I'm just letting it ride. It puts me in a foul mood & makes my brain slushy, but I don't know how to fight it off. So, since I have nothing requiring my attention besides this Work, Otis, Bounce, & my own health, I might as well indulge.

 I don't like it, though, & I'm tired of never feeling good. I haven't felt good in over five years. It's tedious & I don't think I can just chalk it up to middle age. Momma, the Ex, the Angels, all of them are older than me yet none feel as dragged down as I feel. They get shit done. It's tiresome, & right now in the mood I'm in, I'm really tired of dealing with it. And that, friends & neighbors, is what I'm tired of most of all.

 Anyhow, let's look at the news.

 I really haven't dived into this whole Ukraine-Iran thing, but it's starting to boil over & I need to try to wrap my head around it. Long story short - & here's a good rundown on the whole thing from The Washington Post - is that the Trump Administration is holding financial aid from the Ukraine until the country digs into some possible dirty deeds, notably one by potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden's son (according to them, of course). The president & his consigliere Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly denied he & the administration have leaned on the Ukraine for that $230 million package just to turn around & admit they did just that.

 This was being hidden from the public until a whistleblower complaint spilled the porridge. This, of course, has chaffed Trump's ass, as he cannot stand disloyalty or, indeed, not having his ass kissed. One thing that should be noted is that the Ukraine has long had a low-simmering confrontation with Russia, who's still pissed off the country split off as soon as the could after the fall of the Soviet Union. The U.S. has traditionally kept out of this conflict (or as much as they could without getting caught at it).

 Now, as a possible "wag the dog" situation, the war drums against Iran have been upped with the Pentagon announcing it'll deploy U.S. forces to the Middle East. The excuse for this was an attack on oil fields in Saudi Arabia earlier in the week, supposedly by Iran, who have promised retaliation against U.S. aggression. So, while we're still bogged down in Afghanistan & really haven't extracted ourselves from Iraq, we're going to take on a country that hasn't had the shit kicked out of it for the past 20 years, all on the say-so of a country that really, really isn't our buddy.

 So, to protect a guy who doesn't really want to be president & really, really shouldn't be president, god knows how many young people & Iranians will die for... nothing. We show we've learned nothing from Iraq, from Vietnam. I don't know, man, we're aren't going to do this again, are we? Doesn't anyone see how this is really not a good idea? I mean, even Russia is making fun of our stumble-bumming around. Man, they have got to be laughing their asses off in all this.

 Okay, some good news. Google has apparently nailed down making a quantum computer, & that's pretty goddamn neat. It'll be a 53 qubit machine dedicated to working problems in chemistry & physics that normal computers can't do. It'll be a while before the tech trickles down to us plebes, but exciting news nevertheless.

 Finally - & this really cool - a kid in Dorsey (of all places) has inked a publishing deal. That is cool. A seventh grader at Dorsey Attendance Center named Elias Mask has signed for a four-book YA deal with publisher Charlie's Port, which specializes in art from young creators. Good job, Elias, & congratulations. Keep writing, partner.

And that's that. I haven't made any more plans about an upcoming wander as my heart's just really not into it. Maybe I'll be in a better frame of mind after the weekend.

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