I may be blue forever after, but life can't always be diamonds and dreams.

 I need to knock something out, I guess. I'm just not switched on today for whatever reason. One of those days where I woke up in a bad mood and stayed in a bad mood. I don't know why but there it is.

 As I think I've said, I had some paying work this week and that's cut down a bit on my fooling around. I didn't do anything over a Tumblr but did keep up The News. Nothing great, granted, but all solid stuff. Sort of a solid B outcome that makes, if for nothing else, a nice baseline.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 One of the reasons I've stayed in a bad mood is the country's attitude concerning how we're dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. All over the country, AstroTurfed "protests" against governors' stay-at-home orders have popped up with goddamn Trump egging them on. It's gotten seriously dumb, too, with people claiming everything from communist-backed plots to dark warnings of Satanic influences pushing humanity towards the Armageddon.

 And frankly, this is all just too stupid for me to deal with. The media's laziness is helping the rather small group of loud yay-hoos with financial backing from the same people who own Blackwater, making it seem larger and more influential than it really is. In his daily rallies, Trump's gotten increasingly unhinged, not just in this area but in general. However, since most of these protests have taken place in states governed by Democrats - except one in Austin, Texas, led by Alex Jones for some reason - this has played into his stirring up the people as well as stroking his ego.

 It's so dumb and I've got to the point where I say damn the torpedoes and let the humanoids "go back to work" if that's what they want. There's enough liquid wealth in this country that we could keep everyone comfortably afloat well past the time it'd logically take scientists, medical experts and epidemiologists to maybe figure out something to actually deal with this epidemic that's caused the deaths of over 38,000 people. However, the wealthy class apparently cannot tolerate even a slight loss in the never-ending flow of cash into their dragon horde-like piles, much less throw in a little dosh to help the people that actually do all the labor that makes them rich.

 Those same scientists, medical experts and epidemiologists are saying that while this "social distancing" and "stay-at-home" orders - the very thing these peckerwoods are "protesting" - are actually working and giving folks a much needed breather. These same people are also screaming about hospitals artificial inflating numbers for governmental funds or, even dumber, Bill Gates is trying to slip in some sort of tracking device into any potential vaccinations.

 Of course, this is pulling in not just the anti-vaxxers nutters and Sovereign Citizen goons as well as the Q dingbats and Second Amendment clowns. Plus Alex Jones, so just plain old conspiracy grifters. Sort of a Justice League of the most embarrassing ideologies in the United States with the added bonus their actions will probably lead to more COVID-19 cases and deaths, and the President is wetting himself in glee as he explicitly gives them the nod and goads them on.

 If it weren't for my friends and family that could die from this, including my 70-year-old mother, I'd say to hell with them. They shriek about their Constitutional rights being trampled by state tyranny, when none of that has happened, mainly because they have no idea how that's supposed to work. At the same time, Trump's people are making money off this hand over fist while they actively work to dampen the people's ability to influence their government. And these wingnut dipsticks are hoping the federal government trounces the states' sovereignty because if you didn't know conservatives weren't hypocrites already, I can't help you.

 And don't get me started on the "I refuse to vote for Joe Biden because I really don't care what Trump represents and what he'll do with another term because it doesn't affect me" Left. Left to swing in the wind by Bernie Sanders - a fine example of why the hope of a Great Man to come and fix everything is a dumbass stance - they've now turned on Noam Chomsky because he's endorsed voting for Biden to get what he calls the "gangster in the White House" out. It's sort of funny to watch the Twitter political science brigade twist themselves in knots over this while still claiming their voices are worthy of my attention. "Punishing the DNC" is more important than any harm Trump could do and if his election basically kills any progressive moments for the next two generations, it's worth it if the Democratic party knows they don't like them.

 Ah, me. I'm just in a bad mood, like I said, and I've actually had a fairly quality week. I got some great feedback from my Editor at the new Freelancer gig. It's only going to score me around $70 or so, but the ego boost is worth its weight in gold. Furthermore, it wasn't the distraction and disruption I worried it might be. It all came along easily like in the old days, and that's an even better boost to my self-esteem. I don't know quite how to explain it, but losing that little skill staggered me pretty badly for quite a while. But here we are and that's good.

 Plus, I'm still pumped about the upcoming release of XCOM: Chimera Squad next Friday. More I look into it, the more pumped I become. I went back and played a little Rebel Galaxy Outlaw last night and it's still a fun little mess if a bit grindy. Still working on From Eternity To Here and starting to finally get out of the "here, we have to explain quantum mechanics/Einstein's relativity/basic cosmology first" weeds to get into the good stuff. Something else worth noting is that was the book I had on deck way back when I quit reading for whatever reason I quit reading, so again, another nice ego boost.

 Okay, it's getting late and the internet's being a pain, so let's go ahead and pinch this one off.