Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Saturday, June 27, 2020
That Smokey Joe's a crazy fool.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Plant that bell and let it ring.
It's been a cool six months since I've smoked any weed. This isn't by choice. I currently live in rural Mississippi, and my only options are buying it from young people that I would otherwise have absolutely no contact with or from a guy my cousin's mother-in-law buys her pills from. He's called "the Tater Man". I ain't buying nothing from "the Tater Man".
Plus, I'm living with my mother and she's got rules that we will respect. Put simply, my dad passed away a couple of years ago and she turns 71 this year and ain't getting any healthier. Plus, she's taken care of someone - either Daddy or my uncle or my grandmother - for the past 20 years and was apparently at extremely loose ends. I've lost count of the number of people - people I've known all my life or people who've moved into the Valley since I moved out and don't know from Adam's housecat - who've said to me, "Thanks for coming back. We were worried." So far, it's worked for all of us, but back to the topic at hand.
This is the first time in let's say 15 years that I haven't stayed constantly stoned except when I was on the clock. Good weed, too. I got to a point where I wouldn't mess with any ditchweed, or what they called in New Orleans, reggie. Getting stoned works for me. You know how people will say getting high has a bad effect on them or makes them uncomfortable? Well, I'm the exact opposite. It sharpens the world and brings it all into clarity. What I enjoy straight, I enjoy even more and at a deeper level when I'm high.Same goes for LSD or mushrooms. I don't think I've ever had a bad trip. I've tripped in bad situations, but the trip wasn't the problem.
One of the many reasons I put off moving home and initially intended to move on as soon as possible was I was worried how the lack of the good smoke would affect me. It really wasn't all that bad, though. I've always been easy-going with occasional storms of gloom and grump, high or not, and that really didn't change too much. I'm not going to lie, though. I would completely whip someone's great aunt for a joint right about now.
That was last night. This is this morning. I initially started that for the Tumblr site before I realized I was passing on some grade-A Gibberish. So there's that there then. I stayed up most of the night playing Civilization VI. It's really not my sort of game but once I got into it, it was pretty engrossing. I was able to turn Spain into a combination Jewish-Muslim state before I gave in.
It's 8:30 a.m. and I can feel myself crashing. Luckily, I'm done with the Actual Paying Work for the month, barring requests for rewrites from the Chief. I figure after this month's pay I'll be two-thirds of the way towards the new laptop.
I wrote this on Twitter but I'll write it here because I think it's a good stroke. In short: if you don't want to "debate" with someone, don't. You don't owe anyone your time, especially if they're not paying for it. Particularly on social media, very few people are arguing from a place of honesty. Most of the time it's just to get you upset so they can mark a "win".
But here's the thing. Debates, arguments, what have you aren't really meant to win. They're for sharpening your thoughts and clarifying your ideas. It's not a contest, there are no prizes or accolades. You don't owe anyone your emotions and you don't owe anyone the benefit of the doubt. And as for cries of "echo chamber," let's just clear the decks on that right now. First off, anyone who uses that phrase seriously is not worth paying attention to and doesn't deserve your time. Furthermore, if they have Twitter they also have the entire internet at their disposal, just like you do. Because you don't want to waste your time and emotion on some limp-dick jackass who's not going to listen anyway doesn't mean you're in a bubble. Just means you're not going to give your time to a limp-dick jackass.
You know, I think we'll tie this off here. If something clever comes back around, well... we'll see. We're supposed to have a rainy afternoon and I foresee a lazy day.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
With the best behind us now, there's no way in and no way out.
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Look how far I had to come to get back where I started from.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
I might live a thousand years before I know what that means.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Yeah, man.
I used to be able to write stories for the newspaper for 10-12 hours in a row with rarely a break, but I can't do that anymore. Seriously, one 1,000-word piece does a number on me. It's part of the reason I've decided to do my fun writing in the morning. Anyhow, yesterday I had two pieces, and by the time I finished the first and took a break, the story about the possible poisoning of some NYPD officers at a Shake Shack was making the rounds. People - that is conservatives and other forms of authority worshipers - were calling for some poor working-class bastard's head on a pike. And usually, these are the "wait until all the info comes in before making a judgement" whenever a cop kills some black guy for shopping at Wal-Mart.
By the time I got the second piece done, however - and it was barely midnight - it had come out that an "investigation" was done and, turns out, there was no malicious poisoning aforethought. Apparently, an improperly cleaned shake machine was the culprit. No charges were filed, no cops were poisoned, and no heads were cracked. I'm going to be very generous here and say this wasn't like the situation where the cop thought someone took a bite out of his burger but it turns out he just forgot he did. Nor am I comparing it to the cop who wrote "Pig" on his receipt and tried to blame it on the cashier. And I'm not going to compare it to the many times the police or law enforcement officials have been caught walking back claims or outright lying these last couple of weeks of protesting.
Things are tense, especially in New York City and the fuzz there don't have the best record when dealing with the public or, for that matter, showing exceptional reasoning skills. It could have very well been an honest mistake and overzealous police, and we're all just lucky and thankful it didn't spiral out of control. Of course, the police could've been lying for whatever reason and trying to get back at Shake Shack for supporting Black Lives Matter. I'm not saying that's why, mind you. I'm just saying, hey... it's a possibility and one that makes more sense than a minimum-wage worker actively trying to poison a police officer in such a clumsy, easily traceable manner, particularly a cop from a police force known for indulging in a bit of the old extra violence from time to time. Let's face it, the burden of proof is always on New York's Finest and they have long since pissed away the benefit of the doubt.
So the day was already Dumb before it got good and started. Apparently, the quality journalists at Fox News are still pushing the poisoning lie, though I doubt that comes as a surprise to anyone. I know I shouldn't be but I'm always a bit shocked at how blood-thirsty and prone to authority worship conservatives reveal themselves to be on Twitter. Sure, it's a lot of talk and as much hot air as not, but people do have a sense of freedom online to say stuff that'd get their jaws slapped in real life. More than a few are letting us into their head space, and it is not a pleasant place to be.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
I feel a storm, all wet and warm, not ten miles away approaching my Mexican home.
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
I'm particularly pleased with Friday's effort. As a part of the general thing the country finds itself, in re: dealing with systematic racism, there's a serious movement in the Mississippi Legislature to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. I went into a little detail of why this is a big deal and why we're waiting until 2020 to make anything happen. A little history and a little background, that's what I'm here for.
Wednesday was pretty good, too, as a look at the mess that was the Georgia primary vote and what it bodes for November. In short: nothing good as the GOP will use all at its means to decide the election. Monday was a fairly bog-standard wrap up of the weekend's events concerning the protests across the country in reaction to the murder of George Floyd, the growing discontent among some higher ranking Republicans with Trump's chances come November, and a little bit about Tropical Storm Cristobel, which thankfully turned out to be not much of nothing. A good piece for what it was, though.
I've been keeping my eye on what's going on in Seattle, the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" or "CHAZ". In all things, I recommend eschewing the national press and paying attention to the folks who actually live in a place that's in the news. I've long been a fan of indie magazines, having written for several, and The Stranger is considered one of the very best. Plus, they're keeping a solid look on what's going on without the bias and ignorance of some of the national publications.
It seems folks in Nashville are trying to kick up a similar "autonomous zone" type thing, as well, despite dire warnings from Gov. Bill Lee. I don't know what he thinks he's going to do. I do believe that apart from the hard-core authoritarian types, any sort of government heavy handedness, from state or federal forces, doesn't go down as well as they think. It's interesting that a lot of the voices that have been screaming about government tyranny or Second Amendment rights - from the Bundy-types to the NRA - have been pretty quiet when the rubber is hitting the road. Undoubtedly, since this is happening mostly to black folks and left-leaning types, they're all of the sudden down to the ground with an authoritarian government ignoring basic civil rights.
Anyhow, The Nashville Scene is a pretty good magazine, as well. Full disclosure, they paid me less than $50 for a story about someone, I think either Slobberbone or The Drive-By Truckers, nearly 20 years ago. As I said, I've always preferred those sort of magazines and have worked for a couple in the past. They never pay well or, indeed, enough to live on - this is indie journalism, after all - but it's always much more fun.
Me and Momma had a fairly heavy conversation about all this and what it implies the other night. My mother is a very intelligent woman, but she is - by her own admittance - happily provincial and a bit naive about how the world outside Itawamba County actually is. She's also old fashioned and conservative. What I'm saying is she will listen but you have to take a hammer to her if you ever want to get anything through.
Plus, while she understands what I mean when I tell her about being an atheist who leans towards far-left anarchism, she really doesn't like those stances. I think I got it through to her why this autonomous zone business wasn't the popular perception of anarchy but rather the political connotation of anarchism. That is, a rejection of unearned authoritarian groups as someone automatically obeyed. If your "leadership" fails to the extent that it did the folks in Capitol Hill, or so they consider, feel they're justified in telling them to piss off and taking it over on their own.
If I get Sarah Thompson to understand that anarchism is a viable political ideology, I'll consider this a life well lived. Anyhow, that's plenty. I intend to keep the weekly stuff done in the morning (or as close to morning as I get) but anything goes for the weekend. In the meantime, keep safe, wash your hands, maintain social distancing, and don't let the bastards grind you down.