I love being a free man.

 Google Chrome is acting screwy again. It's not wanting to load anything but the home page. Nothing times out, it just doesn't load. Microsoft Edge works as does iTunes so it's not a connectivity issue. Matter of fact, this just happens with my tower. My laptop's Chrome is running fine. It did this the other day and only kicked back into gear after putting to sleep and waking up the computer. Weird. I need to get this thing looked at.

 Anyhow. Pennsylvania got through counting all their votes and the state goes to Joe Biden, which means he is the 46th President of the United States of America. Or is projected to be so, anyway. Like we discussed yesterday, there's something called "faithless electors" to contend with but I doubt they'll matter much. Regardless, it doesn't become official until the electors cast their votes and that doesn't go down until December 15.

 Of course, Trump is still pitching his fits and promising to fight it out on the hill that he was robbed all summer. However, the general consensus apart from the hardcore faithful is "sit down and shut up, you had your shot and muffed it." There's a lot of celebrations going on across the country and a lot of Very Serious People admonishing liberals and leftists. Reach out and try to build bridges, they say. Listen to the Trumpers who's been saying "fuck your feelings, America hater" for the last four years and try to understand where they're coming from. Sure.

 Before we get too much further, let's put out this week's News links. Of course, a lot about Tuesday's election this week. Monday was the lead-in and Wednesday was the fallout. Friday was a look at how interesting and unique this year's race was rolling out. From a purely observer's standpoint, as someone who just gets off on how the Game is played, it was entertaining as hell. As someone who has to live in this country and deal with its fellow citizens, it was nerve wracking as a son of a bitch.

 And to paraphrase a Twitter acquaintance, I'm not going to feel completely at ease until Biden is sworn in and Trump is running from the Southern District of the State Court of New York. Now Chrome is working. Weird. Momma just got back with supper from Peppertown Restaurant and I've completely lost my train of thought on this. To sum up, I reckon, unless something weird happens, Joe Biden is our next President and Trump will spend the next two months being as big a pain in the ass as he can be, partly to stay out of jail, partly out of an attempt to scuttle the Democrats, and partly because he's a dick.

 Moving on, I started and finished a rather neat science fiction book by one J.Z. Foster titled Hell On Mars. In a nutshell, the near-future of an alternate universe where the Cold War took a different turn and hasn't ended sees mankind is exploring the solar system among heating international tensions. On Mars, a former Nazi rocket scientist inadvertently opens a door to another dimension and Lovecraftian nasties come through as they are wont to do. A maintenance crew is sent to figure out why the Martian space station is gone black and shit goes south, as one would expect.

 As I've often stated, I'm a sucker for a good Lovecraftian horror set up especially if ol' Henry Phillip has nothing to do with it. It's not a revelation that his prose is almost unreadable purple, his racism, sexism and xenophobia leeks into his stories far too easily. One gets tired of reading how a bourgeoisie white dude from the early 20th century is scared of white people having sex with black people.

 Mixing Lovecraft and space travel seems like a perfect fit. So much of space is unknown and even if there are no gibbering extra-dimensional horrors from the dawn of time, we're still an insignificant part of a much, much greater whole. Movies like Event Horizon are great but not too give too much away, it's still too centred around human conceptions of reality, especially Western conceptions. One of the great strengths of Lovecraft's universe is that humanity is not important at all in the grand scheme of things if we make any noise at all.

 It's a quick, fun little read and a completely believable representation of a very pedestrian support crew being thrown knee-deep into the heaviest of shit. It is part of a series, though, and one never likes that. This was a quick read and did just what a book serial is supposed to do - that is, leave jonesing for the next book - but there are eight books in the series. The last time I dug into one of those it got so tedious I can't remember anything but the barest details. So, we'll see.

 Speaking of Lovecraftian horrors, thanks to the beautiful people at Humble Bundle, I've been messing around with the most recent Lovecraft-inspired game, Call of Cthulhu by Focus Home Interactive. So far, good enough if nothing particularly interesting or unique. Grizzled private dick with a troubled past gets hired for a mysterious case and has to go to Innsmouth, Lovecraft's Deep One-controlled crumbling fishing town. It looks nice and has some good atmosphere, but it doesn't bring much to the table that Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth did in 2006. A little less buggy, a bit sharper designed, but nothing really new so far. Granted, the Innsmouth Deep Ones business is probably my least favorite part of the Cthulhu Mythos and I can't for the life of me understand why it turns so many folks on.

 And that's enough for now. It's been a long week and I, for one, am glad it's over. From what I'm seeing on the internet, a collective sigh of exhausted relief is going on around the country.