All my friends are wearing worried smiles, living out a dream of what they was.

 Man, it's been a weird week. Don't deny it, this is just not right and keeps getting dumber. Not only did the President of the United States of America in front of God and everybody asked one of his advisors if injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 cases would cure them, but he, his office and the general wingnut collective tried to shove it off three or four different ways. That might be scariest of all.

 But before we get too deep into it, let's serve up this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I think Friday's offering is particularly worth a look, as I go into one of my deep dives on just what he said, why he said it, why it's worrisome and why, no matter how they try, is it going to change a mind one way or another. The Base is unshakable.

 This is a milestone week, though. I got zero hits for the News. I mean, not a sausage, and I usually get at least three or four. I did pick up a new follower, so I don't know how that works but there you go. Got a lot of activity at the Tumblr site, though it was all for older stuff. Check out that Otis Spann tune, though, it's pretty good.

 Ah, the damn internet is dropping in and out again. Apart from lack of access to good smoke, that's about the only downside to living out here in the boonies. Dodgy internet and even when it's running, it's sometimes slow as Christmas.

 I just got back from a two-mile walk with my buddy Otis, the Jack Russell, and he thinks he wants to go out again. He's sitting under my chair sighing loudly. Every day he does this. We go for a walk for a mile or two, just long enough for him to get wore out, and after a short rest he's ready to go back out. And he'll keep doing it until past dinner, sleep for a while, and then spend another hour being a pain in the ass before calling it a night. It's getting on my nerves.

 Okay, enough of all that. No one wants to hear me gripe and I don't particularly want to, anyway. As weird a week as it's been, it's also been an okay one for me. The Actual Paying Work is going well and keeping me busy. The Bossman is happy with what I'm doing and it's nice to have something "serious" to show potential clients apart from this gig. It's boring as hell, but what are you going to do. I do get to write up a COVID-19 update and can have a little fun with that.

 But, like I tell the Bossman, it's good to have to occasionally write to someone else's rules. One of the biggest problems with today's media world is far, far too many writers are allowed to run loose with too little editing. And, no, I never thought I'd say that 20 years ago.

 It's keeping me busy and since it's Actually Work it's wearing me out. I'm kicking around the idea of dropping a day of News or Gibberish, and both of this week's offers of the latter reflect that. Goddammit, there goes the inter... hellfire, it's back. Anyhow, I thought about dropping a day, so what'd I do? Started another blog, of course.

 I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it. Spread across three blogs on three different sites at vastly different times, what I have going now is sort of sloppy. As of right now, it's going to be a place to dump links of articles or pieces of writing I find interesting but aren't inclined to read when I first come across them. Might do it with YouTube vlogs and whatnot, I don't know. I have a fairly dark take on the COVID-19 virus that I've gone back and forth on where to post it. It occurred to me today that the new site could be the "professional" site; that is, the one where I don't cuss like a sailor and call the president a moronic dirtbag who leads a horde of complete dirtbags. I don't know yet. Anyhow, it's here if anyone's curious.

 Dammit, there goes the... shit, it's back. You know, between this and Otis's constant whining, I'm developing a headache. Bah. Sometimes he gives in and goes in his box, but he is particularly petulant tonight.

 I broke down and bought XCOM: Chimera Squad yesterday, and though I've only given it an hour, I'm pretty pleased with it. It's a fun little game with a neat premise. If the first game is Independence Day and the second is Battlefield: Earth (for lack of a better reference), this one is Alien Nation, if anyone remembers that little gem. Five years after XCOM 2, the big bads are defeated, and the Earth is full of either alien POW's or formerly enslaved soldiers now dealing with freedom.

 You run a sort of military-slash-police group that's part of the XCOM organization. At least one of the characters from the second game, Jane Kelly, works as sort of a liaison between the Chimera Squad and the larger organization. The crew tries to keep peace in a specialized city populated by humans, various aliens, hybrids, and what all where someone is trying to disrupt the fragile peace.

 Most of the game mechanics are the same, though the turn-based part of it is less like the original games and more like something found in Divinity: Original Sin. You do a little door kicking, a la a SWAT team, called "Breaching" that's a fun little new addition to the game. Rather than trying to keep countries or continents from panicking, you're trying to keep neighborhoods from falling into anarchy. It's less than ten bucks until May 1 and well worth that price. It bumps up to $20 after that, and is still worth a buy.

 Because Fanatical was having a sale, I also picked up Breach & Clear, an XCOM-esque game that uses real world military groups, and The Long Journey Home, a space sim rougelike that has sort of the same backstory as Star Trek: Voyager. The player controls a spaceship made up of four crew members with different skills trying to get back to Earth from the other side of the galaxy. I'm not really familiar with either game, but since I'm a complete sucker for turn-based strategy games and off-the-wall outer space science fiction that aren't military based. I can add that to the backlog of games I haven't finished or need to give another shot. Good thing I've got nothing better to do.

Look how far I had to come to get back where I started from.

 Another programming note. I have some more Actual Paying Work due tomorrow. It's going to take a little research and thought, more so than the usual APW takes. So, I might not get past this before the night's out. The sleeping situation's been a booger and I just don't have the energy.

 Not a whole lot to get into anyway, stuff that won't go to the News. If this pace keeps up, I may have to pick a day to take a break. Probably one of the weekend days. In any event, Otis is fussing so we'd better hit the road. If I come back to this, I'll come back to this.

UPDATE: 7 P.M.

 Well, the walk was pleasant, although Otis doesn't appreciate it. He'll take a quick nap and thinks he's ready to go on another one. He'll stand at the door and cry like he's being beat. I appreciate that he enjoys the little constitutionals but it can be very annoying indeed.

 I've yet to start on the APW apart from doing a bit of research, saving some links and outlining in my head where I'm going with this. Long story short, I'm doing a COVID-19 update blog for a law firm in another state, which is about as interesting as this gets. Still, I enjoy it and it's a challenge to do it straight. That is, no smart-ass remarks, just uncut journalism. I keep telling the Bossman that it helps to have someone else's thumb on things.

 I've been waiting on supper to get done, which is why I haven't actually started the work. I hate to be interrupted when I'm working on a piece. It just completely throws me out of whack. I never developed good outlining habits, though, so even the smallest disruption could ruin the whole thing. The other problem is I've smoked my memory to hell, so unless I write it down it is gone. I'm getting better at it, though it's always been an issue. It's like never learning how to properly type, which I never did. I can hunt-and-peck like a beast, but that has its downsides.

 Okay, supper's done. Again, maybe I'll come back to this and maybe I won't.

UPDATE: 10:20 P.M.

 Well, that's that. Done with the update and when my brain cools down, I'll give it the going-over. I'm just under 400 words with this, so let's see if we can't finish it off.

 I'm sure we've all seen the daily Trump Dump where he asked if maybe using disinfectant or UV lights could get rid of COVID-19, all the while claiming super-genius status. Amusingly, the base didn't wait 30 minutes before claiming "that's not what he meant" before moving onto "he was just asking questions," apparently not realizing there's a time and a place for that which isn't in front of a national audience. It's merely latest in a long line of rock-stupid shit said by a rock-stupid man who's never been told he's rock stupid or had to suffer for it. And if anyone's surprised the Base is defending this and insisting that he is indeed a super genius, well, you haven't been paying attention the past three years.

 There is nothing that will shake them loose. Nothing. Give up. They're a lost cause. All the Trump voters who're going to peel off by November are long gone and even there most of them will vote for the dingbat because Joe Biden is a socialist or some dumb shit.

 I will defend the media, though. A bit, anyway. "Why do the networks keep showing this?" Because he's the president and that's their job. That's what "reporting" is, repeating what important people say. Is it a drag that they don't do more fact checking? Yeah, it is, but at the same time that's really not the job, not at that level.

 Some people should be fact checking the dopey bastard and people are. Daniel Dale, for example, has been doing a superlative job reporting on Trump's dopiness and why it's all horseshit. Another thing to keep in mind is the media at that level - the networks, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. - are owned by either extremely rich individuals or business concerns that are made up of extremely rich individuals. They have a vested interest in keeping the Status Quo and for all his dopiness, Trump does not threaten that. He might be a danger to its stability, but he's making the same money they are.

 It's the height of naivety to believe the ownership doesn't have influence on the in-the-trenches reporting. That's just a fact no matter how much we try to pretend it isn't. The Deadspin business last year when they canned all those writers for, and let's be honest, their political opinions not meshing with the bosses' should be the final word on that. I never was a reader but all reports say the rejuvenated Deadspin is less than zippy. But they're not going to buck the bosses, I bet you.

 That's just life and it is a booger. It's also one of the reasons I'll never go back to straight journalism. I've dealt with that shit more than once in almost every publication I've worked for, and it's not always been my fault. As I've said, I do consider what I do at the WordPress site anyway as "journalism". And as much as I'm soured working for them, the ongoing slow death of newspapers isn't something I enjoy seeing. I don't care about networks, for what it's worth, because I've never had much truck with them.

 Anyhow, we're pushing midnight and this is plenty. XCOM: Chimera Squad is released tomorrow and I'll probably pick it up before the weekend's out. I've read a few reviews which have, for the most part, been okay. It's a different beast than the first two games, but that's fine. I'm also thinking of picking up The Long Journey Home, which looks to have a neat premise. Need to do some more research first.