Hell, I don't know.

  I'm not going to dick around with this today.

 A little insight on My Day. I usually get up sometime between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. if I haven't stayed up all night. First breakfast, and then any last looks that Actual Paying Work might need. If there's none of that, it's a news bath until right around noon. Then I take a nap until 2 or 3 p.m., whereupon I go to the gym for an hour. Upon coming home, me and Otis spend some time outside walking the property until it's time for supper. Interspersed there's another news bath, and either I'll play some games or watch some movies or read until I fall asleep, usually around 2 a.m. There's also a good possibility of at least one more nap thrown into all that because I like naps.

 I said all that to say all this. I've been letting the Gibberish slide too much lately. Well, I've been letting everything slide too much, but this especially. I'll think to myself, "I'll have something to write about later this evening," only to forget and not think of it until 5 a.m.

 So, here we are filling up space during the post-walk, pre-supper news bath. And for the record, a "news bath" is a concept taken from Frank Zappa. He'd spend his afternoons clicking between various television news programs. I don't watch television news if I can help it, so my news bath is internet sources. I'm sure Frank would understand.

 Anyhow. While I don't get as much feedback as I'd like, I do get some. Mostly clicks and the occasional like, and that's fine. Once in a while, I'll get an email or a comment. Nothing heavy, just some variation of "I agree" or "I didn't know that, thanks." The latter is what I'm going for, but it's all nice.

 However, and this always comes from Tumblr, I get some utter nonsense. The News posts automatically to Tumblr and once in a while I get some dopey comment from someone who obviously didn't read past the opening paragraph that's repeated on Tumblr, and they decide to get cute. Now, I'm not going to try to figure out why Tumblr is like it is, but I do want to note that I've gotten complete silly shit from gun worshippers, reasonable liberals, and soi-disant socialists, but they all have one thing in common.

 They didn't read the whole piece. Y'all, read the whole piece or at least read the whole section because I do sometimes break it up. But read the whole piece, I beg you. Just because I criticize mass shooters doesn't mean I'm anti-gun. Just because I question what Nancy Pelosi's trying to do doesn't mean I think she's the font of all political evil. Just because I wonder about leftists' actions having any effect doesn't mean I'm hippie punching. And so on. Read the whole piece, kids, or leave me alone.

 And so much for all that. I caught an entertaining flick last night on Tubi called The Night Watchmen. In short, a group of titular night watchmen and a reporter have to survive a night in a newspaper office filled with vampires which are led by a popular television clown. It's a horror-comedy with a Shaun of the Dead sort of thing going. It's pretty witty, isn't too gory, there aren't too many cringe-inducing moments, and it's fairly well-made all together. Check it out.

Whoops.

  Forgot to put up links to this week's News yesterday. Since I haven't written today's News yet, I won't bother with recaps. You know how the week's gone.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I will say it seems like a lifetime ago we found out about Trump's tax shenanigans and it was only Monday. Interesting times, indeed.

I know one thing. Nobody can sing those blues like Hound Dog Taylor.

  It's Saturday night's Gibberish, and I'm not going to put the shuck on you, friends and neighbors. I got nothing. We're going to fill up the white space, but I'm really not in the mood and my brain feels like it's hung up on a stump. So anyhow, here's this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Not my best week, admittedly. Monday and Friday were all right for what they were. The former a start-of-the-week glance and the latter a decent wrap-up. Wednesday sort of went off the rails, though. For whatever reason, I spent most of the day hiding under the bed trying to ignore the universe. And while it wasn't much for News, it did turn out to be some half-decent Gibberish. It linked the Democrats "virtual convention" - particularly them going live to different states to let them show off a bit - and my cross-country Big Trip from last year. It is a beautiful country full of lovely people, and it's only a shithole because we want it to be.

 I really need to come up with a better name for this, whatever it is, than "Gibberish". It lacks a certain gravitas, of course, but I also think it's limiting me as a writer. I've noted again and again (and again and again) that while I enjoy writing and truly believe I have a certain flair for it, there really has to be something more I can bring to the table than this, whatever it is. If for no other reason, I need to come up with something unique because what the world really doesn't need is another middle-aged white man stroking his chin at the issues of the day.

 I've been listening to a lot of Hound Dog Taylor lately. Nothing too deep in that, I just want to give him his ups. I'm particularly fond of that Elmore James-inspired "slashing" slide guitar like from him, J.B. Hutto, and Homesick James. Plus, the HouseRockers might be the hottest backing band in juke-joint blues.

 What else? I've been getting knee-deep into Pillars of Eternity II lately. It's pretty much all I've played the last week. I'm almost to the endgame with one character (a rouge-ranger hybrid), so of course, I've spent the last week experimenting with different classes, different play styles, and different ways to approach the story. One thing I appreciate about games like this is how they have an overall narrative and plot the game requires you to follow, but along the way, you can make up your own reasons why your character acts as it does. Same thing with the XCOM games; the What and Where are there, but the How and Why is mine. We sort of share the Who.

 I wonder if that's why my brain's felt like molasses the last couple of days. All of my creative energy, such as it is, goes into that game. And this is coming off a week where all I could do is watch documentaries on YouTube and read. I managed to finish The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, enjoying it much more than previously. I also read Philip K. Dick's Eye In The Sky. Fun book, but someone said he has better ideas but not the sufficient skill to put them down into a story, and that book is a prime example of that.

 Or it may be the values dissonance messing with me. For all his weird ideas, Dick was a pretty old-fashioned due, particularly when it came to male and female relationships. Most of your male science fiction writers from back in the day - say, before the '80s, definitely - were pretty stodgy and old-fashioned. And unimaginative, too, like they couldn't comprehend a world where women were anything more than secretaries who either wanted to fuck you or had something wrong with them.

 Dick's a little better than most when it comes to portraying African Americans, and this book had a good Black character, even if the point-of-view character was a Dick avatar, like everything he wrote. Off the top of my head, I can't think how he's dealt with LGBT characters, but I do remember Harlan Ellison being extremely shitty about in "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream." However, Ellison's a butthole, great writer or no, and he's got a history of being shitty to women in the real world.

 Okay, then. That's word count and supper's almost ready. I might come back, but I probably won't.

If I die and my soul be lost, it's nobody's fault but mine.

 I took on a bunch of Actual Paying Work that's due tomorrow afternoon, and since I've had another day, I'm going to get this either knocked out or started first. At least going to try to get a jump on it. Unfortunately, I really don't have much I feel like talking about, particularly not for 500 words.

 However, since I didn't do it Saturday because of my morose gonzo journey to the center of my mind, let's lay down some News links from last week. I'm going to start with the best. The Weekend is usually just a space-filler and a chance to wrap things up. However, this time around I wrote about the passing Rep. John Lewis and Bro. C.T. Vivian, their loss to the current culture, and what it all means. It's pretty good, and I'm pretty proud of it.

 

 Monday was a deep-ish dive into the whole business surrounding the Washington football team's planned name change, why it finally came about, and how it wasn't quite as cut-and-dried as we might think. We looked at the current state of the 2020 Presidential Election Wednesday and Friday we looked at what's going on in Portland that's about to be rolled out to the rest of the country. Wednesday showed how Trump is stumbling and Friday shows what he plans to do to shore his popularity numbers up. I've said a couple of times I'm less worried about what he'll try and more worried what My Fellow Americans will allow or enthusiastically embrace. Something like 24% of the population would be down with a "strong leader" that didn't concern themselves with Congress or piffle like that, and our history as a country backs that up. It's going to be an interesting summer.

 Okay. To work.

 Four hours later, and I just laid down around 1,600 words on construction contract law in New York. I've got three more pieces to get done by tomorrow afternoon, and at least one of them is about union laws. You know how much pull unions have in the South? I used to belong to the Mississippi Press Union, or whatever it was called, but that was many years ago. My brain is already feeling mushy, put it that way. So I believe I'll tie this off here. What I get for screwing around.

Whoops!

  Seems I got so fired up yesterday that I forgot to add links to this week's news. Well, let me do that now.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Monday and Wednesday were your basic news round-ups, focusing on the Mississippi flag and the whole "Russians paying Taliban to kill American soldiers, Trump knew and didn't care" thing that seems to not be making a dent in the GOP. Friday was actually a lead-in to yesterday's lament about the state of the world today and the continuing purification of the American Dream, turns out.

 For those that don't know, I do something similar to this at the WordPress site for the weekend. Links to stuff here and a more opinion-oriented piece than the regular News. So now I'm about to head over and stare at the screen until something pops out for that. Salute.

Back at the funny farm.

 Just a quick bit of housekeeping before Otis and I take our afternoon constitutional. I have some Actual Paying Work due tomorrow, so this may be it. As always, I'm putting this down just for continuity's sake so I don't forget.

 I might come back after I finish the APW. All depends. I'm still a bit drained and thick brained from the last couple days, and I'm not sure it's just residual exhaustion from The Dispossessed. I stayed up late last night playing the original XCOM after finishing the APW due today. I'm sure that didn't help.

 Speaking of books, I started Leviathan Wakes, the first novel of James S.A. Corey's "Expanse" series. I forget who recommended it to me, but thanks whoever you are. I've just really started but I'm digging what I'm reading so far. Hard science fiction, a space opera that hasn't left the Solar System, and a gang of slightly roguish, blue-collar types as protagonists. Plus, there's a space cop operating from corporate-owned Ceres. All very nice, and definitely kicks Something From Darkside to the curb for a bit.

 Well, I guess I'd better look into taking that walk. I was hoping to wait a little while longer so it'd cool off some. However, Otis has started his "poor, pitiful me" whining and I am a weak man. So, maybe we'll swing back around before the night's over. It's just shy of 5  p.m., signing off.

UPDATE: It's 8:40 p.m. and I'm done with writing and the first read-through edit of the APW. I'm not quite ready to jump into playing any games. Probably one of the XCOM games tonight, though I might give Sid Meier's Civilization VI, this week's free game from Epic, a spin. I got it yonks ago via Humble Bundle, I think, but I think I just played the tutorial. We'll see. I do want to get back to Leviathan Wakes, as well, and I can't think of anything I want to watch.

 I'm finally digging into the last couple AC/DC and Motörhead records. They're pretty good if you like AC/DC and Motörhead, and I do. There's more of the latter than the former, though, as Lemmy and the boys churned out a slab of rock & roll every couple of years while Angus and Malcolm and the lads take a little more time. I imagine it has something to do with the size of the crowds they play. I know Motörhead play bigger venues outside of the states, but I've never seen them in anything but a large-ish music club or, to be more specific, the Tabernacle in Atlanta. I don't think AC/DC has played anything smaller than a stadium since Back In Black.

 And let's be honest, the new stuff from AC/DC's 2008 Black Ice could've come from any album from the last almost 40 years. It's the original Brian Johnson line-up with Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams, and Brendan O'Brian's production is sharp and meaty as always. I haven't gotten into Rock Or Bust, the first AC/DC album ever without the late Malcolm Young, because that just depresses me.

 The Motörhead stuff is much the same. Since settling down with Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee in the mid '90s, the band's stomped out generally satisfying, fun records that may not surprise, but they never disappoint. With a couple missteps here and there - like Snake Bite Love or maybe, maybe Sacrifice - it's been a solid run of kick-ass, well, Motörhead. You know what you're getting.

 I interviewed Lemmy back when dinosaurs walked the Earth, and he was nothing but class. They played a show in Atlanta with The Supersuckers and Nashville Pussy, and after the show I went backstage to say howdy to some folks I knew. Lemmy walks past me, stops and says, "You're coming to the after party, right?" So I did. Talked with Phil and Mikkey for a bit, too, and they were some sweet cats. Again, it makes me a little sad that Lemmy's passed on, but I know he had a helluva run for someone who lived with let's say gusto he had and had a better time than most of humanity.

 I really ought to buy a new Motörhead t-shirt. The iconic one with Snaggletooth on it, nothing fancy. I wore the last one to pieces. Perhaps when I lose a little weight. They don't make t-shirts for Doug Sahm or Booker T. & The MG's, I reckon. Ah, well.

Keep my nose to the grindstone, work hard everyday.

 So, a little housekeeping. I have some Actual Paying Work due tomorrow. Two pieces of it, as a matter of fact. Since one takes about two-and-a-half hours at 1,000-some-odd words, I don't know if I'll be up for spreading any wisdom here. I hear hearts breaking across the internet, I know.

 I might, might, come back to it after I'm done. I managed to knock out some News last night, and that generally takes much more time. I have some thoughts on the Narrative and how it plays into human misery, but I might want to let that simmer for a bit. I've spent too much time in the past 24 hours playing Phantom Doctrine. It's rapidly becoming a favorite. Finally, got on an Ursula K. Le Guin kick and a Paul Butterfield kick, but who knows where that'll go.

 Anyhow. I may be back and I may not. We'll just see how the night goes. Take it easy.

UPDATE: 9:20 p.m.

 Okay, that's two knocked out and, yeah, it took about three-four hours. It gets easier and, frankly, apart from differing cities, law firms and phone numbers, it's pretty ranch-standard stuff. Like I've said, it's sort of like writing about high school baseball. One isn't much different from the other, the key is keeping them slightly different enough to stay interesting. More or less. This shit is never going to be riveting.

 On the down side, pounding out around 2,500 words has fried my brain and I don't know how to fill this up. I am going to mess around with it for a while, anyway, until I feel like playing Phantom Doctrine in an hour or so. I am going to keep the bit about the Narrative in the simmer for a while, but in short, it goes like this.

 I think far too much of human nature and human history, especially when it goes south in an awful way, is because of our search and desperate need for a Narrative. That is, we want life to be life a story. We want to be the protagonist. We want a beginning, middle and satisfying end. We want our present state to be the inevitable result of human development. In a nutshell, we want life to make sense like a story does because everything we do is based on or taken from something that could be considered a story.

 And life and the universe is under no obligation to make logical sense and, indeed, rarely does. Religions and myths are all stories to tell us how to live, as are philosophical concepts and outlines, but none of us come quite close. Political ideologies and economic theories never quite work in action like they do on paper, but we consider them something to be failed instead of failures themselves.

This inability to match the desperately desired logical narrative and the chaotic nature of our existence drives us crazy. For some people, they cling to whatever their Story is to the point of thinking they should wipe out any other Stories, whether they're in competition or not. Some of us get into absurdism or nihilism and some of us just trudge through life, happy in our ignorance or miserable because the Story's not working out like we're told it should.

 But more on that later, if I ever get around to it. I've hit 500-plus words and my head's starting to throb. I may lie down for an hour before I start playing Phantom Doctrine, because I will be playing Phantom Doctrine before the night's though.

Take your pleasure where you find it.

 Before we get too deep into it, I have some Actual Paying Work this week. One piece is due Thursday and another is due Friday. How this will affect everything, we don't know. Either way, we'll persevere. Anyhow.

 It appears the President's attempts to make us all forget 80,000 people have died from COVID-19 under his watch and in large thanks to his utter incompetence hasn't really taken hold. Nobody is really buying this whole "Obamagate" business besides his faithful, and they think he's the Second Coming of Christ. They are, to put it as nice as possible, untroubled by reality outside of what they're told to believe by the White House. It's getting a bit of play from the ding dongs on Fox News, but they do what they're told. Ironically, the best shutdown of that whole business was on Fox News from National Security lawyer Brad Moss on anchor Shannon Bream's watch. Still, I'm sure we'll hear more and more of it in weeks to come. No one's ever accused Trump or his followers of knowing when to quit while they're ahead.

 Been sleeping too much lately. Granted, I've been staying up too late playing Invisible Inc., Phantom Doctrine and Satellite Reign. That last one is a booger. I'm not sure how to get ahead because every time I try to do one of the side quests, I get stomped in the dirt by the cops. I'm sure there's something key I'm just missing. I do like the aesthetic, though. Both it and Invisible Inc. take place in the future, one where corporations rule the world and you control a team of corporate saboteurs. Invisible Inc. is a turn-based thing like XCOM while Satellite Reign is real-time strategy like the Desperado games.

 I say I like the aesthetic, but I've never been able to completely warm to the cyberpunk thing. I think I've said it before, but I don't know where my world would be in that setting. Small-town or rural South, maybe New Orleans or one of the college towns, what does that look like when corporations rule the world, governments are paper tigers if they exist at all, and people can physically "jack" into cyberspace. I fully believe that's where American culture is going, socially and politically, but it's always set in grimy, rainy mega-cities with a slight Japanese flavor. Where do Merle Haggard fans fit in that world, is my question.

 I suppose if I want to know, I should write that story. I forget who said that as writing advice, "write the story you want to read if no one else has". It's like Neuromancer. Neat concept, interesting themes, but not my world so I have trouble connecting. I don't know why it's so for cyberpunk, though it could be that it just doesn't feel that "far out" as opposed to a fantasy setting or space-faring setting. Maybe I just don't dig on William Gibson's writing, which is true. Transmetropolitan works a little better for me, but that's probably more because Spider Jerusalem is so shamelessly based on Hunter Thompson.

 Okay, what else. I'll leave any news for tomorrow. I'm not going to want to do a bunch of research since one of the APW's is going to involve a fair bit of that. Nothing I've read or watched lately has been anything of note. I think I've finally worked the whole "re-stocking iTunes" thing out of my system. Momma went and got a brand-new modem from the phone company, so it seems our internet woes are taken care of. For the time being, anyway. I guess I'm not really in the mood to write tonight, so I'll tie this off here and maybe come back to it if something pops up later.

 Selah

It's easy pickins, ain't nobody here but us chickens.

 Otis threw up again. This is Momma's first experience with an inside dog in over 40 years, so it's difficult to get her to understand that if he eats cat poop just before he eats assigned food, bad things may happen. It is a journey, however, and not a destination.

 Got a programming note before we get too into it. I have some Actual Paying Work due Thursday morning. How this will affect the News or even this Gibberish, I don't know yet. I may skip a day or I may swap Wednesday out for Thursday. Or since this Actual Paying News is supposed to be a COVID-19 update, I may just re-purpose it. We'll see.

 Whichever it is, I'm going to try to make sure it's the one with the least amount of labor required. Since getting XCOM: Chimera Squad I've had turn-based strategy games on the brain. The previous XCOM's, Hard West, Rebel Cops, Phantom Doctrine, Invisible Inc., Distrust, and the Desperadoes series. I couldn't tell you what I find so attractive about them. Maybe it's how the game plays out after you make your choices. You're going to get from Point A to Point B, but the path always changes thanks to the Random Number Generator.

 I don't quite get the appeal of speed runs, or more specifically, playing one game to the point you can do a fair-to-middlin' speed run. Once I beat a game I'm done, especially if it's more linear than wide-open. That goes back to the Nintendo days. I don't get the appeal of Let's Plays, either, so it's probably not for me and that's okay.

 Moving on, I had sort of an interesting experience in what I can only call marketing. The Pentagon released videos yesterday of actual flying objects they couldn't identify or, more officially "unidentified aerial phenomena". I wrote about it, how although it was indeed a thing, it wasn't anything close to an admission of aliens from the deepest space coming by for a visit. Furthermore, the videos have been acknowledged as legit since 2017 and had been released to a private agency in 2018. The Pentagon just released them yesterday, probably trying to get the "truth is out there" ding dongs to settle down.

 All over Twitter, people are cracking that 2020 is so screwy the government owned up to UFO's and no one blinked. Well, I'd respond, I blinked and gave a link to my News. Then I went to bed and didn't think more about it. I woke up to over 30 hits and currently am sitting on 67. No comments, positive or negative. I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from all that, but I'm sure there's something there. I do wish I couldn't figure out a way to promote what I do - third-rate Will Rogers shtick that it is - and feel comfortable about it, but hey ho.

 If nothing else, I didn't get an earful "you're so arrogant if you don't believe in aliens" booshwah I usually get when I express the least bit of skepticism about aliens visiting Earth. To put it in a nutshell, I'm sure the infinite universe is teeming with life and I'm sure that given the space given for lightning to strike twice there is something we would recognize as "sentient life". And since we're just now coming to term with the sentience, even rudimentary, of cetaceans, cephalopods, canines, felines, other primates, and not a few birds, I wouldn't be surprised is there'd be more than a few that we wouldn't recognize as sentient. At least at first, anyway.

 I've just not seen any conclusive evidence they've been here or anywhere close to us. The distances are just too great and the physics are just too restrictive best I can tell. If we ever move out into space - and I'm not sold we ever will - I doubt we'll ever get past the gas giants if we get that far. Inexplicable actions by people lost to time, like the Nazca lines, may remain inexplicable since they didn't leave notes. Doesn't mean they were pretty pictures for aliens. I've long joked that the WOW! Signal was Elvis being called home, but when it was recently concluded by them that study this sort of thing that it was little more than space static, I wasn't too disappointed.

 People have a lot invested in the idea that "the truth is out there," when the truth isn't quite what they think it is. Being a skeptic doesn't mean one dismisses the possible nor does having an open, inquisitive mind means you swallow every goofy stroke that comes along. It's like ghosts, people are more upset than anything that you doubt them when it doesn't have anything to do with them, and shouldn't.

 For the record, I don't believe in ghosts. I've done way too many hallucinogenics to accept that human senses are that infallible. Seriously, take a heroic dose of LSD and you'll spend all night talking to dead country singers. Trust me, I know.

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.

Programming Note.

 I have some Actual Paying Work to get done by tomorrow, so tonight might light if not non-existent past this right here. If you'll recall, the goal is to top 500 words a day and both of the bad boys I have to pound out will be at least 600 words. I'm dealing with a bad case of the too-goddamn-sleepy-to-sit-up-for-too-longs, and I'm not terribly into the idea anyway. However, as has happened before, a little Work gets the juices flowing and I might hear something that sets me off and can't wait until tomorrow's news.

 So it all depends on what sort of mood I'm in. Make a note of that if necessary.

UPDATE 9:15 P.M.

 Okay, I'm done. I wrote two pieces and now I'll let them sit and simmer for a bit before jumping on the editing train. I don't want to go into too great detail, but basically what I'm doing is writing "call us so we can sue the shit out of someone for you" pages for lawyers in different parts of the country. All very basic stuff, really. You have an accident, you call the cops, you call your insurance company and, if you think necessary, call a lawyer because the insurance company will do its damnedest to not pay out. I trust the Bossman to not get involved with anything shady, plus he occasionally lets me do stuff that's a bit more "fun" like a COVID-19 update for one Florida firm.

 I'm going out of my way to be circumspect about all this because, quite frankly, I don't think it'd do anyone any good a'tall to come across this or The News at the WordPress site. One never knows, but common sense tells me it's a good idea to keep "boring business Matt" separate from "foul mouthed, psychedelic-loving, cynical borderline anarchist Matt". Fun's fun, but there's no need to let it get in the way of business.

 I don't really need the money or the clips, but this has been very good. For one, writing for someone else's eye keeps me sharper than writing for myself probably would. As much fun as I have, it's very easy to disappear up my own ass and the writing will suffer for it. Secondly, this shit is dull as flies fornicating, so just to keep engaged is a bit of a challenge. Plus, the Bossman - admittedly a buddy - has been very easy with his praise and gratitude at having a "real writer" on board. Frankly, I need that as much as anything.

 Plus, having a little money coming in would be nice. Hopefully, I can put together enough to buy a new laptop, perhaps a gaming console (leaning towards a PlayStation so I can play Spider-Man) and maybe some needed upgrades on my PC. Maybe when this whole COVID-19 business blows over, extra money to do some traveling would be welcome, too.

 Beyond that, I don't have much to go on. This sort of writing definitely tires me out, much more so than it used to. This really isn't much different that doing the classifieds or obits back in the day, and I used to spend six hours some days doing that. Hate to think of doing that now. As I said above, the sleeping's been a bit of no good lately, CPAP or not. I have an appointment with the pulmonary nurse to follow up and I may try to make that one, just because this shit ain't working. I don't mind sleeping as much as I do - though I do miss the dreamless sleep of living in a green haze - but I don't think I should feel as tired as I do all the time regardless how much sleep I get.

 Okay, I think that's fair enough for tonight. I'll save the latest COVID-19 outrages for the news tomorrow, but I will say this. I do appreciate the Republican Party and conservatives in general ripping the masks off and showing themselves to be little more than the greedy, racist, authoritarian little shits I'd thought they were.

You cannot win if you do not play.

 I have two assignments this week to get done by Friday. Since I'm still figuring all this out, I figure it'll take me two days to properly research and write about it. Luckily, the writing isn't really all that hard, either in mechanics or creatively. It reminds me of the day-to-day grind back when I did weekly newspapers, doing pages and pages of obits or classifieds or legal proclamations papers have to print. Dull as hell but easy to do, just put on some music and go.

 The downside is, of course, I don't know how much of this or The News I'm going to be able to get accomplished. This is easy, really, just ramble on for 500 words and call it "art". The News is a little bit more of a hassle, but even then, I could shmooze it if I wanted. Basically, the news is every day "people are dying from a virus we don't have a solid grasp of yet, we're not doing what we need to do and what we are doing we're not doing well, and the President is a big ol' tittybaby", if maybe not in that order.

 He really is showing his whole ass here the last couple days. Between losing his cool with Paula Reid and Kaitlan Collins just being reporters causing him to melt down before announcing that he had "full authority" over when states re-open, sounding awfully authoritarian in the process. It's almost every day at this point that he pitches one of his little fits, when he's not blaming everyone else to distract from his own fumbling.

 It's got to be chaffing him so many governors giving him the finger and doing it for themselves are seeing success, and the ones that do toe the line can't do anything right. It's been sort of entertaining watching the right-wing media twist itself in knots to keep up with Trump's almost daily changing of the narrative, especially when they can catch his pitched bitch as easily as anyone should they show disloyalty.

 Speaking of pitching fits, the Sanders dead-enders are in day two of their wail-a-thon. It's even louder and poopier after Bernie Sanders himself came out and said working against Joe Biden winning the presidency was "irresponsible". A small but loud contingent of Twitter, they do little more than prove how little they know about how politics works. Sanders would not have endorsed Biden if something he wanted wouldn't come out of it.

 Look, y'all. Politics is an ugly business but it's a serious business. It calls for deal making, and if you can handle that, leave it to people who can. Organize and agitate, sure, but recognize it's a different ball game. The more they talk about Biden's legislative choices from 20 years ago or objectionable things the Obama administration did, the more they show they really, really don't care about anything but the "bending of the knee". Which is just stupid, but that's what you get when people convince themselves that Twitter and Facebook was equal to a political science degree.

 Maybe the most amusing thing that's happened in the past 24 hours is Florida increasingly obsequious governor Ron DeSantis announcing that WWE was an "essential" business during the shut down. What that boils down to is they'll be filming wrestling matches in front of an empty auditorium in Florida. They already held their yearly homecoming Wrestlemania in front of an empty house. All this comes off the heels of Vince McMahon's XFL football dalliance declaring bankruptcy for the second time. It also comes just after Linda McMahon's announcement that her Super Pac was dropping a tidy $18.5 million into the "Florida For Trump" re-election push.

 Now, I used to dig wrestling as a kid but bailed out before McMahon admitted it was all scripted to save his ass during the 1993 steroid trial. And, for whatever it's worth, I was more a fan of the NWA stuff than the WWF stuff, which was decidedly aimed towards kids. That being said, I've long been fascinated with the history of professional wrestling and its place in American Culture. I maintain that it's one of this country's truly unique contributions to world culture and a full grasp of the American psyche is impossible without an understanding of how pro wrestling developed alongside the ubiquity of television. Later, it pushed closed-circuit television, pay-per-view and internet development, second only to pornography in its influence.

 People forget that up until the mid-Aughts, Trump was stuck in tabloid hell. His biggest cultural impact came from his feud with then-daytime talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell and nobody cared after they passed through the grocery store checkout line. This all changed in 2007 when he popped up on WWE television opposing the "Mr. McMahon" character in the "Battle of the Billionaires" as a baby face. That is, he was the good guy you rooted for against McMahon's heel character, or bad guy.

 Long story short, he "won" the conflict and soon after became the Twitter tumor we all know and loathe/worship. Again, study the history of pro wrestling. In the process you'll learn what kind of absolute bastard Vince McMahon is, both personally and business-wise. Given that, it's sort of understandable how the U.S. could degrade to such a point that we'd allow a bit of media fluff like Trump to be president. Inevitable, really.

 In any event, I got work to do so I don't know how it'll affect this. If nothing else, I'll post quick updates. But, for the most part, I'm a happy camper because I'm getting paid to write and there's a new XCOM game coming out by the end of the month. Sweet.

I've had all that I've wanted of a lot of things I've had, and a lot more than I need of some things that turned out bad.

 It's been an interesting week. But before we get too deep into things, let's lay out some links. Of course, most of it is about the coronavirus galloping through the world and particularly here in the U.S. of Good Ol' A. But that's the news, and it's so commanding that it overtakes just about everything else, especially the nasty shit the Trump Administration is trying to get across. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I'm particularly proud of Wednesday's entry. It deals with Bernie Sanders dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America and how it changed the landscape. It goes well with Thursday's Gibberish, which deals with how badly the loudest section of his loyal followers have been dealing with it. It's a good one-two punch, I think, and does a good job of laying out the whole stroke. But that's just me, check it out on your own.

 There's also a good bit at the Tumblr site about singer-songwriter John Prine who died Tuesday due to complications from COVID-19. I was a fan and I'm not going to lie, this one gives me the blues more so than an average famous person's death. He wrote some great songs, always put on a charming performance, and everyone I've talked to who'd know says he was a phenomenal human being. So it goes.

 COVID-19 has ramped up to the point where the United States leads the world in both confirmed cases at 532,000 and deaths with 20,000 plus. Unfortunately, we're fifth when it comes to recovery at just a little over 31,000 cases. It's taken off here in Mississippi, too, with 2,642 cases and 96 deaths. Right now, only Issaquena County has no reported cases, but that's probably more to do with it's sparse population, poverty and high percentage of African Americans. Indeed, it's the poorest county in the poorest state and the way we've addressed how COVID-19 is treated in the black community is just shameful.

 We're supposed to get some extremely foul weather here in Itawamba County tomorrow. They're calling for fierce winds, driving rains and a possibility of tornadoes. The family's planning on battening down for it, too, and they're not given to rash behavior. So I'm not sure how much I should put here, since there's no telling what sort of mess this place will be this time tomorrow night. There is a lot of news going on and I don't know how to squeeze it all in or do all the work for it.

 I need to look into how the Trump Administration is using the virus to fulfill the longtime conservative dream of dismantling the United States Postal Service, because that is happening. The reasoning we're hearing is that it's due to his "distaste" for mail-in votes and desire to tamp down the turnout for the November election. I'm sure there's something to that, but conservatives have had a hard-on for shutting down the mail for years, mainly just because they're dicks. "Use UPS or FedEx" they bleat, conveniently those two companies not only use the USPS but there's some places they won't go because it isn't profitable.

 Another particularly evil stroke from the Trump White House is a plan to allow the farming industry to use foreign labor as labor to keep down wages. You heard that right. The Administration that ran on the Brown Horde and spent the first two years screaming that "caravans" of dirty Central and South Americans were heading to the U.S. Border to take our jobs, corrupt our children and stare luridly at our women wants to bring in people not covered by U.S. laws so agri-business conglomerates can not pay anybody what they'd be due for picking the very food we eat. Amusingly - but not really - the reason we're given why this is "necessary" is because the industry is hurting due to the tariff fight with China, which has more to do with Trump waving his dick at Xi than anything sensible.

 But, again, this is why he was elected. You hear people say "Trumpism has taken over the Republican Party," but the truth is the GOP has always been full of bastards and a guy like Trump is the logical outcome of the past 40 years of development by them. They may have not planned on landing someone with such a pitiful need for worship or inability to take any amount of criticism as Trump, but that's a bug more than anything else. He's doing what they want, though, so he can tweet all he wants about how mean the press is to him and the daily nonsense in his televised briefings keep everyone occupied and depressed knowing what kind of lump we have with the nuclear codes.

 And so much for all that. I do have some good news. This has been brewing for a bit, but I haven't said anything because I'm a neurotic mess and worry about bragging on something that could easily blow up in myself. But all the i's have been dotted and t's have been crossed, so I feel confident in letting the cat out of the bag.

 I have a regular paying gig as a freelance writer. It's nothing special or fancy at all. I'm doing "content creation" for a buddy of mine who's based out of Atlanta. He started the company a little over a year-and-a-half ago and wanted to bring me on board when they got some solid ground under them. Back in Athens, he was a "fan" of my writing for Flagpole and we got to be friends because we share a mutual close friend. Good kid and I'm friends with his wife, as well.

 Well, I appreciated the offer but didn't push on it. However, the conversation was one of the little sparks that got me back to writing on a regular basis. So, anyhow, week before last, he touches base and says his company's getting a little more work than they can handle and was I still interested. I had to jump through a couple of hoops, understandably enough, but I got the gig.

 It's not exciting subject material, true, but having an editor to please again can't be anything but helpful to everything else. Furthermore, it's not going to pay too much but it's something "official" I can point to for other work. Most of my published work is over ten years old, and I doubt this blog would convince anyone I'm anything other than a borderline anarchist and hallucinogenic drug enthusiast. Which I am, sure, but that's not a way to get work.

 But more than anything else, this is just good for my mood and self-esteem. This is fun, but this new gig is work and that I'm wanted for this work is validation, which is something I do need. Since starting back writing, I've been plagued by doubts and recriminations. No one pays attention, is there any point to this, why do I bother, yadda yadda yadda. That's not helpful, believe you me.

 I don't know how this extra work is going to affect this or The News. It won't have much impact on the Tumblr stuff, as that's generally off-the-cuff fun. Way my buddy talks, he might throw me two to three things a week, and that'll be around 600-900 words. I may drop back to doing one regular blog that combines Gibberish and News, but I don't want to drop either because both are satisfying for their own reasons. We'll see how it all works out.

 Beyond that, buckle down for the weather and keep up the "social distancing" deal despite the fat cats screaming because they're not getting as disgustingly rich as they think they should. They don't give a shit about you.

Don't you never cuss that fiddle, boy, unless you want that fiddle out of tune.

 Though we're just now getting into the change, I'm really trying to keep the news and politics stuff over at WordPress for the News while keeping the Gibberish over here. Sure, there's going to be some bleed but I do want to keep it to a minimum. If for no other reason that separation of strokes being good practice.

 That being said, it's tougher than I thought it'd be. Granted, one reason is my life is pretty dull and won't change much since I like it that way. I don't remember who asked, but the only thing holing up due to CORVID-19 is keeping from doing what I enjoy is traveling. I love to ramble from here to there without a set schedule, getting there anyway whims take me. Otherwise, I haven't left the house in two years except to go to the gym and see whichever doctor I have to check in with.

 Nice thing is, though, I haven't been in the mood to do much rambling since last year's Big Trip and even if it weren't for the pandemic spreading like wildfire, I'd probably still be staying put for the time being. So it works out just fine. Beyond that, though, politics and the media have been so much a part of my life for the past 20 years I can't just shake free. It is baked in.

 As an aside, so many people who spent the past two decades telling me to stop worrying so much about politics are the ones who're full-throated roaring with indignation with the latest pig-eyed bullshit the President and his GOP lackeys are pulling. I'm glad for it, as it takes some of the load off me, and I try my best to not remind them that if they had been listening to me for the past 20 years, we might not be in this mess. I still get a bit of a kick out of it in any event. Anyway.

 I must admit, though, this is all starting to get to me. Not the "social distancing" part or even the changes in society that's popped up. It's the mendacity and pettiness of the president, Republicans in Congress and Republican governors, especially ones in the South. Worst of all is the Base, the people who hoot like seals for Trump and will slit the throat of anyone who crosses him. I am completely convinced they will drown in their own juices rather than go against their Idiot King. The rotten bastard has even owned up that if we do everything from here on out and we're extremely lucky, we're looking at least 100,000 dead.

 They're still calling it a hoax. They're still demanding the president "reopen the country." They're still saying that the doctors and experts calling for more caution and the media reporting on them - which is doing a fine job, apart from a few instances - are just trying to bring down the president. They're still saying it's Democrats alone who're clamping down on civil liberties and wrecking the economy just because they hate Trump.

 They are, in essence, pretending nothing is happening. Mississippi's unemployment claims jumped over 1,500% from last week with 31 million people applying. Percentage-wise, Mississippi leads the nation in hospitalization for coronavirus. We're having over a thousand people nationwide dying from it, with their families separated from them and dying alone. We've topped a million cases worldwide in less than three months. And they still say it's all a big con to make Trump look bad when the dopey shit gibbers through a daily rally that does it well enough.

  Six million people have filed for unemployment across the country. When asked if he'd open Obamacare to help the uninsured, Trump's claiming that the one-time $1,200 check coming maybe in three weeks will take care of that. I guess, though, if nothing else this rips the mask of a number of social shibboleths we've long taken as axiomatic.

 People who stock shelves and cook deserve a wage that's enough to live on and more because they're one of the most important segments of the economy. We can do most of our work via teleconferencing and don't have to keep coming to an office to kiss a boss' ass. We can pull up two trillion dollars in less than a week to bail out the airliners, so the idea that we don't have enough money for, say, single payer or Medicare for all is horseshit. Making the rent each and every month isn't as big a hanging matter as we thought.

 I wonder if it'll stick. I know the average MAGAt is a lost cause, as is most hardcore conservatives and the average libertarian. I'm seeing my own mother, who is very conservative, starting to question things that were considered gospel two weeks ago. I'm not seeing this on Twitter, which is the first bastion of the truly wacky, but I'm seeing it here in Mississippi, which is not liberal at all. We are at a "boiling frog" moment, like with FDR and LBJ, and the strain is starting to get to us.

 Well, it's getting to me, that's for damn sure. I will say I am extremely glad I don't have kids or anything really invested in the future, nor do I have any real reason to interact with the world outside this hill apart from getting groceries and seeing doctors, barring unforeseen circumstances. Anyway.

 I really haven't done much the past couple of days except for the News. Still not sleeping for shit, still reading on the same book - science books take a little more time to dig through - and taking the daily constitutionals with Otis. The wound on Bounce's back is getting better. I woke up with an Old 97's song in my head this morning, so I wrote about it for the Tumblr site. It's pretty good, I think.

 Beyond that, I just don't know, man.

What goes on in the dark will soon come to light.

 I'm not seeing anything in the News that's exactly sitting my soul on fire, so we'll just fiddle around here until we run out our word count. I think we might give the Project a shot this week just for the hell of it. That's the fun thing about writing when no one's paying for it (or reading it, let's be honest), you can do pretty much what you damn well please.

 I really don't understand why, but since moving straight to WordPress... the Blogger site still gets more hits. Who knows. Yeah, there's nothing pouring out today. It's raining out, so me and Otis can't take our constitutional. Bounce has a pretty nasty mark on his back where the hair's stripped off and there are some cuts. It's inflamed and hurts him, as well. I'm pretty sure it's from the tomcat that keeps coming up through the woods. They've fought before and Bounce is kind of a wimp. He's not a happy kitty right now but there's nothing I can do out here until tomorrow, and that's only if the veterinarian is open for business.

 All right. The rain stopped so me, Otis and Coy took us a nice little constitutional and cleared my head up a bit. I think starting tomorrow we will implement the Project. Do a weekend round-up on Monday, another news piece on Wednesday, and cap it off with a Friday grab-bag. Plus, keep the Gibberish here. It won't be as easy as one thinks, because sometimes that logjam takes hours to unplug. Still, no one's paying me for this, so there you go.

 We're now a week into this coronavirus "self distancing" business and it's interesting to see how it's all washing out. Just my two cents, so grain of salt, but I think life is coming to an equilibrium if we can figure out a way to make sure everyone who can't work doesn't starve to death and isn't thrown out on the street by their asshole landlord. Beyond that, yeah, it's smooth sailing right along, Matt.

 Anyhow, I've been watching people deal with their new reality with great interest, given my own heavy thirst for Splendid Isolation. We're not quite a week into it and people are bouncing off the walls already. It's going to be hell on them if this goes on for months. For me, it's just an excellent excuse to cancel the very few social obligations I have, so I can't really relate. I'm trying to remember back when I was a bit more sociable and put my mind of those kids who're doing Spring Break and Saint Patrick's Day whatnots.

 I guess I can understand it. I did plenty of dumb shit in my 20s that could've killed me and none of it involved a global pandemic I'm not saying it's a good or smart thing those kids are doing; I'm saying I understand. I wonder if these kids are at all plugged in politically. Most of the Gen Z kids that used to cross my radar (working in a kitchen, you get to know a lot of young folks) were generally hip and kept an eye on things even if it wasn't their sole focus. Of course, most of them were musicians or artists, or they were members of some group the Status Quo wants kept in a closet. LGBT folks, that sort of thing.

 Okay, what else. Finally getting around to listening to Flogging Molly. On their Swagger album as we speak. It's... okay, I guess, sort of a natural progression of Celtic folk-punk from a band influenced by the Pogues. Not really my cup of meat anymore, but not unlistenable and I can see the appeal. Also got around to actually playing Dungeon Siege unvarnished last night. I bought it yonks ago so I could run the Ultima V: Lazarus. I've fooled around with that a bit - it's not any easier and it's full of bugs, but fun - but never really messed with the base game. Not bad, but I'm inclined to those High Fantasy sword-and-sorcery joints. I also have the two sequels and I'll try those tonight. They're all massively on sale for the rest of the month at Steam, like three bucks for the lot. You can't beat that with a stick.

 I'm also finally getting deep into Sean Carroll's From Eternity To Here. I bought it not long after it came out, but that was about the time I quit reading. It was just too dense for me then. Now, I'm sort of surprised at how swiftly it's moving along. I like Dr. Carroll's take on science and think he does a good job explaining things, and I'm about ready to get into his latest book Something Deeply Hidden. That's his take on my latest fascination, Many-Worlds Theory. It's not only nice to be reading again, it's nice to be fascinated by various things again.

 So enough of all that.

I'm just a country boy without angels, I'm just a country boy without gold.

 So, if you're here from the WordPress site, you know what's going down. If not, I'll explain and then we'll get to business.

 Back around the end of last year, I had planned on making a big change with my bunch of blogs. Instead of posting the same thing at Blogger and WordPress, I would keep the News at the latter and use the former for Gibberish. For various reasons - mainly because I didn't feel like it - this didn't happen.

 Sharp-eyed readers will note, however, that there has recently been a change in the format. Specifically, I quit posting the day's Offerings at both sites. It seemed superfluous and, frankly, the writing tools at WordPress are a little better. For the most part, I've just been posting links with the odd wandering when the mood struck me.

 Today's change, however, comes mainly because I am sick to the teeth of writing about, reading about and, indeed, thinking about CORVID-19 and it's impact on society. There's news there to dig into, sure, but it's grinding my gears and making it harder to write something different. The comparison just came to me, but it was like writing about baseball. I enjoy baseball, but it's dull as dirt to write about day after day. It's true, deal with it.

 I went into a little bit of detail at the WordPress site on the particulars and depending on how everything goes, we'll do the News properly tomorrow. For now, let's have a little fun... or try to, anyway.

 It didn't really occur to me until this afternoon's constitutional with Otis that I was suffering from writer's block. Basically, most of last week's Offerings came thanks to squeezing blood from a stone, and the quality mostly reflects that. Saturday was good, but I'm skeptical about the rest. Friday and yesterday especially were difficult births and almost bad enough for me to take a break.

 However, the last time I took a break from writing it lasted four years, so we don't need to do that. There's still a mess of frustration that I can't find a tone or a topic, something to specialize in and concentrate on to make my Offerings unique. I'm still having fun, for the most part, but the ongoing stripping of the gears makes it a chore. It shouldn't be a chore, especially since I'm not getting paid for it.

 So, let's have some fun. I finished Cowboys and Zombies and enjoyed it, mostly. It started off very strong but, unfortunately, it drug some in the middle and the ending seemed a bit muddled. Maybe I missed something, but either some characters disappeared or the author was just sloppy, confusing one character for another. Taken as a whole, the plot could've been tightened up a bit, as well. One character who proved to be pivotal to the ending didn't show up until the last third. Also, I don't think people in the Old West knew what "zombies" of any kind were nor did they say "zillions".

 Overall, though, an enjoyable read if maybe needing a little tightening or a better editor. I haven't read anything else by author W.R. Benton. He seems to concentrate of straight Westerns in the Zane Grey-Louis L'Amour vein rather than Weird Westerns. I might dive into it later, but for the time being, it's time to move on. I'm going to finish off this reading of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet before I do anything else. I really recommend this to other writers - and maybe poets, too, I don't know - and there's a lot of inspiration in his words.

 I wish I could tell you he was my favorite poet - I was introduced to him by singer-songwriter legend Ray Wylie Hubbard, for the record - but I still don't "get" poetry. The only poems I really get into is T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" or Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," and that's for different reasons. The former's tale of loneliness, alienation and despair just rings so true. The former is no light-and-sunny affair, either, but even that morbid tale of death and loss doesn't equal the starkness of a solitary man slowly wasting away surrounded by a world that just can't be bothered.

  I haven't played any games lately. Still sort of stuck on the ending of Two Worlds 2. Good Old Games is having a sale and, on a whim, I finished off my Ultima collection with 8 and 9. I also picked up Deep Space Battle Simulator from Steam, an indie game on Early Access. I haven't played it yet, but it has an interesting premise. Basically, you control a larger space battleship from the inside with occasional jumps into Wing Commander-style dogfights. Or so it seems. Anyway, it looked interesting enough - and was cheap enough - for me to give it a chance and do the whole support-the-indie-developer thing.

 It's 8:30, so I'm going to go ahead and post this up. I'll leave it open and maybe add more to it as the evening goes on. Otherwise, have a good evening.

Monday, March 9 to Friday, March 13, 2020

 Here's this week's Gibberish. Basically a daily chronicle of how CORVID-19 spread through the U.S., catching us almost flat footed. "Matt," I hear you say, "You barely touch on the dumb shit the President had to say or the worthlessness of his entire being that he's portrayed in public." Listen, neighbor, at this point you can just assume there's a "Yes, Trump is a useless, avaricious, truculent moron" clause in every one and move on. I ain't got the time, man.

 Anyhow:

Monday, March 9

Tuesday, March 10

Wednesday, March 11

Thursday, March 12

Friday, March 13

 Plus, a few things on the recent primaries and the unhelpful (to say the least) reaction from some people, via Tumblr.

 And, in the interest of a little housekeeping, we're going to try to be a bit more News, a little less bellyaching/navel gazing over at WordPress. If it needs to go anywhere, it'll go here. We'll stick with that format until it becomes untenable or I just decided to change my mind. You ain't paying for this.

Thursday, February 27, 2020

 I'm doing a little something different tonight. Go here for elucidation and illumination. Have a good one.

Monday, December 2, 2019

 The Sleep whipped me big time today and I didn't get near as much accomplished as I wished. The extra time to commune with the front yard was nice, but it was just too damn cold today to enjoy it. Any, let's get down to the business at hand.

Monday, November 4, 2019

 Well, shoot.

 Okay, see, I have fairly severe sleep apnea on top of everything else. It's part of the reason I used to zombie through my old job apart from, you know, complete misery. These days, though, my hours are my own. However, I try to maintain a regularish schedule, if for no other than doing so seems to help keep the Black Clouds away.