Categories
NoJoMo

9

I’m not sure why I was trying to shoehorn-in this flashback to 2004. Election flashback to 2004. I probably ought to go actually read that, but I’m really not feeling like it. Plus, there’s others in ear-shot, and they probably wouldn’t be interested.

Obviously, there’s still spasms surrounding the election almost a week later.

But nobody has a clue on how to fix anything. I get that shooting someone might feel viscerally-satisfying, but that’s not going to do a damn thing about the $2,000,000,000,000 annual budget deficits.

TheFP’s morning story kind of hit on it last couple of days, including this morning.

I am OTR right now; I’m kind of proud of my restraint on this trip so far. Ooh, I have a coupon for late-night deliveries. I could totally go for a milkshake. But I’d have to spend another twenty bucks. I can be satiated with a sweet-ish protein bar, and policing off the alcohol I have left in my room. Maybe I’ll get dinner later.

So, start in on my “to-subscribe” list.
Do the stuff that’s on my list? No!

Sign up for something that’d quickly caught my ear, and I figured I wanted a bit more of.

So. Feminine Chaos. (And I do have a few free subs that came along…..email me with something in the body proving you know me, or have read more than just this entry.)

Maybe I’ll get around to Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em. (Strange aside, Kat Timpf was talking in one of her social media posts about a Michelob Ultra version of weed that she’d prefer to the ultra-high-THC versions circulating on the street these days; is the secondary reason I’ve never tried weed is that I’m afraid?)

Then some of the various “right wing” stuff I let lapse while I was broke.

But I think I’m just about finished here. I was able to use Muse to coordinate my ride for tomorrow.

Good football yesterday. The Saints are now tied for first place…at two games under .500 after the Bucs pulled off a loss to Chicago.

Day with Mom today, football tonight, then home tomorrow.

After checking my draft entries full of prompts, I’m not finding anything I’d like to write about today. This isn’t very good work, but it’s about what I’ve got for now.

Categories
NoJoMo

8

Prompt: How do I define safety and where do I feel it most in my life right now?

I know I’m generally physically-safe. Unlike during the “Summer of Love,” 2020, I don’t have to worry much about going outside of my little walled sanctuary.

I’m in a place, financially, where I should be able to meet my needs well into old age.

Emotionally, I don’t know. My quasi-stoic disposition is helping quite a bit. That I’m not on-board with fashionable political opinions has strained some personal relationships. Aside from joining your political party, church, cult, whatever, there’s nothing I can do about it. You’re going to have your beliefs; I’m not going to agree with them. I would ask that you not shoot me for being opposed, but if you’re going to, anyway, please have the cameras rolling.

I will abstain from voting except to vote against particularly-bad issues or candidates.

Leave me alone, and don’t take my stuff. It’s really not that complicated.

Categories
NoJoMo

7

Bucket list, still not having one (2013 flashback)

You know, back in 2013, I threw out Halley’s Comet again. I was very young when it came last, and barely remember seeing a little bit, maybe, in a very-cold night sky over Kansas.

You might be able to deduce the awe level….and that it’s really just not there.

So, not that. Quick math shows that I’d be in my 80s by then; let’s be honest, I’m not making it that long.

*hits calc again*

Mid-2040s seems right about right.

But this whole things has me feeling a bit like Craig from South Park.

I don’t know what those embeds are being so difficult lately.

In that ep, Cartman had a new case of Tourette’s.

The, and I can’t find a word for it; fetishization isn’t quite right, but it might be appropriately derisive, of disability is confusing as hell.

I might add this to my to-consume book list, though the one I’m on is taking a long time, and I’m not sure when I’ll get to it.

But, back to the “bucket list,” I really don’t know. Maybe buy a property? I mean, when I was younger, the idea of having a huge piece of land probably would have excited me.

Not so much, today.

The book ideas really haven’t coalesced, so I don’t know.

I need to get myself to combined family birthday parties; happy birthday, grandpa, little bro, mom…

Categories
NoJoMo Old OD

6

Flashback to 2010.

Why are the 20-30 set so apathetic?  I don't know.  Go ask your little brother.  The people I deal with in that age group don't seem as resigned as I am, so I dunno.  They certainly weren't a couple of years ago when they voted.  

I'm failing miserably at this challenge, and it makes me feel old.

But when I was 25, I wuldn't have been so loopy from two drinks I was last night.

I still reek of garlic from the olive and goat cheese plate.  :-/

But, yeah, I was pretty well flying from just two drinks last night, which is either a testament to how little I've imbibed lately, or a function of the massive weight loss.

Two pounds from that come-see-me-now mark from the doctor.  I am a lot skinnier, and none of my clothes fit.  Unlike the last couple of times I've been this light, however, I don't feel exhausted as often.....

I dunno.  If I lose too much more, the shots are going to become unbearable everywhere but my belly, and hip.  "You have NO fat on your legs."  I know.  "Can we trade?"  I'd be really short if I had your legs, dear.

And I'd look even disproportional than I do now.  I don't look so much like SpongeBob anymore, but the legs are still short compared to everything else......

I thought about the birthday stuff, and I fail at that one, too.  Very rarely have I had a really, really memorable one.  At the office, they changed the birthday lunch tradition to a once-a-month thing......then they didn't have one for us in August.  

And I'm like fuck you....

But my birthday was on a weekend this year.  I managed to hide it from them the previous two years.  Besides, a lot of the places they like to go, well, suck.  Really, I'd just assume chew my fingerails than go to Buffalo Wild Wing or Ruby Tuesday.  Seriously.

Quitting now.  Need to get clean, and go grocery shopping

And reusing now:

Why are the 20-30 set so apathetic?

It’s difficult to be Old-Man-Yelling-At-Clouds here. But with so much emphasis placed on safety today, I don’t know that young people have had an opportunity to be reckless, experience things that might be great.

Christ-sakes, I ate raw oysters the other night. There is no way I would have even considered that back then. And, maybe I’ve missed out on many pleasures because of it.

*works through memories of that time where I didn’t do things that I now wonder if I missed out on…*

I should have been more reckless when I had the opportunity to enjoy myself.

But is it apathy, or is it fear? An authority figure is going to be there to clean up after you fail, but also to prevent you from ever getting in a problematic situation in the first place.

But, more to the point, I am naturally-passive. It’s can’t change that, much as I can’t change my eye color.

And, sorry, I’m not going to feel guilty for being the weird specimen I am.

If you don’t like it, encourage the crowd to start recording, then harm me physically. Let your abuse of a crippled guy be memorialized.

Then, when someone tries to hold you to account, take your punishment.

I didn’t take a bunch of risks because I was nervous of the consequences. Maybe that makes me a coward.

Calling the cops doesn’t make you any better. I regret snitching on anyone; I’m sure I did it.

That said, is it really snitching when you actually see an individual harmed by an action, or when it’s misuse of stolen taxpayer money?

scratches chin

  • Eat the oyster
  • Get drunk
  • Have sex that you might regret
  • Smoke
  • Do drugs
  • Go out without a head covering
  • Go out without underwear
  • Share the Mohammad Cartoon, even if you didn’t draw it, yourself
  • Speed

I admit that those aren’t really symmetric. But they’re all the sorts of things that the overly-cautious would tell you to never do. Or even consider doing.

When you write regulations, then hire cops to enforce those regulations, you hurt people. That it’s done by people When you write regulations, then hire cops to enforce those regulations, you hurt people. That it’s done by people you hired doesn’t absolve you of guilt.

If you’re constantly reminding people of risks, you don’t respect them. Or you view them as perpetual children.

But if they’re not doing things because they’re scared of the cops you’ve hired, are they really apathetic?

Categories
NoJoMo

5

I had this listed as something along the lines of free-write-ish entry. After a start overnight, it was evolving into something much longer that I wasn’t very proud of. So, stop, start from scratch.

I am still very much absorbing the election results. The Trump-Is-The-Source-of-Everything-Bad crowd are still blaming everything on the Iran operation, and that the “war” is what’s causing inflation.

No. The inflation is something that’s happened all around the world because of outrageous spending, especially on old-age entitlements.

The US really isn’t in that terrible shape when it comes to inflation; we actually rank somewhere around Mexico and the Eurozone. And Soviet Canuckistan.

Pretty nobody else picks up on the things I notice. This isn’t anything new.
Probably have enough material for a good OWT entry about what happened. Once again, David Harsanyi actually ends up being pretty close to where I am. He’s far more Republican than I, but I think our views of Iran and antisemitism aren’t that far off.

I’m also trying to pay attention to 36 year-old grandma Lauren Boebert’s election in Colorado. The CO Dems had tried to gerrymander her out for 2024, but she managed to get elected in another district.

It looks like a female Democrat, combined with a LP vote that was bigger than the difference did her in.

So sad.

Horseshoe theory alive and kicking.

But her maybe fling, Thomas Massie, would explain that it’s something the Israelis did.

Hey, Lauren, can I get a 20-piece McNugget, and a side of Epstein fries? I’m going to guess that those are okay under Halal, if not Kosher.

The same could be said of the oysters I had for dinner last night.

My wife was very upset that I said with the tangentially El-Sayed election in Michigan that she should be prepared to wear the hijab. That is what both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republicc believe. But it’s wrong to be against them. Got it?

But I think I’m finished for the day. I’ll plunk away some over the next few days; maybe I can have it finished sometime next week.

Still not terribly concerned about what the Democrats are going to do. Why? Because the USG is going to hit the debt ceiling sometime in the Spring. So they’ll have to reach a deal, or enjoy Memorial Day travel without TSA and national parks. Again.

On a final note, related in ways I don’t want to disclose, happy birthday to my brother. We did get to spend some time together this week; I need to get out to the exburbs and finally see his house.

Categories
NoJoMo

4

When you’ve been at this for so many years, almost everything is a flashback. This one is to 2016.

Write about someone you’ve recently lost.

Happily, lately, there really hasn’t been anyone. Again, don’t want to get too much into the particulars of where I am, or what I’m doing, but the 2016 flashback I linked is very relevant. I asked my brother yesterday about our late grandmother’s house; he didn’t know, and hadn’t heard from our uncle’s partner(?). (I think they’d finally married) who took ownership at his death.

*checks FB*

Not sure she’s still on my friends list, even. (How’s that for a Myspace callback?) Something to check on when I’ve got some more time, maybe.

But happy 97th birthday to my maternal grandfather, who was doing well at last interaction. He shares a birthday with my late uncle. (And, if you do the quick math, these are Valentine’s Day products…) I’d been worried, but he’s got a new cane that helps him get around, and he’s still in the place he and my grandmother bought towards the end of her life, and before Katrina.

So, 800-pound gorilla in the room, let’s call him Harambe, since Elephants are no longer allowed in Ohio again, and they seem intent on digging up failed experiments from the 2000s; hi, Senator Brown.

Yesterday’s elections were kind of a disaster.

Eliana Johnson was on the WTF stream last night as things were falling apart.

Her recap in The Free Beacon was pretty good.

I don’t even know where to start with analysis, and what they’re going to do.

It looks like they’re already splintering internally, which isn’t at all surprising.

They don’t have the margins to do some of the really stupid things the DSA people want.

And they’ll do nothing until they’ve got to re-inflate the carcass “both sides” have been blowing up since about 1991. Debt ceiling comes first (again), then probably a stopgap appropriation to keep the government running through the 2028 election.

There’ll probably be a few minor controversies interspersed, but “neither side” has a clue how to fix the mess that’s been brewing for an awful long time.

The solution to pretty much every problem will come from outside government. Of course, that means it’s important to nationalize all of Elon Musk’s stuff. Along with the big tech firms that even considered trying to make the bad orange man happy.

Whatever.

If you, or especially your business, is cheering either the “success,” or mourning the “failure” of yesterday, good luck. I’ll be taking my traveler’s checks to a competing resort.

On a related note, in honor of BlueTexas, Samir summed it up well.

Categories
NoJoMo

3

Election Day

Good link back to 2020.

I’m kind of tuning it out as best I can.

Though the debt book I consumed (and I didn’t write a review; bad me) the past few weeks has quieted my worry a bit, but the problem with unfunded obligations is still very real. But that, on top of the real antisemitism floating to the top, I’m really having trouble caring.

Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat for 75 years, described why he’s out on with Dr. Drew came out forcefully against “his party” over their embrace of antisemitism. (And that I still pay attention to Dr. Drew kind of provides perspective about my age. There’s been many times where I’ve disagreed with AD, but he is a prominent civil rights attorney.)

I’ve written here, that I planned to vote for Biden in 2024 until the We-Beat-Medicare debate. Why? Because I still don’t believe there’s any politician who can fix the mess that the Boomer presidents have created. Okay, Biden wasn’t a Boomer, and his handlers were largely Millennials, who wrote pearl-clutching retrospectives about what they’d hidden from the world; see my review of Original Sin.

Is this indifference? Not really. There are still some really fucking terrible people “on both sides.” (Set aside there’s really no big difference between the sides; both OrangeManBad and JDVP would have been Democrats about twenty years ago) El-Sayed. Paxton. Vivek. The DSA House candidates. MAGA. Socialists, Big Labor, but I repeat myself, and so on.)

So, I’m out. I’ll vote against the candidates I really don’t like. And if you, or your business are big supporters of someone or something I really don’t like, please shut the fuck up about it if you want my acquaintance. Or, especially, my business.

I’m going to go visit family this afternoon, and will watch the WTF livestream tonight.

Whatever.

Categories
NoJoMo

2

This flashback is kinda relevant; same day of the week, even, I think.

Nov. 2, 2015, midnight

*It’s the first Monday of the month. Please rank the level of sucktitude on a scale of 1 to 100, then describe your plans for the day.*

The answer, of course, is eight.

Why so low?

  1. THE ROYALS WON THE WORLD SERIES
  2. What’s making my life at miserable at work isn’t here. So, there’s that.

I am very tired, as that game didn’t finish until almost 2am. yawn

Am I surprised by all this? Certainly. I didn’t think it was possible, in this world of uncapped salaries, for

a small-market team like Kansas City to put together a competetitive team.

They did.

Would the story have been different if they’d been playing in the AL East? Maybe. It’s very difficult to compete with NYC, Boston money.

Otherwise, I don’t have a lot to say today.

I’m refamiliarizing myself with “The FAR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Acquisition_Regulation) even though it seems as none of the higher-ups give a fuck about it.

I’m going to do what’s right, not what’s expident. If you want to fire me because of that, please bring it.

I’m sure some folks in the trial law field will enjoy having me as a client…..

sigh

So there’s that.

Heh. This kind of encapsulates a couple of different things that led me to the attitude I had in yesterday’s entry.

Che’s Neighbor Willis isn’t the sort of optimism I’m aiming for, either.

Willie is a good representation of exactly what people think actually happened, and that that fictionalized past is going to return.

Regardless of what your history teacher might be pumping out, things weren’t that bad in the US.
Nobody is trying to create or recreate that fictionalized dystopia.

Where did those bad things happen? In Socialist countries. No, I’m nto talking about Denmark. I’m talking about East Germany. I’m talking about Czechoslovakia. I’m talking about Peronist Argentina. I’m talking about Allende’s Chile.

But, again, there’s clarity for me. You’re going to do what you do. I’m just not going to interact with you if you’re cheerleading things I view as negative.

Is it a bit hypocritical for me to focus so much on things like 20th century Communism similar to the way “The Left” focus on things like Colonialism? You could make that argument, certainly. But it’s still pretty fresh in my mind. I saw the glorious effects of Socialism first-hand in 1993. You noticed when you were crossing from Austria into Hungary. You saw the overall grubbiness of Eastern Europe after The Wall came down.

That stuff is still fresh. So, too, are relics from the Party of Slavery/The Klan/Segregation/The Palmer Raids/Forced Steriliation/Massive Resistance/Lee-Jackson-King Day. Socialism’s real legacy isn’t ancient history, even if it wasn’t taught in government schools. It’s a bit like how The Holocaust wasn’t taught to this Tajik in his Soviet Schools.

And I really ought to wrap this up. Time to recycle the prompt…

Please rank the level of sucktitude on a scale of 1 to 100, then describe your plans for the day.

Um. Probably at about a 20 on the sucktitude meter. I’m honestly not feeling great today. I really need to do a better job of gauging what I’m capable of. That said, it’s still amazement at how much better I feel now than I would have just a few years ago. I would have been completely useless, and scared to death about embarassing myself. Not going to go too deeply into detail; that’s for later, but I don’t know if I could have done what I did just three years ago.

As for today, I really don’t know, yet. I have a thumbnail sketch, but circumstances will dictate. And I’ll probably be able to deal with those circumstances. I don’t really have firm plans or a fixed schedule. That’s okay; I’m retired.

Categories
NoJoMo

1

So, I started in on this while I was waiting in the airport;

This is year sixteen of me writing every month in November. I started that only a few weeks after Sarah and I married Navy-style. (So at the courthouse in Norfolk, but not because I was going on cruise, and she was knocked-up…)

I think I’m settling, finally, into disability.

This condition is horrible, and I wouldn’t wish on the person in the world I dislike most, but it’s still not the horrible sentence it was when I started writing.

Things. Get. Better.

So, I’m really wondering if I can, maybe, try to bring some of that perspective into this year.

Credit goes, of course to things like Cato’s Doomsayer, Reason Magazine, Michael Malice, and Kmele Foster.

You really have to work hard to make things that bad. Even with the horrid orange blob in the Oval Office.

So, as I write and post this from inside the airplane, I hope someone reads this and is a little less-pessimistic about things.

Good things can happen this month; if you’ll let them.

I had to re-edit once I got off the plane; Intertubes quit working, and we were about to land. Go figure.

Still, on the generally-positive side of so many things at this point.

AI probably is going to make most lives better.
We’re probably not going to die of whatever disease came in on RFKJ’s car roof.

Chill the fuck out, and do something that focuses your attention on something other than what’s going to set you off.

So, yeah, turn off MSNBC^H^HOW. Turn off Instagram reels and TikTok.

What I’m going to write so far….

Nov 1 — November again, writing since 2010
Nov 2 — Royals’ 2015 World Series win; second draft: dimming your personality to fit in
Nov 3 — Election Day, linked back to 2020
Nov 4 — 2016 flashback: someone recently lost
Nov 5 — just the single word “Free-wriet-ish” so far, no topic yet
Nov 6 — 2010 flashback: feeling old, drinking, weight loss
Nov 7 — Bucket list, still not having one (2013 flashback)
Nov 8 — Defining safety, and where you feel it most
Nov 9 — Election flashback to 2004
Nov 10 — 2002 flashback: advertisers have lost it
Nov 11 — Archived 2005 entry: first day at your first job outside radio
Nov 12 — Faith essay; second draft: travel plans for the next few months
Nov 13 — Travel recap
Nov 14 — COVID flashback to 2020
Nov 15 — Halftime: life without internet and social media
Nov 16 — This year’s flu shot
Nov 17 — Signs and synchronicities lately
Nov 18 — Plans for the rest of the year
Nov 19 — Signs and synchronicities, same opening as Nov 17
Nov 20 — Childhood dream job (2016 flashback)
Nov 21 — What you’re most proud of this year
Nov 22 — Thanksgiving plans
Nov 23 — empty
Nov 24 — 1999 flashback: moving as an Army kid
Nov 25 — Christmas shopping
Nov 26 — Thanksgiving
Nov 27 — Black Friday
Nov 28 — empty
Nov 29 — Football this year
Nov 30 — Month wrap-up: organizations you’re giving to

For the empty ones, if you have suggestions, let me know.

Categories
NoJoMo Scarred Brain murmurings

R2G Saturday

I’m not going to go through exactly what I do during NoJoMo. This will be year fifteen. Is it a problem? Maybe. I do have diagnosed OCD. The writing streaks are one of the few compulsions I display.

Dunno if Justin, or anyone else are going to try to follow along. These compulsions are just that; I have been diagnosed, but when I was working they served really as a chance to keep me writing, and lay out what I needed to do for the rest of the year.

This year is different, primarily because after the previous two, I’m firmly in the mode of retirement.

Things are pretty-much squared-away. Finally.
I did what I was supposed to do, and I should be able to try to enjoy myself some. It’s about time.

And I think things will be okay, in spite of the endless efforts to place the blame for everything bad on President Trump. Again, he’s fucking awful. I never voted for him. But that doesn’t mean that Hillary, Biden, or Officer Harris would have been any better.

I don’t remember where I got the recommendation, and it wasn’t an author interview, but I got through A Fabulous Debt by Robin Wigglesworth. His example of old debt is a dam in Holland for which the note has been paying interest for nearly 500 years.

I don’t understand why you’d keep that line of credit open, even if it continually pays interest. Settle up, and move on with your life. Maybe it’s the inverse of Harry Browne’s No-One-Owes-You-Anything. I just can’t imagine living that way, even if there’s arguments for it.

I pre-pay bills, even if my financial advisors tell me to not do that. If something happens, I’m not going to be in arrears.

Maybe it’s not surprising, then, that my wife and I operate much the same way on financial matters, even if our political views continue to diverge. (Sorry, hon, I don’t think Trump is the alpha and omega when it comes the problems…., and when he’s gone they’ll still be there.)

But, buttoned-up,a and ready for the month, the holidays, and the rest of the year.

Let’s go….