- For the last three weeks, I’ve visited St. Francis’ Infusion Center (or whatever they call it) to have the dressing on the PICC redone.
- The first two times were pleasant.
- Had good conversations with my nurses.
- Got some of that skin-pulling pain as they peeled off the old dressing.
- Ever notice how some pain feels worse than others?
- Sharp pain. Acute pain.
- Sometimes worse than like deep, persistent pain.
- For a moment.
- The clinging pain, well … pain don’t hurt.
- You can get used to anything.
- It all sucks, but …
- Anyway.
- Sitting there, waiting on the nurse dude to start working on my PICC, and there’s a silver-haired lady in the chair next to mine watching some conservative talking jackass blather on about how gun rights and Ted Nugent.
- Dude literally said Nugent is an unassailable authority on gun rights.
- Sure.
- That guy who played guitar and got high is an expert.
- Gooooo fuck yourself, media guy.
- And that’s the problem with America.
- Too much listening to opinions, not enough digesting of actual facts … because people aren’t taught the critical thinking skills to tell the difference.
- No Heroes.
- Do not let someone fill in the blanks on your opinions.
- But also not why we’re here.
- Shut your shit off in public or put in your headphones.
- Much like the biz-bro phone talkers in the airport, the rest of us do not need to listen to your bullshit.
- Like I said before, we’re in a selfishness pandemic.
- And the algorithms make it all worse.
- Goes for me, too.
- She was probably there getting chemo.
- Which is way worse than why I was there.
- I should shut my damn mouth?
- Fingers?
- Buy her some ‘phones in case I see her again.
- Pair them for her.
- Something.
- Just another MADNESS MONDAY.
- Hi, guys.
- What’s happenin’.
- All I have today are rants.
- Like, I have one percolating about “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
- I’m not doing it today.
- But soon.
- One of my guy friends, Phil, sent me a text today.
- And I might as well just admit things and move along.
- His text: “Have you read Fourth Wing?”
- …
- F.
- Yes, yes I have.
- When the first book dropped, I had, no joke, four different people at work tell me I had to read it.
- All women, but I did not pay attention to that at the time.
- Four people in one week tell you to read a book, well, you go try it out.
- It’s a “Romantacy,” which is a genre still kinda in its infancy.
- Fantasy about fighters who bond with dragons with a whole steamy “romance” in the middle.
- Prose is eh. Beach-read level.
- World-building is pretty good.
- The romance part is … not something you read in books written by dudes.
- I was like, “wait, this is what the women read? Good lord, this is an instructional manual.”
- For … intimate relations.
- Like, how do I have conversations about these books?
- Am I supposed to feel guilty?
- (I don’t, btw.)
- The Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton tread this territory, too.
- They became less story and more … Penthouse Forums or Letters or whatever that was called.
- Which got boring, honestly.
- Anyway.
- I find this all interesting.
- The difference in stories told by women and men.
- Guys, it would seem we are way more … inhibited … than the women folk.
- Or lack imagination.
- Or perhaps fundamentally neglect their needs.
- Food for thought.
- Now, see, this is not what I would write about at work.
- Maybe I shouldn’t here, either, but screw it.
- I may have mentioned this, but my perspective on the world and my life has been irrevocably altered by the surgery.
- Do not go gentle, remember?
- One thing to say it.
- Type it.
- Another to live it.
- Going to have to learn how, to overcome those behavioral habits.
- If you want to achieve something new, you can’t keep doing it the way you always have.
- And inertia is a helluva thing to overcome.
- That works both ways, however.
- Use it or lose it.
- …
- I can’t end with a damn cliché.
- Last of Us has been good.
- Billie’s coming to Tulsa.
- Going.
- Not even ashamed by that a little.
- Billie’s a badass.
- I hope we get to go, anyway.
- She might be too much of a badass to afford to go.
- If Spotify paid artists fairly, maybe they wouldn’t have to charge so much for their shows …
- F.
- Money doesn’t talk, it sucks.
- I wish I hadn’t already used the Disrespectre.
- (It’s right there on my laptop beside the trackpad. Every time I lift my hands I see the ghost flipping me off. Makes me laugh every damn time.)
- (wickedclothes.com)
- Feeling scrappy today.
- Fight your Monday!
- Once more into the breach!
Breach!
skepticlysm 
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