- Time.
- More often than not, when I’m writing these things, one thought naturally comes after another.
- However, that means a lot of the time, I don’t end up talking about the originating idea.
- I mentioned time the other day.
- The specter in my head.
- Tick, tock, right?
- Like, I feel all the time I’m running out of it.
- Wasting it.
- Sitting on the couch, staring at the screen on that goddamn phone, flipping past all manner of irrelevant ephemera.
- The hell am I doing?
- If I don’t get the book finished now, it’s going to be too late.
- Why am I not spending every available moment writing the book?
- Because fear and anxiety are monsters, that’s why.
- Life requires daily bravery.
- Stepping up to punch your demons in the face on the regular.
- Most people don’t have it in them, I don’t think.
- The comfort of normal is an Odyssean siren’s call.
- The devil you know speaks inactivity into your mind, all the time.
- The evils of comfort.
- Growth sprouts from activity and change.
- Inactivity does stuff like throw your back out, which happened to me this morning as I dug through a drawer looking for my Last Crusade blu-ray, which apparently I don’t actually own.
- I was damn sure I had the trilogy on disc.
- Apparently not?
- The hell.
- Screw your subscriptions!
- ….
- Where the hell was I?
- The anxious brain is a curse, is what I’m saying.
- And time is your most valuable resource.
- Not money.
- And yet we let other people determine the value of our hours.
- Some bullshit right there.
- Do not go gentle.
- All morning I’ve been in the Discord chatting.
- Hours of good stuff, honestly.
- We had conversations about books, careers, sports, movies, video games (and the lack of playing), and poor people food.
- A lot of us grew up poorish, so we ate things our parents’ income could afford.
- Like Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese.
- Or bologna and American cheese sandwiches.
- And cheap chips.
- Guys.
- Most of you know what I’m talking about.
- Childhood comfort food.
- Then there’s “cockamamie.”
- Blame Upton for that one, but we did get Jerm’s art out of that deal.
- I know, I know.
- You’re lacking context.
- This is the other part of the introversion conversation I started the other day.
- Just because you’re introverted does not mean you don’t need people.
- Kinda?
- Maybe it’s just me.
- But between reconnecting with a bunch of my high school crew, writing these lists to foster and create community, and the Discord server, I’m better understanding the need for connection with people.
- Talking to you people, even with the cyber-arms distance of all this, has been kind of invigorating?
- Only because I know you.
- But still.
- I enjoy talking about things I’m into, you know?
- And also having those conversations about shared experiences, and differing perspectives.
- That was kinda the part I enjoyed as a journalist.
- The learning about other people and not having to share.
- Again, I know.
- The fuck do I think I’m doing here if not sharing?
- Ah, there’s that swearing part again.
- It is a sign of intelligence.
- I have read the research on that.
- Because, you know, confirmation bias.
- But the research does confirm it.
- Fuckin a right it does.
- Heh.
- These Black Lists are less about fun, aren’t they?
- Jerm did remind me Last Crusade was on Disney+, so it’s playing quietly.
- “I didn’t trust her. Why did you?”
- I have several questions for you today.
- Like, what would it take to make a mini-city populated by “our” people as we get closer to retirement?
- Sure, it would be a Venn diagram, because we all have people outside of here, you know?
- But … how cool would that be?
- I always read about those tiny house compounds of friend groups.
- And, you know, actual compounds built around abandoned missile silos.
- How do we craft lives more like what we actually want?
- Second question, and this one’s right out of the Discord server … if you could have the power of one of Marvel’s mutants, which would it be?
- I’d have to do a list.
- This, but if not this, then that.
- 1) Wolverine’s healing factor
- 2) Nightcrawler’s teleportation
- 3) Forge’s ability to invent and build anything
- 4) All of Longshot’s powers, but especially his “good luck”
- I don’t want any of that mind-reading stuff.
- Though Jean’s telekinesis would be badass.
- And Psylocke’s psychic katana …
- But, you know, that has limited use in our world because you can’t run around killing people, you know?
- Not yet.
- We’ll see how this ICE bullshit plays out.
- Goddamn nazis running our country.
- I mean, the fucking Proud Boys are suing the govt for $100m for … what? Because they’re playing into the bullshit that they did NOT try to pull off an insurrection?
- …
- They did.
- That happened.
- Do not believe the revisionist agenda.
- I mean, wtaf.
- All those motherfuckers should still be in prison.
- And, btw, Hitler did the exact same thing when he took power.
- Learn from history, or suffer the consequences of repeating it.
- Not where I meant to go today.
- Heh.
- Like I said, the Stream has a mind of its own.
- You’d fix things like this on the second draft, but … we don’t do that here.
- I barely go back and edit.
- These could be better, is what I’m saying.
- And this one’s long.
- (I thought about editing out the “political” rant but screw it. There are things happening we cannot let become normal. And yet … )
- I actually meant to rant about movies, specifically Hollywood’s chickenshit tendency to do remakes instead of original films.
- I have a cool meme to go with that.
- A good quote from Ursula.
- Or Margaret.
- Tomorrow I guess.
- (Predicting a low reader turn out today. I can’t write about the brain thing all the time. There are other things going on up there.)
- Heh.
- High five.
Too Old. Too Old to Begin the Training.
skepticlysm 
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