skepticlysm

Category: The Black List

  • Too Old. Too Old to Begin the Training.

    Too Old. Too Old to Begin the Training.

    • 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.

  • Might Be the Wrong Audience for This One

    Might Be the Wrong Audience for This One

    • Been a day.
    • 3 o’clock and I’m only now getting to type.
    • Tick, tock, mfers.
    • I think about time incessantly.
    • Post surgery, sitting there in that bed trying to get my wits about me, I had an awakening.
    • Paradigm shift, if I’m using some of that fancy self-help vernacular.
    • But it did happen.
    • The past three years, if I’m being honest, have been a deep, dark hole.
    • I had reduced my timeline from 20ish more years to five, 10 if I was lucky.
    • I thought a lot about leaving the kid unready to face the world.
    • Of not being here for my tiny family.
    • The hurt.
    • The loss.
    • And no small amount of fear of my own.
    • When the Mayo can’t give you an answer, it seems dire.
    • Hard not to feel the weight of uncertainty.
    • Hard not to let it feel imminent.
    • If you have never had chronic pain, you have no idea what it takes from you.
    • The amount of energy needed to function.
    • The world expects you to carry on.
    • Yeah, you hurt.
    • Tough shit.
    • Go to work.
    • You are only worth your work.
    • Produce, plebe.
    • Again, the toll.
    • I’m not trolling for empathy here.
    • I don’t talk about this shit.
    • Did not really talk about it to anyone, other than the basics.
    • There’s a thing.
    • It hurts.
    • They don’t know what it is.
    • Tick tock.
    • It’s like the scene in Krull when the wizard takes the sand from the hourglass to escape the spider’s web.
    • (Stay with me. I know we’re still on the week’s darker path, but there is light …)
    • Had the MRI on Monday.
    • Talked to the Mayo docs yesterday.
    • Everything is shrinking.
    • The antibiotics are working.
    • They’ve ruled out cancer.
    • They no longer think it’s auto-immune.
    • They think I’ve had a years long infection that got into my brain.
    • Might be one of those situations where I had one infection that allowed another to flourish.
    • But my Neuro Immunologist was geeked out about the MRI.
    • We had a super positive conversation.
    • Three more weeks on the antibiotics.
    • Another MRI.
    • But … OMG hope?
    • I dislike hope.
    • Moderation.
    • We’re not there yet.
    • But the way out seems through.
    • I don’t even know what to do with this, honestly.
    • I’m still sorta on house arrest.
    • Three more weeks with the PICC.
    • The skull’s still not quite there.
    • Clicky.
    • Breathe.
    • I mean, I might have a wicked scar, but in mere months, I might have a normal life back.
    • Holy shit.
    • Which brings me back to that paradigm shift.
    • I’m done letting other people control my future.
    • Sitting here letting someone decide what I do day-to-day.
    • What I get to make.
    • How far I get to go in my “career.”
    • Done with it.
    • Time’s a wasting.
    • It’s going to be hard, to keep from reverting to old patterns and habits.
    • However, like Agent Smith, I must get out of this place.
    • Why do we do this?
    • Why do we agree to it?
    • I know my why.
    • Do you know yours?
    • Financial insecurity based on how I grew up.
    • Too long has it dominated my decision matrix.
    • No more.
    • Won’t be easy, but you know what else I’ve learned through all this?
    • Hard ain’t no thing.
    • I beat shit I shouldn’t all the time.
    • I’m betting you do, too.
    • And honestly, I’m too smart and too good for what I’ve settled.
    • I know how arrogant that sounded.
    • I dgaf anymore.
    • And I’m bringing anyone with me who wants to come.
    • I’ve shortchanged myself, and that shit is changing.
    • I can’t believe I’m typing any of this, honestly.
    • I’ve been going to work for three years with a brain tumor and winning awards.
    • The hell, man.
    • That sentence is insanity.
    • What are we capable of with no obstacles?
    • What can we do when we’re encouraged and impassioned?
    • I’m not even high right now.
    • And there’s a goddamn Taylor Swift song playing.
    • (Not all obstacles are large.)
    • Sweary.
    • Again, that’s who I really am.
    • Sorry not sorry?
    • Hey, all.
    • What’s happening?
    • What’ve you got planned this weekend?
    • I’m not throwing that out there.
    • The weekend’s wide open.
    • I have stuff to do.
    • Some of it’s even fun.
    • Plans to make.
    • People to talk to.
    • Ah.
    • That was the normal subject matter I wanted to hit.
    • That whole introvert/extrovert thing.
    • I’m a bit of both.
    • Totally introverted around people I don’t know.
    • Like working a room?
    • Forget about it.
    • I do, however, deal with my awkwardness with random conversations.
    • I’m not introverted at all around people I know.
    • Quite the opposite.
    • A good side effect of the awkward compensation activity … I do not treat people bad in public ever.
    • I’m talking cashiers, waiters, hostesses, the mail dudes, FedEx.
    • I go out of my way to be nice.
    • And it pisses me off when I see others being rude, impatient, mean, and inconsiderate to them.
    • (Idealist, remember?)
    • Like, honestly, the fuck is your problem?
    • You have no idea what they’re going through.
    • You’re not better than anyone else.
    • You have no idea how much good fortune has shaped your reality.
    • That’s also at the root of the perspective shift.
    • Be better than you yesterday.
    • Stop comparing yourself to other people to measure your progress or self-worth.
    • Empathy for yourself, empathy for others.
    • With that, you can change the world.
    • Yours and everyone else’s.
    • Happy to be here.
    • Happy you’re all here.
    • Thanks for being part of my life.
    • Make your weekend count.
    • Out.
  • Layin’ it Down

    Layin’ it Down

    • Now Playing: The Pixies, “Where is my mind?”
    • I still have the “Liked Songs” playlist rolling.
    • Theme of the week I guess.
    • A leitmotif of sorts.
    • I stuck my earbuds in, said, “I gotta have music while I write, so … wave at me.”
    • Steph might’ve rolled her eyes.
    • I write these from the couch with my cup of coffee, laptop on a lapboard, “computer glasses” perched on my nose.
    • And right now, the Pixies asking, “where is my mind?”
    • I can tell you, it’s trying to avoid writing another ranting manifesto.
    • I could do one about work and our lives of indentured servitude, but I’ve been doing that one since like year 2000.
    • True story.
    • We have a broad array of music taste in the Discord server.
    • They’re in there talking about jam bands.
    • Never my thing.
    • I’m glad it exists and makes some people happy, however.
    • Based on what I wrote yesterday, I’m reevaluating my judgmentalism.
    • To each their own, right?
    • That’s a life-guiding philosophy.
    • You can dislike a thing and not …
    • Hell, I’m never going to be able to give country music a pass.
    • Or those giant goddamn trucks.
    • Ahhhhhh.
    • Life is hard, y’all.
    • What I’m saying is that judgment is inherent to our beings, maybe?
    • What you do with it, however, is what sets you apart, good and bad.
    • “I don’t know. I’m making it up as I go.”
    • That’s probably my real mantra.
    • I can’t pull off the fedora, however.
    • NP: Audioslave, “Cochise.”
    • Holy hell, I LOVE the opening of that song.
    • OSU did one of their first pre-game videos to that song.
    • Made me want to suit up and flying tackle someone.
    • (I actually worked for the athletic department when they got the first video boards in Boone Pickens.)
    • I actually spent three hours interviewing Boone for the cover story for POSSE mag.
    • We sat in the kitchen of his … house at Karsten Creek.
    • They’ve been milking pieces of that interview for years.
    • Guy told good stories.
    • Had charisma.
    • I actually got to go to his ranch with the athletic department.
    • Holy hell, man.
    • He had a … hotel for guests, and then you drove 20 minutes to his house, which had a roman aqueduct, a wine cave, and glass floor where you could watch the water from the aqueduct flow into the 15-foot deep koi ponds that formed a terrace in the … back yard?
    • Got to trap shoot while we were there.
    • I’d never shot a shotgun before, but I hit more shots than anyone.
    • All that FPS Halo training.
    • Shoulder was bruised to hell.
    • Worth it.
    • I like shooting.
    • Always have.
    • There are some things you can’t avoid growing up in Oklahoma, I guess.
    • How did I become a half a step from being ANTIFA living here?
    • Blame college, right?
    • Made me woke?
    • /eye_roll
    • I’ve mentioned this before, but I write these lists for a couple of reasons.
    • First, compulsion.
    • Second, community.
    • Third, to give you people something to read that’s not algorithmic bullshit.
    • I’m repeating myself.
    • I still believe in the submerged power of the Internet to connect people instead of dividing them.
    • (Playlist just went from Rusted Root to Tool.)
    • (Awwww yisssss).
    • Like, for instance, while I’m typing, I’m talking to my friends about coffee.
    • Jay said, “Pray for me, guys. I’m having to drink Keurig coffee at work. I apparently didn’t consume enough of the good stuff back at the house.”
    • And then we got into the whole coffee debate.
    • I’ll drink shitty coffee when I have to.
    • But … “I get the gourmet shit because I want to taste it.”
    • I don’t drink black coffee yet, but when I do, I like espresso blends.
    • DID YOU KNOW … contrary to popular belief, a good espresso blend is less bitter than a lighter roast?
    • Not if you’re buying that Starbucks shit at the store.
    • I have to be careful here.
    • I have opinions, but not enough concrete data to back it up.
    • We have a coffee subscription.
    • (Until the tariffs and economy crash take it away, anyway.)
    • Trade Coffee.
    • We’ve had some spectacular beans from there.
    • Squirrel!
    • What I love about modern tech is its ability to keep you connected.
    • The whole coffee conversation with the guys.
    • The Discord server.
    • All manner of group text threads.
    • Facebook messages.
    • The direct stuff.
    • Community is key to longevity.
    • That and lifting weights.
    • Which I’m dying to get back to btw.
    • My Oura ring telling me I’m a year older than my age …
    • Fuck you, ring.
    • I was younger before the surgery.
    • I cannot abide this sedentary nonsense while doing the meds!
    • Sigh.
    • I’ve got virtual Mayo appts today to determine the course of things.
    • Keep your fingers crossed.
    • We know things are working, mind you.
    • We just don’t know what else they want to do.
    • Anyway.
    • Not a cry for sympathy.
    • I don’t do that.
    • DO NOT GO GENTLE.
    • NP: Anthrax, “Crush.”
    • Don’t think all I have on this playlist is metal, because it is sure not true.
    • Charlie’s drums in “Crush” are amazing, btw.
    • Anthrax is so much better than Megadeth.
    • Dave can suck it.
    • (Not our Dave. Dave Mustain.)
    • (Who’s still crying about being kicked out of Metallica 40+ years later.)
    • NP: Ratt, “Lay it Down.”
    • What the hell.
    • I really clicked Like on that song?
    • …
    • No accounting for taste, I guess.
    • Not even mine.
    • Remember, don’t listen to me.
    • You do you.
    • Out!
  • Inflammatory Response

    Inflammatory Response

    • Now playing: Killswitch Engage, “Holy Diver.”
    • No, I’m not doing the music thing again today.
    • Probably.
    • Today’s going to be … pokey.
    • As in, I’m going to poke you all with sticks.
    • Some of you, anyway.
    • Let’s talk Pride month.
    • Distilled down to its most basic …
    • It’s none of your business.
    • If someone is gay, that’s none of your business.
    • They should be free to be who they are and free of any judgment from anyone else.
    • They should be free to just live.
    • It should not be an issue.
    • Not a topic of conversation.
    • Sure as hell not a topic of persecution.
    • Are they free or not?
    • Are they free to live their lives according to their pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness?
    • Because if they are not, then this American freedom is horseshit.
    • I get it.
    • Some book says something.
    • That’s another freedom.
    • Read your book.
    • Follow your religion.
    • If you’re Christian, you’re not persecuted.
    • That’s propaganda.
    • You’re the majority in this country.
    • But again, freedom, right?
    • You have the freedom to believe what you believe.
    • Extend that to others.
    • Assume people aren’t going to see things the way you do.
    • Believe the way you do.
    • Freedom is freedom, right?
    • That means freedom to not be like you.
    • To disagree.
    • What it does not mean is that you have the right to establish laws that demand everyone believe and act like you.
    • Freedom is that, or this is all a big load of crap.
    • Someone being gay or trans or bi or atheist has literally no effect on your life.
    • So shut the fuck up about it, do your own thing, and let them do theirs.
    • Because, again, it’s none of your business.
    • The golden rule is all you need.
    • Be good.
    • Be moral.
    • Do right by others and yourself.
    • Do the good thing.
    • Have empathy.
    • Work toward understanding.
    • Dammit, man, why is this hard?
    • You know what the right thing is in every situation.
    • Do that.
    • And if you don’t, maybe we need to have some empathy and morality training.
    • Some logic classes (I took those in college).
    • I hope this comes off as shaming.
    • Because partly it is.
    • Believe what you want, but you do not get to force it upon other people.
    • College classes aren’t “woke,” btw.
    • Professors aren’t up there preaching, doing lessons on DEI.
    • Those of you who went, you remember a single class like that?
    • Classes were on subject all the time.
    • Again, enough with the goddamn propaganda.
    • ENOUGH.
    • Freedom means free, or it’s a fucking lie.
    • What’s it going to be?
    • Pride month exists because they are persecuted in modern society.
    • They’re fighting for normalcy and acceptance.
    • They should not have to.
    • Pretty simple.
    • And don’t get me started about the economic realities of life in modern America.
    • We buy into so much bullshit.
    • Okay.
    • Done.
    • I didn’t wake up cranky, mind you.
    • This is exasperation.
    • For fuck’s sake, people.
    • I only get to write this because I’m a middle-class white guy.
    • Privilege.
    • Mansplaining.
    • This isn’t even mine to defend.
    • If you make the argument that “they need to quit pushing it in my face,” you maybe need to consider it from the other side, the one that reflects you and not them, and that’s pushed in their faces every day, telling them they are not normal or wrong or whatever.
    • Imagine that’s your day-to-day reality.
    • Shit is not fair or equal, and it’s going to take work to make it so.
    • That is sure as hell not happening currently.
    • Anything I write from here to the end no one’s going to remember.
    • I re-subbed to Wired.
    • Back when that mag launched in the ‘90s, it was the journalistic bastion of tech and cyberpunk.
    • It was Rolling Stone for nerds.
    • I loved it so much.
    • Fantastic writing, great stories, beautiful design.
    • The Letter from the Editor in the most recent issue, “Rogue Nation,” is fantastic.
    • I kinda geeked out reading it.
    • Like, “YES!”
    • “So be the rogue you want to see in the world, and know that WIRED, with every ounce of rebel spirit in our DNA, will be right there with you.” – Katie Drummond, Global Editorial Director
    • Honestly, reading the issue makes me want to be a journalist again.
    • I bailed on that career path as fast as I could.
    • My first two jobs were $15k/year.
    • It took forever to get out of the $40ks as it was.
    • Journalism isn’t vanishing because it’s not valuable, but because it’s not profitable.
    • …
    • F.
    • That’s another soapbox.
    • Can’t do two in one day.
    • Vollertsen called me an idealist.
    • It’s true.
    • This angry façade I carry?
    • I see so much dumb shit going on in the world.
    • It makes me insane.
    • We do every bad thing to ourselves.
    • Two dark lists in one week.
    • Then again, this isn’t work.
    • This is The Black List.
    • My anger and frustration covers the fact I’m an accepting, loving person.
    • I care about people.
    • The anger’s armor.
    • Self-defense.
    • Because I’m vulnerable.
    • Pretty much always.
    • There’s my deep admission for the day.
    • We all are on some level.
    • Or we’re all delusional.
    • Which is another form of self-defense.
    • Where’s that leave us?
    • Love your people.
    • Let others love theirs.
    • Work on getting along or leaving them alone.
    • Check yo’self before you wreck yo’self?
    • Think about it before we start arguing, k?
    • Love you all.
    • Thanks for reading.

  • Recalibration Ride-A-Long

    Recalibration Ride-A-Long

    • It occurred to me this morning I did not listen to any music when writing yesterday’s odd, perhaps demoralizing List.
    • Remedying that today.
    • Hit play on my “Liked Songs” in Spotify.
    • Just after clicking the shuffle button.
    • Obviously.
    • First up, Machine Head’s cover of Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
    • Fantastic cover.
    • Metal that shit up.
    • Maiden’s never struck me as a metal band, really.
    • I’m not sure what they are.
    • Iron Maiden, I guess?
    • No one sounds like them.
    • Almost all their songs contain a narrative, which is cool because I’m not sure a lot of modern music does?
    • (I have nothing to support that claim.)
    • Btw, the denizens of the Discord made up a new word this morning: buttcry.
    • Which was supposed to be “buttery.”
    • “This is what it sounds like when buttcry.”
    • Anyway.
    • Iron Maiden.
    • I did not listen to them at all for like four years after going to their Tulsa show at the BOK.
    • For one, at the time, I thought they were too loud (when really, it was my faulty ears).
    • For another, they played mostly new stuff, which I thought sucked.
    • I wanted to hear the hits.
    • Lately, however, lots of Maiden in the rotation.
    • I have been playing Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and Number of the Beast (albums) during gaming sessions.
    • I know, I know.
    • If you don’t like Maiden, you dgaf.
    • Got it.
    • We watched the first two episodes of Dept. Q on Netflix.
    • “By the guy who did The Queen’s Gambit.”
    • Sold.
    • Dept. Q is good stuff.
    • Like it a lot so far.
    • Again, character’s the thing.
    • It’s full of good ones.
    • And it’s gorgeous.
    • Music interlude: NP – “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo,” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
    • And then because I typed some other stuff first: (cover) “Where is My Mind,” Maxence Cyrin
    • “Got the Time,” Anthrax (also a cover, but I can’t remember the originating band’s name)
    • Damn, I love that song.
    • Was released my senior year of high school.
    • I remember trying to get the people in the car to listen to it on our way back from a student council thing in Edmond.
    • “No such thing as tomorrooooowwww …”
    • I write about music all the time.
    • I can’t live without it.
    • That guitar thing I mentioned a couple weeks ago.
    • Bucket list skills.
    • Gonna do that.
    • Hell, James was over here Friday night doodling around on the Fender we got the kid a couple years ago and I had to stifle a bit of jealousy.
    • What is it that keeps us from doing the things we’re interested in?
    • That we want to do?
    • Goddamn phone.
    • It’s not just that, however.
    • Not the phone at all, really.
    • All our speedbumps are internal.
    • NP: Moby, “Flower.”
    • Man, that Moby album had a shitload of good songs on it.
    • They’re still good, btw.
    • Might want to revisit that one.
    • (Having an a.d.d. kinda day.)
    • What I was saying is Music has a monumental impact on my mood.
    • Would you rather go blind or deaf?
    • Oof.
    • Neither.
    • NP: Spiritbox, “Circle with Me.”
    • (Nice bassline in this song.)
    • (Actually, this song is cool af.)
    • I’m not trying to convert anyone.
    • If you’re not into metal by now …
    • You do you, man.
    • In this world of “influencers …”
    • I got my first-ever writing gig back in college as a columnist for the O’Colly.
    • No joke, I wanted to be Dave Barry.
    • That led me into journalism and creative writing as degrees.
    • “Wait. I can do this for a living?”
    • (Yeah, kinda. You gonna be po’, kid, but yes, technically, you can write for a living.)
    • My question now … what’s a modern-day columnist?
    • Are they the “influencers?”
    • These lists are columns.
    • Format is jacked, but … your attention spans have been abbreviated. Amputated?
    • And I’m bludgeoning you with music today.
    • Books tomorrow.
    • Streaming shows and movies.
    • NP: Killswitch Engage, “My Curse.”
    • (Brother can SING.)
    • Does GenX give af about influencers?
    • I ask for market research purposes.
    • (Coming soon to an Internet near you.)
    • For real though.
    • Who do you read/listen to (not music) and why?
    • (I have no one I follow consistently.)
    • (I’m not exaggerating when I beat the “no heroes” drum.)
    • Okay, the riff is the thing.
    • I love a great metal riff.
    • LOVE IT.
    • Sure, it has to have good around it.
    • Great bass. Great drumming.
    • But something about that metal guitar sound …
    • Better than a pocket full of sunshine, I tell you.
    • Also, it’s not just about the riffs. Or Metal.
    • Beautiful solos.
    • Like the last one in Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” or the last one in Maiden’s “Wasted Years,” (which is one of my favorite songs ever, btw. Holy shit, so good.)
    • NP: Anthrax, “Intro to Reality,” which is an instrumental.
    • I’m typing on the couch listening to this song, bobbing my head, feeling … happy and satisfied.
    • Sure, the specter of work looms, but the tunes and typing are keeping it at bay.
    • NP: NIN, “Eraser (Denial: Realization)”
    • Here comes the riff …
    • I’m not apologizing for the weirdness of the list.
    • It’s a playlist ride-a-long.
    • Music: keeping the outside world, and the nonsense in my head (literally and figuratively), away.
    • NP: Pixies, “Where is My Mind.”
    • Great place to stop.
    • I’ll see you tomorrow.
    • Do not go gentle.

  • MFing Mondays

    MFing Mondays

    • I have done gummies once.
    • When Brad visited a year ago.
    • Was fun, actually.
    • Have not since.
    • Do not want to do that with my kid in the house, for one.
    • For another, I did not sleep worth a damn after.
    • Prior to that, only alcohol.
    • Never wanted to experiment with drugs.
    • Just Say No worked on me.
    • And other negative substance abuse influences in my life.
    • You go one of two ways with that kind of thing.
    • I bring this up because … Had an MRI this morning.
    • I can’t do MRIs without having valium.
    • Panic attacks ensue.
    • Hell, I had a panic attack while ON a valium during an MRI once.
    • I never thought I was claustrophobic, but … maybe?
    • Anyway, we’re still riding the valium wave.
    • A bit.
    • They don’t tend to stay with me very long.
    • Two hours, tops.
    • I started having panic attacks when the kid was about nine months old.
    • If you’ve never had one, I hope you don’t.
    • Because it feels like you’re dying.
    • When they first started, my doc gave me a script for Xanax.
    • First time I took one of those, I understood how people became addicted to drugs.
    • That was the most relaxed I have ever been in my entire life, before or since.
    • Peace and mindfulness in a pill.
    • In the course of all this medical drama, I’ve had Oxy.
    • Does nothing for me.
    • Not any better than Tylenol.
    • Xanax did not cure my panic attacks, btw.
    • Nor did buspirone.
    • Kali and JKD did.
    • Martial arts.
    • I can’t adequately explain the level of emotional confidence and control martial arts gave me.
    • Granted, I was training five days a week, but still.
    • How much of anxiety comes from feeling unsafe?
    • And how much of our coping mechanisms are based around control?
    • You control nothing but yourself.
    • Focus on you.
    • Monday morning MRI.
    • This is what you get.
    • I gotta say, having a PICC has been fantastic for labwork.
    • I haven’t gotten stuck since leaving the Mayo.
    • Annoying to have, but … advantages!
    • Pockets of sunshine!
    • Every time I leave the house, I think about how my skull has not healed shut yet.
    • Like, now would be the worst time to have a car accident, know what I’m sayin’?
    • Would my brains spill out?
    • Started today thinking it might be fun to write a chemically influenced list.
    • It’s not.
    • It’s just whining about medical crap.
    • Everyone have a good weekend?
    • Mine was D&D dominated.
    • Friday and Sunday nights.
    • DMing is stressful.
    • You have to build a story that will be compelling and fun.
    • And you have to be ready to toss it out the window when they do something you did not plan for, which is literally every session.
    • Great for improv development.
    • And storytelling.
    • Should translate to book writing.
    • But man, your head has to be in it.
    • Looking at people and reading the room.
    • Oof.
    • Under pressure.
    • I did have that Old Fashioned finally.
    • Awwww yisssss.
    • Just one.
    • Moderation.
    • You see that study that reported how many parents in America have an alcohol problem?
    • Sigh.
    • At work, writing these, I have a mandate to entertain and uplift.
    • This would not be that, would it?
    • Nothing funny here.
    • Bah.
    • You’re watching Murderbot, right?
    • You have AppleTV, right?
    • Of all the streaming services, they’re making the best content.
    • There’s not a ton of it, but it’s almost all good.
    • And they are definitely the standard bearers for modern sci-fi shows.
    • They’re making Neuromancer.
    • Holy F I cannot wait for that.
    • Amazon did a great job with The Peripheral.
    • Lameass to have cancelled it.
    • But yeah, Murderbot.
    • Read those books while you’re at it
    • I started Sunrise on the Reaping over the weekend.
    • The actual print book.
    • I haven’t read a printed book in more than a year because of all this eye bullshit.
    • Book’s pretty good so far.
    • Talked to Kaia about it.
    • Her take is that the writing is okay, but the story’s good.
    • So I asked her what books had her favorite prose:
    • Gallant
    • Song of Achilles
    • We are All So Good at Smiling
    • I’ve read one of those (Song of Achilles).
    • She’s not wrong on that one for sure.
    • And V.E. Schwab usually writes good stuff (Gallant).
    • I think that Smiling is verse?
    • A whole novel written as a poem?
    • Holy crap.
    • Steph just asked Kaia and me what our favorite literary devices were.
    • I had to have a definition to answer.
    • Stuff like metaphor, foreshadowing, etc.
    • Been a long time since I had a lit class.
    • Oooh, that stuff.
    • I’m not answering here, but it made me think of Hemingway.
    • That story I love of his, “Hills like White Elephants.”
    • On the surface, it’s about a couple waiting at a train station.
    • They talk.
    • There’re implied things.
    • The story itself is about an abortion, but that’s never said, never once stated.
    • It is brilliant.
    • I wonder if the kids of today could even pick up on any of it.
    • Everything has to be explained.
    • Effing over exposition.
    • It is on you to delve deeper, to think critically.
    • You can’t have control of anything if you understand nothing.
    • You can’t ascend if you can’t think for yourself.
    • Motherfucking Monday.
    • I gotta quit.
    • I’ll see you tomorrow.

  • Raiders of the Lost Years

    Raiders of the Lost Years

    • At this moment, I’m sitting on the couch watching Raiders.
    • Yes, again.
    • Turned it on to give myself something to watch while I injected the antibiotics.
    • My brain runs on Raiders quotes.
    • They pop up all the time while navigating the day-to-day.
    • I wish there were more good Indy movies.
    • Two, maybe three.
    • Though I didn’t hate the latest one.
    • Got me thinking back to that article about rewatching/rereading.
    • Maybe I should make my Revisit List.
    • It’d have to be tiered.
    • Because some get rewatched a lot.
    • 1) Raiders
    • 2) Fellowship of the Ring
    • And then after that …
    • Mission: Impossible flicks
    • The Matrix
    • The Terminator
    • Die Hard (though I only watch that on Xmas Eve)
    • Random Marvel flicks, though Captain America: The Winter Soldier would be the most frequent.
    • I’m actually sitting here plotting an Indy book in my head where he goes after a scepter that would allow cultists to summon Cthulu.
    • Because he’s an expert on the occult.
    • Why all the big things he chases have to be Biblical?
    • Screenplay would be easier.
    • All these people keep trying to find the Indy magic and screwing the pooch.
    • The latest would be Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, which I didn’t hate, but wasn’t great, either.
    • John’s good. Natalie’s … not?
    • Neither is compelling enough to be an Indiana Jones.
    • Character’s the thing, man.
    • Any movie you love, no matter the epicness of the spectacle, rises to greatness on the richness of its characters.
    • Good dialogue helps, too.
    • “They call him Bellosh.”
    • I know I overshare here.
    • Still a lot I keep back.
    • Like, I’m not talking about toilet paper choices and consequences while you’re on IV antibiotics for going on six weeks …
    • I could.
    • But I won’t.
    • Ain’t nobody got time for that.
    • That scene in Raiders where they have the monkey throw the Nazi salute kills me.
    • Subtle commentary, right?
    • Maybe not so subtle.
    • Depends on how you’re watching.
    • This list is a ridealong I guess.
    • I do wonder how the fight scenes would’ve been choreographed today.
    • Those haymakers Indy throws you can see coming from a mile away.
    • Then again, professors didn’t study kung fu in the ‘40s I imagine.
    • “You can’t do this to me! I’m an American.”
    • Yeah, that didn’t age well.
    • Would it be safe as an American to sit at a table in Cairo and down a bottle of whiskey?
    • That scene where Indy and Belloq bandy insults in the bar, Indy slightly out of focus in the fore of the frame, the Frenchmen talking in focus in the back.
    • That kind of shot does not show in modern flicks, like modern filmmakers don’t know how to compose a shot.
    • And there I go again, tripping into movie criticism.
    • I’ll stop.
    • With that anyway.
    • Another confession: I have my “computer glasses” on because I’m typing this and have the movie playing, so everything on the screen looks fuzzy.
    • Are they “readers?”
    • Kinda.
    • I don’t wear glasses when I read something, but I have to have them when I’m on the computer, and definitely for anything in the distance.
    • I tried that progressive stuff a few years ago, but I move my eyes too much without turning my head, so I didn’t like them.
    • Multiple glasses to see sucks.
    • Toting them around.
    • Having to get up after I’ve sat down because I have the wrong damn pair.
    • I’m not ashamed.
    • Indy has glasses, after all.
    • My favorite bit of music from Raiders is the bit in the Map Room.
    • Epic and haunting.
    • Williams has a ton of those moments in his catalogue.
    • My second favorite would be the track during the asteroid escape sequence in The Empire Strikes Back.
    • Music can elevate a movie to another level.
    • Do not ever discount the emotional impact of great music.
    • I had a plan to write about bodies of water today.
    • Not gonna happen.
    • We’ll save it for tomorrow for after the MRI and the valium.
    • (Because I can’t do an MRI without being chemically relaxed.)
    • (I’d rather sleep through the whole thing.)
    • Don’t get me wrong, the Ark leitmotif hits me the same way as the Map Room bit.
    • So good.
    • No, I do not know how much of this is nostalgia, familiar comfort engrained in my being at this point.
    • I’m sure I give this movie too much credit.
    • I dgaf.
    • I shall not recant.
    • Also, thank you John Williams for everything.
    • Why Raiders today, on my 24th anniversary?
    • Because I woke up with “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go” playing in my head.
    • That quote shows up daily.
    • Because it’s true.
    • Every moment of every day.
    • I know every line of dialogue by heart.
    • “Unless you are able to give me something to placate them.”
    • Well.
    • We’re probably at the outer limit of Mikey’s attention span, so we’ll stop here.
    • “I told you it would be alright!”
    • Out.
  • Knowing is Half the Battle

    Knowing is Half the Battle

    • You ever seen Tag?
    • The one with Jeremy Renner and John Hamm where the group of friends has been playing the same game of tag since they were kids?
    • It’s one of the Teenager’s favorite movies.
    • We had to buy it on Prime Video and at some point, I’ll probably have to get the blu-ray.
    • It’s a rewatcher.
    • Today, she’s using Jay as an excuse to rewatch.
    • He’s in town entertaining me during the convalescence.
    • And conveniently he has never seen Tag.
    • Funny movie.
    • I don’t collect comedies or anything.
    • This might be the only one we own.
    • Because, you know, I hate laughing.
    • Or something.
    • Pretty cool to have friends who’ll take time to come check on you, you know?
    • May you all have such people in your lives.
    • But for real, a 30-year game of tag seems like something my crew would do.
    • We didn’t.
    • But we could have …
    • When we go to Hideaway Pizza, I usually get one of three pizzas:
    • 1) Pepperoni (or Pepperpolooza) (however the hell it’s spelled)
    • 2) Supreme (but without fungus or olives)
    • 3) The Boz
    • Now, as a double-degree holder from OSU, it rankles me to like anything named after someone who played at OU, and in particular that guy.
    • But it’s damn good.
    • Sausage, pepperoni, bacon, onions, red peppers, jalapenos … it’s delicious.
    • Obviously, I’m probably leaving something out.
    • Craptacular memory, remember?
    • But I typically get the homestyle crust at Hideaway, which is odd because I’m a thin crust guy.
    • I don’t know why I don’t do thin at Hideaway.
    • I attribute it to eating at the original location in Stillwater all those years.
    • I’m not sure they even offered thin crust.
    • Fried cheese, yes.
    • Because that sauce … so good.
    • Kaia always gets the kid pizza (sausage, sans sauce; who does that?), and it’s a thin crust.
    • I always eat her leftover crust, and honestly, it’s better.
    • I don’t know what I’ve been thinking.
    • I mentioned this to Mark (brother-in-law), and he did field testing because he is also a fan of the Boz.
    • Suspicions have been confirmed: it’s better on thin.
    • I trust his taste. We’re in lockstep 95 percent of the time.
    • Now I know.
    • And knowing is half the battle.
    • G.I. JOOOOOOOOEEEEEE.
    • Hasbro has this whole department dedicated to remaking all the cool G.I. Joe toys from our youth and then selling them at a premium.
    • I’m on the email list.
    • I see them.
    • And the temptation is there.
    • I don’t.
    • Obviously.
    • But what the hell, man?
    • They’re aimed squarely at us GenX kids who grew up hunting each other with toy guns in the woods and playing with all the G.I. Joe stuff.
    • Toys … for adults.
    • Not unlike what Lego does, really.
    • I’m sure there are firms with terabytes of data on consumers and what kinds of things appeal to everyone of every demographic.
    • GenX kids are eternally … kids.
    • Part of me still wants some of that stuff.
    • Don’t need it, but the want is there.
    • When Steph gave me Kali lessons for my 37th birthday, I attended my first lesson and the whole time I stood there wide-eyed thinking, “I can actually learn all this ninja weapons stuff?”
    • Felt like a little kid all over again.
    • And then I did learn all those ninja skills.
    • Part of me is eternally 12, is what I’m saying.
    • Before I got into comics proper, Snake Eyes held the spot for my favorite character.
    • Basically a mute, ninja commando.
    • The second version of his action figure ran in limited amounts.
    • I did not know they did that kind of thing, back in the day.
    • Now, it’s a typical marketing tactic.
    • False limited availability.
    • I’d beg mom to take me to Toys R Us to look for him.
    • While there, I’d dig through every figure on the rack.
    • About the fifth or sixth time, I found him.
    • I think I literally yelled, “I found him!”
    • He came with a sword and a wolf.
    • Rad.
    • My friend Francis had joined us on that trip.
    • We found one for him, too.
    • The only two in the whole store.
    • Yahtzee!
    • I wrote part of a list yesterday, in the evening, but I did not end up liking a lot of it
    • Missed a day.
    • Hate missing a day in a routine.
    • What’s all that stuff about establishing a habit?
    • 21 days?
    • I dunno.
    • All about your …
    • I’m literally not paying attention to what I’m doing.
    • Watching a movie.
    • Mentally floating.
    • And miles to go before I sleep.
    • Today’s earworm, Anthrax’s cover of “Antisocial.”
    • The band who wrote it, Trust, was French if I’m remembering correctly.
    • No, I didn’t google any of that.
    • The AI search bot would probably have lied about it anyway.
    • Lies!
    • All Lies!
    • Ah, well, they can’t all be homeruns, right?
    • I’ll see you over the weekend, probably.

  • Things That Should Not Be

    Things That Should Not Be

    • Over on the Discord, I go by Drost.
    • Because that’s my gamertag.
    • I’ve had it since 2004.
    • All the guys in my video game clan call me that.
    • I’ll answer to it as readily as my birth name.
    • Yell it across a room, I’ll stop and turn my head.
    • I’ve been thinking about new ones, because you never know when the need will arise.
    • I’m still adapting to this giant pale scar on my head.
    • Gotta embrace it, right?
    • I can’t run around feeling all Wizard of Oz.
    • No one gets to see the Wizard.
    • Hell, I can’t see it.
    • Anyway.
    • Naming things is hard.
    • As a writer, naming things is harder than describing things.
    • Coming up with unique online handles is even harder.
    • Millions of people out there.
    • Yeah, there are those jokers who’re fine with like A-Hole69 or whatever.
    • I can’t abide that.
    • There’ve been more.
    • I can’t remember because I’m old and they did not stick.
    • Drost is the only one I’ll answer to.
    • But anyway.
    • Yesterday, I conjured a couple new ones.
    • The first was … Scarpico.
    • Steph didn’t like that one.
    • Jones and I were texting about names because he came across some dude with the last name of Drost.
    • I told him about Scarpico.
    • He mildly chuckled. Textually.
    • Then I hit him with …
    • Scarsguard.
    • I may have to find a place to use it.
    • Cause it makes me laugh.
    • I hear that pirate skit from SNL in my head.
    • Might make that my pen name when I publish.
    • Victor Scarsguard.
    • Arrrrrrrrr.
    • Embrace it, or it rules you.
    • Edit from yesterday …
    • Mojitos, not Mai Tais.
    • Six mojitos.
    • And then an afternoon nap.
    • Drink responsibly.
    • Speaking of that … we’re inching closer to Old Fashioned day.
    • I have finished the one antibiotic they said would produce the most epically awful hangover in existence.
    • The pharmacist at the Mayo said almost those exact words.
    • I listen to my doctors.
    • I try to do all the things they tell me.
    • I’m not an everyday drinker even when I can.
    • Maybe one or two a week?
    • I mean, it’s thematic here on the Black List because I can’t have it, you know?
    • That’s why diets fail.
    • The temptation of you can’t have it at all creates wanting.
    • The existence of a thing demands its use.
    • “The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.” – Homer
    • Soon.
    • I had that bit in there about movies yesterday, so I feel today requires a bit of an admission.
    • Or an explanation.
    • I do not care about anyone else’s opinion about a movie.
    • I wrote as a film critic for 11 years.
    • More than a million words.
    • I’ve taken screen writing classes (and gotten A’s).
    • I took documentary classes.
    • I studied the medium.
    • I have a minor in creative writing, so I understand story and character and tone and plot.
    • I wrote my bloody master’s thesis on film critics.
    • I do not seek out movie reviews, not in print, not in real life, not from anyone or anywhere.
    • I’ll talk with you about movies, sure.
    • Banter.
    • It sounds arrogant typed out like that.
    • It probably is.
    • I’m not arrogant about a lot, but … movies, man.
    • I’ve put in the work.
    • I’m not aiming at a person, I’m aiming it at all those dumbass pieces of commentary the internet uses to farm revenue from ads.
    • With their stupid click-bait headlines.
    • All about the money.
    • Part of me would like to review movies again … but for the same reasons as above, what’s the worth of my opinion to the world?
    • Why should I tell you what’s good?
    • What you might like?
    • Again, what you like doesn’t have to be good.
    • Your happiness and satisfaction is just that: yours.
    • Like what you like, right?
    • So I guess I’m struggling with not being a hypocrite, right?
    • I want to throw it out there.
    • But …
    • On occasion, I can’t help myself, but now I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything.
    • Take it or leave it.
    • Do with it what you will.
    • Follow no one but yourself.
    • “Some of those who work forces …”
    • Popped in there.
    • Theme song.
    • Walk-out music.
    • Is it really an online journal if you’re imagining talking to someone?
    • The walk-out music thing makes me think of funeral music.
    • Better be something off Master of Puppets.
    • That’s all I’m saying.
    • I’d be happy with “Orion.”
    • But probably “Welcome Home (Sanitarium).”
    • Good gravy I love that album.
    • “The Thing That Should Not Be” is one of the heaviest substances in the universe.
    • If you’ll excuse me, I need to go gently bang my head (so my regrowing skull doesn’t detach itself).
    • “Out from ruins once possessed …”
    • My mind.
    • That’s what we’re talking about.
    • In case you need it ‘splained.
    • Funeral. Play it on a Panasonic boom box.
    • From a cassette.
    • Immortal.
    • In madness I dwellllllll…
    • Out.

  • Monday-Tuesday

    Monday-Tuesday

    • “All I want to do is get high by the beach …”
    • That Lana Del Rey song has lived rent-free in my head for weeks.
    • It’s also all I want from life.
    • Not the high part.
    • Maybe six or so Mai Tais.
    • The “by the beach” part.
    • Yes.
    • That.
    • Lists have skirted this topic for the last month, but here’s the thing.
    • I have had a substantial perspective shift about life because of the surgery and situation.
    • She carved out a mass pushing into my brain.
    • All the labs and whatnot call this a brain tumor.
    • (Not cancerous.)
    • We were all scared of the risks of this, the potential of … death.
    • And though it might’ve been a routine surgery for the surgeon, it sure was not routine for us.
    • Here on the other side …
    • Why would I ever buy into the artificial stress and drama and bullshit about work again?
    • Why would I care?
    • I care more about living a fulfilling life, one of meaning.
    • Because honestly, the past seven months of my life have put all that nonsense to pasture.
    • I can work my ass off, doing great creative work that crushes its objectives and still not get ahead.
    • If you’re not rewarded for your hard work, why should you continue to care?
    • Anyway.
    • Hi.
    • Happy Tuesday!
    • Took the weekend off Listing.
    • I can’t post half of what I just wrote because people from my place of work read this.
    • Sigh.
    • The previous bullets were edited of the more severe thoughts and indictments.
    • But truth, I have “High by the Beach” is currently playing on loop in the Pixel Buds.
    • Good bass.
    • Fits the mood.
    • And they say the best way to rid yourself of an earworm is to listen to the whole song.
    • I’m not really trying to rid myself of it.
    • I dunno how many of you out there can play one song on loop over and over.
    • I know people besides me do it, because I’ve seen the social posts about it.
    • Social’s good for something I suppose.
    • You see that movie thing I posted from the New Yorker?
    • Basically, the dumbing down of movies.
    • It was one of those, “Yes, that!” things when I saw it.
    • Like the latest Mission: Impossible.
    • Dug it, by the way, but the last two episodes of that franchise, they have these scenes where groups of people are talking about the Situation, and the dialogue that should be from one person is delivered in sequence by all the people in the room, like they’re mind-linked.
    • Tears me out of the experience every time.
    • And it’s always fucking exposition.
    • We need to explain this so you understand the gravity of what’s happening.
    • I call that lazy writing.
    • Telling, not showing.
    • Drives me insane.
    • And I liked the movie.
    • Not the best in the series, but it didn’t suck.
    • The plane thing is the same as the helicopter bit with Henry Cavill two movies ago.
    • The underwater sequence is super intense.
    • Tom is crazy.
    • But dammit, I hate obvious exposition.
    • Social media’s made everyone so dumb they have to have everything overexplained because they lack any sort of critical thinking?
    • Hey, sure, let’s continue to defund public education.
    • JFC.
    • Mansplaining has become necessary.
    • Just call it ‘Splaining at this point, because anyone can do it.
    • I’m not.
    • I’m staying Gibsonian about this stuff.
    • Hemingwayish.
    • Imply through showing.
    • If they get it, they get it.
    • If not, well, read better.
    • #SuckLess
    • Still gotta make that a t-shirt.
    • I’ll add it to the list.
    • Yes, I’m going to open an online t-shirt shop.
    • I’m inundated with t-shirts in my social feeds, and most of them, even if they’re clever, look like they’re designed by AI or amateurs.
    • I know good designers.
    • There’s a hole to be filled.
    • There’s potential to crush there.
    • One need only take the chance.
    • Part of the plan.
    • And oh yes, the skullduggery (heh) has forced me to create a plan.
    • I have to write it down, but that’s what I’m spending the next couple of weeks of my convalescence doing.
    • Make the change you want to be or some shit.
    • So easy to write in cliché, btw.
    • I had a Pixel Bud scare today.
    • I dropped the case in the Doc’s office, the pods exploding out and skittering across the floor.
    • When I got back to the car, they wouldn’t come on.
    • Still not after sticking it on the charger.
    • Had to troubleshoot on the Google.
    • They’re now functioning properly, but … F.
    • Brain was running finance scenarios, because I do not have $200 to replace these things at the moment.
    • Between the car and the brain …
    • Oof.
    • Most important devices in my life at the moment:
    • 1) Kindle paperwhite
    • 2) pixel bud pros
    • 3) laptop
    • I’m not sure I can ever do without those three things at this point.
    • Sure, I still have my paper journals, but …
    • Honestly, I’m missing the Heavys a lot at the moment.
    • (Headphones for metalheads. 50 hours of battery life. Eight speakers. Sound soooooo good.)
    • But I can’t really squeeze the skull at the moment.
    • 6-12 weeks for the bones to heal.
    • Clicks sometimes still.
    • Yeah, get some of that.
    • Mikey, ran long again
    • Shrug.
    • Deal with it.
    • Heh.
    • Today’s forecast: patio sitting with a side of trip to the hospital to get the PICC serviced.
    • Don’t let that fool you.
    • It’s going to be a great week.
    • Addendum: Add “The Library at Mount Char” to the Urban Fantasy section of the booklist from the weekend.
    • Out.