skepticlysm

Tag: life

  • Random Shit Per Usual

    Random Shit Per Usual

    • Medicine.
    • Both awesome and awful at the same time.
    • Mine’s effing with my sleep.
    • What’s up.
    • How’s everyone this fine Friday?
    • Literally perfect outside.
    • I filled up the Mouse mug with coffee, chased the cat around the backyard.
    • Got a runny nose.
    • Glorious.
    • So.
    • Some of you know I “manage” the social media for my place of employment.
    • What that means is I hired a young millennial to run it for us, and I stay out of her way.
    • However.
    • It means I have to keep up with social media even when I don’t want to.
    • Except for that TikTok bullshit.
    • I’m a Reddit guy personally.
    • One of the many things I hate about Facebook for normies is … no metrics.
    • Like, I know people are reading this bullshit, but unless you click the like button, I have no idea you’re here.
    • People keep responding and I had no idea they’d even read it.
    • Thank you for reading.
    • Trying to build something here.
    • …
    • One of our friends, who is awesome, sent the Wife a text in the form of bullet points.
    • Made me laugh.
    • Welcome to the party?
    • Lol
    • A List is easier for people to read.
    • Appeals to our dopamine-addicted brains.
    • Short. Sweet. To the point.
    • Anyway.
    • The numbers matter to my brain.
    • How big is the audience?
    • At work, that’s all I care about.
    • How many people saw it?
    • How many clicked the thing?
    • Data!
    • Give me data, Watson.
    • Data’s going to factor into my future plans quite a bit.
    • I’m a many splendored nerd is what I’m saying.
    • The Teenager just sent me “Carry Me Home,” by Royal and the Serpent.
    • It is spectacular.
    • (https://open.spotify.com/track/48ccwX9wv8bSSOdb2nKRBK?si=f9265c97c4814dc0)
    • They have songs on the Arcane soundtrack.
    • So good.
    • Like most everything I’ve heard from them.
    • You watched Arcane, right?
    • Might be the most beautifully animated show I’ve ever seen, and it’s loaded with great characters.
    • We’ve watched the whole thing at least twice.
    • I need to get watching Andor.
    • I loved the first season of that show.
    • Might be my favorite Star Wars property ever.
    • F them Jedi.
    • George accidentally made a cool sci-fi universe.
    • Yeah, those laser swords are cool, but … the world is the thing.
    • Man.
    • I am so tired.
    • I let Spotify roll after that song, and now I’m listening to “How Villains are Made,” by Madelen Duke.
    • Good stuff, too.
    • I gotta add stuff to my Femmes playlist is what I’m saying.
    • I keep getting lost in space.
    • Trying to figure out the car, still.
    • Probably going to have to haul it to Edmond for a total engine replacement.
    • What the actual fuck.
    • I just want my car back.
    • Haven’t had it since February.
    • Sigh.
    • Now that my brain’s settling down, it’s time to focus on other bullshit.
    • More debt!
    • Huzzah!
    • This world, man.
    • That’s a little bitter.
    • I get it.
    • But it’s cheaper to fix the car than buy a new one.
    • My forever car at this point.
    • Until my hips won’t let me operate a manual transmission anymore.
    • I love driving manual.
    • I hate doing it around Oklahoma drivers.
    • But that’s another story.
    • I’ve had a five- or six-speed manual car since … like 1997.
    • I will not willingly go into automatic transmission land.
    • Do Not Go Gentle.
    • I’m getting that tatted.
    • I have always wanted one.
    • The brain mass and surgery has changed my attitude on life.
    • Getting a sleeve on my upper left arm.
    • I have a list of elements.
    • I need a gifted tat artist to put it together and give it a unified style.
    • I’m kinda giddy thinking about it.
    • YOLO.
    • Seriously.
    • I know it sounds like all talk, but these lists are just the beginning.
    • I’m changing my life.
    • Buckle up.
    • Heh.
    • You don’t have to pay attention.
    • Honestly.
    • I’m just bullet journaling this shit and Change is coming.
    • Tick tock, mfers.
    • I’m going to need a logo to brand The List.
    • The Discord server is going swimmingly, btw.
    • Nice blend of people in there.
    • I expect it to grow a bit.
    • I’m not sure what’s it’s going to become, though I love the idea of having it when I become a published author.
    • Yeah, I said when.
    • Lol.
    • Enjoy your weekends.
    • And the … pockets of sunshine.

  • But What About Oregon Trail?

    But What About Oregon Trail?

    • My Grandpa Fillmore was the first computer geek I ever knew.
    • This was back when I was like 11 or 12, mind you.
    • He’d had a ton of different jobs, but did tax prep then.
    • So he had one of those early PCs with the two giant floppy disk drives.
    • The first time I used a word processor, and tried to write a fantasy story, was on his computer.
    • He bought me my first computer in college.
    • Hell, he bought me a TI-99 way before that.
    • I learned how to code in BASIC.
    • I’m saying I’m a long-time, hard-coded PC guy.
    • Windows has never inconvenienced me.
    • But then …
    • Up until this year, the last time I bought a PC was in 2014, a Microsoft Surface Pro 3.
    • Pure Windows.
    • No shitty software from another company.
    • Loved that thing
    • But then I didn’t buy anything else for more than a decade.
    • I found myself surfing around on my work laptop, which is no bueno.
    • Thing is, two years ago I got a MacBook Pro for work.
    • I have not worked on a Mac since junior high.
    • And I kinda like that thing.
    • A lot.
    • I have been converted is what I’m saying.
    • What. The. Fuck.
    • I now own one.
    • A MacBook Air.
    • And a PC, but that’s a different story.
    • Kind of like my Grandfather.
    • If you noticed that last name, we’re descendants of President Fillmore.
    • I know jack about that guy.
    • Never really looked him up.
    • The same way I do not know my biological dad, which again is another story entirely.
    • My grandfather was one of the best, greatest men I have ever known.
    • Hell, I lived with him most of my senior year of high school.
    • I miss that man so much.
    • I wish the Teenager had gotten to meet him.
    • He was about 5’9”.
    • Always wore slacks and a button-down shirt with a white tank top beneath.
    • Had a pocket protector with all manner of things in it.
    • Big glasses.
    • Balding head.
    • Used to work for the State employment agency.
    • And own a garage in downtown Sand Springs.
    • Had a yellow Ford Ranchero for a long time.
    • He died while I was in France.
    • …
    • This is a weird one, right?
    • Not a lot of pop culture.
    • I really just started typing to talk about computers.
    • I do not control the stream.
    • I just saw this AI ad on the book of Faces with this tagline: “Working to live? Try living to work!”
    • F You.
    • I am so tired of all this “productivity” bullshit.
    • All these tips on how to make you a better worker … for someone else.
    • I’m sorry, but that’s the Indentured mentality they want you to have.
    • That your worth is what someone else says it is.
    • And all this AI shit.
    • AI can help you as a tool, but it isn’t making you better.
    • Go find those early studies on its effect on chronic users’ ability to think.
    • I can use it to brainstorm.
    • And that’s about it.
    • It’s not better than I am at writing anything yet.
    • And the day it becomes that, the day AI takes over most white collar jobs, they’d better have UBI figured out or they’re not going to like the world version of the French Revolution.
    • …
    • Hi!
    • Goddamn ad.
    • Back when I worked at Urban Tulsa, I had this idea for a screenplay about … a middle class Dr. Marten Luther King/Malcom X thing.
    • Would’ve been the height of middle class white privilege.
    • However …
    • It would’ve been prophetic.
    • That was late ‘90s mind you.
    • Imma stop with that at the moment.
    • Cause we’re getting back to my theme song.
    • You know what I love?
    • Poorly Drawn Lines
    • If you’re not following that comic, you’re missing out.
    • I stick one at the bottom of the TCC student newsletter every week.
    • I hope the guy’s gotten follows and sales from it.
    • It’s funny almost every damn time.
    • Between him and The Oatmeal … I’m in comic heaven.
    • The Oatmeal is fantastic, though he is wheels off.
    • If you can get offended, maybe don’t fan the Oatmeal.
    • I mean, you should anyway.
    • Expand your horizons.
    • Okay, so update:
    • Staples are out.
    • Scab is gross.
    • Doc says everything is healing well.
    • That’s the whole update.
    • We’ll have to wait on the Mayo for diagnosis stuff.
    • What else?
    • The Wife and I sent to Savoy for lunch today.
    • Thursdays are the Turkey special.
    • If you haven’t had it, you’re missing out.
    • Fucking amazing.
    • What else?
    • Got The Terminator on 4k Blu-ray.
    • Glorious.
    • Feeling good.
    • Thank you for all the support.
    • I’m leaving with my pocket full of sunshine.
  • Some of Those Who Work Forces

    Some of Those Who Work Forces

    • This morning at our pre-school ritual, the Teenager said (paraphrasing), “I wonder what Yelena did with her dog. And the guinea pig.”
    • “The dog probably ate the guinea pig already.”
    • “What?!”
    • “No it didn’t. It’s a golden retriever.”
    • “No it wasn’t.”
    • “Yes it was.”
    • Teenager looks it up. No, it wasn’t.
    • Dammit.
    • “Fine. You were right.”
    • She usually is; because if she doesn’t know, she won’t speak up.
    • I had this personality trait when I was younger.
    • I would not bet or argue if I did not already know the answer/outcome.
    • I am risk averse.
    • And I hate losing.
    • She’s the same way.
    • I feel I’ve failed her in this way.
    • Because you have to be able to fail in this life.
    • It’s like that failure speech Chris Pine gives in the D&D movie.
    • (Such a good flick, btw. Sorry, “fun” flick.)
    • Maybe that failure philosophy is a conjuration from failures, but rarely does anything work the first time, or the way you think it will.
    • You need weird outcomes to stretch your mind.
    • You know this.
    • I’m rambling.
    • I’m trying to write today, but struggling because I’m talking D&D with my buddies.
    • All of them, really.
    • I feel like I opened the flood gates.
    • And I’m just getting to orchestrate fun for people and work on my storytelling and improv.
    • “I’ve got something to say! It’s better to burn out than fade away!”
    • (If you know, you know.)
    • They’re remaking that with Henry Cavill and the guys behind John Wick.
    • I cannot wait.
    • I’m going to watch the old crappy version this week while convalescing.
    • It was one of those movies we’d watch as teenagers over and over and over again.
    • Highlander
    • Conan the Barbarian
    • The Terminator
    • Aliens
    • Heartbreak Ridge
    • I had three of those on one VHS tape.
    • (No, I do not remember which.)
    • Probably Star Wars, Empire and Raiders were wrapped in there, too.
    • Lethal Weapon
    • This is what we did when we were not skating, playing D&D, or doing something on the NES.
    • We’d have epic Pro Wrestling tournaments.
    • I beat our unbeatable friend and true story, he hit the power button right when the ref was saying, “Three!”
    • I always say this in the work list when this stuff comes up, but those kids in Stranger Things?
    • Us.
    • More or less.
    • Do you know how I got started in D&D?
    • I had this older cousin Jeff.
    • One year for Xmas, he gave me the D&D red box, which was the basic rules.
    • And then we played.
    • Melted my brain.
    • And I’m not sure how it got brought up to my friend group, but once it did, it was part of our lives into college.
    • Geeks.
    • I took time off from being a geek in college.
    • Because girls.
    • Had a whole conversation with the Wife yesterday about how much awareness she had of my geekery.
    • She says she knew the whole time.
    • Geekness has gravity and I’ve been pulled back in.
    • Coinciding with this GenX/50-something “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.” mentality that keeps growing.
    • That’s my theme song, btw.
    • My core value.
    • My mission statement.
    • My ethos.
    • Dude.
    • I hate being told what to do.
    • Hate it.
    • Society is what it is.
    • Much dissonance.
    • I’m not sure I even want to work on it.
    • I do.
    • I persevere.
    • You do what you gotta do, right?
    • What I’m learning RIGHT NOW is how to get more of what I want from this life.
    • I let it win for too long.
    • No longer.
    • You are not guaranteed any time here.
    • Any time you spend neck deep in someone’s ends other than your own is a waste of your most valuable resource.
    • Fuck your commute mandate, Gov. Stitt.
    • Stop living quiet lives of indentured servitude.
    • This is what stream of consciousness gets you.
    • This is the stuff I’m passionate about.
    • My current state of happiness makes me want to push these things.
    • To find paths.
    • To lift myself and all my people up.
    • Freedom must be seized.
    • Hope you’re having a pocket full of sunshine today.
    • Love you guys.
  • Disrespectre

    Disrespectre

    • We’re out of creamer, so today, we went to Starbucks.
    • Because I can’t go very far.
    • I’m not supposed to be driving for at least two more days, but the hospital is half a mile away, and the Wife has to work.
    • I took the backroads and drove slow as fuck.
    • For those of you playing the home game, at work where these bullets all started, I refer to the family as The Wife and The Teenager.
    • No one by name ever.
    • It’s easier to keep doing that.
    • If you know us IRL, you know their names anyway.
    • The Barista, and she seemed in a good mood, said, “I have to ask you the question of the day.”
    • Me: “Okay, shoot.”
    • “The zombie apocalypse happens. What do you do first?”
    • “Shoot myself.”
    • Her mouth dropped open. She laughed. “What?!”
    • “I don’t want to live through that.”
    • And then we talked about it for a minute.
    • One of my Profanity friends, who’s one of those brilliant guys who skipped a year in school and now manages a Home Depot, said it to me when a similar conversation popped up in Chat.
    • It’s stayed with me.
    • I think he’s right.
    • I mean, by your fortieth can of beans and sleeping on the ground, worrying about whether your brains are about to get eaten, what’s the point?
    • Food for thought.
    • Next: Bon Jovi
    • Went out for Mexican food last night.
    • The Teenager drove, which she loathes doing.
    • While on the way, Bon Jovi came on whatever that shitty radio station was.
    • I have to upgrade the radio in the Wife’s car. It’s awful.
    • We had a whole short conversation about how if Bon Jovi pops up, we’ll listen to it, but we’ll never play it on purpose.
    • Then Journey came on.
    • Same thing.
    • Oooooooh, we’re halfway there, OOOOOOOOH, livin’ on a prayer.
    • My brains are broken.
    • Btw, I had both “Zomb” and “Bon” written on my palm so I would not forget to write about them.
    • Also, I have not missed a day bombarding The Teenager with “A Pocket Full of Sunshine.”
    • The cries of anguish are glorious.
    • Speaking of cries of anguish …
    • I have been buying stickers for my laptops and the Teenager’s.
    • All of them come from wickedclothes.com.
    • If you go there, well, look up Disrespectre.
    • Cause I have that on the laptop next to the trackpad.
    • You want the health update?
    • Staples allegedly come out this week.
    • My innards are wrecked.
    • I cannot get far from a bathroom, is what I’m saying.
    • I’m dizzy, but not like vertigo dizzy.
    • Just wobbly.
    • I have periodic stabs of pain along the staples.
    • In the words of the Swayze, “Pain don’t hurt.”
    • I have one-to-four doc appointments per week.
    • The Mayo stuff resumes next week or the week after.
    • Once a week, I have to go in for labs and to have the dressing change on the PICC IV.
    • I’m on … like nine meds?
    • I’m trying to avoid doing massive amounts of ‘roids unless these antibiotics don’t work.
    • There’s a lot, is what I’m saying.
    • I’m not whining, mind you.
    • Honestly, I’m the happiest I’ve been in a decade.
    • I don’t know how to explain that.
    • Like they messed up something in my brain and now I’m happy.
    • It’s odd.
    • There you go.
    • This way, if you talk to TCC HR, know I’m still so jacked up it’s unreal.
    • Physically.
    • I have so much happiness and gratitude, however, it’s crazy.
    • Again, there’s something wrong with me.
    • We saw Thunderbolts yesterday.
    • I know you probably so my short post yesterday.
    • It’s a top-10 Marvel flick.
    • And I’m in the Yelena/Florence Pugh fan camp forever now.
    • Holy shit. What an unexpectedly great superhero movie.
    • I cannot wait to see what they do with this.
    • This is getting long for the book of faces.
    • It’ll be great on the blog (skepticlysm.com).
    • Go sign up.
    • Get the email.
    • Ignore it.
    • Whatever works.
    • We’ll talk books or some shit tomorrow.
    • The compulsion is real.
    • Also, I got nothing else to do while I sit here on the couch.
    • Grateful for you guys.
    • Hope you have a pocketful of sunshine.
    • Heh.
  • Catching a Sturgeon

    Catching a Sturgeon

    • I wasn’t supposed to do one of these on the weekend, but I’m up before everyone and have nothing else to do.
    • I’m becoming a morning person because of those goddamn animals.
    • Ginny, the fluffy white cat, wakes us up every day now.
    • Damn her.
    • Anyway, while walking around taking my nine meds …
    • 10?
    • (AP Style is numbers are spelled out until you get to 10, then you use the numbers. FYI.)
    • … while walking around taking all my meds, I was thinking about why I write.
    • It has to be some sort of affirmation, right?
    • Oh, guys! Look at me! Look at what I did!
    • Only there’s this part that would be doing something like this even if I did not show it to you.
    • I have journals.
    • I have shitloads of fiction I’ve never shown anyone.
    • It’s odd, is what I’m saying.
    • I have something to write about movies.
    • Because, duh.
    • There is so much shit out now.
    • I used to reference Sturgeon’s Law, which is: “90 percent of everything is crap.”
    • I feel it’s higher.
    • Or filmmakers have regressed.
    • You know, if you know me, I served as film critic/editor for Urban Tulsa Weekly for 11 years.
    • I wrote more than a million words about movies.
    • And then I wrote my Master’s thesis on film critics.
    • I’m to this point in life, based on conversations and the Internet, where I really do not share my opinions about films anymore.
    • Like I had a guy go on and on about how great The Substance was, how Demi deserved her Oscar, blah, blah, blah.
    • No.
    • No it was not. No, she did not.
    • It looked like it was shot by amateurs (and don’t get me started on that; like how in the fuck does The Wheel of Time look like a really damned expensive TV show? How is that possible? They’re literally wrecking the books and it looks like it was shot by film school students. Raiders of the Lost Ark has better cinematography than most crap I see today).
    • … it’s like movie Tourette’s.
    • I’m scared to watch the Best Picture winner this year because of this.
    • Because from the trailer, it looks awful.
    • Hopefully, I’m wrong.
    • But in any case, the bar is low now.
    • I see people complain about Marvel flicks, and while I do feel their quality has dipped a bit since Avengers: Endgame, I’ve liked a handful.
    • The Internet wants us to be tired of them, to hate them.
    • I don’t see it.
    • Judge each film on its merits.
    • But the crap I see written about movies these days is a bunch of assholes with agendas.
    • Hell, it’s probably even AI or AI-assisted.
    • I’m sorry, but if you’re a journalist and you’re using AI to “help” you with op/ed pieces, you are a giant sack of crap.
    • Which brings us back around to … stop listening to people on the Internet, including me.
    • It’s why I will not really review a movie anymore.
    • You want to chat about movies, DM me.
    • Or, fuck, I’ll start a Discord server and we can sit and talk movies all the time.
    • Lemme know.
    • What else?
    • The swelling in my face is going down.
    • I’m not talking about the zipper on my head, either.
    • I’m talking about all the swelling I had from the … infectious disease, like the stuff around my eye and in my cheek bones.
    • My head is noticeably thinner.
    • OMG the antibiotics are working.
    • Yes, I’m still dizzy.
    • Yes, I have an IV in my arm for another five weeks.
    • Yes, my jaw is probably crooked for the rest of my life
    • But … this shit may be dying in my dome.
    • Hallelujah, pass the coffee.
    • I cannot have a drink until I’m off the antibiotics.
    • I’m not an alcoholic, but I’m dying for a rye whiskey.
    • That’s a whole other conversation.
    • You kids have a good Sunday.
    • Maybe we can talk about Thunderbolts later today.
    • Hope you have a pocket full of sunshine.
    • Disclaimer: I’m not actually mad. #truth
  • To A Certain Degree

    To A Certain Degree

    • And we’re back …
    • We’re going to run through some updates from yesterday, and then I’m tackling something serious.
    • Head’s up, peeps.
    • Let me say how annoyed I am Facebook won’t let me use italics.
    • Style guide: Book, movie, and album titles should be italicized.
    • Song titles and poems get quotes.
    • This morning, I woke up early and laid there for an hour planning.
    • Lots of things.
    • One of them …
    • I’m not supposed to climb stairs, but Kaia’s room is upstairs.
    • I queued up “A Pocket Full of Sunshine,” climbed the stairs.
    • Turned the volume up loud on my phone and stuck it in her door.
    • She did not recognize those opening notes and said, “What’re you …”
    • Then the lyrics kicked in.
    • She shut the door in my face.
    • Mission: Accomplished.
    • Then I sent it to a friend, ‘cause screw him.
    • SitRep: Mostly, my head does not hurt.
    • Now, I have had literally agonizing pain in my head since 2020.
    • My pain calibration is … skewed.
    • This isn’t awful.
    • However, I am exhausted.
    • Prone to passing out at any moment.
    • And I sleep like poop because 1) 45 staples in my dome; 2) the goddamn dogs; 3) the PICC IV in my right arm.
    • None of these things make bedding easy.
    • When I’m awake, as long as I’m sitting, I kinda do okay.
    • Walking comes a bit challenging.
    • Random dizziness happens.
    • I have the doc appts coming up in another couple of weeks.
    • And then treatment.
    • We’re not out of the woods.
    • But fuck it, I will prevail.
    • Okay, let’s be serious for a moment.
    • I put up that pic about degrees the other day.
    • I have worked in higher ed for all but four of the last 25 years.
    • My job has been to sell it.
    • I know the data.
    • And when I don’t, I know both Librarians and IR.
    • Short version: Degrees make communities more successful.
    • The more bachelor’s degrees a city has, the more financially successful it will be.
    • Full stop.
    • What we’re running into, however, is the death of the American Dream.
    • Personally, I do not believe in it.
    • Companies no longer treat us as people.
    • You’re just a number to check a box to do something.
    • And they’re trying to kill even that with AI.
    • Let me ask you a question: What’re you worth?
    • I don’t mean net worth.
    • I’ll answer for you: your hourly wage.
    • Companies will get away with paying you as little as possible.
    • And they’ll get away with devaluing your position as much as they can.
    • At our college, there’s an initiative to promote those degrees that provide the most life-sustaining wages.
    • Not things you’re aligned with from a personality standpoint, mind you.
    • But things that pay you and generate revenue for companies.
    • You know, the ones that get away with paying you as little as possible and get away with providing as few benefits as they can.
    • Because their responsibility is to the stakeholders, not you.
    • Enjoy that few weeks of leave, and paying part of your health ins (which is tied to your job, mind you).
    • Enjoy that lack of pension.
    • You ever want to know how free you really are?
    • Who can you say no to?
    • You have a choice of when to arrive at work?
    • When you can leave?
    • What about your dress code?
    • Or what you’re allowed to say to your manager, based on who they are and what their leadership philosophy is?
    • And work from home has largely been stomped on my employers because they want to control you.
    • The data supports working from home.
    • Hell, the data supports a four-day work week.
    • America has always flown the banner of freedom.
    • Are you?
    • Back to that degree thing.
    • Degrees, all of them, make our lives better.
    • Let’s say “you” don’t want to fund a theatre degree.
    • How is it so easy for you to dismiss the contributions of a creative to your life?
    • They are responsible for all the books you read.
    • (Sorry, the books you listen to.)
    • The shows you watch.
    • The concerts you attend.
    • The art on your walls.
    • The design of all the marketing materials.
    • The gardens and parks you visit.
    • Creatives make your life livable.
    • But hey, don’t help them get started, right?
    • (Before running your mouths, go research how scholarships are funded for every degree that exists.)
    • They’re all paid poorly because fucking companies are in it for profit.
    • The whole fucking country is about profit.
    • For the few, not the many.
    • Do you ever stop and think about why so many cities are based around roads?
    • It’s because the government has funded so many companies that make cars and oil.
    • I don’t want my taxes going there.
    • I want my taxes making mass transit a thing.
    • Making it easier to cycle and walk.
    • Making everything greener.
    • Because literally ALL of that is better for people and the environment.
    • You know what I don’t want my taxes doing?
    • Bailing out the rich.
    • Bailing out corporations that have more freedom and resources than any of us.
    • That greener thing.
    • Is it better for profit?
    • Not right now it isn’t.
    • Okay, so let’s talk about why you think some degrees are “less than.”
    • What do you watch?
    • I know you don’t read.
    • (Go check out the stats on functional illiteracy.)
    • Now, before we start this conversation, let’s discuss my credentials.
    • I have a bachelor’s in Journalism (news/editorial) with a minor in Creative Writing.
    • I have a Master’s degree in Mass Communications/Media Management.
    • Before you want to argue with me about media, just know what you’re getting into.
    • Right now, our mass media (newspapers and television stations) are largely owned by billionaires.
    • Those assholes are in it for … profit.
    • The content on those stations, particularly the broadcast stuff, is chosen to maximize profit.
    • What’re you watching?
    • Have you checked the bias chart?
    • Have you looked up the research on the shit you’re spouting?
    • (And before you go running your mouth on me, just know, I know an Army of Librarian Ninjas and I swear to the Lort I’ll sick them on you.)
    • I’ve heard a ton of you say stuff to me that is 100 percent bullshit.
    • You didn’t look it up to verify.
    • You just repeated it.
    • Cut that shit out.
    • You are being manipulated.
    • And don’t tell me what I think because you’re making assumptions based on the fact you know I disagree with you, but you don’t know why.
    • If you are friends with me, you know (or are going to over the next few months) I care about you.
    • I’m disinterested in fighting.
    • I’m interested in better relationships and a better reality.
    • And we can make it together.
    • But it requires you to let go of the bullshit.
    • To avoid it.
    • To free your mind.
    • To work toward freedom.
    • Because unless you work for yourself, you are not free.
    • So let’s leave off there because I did not make a bunch of jokes or talk music today.
    • Our freedom is being taken from us.
    • Don’t be distracted by the shit you can afford to distract you from that fact.
    • Love you all.
    • More words tomorrow.
  • Have You Tried Staples?

    Have You Tried Staples?

    • Hey, what is up.
    • Coming at you from non-malignant brain tumor land!
    • 45 staples in my dome are not going to fucking defeat me.
    • I have been up since five something because of the fucking dogs.
    • (This is the kinda list you get when I’m not writing them for work.)
    • (Profanity warning!)
    • When Steph took Kaia to school this morning (after we had a great conversation about her dreams), I found myself craving some Prodigy “The Fat of the Land,” so I queued that up on Spotify on the TV and let it go.
    • So good.
    • “Smack My Bitch Up” has a spectacular second half.
    • “Narayan” is fantastic, too.
    • Good album all around, really.
    • Get some.
    • So we have this Family text chat. Me, Steph, my sister, by BIL and Kaia.
    • It’s full of all kinds of random shit
    • This morning, Kaia told us all about something in her class playing Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocket Full of Sunshine,” which you know from Easy A with Emma Stone.
    • I kinda like it.
    • Kaia hates it.
    • So now I’m going to ambush her as often as I can.
    • I have this thing for songs that are borderline electronic with women singers.
    • I will not apologize for it.
    • I’m still a metalhead, but I’m also of this age where I do not give a fuck about what I’m “supposed” to like.
    • I’ve got a pocket, a pocket full of sunshine …
    • If you’re a facebook person, you should know I write a bullet-list column for work.
    • It’s sanitized for work.
    • Not how my brain works, but … I get to write a column for work.
    • Here’s the thing.
    • I can’t not do it.
    • It has become a writing compulsion.
    • So I’m going to write these the whole time I’m recuperating and getting treatment for the mass.
    • I’ll post them on my blog because Facebook fundamentally sucks.
    • Go there. Subscribe.
    • Something that happened while I was in the hospital.
    • I came up with an idea for a business, so I’m going to be launching that shit while I’m on FMLA and waiting on the sawed hole in my dome to heal.
    • I can no longer allow other people to control my creative endeavors.
    • I am finished with being an Indentured.
    • #DoNotGoGentle
    • Stay tuned.
    • The idea involves the launch of a website.
    • #FuckYoSocialMedia
    • I’m either good at this writing/entertainment nonsense or I’m not, but I think I am.
    • Buckle up, kids.
    • These lists are going to be unfiltered, and I’m going to call people on their responses to some of the shit I’m going to say.
    • You’ve been warned!
    • BTW, hey TCC people, thank you for being here and for your support.
    • I apologize for all the F bombs, but … this is the real me.
    • I got in trouble when I was four for saying jackass in front of my great grandma.
    • I said chicken shit soup in kindergarten.
    • I called the sub teacher a butthole in second grade.
    • I have an uncertified degree in profanity is what I’m saying.
    • This is the real me.
    • And this is the first Black List, which will be part of the new business.
    • All that said, the TCC Librarians are one of my favorite groups on campus.
    • I actually plan on having a Teams meeting with the Librarians when I get back on the clock.
    • More on that later.
    • The last episode of “Friends and Neighbors” on AppleTV was spectacular.
    • I am super stoked to see “Thunderbolts*” this weekend.
    • We thought I would not be able to handle it, but … I can.
    • Fuck them staples.
    • Do what you want, but you’re never gonna break me …
    • You know what else I have planned now?
    • My tat sleeve.
    • SHIT IS HAPPENING.
    • Love you guys.
    • Thanks for your support.
    • Subscribe over on the blog.
    • More to come!!