I told NH a couple weeks back that I was gone, and for good. But I came back for a visit to see how y'all were doing, considering recent events. And I promise this will be the last time y'all read me here.
In the same vein:
1) Trump didn't win on a milquetoast agenda. If milquetoast "more of the same" was what was desired, Harris/Walz shouldn't have gotten installed, and perhaps the Left could have appealed to more people. Maybe. But there was no way a Romney or Haley could have gotten the nomination this time around from the other side, either.
Stop illegal immigration. Seal and secure the nation's border. Prosecute criminals. Advocate for peace here at home, and abroad. And, most importantly: gut the federal bureaucracy that has unnecessarily encroached on every aspect of our lives -- costs, healthcare, food, laws, policies, taxes, . . . all of it.
That's the mandate that just got confirmed this Tuesday past. But, McConnell is already trying to undermine that effort. We'll see how that plays out.
2) I'll repeat my most recent encouragement: please, please, listen to what Casey and Calley Means have to say, no matter what. Rogan is listenable, far more than Carlson, but there are others who've done podcasts with them. If even half of what they focus on is at all true, then for the sake of each of you and your family members, hear them out.
The Means siblings were one of the links that led to the Trump/RFK, Jr. union, if not the primary one. Think and say what you will about Trump, but for someone as pro-environment and pro-labor as RFK, Jr. to endorse Trump should merit some deliberation from all of us. They might both be @$$holes, but they are trying to help. And what Casey and Calley are pointing toward isn't about politics, it's about being healthy humans.
3) The last time any citizens were encamped by force due to their intrinsic characteristics wasn't under a Republican administration.
4) Project 2025 was a 'white paper' put out by The Heritage Foundation. Consider the source. And then reflect upon the demography of how the vote went. There's little reason for that particular brainchild to define what happens in the two years ahead. Some of it's good stuff, in my opinion, but much of it can be dispensed with summarily -- the point of civil protections isn't just about preventing discrimination against people, but also discrimination for people.
I can understand some of the concerns you've voiced about Project 2025, but it seems that the true conflict revolves more around worldview than it does about actual policy. Conservative Christians clearly don't endorse some of the things many of you hold high, and the First Amendment permits both sides of those debates to speak plainly.
I have yet to hear that Trump has embraced the plan, either in part or in total. And he has very good reasons not to do so.
5) We're sixteen years, or more, overdue for some true economic pain. It's inevitable. We've faked our way through the last two looming economic crises, and we're going to see the double-bubble burst. I think it will happen sooner than later, and it won't be easy on anyone at all. Investigate homesteading, in part or in whole. If it gets as tough as I expect, we'll all have to accept a greater measure of personal responsibility for our own survival.
My Last Message:
I've been glad to get to know all of you inasmuch as I've had the will and the opportunity over the last nine years. It's been fun, it's been tough, but through and through it has been good. Now my time here is done.
We all know that I fit in here even less than I used to, and I feel that I've worn out what welcome there was. I don't want to cause anger, or hate, or any unpleasantness in general. At the same time, though, I can no longer keep silent about these things that are so important to all of us. And I am a distinctly minority voice in this environment. And so, in the interest of preserving the measure of peace you all find here, I'm going to leave.
I'm sure some of you will be glad of it, perhaps more of you indifferent, and maybe a few disappointed. If any of you ever have motivation to contact me, you should be able to find my Discord ID -- the names are the same. And if these are, indeed, the last words I ever have the privilege of sharing with you, please remember:
What does it say about the sorry universe we exist in, when feeling human is considered an improvement...
since i listened to another podcast last night during the commute, it's fresh on my mind . . . .
folks, no matter what you may think of me and/or my convictions, i urge you to give Casey and Calley Means your undivided attention for a couple of hours one day. Rogan, Carlson, and others have interviewed them.
way back in the day, a family friend would always send us a box of Pittman & Davis grapefruit for the holidays. it was a special treat for us; i loved it.
i've always found it amazing how much produce California generates annually. hats off to agricultural enterprise!
my commute is just a bit over 60 miles, one way, and the drive is fine for the first 2/3 of the trip.
and then i hit the Memphis metro area.
ugh.
i've been in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on I-10 in LA. i've been stuck in a mile-long queue behind a [redacted] Penske truck driver in the fast lane on the same interstate heading into Jacksonville, FL. i've navigated St. Louis, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Kansas Cities, and Indianapolis during rush hour, as well. oh, and Nashville.
the only thing that surpasses the Memphis metro area on the idiot-meter, for me, is the I-70 corridor between St. Louis and KC. though that's more historical anecdote than 40-45 minutes of drive time five days each week.
there appears to be something quintessential about Memphis that implodes sound reasoning of both the regular commuters and the "folks just passing through". the roads there are maddening simply because everyone is trying so hard to just get off of them. which on the one hand i completely understand, but on the other recognize it worsens the scenario.
i look forward to the day i no longer make that trip just to earn a few bucks.
definitely a broiler for the Bay, but i probably won't see temperatures like that for daily highs until . . . maybe late September?
the real question:
i'm childless and i would be compelled to investigate such an outcry within 10 minutes, at the maximum. and probably sooner -- i like kids. but maybe they're more tolerable for me because i have Perpetual Uncle Privilege.
i have no idea why that has been the recommendation for so long. it flies in the face of common sense and even the most rigorous implications of a physicalist/materialist worldview.
but i think your use of the term "abandonment" is quite on-point.
. . . . damnable chromebook. just reloaded the page and scrapped my post.
i'm not retyping it.
here's the tl;dr of it:
perhaps i'm the vector, and my aunt got it from me. but that means that i got it from an asymptomatic source. is that even still considered a thing? there's no telling.
my aunt has some health issues that might make her less resistant to any sort of infection, so that might have accelerated her incubation period. but she tested, and i quote, "very positive" this morning.
but this screwball virus has perplexed the entire world since its arrival on the stage. hits some folks fast and hard, others with a slow burn of "yuck". we're four years past its novelty, and still we can't find a concise, unified body of doctrine about treatment, quarantine, and exceptional prevention practices.
[insert tin-foil hat rant here]
bottom line: i'm fighting something tougher than a generic cold. Covid's the only thing on the radar, no matter which direction it got here.
ugh. visited my aunt yesterday so we could work on our family history scrapbook project, and she texted me this morning saying she tested positive for Covid . . . .
i woke up a little while ago feeling pretty crummy. mild fever, aches, congestion, . . . . bleargh.
i've kicked it before, and fought it off at least another time or two. it's such an annoyance.
Impus Major took my exact problem to the professor, and his immediate response was, "Oh, of course not! That would have five significant figures and be 1.0000."
So at least this professor knows how they work.
But can he solve Freehold's Blunderbuss Theorum?
i dunno if he can do it, but i know i have a solution:
higher caliber, more powder, more rounds -- and don't quit till the math is dead.
increased vegetable-sorting education protocols may help a bit, but as long as your nutritional plan isn't suffering, you may end up "riding it out".
you're notoriously conscientious, NH (an admirable quality!), but you're also well-informed. when the 'experts' can't agree, i would think that all you're left with is your own judgment.
the most cautious of approaches you would take in an absolute "life is on the line" scenario might inform your best path forward. if you had no choice but to bypass the most stringent securities in order to accomplish the necessary, how would you go about it, given the current conditions? you know your baseline, i'm sure -- work back from there.
i certainly won't advise throwing prudence to the four winds, but it sounds to me like "analysis paralysis" isn't an acceptable option for you right now, either.
or, you could just go full carnivore until it's over -- surely the Impii can choose ground beef properly, eh? :D
we had Warpriest's funeral/wake this evening. and it still hasn't hit yet. maybe i'm just still watching for everyone or anyone around me to break, so that i can be solid when the rest of the world isn't. or maybe i'm just a cold-hearted, monstrous sumb$&#~ that can't be vulnerable about it. idunno.
but Magus? that kid is all heart, and in the best way. if Warpriest is out there in whatever beyond there is, and can see what Magus is doing, he's laughing his ass off in pure joy at just how strong a son he's raised.
eighteen years old, and he's herding his family -- siblings, aunt, parent, all of 'em. eighteen years old, and he held it together long enough to speak clearly to a gathered crowd about his father (i know i couldn't for my own Dad). eighteen years old, and he would have toted his father's ashes to the graveside and then buried him all by himself, but he didn't -- he brought in everyone he could as part of that rite, but then finished the job alone.
i've made it pretty plain that i'm no longer likely to vote Democratic. it's a process that has been ongoing for most of the last five years or so, but it's crystallized rapidly, of late. and big tech knows it. what few feeds i have in terms of news and social media reflect my current state of mind and interests, but . . . .
UGH.
i can't watch a single YouTube clip without seeing Harris plastered across my screen, asking for money i don't have to spare. or Walz talking about the "right to safety from guns" or somesuch. i think i've gotten two Trump-associated ads in the last three weeks.
yep, i've got opinions. yes, you'd likely think that because of my upbringing i'd be more likely to vote Democratic. yes, i've voted Democratic in the past.
but everybody knows where i stand in this.
i'm completely fed up with political advertising, no matter from which side it comes.
i can't wait for November the fifth.
till then, f#** the algorithm, and the company pushing it.
*mini-tirade ends*
in other news, the weather has been quite pleasant for the month of August -- the temperature has gotten down into the upper 60s in the early morning a few times. the yard is in decent shape, the dogs seem content, and it's nice to sit on the porch for a few hours at a stretch, just relaxing. the world is absurd and nonsensical, but i'm generally okay.
i hope you recover quickly, NH. i had my two cases of it post-vax, and the vax was worse. and coming from a 20-year smoker with a lifetime history of horrible upper respiratory infections, saying that COVID was a mild annoyance is, well, saying something. i hope your symptoms stay as they are, chief. take care of yourself.
i *am* trying "not to try" with Magus, though i may have overdone it a bit in the last couple of days. i'm making a conscious effort to not be obtrusive. the last thing he needs is somebody meddling. i think i've said and done all i can and should until he communicates otherwise.
and i hadn't quite thought of it all in the same way you phrased it, but i wonder if i might be in a mode of being more concerned with others' sense of loss than my own. i don't know. in tandem with what i said above, i'm probably just going to keep to myself more for a while.
we'll see what it's like when it really catches up to me. tonight's game session will probably be the first true test. i'm here for it.
gaming is (a good part of) life. gamers are family.
cap, if i ever manage to actually visit the town my mother spent many of her formative years inhabiting (Toma), i'll take you up on that beer and an ear -- i can listen. i might even break some pavers with ya.
Dancing, i certainly appreciate the simplicity and clarity of what you shared. i think the "uncle-by-friendship" concept is spot-on. Magus has been spending the majority of his time with his peers/friends lately, and it sounds like the distraction and engagement have been a help to him -- life is going on, and he's being active in it. so that's excellent. i'm glad to be "here if he needs me".
Witcher and i got to hang out for a while last night, and i can tell that he's definitely uncertain about how to grapple with these things in the present, but we touched upon our concerns and considerations plainly. this isn't the first time he and i have lost a friend unexpectedly, so we've been here before, even if that was nearly twenty years ago. we're both committed to honoring Warpriest's memory and his family as best we can.
i'm also glad to read that Drejk and Limey don't find my wariness excessive or foolish. thanks, fellows.
welcoming and watchful. i guess those are our buzzwords in the now.
-------------------
in other news, today is the day i take my parents out to lunch to celebrate Mom's birthday. she turned 68 yesterday! it seems like only yesterday that she and i would walk down the road to the shop beside the railroad tracks so i could get a Nugrape and some bubble gum . . . more than four decades ago . . . .
this past Tuesday morning, one of my two best friends died. he was a single (divorced) father of four. he had celebrated his 46th birthday just Monday. over the last two years, he had opened his home to host our regular game sessions, both for my post-KotOR II Star Wars homebrew, and my current fantasy homebrew game. he was an excellent roleplayer, and devilishly clever when it came to driving the narrative forward in any ttrpg i'd played alongside him. in many ways, he was the heart of my regular group. i'll miss him, and likely more than i can truly understand at this point.
i'm not bringing this up simply to remark upon and/or mourn the loss, though, but to get some feedback from any of you who may be willing to venture into the weeds. i'm going to spoiler most, if not all, of what follows, because i believe it's fair to say that it gets pretty grim from here.
this is about what comes next:
i'm going to do a little repeating of myself to set this up. the core of my group consisted of Warpriest, Witcher, and Magus -- these are the designations i'll use henceforth.
Warpriest, Witcher, and i all graduated high school the same year. Warpriest and i ventured farther out into the world; Witcher stayed in our hometown. Warpriest and Witcher got married and started families; i got married and divorced before either of them made their vows, if i remember correctly. eventually, Warpriest and i moved back home, and over several years we three eventually reconnected. by that time, Warpriest had had his four children, and his wife had filed for and gotten her divorce (i phrase it this way because Warpriest didn't want it).
Magus is Warpriest's second child.
Tuesday, Magus skipped school, and at some point in the morning went downstairs to check on Warpriest, and found him cold and unresponsive. the calls were made, the family gathered, and after some time the text notification to Witcher and me was sent. i woke up to the news, and was gut-punched.
i cannot fathom what Magus is feeling. what he felt. he had already been confronted with the possibility of Warpriest's mortality a couple of months before, as he was the only person on-scene when Warpriest had his first heart attack (this is our tentative guess for cause of death). he's a solid young man, and loves his father deeply. i haven't gotten to see him in person, yet, so i can't well gauge exactly where he is with this tragedy, but he's tough, and seems to be holding together rather well.
the part that worries me isn't Magus, or his older brother, or his younger sister -- it's his little brother, and their mother. this is where my personal bias enters the frame most clearly: i think Warpriest's ex is an indisputable idiot. and Magus' little brother is special needs: very much on the "difficult" end of the autistic spectrum. in and of itself, those two components aren't necessarily alarming -- i think we all know of parents who might not make good decisions still managing to love and raise their children well.
but Warpriest's ex made a recent decision that only came to light in the last two weeks, and its potential to go abso-f*$+ing-lutely sideways in the worst possible manner is astounding.
evidently, War-Ex (for brevity) let the four kids stay with Warpriest on Mothers' Day weekend (weird, right?) . . . and went and married a guy she had only known for two weeks. and she kept it a secret. from the kids, from the family, from Warpriest. apparently, it was only a slip of the tongue in a conversation two weeks ago that dumped the news on everyone.
to say that Warpriest was incensed is an understatement. for as long as i've known him, he's been a volatile person (and justifiably so -- long, long story; suffice to say that he has overcome a great deal to live as stable a life as he did, and provided for those kids, and his friends). his hotheadedness back in high school was legendary, and i've never seen or heard him react to anything in the way he broke this news to me and Witcher.
i'm not suggesting that War-Ex's Newb is a bad guy -- but i know Magus didn't take to the news very well, and he's had some exposure to Newb.
but nobody knows who this guy is. "he ain't from around here, y'know?" so there's that unfamiliarity already in play, and then the secrecy surrounding this new marital bond is . . . it's just alarming. and when i look at those things and acknowledge Magus' younger brother's vulnerability . . . . that just takes it to another level for me.
i've communicated my love and support to Magus, and plainly told him that he can bring anything to me that he feels he should. but that's easily seen as just another stack of "event-appropriate" platitudes; he might not grasp just how serious i am.
maybe Newb is good for War-Ex, and good for the kids, and we just don't see it yet. i hope that's the case. but i can't help but feel . . . unsettled . . . by the ramifications of this new reality.
i have no valid legal claims; i have insufficient socioeconomic clout to achieve anything, should real aid become necessary . . . . but i'm trying to make sure that Magus knows i'd be more than happy to remain an active part of his life. it may be of great help in the present, and maybe even moreso in the future.
i'm not trying to inject myself into that murky dynamic; i'm just trying to leave an avenue of communication open to Magus if he ever feels he needs it. just a "steady on" approach.
am i correct in feeling/thinking that some 'alert attention' is justified here, FaWtLies? or am i just projecting too much paranoia with a dash of hero complex?
--------------------
i miss my friend. i want the best for his kids, even if my part in their tales is already ended.
i'm sure most of that came out as a garbled mess. i'm looking for some validation, tempered by wise counsel -- i figured touching base with y'all was a good idea. wordify away, please.
also, i did follow up with the parental units, and their early voting was just for state and local primaries. my gut-punch reaction wasn't fully reasoned -- no convention yet, no ratified candidate for ballots.
i might not agree with them much on things in that sphere, but i still want their votes to count.
if they hadn't locked RFK, Jr. out of the process from the start, it would have gone much better for the DNC. i could almost vote for the guy. i'm certainly sympathetic toward him for the abysmal treatment he has received from his former political affiliation. but they threw out their own process simply for the goals of protecting their incumbent and preserving the anti-Trump vote. if RFK, Jr. somehow won in a dark horse miracle, i wouldn't be mad about it.
but we all know that's highly unlikely.
most everything else i want to append to the above would be inarguably thermobaric.
-----------------
but on a related note: my parents went and early-voted on either Thursday or Friday. there's absolutely no mistaking which way those two votes were cast. i wonder how they feel about that today?
Loved the original Diablo back in the day (except for the ending, which still angers me to think about). Tried Diablo 2, wasn't crazy about it, didn't finish it.
yes, that ending had some significant shock value for me back in the day. but, of course, if not for that ending (and those in the other instances of the franchise), we wouldn't have gotten the other games.
loved the first two, and far prefer the second to the rest. hated 3 when i tried it (but that was on a console, so that might have contributed significantly), and i haven't had a chance to try 4, Immortal (or whatever), or D2 Resurrected.
just past the midpoint of the much-delayed 'spring cleaning' staycation ('cause our corporate overlords arbitrarily decided to put a hiring freeze in place last month, so i couldn't take a week, coupled with their decision to take my vacation time during the week i was frozen in place back in Feb after our ice storm -- the filthy rotten [redacted]! -- otherwise i'd have had the time for all this back in March.), and i've been about half as productive as i intended. today i'm going to cut the yard and set up my brush pile for burning, as well as finish the deep clean on the kitchen and the laundry/guest bathroom. tomorrow i'll put the dead branches and such to the torch and consolidate the miscellaneous belongings i'm storing for my brother into the back spare room.
the single biggest reason why i haven't got as much done as i "should"? a true blast-from-the-past: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, run with the PlugY mod. my brothers and i have been playing it off-and-on ever since it was released, but we never had a chance to participate in the Pandemonium event since we weren't online. PlugY allows all the Ladder and Battle.net functionality in single-player mode, and we've been collaborating on getting all the Pandemonium Keys so we can finally play it when we vacation together in Sept. definitely looking forward to that; might even jump up to D2R sometime in the future.
. . . and speaking of Renaissances:
i'm not going to say that we've played the game in "hard mode" for all these years, but certainly "slow mode" -- we've played the barbarian class almost exclusively since the game's release. if playing an ARPG is a grind at the higher levels, barbarians are probably the grindiest of the seven classes in the game. but i started a lightning javazon (javelin Amazon) three days ago, and i'm already halfway through the game in terms of both xp level *and* the tiers of play. it's daylight and dark. i throw a lightning fury javelin, and whole rooms die; i stab a dude with a charged strike, and five or six mobs melt away -- it's been crazy fun.
i haven't laughed this frikkin' hard since i watched that toilet-bowl dumpster-fire movie (pirated!) from 2017. the fact that this new spectacle of pure stupidity is produced by the same company and is, supposedly, contained within the same narrative framework as the aforementioned film is just . . . .
not only can Disney Lucasfilm fail at telling stories, but they can't even be consistent with their own sewage! they've got that $#!7 flying everywhere, and on every body.
6 or 7 years ago, I dropped roughly 60 pounds (just over 195 to a little shy of 140), though I did it in basically the most unhealthy way possible. I got back up around 160-170 a few years ago, but I got back down to where I am now and have maintained it by getting a very physical job and switching to a diet heavy on cooked vegetables, rice, and wild game meat.
the most drastic and rapid weight-loss process i ever undertook (totally by accident) involved a diet of granola, peanut butter crackers, and those KIND bars along with solely water and coffee to drink while working on a factory floor with negligible air conditioning and peak temperatures near 120 F indoors. i dropped 40 lbs in about a month.
US 70 is a reasonable stretch of roadway over here on the other end of the lower 48 (at least between Little Rock, AR, and Lexington, TN).
EDIT: oops. misread that -- i thought that was an "or" between US 191 and US 70 in your statement, Vany. apologies for my error, but i stand by my declaration. :D
it appears that i turned another corner on this ketovore diet -- i stalled for most of 9 months at 20 lbs of weight loss, but have shed just a little more in the last week and a half. now to convince myself to actually establish a real exercise regimen . . . .
i haven't had a credit card since 2005-06 (which, incidentally {?!}, is right around the time i finished ridding myself of the ex-wife and paying off her financial excesses). i don't miss them, and never plan to have one again.
that 20+% rate is absurd. at best. and i think other, much less polite descriptors are more appropriate. but, then, i get it -- the dollar ain't what it used to be. for some damn big pile o' reasons, surely . . . .
three eggs and a boneless ham steak pan-fried in olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a bit of clove, topped with melted aged white cheddar . . . .
this diet is amazing.
Keto?
essentially, yes, it's keto -- a slightly more permissive version of the carnivore diet. it took less than 30 days for me to get my blood glucose and triglycerides under control, and i've started eating more eggs to build a better balance on HDL/LDL ratios. now i'm nine months into the diet, and the good results i've gotten have proven easy to maintain. as much as i love pasta, beer, and Dr. Pepper, i have probably gotten down to less than 100 grams of carbohydrate intake per week, on average. i'm trying to phase out the cigarettes (again) and develop an exercise regimen outside of the workplace, but really all i've changed is the food i eat. and the benefits have been nothing short of spectacular, already.
three eggs and a boneless ham steak pan-fried in olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a bit of clove, topped with melted aged white cheddar . . . .
only to those who are willing to ask questions beyond the first layer of analysis.
Full Name
Kalikah Quick Fang
Race
Human (Shoanti)
Classes/Levels
Slayer 1
Gender
Female
Size
M
Age
23
Alignment
Neutral Good
Deity
Gozreh
Languages
Taldan, Shoanti, Varisian
Strength
19
Dexterity
10
Constitution
14
Intelligence
12
Wisdom
12
Charisma
8
About Kalikah
Kalikah is a native Shoanti of the Shadde-Quah. She works with the Pathfinder Society as an advocate for the Shoanti, both within the Society itself, and abroad in the world at large.
