So there’s 50 days until the election and I’m deeply concerned about the future of this country and, to be honest, myself. I did myself no favors by recently binge listening to Robert Evans’ outstanding podcast series “It Could Happen Here“. I’d like to think that he’s being an alarmist in the scenarios he raises on how close we are to the 2nd American Civil War but I’m a hell of a lot less confident about that than i was two years ago, or even 6 months ago.

It’s evident on my social media that our divisions as a society are growing ever wider. People who I could talk with even if we disagreed are now punch drunk on the latest Qanon conspiracy theory. People who I agree with on most issues casually dismiss the very real grievances that are being felt by those they dismiss as “deplorables”. This is not a great course to be on and I’m not entirely sure how we get off this ride.

How do you strike up a conversation with someone who only seems to communicate in Meme’s cribbed from the shittiest most fact free corners of the internet? How do you avoid closing yourself in a bubble where the only voices you hear are those agreeing with you in some endless online circle jerk?

Basically I’m concerned that ~40% of this country has embraced hate filled nihilism and another ~40% of the country has embraced an attitude of, for lack of way of saying it, “I’m sick of your idiot, racist bullshit”. This is not a formula for a stable and prosperous country. Yet it’s impossible to get away from online and thanks to the pandemic there are few other outlets to interact.

I don’t have any solutions to offer. I feel like the richest people in America are all to happy to point the rest of us at each other and say “look, there’s the problem” while they transfer more of the nation’s wealth into their own pockets and I’m feeling a little powerless right now.

So it’s only been like 8 years or so but somehow I still remembers the password for this site and I still like writing.  I don’t think anyone missed me too much, aside from some very disgruntled Blue October fans, but I think I’ll come back anyway.  I’ve had a lot of adventures, been a part of raising three kids, gone through 3 different jobs and just lived my life.  All that’s been great but I have missed coming here and venting/bitching/spilling my guts from time to time.  So, on the off chance you care, I’ll be posting new BS on this page in the future.

PS to all you Blue October fans, I still hate that f@#$ing song.

PPS to Justin Furstenfeld, I really enjoy your newer songs and I think it’s awesome that you’ve been sober for several years now. Keep crushing it and living your best life!

An outstanding live version of “Cave” by Mumford and Sons

 

Someone took DeBussy’s “Claire de Lune” and gave it a pretty new wrapper.

 

I was so inspired by this video that I made this myself, twice.

If you haven’t seen these clips on youtube then you should.

The Whole Sagan Series on Youtube can be found here.

At the beginning of August my wife and I spent a week in Napa touring wineries, breweries and vineyards.  Since I fully acknowledge that touring a winery is 1,000x better than reading someone else’s story about touring a vineyard, I won’t record all the mundane details.pretty plants

We brought treats back with us

Set the resolution to 720p before watching

The past couple of years of my life has been unusual for me in that I’ve been much less of a shut-in than I usually am.  A few different things have combined to draw me out of my cave.  One is barroom trivia, nerdy – yes, cheesy – a little, fun – absolutely!  My wife and I have teamed up with several fellow nerds to form a regular barroom trivia team.  Happily, this has led to many non-trivia get togethers and trips, as we share other common interests like good beer, good wine and good company.  Howrah for the social life!

I’ve also picked up a new hobby and stepped up an old one.  My wife got me a nice homebrew kit for Christmas and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed brewing ales (lagers suck) and experimenting with various recipes.  I’ve even achieved a decent Pale Ale.  At the same time I’ve been playing a lot more hockey lately and I’ve kept up with my running.  All this is to say that I’ve been busy and it’s been the good kind of busy.

Of course, I’m still working for ginormous IT company and I’m still doing my best to be the best dad and husband that I can be.  It’s just nice to have reached a point where I feel like I’ve been plugged into a community again.  I haven’t really felt that way since I finished grad school.  The side effect is that I’ve felt less of a need to come here and rant.  However, there have been so many topics worthy of ranting about that I figure I’ll cover a few in brief just to get them off my chest.

There are no Republicans and Democrats, there is only the Money Party and the not-Money Party, the first party is much better represented and includes about 95% of Republicans and 40 – 50% of Democrats in politics.  Everything going on in the country is much easier to understand when seen through that perspective.

The next time you’re tempted to bitch about oil prices you should educate yourself on two subjects: The first is Peek Oil, the second is energy market deregulation.  If you don’t understand either of those terms and their impact on fuel prices then you’re asking for trouble.  Oil makes our entire society go and has been making it go for over 100 years.  It’s worth the effort to understand it a little better.

The same goes for climate change / global warming.  If your understanding of that subject comes from talk radio or fox news, kindly shut the fuck up.  You don’t know what you’re talking about.

While I’m on the subject of warming, it’s been over 90 degrees F in South Carolina for several weeks now and we’re only in the 1st week of June.  I would shank a mime right now for a break in the weather.

Yes, the words in this are in French.  I recommend marrying someone who speaks French so they can translate it for you.  However if the French bothers you that much then here:

Oddly enough I did get used to them watching this world cup.  So much so, that I was watching the LA Galaxy play the other day and it sounded wrong.  It took me five minutes to realize I was missing the vuvuzelas.

Oh what the hell, even Hitler had something to say on the subject.

My wife and I started our first real vacation in a long time a few weeks ago.  To say it was epic does it no justice.  7 days in Cancun followed by a weekend in New Orleans is packing a lot of debauchery into 10 days.  In order to preserve these memories before I wipe the rest of my brain cells out on the 4th,(note: I took a really long time writing this because I’m lazy) I’m going to preserve my story here.  I’m also enlisting DJ Lance Rock to spin the soundtrack for this vacation.