#IWSG OCTOBER 2017 CHECKIN – AFTER IRMA AND MARIA *****WARNING: SALTY LANGUAGE AHEAD*****

***WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SOME PRETTY SALTY LANGUAGE***

Well, we survived Irma and we're one of the luckier areas in Florida, I believe, but I ended up with a brief trip to the E. R. My current roommate went OUTSIDE during the hurricane – I guess to hole up somewhere and smoke a cigarette – and I grew concerned and went outside. Since I apparently have a head made of wood or sawdust, as I told my boyfriend, after the fact, I was hit in the head with flying debris. I then proceeded to lie on the front porch in a driving rain, for God Knows How Long, until someone found me and called an ambulance. I regained consciousness in the E. R. of St. Joseph's hospital, with 6 staples in my head.

The idiots at the hospital wanted to admit me, because my “core temperature was lowered” when I was brought in, but it was coming back up. Gee, ya think? Since I had laid there in the rain for God Knows How Long, bleeding from a head wound (not at ALL serious, by the way) there might just be a slight possibility that my core temperature was lowered and oh by the way, Billie Joe, I take Primidone which is a barbiturate for my essential tremor and my core temp is basically lower, ANYWAY. So, I yawped and barked and got the HELL out of there! I've had enough of hospitals, thank you very much and I am no fan of this one. MY hospital is TGH and they work with me.

Anyway, home I went and the power came back on about half an hour later. Maria is more worrying. My neighbor's mom lives in Puerto Rico. My 'hood is mostly Hispanic and there are still people that have not been heard from that island, whose relatives are here in town. I cannot imagine that uncertainty or worry hanging over their heads. Plus, we have a tone-deaf president who gives out Golf Trophies and flings rolls of paper towels at the islanders; it's embarrassing to be an American. We should do much, much more. What part of this is Donald Trump NOT getting? This is an American Territory with real trouble. Comparing Maria to Katrina is the most fallacious argument I've ever heard and Maria was a “real” hurricane, Mr. Factoid, so shut the fuck up, Donald Trump.

If you cannot do this job and it's obvious now that you cannot, step aside. Or how about this? DOJ, do YOUR fucking job and arrest this man for Obstruction of Justice! Clap him in irons and frog-march him into a jail cell where he belongs and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law, based on the evidence, YOU ALREADY POSSESS! It's only going to get worse, not better! We, the American People, who are taught to think that the Institutions of this country will protect us, are being given short shrift, because the people who are currently manning those institutions are craven gorms, who are afraid to stand up to this nit-wit of a baby-man, lest he throw a tantrum. This is no longer a Democracy, a Republic; it's just chaos. His own Staff doesn't even know what he's doing!

Donald Trump wants to be Dictator of the United States and then, the World. We need to get him and his sleazy family and friends out of the White House and out of our Government. As Americans, we need to take back our system and run it properly and do it legally and without loopholes and/or wads of cash. I'm furious over what has happened to my country and you all should be, too. I'm GLAD the NFL is taking a knee. You know who else takes a knee? George Clooney does, when he prays for this country, every night. You all should, too. I'm out. I'm too goddamned mad at the American public, the media and my own government for behaving this way. Exercise your right to protest and vote, goddamnit! It's your right and your duty!

courtesy:thedailybeast.com                                         

IT AIN'T “THROWBACK THURSDAY”, BUT IT'S DAMNED APROPOS!

This popped up in my Facebook “Memories” feed this morning. One of the reasons I haven't posted as much is I've been busy with music and my better 2/3s and putting the final touches on getting ready for spending a month in Japan. I've also been working on “Homeless Chronicles in Tampa – The e-Book” and some of the Nebraska Creepers series, which is coming out in dribs and drabs as short stories.

But, I couldn't resist re-posting this, since there's been so much hoopla in the news about fake news and leaks and the Russians subverting the election, and all of this just sounds so damned familiar. We've gotten to the point where we really CAN'T tell reality from fiction, and people just do not know how to think critically, anymore. The ones I know who went through the Critical Thinking classes with me in HIGH SCHOOL for Chrissake, are still as sane as they ever were, but what in the HELL has happened to the rest of the Goddamned world?

And, why aren't the people in power doing anything about this travesty of a President and his bottom-feeders Cabinet – the least experienced, ever and just all standing there like a house by the side of the fucking road? This has really irked the shit out of me since the Legislative Branch told the Executive Branch that it – President Obama, as a lame-duck president, was not to nominate a Supreme Court Justice after the death of Antonin Scalia, because... “tradition” that had never, ever happened before. Fuck the GOP. So, The Legislative Branch essentially told the Executive Branch to take a hike AND hijacked the Judicial Branch of Government. ALL of this occurred BEFORE the election!

THEN, we had the James Comey, FBI farce which went on far too long and not one single jackleg up there in D. C. did a thing about it, except let the cat resign, I guess? No charges or malfeasance? A few decades ago, he'd at least have had to endure a few Watergate-like hearings, but nooo. The dude just resigned and skipped off, to his Skull-and-Bones Secret Society meet-up with the Bushes prolly.

I'm thinkin' that it wouldn't be such a bad idea if we had us a situation like “Designated Survivor” and just cleaned house. Preferably during the Inauguration, where we can get rid of a whole lot of dead wood and I will be out of the country. So there!

Original post: 12/19/2014

SONY, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, NORTH KOREA, “THE INTERVIEW” AND “TEAM AMERICA”

So, here it is December 19, 2014, the middle of the second decade of the 21^st Century. Cool stuff is supposed to be happening, like we all ride around in personal-pan helio-copters that repel themselves away from the earth and (one hopes) each other, as we flit around and do Important Things, wearing our onesies that are made out of a combination of tin-foil and Queen Latifah's weave and that also self-repel dirt. We all wear Johnny Quest's friend's Race Bannon's style of sunglasses indoors and out, because, well, we're cool. This is all of the cool stuff I remember from about 1960, and what I thought the world would become. How'd I do?

I don't remember my vision of the future being this blah, or sepia-toned, but heck, I can't draw this well, so it'll have to do.

Apparently, not very well in the prognosticating department, since we still have jacklegs like Kim Il Jung running rogue Dictatorships AND sticking their noses in OUR cultural bidness, which is even worse in the whole “America is a place where you can say what you want, and depict what you wish in the movies, as satire, with the complete understanding that IT IS SATIRE!” Nope, can't even do that any more and no one, who ACTUALLY matters, (I'm looking at you Mr. Obama*, and you, people who run Sony and Paramount Pictures) are willing to take a stand and say “look here, you little worm! We are going to make fun of you, whether you like it or not! So what if we take your head off with a chainsaw? It's all in good, clean fun, and besides we're showing it in OUR country to OUR people. Take a hike, Kim!”

*As of 2:30 A.M. EDT on 12/20/2014, Huffpo published an article stating that Mr. Obama condemns Sony Pictures' Heads decision to bow down to the request of the Dictator of North Korea. All nice I guess, but shouldn't Mr. Obama have been out AHEAD of this and taking up for the "Freedom of Expression" crowd before now? Just a thought.

No doubt I'm on someone's shit list now; but, when am I not? I'll just hunt me up a chorus of "Team America, F*ck, Yeah!" and march bravely off to. . . whatever.

(note: That is also a team name of one of our better SETI@home teams and with whom we fight with on a regular basis for 64th or 72nd position; I forget which one, along with the “Get Off My Lawn” team.)

1^st Lt. Glenn Wallace, U. S. Air Force

Granted, the man LOVED to fly, but he also served in WW II in Okinawa, as did both of my mom's brothers, my uncles, Stan and Nile. They were in the Navy in the South Pacific.

But, that didn't happen. I realize I've just jumped right here in the middle, with no explanation, not mention aforethought and no context, but this is really just unbelievable to me. I can just hear my father, who lived through all the shit of the Joseph P. McCarthy era, - with Stalin laughing, saying, “I don't have to do anything to weaken America, she does it to herself!" - in the early 50s, after he left the Air Force and I can remember him talking in hushed tones about professors of his who did lose their positions because people were afraid, and people talked, and cast aspersions, even if they weren't true. 

Some people took their lives. Were my dad alive today, he would say what I thought when I was reading the article; a quote by Joseph Welch that was televised, when Senator McCarthy began to insinuate a witness was a long, long-ago member of the American Communist Party, “Have you no shame? Have you no decency?” Where is that genuine outrage and righteousness now? When did we become so cowed by the liars in this world and let them just take over all that is right and decent and good?

B-29 Wing, over Korea, circa 1951

Have we no shame nor decency, that we can let the freedoms that were won so hard for us over the centuries and the decades go so easily? Are we really that willing to just brush it off? Or, are we that knavish and craven that we believe the North Koreans and the anonymous hackers are capable of 9/11-era attacks BECAUSE OF the showing of something like the previews for “The Interview” or a midnight showing of “Team America: World Police”, a movie that has been out for TEN years?

At least George Clooney had the gumption to stand up and attempt to do the right thing. He tried to get other actors and people of note to sign a petition backing the Sony Pictures, but was unsuccessful in his attempt. The media did little as per usual; their modus operandi of late has been to run around with their hair on fire making everything seem far worse than it is, and they do little to bring calm, reason, parity and a fair perspective to anything I've watched in many a year.

As far as I am concerned, we should NEVER bow down to dictators, never negotiate with terrorists. Once we start down that road, it is simply too easy to get us to give in on bigger things. It is the “slippery slope” that lawyers and lawmakers and diplomats worry about. Were it up to me? I'd be showing that bastard “Team America: World Police” for free in EVERY THEATER in the country! It's just a movie for crying out loud! (You can watch the damn thing on NETFLIX, which I intend on doing for the next week!)

SONY, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, NORTH KOREA, “THE INTERVIEW” AND “TEAM AMERICA”

So, here it is December 19, 2014, the middle of the second decade of the 21^st Century. Cool stuff is supposed to be happening, like we all ride around in personal-pan helio-copters that repel themselves away from the earth and (one hopes) each other, as we flit around and do Important things, wearing our onesies that are made out of a combination of tin-foil and Queen Latifah's weave and that also self-repel dirt. We all wear Johnny Quest's friend's Race Bannon's style of sunglasses indoors and out, because, well, we're cool. This is all of the cool stuff I remember from about 1960, and what I thought the world would become. How'd I do?

I don't remember my vision of the future being this blah, or sepia-toned, but heck, I can't draw this well, so it'll have to do.

Apparently, not very well in the prognosticating department, since we still have jacklegs like Kim Il Jung running rogue Dictatorships AND sticking their noses in OUR cultural bidness, which is even worse in the whole “America is a place where you can say what you want, and depict what you wish in the movies, as satire, with the complete understanding that IT IS SATIRE!” Nope, can't even do that any more and no one, who ACTUALLY matters, (I'm looking at you Mr. Obama*, and you, people who run Sony and Paramount Pictures) are willing to take a stand and say “look here, you little worm! We are going to make fun of you, whether you like it or not! So what if we take your head off with a chainsaw? It's all in good, clean fun, and besides we're showing it in OUR country to OUR people. Take a hike, Kim!”

*As of 2:30 A.M. EDT on 12/20/2014, Huffpo published an article stating that Mr. Obama condemns Sony Pictures' Heads decision to bow down to the request of the Dictator of North Korea. All nice I guess, but shouldn't Mr. Obama have been out AHEAD of this and taking up for the "Freedom of Expression" crowd before now? Just a thought.

No doubt I'm on someone's shit list now; but, when am I not? I'll just hunt me up a chorus of "Team America, F*ck, Yeah!" and march bravely off to. . .  whatever.

(note: That is also a team name of one of our better SETI@home teams and with whom we fight with on a regular basis for 64th or 72nd position; I forget which one.)

1^st Lt. Glenn Wallace, U. S. Air Force

Granted, the man LOVED to fly, but he also served in WW II in Okinawa, as did both of my mom's brothers, my uncles, Stan and Nile. They were in the Navy in the South Pacific.

But, that didn't happen. I realize I've just jumped right here in the middle, with no explanation, not mention aforethought and no context, but this is really just unbelievable to me. I can just hear my father, who lived through all the shit of the Joseph P. McCarthy era, - with Stalin laughing, saying, “I don't have to do anything to weaken America, she does it to herself!" - in the early 50s, after he left the Air Force and I can remember him talking in hushed tones about professors of his who did lose their positions because people were afraid, and people talked, and cast aspersions, even if they weren't true. Some people took their lives. Were my dad alive today, he would say what I thought when I was reading the article; a quote by Joseph Welch that was televised, when Senator McCarthy began to insinuate a witness was a long, long-ago member of the American Communist Party, “Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”

B-29 Wing, over Korea, circa 1951

Have we no shame nor decency, that we can let the freedoms that were won so hard for us over the centuries and the decades go so easily? Are we really that willing to just brush it off? Or, are we that knavish and craven that we believe the North Koreans and the anonymous hackers are capable of 9/11-era attacks BECAUSE OF the showing of something like the previews for “The Interview” or a midnight showing of “Team America: World Police”, a movie that has been out for TEN years?

At least George Clooney had the gumption to stand up and attempt to do the right thing. He tried to get other actors and people of note to sign a petition backing the Sony Pictures, but was unsuccessful in his attempt. The media did little as per usual; their modus operandi of late has been to run around with their hair on fire making everything seem far worse than it is, and they do little to bring calm, reason, parity and a fair perspective to anything I've watched in many a year.

As far as I am concerned, we should NEVER bow down to dictators, never negotiate with terrorists. Once we start down that road, it is simply too easy to get us to give in on bigger things. It is the “slippery slope” that lawyers and lawmakers and diplomats worry about. Were it up to me? I'd be showing that bastard “Team America: World Police” for free in EVERY THEATER in the country! It's just a movie for crying out loud! (You can watch the damn thing on NETFLIX, which I intend on doing for the next week!)

ROW 80 4th QUARTER POST 3, WEDNESDAY CHECK IN – RUNESCAPE REPORT FROM THE FRONTLINES ZAMORAK GODWARS DUNGEON, THE GOOD NEWS? I DIDN’T DIE

The bad news, I didn’t get any of the loot. To be honest, I didn’t really care. First off, getting me anywhere in a group is a major accomplishment. No, I didn’t finish “Eadgar’s Ruse” quest. I didn’t find this out until I tried to use 2 fire runes and 2 law runes and went precisely no where. 3 of our gang of 5 had already left and were up there ketting there kill count. I suspect they were off looking at troll porn or reading “50 Shades of Guthix” or watching the S. F. Giants tear up the L. A. Dodgers, (Congratulations, Steve!) but they certainly weren’t reading or watching the “50 Fails of ViolaFury” either.

So, when I logged into  Runescape after having baked some salmon and sautéed fresh mushrooms and made corn on the cob and drenched butter and capers and lemon on the salmon, and butter on the rest, I was pretty much not at my brightest, so from ½ a loaf to ¼ a loaf, perfect mindset for creating death and destruction on Runescape, especially my own.

I start the action, when asked what my setup is. I said, “bronze scimitar and goblin armor.” My friend Killa C9 says, “be a hero and use a bronze mace.” I riposte back “Fuck that. I’m going grow a big set of hairies and go for the bronze dagger.” I know I’m home. Believe it or not, we're not 13-year old boys. We're all adults. Some of us are middle-aged women, who are degreed and... never mind.

ViolaFury

Combat lvl121

Just to show how truly stone badass we all are, we’ve got these Bau5 names: Nero Sama, who was last known as Hellson23 (See: Witness Protection Program) Damnation Day, (who is more badass in real life as "Bryan," and lives across the bay in from me) Killa C9, (aka who we don’t ask his real name; I think, he’d have to kill us, he’s Military) and Sergio Romo (aka BMNP, aka Steve, aka the biggest Giants fan ever.) Steve IS his real name, I know. What a shock. 

Why he picked "Sergio Romo" I don't know. I know why he picked BMNP and I was all "ewwww." I don't want to know about "Sergio Romo." And me. I’ve always been Viola or Mary, for the love of the former and I can still remember my name. I will always be that. I have trouble with my own one reality. I don’t need 12 or 249 of them.

So, Nero is the one who is really pro at this GWD stuff. The big bad Dude, Kahuna, Nex or whatever is supposedly really bad and he knows what to do to kill it and not get killed. I’m here with some idealized LOTR bullshit that we’re all going to have this merry little jaunt and fight many orcians or what-have-yous, and share our lives and wonder what it’s all about. I have not one clue why I take off into this EPIC MOVIE MODE now and then, at the most peculiar times. Probably because I’m mentally ill. I know who these people are. They’re my friends; if we were to be a movie, it might be more “From Dusk Til Dawn” only we’re all George Clooney Yeah, right. Everyone’s a smart ass.

Except poor Nero thought I needed help, so he proceeded to give me about 50 times the amount of stuff I could possibly carry. I had a battle tortoise and a couple extras and the poor things kept dying, because I did forget summon pots and we had to walk. The reason we had to walk is because ViolaFury for all her Bau5-ness is just as blind in RS as she is irl and she can’t finish Eadgar’s Ruse or any quest where there is a maze, so Viola walks. Between Nero and Viola, there were easily 100 million gold pieces just in armor and weapons on our little bodies alone, but, actual money? I had 5, Nero had bupkus, 0. So we couldn’t buy climbing boots. We tried killing the woman who sold the boot’s chickens, but they just drop bones and fur, no coins; shit. Still undaunted, we proceeded to punch our way north through those fucking throwing trolls until I got to 3 rocks, skinned my knee and said “Ow.” We couldn’t climb those rocks without climbing boots.

Nero said, “I can’t fucking believe this.” The other 3 hobbitses, er, our "friends" had long ago run on up ahead to the dungeon and were merrily killing zammy meanies that you have to kill prior to getting into the Big Guy, or Guys as it turned out. So much for the road trip. They were saying things like: 

Damnation: “Yeah, ya have to wait for Viola, ‘cause she’s like… 90!!! Do you have your holy-blessed walker?” Asshole. 

Sergio: “Hurry up, before they release the next game update!” 

Damnation: “Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s 2027!!!” 

Killa: “I wonder if summoning creatures go to summon heaven or hell when they die, or are they just napping?” 

I’m waiting at the skinned-my-knee place, while Nero runs south and gets boots out of his bank. Like me, he probably has 50 billion pair. He was able to run back and trade me a pair. I put them on and my yak dies. Shit. I summon a new one, pick up all the shit the dead one dropped. Some asshole bystander calls me “noob,” (30% rule still in play*) Off we go.

We run north into the freezing cold. My energy drops to zero. All you can really do is rest. Nero is staying with me. He tells me to rest. Killa is down below in the main dungeon. He says “Stay away from the Gorak, right?” Nero: ”Yes, they something something something” I couldn’t see what he said. I was up and down the hole and it was confusing, so many people running around.

This is the 1st dungeon 

I got my 40 kills and we crossed the bridge to the big boss’ room. I was really thrown off at first. I used to go to King Black Dragon at least once a week and got the majority of the kills. It’s been years since I did anything like this and I died immediately the last time I came here. I kind of hung back. By the second spawn, I remembered who I am and how to do this and warmed up to it. I didn’t die, but damn! I came close. At one point, I was down to 83 less than 10% of my health. Poor Killa did die, so he must be avenged! We shall prevail! Oh yeah the “something something something?” They all have personality disorders. The monsters. With our old crew from SpiritZ, it’s a given.

Nex: She/he was a Pain In The Ass...

Combat lvl 1001