Pause.

This explains SO MUCH.

Random Thoughts.

Some things that I've been pondering.......

Steve Bannon is NOT the Anti-Christ.  I expect my Anti-Christ to look like Steve Valentine, not a badly-shorn Peter Griffin.

If the Secretary of Eddimacation (Newspeak spelling) is the head of the Department of Eddimacation, and the GOP is intent on eliminating the Department of Eddimacation, then how long does it take the 5:09 train from Scranton heading east to crash into the hopes and dream of all Americans, leaving Common Sense station at high speeds?

Nordstrom's made a business decision; I'm pretty sure that the Resident of the United States has robbed plenty of less-well-off people of their livelihood by making a business decision.  Does his core constituency know that he's a whiny cry-baby?

And, I think that attempting to make a buck off of the Residency is one of those, "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" that can lead to impeachment.

Some people would actually consider it worse that a blowjob.

I realize how that previous sentence read; I mean, THAT blowjob.  Not just a random blowjob.

I need to stop using the word "blowjob".  I have relatives that read this.

I really didn't need to write any of that out.

Still no word from the Court of Appeals; but it's going to the Supreme Court, anyway, so what the hell.

People have been posting art on their Facebook page.  I joined in.

Dogs Playing Poker won over Elvis On Black Velvet.  But it was close.

And now. Black Velvet is running through my head.

I'm going to stop now, before the Hamilton Soundtrack starts up again in my noggin'.....

Damn it.

(and I'm not throwin' away my...SHOT....)

Exit, pursued by a bear.

The Pin for The Balloon.

I woke up this morning.  I didn't want to, but there is a certain young feline that requires the services of opposable thumbs at a time of morning she has deemed appropriate. 

And she's pointy on five ends.  So, I'm a butler, or I'm bloody.

She'll grow out of it.  OR ELSE.

My rituals haven't changed since I left my previous employment; I still rise early, make coffee, take a walk if I can (-15 this morning, so NFW), and read the various news feeds.  I used to read the paper, and I used to watch the news shows, but five years of being force-fed Faux News and I rely upon my devices to pick my choices.

CNN, REUTERS, and the Capital City Tribune.

And then on to the Facebook to read the reactions to the news.

Vicious.  Cycle.

There are two stories I take away today.....the fact that cronyism is alive and well in DC, and this isn't the first time a donor was given a job...and DeVos has decided to put her education background to good use.

Oh, wait.

Yes, all of my educationally-connected friends, and all the people I know that have children are upset, and rightly so.  Our education system is screwed up, and not because there are liberals at the universities.  And as one without children, and no axe to grind, it seems to me that in a country where we seem to want our teachers to serve as parents, as well.....maybe this is a wake up call that the parents actually have to take an active and positive hand in the education of their children.

I doubt this was the guiding factor in the Republican-leaning Congressional vote.  But wouldn't it be great if it happened?  That children actually learned their morality and social awareness and manners from home?

So, in one story, we get the horror show that education should become.

And in the other story...,.,.

Lainy Fredrickson of Norman OK made a free throw in a basketball game, and the crowd chants her name and the game ends.

I encourage you to look it up.

I will tell you this:  You can have all the stories in the world about how this country is going to hell in a handcart, and I won't argue with you.

But I will take all of the stories like the ones about Lainy Fredrickson; because this is where our hope lies.  This is where you'll find our joy, and our compassion.

And they cannot legislate Joy.  Or Compassion.

And I will take that smile.  Anytime.  Twice on Election Day.

A Weekend to Exhale. A Little. NOT TOO MUCH.

I don't watch Saturday Night Live anymore.

It used to be because of what I felt was the quality; but then it became about it being too freakin' long a day to stay up and watch.

I catch the clips now.  And I notice that with the current administration, it gave them a brand new breath of air; oh, the fodder for comedy our current President provides.

It would be funnier if it weren't so.......unnerving.

I am not scared; as long as we have the jesters, we'll be okay.

I think the Presidential sketches are becoming what SNL was originally; a loosely structured satirical look at the country.  Back then, there was also a ton of political fodder for the jesters to feed upon.  Ford, Carter......the remains of Watergate.....

I did notice in last Saturday's sketch, an almost Trudeau-ian, Doonesbury-like quality; largely because of the personification of the "Key Advisor" to the President, Lord Voldemort.  Reminded me of what Trudeau does with Presidents......Bush one was invisible; Bush 2 wore a Centurion Helmet or was an asterisk (get it?).  And Bannon is Death.

And of course, Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer......isn't wasn't just the impersonation.  It was the writing.  Spot on, classic.  Straight from the comedy factories of Chicago.

The real world has been a bit.....hiccup-y as of late; it is gratifying that the Judicial has risen up to deal with it; I wish that the Legislative Branch would be less Boot-licky and more of a check and balance to the fellow in the Oval Office, who bounces checks and is unbalanced.

I do suppose that if you allow coal mines to pollute the streams that are people's drinking water, you don't have to worry about finding jobs for the downriver people; although they are going to need long-term health care.

But they're GOP.  They don't care if they make you sick, and they're not going to make you well.  Unless you're in utero.  Then you're pretty safe.

The Super Bowl was fun to watch, until the last three minutes of the third quarter.

Apparently, Mr. Applegate has moved on to Football.

Saturday Morning Coffee......

I have had a few.....unfortunate.....moments of weakness, as of late, in regards to commenting and sharing things on certain social media sites.


Although, I did enjoy all of the interesting tributes to those we lost during the Bowling Green Massacre.


I think, in future, we need to jerk our knees a little less quickly, and do some research in order to be accurate.  I am finding that accuracy is the key; too many times, those that seek to disagree tend to use one tried-and-true method of refutation; that being, "well.....you're guy did it FIRST!"


Case in point......when caught in what only can be deemed an out and out lie, the bottle-blonde Satan stated, "well.....Hillary claimed to have landed in a warn zone during a sniper attack, and that wasn't true....soooooo....."


(if you imagine her talking in a voice like the pothole in an old insurance commercial, it's much funnier..)


And you can be accurate; you just need to find two sources that say the same thing:  I prefer
CNN and REUTERS.  One domestic and one international.  Covers all bases.....


The most inaccurate thing that bothered me yesterday was a post stating that the Quebecois who attacked a mosque did not shoot six people.  He KILLED six people.  He SHOT fourteen people.  And 59 people were PRAYING at the time of his attack.


By the way, the winner of 'most clever' posting was the crowd funding link for the survivors of the Bowling Green Massacre; it was a link directly to the donation page of the ACLU.


Also by the way, if you add the Countable app to your phone, it will save you a LOT of time.  It tells you what's being voted on, how your representatives are voting, and gives you the phone numbers of said representatives.


Where was I?  Oh yes.....I was a bit....angry, several times in responding to some social media messages.  I believe I told one person that he was desperately in need of a tall, frosty mug of SHUTTHEFUCKUP.


I think the thing I need to remember is that there is a whole, big world out there.  And they are watching.  And they are friends not of our Government, but of our people.  And I believe that there is some crap up with which they will not put.


In other news.....


I finally watched the reboot of GHOSTBUSTERS last night.


I love Kristen Wiig. 


And there was SO much wrong with the movie; even without the inevitable comparison with the original.


And I loved the original; I can tell you exactly when I saw it, who I was with, and how I fell into the aisle laughing when the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man came lumbering around the corner.....


I liked the cameos of everybody, and especially loved what HAD TO HAVE BEEN Bill Murray's suggestion that his character get brutally murdered by a ghost.  And yes, I even admired that they brought John Belushi back for a cameo as Slimer.


But there was just so many.......holes.  The backstory on the villain, Rowan North, is so weak as to be invisible; you can only pick up on some things as they go along, and it's only after they open the book and see the various drawings do we get any idea as to the wherefores.....jeepers, even Vigo in GBII got a backstory.


I wasn't sure why the battle against the ghosts had to take place in an amalgam of Times Square from many decades.....but I did have some grudging admiration of the battle itself; so many new ways to dispatch the spirits......


When you see SO MUCH material during the credits, you know that the film has been badly butchered.....in this case, there was an entire dance sequence led by Rowan, making the various military figures do what looks a bit like the sequence from THRILLER.  Which, in the film itself, was reduced to all the military figures doing the Saturday Night Fever gesture.


Ridiculous.


I think they relied too much on the connections to the old film; and not enough time creating a new legend, in an apparently new universe.


They should take a lesson from DC Comics; they re-do their universe every decade or so, and it seems to work.....well, except Supergirl......she's alive, she's dead, she's alive, she's somebody else, she's an escapee from Kandor.........and she's dead again....and now she's on the CW.


I stopped watching when they made the Red Tornado a villain.


Well......I seem to have strayed, YET AGAIN.  But I'm going to leave it unedited.


Because I'm free of Governmental regulations!

Ramble.

A friend of mine, whom I have never actually met face-to-face, asked me recently about why I stopped writing regularly.

I tend to answer written questions quickly and honestly; when I'm face-to-face, I think, I ponder, I reflect, and I obfuscate. 

I answered:  "I found that the sound of my own voice to be tedious to mine own ears."

Still true; and combine it with the fact that, as one of the temporarily unemployed, I have nothing but household chores, re-runs of BURN NOTICE, and the sound of my own voice.

I have been writing; working on a couple of projects, but those are limited to the OneDrive on my computer and my Surface...and let me tell you.....it's been like slogging through molasses.  In January.  Uphill.  Both ways.

Some of it may see the light of day; I make jokes that I have about 70 pages, and I haven't begun to make my point yet.  The truth is, I've made my point, and am now beating it to death with a garden hose filled with sand.

I was in Minneapolis recently; I decided to attend a study group that the scion society I belong to runs every month; they are called The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, and they follow the career of a fellow formerly known as Sigerson, whose former address is now a museum in Baker Street in London.

It was interesting to sit in a room full of strangers, discussing a short story written over a century ago; a few fully aware of Conan Doyle's contribution to detective fiction, a few smirking at the thought of a 'literary agent' taking credit for Dr. John Watson's genius.  The conversation was lively and they didn't stare at me when I offered my two cents.

Okay, they DID stare.  Apparently, it was a very closed circle, and I was from way, far away.  But after a while, they softened, and invited me back.

It's six hours from the Capitol City of the Northern State to Minneapolis.  I'm not going to make it a regular jaunt.

But I did get to spend an hour or so at the Mall of America.  Which was fun.  I hadn't been in a mall that big since I spent two days at the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, back in the mid-80's.

I spent two days because, quite frankly, it was easy to lose your car.

The Mall of America has everything.

They had a place called, simply, "SUGAR!"  Guess what they sold?

I looked at other places as I walked around the multiple levels, but frankly, they had me at SUGAR.

And...well.....I got nothing else going on right now.

Except for breakfast.

Now.

While you were busy doing other stuff.....other stuff happened.

You have all heard the story of the frog in a pan of water.

You place the frog in the pan of water onto a heating element, and you gradually apply heat to the frog and the pan of water.

Gradually is the key.

As the story goes, if you throw a frog into a pan of boiling water, the frog will go into survival mode, and do everything he can do to escape the death pan.

But, if you put the frog in water, and gradually apply the heat, the frog won't notice the gradual change until he is....well....dead.

As with all stories.....I told you that to tell you this:

At 0730 on December 20, 2016, I resigned by position with the Federal Government.

I had been on the job since March 17 of 2007. I was about 90 days from my ten year anniversary, which would have provided me absolutely no additional perks to the job, whatsoever. For my five year anniversary, I received a non-insulated, metal water bottle, emblazoned with my name and the logo of that institution to which I apparently gave everything.

And for that duty, I gave my eyesight (two cataract surgeries with really fun complications), my relationship with time (I know longer can sleep for than four hours at a time), and my sense of safety, and in return I received what seems to be a permanent sense of paranoia, a contempt for the entire organization's management, and a loss of innocence I would have liked to have kept.

The whys and wherefores of the sudden decision are immaterial; suffice it to say that my integrity was questioned in a way that was impossible for me to refute (the governmental equivalent of "have you stopped beating your wife?") and since they questioned it, they no longer held it in esteem, and it was time for me to leave.

I always thought that this was not a job I retire from, it was a job I quit; and I always fantasized that my resignation letter was a doozy. In fact, I once suggested to a really terrible manager that my resignation letter would consist of two words; and one of them would be, "you." I left him to guess what the other word would be. Instead, it was one line, twenty two words, a comma and a period.

Make no mistake; I spent the first three days curled up in a ball on the couch, watching my psyche go from terror to relief like some masochistic Wimbledon match. Add the usual Holiday stress and a blizzard, and I find it comforting that I was taking pretty good care of myself, otherwise I would have been a prime candidate for an embolism.

A couple of things helped.

The fact that nobody I have known who has quit this job has ever, EVER, stated their regret has been a big help.

The fact that everybody that I talked to about this situation has specifically mentioned that they missed the old me, and are glad I was finally free of that oppressive malady has also been a big help.

My Older Brother offered some advice that was very comforting.

I just deleted a whole paragraph that went off on the way the organization is managed, but it's immaterial, truly. Suffice it to say that in my opinion, the worst thing that ever happened to the three-lettered organization that you run into every time you enter an airport happened in its first days.....the idea that former Military and Law Enforcement were essential to head an organization that would be dealing with the General Public....well....what you often see is the result of mixing passengers that want to know why you're running your hand up their inner thigh with the Officers that don't feel the need to answer those questions because it's none of their business.......I'm glad to be done with it.

So. Bottom line is that I have not found another job yet. But there is a kind of safety net available and I'm still owed some money by the organization.....and I need to detox just a bit more before venturing. I don't know.

But I can tell you that Walmart sounds like a vacation compared to what I just left.

Stay tuned.