So, it's spooky season, and I'm really doing my best to distract myself from the looming shitshow that is probably going to follow the November midterm elections. That means horror movies/books/games, trying to figure out makeup for my Halloween costume, and my community's annual production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, from which I drew inspiration for the title of this post, and which brings us to today's word.

I realize I'm probably dating myself with that reference, because thinking about it, I'm not sure when the last time I heard that jingle. For those of you who don't have back pain, commercials for Gillette razors used to be a lot more musical. Anyway, on to today's word. gilet, noun - a sleeveless, outerwear-style jacket usually cut to the hip…

I realized a little while ago that the Nintendo Gamecube was released 25 years ago, today. It seemed like I should do something to commemorate that. Which brings us to today's word. spinel, noun - a purplish, octahedral gemstone Learned from: Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii) Developed by Capcom Published by Capcom (2005) First off, yes I know you can play the remake of…

My wife and I were looking through photos from this year's just-finished Dragon Con today. We weren't there this year, and in fact I've only been there once, over a decade ago, now, but it's always cool to see what people dress up as. From the hundreds of Dungeon Crawler Carl cosplays (there's always at least one fandom that's really popular each year), to the deep cuts, like the title character from…

I'm writing this at the end of a pretty harsh week. Celebrity deaths usually don't hit me too hard, but we lost a genuinely good person in Dolly Parton, a fantastically entertaining actor in Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen, who was essentially the voice of my childhood, with how many cartoon characters he brought to life. Losing the three of them in as many days has hit a lot of people pretty hard, myself included.

If you've been following US politics lately, your feed has probably been filled with headlines about how Democratic Socialists have been enacting something of a coup in the Democratic party. Multiple establishment candidates have been passed over in favor of newer, younger, more progressive candidates in the primaries--that is, candidates who might actually try to give voters what they want, instead of shrugging their shoulders as Republicans steamroll over everything, and maybe writing a strongly-worded letter of condemnation if you donate $50.

I have a few days off from work coming up, and I'm not wholly sure how the place is going to function in my absence. I also don't think I care. I put in for this PTO before various circumstances led up to be operating with literally half the staff we're supposed to have. At the time I put in the request, it was largely just because I didn't want to deal with people and political talk for a few days around voting in the primaries (I put in for time off in early November for a similar reason).

So, my job has been severely understaffed for about two months now. This is ostensibly because we had a system migration about two weeks ago, and they didn't want to train someone in on the old system, only to have to turn around and immediately retrain them on the new one. Which would have made sense if they hadn't transferred one of my coworkers to another department, fired another for calling in too much because her kid was sick, all while knowing another was going to be moving out of state.

It's 2026, and the wealthiest country in the world is dealing with food sanitation issues you'd have expected maybe in the 19th century. The biggest headlines are about cyclosporiasis, which seems to be caused by a single-celled parasite being found in an ever-increasing list of produce. That's not to say the life of a carnivore is any safer, since screw worms are literally eating livestock alive.

Since at least 3/4 of my news feed today is about Linsey Graham's sudden death, I may as well chime in on it. The man was a spineless hypocrite, even by the so-low-you-could-trip-over-them standards of the GOP. He was staunchly anti-Trump, calling him a "kook" and saying if he got the Republican nomination, "we'd be destroyed, and we'd deserve it"...up until both the nomination…

I was talking to a coworker today about the recent holiday weekend. Neither of us went to the fireworks, because we don't really like crowds--especially post-COVID. And I mentioned how it's kind of amazing that I actually went to a convention as big as Dragon Con about ten years ago, considering people were packed into the hallways like sardines. Simpler times, and I guess being in costume helped.

Earlier this week, I went to an author presentation at the library, where James McCommons was talking a bit about his book, The Feather Wars, about the history of bird conservation. My father got me interested in birdwatching at an early age, so while this might not sound like the most thrilling subject to you, dear readers, it was right up my alley.

Part of what I love about this blog is that I occasionally still find new words to add to it in the present day. Coming home from an awful day at work and playing a good game is a welcome relief; discovering a new word in the process is even better. And believe me, the days at work lately have been truly abysmal.

I recently got back from a weekend-long trip to visit some friends I haven't seen in far too long. We watched terrible movies, played a bunch of board games, beat another escape room, and drank enough alcohol that by all rights, the weekend should have turned into the beginning of Disco Elysium, or maybe the old Neuromancer adventure game, at some point.

Work. Sucks. We had a stretch for awhile, where things seemed to be going okay. Then one of my coworkers got fired for far less egregious things than a few others I could name--and we kept those people around longer. Which sucks, because I liked this one. And the bosses want to hold off on hiring anyone to replace her, because we're having a system migration in July, and they don't want to waste time training someone new in on the current software, only to have them have to start all over in a few weeks.

As we progress further and further into a dystopian cyberpunk future, without most of the cool tech, I occasionally find myself looking back at what might've been. I mean, if we're careening toward a megacorp-controlled future anyway, we should at least have the magic from Shadowrun, or the consciousness backups of Altered Carbon, or the the cybernetic limbs of...well, any of them.

It's early May as I write this, and the temperature where I live got up to a balmy 43 degrees, Fahrenheit today. Or roughly 6 degrees, Celsius, for those of you in sensible parts of the world, if my math is right. And while everyone I see at work might be complaining about this, I personally think it's glorious. Especially since the last few years, we've has unbearably hot summers for being this far north.

So, I'm sure all of you are probably aware of, and perhaps sick of hearing about, this past weekend's incident at the White House correspondents' dinner, and the fact that the Internet doesn't seem to be buying it. Because the other "assassination attempt" leading up to the 2024 election was fake (yes, people did die, but the loathsome dung eater was never in any danger--ears don't grow back).

Well, it's TACO Tuesday, and I for one have never been more glad. If you've been paying attention to...well, anything lately, you know that the United States was just hours away from committing premeditated genocide, before our witless leader agreed to a two-week ceasefire. But still, threatening to "end a civilization" is tantamount to inciting genocide, which is forbidden under the Genocide Convention of 1948, under Article 3(c).

It's a question I get asked on occasion. My area is pretty far removed from...a lot of things, really; it's at least a four-hour drive to get to any sort of truly large city. The local economy isn't exactly great, property values are absurdly high, when you look at how little there is to do around here, and while there is nice scenery, it tends to be buried under multiple feet of snow for a third to half of the year.

Awhile back in my last post, I mentioned that I was heading off on a trip to Minneapolis. I did not, in fact, get arrested and shipped out to El Salvador or something--in fact, the trip went better than I would've ever expected. I saw one protest, and no actual ICE presence; it actually ended up being a pretty nice trip.

Have you ever had a rude awakening when you've gone out to your shed, or garage, or heck, even just in your backyard, and you discover hornets building a nest, and suddenly your day's ruined? Like, maybe you wanted to just do some relaxing gardening, or fire up the grill; maybe you had a trip planned out to an old family cabin in the woods to just get away and unwind, and between when you made the plans and now, there's this swarm of angry, unreasoning bastards who've just set up shop, and now you've got that to worry about?

Happy New Year, everyone! I know 2025 wasn't...great, for a lot of reasons. And I know that the whole concept of a new year being some momentous turning point is largely manufactured with nothing to really back it up, but the only way to really go is forward. So, if 2025 has left you damaged, try your best to keep pushing on, and leave as much of that unpleasantness behind you as you can, even if it's only a little.