Back Online

[Greetings from the world’s only habitually off-grid blogger.]

I’ve been off-line longer than usual. (There were a few automagically scheduled posts sprinkled about, but for at least the last few weeks I’ve been mostly AWOL.)

Didja miss me?

My absence is a long story about which I may (or may not) elaborate. The silver lining is that it’s generally good to “unplug”. The only cloud based activity I did was getting out of bed to check out the blue super blood moon. (I saw nothing but snow clouds and a drunk snowmobiler.) It was no biggie; the 2017 eclipse sated my appetite for celestial events.

Speaking of cloud, my Amazon ads seemed to vaporize. Fuck Amazon. [Update: problem fixed, I love you guys at Amazon. Lets never fight again.] But my Patreon keeps chugging away. Thanks guys! [Update: Patreon annoyed one of my supporters. Those bastards! They should be tossed in a lake.] Some other blog maintenance fell through the cracks but I’ll sort it out in due time and readers shouldn’t notice anything amiss. Unless it becomes self aware and starts editing my silly stories… then all bets are off.

I’ve generally monitored what passes for news without letting it get too deep in my head. (That last part is wise council for us all.) Jesus on the half-shell, what a sordid (though entertaining) mess 2018 is becoming. Even at the starting gate it’s over-revved. Did nobody end 2017 with a quick “whew, that was nuts, lets rehydrate and maybe walk it off before the next bout of hysteria”? It seems like the media doubled down and created a new Zeitgeist baseline of Crazytown. (Oddly enough, it’s a Crazytown filled with English Majors who can’t define Zeitgeist but that’s another story.)

I didn’t expect another year of incrementally getting weirder. We were already redlining. 2017 was like 2016 run through a blender, cut with a mix of paranoia and God complex, and snorted off a hooker’s ass. Where does the stupid end? (Speaking of stupidity, I haven’t forgotten the Lesbian Activist Squirrels.)

I don’t know how much panic folks can muster but my estimate is too low. It’s miles in the rear view mirror. I enjoy the show but worry about individuals. Too much stupid can leak from groups into individuals and it’s bad for ya. I hope to see folks come down and join reality. Reality sometimes sucks (as it has for me lately) but it’s a good place to live.

It dawns on me that I’ve no idea who won the Superbowl. I’m comfortable with that. As a corollary, I’ve had to brook no inane discussion about which commercial is better than which other damned commercial. “Dude, you shoulda’ seen it, there were supermodels riding Clydesdales in space drinking a coke with a rapping penguin.” I really hate the idea of deliberately watching commercials.

In the meantime I’m going to click over to Knuckledraggin who’s doing some good old fashioned niceness on behalf of Angel. (Angel used to run the ever entertaining blog “Hoplessly Sane” until she had to table it last September. It was on my blogroll.)

My winter has sucked but I’m not toast yet. Sometimes doing a good turn for others is what brightens your day… at least that’s my plan. I’m pretty low on funds after the recent cascade of suck but these things happen. I’m not living in a cardboard box so it’s all good and I could use the pick me up. Call me selfishly charitable if you want, but don’t call me later for dinner. You’re welcome to contribute to Angel, or not, no pressure.

So there you have it. I’m not dead yet (though it’s been a tough winter) and I’ll post again when I get my schedule hammered into submission. I’m going off line again now but it should be a shorter duration; unless all hell breaks loose again (which I’m not ruling out).

Carry on and all that.