Net Neutrality

Remember the good old days, when Net Neutrality used to be an issue? Like so many others, it got lost in the maelstrom of turds that was the Trump presidency. Some of my more prescient friends started downloading as much porn as they possibly could, but like most, I was quickly swept away by the latest debacle of the moment, as Net Neutrality was lost under President Trump’s watch.

Flash forward and Pornhub has been forced to purge approximately 80% of its content, and legislators and media conglomerates are using credit companies as the muscle.

On December 10, 2020, Mastercard…

Nuclear power is the cheapest, safest, and cleanest by far, but it pushes the wrong emotional buttons. It just doesn’t fit into our picture of an ideal world, so we dismiss it, and we justify our rejection with flawed perceptions and dated information. But it’s coming anyway, because there’s no other choice.

Flawed Perceptions

How many people died at Fukushima? Now how many of those people died because of exposure to radiation?

Those are two very different questions with very different answers, but in a world where most of us rarely scroll past the headline, the two have become conflated.

Over 15,000…

The right wing propaganda mill is obsessed with bashing her because they’re afraid of her.

AOC is every good thing that Trump pretended to be, and they’re afraid that not even Trump supporters will be able to deny it unless they’re inundated with propaganda against her 24/7.

If Trump supporters had any integrity at all, they would at least support her in principle.

AOC has no PAC sponsorship. She received no support from any establishment politicians. So regardless of what you think of her or her policies, nobody owns her. She works for her constituents, and not for some corporation or special interest group.

AOC graduated cum laude from Boston University with majors in economics…

Assuming we’re still here

Life before

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born on February 7, 1867 and died on February 10, 1957. Rereading her books as an adult, some of them are implicitly darker than I remembered.

In Little House in the Big Woods, during a particularly rough winter, Charles and Caroline (the parents) have an ominous conversation that hints it might be more merciful to kill their kids than to let them starve to death.

Charles Ingalls had a single shot rifle, and he needed it to survive. He made his own bullets and was constantly wary of what they referred to…

You have to write it first

Writing a book, especially the first, is one of the most grueling experiences you can put yourself through. You are filled with all sorts of doubts and dread, and the inevitable flood of rejection doesn’t help. But with a lot of hard work and compromise, it is possible.

Writing

For years, I could never finish anything longer than a short story. People kept telling me to use an outline, and I kept refusing. I felt they were too constraining, but what I’ve since discovered is that structure can be liberating.

There is no one correct…

Most of what I write is garbage. I’m like the kid in the photo, searching for that elusive usable piece of trash. Most people seem to prefer the garbage, which I find both baffling and depressing. The novella I worked on for years? Crickets. The erotica I crank out and self-publish with nary a thought? It’s outselling that novella by over 100 to one. Clearly the world is trying to tell me something.

So why do I keep writing “real” books?

Honestly, I don’t know. Getting anything published is an ordeal. Most of the time, I don’t even receive a rejection letter, but each acceptance is a validation…

And I think I know why

Over the past year I’ve become increasingly detached from the world around me. A part of this is the insane amount of overtime I keep accepting out of sheer greed. If I’m going to be cooped up in my apartment anyway, why not?

The only news I’ve heard this week is about Gina Carano getting fired and Trump getting off, neither of which is particularly new, surprising, or inspiring.

The more inward I turn, the less I have to share about everyday life.

I know the Eastern European pharmacy I’ve been ordering from no…

A daily IQ test

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the sign I was looking for, but signs like the one above are more baffling than they might appear. What driveway? The sign is on a wall. There might be a driveway across the street, or two driveways on either side of the wall, but if they’re open, they’re technically streets. So what is this sign talking about?

Most New Yorkers don’t drive, but we are occasionally asked by visitors if it’s okay to park where they are. Most of the time, I can give a definitive answer. The signs are all…