That old Thomas Jefferson quote comes to mind: “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
Dr. Oz? Now it just feels like Trump is trying too hard.
My daughter shared this map with me. Posting here for fellow “Avatar: The Last Airbender” fans, taking absolutely no credit for it. Feel free to reply if you know who created this.
Testing Micro.blog syndication of posts to Threads and BlueSky. It’d be nice to populate both platforms and the blog in one fell swoop.
I’ve gone from taking a break from Threads to rediscovering BlueSky, tweaking it to my liking, and appreciating all the functionality I’ve missed from That Other Place. Padres Twitter and saner elements of Catholic Twitter are surfacing there, and that makes me embarrassingly happy.
So much for shunning social media and hunkering down with books and Stardew Valley.
You can find me at @fluffbucket.bsky.social.
Taking a break from Threads. I’ve gotten into a terrible habit of checking the comments on a given post and blocking all the MAGA incel trolls who have surfaced there like earthworms after a rain. It does absolutely nothing for my outlook on humanity, which was already in the toilet and took an almost fatal hit last week.
Lots of people apparently use their account there as a diary. I know better, though I’ve fallen into that trap myself over the past year. Time to remind myself again that I have this space for that purpose – and even here, I try to be careful about how much I write.
The past week has felt like a month. I did not need yet another thing to grieve when my candidate lost to the least qualified American ever to win the presidency.
I have spent entirely too much time on Threads and am slowly backing away from all but baseball news for a while. I am retreating to podcasts, San Diego sports talk shows, and rewatching comfort shows like “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “Gravity Falls.”
Meanwhile, my heart is mired in a soup of deep sadness for my country, rage over the racism and misogyny that the vote count appears to reflect, and endless consideration of what my late family members would have done during this election. Combine all that with the rethinking of my faith and convictions in life – and all of the losses I’ve seen in the past 4 years – and I am a mess.
Posted this on Threads the morning after Election Day. Still lost in thought and sadness over the result.
Maybe it’s everything I’ve been thinking about this week, but when I read “The fatherless and widow he sustains” at Mass today, I thought of the trans and nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ kids rejected by their families as “fatherless.” I want to think the Lord sustains them, too, as he secures justice for the oppressed and thwarts the ways of the wicked.
The homilist this morning used the Gospel reading to preach about envy and how it leads to unfortunate concepts in social media like “equality” and class warfare and the idea that we need to take from the wealthy to help others. 🤬
All it did was piss me off—and then remind me to talk more to my kid about Dorothy Day and Oscar Romero and God’s preference for the poor.
And then to take my name off the lector schedule so we can move on from what has become St. MAGA’s parish.
Test.
Watching “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for the first time. Feels like Oingo Boingo on Broadway for kids. (Not that that’s a bad thing.)
Thought about going to a cafe with a book this afternoon; you know your brain is exhausted when that feels like too much work. Instead I hit the recliner with half a box of Milk Duds and Stardew Valley on my iPad. No regrets.
Evergreen.
More Padres fans are congregating on Threads. You’ll find me there more than anyplace else these days; just follow the link above.
I need to spend more time here on the blog. But I feel so liberated from other social media, especially Facebook. What a cesspool that place is.
Game 2 of the NLDS between the Padres and the Dodgers in a nutshell.
Honestly, I don’t care if one of the upcoming Kamala Harris interviews is with allegedly one of the most popular podcasts out there. A podcast where half the episode titles include the words “b##w jobs” has no appeal to me, and makes me sad for the state of our culture these days.
Catching up here. I spend most of my online expression time on Threads, which I realize is a cardinal sin against the gods of the indie web. But I might as well update this place with random thoughts this weekend.
- Work still busy. It will always be busy.
- Started on Wegovy more than a month ago. I’ve only logged a net loss of 5 pounds so far. Tired and nauseous but finding it easier to act appropriately when the shot diminishes my appetite.
- C has been out of town a lot for work in Iowa. Employer allegedly going to keep him home after this week with a new assignment, but his employer is a flighty and reactive pain in the ass. I’ll believe it when I see it actually happen.
- Padres baseball brings me tremendous joy.
- Trying to live somewhat sanely and healthier. Attempting to pull back on late nights catching up with work and getting a decent amount of sleep.
- Distancing myself from my old parish, heretofore referenced here as St. MAGA’s, and considering transferring entirely to our neighborhood parish down the street from us.
- Wrestling with a lot of complicated emotional pain as fall hits. This was my sister’s favorite time of year. Hard not to think of her as the leaves turn.
- The run-up to Election Day is deeply fraught with hope and anxiety.
It’s going to be a long couple of months.
Not shown: white-on-black Black Flag-esque logo T-shirt for errands about town.
Posted this yesterday on Threads. (Yes, it should be “he’d” rather than “he’s.”) For a post not referencing Taylor Swift, the engagement is surprisingly off the charts.
And no, I don’t hang out on Threads or any other platform (including this one) for the engagement. But I appreciate it when people applaud me publicly amusing myself.
I spent 20+ years in “legacy media” until I left before I became a layoff statistic. It’s sad to see how public trust in the media, even the hallowed New York Times, has plummeted. It’s sadder to know how often I share that distrust these days.
Welp. Those get-out-and-vote postcards to Texas ain’t gonna write and send themselves. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
His timing is impeccable, even while he’s speechifying.
Recliner. Muumuu. Padres game on the TV. I needed all this today.