FRAK ME!

Great. It's 9:32 and I'm just starting. Usually, first thing I do is get up, put water kettle on for coffee. (I'm a French press kind of guy, and I like the ritual) While I wait for the water, and then while coffee waits the ten minute before pressing, I write this blog. No filter. No editing. Just whatever comes to mind. But last night, at around 10:00 pm, as we were channel surfing before bed, I happened upon the Battlestar Galactica marathon, which had just started on SyFy. I mean just started. Like ten minutes into the first episode. Well, first mini-series which led to the series. To be clear, I am talking about the reboot that came out in 2004, not the cheesy original from the 1970s, which I watched as a boy and loved but doesn't fare so well with the test of time. The reboot, on the other hand, feels more pertinent than ever. End of the world as we know it. People rising to the occasion. Unlikely heroes. Equally unlikely villains. An examination of a society dealing with unexpected loss and dread. And set in a different galaxy, so there is a bit of distancing so you can concentrate and not break down in tears every moment. Although I have to admit I cried a lot more this time than when I first started watching the series. Something about it was riveting. We set record, said we'd only watch a half our or so. Cut to 1:00 am. Still up, still watching. Too good. Too relevant. But finally, sleep came, and I got about 5 hours. Which isn't bad, these days. But man, when the 6 o'clock alarm rang, I was more than a little pooped. So I set a second alarm via Alexa, and slept for an extra hour. I figure I earned it. But this meant getting up and going on our daily walk before writing. I am cool with that. Mixing up the routine is always worth doing. So here I am, late, but full of science fiction joy.

So. As I watched the show, I realized something. We aren't talking enough about what is happening. How many people are sick. How many people are dying. How long this will probably take. For some reason, when we bring up in conversation- not social media conversation, or texting, or any of those bullshit forms of pseudo-communication, but real, honest to goddess speaking with other human beings, we for the most part don't talk about how truly terrible this thing is. Over 400 people gone past forever here in Colorado, a fairly small state, population wise. Over 40,000 dean and gone in the USA. That's more than the population of Juneau, Alaska. An entire city of the dead. Worldwide, over 160,000 people dead. More than triple the population of Santa Cruz, CA. (it's the city they used in Lost Boys) And over 2.4 million confirmed cases. So far. Things are so seriously fucked I don't even worry about using the word fuck in my blog. Fuck fuck fuck. Not that everyone is being flip about this. I'm fairly certain everyone who has someone who has it, or worse, has lost someone to it, takes it pretty damn seriously. But why are we being polite, at all, in regards to this? I have friends and family who say the stupidest shit about this imaginable- the rates are inflated; it's not as bad as the flu (still!); it's all overblown by the media in a plot to get rid of Trump. WTF? I don't have time for niceties anymore. None of us do.

Okay. Had to get that off my chest. Now, I also want to say, yet again, how amazing a lot of the world is. How brave people are being. How selfless. We all have a job to do, and for the most part, we are doing it. If part of our job is speaking truth to stupid, so be it. There is a bit of moral clarity going on. And that is cool. But to the entitled, the lazy, the willfully ignorant, I have this to say:

Time to get out of our collective haze, to volunteer if we can, to stay home as much as possible, to wear masks when we do go out, to stop letting our insane friends spread their bullshit conspiracy theories. Time to call all our elected officials and tell them we need the Post Office. And universal Healthcare. And a better economic system that protects everyone. Time to grow the fuck up.

I love you all, Very much. I love this world. And I want us to be able, years from now, to all be able to look back in pride at how we handled this.

Onwards.

Here's a song. It's Shake It Out by Florence and the Machine, and I dig it. I hope you do as well.

PEARLS OF MADNESS

No dreams to report today. Just walked into a fog bank somewhere in the middle of watching the Great British Baking Show, and arrived here. It happens. And I don't want to bullshit here. Not when over 30,000 people in the USA are dead from Covid. How the hell did that happen? Well, I suppose doing not much of anything on a federal level since it began helps. How many people who knew better, or should have known better but either didn't or didn't care, shrugged it off, said it was no worse than the flu, and poo-pooed the whole thing? And how many of those folks are now saying things like "it's over-reaction", or "we need to go back to work be allowed to play tennis"? I actually read the tennis one on a thread on Facebook. Tennis. I'm hoping the guy was joking, a subtle master of irony, but given the tone of the entire thread, I doubt it. I also have a distant relation who keeps reposting these angry memes going on about how this is the greatest hoax in the history of the world, something the media has perpetrated to bring down Trump. I usually don't respond to his posts, but sometimes, it get to me. None of it makes sense, and I think what is freaking out people, sadly, isn't the death toll, but the election polls. I wonder if there were people in the Middle Ages running around going "This is all a hoax, thought up by heretics to bring down good King John!".

I don't want to dwell too long on it, but I wonder. What is wrong with these people? Are they trying to understand this as best they can, using the tools are most familiar with: prejudice, jingoism, and rage? Do they truly believe a cabal of journalists got together and said, "Well, we've got to get rid of this Trump, who is so great. What can we do? Hmmmm. Got it! A new global pandemic. We'll make the whole thing up, and inflate the numbers of the dead and dying, and get Pelosi and all our fellow evil lefties to really make it sound bad."?

Ok. That's enough of that, for the moment. But don't think I am done. We do have an election coming up, and I don't want anyone, anywhere, in office who didn't do what was right concerning Covid. By right, I don't mean making perfect decisions. I mean not being in denial. Not deferring to a President who is clearly more concerned with image than substance. Not waiting to declare shelter in place.  How many lives could have been saved in we had acted sooner? A thousand? Two thousand? More? Enough. No more nut jobs. No more assholes in office. That's it. That's the slogan for 2020.

No More Assholes.

But enough of that. It's a rabbit hole of acrimony that does me no good. I am all about being engaged, but I'm trying to avoid the noid, keep on the sunny side, and focus on what is possible moving forward.

I've been watching, among other things, BoJack Horseman on Netflix. People had told me how
funny it was, how ground breaking, how smart and insightful and amazing. And I politely smiled and went about my business. But Wow. It's so good. So funny, ground breaking, smart, insightful, and amazing. Last night I watched this episode where the main character goes on this self-destructive binge full of drugs and madness that was both hilarious and heartbreaking, and quite entertaining. I think you always have to have something to keep people entertained, or they will change the channel. Push the boundaries, yes. Ask tough questions, of course. But always keep them leaning in. Then you can do whatever you want. It's like the old quote from George Bernard Shaw, "I open their mouths with laughter, then drop pearls of wisdom down their throat." Which now that I write it down seems a little rapey and weird. And Shaw can be dry as toast sometimes, but I think that has more to do with people doing bad versions of his work.

Ok. I got scripts to write, chores to do, projects to complete, and a world to try and experience as best I can. Gonna try and listen to more music today. Get more reading done. Tell better jokes. Not post memes.

Here's a skit. It's the classic Bring Out Your Dead bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a scene I once re-enacted for my English class in Seventh grade with some of my fellow nerds. It went about as well as you can imagine.

https://youtu.be/QcbR1J_4ICg