The Landslide

 I'm finding it increasingly hard to stay positive.  About anything.

Yesterday, I started out the day reading that the unvaccinated should be lined up in front of a pit and shot.  Followed that up with the suggestion that all self-published authors are SCABS and are taking food out of the mouths of the traditionally published.  Later came the news that studies show no one likes ebooks.  And then another zippy note that the unvaccinated should be tied to a hill and left in the sun along with a suggestion that eugenics is a good idea when it comes to the UV.

I keep hearing the refrain 'if only everyone would get vaccinated, we could return to normal'.  Umm... I don't think the people tweeting as if this was the late 1930s and the UV were Jews will let anything return to normal.  Ever.  But they're happy to let you believe that if everyone simply complies, we can have all our rights back.  (As if rights are trading cards they can give and take at their leisure.)  They like the new normal.  It gives them power.

As for the suggestion self-pubs are stealing from trad-pubs by their mere existence... Umm, yeah, right.  Here's the deal... traditional published authors have the weight of their publishers behind them with all the money, and therefore marketing, that comes along with that.  If people are choosing to read self-published books instead, perhaps the trad-pubs need to turn their lens inward.  Write better books.  Price them so they're more in line with what the common man can afford.  Be flawless in your editing.  Tada, you sell more books.  

And the other thing... It's a non-issue.  This isn't the first time there's been a study that 'shows' people don't like ebooks.  They're put out by the people who have hardcopies for sale that they can't sell at the price they want and they're trying to convince people to eschew the evil ebook so they can make up the money they've already invested plus a profit.  Look at the sales numbers for ebooks.  I haven't seen them in a while, but I assume ebooks are selling fine - especially for the self-published (whose numbers are never included in these studies.)

Not sure what's going to happen down the road.  I don't want to look down the road at this point.  Give me today.  I can deal with today.  I can maybe deal with next week.  Farther than that?  It's a crapshoot with loaded dice.  

Speaking of next week, it's Wish in One Hand's birthday, so I made it free for five days.  That's about all I can do to try and combat this negativity.  One little thing at a time.  One tiny pebble moved from beneath the landslide so I can breathe.

Thursday This n That

What a world what a world what a world.  I say this frequently as I scroll through the news each morning.  Every day, something else pops up and I wonder what the hell.  Yeah, yeah, I should probably stop reading the news, but I really don't want to get blindsided, so I keep reading it.  Blerg.

So, last night, I had just barely fallen asleep when a sound woke me up.  And I lay there as the sound continued.  Over and over.  It was maddening. You see, a katydid had decided to sing his song of love on the outside casing of our bedroom window.  I got up and walked over to the window.  He stopped.  I walked away, he started up again.  Since Hubs was also now up, I banged on the window and the bug stopped for a moment, but then started right back up again.  Damn horny bug.  I shined a flashlight but I couldn't see where the bug had stationed himself for his concert.  Hubs and I got up, turned on our computers and smoked while we waited for Horny Bug to find somewhere else to announce his intentions to the world.  I was so tired I could cry, but HB was insistent.  Long about 11:30, I went back into the bedroom with a flashlight and tried to see exactly where the horny bastard was.  AHA!  Right there in the upper lefthand corner.  Now, that particular window has no screen and no storm on the outside, so Hubs grabbed a broom, we shut off all the lights and opened the window.  I pinpointed HB with the flashlight and Hubs took a broom to him.  Yay!  Sleep!  

I picked up more potting soil and nutrients for my garden yesterday.  This morning, I continue the repotting, nourishing of the plants.  If I can keep my eyes open.

If you're vaccinated, you can still catch the Delta variant, but everyone needs to get vaccinated so they don't spread the Delta variant.  Crazypants.

And I'm spent.  Seriously.  I can't seem to make my brain work this morning.  Bring on the coffee!

Going Maskless - a Chaos Diaries Update

Yesterday, I went to Wallyworld.  Walked right in without a mask.  The old gal who was greeting told me it was nice to see someone smiling.  I couldn't see most of her face, but her eyes looked sad.  Again, about a third of the people in there were maskless.  And she had to wear hers or lose her job.  No wonder her eyes looked sad.

Also yesterday, I heard about an MIT study that said masks are ineffective inside (and I'm guessing they would've said outside, too, but that wasn't the point of the study).  I haven't read the study, but I'm also guessing they referenced the paper/cloth masks we're all using and not the heavy duty N-95 suckers.  

I'm at the point in my life where if I get it, I get it.  And if I die from it, you can all point and say 'if only she'd listened'.  I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees. Actually, I'd rather live on my feet than die on my knees.  Living is always preferable to dying and being on your feet is always preferable to kneeling.  

Speaking of masks, has anyone else gotten to the point where their brain is just filling in people's faces behind the masks?  I was sitting here trying to remember who was wearing a mask and who wasn't, and the interactions I had seemed like no one was wearing a mask, but when I thought about it hard, I realized all the employees had to be wearing masks, so I was filling in faces in my head.  It'll be surprising if I ever run into them without their masks and I was right about how they actually looked.

Toward the end of my dad's life, he contracted Hep-C and he was genuinely worried he'd give it to Mom.  I don't remember if he wanted her to mask up, but I'm pretty sure he wanted her gloved up any time she had to touch him.  I can't imagine.  Poor Dad.  And poor Mom.  Being afraid to touch your own wife and to have her touch you.  It gives me a sad.

The thought of being so afraid of the 'rona that you live your life under a mask staying six feet away from other humans and sanitizing everything around you gives me a sad, too.  And talking to Mom, who's trapped in Halfwit Land* (aka Michigan) makes me sad.  Unfortunately, I think talking to me down here in Freedom Acres makes her afraid for my life.  I wish I could wrap her up and bring her here, so she could see that things are nearly as bad as she's being led to believe.  

Anyway, I'm going maskless unless and until someone stops me and makes me wear one.  (Which is pretty much how I've been all along.  Walmart was about the only place I still wore one until recently.)

And yes, I am totally on board with people having the right to wear a mask if they want to.  I'm just against people being made to live in so much fear they feel they have to... or they feel they need to make me wear one.

Nuff said.

* Halfwit = the current governor of Michigan

You Really Have to Laugh

I did an experiment yesterday.  A friend got warned by FB for saying something they considered 'hate speech', so I posted the exact same verbiage on my page.  (For the record, saying 'boys are idiots' is not hate speech.  Come on.)  She got warned.  I got nothing.  I'm beginning to feel slighted.  I suspect this is because she is someone with a lot of followers and a reach.  I'm no one in the scheme of things, so they don't give a rat's ass if I post stuff.  Hell, I actually swear and junk... without the asterisks.  Most of the George Carlin words and then some.

I did get warned once for sharing something they'd already considered 'bad'  They told me it was bad and that if I shared it I might be considered bad, too, so I should probably think before I dismissed their warning and shared it on my page.  I shared it anyway.  Nothing happened.

FB has become such a joke.

Basically, I'm at the point where every time FB 'fact checks' something, I assume it's true.  My reasoning?  If it wasn't true, they wouldn't be afraid of it and feel the need to tell everyone how untrue it was.  If I want to check whether something is actually true or false, I go over to Duck Duck Go and look for valid sources.  Multiple valid sources, usually.  I don't rely on FB to tell me the truth.

Speaking of which, a page I follow posted a meme this morning.  The meme showed a see of exactly the same face looking up into the sky and chanting FB's COVID-19 verbiage, which had then been tagged with the same verbiage and then tagged with the same verbiage again.  The meme was tagged with the same verbiage.  Which was hilarious.  

A while back, someone posted something that talked about being unable to understand how a senile pedophile and a high-priced call-girl could've received so many votes.  FB fact-checked it with 'he's not a pedophile!'  I found it incredibly funny that they didn't fact-check his senility or her being a hooker.  Apparently, you can say he's an addled minded old fart and she's a ho, but for godsakes, don't call him a pedophile.

You really have to laugh at this shit.  It's comedy gold, people.

I'm so sad Carlin died.  He'd be calling all of this out, dragging it into the light and showing how astronomically stupid all of it is.

Seriously, though, the only appropriate response to this shit is to laugh at it.  Gretchen Halfwit now says children aged 2-4 have to wear masks.  You can't get kids that age to keep their clothes on and you want to mask them up?  That's going to go over well.  A comedian back in the '80s... I want to say either Robin Williams or Howie Mandel*... has a bit about their kid taking off all their clothes and running around screaming 'LOOK AT ME!  I'M NAKED!'  Keep a mask on that, you silly twatwaffle.  

Sure, it's serious.  Our country is swirling the drain and headed right for the septic tank.  People are dying.  Others are going broke and still others are killing themselves.  Maybe if everyone had laughed at this shit from the very beginning, it wouldn't be as bad as it is.  I don't know.  All I know is if I don't laugh at it now, I'll go nuts.  

*Yes, that Howie Mandel.  He was a comedian before he was a gameshow host.  I still repeat some of his stuff.  It was that memorable.  He was also an actor on one of the most highly-rated medical dramas of the time - St. Elsewhere.  Look it up.

Thursday This n That

Does it seem like every week since this started is stranger than the last?  Or is it just me?  (Yes, I am getting stranger, too, but that's not the question.)

In case you missed it, this week a police officer saved a young girl's life by shooting the girl who was trying to stab her.  He's being attacked for doing it.  See?  When you leave all the skin colors out of it, it's pretty simple and the reaction to it is pretty strange.

Lumpy's jaw lump is back again.  She's still eating fine and is still a good weight, though.  Not sure what's going on there.

On the way back from fishing the other day, Hubs and I saw a buck who still had one antler.  It should've dropped off a long time ago.  Not sure what's going on there either.

I'm going to turn 51 next month.  If that ain't strange, I don't know what is.

A Model Curse is still on sale.  99c each.  Get all three for less than the regular price of one.  How is that not a deal?   Strange that people aren't snapping that up.  :shrug:

A couple days ago, we got a half inch of snow.  Which promptly melted.  Then that night, we got below freezing temperatures.  Which sucked.  I was afraid all my plants would croak.  Hubs told me the peonies were all gross looking.  I didn't want to see.  I've spent so much time and effort on those gardens and I didn't want to see the carnage.  Well, I sucked it up and went out to look yesterday afternoon.  Most everything seems fine and the peonies looked normal to me.  The black walnut trees on the other hand look like crap.  All their tiny new leaves are wilty and curly and turning black.  =o(

Michigan is seeing some kind of surge in the Kung Flu.  I mean, several states are seeing an uptick, but Michigan is way worse.  Not sure why, since that bitch has those poor people so locked down I'm surprised any virus could get through.  Mom says it's because people aren't being given the vaccine quick enough.  Data shows that to be false, so I can only assume she's being lied to by the press.  We're pretty opened here in MO and we're floating along.  TX is way open and despite having a larger population than MI, there are fewer cases.  Maybe it's because people are trapped inside due to the policies and the weather.  Then again, if that were true, there should be a surge in all the cold states with dem governors.  :shrug:  

For one of the spreadsheets I do, the company we get it from decided it would be a good idea to round the figures.  So any line item that was less than 50c is now a zero sum.  Sure, the lines that are more than 50c and less than a dollar were rounded up, but that didn't work in our favor.  Now I have to wait to get the right numbers so I can do the spreadsheets.  Blerg.  Now sure what the thinking was on that.  Strange.

I had this one guy trying to friend me on MeWe.  I went to his profile and there was nothing but pictures of him.  Sorry, dude, but I'm not interested in you.  Show me something in your interactions that might make me think I'd like to see your posts in my feed or don't bother.  So, I denied the request.  He must've thought I was a pretty hot chick, because he tried three more times.  I finally blocked him.  Of course, sometimes I look at their pages and think they might be interesting only to have them immediately try to sell me something when I friend them.  Those get blocked, too.

My knee is still bending right.

And that's more than enough out of me.  How are things in your this-n-that world?

Sunday Update - Week 16

 Hello again.  Sixteen weeks into 2021.  The weirdness continues and we're holding our own.

I got back to work on writing Friday night.  Duke Noble 2 is on its way.  Between Friday night and last night, I got out just over 3200 words.  Yay.  Already has a twist.  Heh.

I really need to do some marketing and have a sale.  I'll see what I can do this week to make that happen.

In other writerly news, I received the last proofs and now all of my books are available in paperback form.  In addition to the Kindle form.  I'm still waiting on the author copies of RHI, but those should be here tomorrow.  :fingers crossed:  I have at least two people who want to buy a copy.  Maybe a third, but I haven't talked to her yet and I probably won't see her for another couple weeks.  

It wasn't a great reading week. Only finished one book.  And the Zane Grey I was reading got set aside for another time because I just wasn't into it.  I picked up a fantasy instead.

In baking news, I got a wild hair and created my own recipe.  Chocolate Walnut Upside-Down Cake.  It was awesome.  So I posted the recipe on FB.  Except I forgot to put down something when I wrote the recipe - mini chocolate chips.  Oops.  I bet it's still good without them.  (corrected recipe below.)  I also did a batch of granola bars.  And it's not baking, but I made a vat of beef stew yesterday.

On the activity front, I did something 5 out of 7 days - skipping Friday and Saturday.  The weather was chilly and wet, so I used that as an excuse.  the other 5 days, I walked, did gardening, did some windows, went shopping, and went fishing.  Weight: 185.2 - up 4/10ths of a pound.

When I was fishing I caught 3 little bluegills and a little green sunfish.  None of them were keepers.  

If you want gardening news, go over here.  

Hubs found an antler in the yard!  Eight years we've been looking for antlers and suddenly there it was.  It was only a spike, but hey, it's a start.  It's long past when deer drop antlers.  We're thinking a squirrel found it in the woods and was dragging it somewhere to eat when it dropped it where Hubs found it.  It's in the garage for now.  I'll clean it up and put it in the house eventually.

From the sounds of it, Hubs is killing a mouse in the garage as I type this.  Must've got one in the trap and it didn't die.  I hope it was the one chewing in the wall for the past hour or so.  It was driving me crazy.  (Update:  It was a mouse, but it wasn't caught.  It was running around.  He didn't get it.  Drat.)

Other than that, not much going on around here.  Hanging in there.  Watching the country I love circle the drain faster and faster.  Not much I can do about it.

Oh, I went to Wallyworld earlier in the week.  About thirty percent of the people weren't wearing masks.  So I took mine off.  Freedom!  I still stayed as far away from people as possible - it's ingrained in me now more than ever.  If I get the crud, you can say I told you so.  If I don't... neener neener boo boo.  

Okay, now that's really enough out of me.  How was your week?

Recipe:

Chocolate Walnut Upside Down Cake

1 stick butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/3 cups chopped walnuts

-------

2 cups white sugar

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup baking cocoa powder

2 cups water

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/3 bag mini chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  While oven is preheating, put the stick of butter in a 9x13" cake pan (sliced for quicker melting) and place the pan in the oven.  Remove as soon as the butter is melted.  Stir in brown sugar until combined.  Stir in walnuts until all nuts are coated and then make sure they're evenly placed.  Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, sift together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  Add water, oil, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Stir in vinegar until smooth.  Pour batter over the nut mixture in the pan.  Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving.  Overnight is best.  (If you don't let it cool, the still-warm cake falls apart.  Trust me on this.)

 

Thursday This n That

Ugh.  I slept late again.  Of course, late for me is after 6am.  But it throws off my morning, hence this post getting written after 7:30.  And posted after 8.  Derp.

I hit the Wallyworld yesterday.  Actually, I went down to get feed for the deer, but since I was in town, I figured it would be good to go to the store, too.  Meh.  Anyway, as I was walking from my car to the store, I heard someone shout 'Hey, where's your mask?  Put your mask on.'  It was in my hand so I held it up and waved it.  Then I noticed the person shouting was talking to a friend of his.  :shrug:  You never know.  I put the damned thing on before I got to the door, but I'll be damned if I'll walk out in the open air with the thing on.

Speaking of the 'rona, Missouri's governor and his wife tested positive.  I wish them both a speedy recovery.  Some people on FB were laughing about it, because he's been very 'anti-chaos crap', calling it Karma.  Assholes abound.  I expect both he and his wife will weather through it and come out the other side no worse for wear.  Sort of like Tom Hanks and his wife did.  

Yesterday was the anniversary of the release of George Strait's 'All My Exes Live in Texas'.  And now that song is stuck in my head.  You're welcome.  And sorry.

Having that song stuck in my head reminds me of the summer I spent hanging out at a country/western bar.  My brother and his wife were regulars and they took me there for my 21st birthday.  The rest of the summer just went along that route until I went back to college.  One of these days I should scan and post the photos of that summer, with my semi-mullet-esque hairstyle, drunk off my ass.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of 'drunk off my ass' photos from over the years.

Other than a couple sips of beer while I'm making bratwursts (and nine times out of ten, that was near-beer), I haven't had a drink since back in CO... Eight years?  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I ever drank.  

I feel the same way about football now.  For the life of me, I can't imagine why I was ever so into football.  Cold turkey now for... I think this is the third season I haven't watched.  Not even a sip or two.  ;o)

Oh, yeah, when I was at Wallyworld, I picked up a bag of Granny Smith apples.  Romanian Apple Cake, here I come!  You know, once I get off my butt and prep the apples.  ;o)

What's on your this n that today?