Vote, ready for the election to be over, dealing with bits of depression, hard at work on This Living Cage, and learning to like holidays.
- Yeah, go vote. I would be lying if I didn’t care who you vote for to a point. Vote Biden. Our country is in shambles. COVID is rampant everywhere. We’re in the middle of a frightening surge right this very second where I live. My best friend is currently suffering through it. This could have been avoided. We had all the resources to control the pandemic and we didn’t. So yeah. How can you trust a leadership who has let so many people die? Much less for all the other reasons why you should vote blue.
- I’m ready for election season to be over. Besides all the political ads, I can’t stand the news cycles about polling. I’m checking them a ridiculous amount. It is almost like an addiction. I assume my fragile mind can’t handle the uncertainty this election poses to the very DNA of our democracy. By the time this post comes out they’ll be just two days left of the madness. Still feels like a minor eternity. I’m sure they’ll be some surprises that the metrics will have missed. No matter how hard you can poll environments there are always different cultural undercurrents taking place.
- Friday morning I had a frighteningly bad cloud of depression hit me. It is the time of year for such things. Not only do I have normal depression, but seasonal as well. Being able to recognize it before it completely hits me is really, really helpful. I attribute that to therapy. What is still unsettling about the feeling is I don’t know for how long it is going to last. My best option while I’m underneath its wing is to find someone I can talk to via text or whatever to sort of calm myself down. Typically when depression hits I want to act out. I’ll ditch work, yell at my family, start fights with people, or want to have confrontations with people that are no longer even in my life. If I can get past that initial wave of sadness without doing anything stupid, well, I usually can cope. Learning strategies like this with depression are keys to survival.
- As winter ramps up here in Minnesota, so does my winter project, the long awaited sequel to Beware the Ills called “This Living Cage” will be getting written and released next year. I’m excited to start working on it. I started it a few years ago and released the first chapter of it. However, I didn’t stick with it for various reasons. Not sure what they were. Laziness, anxiety, depression, take your pick. Now I’m ready to give it another shot. Having conventions to sell it at would be great, but I would rather people be safe and avoid COVID. Cons will come back. Fandom isn’t going to fade away anytime soon.
- Halloween is now over. What a sad thing. It always comes and goes in a blink of the eye. This year we dived into it. Decorations, costumes, bat wings (whole chicken wings dyed black), media, and minimal trick or treating. I really didn’t start to live-up this holiday until I had children and met my wife. Growing up I wasn’t taught to celebrate things ostentatiously. I was raised that keeping up appearances with strangers and extended family was more important than being yourself. I don’t blame my parents for being this way. If anything it makes me feel bad for them because they only exist as echoes of their true selves. I wonder what kind of people they would have been if society, their own parents, and their own trauma hadn’t dictated their options.
Jottings:
- Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the Switch is a joy to play. It is almost too cute. The world you explore is super fun, and reminds me of SimAnt with the whole backyard setting. I just dated myself with that reference.
- My wife and I buzzed through the first season of The Promised Neverland. What a show. Right up my alley. Everything about it was intense and interesting. The amount of strategy that went into it was fantastic.
- No matter how many times I’ve watched Hocus Pocus, I still love it. The characters are so over the top and wonderful. The movie is on the shorter side, but it feels like a ton happens in it. This is a sign of its superb narrative quality. The constant banter by the witches seems so natural, I’m guessing that was all improvised and not directed?
- Hidden Oaks is off and running through season two. Halfway through it already. Still plenty of time to get invested and check it out. Quite the diversity of storytelling. We also had a really fun Halloween special.
- Almost done with my audiobook of Richard Matheson’s greatest hits. Other than reading I am Legend about 10 years ago, this was my first exposure to his voice. Some of his stories gave me goosebumps. Some of them, well, I’m trying to figure out what the hell happened or is happening. Overall, I’m glad I finally gave his stories a chance. I now see his large footprint on supernatural fiction.
- Genesis Adust is up and running as a new serial on my blog. It is a cyberpunk mystery type of thing. It is a lot of work to get done in time, but I’m hoping you’ll bear with me if I miss a day or two. Give it a read. Let me know what you think.
- Have a safe and healthy week. Don’t forget to vote. Sorry if my political opinion isolates you, but it is a part of my personality, and I don’t want to hide who I support. People can support who they want. Are there consequences? Of course. Still, we need to start understanding one another and not isolating ourselves.
