Welcome to the Moon

The Odysseus lander is on the moon! Nice job, everyone!

Granted, according to the article I just linked, there were issues. The system that was meant to determine if the lander was right side up or not failed and they had to improvise an alternative. It might have worked, but as of the posting of said article, they aren’t sure if the lander landed on it’s feet or fell over onto its side or what.

We’ll find out soon enough. Here’s hoping we get good news. Also, here’s hoping we get pictures. It’s been a long time since we’ve had new pictures from the moon. The last US lander was in 1972, but there have been others since then. Other countries have had more recent successes. I think India sent the last lander to land near the South pole. They were 600 kilometers away and this new one is shooting for about 300 kilometers away.

Pics or it didn’t happen, right?

Moon Landing: Imminent?

There is about to be an attempt to soft land a lunar lander onto the moon. 300 kilometers from the South pole. If it is successful it will be the first time a private company pulled it off, and it will also be the furthest South anything has landed. Given that there appears to be ice in a crater at the South pole, that’s pretty gigantic in its significance.

The lander was sent up by a company called Intuitive Machines and of course it will be timed to happen while I am stuck in traffic on this evening’s commute so I won’t be able to try and follow it live.

Here’s hoping that when I get home I will learn about the first USA based craft to soft land on the moon since the last Apollo mission back in 1972.

Fingers astronomically crossed.

Boring

Daily writing prompt
What bores you?

Lots of things bore me.

  • Fascism bores me. Especially American fascism. Doesn’t it bore you? We fought a war back in the 1940’s to put an end to bullshit like this, didn’t we? How did we forget about that? Boring.
  • The maga cult and the qanon farce bore me. Reality is a thing. Facts are things. Everything that maga and q stand for are fictions. There’s a difference, you know? Claiming that idiotic fictions are facts is just boring.
  • Racism is boring. Thinking someone is less than you because of their skin color is the dumbest thing humanity has ever dreamed up. It bores me to tears.
  • Denying Americans their civil rights is boring. I mean, we have these documents that define everyone’s rights. Taking those rights away is both un-american and painfully boring.
  • Denying Americans healthcare is disgustingly boring, especially when the basis is gender. I mean, what part of the bill of rights gives you the right to tell an American woman what she can and cannot do with her own body? What part of the bill of rights gives you the right to tell another American what their gender is or is not. Fuck you and stop being so idiotically boring.
  • Denying the opportunity to immigrate into the United States when the United States is literally a nation built by immigrants is just ridiculously boring. Your family came here from another country (and unless you’re a native American that applies to all of us) but if someone else tries to come here from another country they can’t. Screw you, you boring nazi filth.
  • Country music bores me. BORING!

How is that for a list of things that bore me? There are a lot more things I could add to the list, but this will do for now.

Caught Up

It’s a work in the office day today so my morning is all messed up.

I did manage to get caught up on Star Wars: The Bad Batch though. Sigh of relief, kiddos.

I also have a photo-a-day pic, but only because I know I’m not likely to make any progress on the RPM Challenge today.

Working in the office tends to mangle my plans for the full day, not just the morning. Worse? Starting next week I’ll be in the office twice a week instead of once. Insert the sigh of frustration here.

How Did I Miss a Star Wars?

Season three of Star Wars: The Bad Batch was released today. Disney+ put out the first three episodes at once.

I knew it was coming… but somehow I forgot all about it. This morning when I did my exercise I watched an episode and a half of The X-Files when I should have watched at least the first two episodes of The Bad Batch.

My Star Wars fanboy status is suddenly being questioned. What is wrong with me? I’ve been completely obsessed with Star Wars since the spring of 1977 when six year old me saw the original movie in the cinema. I should have watched the new episodes and then spent the work day listening to recap podcasts… like a good fanboy.

It’s okay. I’ll get caught up tonight. Maybe first thing tomorrow, but possibly tonight. I’ll get my credibility back, folks.

All Fixed Up

I can’t wait to play this guitar with the band again. It’s been ages and ages.

Welcome home, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro!

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Dig that shiny new bridge
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Dig those shiny new frets
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There is a new pot under that volume knob even though you can’t see it because it’s under the knob
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My Guitar is Home

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I just got home from picking up my Gibson ES-335 from the guitar shop. I played it a little while I was there and my happy is happy.

I’ll post pictures later. I don’t have time to take any right now. Happy New Frets/Bridge/Nut/Volume Pot day!

Driving Out to Car Music

I don’t think I’ve ever used Flickr to host a video here. Does it work? I had this idea of a post about me driving somewhere for some early morning car music today but then I didn’t post it until I got home after finishing the car music. Oh well.

I put vocals on four songs today. That means there are only five songs left to write and record the vocal parts for. 15 songs have their vocal tracks finished. Excellent!

No pics of the clock downtown today. I didn’t take the long way home, I took the fastest route possible. There are tons of things going on today and I didn’t want to delay my return home for even a minute or two.

Things unrelated to music projects that were in the planning, semi-hypothetical stage 24 hours ago have ramped up to the imminent and stressful stage. Bring it on! Roll with the changes, as the song goes.

Drink Up

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?

As with all food related daily prompt questions there are two answers to this. One from before I had gastric bypass surgery and one from after.

Is the implication here that the answer is an alcoholic beverage? Am I just reading into it because I live in a booze friendly society? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll just state for the record that my answers do not involve alcohol because I don’t drink. I never have. My Uncle was an alcoholic and I’ve always assumed that was the hidden reason for my complete and total lack of desire to ever get drunk. I’m 52 years old and I have never been drunk. Never. Somehow though, I don’t think my Uncle is the reason for my disinterest in the bottle. I think I just don’t like the idea of losing self control. I don’t know. Maybe I should talk to a shrink about it. One of the post-gastric bypass diet restrictions is never drinking alcohol again. Many patients struggle with that. I don’t. Nothing changed for me.

Okay, back to the question. Post surgery, my favorite drink is probably water mixed with Crystal Light sugar free lemonade mix. Most days see me drinking at least 64 ounces of it. It is my go-to drink in these crazy new world times.

Prior to the surgery there was one clear favorite. One undeniable winner in the beverage sweepstakes, unfortunately for me. It was Coca~Cola, babie. I drank it by the truck load. I bought it by the gross (no I didn’t, but it often felt that way). Seeing me without a can or bottle of coke was a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, I have the mangled, screwed up teeth to prove it. Oops, I guess. In later years, as my weight problem spiraled out of control, I switched to diet cola. I preferred Diet Pepsi to Diet Coke. It was the only Pepsi product that I preferred to the Coca~Cola analog. I never loved it the way I loved coke though. It was there for me when I needed it, but it never spoke to my soul the way my caramel colored, caffeinated, carbonated drug of choice did.

Do I miss drinking coke? A little. Caffeine and carbonated drinks are also on the post surgical no fly list so unless I am willing to risk getting sick I will never dabble again. I am okay with that. I will continue to be okay with that for the rest of my days. I lost 220 pounds. The sacrifice is more than worth it.


Hey Gemini, or whatever you’re calling your bad self these days, generate an image of a Jedi Knight enjoying a tasty beverage.