Where Are You From

After the disaster that was the election last week I saw a handful of people on various social media sites posting things that looked a little like this:

Q: Are you from the United States of America?
A: No, I’m from Massachusetts.

Thinking back to the disaster that was the presidential election in 2016, I was thinking things like that all the time. I remember commenting that watching my country elect a fascist president instantly turned me into a states rights kinda guy who put my state, Massachusetts WAY ahead of my country.

The way it felt in 2016 though… it was nothing compared to the way it feels now. I am not going to say that I am now a secessionist, but if New England, New York, and New Jersey wanted to make a go of it on their own, I’d be down with giving it a shot. You wouldn’t have to twist my arm very hard to get me on board. I would have to check out a map of election returns to see if we could maybe add Deleware and Maryland to the team. I know Virginia went for Harris, but that feels a little like a false flag to me, though that state has been voting Democrat more and more in recent years. I worry about including any state that can be described as Southern.

Maybe this little Northeastern Alliance could work something out with the West coast, assuming the good folks in California, Oregon, and Washington State would want to join us in our brave new world.

Again, I don’t feel as though I am a secessionist. After the bullshit demonstrated in the election last week though, I also no longer feel like an American. Any allegiance I feel at this point is to Massachusetts, not to the United States. If the rest of the country wants to embrace fascism let them. Leave me and my home state out of it.

Photo a Day Challenge: Options

It’s silly that I still do the whole photo a day challenge project thing. It’s almost always going to be a picture of a cat, or a guitar, or the view out of my home office window. It’s bad on the days I have to travel into the office because then it is likely going to be a picture of the parking lot, or my keyboard, or… nothing.

This week I may be in the office four days. That’s crazy in this post-covid world, but that’s how it’s working out. Often on in the office days I take a picture of something when I am in the cellar doing my morning exercise. Yesterday it was a guitar. Today it’s a candle. Let me show you…

Who knows what it is going to be tomorrow and the next day.

As it turns out, I actually ended up with options today. Surprise! I had to put gas in the car so that I could make the long (44 miles, about 90 minutes) commute. I could have used this picture for today’s photo a day instead of the candle…

Or, I could have used this one…

I mean… are those puppies art or what? I can almost smell how impressed you are (#sarcasm).

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 11/30

I added a melody and lyrics to one song.

That’s all.

Tomorrow Should Be a New Camera Day

New Camera Coming

Black and White Photo a Day

I decided to make today’s pointless photo a day photo black and white. Why? Because my new 40ish year old eBay camera purchase is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, and the first roll of film I bought to test drive it with is also going to be delivered tomorrow and it’s black and white film.

See how everything ties together? I hope the camera works. I hope I don’t screw up my first roll of 120 film. I hope I don’t find that I hate using a TLR camera. I hope I have a chance to shoot the roll (the camera shoots 120 film in square format which I think means I only get 12 shots per roll. We’re going to need to make these suckers count!) soon so that I can send it out to get it developed and see if the camera actually works. I didn’t pay much for it so if it doesn’t work I will be pissed off but I won’t be pissed off, if you dig where I’m coming from.

Anyway, here is today’s pointlessly black and white pointless photo a day pic.

Hypocrite Day

Today is Hypocrite Day here in the USA. Veteran’s Day is the day we honor those who served in the military during times of war. It’s also the day where those faux patriotic mother fuckers who just voted to put the fascists into power at the Federal level go out of their way to show you how patriotic they are and how much they support the troops that the president elect called suckers for serving and who sacrificed everything to rid the world of fascists only to hand the country to fascists on a silver fucking platter.

Hence why today will now be known as Hypocrite Day.

Wave those flags and tell us how much you support the troops, you fucking hypocrites. Hooray for you, you fucking hypocrites.

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 10/30

One third of the way through November. How are we looking?

Well, on day 10 I put rhythm guitars onto two songs. I did not run direct, I played through my amplifier’s speaker and it was glorious.

Over all we now have seven songs, all in 7/8 time for a total runtime of about 30 minutes. I think I am done with adding songs, unless I decide to add four songs in 4/4 time… naw. Up next is writing lyrics and melodies. My least favorite part of these song writing challenge games. Oh well.

Penguin

I just watched the season finale of The Penguin. Eight episodes in Gotham City and only one teeny tiny reference to Batman. I actually enjoyed that piece of it. The season as a whole was excellent. Just a decent mob story, not a super hero or super villain story. If that’s your thing then I highly recommend the show, especially now that the whole season is out and you can binge it quickly.

Now what? I tried watching Gotham years ago. I think I got most of the way through the first season. I think I am going to try again and see how it goes. There’s a Penguin origin story on that show as well. It’s different than this new show, but it’s sort of an alternate universe kinda thing. Same characters, different but similar events. We’ll see.

Sunday Music

I just ran out of rhythm guitar parts to record for this month’s music project. I guess I have to start writing lyrics now. Yuck.

I played through a speaker though! Kick ass! I used my Deluxe Reverb and actually made noises that you could hear. Thankfully my wife was upstairs on her computer with big headphones on so I hooked up my little attenuator thingie, gave the volume knob on the amp a nice twist up, and the attenuation knob on the little attenuator thingie a solid turn down. I got a little tube overdrive without blowing the roof off the house. Sweet.

Look at the amp, with the power light actually on!