Thoughts
Random thoughts I thought worth sharing on here. Updated irregularly.
2.7.26: Who turned off the heat? Who keeps letting the idiots out? And wasn't relearning HTML supposed to get easier?
I swear to whichever force is controlling the universe -- be it God, Lucifer, or Reina Tanaka - that if I hear one more Fox/Newsmax-binging jabroni say or post somewhere that "global warming is a hoax" because there was a snowstorm last week, or because today (as of thsi writing) we are under negative numbers in Northeastern Pennsylvania right now (-3° -- with the wind chill making it feel like -25° -- and yes, that's Farenheit for our friends who use the Metric system) -- and I will beat that person so badly that he'll look worse than a no-name pro wrestler after working an outlaw mudshow deathmatch (or the typical cover subject of a Cannibal Corpse album cover).
Thankfully, I haven't heard any of that. I used to hear ignorant shit like that when I was working retail. Now that I'm in an employment situation where I don't have to deal with random strangers saying stupid shit (I could probably do a whole post on that subject!), I can be a lot less calmer.
The problem? How some people name or describe things. People hear the phrase global warming and thought that meant we wouldn't be getting snow blizzards anymore. These people didn't pay much attention in science class in school, otherwise they'd realize that global warming means the planet is getting warmer. Or as Bill Nye put it in this viral clip from a couple of years back (I think it's from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver?), "The planet is on fucking fire!":
There's a more apt phrase that Jello Biafra came up with a few years ago: Instead of climate change, he calls it climate collapse. Simply put, as the earth's temperature changes, all four seasons are going to get more extreme. I don't think it could be put any plainer than that. If you still don't understand that, you probably watch too much right-wing fake news.
So what did I do when this severe cold snap snuck in overnight and decided to stay for the weekend? I stayed indoors and worked on this website a little more. I'm trying to discipline myself to work more at my desk at home when I'm not at work, and not lie on the living room couch in a food coma. (And as you can probably tell from the disparte date discrepancy between the last post here and this oner, that doesn't always happen. Don't get old, kids!)
And speaking of coding... you would think that in 2026, things would be a little easier when it comes to making websites, even when you're hands on the keyboard and using a reliable program like Phoenix Code to work on it. Well, maybe and maybe not. I started out fixing a few spelling errors that my old eyes missed the first time around (but I'm getting better at it and catching them as I make them while I'm typing this up.) But I keep finding myself either referring to an HTML/CSS manual I bought on my Kindle (and access through the Kindle app on my iPad so that I can let the book I'm currently reading stay in the actual Kindle I have) or, more often than not, opening the Google Gemini extension on my browser and asking, "How do I do (insert HTML task I'm looking for)?" or "Go over my code and see what I did wrong." So maybe it is getting at least a little easier in this day and age to code a website. And hopefully it's a skill that will return to me as I keep doing it... unlike the right-wing twists who are lucky if they can spell their uninformed rants properly on social media (probably just the aptly misnamed Truth Social for them so that they can give each other reacharounds)... then again, I've never seen one spell properly in all these years.
And while I have not and definitely will not close up any social media presences I have, I haven't been on them lately. Or at least, I steer clear of some of them when things are getting sensistive or have Trumpizoids thinking they're winning by "triggering libtards". Tomorrow is the Super Bowl (as of this writing, I don't even know who's playing this year), and it's definitely one night out of the year when I try to AVOID Facebook so that I don't have to put up with one simple yet annoying thing that makes me feel like one of the Gumbys from Monty Python: these same narrow-minded idiots bitching about who the halftime performer is.
Cry me a fucking river.
Half these idiots think a heavy metal act would be more palatable to them than Bad Bunny this year, or Kendrick Lamar last year. To these people, Bad Bunny's presence will give them a chance to regurgitate their anti-Latinx misanthropy/xenophobia from when Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were on a few years back (i.e., bitch and moan about the fact that both of them didn't sing in English). How would these idiots feel if one of their beloved hard rock acts got to play the Super Bowl halftime show, and the network got a lot of phoned-in and e-mailed complaints about the content of, say, Metallica or Iron Maiden's performance? These idiots alone think heavy metal and hard rock rule the music world when in reality, they never did, even if it seemed that way for a couple of years in the late 80s on MTV. (Never mind that Yo! MTV Raps consistently drew more viewers than Headbangers Ball in that time period (and so did 120 Minutes... take that, headbangers!)
Of course, the biggest complaint about the Super Bowl halftime show is the supposed "mimed" nature of the performance, according to these "armchair" experts. The same idiots who push for, say, AC/DC being at the halftime show (yeah, right, in 2026 when Brian Johnson can barely sing in key anymore and Angus Young looks isn't moving around like he used to do?) have probabluy never set up a PA system for a band, run a soundcheck, and spent four hours mixing a band or three for a night. They don't consider the fact that the production company for the Super Bowl has to assemble a stage while the commentators are giving their post-first-half analysis, do a line check on the microphones while that's going on (which is all they're going to have time for -- no time to mic up amplifiers and drums, sorry), hustle the artists and whatever extras the production company hired for the show onto the field, give their performance (which has to be done to a recording save for live vocal mics), and then hustle everybody off the field, disassemble the staging, and let the second half of the game commence.
So, I'll be avoiding Facebook and probably still work on this site, or some of my writing, or some of my music, instead. My lovely wife Tara might have me watch the halftime show (she's done it in the past and sometimes I take a break from whatever I do and watch it), or she might not. The world is still going to turn. The performance may be quite good but not on the same level as Prince's or Lady Gaga's halftime shows. (And no offense to the late great Purple Highness, who is one of my many musical heroes, but Gaga's halftime show is still my favorite.) And, barring another blizzard, I'll be getting up at 5AM on Monday and going to my day job.