Anne and I snuck away for the weekend. Last night, we watched a movie called Hell or High Water that we both really liked. All I knew going into it was that Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine were in a movie set in Texas about brothers who are robbing banks to save their family ranch, so I won’t say more about it than that. I recommend it, though: 4 out of 5.
We also went for a long walk in the woods, and managed not to get eaten by a bear.
I went to see Rogue One Thursday night with a bunch of my friends, because OBVIOUSLY I went to see it again. I will see it all the times, because I like it that much.
It was raining and what passes for cold, here in Los Angeles, so I went to my closet to grab a scarf, and I realized that I could do a tiny bit of silly trolling, inspired by the Big Bang Theory version of myself:
One guy walked up to me and said, “that’s the wrong franchise, buddy,” to which I replied, “Oh … is it?”
I feel like trailers show us way more than they need to, but maybe that’s just because I’m old and set in my ways. I do my best to avoid them, but I was super excited to see this one before Rogue One last night. I love Guardians of the Galaxy so much (It’s my favorite of all the Marvel movies, and maybe my favorite movie in its genre of all time), that I was bouncing in my seat and clapping my hands the whole time for this one.
Nothing about the plot is given away in this. It’s just the characters we love doing the things that make us love them, so if you’re a trailer avoidance aficionado like me, you’re probably safe. Here’s the trailer at YouTube. It’s also embedded below:
So if you watched it, what do you think?
I posted this on my Medium thing, and I’m putting it here, too, for today’s Daily December.
There’s a lot of triumphant “get over it you Libtard you lost” going around. I understand that. I get it. It’s shitty, and it’s obnoxious, but I understand that impulse. In 2008, I felt so relieved that President Obama was elected, because I felt like it was a chance to repair a lot of the damage done by the Bush/Cheney administration. I really wanted to believe that voters — that America — had repudiated Bush and Cheney. The vote totals certainly told us that. The polling certainly told us that. Unfortunately, when President Obama had majorities in both houses of congress, and progressive policies could be passed with relative ease(relative to the unprecedented obstructionism that was to come), the Democrats and the president didn’t really seem that invested in doing that. They seemed to be infuriatingly focused on “healing the country,” and making the Republicans who ran deceitful, hateful campaigns feeel better, which is something that right wingers always call for when they lose elections. Hey, how did appointing Republican James Comey to head the FBI work out for you? And taking that public option off the table? Letting Lieberman off without any consequences? All good, right? Yeah.
I understand why the deplorables are walking around with their dicks out, setting couches on fire and flipping over cars every chance they get. They know that nobody is going to stop them. They are as empowered as they’ve been in a generation, and they’re just getting started.
This isn’t about that election, but it’s an introduction to give context to this: I understand why the deplorables* are walking around with their dicks out, setting couches on fire and flipping over cars every chance they get. They know that nobody is going to stop them. They know that they can get away with it. They are as empowered as they’ve been in a generation, because even though they didn’t actually win a contest of ideas, and there’s a ton of evidence to support the contention that voter suppression efforts in states controlled by Republicans worked exactly the way they were designed to work, they still won. If you thought those shitbags were obnoxious when they were relegated to the gutter where they belong, just wait and see how terrible they can really get.
Donald Trump is not just profoundly unqualified to be president, but poses a legitimate and clear danger to the safety of Americans and the stability of the world.
But I understand their impulse. It’s got to feel really great to know that even if only 25% of the country agrees with you, you still get to have your guy in the White House, and you make life miserable for the majority. Everyone gets a trophy, but your trophy is even bigger than the one that was earned by the actual winner. Congratulations!
I kinda want to retreat into Fort Kickass and stay there all day, listening to Stabbing Westward and eating cookies.
The first draft of Ravenswood is with a couple of early readers who will give me the feedback I need to polish it up and send it to my editor. I haven’t decided it if will get released as its own thing (it’s just over 10000 words) or if I’ll keep it as part of the collection of short stories I originally intended for it to live.
Now I’m going back to finish the first draft of another short called Devil’s Gate, and then I’ll circle back around to finishing the puke draft of the short story that became a novella that ended up becoming a novel, which is currently called The Childhood I Lost but needs a better title.
I still don’t know if that thing holds together, and I think that part of the reason I haven’t finished it is being afraid of handing it to an early reader who may say, “this doesn’t hold together, dude.”
I’m late to the party, so most of you have probably watched all of Black Mirror, but Anne and I started series three last night and … wow. It’s intense. I highly recommend it, but probably don’t binge, because each episode deserves at least 24 hours in your brains to unpack itself.
