Misc

Yeah, I should use my blog again

So, I was just on Tobias Buckell‘s website. I’d gone by there a few times over the last few weeks, and it was pretty much gone, with a notice telling us that a new site was coming soon. Well, it’s back now, and with a whole new look, and sounds like he intends to use his blog more regularly, like he was back in the old days.

I need to move away from social media. I’m always trying. I try to restrict my usage of social media, to just going on there for a few specific reasons and then getting the hell out of there. But I constantly go on social media because I can’t resist the urge to say something that’s on my mind (which is not one of the specific reasons), and what usually happens is I get sucked into some other crap and end up wasting a lot of time.

I have a nice website that my brother built for me. It has not seen much use over the last few years. I should use the blog here when I have something to say, instead of social media. I going to give it a try, anyway.

I’ll probably still go on social for the few specific reasons. For one thing, Jonathan Maberry recently started a weekly “Ask Me Anything” livestream on Facebook and I enjoy participating in that, so that’s one reason I’ll still be going on social media.

Spring is here again, though it doesn’t quite feel like it yet.

Books, Reviews

True Grit, by Charles Portis

I have seen the movies. I especially like the newer movie. I wasn’t crazy about the older movie. And now I’ve read the book. What a fine story it is. The characters were believable, and I liked the dialogs.

True Grit, by Charles Portis, is a western. Mattie Ross wants justice for the murder of her father and she hires Rooster Cogburn to help find the murderer, Tom Chaney. They are joined by Laboeuf the Texan and become a posse of three.

Political

The Deaf Holocaust

Don’t forget that the Deaf and People with Disabilities matter. Too often, People with Disabilities are left behind. We’re not even thought of. We’re very often the first people hurt by fascist governments, and no one knows it.

Books, Political, Religion, Reviews

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

 

I expect that the Trump regime will mean books like Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl will disappear from American libraries, schools and bookstores. But MAGA morons are okay with that. They want to rewrite history and live in denial of what they voted for. I’m disgusted with the people in my life who voted for Trump, again, for selfish, ignorant reasons.

Anne Frank was 13 when she went into hiding with her family and four other people. It was eight people in small rooms, hidden behind a bookcase in a factory. They called their hiding place The Secret Annex and they survived there for two years, unable to go outside, even for a minute, because the risk of being seen and captured was extremely high.

(While I’m writing my review here, about to start the next paragraph, my brother sent me this: “Demonstrators wave Nazi flags outside local theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in Michigan”. That was last night, in Michigan, where I’ve lived all my life. They shouted “Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!” MAGA morons, this is what you voted for, and you know it.)

They had to hide simply because they were Jewish. I think most people know that the Gestapo eventually found them. All eight of the Secret Annex residents were sent to concentration camps, where everyone except Anne’s father, Otto, died.

I thought I would have a better review, one with better flow, but I’m too angry. Nazi Germany happened because people supported Hitler for all the same reasons people are supporting Trump.

Music

Guitar

I grew up in a family of musicians and music has always been very important to me. I love playing my guitars. I play them constantly. I’m practically addicted to playing my guitars. But I wouldn’t say I’m a good musician. I’m a terrible musician, but I still consider myself to be a musician.

I’m not a chordsmith, I’m a strumoholic. I’m not tone-deaf, I’m deaf. I was born deaf and I went to a school for the Deaf. I don’t change my strings until I break them. For sport, I like to see how long my strings can withstand my habit of smacking them as hard as I can with the pick.

When I play, my guitar is probably way out of tune. I do use electric tuners, but even with those, hearing musicians that I know have told me my guitar is still out of tune. I just do the best I can with the tuners, but if my guitar is out of tune, so be it. It ain’t gonna stop me from playin’.

I don’t switch chords much. I’ll often hold one chord through the entire performance, but switch between strumming high strings and low strings. I pretty much only play my own stuff. I strum hard and fast, my favorite guitar has many scratches because of this.

I love all kinds of music. Some of you are amazing musicians. I’ll never be as good as you, but I’m okay with that.

Rock n Roll. 🤘

Misc

…And the Cradle will Rock

I continue to be annoyed with older people shitting on the younger generations. I see plenty of honest, hard-working younger people and plenty of dishonest, scheming older people. No generation is better than another. All have their good and bad people.