Survived New Year's Eve. Crazy times. Good friends. Knute Rockne. Aviator sunglasses. Sketchy dude. Around the corner. Buy drugs. Smoke up. Life is free. People dying. Not your concern. Grab a soda. Mini-mall. Strip mall. No one gets excited. Not about malls. Not anymore. There was a time for tihat. The time has passed. We move on.

There were corpses. Everything, Kansas. Failed separatist group. Communists. Set up shop in a red state. Murdered. There was investigation. There was a cover-up. Now, no one talks. No one at all. Site is cleaned up. No memorial allowed. It was in a VERY red county in a red state. They didn't think things through. Can private dick look into it? This ain't the movies. Ain't no fucking film noir. Real life. True stuff. Unbelieveable. But true.

A different version of the story. They turned him into an animal. This guy. Knew him from the hood. Sketchy guy. Took him up to the hills. Crazy guys. Wild look in their eyes. Said they were from the deep woods. Had issues with fracking in the area. These beings. They had issues. Legitimate issues. Could not reveal themselves. Questions were asked. This is life. Life in Northern Maine. Things are different here. Ask Stephen King. He'll tell you. He's tried. For years. You think he's kidding. He's not. Everything except The Stand really happened. That is sort of happening now. No one cares. Been done. Movies made it more exciting. Corpses pile up. People shrug. Nurses tired. Different fellas and dames. Getting shot. War. Crazy talk. Weirdos on TV. Talking shit. Crazy times. I'm a cougar. I love fucking younger guys.

Most of you are in what I would call the early development stage. You came here. You saw something. Something unique. Drawn here. Mystical pizzas. Wonderful action. Six or seven people. Legitimately popping. That kind of place. Celebrity encounters. North Korean Generals. Run a tight ship. No troublemakers allowed. Tight ship. No foolish around. You look sexy. Sexy in that turban. I wanna do you. Come on over. I'll let you go into my closet. Pick out something to wear. You'll come.

In Northern Maine we slaughter the elders. Like cattle. In a field. Chase them around. Until they are out of breath. Then come the machetes. It is the way of things. Resources are limited. We make a game of it. Make the children watch. Work hard in fields. Bring in lumber. Become big and strong. Cock the size of TIbet. You know where I'm going with this. So I'm not even going to go there.

Had this guy come to the house. Suitor. Wanting to mash with the Sexy One. Cougar. What I am. This was old man. Wrinkly. Admitting to erectile dysfuction. Has trouble. Wanted me to respect him. For telling me up front. About this issue. Creeped me the fuck out. Then he brings in an old boom box and starts playing "More Than a Woman" by the Bee Gees. Puts boom box down. Proceeds to gyrate. Thought this would be fetching. It was not. I got my gun.

Young guy. Fast car. Hard as a fucking rock. That's what this bitch is after. And now I'm in Daniel's Fiero. Don't even know how someone ends up driving one of those. Not these days. Not since the Expos played in Montreal. What a time. Different world. Creepy world now. Crazy stuff. Lunatics in power. Crazy stuff. Good time to do drugs. Just fuck yourself up. What does it matter? Come on, I'll take you around the corner. We'll talk to Shirley. She can get you shit. She used to be married. Married to a guy who ran a store. Shady store. Blow and handjobs out back. Fifteen-year-old daughter. Worked in the store. All kinds of wrong. Things have always been bad. You're just waking up. Stop wanking it. Oh, fuck it. Go on wanking it. What's the point at this point? Surely you can find one. And don't call me Shirley. Not my name. I'm sexy. I blew your father back in the 80s. Enjoyed the hell out of it. Your father has very attractive balls. I bet you are uncomfortable with this knowledge. I'm sorry. Live with it.

Knew this woman. Sexy woman. Like me. Dour. Unhappy face. Miserable life. Didn't like it. Put something in her drink. Sold her to the Canadians. They do things. With women. Up there. Canadian things. Best you don't know.

Shake things up. Bring home the bacon. Make a different move. Jump to the left. Jump to the right. Don't give up. Unless you want to. No one is stopping you. Do what you can. Or don't. Dig your own grave and save.

Today, or last night, the world changed. Russia invaded Ukraine. Not an incursion, not a skirmish, but a full invasion, an attempt by a large nation-state to dominate a smaller one through violence, on the flimsiest of pretexts. That there has been other wars in recent decades is true, but the blatant hostility of this one is unprecedented. (There is a fair question: how much is this more of an issue because this is a European country? And how much would it be more of an issue if it was, say, Finland and not Ukraine)?

This isn't going away for a while. This is not a blip in the news cycle. Like the Covid-19 pandemic, this is something that is going to change life around the world, for the entire coming decade.

What is most ridiculous about this is that at this point, humanity has the tools to deal with its problems. And yet we are seeing a repeat of a hundred years ago: war and pandemic, only this time the war and the pandemic could have been prevented easily. I grew up thinking I would live to see a Star Trek future, smooth clean lines and polite rational decision making, and somehow I've slipped a century in the past. What has happened in the last two years will color things for decades to come.

The only advice I have for people is to keep thinking, discussing, and writing. The fact that these activities have been subverted in big ways and small ways for the past few years, the fact that disinformation and group-signalling have replaced discourse, are a big reason why we got here. Every effort made to instill meaning, sense and value in the world will pay off, probably in unforeseen ways.

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