I just survived a rather gross viral incident that caused my sinus cavity to generate mucous like a torrential downpour. I was coughing up large green chunks by tens of milliliters every day for a solid week, and the stuff coming out of my nose wasn’t any sort of picnic either. It spread through the whole house from person to person for the last month or so. It’s been a pretty disgusting event, really, involving a lot of booger rags.

“Rather than vindicating our constitutional framework, the defendant’s sweeping immunity claim threatens to license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office. The founders did not intend and would never have countenanced such a result.”

This is exactly true. By enabling a Cult of Personality around Trump, his followers are enticing him to become the next Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, or Kim Jong Un. This is a horrifying precedent that they’re trying to set that was clearly predicted by Margaret Atwood in her novel “Handmaid’s Tale”. I’m pretty sure Trump himself doesn’t give a shit about wholly eroding western democracy, but do you? Are you in a cult? Do you support democracy? Can you look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you really believe Trump was robbed of reelection?

ACAB: Because good people do not choose to be cops. I swear to fucking God, these power-tripping psychotic pigs really need to calm the fuck down. The United States is rife with ridiculous speed traps and these pigs just waiting to catch someone going 35 in a school zone just so they can masturbate to their own perceived authority. It’s pretty sickening. At least in Germany they just set up cameras. I’d rather get caught by a camera than some authority-high pig.

One of my favorite vices happens to be reading about the occult. As a staunch atheist, perhaps it’s a morbid preoccupation. I don’t believe a single word of it, but I do find it fascinating. Honestly, a lot of the occult are systems of beliefs that had to “go underground” as a result of the oppressive regime of early growing Christianity. In short, Christianity sent underground the very thing they sought to eliminate completely. Most occultists hid within the rank and file of the pious, and I’m sure the same is true today, despite the liberal social climate. If I could go back in time I would seek the source of the Voynich Manuscript. Talk about one curious tome. The writings, to this day, have remained un-deciphered. It is seated flatly besides grimoires detailing how to summon demons and describing their attributes and personalities, and what conjuring them might bring you.

I have a lot to be grateful for this season. I have wonderful kids. I have a wonderful family. I also have the best partner in the world. It is amazing to me that I’ve gone so long without knowing what partnership really is. I just “rolled with the punches” through a number of pretty abusive situations and just thought that I was really awful enough to deserve those situations. My wife is my rock. She will be honest with me on how things look from her perspective and I can count on her perspective to help me be better. I’m so accustomed to petty low blows and ridiculous gaslighting that it really did take me a while to settle into what my wife and I share. I’m still learning, to be honest. She is as well. But we’re growing together, we’re learning together, and we’re building and maintaining a strong partnership that will see us both through the best of times as well as the worst of times. So long as we have each other, the worst of times will never be worse than before we met. She is precious to my heart in ways that I had no idea a person could be. She’s my best friend, my lover, my world. She brings a light to my life that I’ve never had before. I love you, Amber.

Man, I installed Python and Jupyter Notebook and I have to say, it’s cool as shit. I’ve been just banging out stupid little “nothing” snippets of code and playing around to just do simple calculations. It’s very cool stuff. I love the fact that it’s near-native speed and wildly easy to program. It feels very gratifying to learn something that I can just apply casually to make getting stuff done easier. I need to keep pushing at it and figure shit out.

I want to write about positive things in my life. I want to write about exciting things only days away. I want to write about all the good things, but honestly I’ve used writing as a coping mechanism for so long that I don’t think it’s possible for me to write down anything other than what’s currently troubling me at any given moment. It sucks, but it could be worse. At least I have a coping mechanism.

Man, kids say the darnedest things. Like, you can’t stop a kid from talking endlessly about virtually anything they encounter on a daily basis. I guess it’s not really anything to give a second thought to, but I guess it would give someone pause if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

I really need these four days off. Not gonna lie. Things feel like they’re ramping up really quickly and I haven’t even started the new role yet. Though I do admit that it’s really nice to leave behind some of what had grown to become a “staple” in life. Some of the work and these companies I’ve primarily supported have become fixtures in my life, and it’s really time to move on. Not just me, but for all of us collectively.