I check out the news every other day or so. It's good to know what's happening.

Welp, lately it's been failing businesses; non-US nations paying a bunch of money to influence US government, so they can continue being our friends while being utter shits to their own people and neighboring nations; destruction as infrastructure crumbles and extreme weather systems continue getting worse.

Ever played Chrononauts? It's a card game where one uses their cards to change Linchpin events on a timeline, making a few events after just not happen (Paradox). Players then attempt to Patch the Paradoxes with alternate versions of events (or flip the Linchpins back to save the "original" timeline.)

Every now and then, I like to discuss pro wrestling with the folks on Reddit's "SquaredCircle" community. This morning, in a discussion about a big match scheduled for Friday's show, "Rampage", featuring a visiting competitor from a Japanese promotion, I read this comment:

So, let me get this straight: People complain all the time about Rampage not getting big matches, and when we finally get a big match people complain that it shouldn't be on Rampage?
IWC is weird.

Viewed alone? Yes, those are contradictory ideas.

I first attempted NaNoWriMo in 2004. It was the last time I would do so.

I have yet to discuss it here, but I read a lot of fiction.

Nope, sorry; that didn't come out correctly:

I read a LOT of fiction.

Short stories. Novellas. Novels. Ten-volume, epic arcs I return to every three or four years, once my memory softens the details. (I have two of those arcs on my list of faves! And they got official sequels! 😀)

It's midterm election season here in the US. These days, that comes with a pretty reliable side of Kind, Yet Angry People (KYAP, for ease of typing) trashing the candidates on the political left, speaking out against the effectiveness of voting, and wishing there were more they could do.

My KYAP friends – and you are my friends, and I am as kind, as angry as you at all of this – there is something you can do if you're frustrated with this entire system.

You can stockpile weapons, find like-minded KYAP, organize, up your off-com OPSEC game, and start killing your oppressors.

That's not the only option, and there are no "magic wands" here. The system of government in the United States is V A S T, and it's designed to slough off pressures and changes from outside. Let's take a moment to partially outline that vastness: