I talked just a few days ago about how I’ve been in a severe reading slump lately. That same day, I picked up Apocalypse Gates: Book 1: Rapture" by Daniel Shinhofen. Amazon Link The book’s summary was interesting enough. Guy wakes up after his brain is basically stolen by mega Corp Inc and uploaded to a video game. I love me some LitRPG, so I figured this would be a fun little romp. I really didn’t expect to get into it as much as I did. This book is pretty good in a lot of places. It’s also really bad in some places, so much so that it kind of ruins it, but we’ll get to that later.

I’m a writer by trade. I don’t think I’m HG Wells or Arthur Conan Doyle or anything, nor do I proclaim to have perfect grammar or spelling. But I can thread a few words together and have them sound at least somewhat coherent for those reading.

I’m also a reader. I read a ton, and I always have. I was reading “chapter books” when I was 5 years old. Mostly because I wanted big books since those were more impressive than the picture books my friends were reading. I was reading Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Stephen King in 5th grade. Maybe not the best thing for a kid, but I liked them and spent a lot of time in the library.

I can’t believe we’re half way through this year already. It is insane. The worst part is that hardly any of the things I wanted to do have been done. I have done other things, but still. I should make a list and see what I can do about getting some of those goals marked off.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’ve become a bit obsessed with this blog. I haven’t had this much fun since I switched to Linux in 2017. From the writing to learning new things about Hugo, it has been a blast.

First I added comments, then I added comment counts. That was fun. These last couple of days I’ve been messing around with file structure (Hugo calls it taxonomy), and the RSS feed. I’m actually writing this post to test out my RSS feed changes as well as test some additions to the script I talked about the other day.

This was supposed to be a great year for reading. I planned on 40 new books and 40 rereads, which is slightly better than last year. But so far I’m at 12 books and we’re already half way through the year. It’s worse though, because I haven’t finished a book since mid-May. I’ve hopped from one to another, constantly picking up something new, and just cannot for the life of me get interested.

I mostly stay out of politics. I’m of the mind that there are effin’ morons on both sides of the political spectrum, and moderate action is the only thing that can truly help all of us. The far extremities of the current political atmosphere only drives further division. Honestly, the lack of empathy on both sides is just sad to see.

But, I’m not here to talk about my political views or yours. If you’re a die-hard Trumper or you wish Kamala had won, I don’t care. I really don’t, so don’t @ me. Instead, I’d like to talk about FUD. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. One thing you can’t deny is that MAGA has riled people up unlike any movement in recent memory. The news, commentators, and TikTok-ers are alight with the most dire of predictions. And that’s not just those on the left. The right does it too. Nobody is safe, the world is ending if the ‘others’ get power, and so on. First, y’all need to go outside a bit more. Things have a tendency to be less scary after you’ve touched grass or walked your dog. Second, y’all just be exhausting for the rest of us to watch.

I relate so much to this post by Musings of a Tangled Mind.

every single night, without fail, I set 27 alarms on my phone for the next morning — each one five minutes apart — convinced that this time I’ll wake up on the first one. I never do. I don’t even wake up on the last one. Snooze is my friend. You know, that friend who’s a bad influence and keeps you out all weekend where you maybe possibly might need bail money.

I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to music. I currently have subscriptions to (though admittedly a couple of them are free trials): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Plex, Deezer, and I’m sure there is probably one or two I’m forgetting.

I’m going through what amounts to a crisis. I don’t know what I want to do about music and where I get it from. I have used Deezer for the last two years, but their Android app has annoying bugs that make me not want to use it. I really don’t like Spotify as a company. I technically have had YouTube Music for years because I pay for no ads on YouTube, but I hate that service with a passion. Amazon’s app is spotty when it comes to their collection, though they do have Garth Brooks. Tidal has the same issue, but without Garth. And Apple Music works great on mobile, but the desktop experience isn’t great (yes, I know about Cider V2).

For the longest time, I wanted speakers for my desk setup. I used to have this crappy set of Logitech computer speakers, but they burnt out long ago. For years after that happened, I used a good quality set of headphones at my desktop computer. I don’t mind this, really. It gets the job done and I don’t have to worry about volume at 3 AM. Not going to wake everyone up if System of a Down comes on full blast.

I am not as confident driving as I once was. I work from home, so I don’t go out as much as I used to. I’ve talked about this a little either in a post here or on the podcast, but I just don’t feel like I’m as good a driver as I once was. One of the things that I’ve really noticed over the last few years is that I have a serious fear of running a red light. Now this is a fear that I think everyone should have. Running a red could lead to your death or the death of someone else. So, being fearful of it is reasonable and rational.