Month: August 2023

I failed you, dear Gertrude.

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I’m so sorry. I will do right by Genevieve.

Went out like a soldier, Gertrude did.

Fought of a stronger, larger, more brutal adversary and protected the younger one…before her bodyguard realized his fuck up and saved her.

Lived a couple more days to enjoy some treats.

Then – just when her subjects thought she’d make it – died like a warrior queen by her throne.

Valhalla currently welcomes a clucking martyr with full grandeur.

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And yes, we know.

We don’t deserve the richness of life around us.

Making amends will have to be 24/7 from here on out.

RIP Gertrude, Warrior Queen.

The water tables are so low at Minneopa State Park…

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That even tough as nails invasive species like Asian carp don’t make it.

The raccoons be feasting.

This new (supposed) anthropocene era we’re entering feels different…morphing into a world where egomaniacal conquerer species might be found wanting, while grittier survivor species might thrive.

Pay no heed to my word salad btw. There is almost zero scientific thought behind this garbled mess I’m spouting. I’m just fucking around with semantics to sound smart when in reality I increasingly feel like a dumbass.

So let me leave you with what I’m feeling right now.

Climate disaster is real…but life always goes on.

And raccoons are cool as fuck.

A very brief review of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”

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An original American doozy if ever there was one.

I finally had the chance to finish it, after three attempts.

Not that it’s difficult to read or anything. But, well, life you see.

So it goes.

This is a PTSD (anti-)war narrative in the form of an absurdist sci-fi story.

I wish I could go through something like this myself – literally live out a Tralfamadorian journey of non-linear temporality – but I have no interest in experiencing war and mass butchery in order to do so.

Nor am I keen on having to engage in forced propaganda that returning soldiers must parrot to ensure the military industrial complex escapes justice.

Now, as a recently minted American, I daresay 2023 is different in terms of the masses accepting war propaganda without challenge.

Nonetheless, I read this book with a fear that the only thing that will prevent our society from alienated decay and mass torpor is, ironically enough, crisis or disaster.

It sobered the ever-living crap out of me.

The monograph on American prisoners of war and its note on American social relations could well be written about vast swathes of my adopted country today.

It is a brutal reflection on American classism and loathing for cooperation, but it could also be written about vast swathes of any society in our current time.

As we journey through a fascinating new phase in technology, information, and individualized access, we’re alienating ourselves and parasocializing at the same time.

Then again…

Is it really all that bad?

Meh. The more I know, the dumber I feel.

So what do I know?

Poo-tee-weet indeed.