Hit a sort of jackpot yesterday. Must have hidden the source post for a spate of AI-training because when I went back to my regular feed it was flickering for a couple minutes. Like the digital version of watching dominoes fall.

Well, here it is. August 4th, 2026. Rain, rain, go away, rubbers, galoshes for today. If there was a nuclear war last night I didn't notice.

Had an idea and I don't know if I want to keep it in AD&D 1e or risk figuring out GURPS 4E (shudders) shapeshifting. Werecreatures affected not only by a moon but by the weather.. a pack of werewolves in a thunderstorm calling down lightning to drive villagers out of their huts..

Technically my birthday has begun. I know some people make requests on their birthdays and I'm trying to think of what I'd want.

Houseguest let me sleep past 6:30 AM for once. Probably why I woke up with Van Morrison's 'Days Like This' as a brainworm.

So this is the beginning of what my daughter would call my 'birthday week'. Got a County Fair to visit (weather permitting), the possibility of steak on a hill, and.. blood tests plus the usual work and self-care.. maybe Magic on Friday. Just got to keep out of the slough called Despond.

OK, anybody else in Rochester/SE Minnesota. I have a crackpot theory and I'd like some feedback. ISD 535 has been trying to shut down Riverside school for a while. What if the plan wasn't 'segregation academy' but 'lease it out to renovate into a homeless shelter'? next)

Ok, finally saw Supergirl. 8 screenings of Odyssey in this one-theater town. Nice to see another self-contained story, no to minimal homework required.

So many bored kids tonight.. street racing, falling in love, primping and preening, drinking and doing drugs.. the full flower of youth in a town where there's been "nothing to DOOOO" for decades. So.. yeah, at the moment I'm feeling one foot in the grave. Give it time.

Have to admit I'm having trouble aligning my thinking as regards gaming to what seems to be the new non-violence norm. Yes, my first reflex on finishing GURPS Zombies was to put together 'Truth and Reconciliation of The Living Dead' with lawyer/diplomat PCs, but the intro session is still combat.

And another keyword muted. Have to admit I'd like some frequency controls.. or tracking, so I can see how many times a muted keyword would have shown up in Following over the last hour/6 hours/24 hours. Or how many times a given poster I follow uses a muted keyword.

She doesn't normally do this, so I think she wants me to not move.

Best wife ever.

Decided to turn some of that weird energy into something useful. Tempted to add cream cheese an hour before I serve.

One more keyword to mute, fine. Weird mood this morning.. only movie that looked good was Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and I got bored and exited before the opening credits finished. Ads took too long. Maybe I'll just play Dragon Warrior IV today.

Blah. Got an image in my head.. like from a novel cover. Decaying, mutated scientist in the shattered remains of a HAZMAT suit reaching towards the POV with gauntleted hands.. old school, ball-like joints. I think it was dark green?

Somebody described this as a holiday.. Image Load Fail Day, or something like that. Too bad we don't get advance warning or we could celebrate. Call it Use Your Words Day, or Saint Augustine of Hippo's Feast.. when we cast off the shackles of video and images and speak to each other as equals.

Gift from my wife.. fire.

Put the dog out last night after work and I saw some fireflies in the back yard. And for some reason seeing them just _wrecked_ me.

So my wife got me two stickers.. 'Flight was never an option' and 'I am a conduit of nonsense' Neither of which will go over well at work.

Sounds like the plan is to get somebody a Scoopie Meal to celebrate.

Forgot to mention it yesterday but while I was out and about I saw something that helped me feel like I wasn't alone. Kudos to you, unknown Minnesotan whose license plate is UGHHPPL. I hear you.

Close to finishing The Highlands Burn (and I need to write a suitably glowing review, because it's worth one) and now I can see myself getting distracted and reading the entire set of Phule's Company books.

One of the joys of adulting.. if I want to crack open the carton and have some peaches and cream ice cream (after giving some to my wife), nobody's going to stop me.

Finished Children of Ruin and figured I'd start The Highlands Burn. Sometimes I need to take a break from an author's voice and process things.

Better get to South Dakota/Wyoming before all the bikers show up? 'Course, my wife and I drove by Devil's Tower one January and the line to get in was massive even then.

Welp, muting the name did nothing to stem the tide. Do I mute 'Nazi', 'Tattoo', and/or Collins?

OK, I got to Children of Ruin. So is it universally agreed that Senkovi should have been booted out of the airlock before that ship left Earth's orbit?

Dang it. So many people I follow are in town this weekend and I have to work.

Milk of human kindness became the sour cream of wrath before 8 AM. Commuters, I tell you.. can't _stand_ being on the road with them, even when I was one. 'Course, buses get messed up by road construction too. And we aren't exactly building a lot of new cities and infrastructure.