Good morning good morning. Comin at you live from Chatham County, NC. What it is? I am sick. Getting sicker. It’s in my chest now. Made a doctor’s appointment. Give me all the sweet antibiotics. I understand why they do not sell antibiotics over the counter, but I sure wish they were easier to get. Like maybe some sort of individual licensing paradigm, like drivers’ licenses. And, like, some sort of waiver on insurance that if you abuse them your insurance won’t cover it. This is, after all, a capitalistic wasteland.

Jane has a fossils presentation in her class in an hour. Emma and I are going. We are going to learn about fossils. It is all very exciting.

Spent about an hour last night trying to figure out why our home theater system keeps clicking and dropping audio and whatnot. You would think it’s a connection issue, but I checked ‘em all and it is not. Swapped out all the cables. Hrm actually wait no I forgot one I will do that today. Haven’t checked the actual speakers themselves, will also that this weekend, but my strong suspicion, based on the, mmm, shall we say, meatiness of the clicking sound is that it is something going on internally with the AV receiver. This is, after all, ten years old? But I mean, that’s not that long! Gah. It was expensive too. But the good news is this shit has basically been commodified. I mean, I am not an audiophile when it comes to movies with my wife. I have my good Klipsch speakers and have been on the notorious DECWare waiting list for an SE84UFO for three years now. But when I’m watching TV? Nah. Don’t care.

A decent AV receiver can be had for like $300 these days. Cheaper if you want to go with the mysterious Chinese brands on Amazon. I’ve done a little experimenting with those brands so far, both Wiim and Fosi are good. But neither makes what I am looking for. I just want a one-input 5.1 AMP, with HDMI in n out. One channel. So far as my investigations have gone, no such thing exists. Which is a shame. Currently have my eye on the most minimalist receiver I can find, the JBL MA310, but if anyone knows of an even more cheap, minimalist AV receiver, or has any experience with the other Chinese brands (Pyle, etc) lemme know!

Boy does it feel stupid to write this shit when there is a fascist invasion from within. What do you think that The Bailys are thinking now? They are the made-up middle-of-the-road family that only lives in Chuck Schumer’s head. He thinks about them all the time, apparently. He says its basically how he decides how to vote. Seems to me pretty obvious that if the Bailys were Minnesotan then they would be fuckin ripshit, manning the barricades. But the Bailys are New Yorkers, on assumes. I wonder if he’s ever given them backstories. So many New Yorkers aren’t from New York. Or are the NY immigrants not real New Yorkers in Chuck’s head? Does he know where Joe and Eileen were born? Where their kids go to college? Where their siblings live? Do they only care about New York state?

Fuckin Chuck Schumer.

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We are listening to the new record by Pullman, a band consisting of the ridiculously prolific Chris Brokaw, Ken Brown (formerly of Gastr del Sol), Curtis Harvey (Chris’ bandmate in Codeine), Doug McCombs (Tortoise) and Tim Barnes (Essex Green amongst other things). Usually they have Bundy K Brown but he doesn’t seem to be on this album, their third, entitled III. I bought a test pressing. Chris put a single test pressing on his site and I snagged it within minutes so I am feeling very well-chuffed. It is great. Atmospheric and melodic and beautiful like all Pullman records.

Chris is 62. He has appearances on 242 albums. Dude is prolific.

Hey big news Girl Scout cookie sales start tomorrow. We are kicking the season off by Jane and I heading to Cary to sell cookies in front of a Comic Shop that has some sort of Magic the Gathering or something big tournament tomorrow it is going to rule. I do not know exactly what the tournament is because this was filtered through a few normie moms but I am excited. Oh wait a second I can probably google it. Ah yes. It is MTG. The launch of a new series. Lorwyn Eclipsed. Crack open a pre-release pack, build a sealed deck, and try it out for the first time in a casual tournament. Crazy how big MTG still is.

Oh shit i think I might have the flu I feel like I’m going to puke.

Okay whew that wave of nausea passed. But not without me kneeling at the toilet for a while that was intense. Was it a flu? Or my body rebelling at the load of pills and Chomps I just inserted into it. The remains of the day will tell the tale.

ANYWAY, I will have a link for you guys to buy cookies very soon. COOKIES.

Writing in my personal journal yesterday, I wrote this passage this (unexpurgated) and it seems relevant to my recent musings on nostalgia, old friends and misdeeds:

Then it got me thinking about that time I did a really bad prank on a friend and it all went horribly wrong it all spiraled and was headed toward complete friend rupture. But I nipped it in the bud by immediately and thoroughly apologizing. I mean, I was panicking, I wanted to go into defense mode, but I could tell that path was just going to ruin. I took a breath, steeled myself, and did the right thing. It saved the day, thank god. I would take as a valuable life lesson on apologies but also wtf was I doing that whole thing was so awful and ill-advised.

In the end my friend/prank-victim didn't really care, I mean everyone else around us did, but she was sanguine. But still it was fucked up and I still feel like a fucking asshole about it.

So, you know. GREAT FEELINGS.

Man. Some days the a random terrible thing you did in the past hits you and shatters any myth that you are a "good person." No. you are just a person, who is, these days, trying to be good. Doesn't mean you are and it certainly doesn't mean you always were. Best not to get too smug.

But, then, those memories and that reminder and that cycle of thinking is exactly what separates those who truly are trying to be better people from those who are not, I suppose.

Life lessons, bro.

Last night we did Daddy bedtime again, Emma’s still swamped with work. We did a Daddy School on the Fermi Paradox and oh my god Jane loved it so much. Girl loves space. The other day we were watching some Youtube video from a game streamer and he mispronounced “Kuiper Belt” and Jane was not having it. As I explained the SETI project to her she grabbed one of her space books, within reach, and flipped to the exact page where there was a picture of Arecibo (RIP) and the Very Large Array. Her personal explanation for the Fermi paradox is that the big bang happened and all the intelligent worlds all started at around the same time, and they are all roughly the same age, and therefore their electromagnetic emissions are all maybe 100 light years tops, away from their home planet, and there just aren’t any within 100 light years but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots out there. And, you know, that is a pretty f’n solid theory. Props.

Tonight’s daddy school? CONCRETE. Shit yeah.

Got a noise and metal playlist for you today. It’s a good’un if you are a fan of these genres. And, I know, most of you are not. That’s okay. Bill and Nick are. Now we are three. Violent Magic Orchestra are coming to town in a few months. I am very excited. Thank you Bill for the Pelican recommendation. Thank you internet for the rest of these recommendations.

Have a lovely weekend. If all goes well and I don’t have a horrible respiratory infection or a flu, I will be getting a ton of studio work done over the long weekend and I can regale you with tales of home improvement and noble pedestrian domesticity when I return after the holiday.