Good morning good morning hello hi howdy. Sorry I am late, as always on this trip. And sorry about yesterday. I was… shall we say… indisposed. Not at my best. And we all want to be our best, don’t we?

Many readers are curious about the colored rice. Apparently it is “sensory play rice.” I do not know wtf that is about. I mean, I know what sensory play is, I know why a kid would want to do that. But… rice? Seems weird. If only I had a Neurodivergent-Affirming Pediatric Speech Therapist and Neurodivergent-Affirming Pediatric Occupational Therapist to ask, but alas, I left them in North Carolina. Look, you can’t travel with everything.

Here is a picture of the recording studio I worked at in the 90’s. It does not seem to be a recording studio anymore. Honestly… the old church looks like… a private residence? God, that would rule that place was gorgeous.

God I loved that job. I loved working with Jill. I miss Jill.

Jane and I are sitting on the couch, she has a bad tummy. We went to our morning breakfast place but she didn’t eat. Also, they were out of Diet Coke. This is a routine thing. I am the only person who buys Diet Coke there because coffee is disgusting. So every trip, near the end of the trip, I buy them out of Diet Coke. EXCEPT: there was one left yesterday, so I thought I had another day. Someone else bought a Diet Coke at the coffee shop. I have a… competitor. Mysterious.

Sean and Jussi have left for a trip, so we do not have our roomies anymore for the rest of this trip. Very sad. I miss them already.

Tuesday night Sean and I went to the local bar and met up with Seth and Abigail and Abby and Emily and Tom and Meridith (two I’s). It was lovely. But I drank too much. I am looking at my bar tap, and the math does not work out to how terrible I felt, really was something. Took all day to recover. Emma and I were supposed to go see Project Hail Mary but our babysitter couldn’t get here in a time that worked with local movie times, and we were supposed to go to French Club with the twins, but I could not manage that. I couldn’t really manage anything. Just a wreck. Useless.

But we did watch the Artemis II launch, which was pretty awesome. I mean, I generally subscribe to the theory that all this humans-in-space stuff is kind of useless and we shouldn’t bother colonizing space because what planet will ever be as easy to colonize as this one. But also it is pretty rad when we send people into space, and the woman on this mission — the woman who will go further out there than any other woman ever — she’s from North Carolina, so, you know. I’m gonna choose giddy excitement here over economic cynicism. I’ll save that for Elon.

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I am listening to the dulcet tones of Jane’s iPad, she is listening to a Kurgzeghat or however you pronounce it video. It is about population collapse in China and Korea. It is a backdoor liberal argument for immigration in the US and I am here for it. Jane has been very concerned about population lately. She’s like a snapshot of the modern zeitgeist, somehow simultaneously worrying about population growth and population decline. Goldilocks population feelings: it needs to be just right.

I did not watch Trump’s speech. I can’t stand listening to that guy. Someone clipped a 2-minute section where he was rambling utterly incoherently and I couldn’t even make it through two minutes. Saw the markets tank. Good for them. Maybe they are getting it now. It really is something. I think people could foresee that someday Iran would potentially try and block the Straight. But everyone assumed America, who fucking loves invading the Middle East, would get a boner for opening it back up. But nope, joke’s on you, sucker. Not only are we not going to open it up, we were the ones who managed to get it closed. Just fantastic.

I lied a bit yesterday, when I said the status quo, what is happening right now, is what is going to keep on happening: Iran will control the Straight and pick who’s allowed to go through. In fact, Iran will be vastly better off than right now. They are going to make so much money off of this. They are going to negotiate a ridiculous deal. They will absolutely get access to the banking system again. Maybe not all of it, but enough of it. They will restart their nuclear program. Trump is going to fold completely, give them whatever they want, and declare victory. He will let someone else, in the future, clean up the mess. And it’s not clear anyone will ever clean up the mess.

Unless Israel nukes ‘em.

This is so fucked.

I think about it constantly and marvel that the world is just going about its business.

I need a therapist, man.

It is so grey and rainy here I am sick of this shit I need some sunlight.

I love that people keep talking about how easy vibe coding is. Then they vibe code a thing and go straight to LinkedIn or Threads to brag the cool thing they just vibe coded. Like… why? You don't brag about working on a spreadsheet on LinkedIn. Everyone’s so scared of being replaced by AI they are doing everything they can to show they are with it.

Never.

Into the abyss I go.

Jane is watching a video about space now. My god this girl loves space so much. I wonder what her fascination with space is. Maybe she can be the next North Carolinian woman to go on a space mission. Could I emotionally handle my daughter going on a rocket? Yeah, I could probably handle it. I’d be terrified, but I could handle it.

Oh and when watching Armageddon the other day. I realized that that’s how I want to go: I want to be vaporized by a nuke, while standing on an asteroid millions of miles from earth. Instant, painless death, but far enough away that it does not hurt anyone else. Sign me up.

Man I am scared of dying.

Man I need to see a therapist.

No playlist I haven’t listened to any new music in two days. Shit maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Maybe I need to listen to some new music. Or Weird Al. Maybe I need to listen to Weird Al.