I scared the hell out of a lot of people a week or so ago. I was so deluged with messages from the concerned and sympathetic that I've had trouble replying to all of them, and many only received cursory reply.
I regret that. I just had to not dwell on it for a little while.
I feel much better now, pretty much entirely due to the support I've received from everyone. Some gave in depth, others loaded their sentiments to make sure I'd appreciate it, but the breadth had an effect as well. I was really surprised by how many people contacted me.
A big part of why I've let this sit - aside from the importance of dwelling on positive things instead of digging the hole deeper - was because I have real contempt for internet drama queens who try to hold themselves hostage for tea, sympathy and simpbux.
Realized tonight that the main reason I'm drinking more is because I no longer have even mild emotional responses to anything, esp. media, unless I've had a few.
I figure Ultimate Blade Works is my best shot at breaking that trend, so let's try it, shall we?
Mine beloved mutuals and followers who aren't interested in dumb weeb shit and vidyagames would be well served to mute this thread, as usual.
Welcome, to Fap Angel Theater. Instead of watching a grown man try to self-medicate his crippling undiagnosed depression, we will watch him try self-therapy instead.
I could understand the ALS needles conceptually; it's permeated the public consciousness due to twenty years of forever war in the sandbox. And it *seems* easy.
But using sutures for *bleed stop,* not long-term closure done at the ER? Whomst the FUCK thinks that's normie skill?
That's surgery. Technically. Maybe. I dunno what the official demarcation like is for surgery but if that outpatient asshole could screw me for $400 of "surgery" for a local anesthetic and an endoscope up the nose then I think I can use the word freely.
Shit ain't simple
This is gear q***ing at its absolute WORST. Buy Shiny Thing. These people know they can spend money on TRAINING, right? But you actually have to show up for a class and pay attention. No instant gratification.
The usual clowns are popping a squat over my tumblr inbox to insist that there TOTALLY were armed dudes right outside the congressional chamber's doors. If that's true then I'd LOVE to talk about why the unarmed woman somehow met AOI for the cop and the rifle-armed man didn't.
If they'd zapped *that guy* I wouldn't have been surprised in the least. If cops will light up Philando Castile and Daniel Shaver, you REALLY think they'd hesitate against dudes with rifles *rushing Congress?*
But they didn't.
If they'd held fire despite *armed men* in that crowd that'd be Incredible And Laudable Restraint.
The article is paywalled so I'll just interject the reasons anyone should have:
1. He'll be too old by 2024. 2. The bull in the china shop has accomplished his most important mission. The neoliberals can slam the shattered remnants of the gate all they want. It changes naught.
The GOP establishment, and indeed the entire neoliberal establishment, has been thoroughly discredited. The people will no longer settle for culture war distractions or vague lip service about how outsourcing jobs is "for your own good." This term shattered all mirages.
The mad pace Trump set when he first entered office; the dogged resistance of his own party, the civ/mil bureaucracy and the entire elite leadership class... and then 2020, when the pandemic repeated and intensified every past lesson too massively to ignore.
A common theme in both historical accounts and fiction born of late 19th/early 20th century English culture is how the upper class egged on status competition in the lower ranks; especially between their own servants. Thomas the Tank Engine is a splendid example known to most.
The "Railway Series" books from which the original TV show were drawn were penned in the 40s, and it shows. If you remember anything about it, it's probably how often the engines sassed one another, exemplified by Gordon's expertise at being a smug prick.
This isn't accidental.
The engines are constantly competing with one another to earn "Sir Toppam Hat's" (note the title) praise as "very useful engines." Sir Hat isn't subtle about setting them against each other. (Nothing about those stories were particularly subtle.)