Recent Reading: "The End of the World As We Know It"

The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand

Edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene

Editors Golden and Keene assembled a large, talented group of writers to create stories set in the universe of Stephen King's classic plague novel The Stand. Some of the stories take place as the superflu is emerging and decimating the world's population, some as dream and nightmare-plagued characters are compelled to head to where they've been called by either good (Mother Abagail in Nebraska) or evil (Randall Flagg in Las Vegas). There are also a few stories set well into the post-Captain Trips future.

 

The good news: the authors did a uniformly great job of creating well-developed characters who come to life vividly and who mesh seamlessly into the world of Captain Trips. In fact, I'd say the book's strongest suit is how well the authors were able to recreate the world and the feel of The Stand.

The bad news was neatly explained by a YouTube video review of this book that I stumbled upon early in my reading. Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark it and I can't remember the account name so I can't link to it, but the YouTuber's overall assessment was that while a lot of the stories in this book are good,  none are really great, and that was exactly my experience. Maybe it's the sheer number of stories, but while some were interesting, there isn't one that is haunting me the way the source material did. I'm hard-pressed to remember more than the most recent ones as I write this. 

 

This is a massive book - 765 pages, 34 stories, forwards by Golden and King, and an afterword by Keene, plus an About the Authors section. I started it in late August and finally finished it last night. 

 

Fun factoid: With the exception of Randall Flagg and Mother Abagail (who appear repeatedly) of all the original characters in The Stand it was Larry Underwood - and his apparently immortal song "Baby Can You Dig Your Man" - who is name-checked the most in this collection. Wasn't expecting that, but Larry and his lone hit record pop up a lot.

NOTE: I bought this book prior to King's comment on X/Twitter about Charlie Kirk following his murder - an accusation that was false, acknowledged as incorrect, deleted, and apologized for. I had already started the book and since King already got my money, I wanted to finish it partly because I was curious as to how the authors responded to the assignment, and also because as a published short story author I was intrigued by the thought of what kind of story I would have come up with had I been a participating author.

 

Loving the new Twitter, but there's still room for improvement

I'm one of those people who returned to Twitter after Elon Musk bought it last year. Regardless of what you think of Musk (or why) my personal experience since returning is  that it's a better, freer place since it came under new ownership.

 

I had actually been off Twitter for about a year and a half when I decided to give version 2.0 a shot. I had previously been on Twitter (and pretty much addicted to it) for more than ten years when I finally gave up on it in early 2021. It had turned from an amazingly open, informative and enjoyable experience into a slanted, toxic pit that just wasn't fun anymore. At all. Even more telling, I never felt like I was missing out on anything during the period I was gone. But Twitter is fun, interesting, and informational again.

However, there are still signs of the old, fun-adverse, truth-adverse Twitter. Somewhere along the line someone thought it was a good idea to give users a condescending "warning" when they post what some clearly objective (*sarcasm*) bonehead has decided is "potentially harmful or offensive language".

"Most Tweeters don't post replies like this" - Yeah, they post worse. Also, condescending much?

This was my response to a Tweet criticizing a protest outside of a McDonald's that had been organized to lambast the fast-food behemoth for not paying "living" wages. The original tweet pointed out the obvious, that burger-flipping is a job for unskilled teenagers (as I was when I worked there back in the day) and basically, I agreed. And yes, any idiot can be taught to do it. There's nothing harmful or offensive about pointing that out. It's the truth. McDonald's was designed that way. Unless you're the manager or franchisee, it's not meant to be a living wage career. It's a starter job, a pocket money job, it's not something you raise a family on. 

 

Expecting McDonald's to throw money at unskilled labor is like starting your career in a bottom rung, foot in the door job and never rising above that level, but expecting your salary to rise to the same level as someone who is actually moving up in the world. Basically, the protest is that McDonald's isn't paying high-skilled wages for menial, entry-level jobs. And that doesn't make sense. All that I and the original poster did was point out that obvious fact.

And in terms of the content of my tweet, there's the issue that you don't have to spend much time on Twitter to see much worse, to see posts that are genuinely vile, vicious, and at times even threatening. My tweet is one of the milder things you'll see on Twitter, which is much more open to a variety of opinions these days, but still retains some of its crazy, wild-west aspects from the old days. And I got a warning about (I assume) using the word "idiot"?

In case you're wondering, yes, I did hit the edit button, but not to edit my tweet. I added that the tweet had gotten the stupid Twitter warning and then posted it as originally written because no, there was nothing harmful or offensive about it.

And if you think that burger-flippers and other low-skilled workers deserve big bucks, there's these shining examples of the law of unintended consequences, but that's a conversation for another day.

As for Twitter, it's great to have it back, but there's still a little tweaking to do.

That coveted blue check

I personally don't care about a Twitter blue verification check, but I'm also not part of the celebrity elite who like everyone to know how special they are. Also, I've heard it's $8 per month, not $5. But either way, we can't have our poor celebrities going broke to keep their blue checks. Case in point:

Imagine having LeBron money and not wanting to fork out $5 a month for a verified account. Poor baby.

I just thought the responses were funny. Because, yeah.

The gift that keeps on taking

The stock market is plummeting, grocery prices are skyrocketing, 401k's are getting murdered and gas prices are still way high. I made two trips to the gas station in November and spent over $140 ($142.46 to be exact). This to put gas in a car that used to be filled from near-empty for around $50. 

Merry Christmas?

Famous idiot makes stunning and brave vehicular statement

A number of celebrities have been getting their panties in a wad over Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter because apparently they equate free speech with fascism, white supremacy, and various other imagined evils that are the opposite of their warped idea of freedom. Whatever. 

 

The point is when self-righteous celebs get on their high horses, you just know hilarity is gonna ensue. Most of the entertainment has been provided by blue-checked types announcing their departure from Twitter, then hanging out to see the reactions rather than following up by actually, you know, departing Twitter. I just have one thing to say about that:

Seriously, if you don't want to be on Twitter, just go. I did a couple years ago because Twitter had become a one-sided cesspool. Too many interesting accounts were being banned simply due to a difference in politics and it just wasn't fun anymore. I closed my account and never missed it. When the Musk purchase was announced, I decided to give it another shot and guess what - it's fun again! If someone or something offends me, I can simply block them. It's not like you're forced to read stuff you don't want to. 

Which leads us to this: Actress Alyssa Milano decided to make a big fat statement (while still retaining her Twitter account) about how despicable Elon Musk's Twitter is by announcing that she could no longer in good conscience drive a Tesla (but still retain her Twitter account, because without it, how could she make her super-informed, holier-than-thou opinions known to the great unwashed). 

So she stunningly and bravely traded in her Tesla for a Volkswagen EV. 

Why a VW, I have no idea, but if she was trying to make a humanitarian statement (and she was) it backfired on her spectacularly. 

This is what happens when you don't study history, kids.

 

From Wikipedia:

So in other words...

 

 

Enjoy the comments! 

Recent reading: "Deep Work"

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success In a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

When it comes to self-improvement books, two being the most recommended these days seem to be Atomic Habits (which I haven't read yet) and Deep Work.

In Deep Work, author Cal Newport examines modern-day time wasters, with an emphasis on social media and e-mail. While he acknowledges the benefits these provide, he also argues that they provide constant distraction that takes people away from maintaining concentration on important work, especially those he refers to as "knowledge workers". 

Newport's system is not to completely give up social media and e-mail but to put them in their place and put restrictions on them. And while that might seem obvious, apparently it's not so obvious because people are constantly distracted by these things.

Newport walks the talk in that he is a Deep Work success story. He has managed to juggle being a college professor pursuing tenure, while writing books, publishing peer-reviewed papers, and raising a family without losing his mind. He also accomplished all this while keeping most evenings and weekends free for leisure time, and I think that might be one of the key things about his approach - he doesn't promote working 24/7, but making work time really count. 

 

For someone like me, for whom procrastination and wasting time are art forms, there was some useful and inspirational advice in this book. I will never be a deep worker on Newport's level, but it gave me a lot to consider to try to be at least a little more productive.

 

From the book:

Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

Words of Wisdom from a couple of old guys, and dumb words from another old guy

A couple of things...

 

First off, here's a great article from Airplane! co-creator David Zucker on the sad state of the entertainment industry kowtowing to a small minority of shrill, humorless keyboard warriors: 'Airplane' creator slams joy-killing threat: 'Twitter 9 percent'. Also, does he sound like a cool dad or what?

 

Julie Hagerty has the greatest hair ever in this film.

So jealous.

 

There's also a link to an article about HBO Max putting a "warning" in front of their airings of the classic comedy Blazing Saddles. I couldn't bring myself to waste brain cells reading that one since I know it's going to be painfully lame and probably annoyingly hectoring as well. Just hearing about the "warning" made me flash back to the condescending warnings on the Looney Tunes DVDs. You mean ethnic and racial stereotypes are bad? Gee, thanks for the enlightenment, Warner Bros.! I had no idea. Seriously, if you have to be told that, much less lectured, maybe you shouldn't be trying to operate a DVD player. Also, I'm never a fan of being talked down to, especially as a consumer, so there's that as well.

 

Like many fans who grew up on Looney Tunes, I know the difference between cartoons and real life, I understand that society has changed over the years and decades and I understand that works of art created in different era will reflect the values and attitudes of those eras. It's not rocket science.

 

Speaking of rockets, William Shatner, Captain James Tiberius Kirk himself, blasted off into space earlier this week and by all accounts had, well, a blast. From the linked article:

 

The actor grew emotional and was occasionally at a loss for words describing the flight to the man who made it possible.

 

"It was so moving to me," Shatner said. "This experience is something unbelievable."

 

He said that he was overwhelmed, and that Bezos has given him the most profound experience he can imagine. "I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened...it's extraordinary," he told Bezos.

 

"I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now," he said. "I don't want to lose it."

 

Jeff Bezos, per South Park. Just sayin'.

 

Do read the whole article and play the video of Shatner reacting to the flight. It's priceless how blown away he was by the experience. I thought he did a pretty good idea of articulating his thoughts, given the mind-boggling circumstances.

 

When his Star Trek costar George Takei was asked for comment, for some dumbass reason known only to him, he felt the need to piss on Shatner's parade, making these comments (bold mine):

 

"He's boldly going where other people have gone before," snarked Takei, 84, to Page Six when asked about Shatner making history as the oldest person to ever go to space.

 

"He's a guinea pig, 90 years old and it's import to find out what happens," Takei added while at the opening of "Thoughts of a Colored Man" on Wednesday night.

 

"So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he'll be a good specimen to study. Although he's not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he'll be a specimen that's unfit!" 

 

Imagine that. A 90-year-old guy who isn't "the fittest specimen". The 84-year-old Takei on the other hand sounds like a petty teenage girl snarking on the popular girl and thinking she's oh-so-clever but actually sounds like an idiot. Sure, Shatner may be a little on the beefy side but at least he's not a jealous, petty little bitch. Whatever, Sulu.

Apparently Shatner was going to let it go, but was encouraged to respond, so he took to Twitter (as one does these days) and this is what he had to say about that:

There were some great reactions to his statement:

And that's enough entertainment news for today, I hope.

Buuuuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn

Get that boy some aloe vera!

Yes, what would Jesus do? Probably would have owned this pinhead just like Britton Wolf did.

This reminds me of a meme I saw a few years back: "Jesus loves you. The rest of us think you're an asshole." Heh.

Oh, snap

Last July Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promoted #BoycottGoya when Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue expressed support for President Trump.

It didn't have the desired effect. In fact, it had exactly the opposite effect: Goya's sales shot up.

During an interview Monday, Unanue announced that thanks to the resulting 1000% sales increase following Ocasio-Cortez's tweet, he had named her Goya's "Employee of the Month" earlier this year. 

And that, my friends, is how you deal with cancel culture. 

Duping the masses

This morning I saw a story on YouTube from CBS News referring to Joe Biden as "President-Elect Biden", despite the fact that no actual winner has officially been determined. There are recounts and legal challenges to deal with first. The media doesn't get to "call" an election. CBS News knows it, Biden knows it. And yet they seem to have no compunction about misleading the American public. Right now I could claim the title of President-Elect. So could you. Trump could. Right now all of us are equally entitled to it. No one has actually, officially received it yet.

Yesterday on social media someone mentioned that ABC News and NBC News had removed video of their election coverage from last Tuesday night showing President Trump leading in voting in certain states, before those same certain states stopped counting votes and received mysterious deliveries of hundreds of thousands of ballots that oddly (against all logic or statistical possibilities) favored one candidate. Despite those oddities, none of these "news" entities seem interested in reporting that. And we know if the ballots were reversed, they'd be all over it. Instead, they're withholding information based on their own bias.

This is the same media that "called" a presidential victory for Al Gore in 2000, and we all know how that turned out. This needs to be figured out; the results need to be verified so that the American public can have faith in our elections, regardless of the results. We deserve it.

On top of that social media is peppering posts with election "warnings" of supposedly inaccurate and disputed information as determined by their totally not biased "fact checkers" even as they intentionally do the exact same thing they condescendingly claim to be protecting us unwashed masses from.

What all of this shows is that it seems that the news media, social media, and politicians have no shame when it comes duping the public. It's sad and manipulative, and it isn't helping anybody. It's pure political posturing. Biden and the media have led his supporters into thinking it's a done deal. One can only imagine what will happen if investigations into irregularities at the polls gives Trump the win. The media and Democratic party know damn well they can use it to try to delegitimize a different result and that Biden's supporters will explode if the prize that's been dangled in front of them turns out to have been false all along. And yet they're doing it anyway. That's what they think of us. We're mere pawns to them, peasants who can't think for ourselves and need our political and media betters to do it for us. That's what they think of us. They certainly don't care about us.

Last week I blogged about my hair salon boarding up their windows in anticipation of rioting in the event that the election went one particular way. Countless other businesses did the same. They probably thought they would have been able to remove them by now. Regardless of what certain people are claiming, they might want to keep them up for a while.

No links. I don't want to contribute to the spread of false news or false hopes. Unlike the media and politicians, I have too much respect for the public to do that.

October Words of Wisdom

An ocean breeze puts the mind at ease. --Unknown

Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. --Ernest Hemingway

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. --Jane Austen

If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures. If you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly but the shame endures. --Gaius Musonius Rufus

Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it. --Mike Tyson

Tears come from the heart, not from the brain. --Leonardo da Vinci

Now more than ever, your home should be a sanctuary. --Debbie Jones-Permenter

Happiness is the greatest middle finger of all time. --Unknown

People think I'm anti-social because I don't join their conversations. The truth is, I don't give a damn what they're talking about most of the time. --Heath Ledger

When I was at home I was in a better place. --William Shakespeare

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. --Deepak Chopra

I need a break from all the noise. I want to breathe clean air, swim in clear blue water and listen to the stillness. I want to be out where things are simple and every breath is a reminder that there is still beauty and magic left in this world. --Brooke Hampton

We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are. --Max Depree

All conditioned things are impermanent. Work on your own salvation with diligence. --Buddha

Ever wonder what Commander Riker would sound like drunk? Of course you have.

If you need a good laugh - and let's face it, we all do these days - WATCH THIS.

"Have you ever noticed how many successful restaurants are theme based...these days?"

Big fat tip 'o the hat to Jord/Jax on Twitter for posting this.

God I love The Babylon Bee

Pennywise: Only slightly less scary than some of the drag queens I've seen online.

The Babylon Bee has been on a roll lately. The best part is when people who don't get them feel the need to point out that they're a satire site. And the crazier the news is, the better they are at mocking the crazy shit.

Assholes of Twitter

Twitter can be a real insane asylum sometimes. Did I say insane asylum? I meant total shit show. When I see some of the things people post on that platform, I find myself marveling at how misinformed, nasty, uncivilized, and awful people feel free to be, especially when they feel emboldened by not having to actually face the Twitter peeps they're spouting off to. I'd bet good money most are spineless keyboard warriors that would fold in a face-to-face debate.

What's really crazy is that these jackasses are often the most blatant practitioners of the very intolerant behavior and faults they like to accuse others of wallowing in. You know, bigot, racist, homophobe, misogynist, hater, and lots of other buzzwords that have lost their meaning due to chronic abuse and misuse. You know, these people:

But this one really scraped the bottom of the barrel, even for Twitter:

The "stepping away for a bit" post isn't anything unusual. People being treated like shit to the point of needing to take a break (while Twitter doesn't do a damn thing about it because they're too busy shutting down opposing political viewpoints) is nothing new to this particular version of the Wild West. It's the person who was being bullied in this particular case that set me off. Who is Tank Schottle on Twitter, you ask? Well, he's this guy:

That's right. A Special Olympian. Which is a new low even for batshit crazy Twitter critters.

I don't know who bullied Tank Schottle and I'm not going to waste my time on the offending posts and the resultant weeping for humanity caused by the knowledge that this piece of shit walks among us. I've been on Twitter long enough to know how unreasonable - and often scary - some of those people can be. I'm just not in the mood to pull on the boots and slog through some unhinged garbage that some chicken-shit asswipe thinks makes him look like a big man on the Twitter campus.

I hope after the initial sting wears off that Tank gets back in the Twitter saddle and continues to be one of the people that keep it from becoming completely unpalatable. I did try to help in some small way:

But as you probably noticed, 280 characters wasn't enough for my wrath, so say hello to this blog post.

It's been a while since I had a good old-fashioned blog rant. Feels pretty good, in case you were wondering. 😹

Updated: Can't keep a good man down!

Ah, the eternal question...

This popped up on my Facebook timeline and yes, it's a constant concern. LOL.

When you're looking up strange ways to kill people, dispose of bodies, or following weird conspiracy theory accounts on social media because they're good for "what if" story ideas...no really, officer, I'm a writer and it's just research.

Really.

The "Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself" stuff is never gonna get old

I'm one of those people who believe filthy rotten pedophile and general all-around piece of shit Jeffrey Epstein had too much dirt on a lot of powerful people who would prefer not to have said dirt exposed to the world, and so he had to die, and not by his own hand. Too bad. I would loved to have seen that dirty laundry aired. I love it when bad people who do bad things get their comeuppance. And I don't care how rich, powerful or important they are. They're not exempt from the same laws - both common human decency and criminal laws - that govern the rest of us. Well, they shouldn't be.

Apparently I'm not alone in believing Epstein didn't off himself because the internets have been going crazy lately with "Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself" memes and references. This ain't going away any time soon.

Here are just a few I've come across in the past few days. Enjoy!

This next one was a gif that I couldn't figure out how to embed, so I just did screenshots:

A brewery in Clovis, California got into the act:

The Epstein meme meets A Christmas Story:

The Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra part just kills me. And on that note - although I know I'm going to be seeing a lot more of this meme - I'm wrapping up this post.

Update 11/14/19: I knew there would be more I couldn't resist.