Week Ending 7/28

 Well, let's see. What happened this week? I rarely talk about the world at large, but it keeps being worthy of comment so...  

Joe Biden dropped out the race, only to give a speech that had me thinking - gee, that guy should run for president. Harris stepped up to take Biden's place and everyone seems to be excited about her, which is cool. Trump proved that getting shot at hasn't made him any less Trump, and his VP pick is trying to out-Trump Trump. The Olympics started in Paris. Oh, and I gather the world had the hottest day on record. Ever. So, that's a thing.

Yeah, big week for the world.

My week, a little quieter. 

I'm adjusting emotionally to mom's situation. It's still a big deal but, for now, it's not a huge weight I'm carrying. I have room to feel other things.

For instance, I started working on a new SimLit story - Strangerville Mystery, which will explore the Sims 4's one and only "adventure" expansion. I'll start posting chapters for that next month... give myself a little time to sort out the script.

I'm still waking up way too early. Not really sure what's going on there. 

One fun thing... 

The cats have a new laser pointer. It's become a nightly routine, after their dinner, that they come into the bedroom and chase the Red Dot. 

Of course, Hippy being Hippy, she insists we follow the routine strictly. She'll come in and meow at me until I get the laser pointer out. One night, when I didn't move quickly enough for her, she came up and lightly nipped my elbow, to make sure I was paying attention. 

But the next night was the fun one. I was tired, she wanted to play and I wasn't obliging her. So, Hippy got up on the bed, reached over onto the bedside table and knocked the laser pointed down onto the floor. 

I said, "OK, you got it down. Now you can use it. Let me show you how it works." 

So, I rolled it over until the button was facing up and pressed down on it. Hippy watched attentively, then batted at the laser point until the button was facing up again. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), she couldn't actually press the button hard enough to turn it on... but she tried. She clearly understood exactly what to do.

Really, if that cat had thumbs, forget Planet of the Apes. We'd have Planet of the Cats. She's already very clearly and deliberately teaching Juno's Shadow how to do stuff.

So, yeah... quiet week for me. Just working on my next story and laying the foundations for a future society of super-cats to take over the world.

Onward

Week Ending 7/21

OK, history is happening while I type this. Joe Biden has dropped out of the presidential race. This kind of thing hasn't happened in my lifetime. I have no idea what's going to happen next. So, I really have no commentary on these events at this time. Maybe later.

So, how am I doing? 

Not great. Leaving aside historic events happening around me, it's been a rough week. 

I keep waking up at 4:30 in the morning and today was the first time this week I managed to get back to sleep and get up at a normal time. I'm upset by my mom's cancer. I support her and her choices 100%, but it doesn't change that I have deep feelings about things. 

So, lots of stress, very tired and world shacking stuff. 

It's been long, long week. 

Onward

Week Ending 7/14

 OK, so today I'm not going to talk about current events. Maybe I'll do a separate post on that, maybe not... but for now, we'll talk about my week. 

Which hasn't been too bad.

I talked to Juno about the whole "waking up at 6:30am" problem and, naturally, she had a solution. She moves my laptop (which to be fair to myself is a whole rig of laptop, power cables and table... not nearly as portable as it ought to be) into the spare bedroom (my former office) in the evening. When I wake up early, I can go in there and do stuff while she sleeps. Pretty simple solution, I know. Probably a measure of how tired I am that I didn't think of it. :)

Naturally, most days this week I didn't get up that early anyway, but it's still a good plan and I works when we need it to. 

I've also sorted out my "painting marsh cultists" problem. Rather than trying to batch paint them (that's painting one color on the whole group of 10, then the next and basically trying to paint the whole set at once) I'm focusing on one model at a time and putting the others out of sight. Much less stressful. I've only got one to finish. I should probably post a picture of them when I get done.

In other miniatures new, I order some - including a birthday present for D - from GW and they arrived this week. Smashed. The shipping box was completely crushed... accordion-style. The minis got pretty messed up. I was... unhappy. Fortunately, GW customer service didn't blink. They just shipping a full replacement order the same day. Fingers crossed it arrives in better shape.

Well, that's the week. 

Next week should be interesting. The new Sims Forum is supposed to go live and the old one shut down. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Onward 

Week Ending 7/7

 Oops... I lost track and forgot that yesterday was Sunday. 

So, how was the week? 

Well, I seem to be waking up at 6:30 in the morning, which is annoying if only because Juno doesn't wake up until her alarm goes off at 7:30. That means I kinda have an hour where I have to be quiet and not really do much and when I've only got 2-4 hours in a day, that's a big deal. (Yeah, OK, I just realized how much that bothers me as I type this. I'll figure it out.)

I'm still working on painting my marsh cultists. They are detailed, intricate, complex minis and that means they are annoying as all get out to paint. Too many fiddly bits. I'm sure some artists at Games Workshops design studio is really proud of them but they're really just a pain to paint.

Otherwise, meh, it was a week. 

Onward

On Presidential Immunity and the War for the Human Soul

I'm once again going to talk about politics and the world, rather than just my health and family. 

You have been warned. 

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Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that presidents have "presumptive immunity" against prosecution for "official acts." This has been heralded by some, myself included, as the death of our democracy, the overturning of the rule of law and bestowing of royal authority to the president. I've heard it said that these descriptions don't go far enough. 

With this one ruling, everything has changed.

At the same time, nothing has changed.

The United States was already facing a crisis, a struggle between totalitarianism and democracy. Donald Trump and the GOP have already shown their contempt for democracy and the rule of law. They have already announced their belief in absolute presidential authority and their intension to rule as dictators. This corrupt ruling by a corrupt court simply highlights that reality. Without it, do we really believe a second Trump presidency would have held back? I do not.

This crisis is larger than Donald Trump. It is larger than the US presidential election of November 2024. It is larger than this corrupt Supreme Court. They are all merely symptoms. 

Yesterday, the far-right party in France won a major election and stands ready to sweep into power. 

In Russia, a totalitarian dictator already rules and wages war on the democracies around him.

In Middle East, far right leaders and terrorists already wage bloody war, destroying countless innocent civilians in the process. 

The whole world is already caught in a war. A world war of ideas and of blood waged between totalitarianism and democracy, between cruelty and kindness, between selfishness and compassion. 

We stand on the edge of a precipice and should we fall the horrors of Nazi Germany will be remembered not as the darkest hour of humanity but as a mere prologue to the nightmare of the 21st century. 

These were always the stakes.

Here, in the United States, this is not about the next election. A victory for Joe Biden and the Democrats will not end the threat to democracy. The battle against totalitarianism would still go on, every election, every day, that followed. A victory for Donald Trump and the Republicans might very well end democracy as we know it, but that battle against totalitarianism would still go on, fought all the fiercer, every day that followed.

Because this is not a fight between political parties. It is not a fight for the soul of our nation. It is a fight for the soul of humanity. 

If, by this corrupt act, the United States Supreme Court has finally made this clear to all of us, then at least some good has come out of it.

We will not falter. 

We will not surrender. 

We dare not fail.

Onward