Movie night here at Crooked House...vittles/beverages courtesy of my homies at Ghost Runner Pizza. Films are John Woo's The Killer and Hard Boiled, and Ringo Lam's City on Fire.

Really thinking that since in 4 plus years neither the gastroenterologist nor the hematologist/oncologist can figure out what is killing me by inches...* I'm gonna start playing the lotto, so I can hire a forensic pathologist to put me under and go digging around to see what they can find.

'Rescue' is not coming. We're going to have to save ourselves. Which is going to require some harsh lessons getting learned...in a variety of ways, by a variety of people. But as many of my instructors were fond of telling us: "Survival is its own reward."

"Only the man who has successfully rid himself of the chains of oppression and seen all the horrors being perpetrated against the human race can be persuaded that his freedom and that of his neighbor are inviolable, as are their lives, and that his neighbor is his brother." -Nestor Makhno

Refuse to manufacture faux grief. Refuse all performative emotion. Refuse to feel shame for lacking any prayers.

Appointment with one of the docs today...still losing weight (which the doc said they'd never seen someone on Prednisone do, so I'm still a medical miracle), but got taken out for some lunch and a library run after.

I spent a little more than 1/2 to my life making most of my money doing things that could be politely described as "violence, or the threat thereof, for hire." It's at best a temporary solution, if it's one at all. But the fact remains, it's an incredibly effective tool against oppression.

This afternoon's listening. aindulmedir.bandcamp.com/album/the-wi...

"Nothing’s more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all." -Fred Hampton, August 30, 1948-December 4, 1969

Jeebus wept but some days the decision to quit smoking comes down a little hard. The vape doesn't do what a proper Dunhill or Silk Cut does.

Taking advantage of the last day of meds, and thus having an appetite, with a bowl of Hu Tieu Tom Thit at one of my favorite local spots.

Just a reminder: The corporations and government have never given a shit about you, me or any of us. Everything we have, and what they're trying to take back, was paid for in blood. Don't forget Blair Mountain, Paint & Cabin Creek, the Haymarket & every other time folks had to stand up and fight.

my "pathological issues with authority figures" validated more and more every day

Might still be wasted/wasting away, but I can wear my favorite T-shirt again:

Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.

I get the fantasy but have never understood wanting flying cars in our reality. I've seen how people glitch at four-way stops and have no desire to add a Y-axis

"We've spent a lot of money on the military and now they have nothing to do so we might as well let the president use it domestically to satisfy his own petty grudges" is precisely why the Founders feared a standing army. I mean, it's pretty much fucking verbatim.

Tapering off the Devil's Tictacs fucking sucks.

The problem for our overlords is that there are generations who have grown up queer, weird as fuck and empathic. Generations that have only ever needed blatant shared enemies in the centre of vision to forget about the bullshit of identity atomisation.

Bourdain biopic should be a revisionist history inglorious bastards style where he kills Kissinger

"History was full of the bones of good men who'd followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh, yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right where they started following bad orders." -Terry Pratchett, Jingo

I can’t do big grand things to make anything better. But I can do small things that make individuals’ lives just a little bit easier. And these days. I think that matters a lot. 🫀

For #nationalbookloversday the first Discworld I read, and still probably my favorite of all of them. Found it in MWR in Kuwait, and still have that same copy floating around here somewhere.

Tonight's reading, and one of my favorite books of verse/aphorisms/maxims.

Just a reminder kiddos: While TV/Hollywood/etc may have shown otherwise...it is pretty much impossible to talk your way _out_ of getting arrested. Just remember that whatever the calendar may say, it is always "Shut the Fuck Up Friday" when it comes to pork.

Awesome mail day from my homie Shua Verde. Gotta say, these live up to the hype.

one relatively minor thing that's come alongside the rise of SOF veterans as influencers is the idea that these people know how to win wars, when the birth of special forces as an institution can be directly graphed alongside the U.S. no longer winning real wars

40 mg of Prednisone for breakfast is a hell of a thing.

It's mildly vexing that when a bunch of us quit Spotify almost five years ago over Ek's investments in military/battlefield AI nonsense...everybody acted like we were pearl-clutching assholes.

Elmo's official account has been hacked over on Twitter. The Tweets have been taken down.

The thing that currently sucks the most, and it's a long list believe me, with this chronic health (or rather lack thereof) is that if I tried to get his shot again is that I'd more than likely end up either passed out in a ditch for park personnel to eventually find.

My list is also definitely longer, basically if I read one and liked it, and they have more than five...they're on it. So... Terry Pratchett Ursula K. Le Guin Clive Barker Glen Cook William Gibson Ellis Peters Andrew Vachss Iain Banks Richard Kadrey Neal Stephenson

Mikey is probably my favorite person to listen to talk about movies. Ever, of all time. And this? Well, let's just say that pretty much every reason that the above statement is true, is on display here. This one might be the homie's masterpiece, and you should watch it.

Consecutive mail days are pretty awesome.

Please repost this so others can see it. Thanks.

Awesome mail day, from The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir, and Fiadh Productions. Not pictured but also included with six (freaking six!) download codes for other various albums/EPS along with the other various goodies shown.

Ordered my first actual physical record in a good while, because damn...it was just such a pretty platter (it's also an awesome album too).

In the ongoing saga of 'Perhaps I Have Been Alive Too Long"... I became someone who wears bi-focals today.

In the continuing saga of "Geist has been alive entirely too long"... This year I'm getting bifocals.

Set a new speed record for downing two of these this morning. And while the unflavored one is terrible, still better than the alleged 'banana' ones.

The food "class" tastes quiz thing going around is kind of hilarious if you know anything about food history. To what should be absolutely no one's surprise, I'm almost 93% lower class, because a) truffles suck, and b) if I'm going to eat a big aquatic bug, lobster ain't gonna be my first pick.

See also:

Don't know who needs to hear it, but:

Get ready for another 20 year long "Mission Parameters have expanded" war. With all the culture from the War on Terror to boil up again, state side surveillance of civilians coated in Trumpian "loyalty or death" rhetoric, and misinformation campaigns to coincide with proxy wars

My folks at Ghost Runner had a special combining two of my most favorite things weekend: Pizza and Cuban sandwiches. Mustard cream sauce base, mozz, house made mojo pork and pickles.

It's great seeing everyone's tips for keeping cool. Here's mine. i) Take a trip to the mountains. ii) Spend some time in a cooling cave. iii) Find an underground lake. iv) Get undressed. v) Hunt the silvery fish and eat them raw. vi) Forget the torments of the evil face in the sky.

I may feel like I was in a car wreck, then lost three rounds to Tyson in his prime...but I still hauledy half dead carcass down to the pulling place and did it.

Mikey and crew are always on the top top of doing stuff...but you have to love it when they do one of your two favorite (and one of the two greatest) crime movies ever made.

First 'mater sammich of the season: White bread, 'mater (salted and peppered), Kewpie mayo.

Beautiful 'maters from the farmers' market today. Gonna have some delicious sammiches out of these.