Some books I finished recently…a really interesting fantasy book from Martha Wells and the Booker Prize winner which doesn’t need any hype from me (and which I finished in one day on a too cold to go outside weekend).

Went to daughter’s Drama/Broadway recital tonight. Yesterday was her orchestra concert. Between this, writing group, ice skating, and chess club, I am constantly at her events/practices. Good problems I guess.

I finished XCOM 2 yesterday. I had completed the game up to the final mission many years ago. I see why I put it down…this was by far the most unbalanced, unfun, ridiculous final mission in any game I can remember.

Went pond skating twice this weekend. Watched Iowa WBB, Kansas MBB get wins…and now Packers beat bears!

Gamers help me… Recently finished… Witcher 3 Warhammer Rogue Trader KCD 2 Baldur’s Gate 3 Cyberpunk RDR2 Wrapping up Outer Worlds 1 What should I play next? I want an immersive RPG with moving story. Please repost if you are a gamer and see this so I can get a broad range of input. Thank you!

Ha, I almost…ALMOST, got involved in a discussion with a fucking muppet that was spouting off on the WNBA negotiations and all sorts of misinformation about profitability. I need to remember there are plenty of sheep for the patriarchy on this app, just less than on some other apps.

Carver Arena in Iowa City the night before Thanksgiving (crowd filled in by tipoff)…love to see women’s sports supported. Highlight of the day was seeing Taylor Stremlow and Layla Hayes at the Bread Garden a few hours before game.

I drove to the food pantry to donate some items and ended up sitting in my car fucking weeping because of the line of people waiting in the cold for food. We need some solutions, and some leadership to get people out in the fucking streets doing something. Fuck the midterms, people are hungry.

This was an amazing read, highly recommend. Magical realism but will teach you a lot you didn’t know about the Dust Bowl Midwest.

Some books I read while sick this weekend…

As a family, we really love NCAA basketball…last night was first official action for Iowa women and Kansas men…easy victories against a couple of tomato cans.

Doug Martin - beloved former NFL player known as “Muscle Hamster” - died in police custody. 36 yrs old No details on what the police did to him. Only the police version of events right now where they say “We took him into custody after a scuffle and then he became unresponsive.” That’s all we get.

Sadly, no matter how much people want to argue over ‘what went wrong’, this explains the main issue. In the swing state of Wisconsin, you put two white people on the ballot statewide and the Dem wins, you put a black person on the ballot the GOP wins. It horrifies me that this is true, but it is.

The biggest scandal in US public life *ought* to be that we are the richest country in history & yet our infrastructure sucks, our transportation choices suck, our cities suck, our healthcare sucks, our public administration sucks, & in dozens of little ways, our daily lives suck.

Did a short Labor Day weekend road trip to Minneapolis. Great time, such a cool city. This pic is from a walk in early morning mist.

•Sid Meier’s Civilization •Elder Scrolls •Fallout •Baldur’s Gate (Forgotten Realms)

I finally finished Wolf Hall. I don’t need to add my praises, it deserves the acclaim it has received. What drove me mad is the parallels to our world today…sycophants tripping over themselves to give a despot what he wants, grifting off his scraps while the common man suffers.

Thunderstorms and feels like 97F, so what do you do??…put on some shoes that many, many people have worn and roll a ball down an oiled lane… #Bowling

This!!!! Is sickens me that fanboys for billionaires don’t understand the very simple fact that one person can not generate that type of income without exploiting the labor of others.

Book fair in the town square today…a series for the kid and something for me as well…

This poster highlights a huge problemaverage voter thinks tariffs aren’t that bad because they haven’t seen the impacts. The issue of that companies are playing games with front loading inventory because no one wants to be first one to raise prices and lose market share. Price increases will happen.

I really...REALLY struggled to get out of bed and do a run before it got hot...mission accomplished...the rest of the day revolves around a matinee of Wicked the Musical in Madison, WI...

Took a short hike yesterday (muggy as can be and the bugs were out in force)...Yellow Bellied Sapsucker was being industrious....

Cedar Waxwing…just a beautiful bird….looks like a little miscreant with the eye mask… #birds

Padres up 8-1, should be safe to go on a bike ride with the family and neighborhood friends and come back to a win….right!?!? Go Padres!!

Saturday so far…changed bed linens, redid the litter box, finished Red Dead Redemption 2 epilogue, went for a run in the hot murk, came home for sun tea and a shower… Later: Bowling with kid’s friends and their parents, Grilling something delish, WNBA all star game…. #weekends

I can not recommend this book enough, although I have to warn that it touches on very dark themes of domestic abuse and sexual assault. #books Charlotte McConaghy is an excellent writer, and I have her bestseller Migration on a shelf to read in the near future.

My company gives us half days on Friday in the summer…so I am at the community pool with kid and friends and a Man Booker Prize winning book… #Summer

Dark. Harsh. Relentless and unforgiving. And a very good read, quite unique. #Books

Just saw a post from an account that said 99.9% of men are the same exact person with no unique thoughts and their entire purpose is to use women. 21,000 people follow this account. Great society where our response to trauma is making insane assertions that fuel hatred.

Near future post-apocalyptic dystopia, set on a First Nation reservation in Northern Ontario. Really good, reminds me of Station Eleven in some ways.

I picked this up, staff recommended, at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. Horror/mystery on a Louisiana reservation across two generations. Excellent read. #Books

Steam sale is on! Anyone want to suggest a good zombie game? I have not played one in a while.

Spending a long weekend in Chicago…

Orbital was an amazing book, really unlike anything I have ever read.

Folks…once we were ok with people hungry and homeless in the richest Country in the world so a few could have estates, well we could accept anything…school shootings, women have no bodily autonomy, a deranged rich moron pissing on the Constitution…’oh this seems bad, but nothing we can do’

Visit to Minneapolis has been a blast so far…here is a view of Target Center and Target Field from out hotel…going to Lynx game tonight…#WNBA

We’re #1!!!

This tax bill...only a grifter or a person with the inability to understand how anything works could think this was an acceptable piece of legislation. There is going to be nothing useful left of our government if we let this continue. Happy Wednesday!

Spent the day in Milwaukee….lunch at Milwaukee Public Market

My honest question to all this is how many eggs do these MAGA fecks eat that they base the state of the economy on egg prices? Egg prices are driven by bird flu and corporate greed, not the president. How about we talking about the price of housing/shelter, which is prohibitive?

A Horrible Truth That Shouldn’t Be….

In the 1970's, as Japanese cars were first making serious inroads with American car buyers, American car companies responded not by building better cars, but by lobbying for protectionism. While their bloated marketing departments promised them that polls showed Americans wanted their cars.

Trump: "We won by 36 points, the youth." (This is a completely made up number -- Trump lost among young voters.)

There should be laws against this!

100% this!