T.Day in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

(1) Thank you for all the great notes on the Buffy Article. It is very cool to get everyone’s stories and reactions!

(2) My own Buffy (the girl whom I have pseudonym’d Buffy since the first day I met her) texted me Saturday morning to say she was thinking about me. She is married and has a kid and I haven’t seen her in a while. I really wish I could have had a better conversation with her (and need to learn how to be a better friend to her) but we were off to Apartment hunt so it was quick and a bit stilted. But seriously… she was one of my closest friends and is one of my oldest friends (we’ve been friends for almost 20 years) but… she lives so far away and is busy with her family and career. I suck as a friend, lol.

(3) Thanks for the encouragement yesterday. Ultimately, Wife came home in a mood so… whatever I did good or bad would have been met with crankiness and hostility. I’m not holding it against her because this is her stress right now… but I do kind of wish her stress response wasn’t “hostility.”

(4) Spring Break starts for several School Districts today. Meanwhile, Tiny Town is covered in about 6 inches of snow as of late last night.

(5) Because of the snow; I was the first one in the office by a solid 30 minutes. My first thought, “If I’m the only one that is in the office today, I’m leaving by noon!” Well… everyone else filed in so… I’m here. But I’m here to finish one Juvenile Case, write out my Juvenile Case Summaries, and begin to work on winnowing my criminal cases.

(6) I will say… allowing myself a brief moment of joy in self reflection… I am exhilarated and beaming (internally) that this is the LAST Monday in Tiny Town Prosecution!

(7) CRACKED: WHY MOVIES NOW LOOK LIKE COLORLESS, LIFELESS CRAP
But not without the reoccurring blue/gray filter that seems to haunt every blockbuster film.
And while we can debate all day about whether or not we need a “grounded” take on a big bald alien man creating dino-riding child soldiers … the greater problem is that we’ve somehow decided that “being realistic” is the same as “having the color palette of a Tool video.”
You can tell me that some of these shots are drab because of clouds or war dust – but I’m not arguing the motivation for the grayness so much as the constant inclusion of it. The added bonus became clear with CGI – which was way easier to blend when everything is the same uniform color.

(8) A CRACKED (so you can pretend it is funny or non-important) look at ways that Russia isn’t just “An Eastern USA” or “A wonderful ally against ISIS”
5 INSANE WAYS RUSSIA IS ITS OWN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

(9) In the current world, Conspiracies are everywhere. Some are fun light hearted ridiculous things. Some are dangerous and poisoning our country. This is a Cracked List of Conspiracies. Of particular note: If you see the name ALEX JONES or INFOWARS, this is a man and website that is “relied upon by the President” and whose articles sometimes find their way onto Breitbart.

(10) I have done a lot of PB reading today as well as too much FB posting (some cute, some political… seriously… Steve King’s 8 terms baffles and horrifies me. What. A. Douche Giant.) But I’ve also done work. I am officially done with all of my Juvenile Cases and I am officially done with all of my mental health cases. All I have left are Criminal.

(11) Here’s something funny. My Playstation is maxed on Hard Drive. One of the things we are going to try to do once the move is final is fix that issue. And we can’t fix it soon enough. I know, I know… I am going to be MONDO busy with Private Practice. I’m going to have zero free time. And what free time I have, likely, will be occupied by Friends and Family. AND (again) it appears that the Playstation 4 must be hooked up to the main TV when we move… so I won’t get to play that much as Wife will keep the main TV occupied when she isn’t working. All of that being said though… I’m excited for Injustice 2 to release May 16th. Mortal Kombat has been a part of my life since MK 1 dropped in October 1992. DC Comics have been a massive part of my life since 1989! So whenever they combined, I was excited for the game. MK v DCU was… meh. Honestly… it was meh. Injustice 1 was pretty good. A solid game but I was hoping for some more characters that really spoke to me. Injustice 2?! Holy Roster of Rogues, Batman! NOW I’m having trouble figuring out which of the beloved characters I’m more excited to play as. Red Hood, Black Canary, Atrocitus, Dr. Fate… though, admittedly, Red Hood has both been confirmed and not-officially-confirmed. So… seriously… they take Red Hood away and I’ll be all sad face.

(12) Pull Push Issue. As we’re filling out Apartment Contracts; I realize that technically I am leaving a 5k a month job to take a 2500 a month job… and I freeze. Just… the shock and astonishment of walking away for that… it still hits me. Like… am I crazy?! Of course, we’re moving back to a place that is alive, less racist, and less awful for us… but… the money… wow. THEN I come back to the Office and get a good reminder why it is okay to leave here. Allegedly, several years ago, a juvenile sexually molested another juvenile. The parents of the victim wanted us to charge this kid last year. They had no specifics, no dates, no ammunition for us to go after this kid. But I knew it was important to the parents, so I threw my Hail Mary. It didn’t work. The parents were furious with me. That somehow, on their “hope and a prayer” case… we didn’t even get to trial because the court said there was not enough information to charge. Well… those parents are back at it. Since we didn’t do our job; they have periodically harassed us. An officer even brought them into my office last year so they could take turns yelling at me. This afternoon they called saying they have specific dates and all the information we asked them for last year. But… conveniently… all the dates are from the last few months. So… the months that these parents were SO IRATE and SO PROTECTIVE of their child… but since those are the exact months that we would need for a new charge… yeah. The whole damned thing stinks like the parents inventing something. GLAD I don’t have to deal with it!!

(13) I can’t give up, I can’t submit, I can’t weaken my resolve. Trump, his advisers, his friends, his history… HONESTLY, I thought this level of racism and misogyny had been destroyed. But it is everywhere. And our system is so broken that it isn’t getting fixed. Trump, and his original Campaign Adviser, are openly hostile to women in positions of authority. In fact, they have been (in the last 20 years publicly) hostile to any woman that they can’t control. Which suggests people who are not about, nor capable of, living together with people different from them. None of this is new. None of this is news. Yet his supporters are more passionate than ever. And his supporters scream “We’re not racist, we just didn’t want Hillary!” Yeah? Go suck a goat dick. If you voted for Donald because “He wasn’t Hillary” it does NOT prevent you from seeing who he is and was. You can say, “I voted for him.” AND say, “he’s a constitution violating monster who aggressively demonizes anything he can’t control.” It isn’t about if you voted for him or not. It is about if you are seeing what is going on. He claims conspiracy after conspiracy echoing Breitbart and InfoWars… and then demands Government Investigations into these conspiracies. Meanwhile, the party of “less government spending” is footing millions of dollars to send Trump to FL so often, keep his wife in NY, just… the US is flushing tax payer’s money down the drain… all while the GOP is arguing to put in place a bill whose only real positive is MILLIONS in tax cuts to the super rich. This is what I cannot fathom. If you voted for him, and are staying aware of current US Policy… either yay, the US needs to be despised by our allies and feared for being unstable! OR this President is a joke, a dangerous joke.

PART of my feelings right now are not entirely against Donald Trump however. I currently live in Iowa’s 4th District. Iowa’s 4th District is geographically large. It covers almost all of Iowa north of 80 and west of 35. It is home to such cities as Sioux City, Ames, Fort Dodge, Mason City, and Boone. Until 2013, this District was smaller. From 2003 to 2013, there was also Iowa’s 5th District… which was represented in the Federal Government by Steve King. An asshat of a man who has said more vile things than most “Public” servants. In 2013, the 5th district was dissolved, and Steve King handily won the 4th District and has been our Federal Representative ever since. This despite making many statements and proposals that could only be seen as Anti-Iowa, Anti-Human Rights, and Anti-Rational Thought. Well… old Douchebag is back in the papers. He recently stated over the weekend that “We can’t restore our civilization with someone else’s babies.” A tweet that was seen as overtly racist even by his own party! That tweet was attacked by Democrats and Republicans alike. DAVID DUKE however supported it. Not surprising. David Duke was a former grand wizard of the KKK… and, allegedly, was a friend of the Trump Campaign… after all, Fred Trump was likely an active member of the KKK for much of his life if you do your research. SO… Republicans disagree with King. Democrats disagree with King. Clansman agrees with King. When asked about those tweets today, Steve King said, “I’d like to see an America that is just so homogenous that look a lot the same.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The original comment in context said “If you go down the road a few generations, or maybe centuries, with the inter-marriage, I’d like to see an America that is just so homogenous that we look a lot the same.” Some have said that this comment is in support of racial harmony and that Steve King is hoping for an America filled with Multi-Ethnic babies. It is in the opinion of this writer that such a comment is an extreme stretch. Anyone who has spent any time around multi-ethnic children know that we don’t just “interbreed into one homogenized appearance.” Plus… when Steve King has several times before stated his opposition to multiculturalism (as he did in this very interview); it is impossible to interpret his response as “pro-diversity.” The America I envision is filled with diversity. People of various backgrounds, skin colors, and heritages. Demanding that America be homogenized ever is a threat to what made America great. While the full quote is less antagonizing… I still can’t help but see Mr. King (in that quote and throughout his career) as an overtly racist little troll that does an extreme disservice to Iowa with every year he is in office.