7/16/2022

On Thursday night I googled "random tarot card", visited the first site in the search results, clicked the card and 'pulled' XX The World. A darn sight better'n XVI The Tower. My inquiry was, "What's in store for me tomorrow?"

On Friday morning I awoke and spent the day without any pain. I still walked funny because I'm babying my left knee for fear of doing more damage, plus my right foot doesn't feel entirely kosher but it doesn't hurt and I can walk.

Early on Friday I realized the importance of pronouns and not using dead names. I have a common short first name, but my full first name is uncommon and I've always become annoyed being called the more-common version of my long name. I consider it to be a peasant's name from people who have no imagination. My arrogance aside, I reckon it's the same feeling of people being called by their deadnames or having the wrong pronouns applied to them. When folks go out of their way to use the wrong pronouns or invoke a deadname to "own a lib", that person's identity is diminished and somehow they get a feeling of being the asshole's property.

If you don't care about your name and pronouns, bully for you. But don't bully people by being cavalier about their identity. With social media being about conformity and 'keeping up with the Joneses', sometimes someone's identity is all they have.
Don't be an ass and respect someone. It costs nothing.

After work I treated myself to an early Costco dinner. For the second time on Friday I thought to myself, "Fuck, I should've brought my book (The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge)" which made me very happy. Long ago in Colorado, and early-on during my marriage, I brought a book or notebook with me everywhere I went. Nowadays it's all about the fucking smartphone, shitposting on Twitter, and staying in contact with my small circle of friends. It's nice but it's really a distraction, in addition to a rush of easy serotonin, than doing something meaningful with my mind and life.

In other news I found this meme online today:

Back when I was producing heptapod.org and received a compliment, usually from maribou, I'd reread my post to try and find the magic. The lightning in a bottle, so to speak, giving my writing that extra oomph. Same goes when my editor-in-chief tells me that my write-ups at the fortean website were good over the weekend. So I shared this with my editor-in-chief and I'm posting it here too.