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The Death of Reality

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When Eyes Wide Open Means Eyes Wide Shut

Remember the good old days when a photograph was a reliable capture of reality? You’d snap a picture, and there it was—a genuine representation of that moment in time. Fast forward to today, and it’s a whole different ballgame. Thanks to the wonders of digital manipulation, it’s getting harder and harder to trust that what we’re seeing is anywhere close to the truth.

Take Google’s feature that ensures no one’s eyes are shut in photos, for example. Sounds like a lifesaver, right? No more pictures ruined by that one person blinking at the wrong time. But here’s the kicker: the photo you end up with isn’t actually real. It’s a composite image, pieced together from various frames to create an “ideal” moment that never actually happened.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I appreciate not having to sift through dozens of shots to find one where everyone’s eyes are open. But at the same time, it’s a bit disconcerting to think that this “perfect” photo is, in reality, a fabrication. We’re no longer capturing moments as they are; we’re creating an illusion of perfection.

And it’s not just Google. Everywhere you look, digital manipulation is creeping into our photos and videos. From filters that smooth our skin and whiten our teeth to apps that can swap out backgrounds and even change our facial expressions, the line between what’s real and what’s fake is becoming increasingly blurred.

These edits shape our memories in ways we might not even realize. We look back at photos from a vacation and see sun-drenched beaches and smiling faces, but the truth might be that it rained the whole time and the kids were grumpy. Over time, the edited photos become our memories, replacing the less-than-perfect reality with a curated version of events.

It’s a weird time for digital photography, no doubt about it. On one hand, we have more control than ever over how we present ourselves and our lives to the world. On the other hand, we’re losing touch with authenticity. We’re creating a version of reality that’s more like a glossy magazine spread than a true reflection of our experiences.

So, where does that leave us? Are we witnessing the death of reality in photography? It’s hard to say. But one thing’s for sure: the next time you see a flawless photo or video, take it with a grain of salt. Because in this age of digital manipulation, what you see is rarely what you get.

In the end, maybe it’s not all bad. Maybe these edited photos can help us see the world—and ourselves—in a more positive light. But let’s not forget to appreciate the unedited, imperfect moments, too. After all, sometimes the most genuine moments are the ones where someone’s eyes are shut.

Lastly, I want to point out that everything before this paragraph was generated and written by AI.  I told AI to adopt a persona of myself based on this blog, and prompted it to write this out with some themes and points that I had, and quite frankly, it did a damn good job.  I left it fully unedited.  My point for this whole exercise was that from now on, you will never be able to tell if any photo or video was reality at the time.  It most certainly was not, and we will gaslight ourselves into thinking it was.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet.  I’ll keep playing around and let you know.

Park Avenue leads to Skid Row

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We are the Youth (?) Gone Wild

Once again, it’s been a bit. Not sure if I can still call this a blog if I’m only posting a couple of times a year. But hey, I felt like writing, so here we are.

It’s been a good year so far. Went on my first cruise and loved it, had a nice Vegas trip, made it to a quick family reunion, and also got to see a pretty amazing concert.

One of my longtime favorite bands is Skid Row. Recently their lead singer had to quit the band due to his health. The band had four dates booked that they had to fulfill, so they needed someone to fill in on lead vocals. I don’t think they could have found anyone better for the role than one Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

It was at a ballroom in a small casino in Riverside, Iowa. I made the trip with a couple of my good friends and got to enjoy one hell of a concert. If you want to see how insane Lzzy is, and how good she sounds as the voice of Skid Row, check out one of my favorite Skid Row songs of all time, Quicksand Jesus.

After the pandemic, I had convinced myself that I didn’t need to see live music. I was wrong.

Speaking of the pandemic, after that Vegas trip, we caught COVID for the second time.  It was worse this time around and it was a pretty miserable couple of weeks isolating.    Hopefully this means I am good for awhile. 

As for here, I have some ideas of things I want to discuss.  I look forward to getting the creative juices flowing again.  For now, I’ll just get back to listening to the new Bring Me The Horizon album non-stop.  You should probably do that too.

Best Music of 2023

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Some uplifting music this year even!

This year wasn’t nearly as depressing and angry on the music front as last Favorite Albums of 2023year, and there was some amazing stuff in rotation.   It was definitely a great music year.  Special emphasis on Beartooth for being a positive force, Sleep Token for pushing genres, Pierce the Veil for being the perfect album when I needed it, Hoodie Allen with one of the best breakup albums of all time, and Bad Omens, who technically came out at the tail end of 2022, but I’ve listened to them nearly nonstop since I found them.  Such a great album.  To hear songs from everyone below (including the honorable mentions) you can check it out on Apple Music here.

  • Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden
  • Bad Omens – The Death of Peace of Mind
  • Piece The Veil – The Jaws of Life
  • The Used – Toxic Positivity
  • ILLENIUM – ILLENIUM
  • Waterparks – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
  • Hoodie Allen – Bub
  • All Time Low – Tell Me I’m Alive
  • Beartooth – The Surface
  • Story of the Year – Tear Me to Pieces
  • Nine Days – Slow Motion Life, Pt. 1
  • The Menzingers – Some of it Was True
  • Taking Back Sunday – 152
  • Thirty Seconds to Mars – It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day
  • Lil Lotus – Nosebleeder

Honorable mentions: NF, Therapy?, Fall Out Boy. Depeche Mode, Skrillex, Paramore, MOD SUN, Extreme, Jason Mraz, grandson, K.Flay, Ren

Hello There Stranger

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Or holy crap, how has it been a whole year?

I’ve sat down to write numerous times this past year, and just never felt like finishing anything.  I just wasn’t mentally into documenting the crap I was going through.   I won’t touch on it too much other than I’m happy 2023 is about done. 

I will mention that nearly two and half years after we went into lockdowns and I started writing my COVID Diaries, my wife, youngest daughter, and I finally caught COVID.  It hit us around the fourth of July holiday so we were stuck at home, and I was hit pretty hard.  I can only imagine how bad it would have been had I not been immunized.  But it was inevitable, and now that’s something else checked off the list.  I just got my most recent booster, so hopefully I can avoid a winter strain.

The world is currently in chaos. We are around two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and there is no end in sight to that conflict. And now, Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas after its terrorist attack over a month ago.  There are hate crimes rising against Jews and Muslims around the world.   It’s like a holiday for racist white people.  It just sucks, because I don’t want innocent people to die on either side. I’m against violence of any kind, especially when attacks have a blatant disregard for innocent life.  There has been a recent pause in fighting while hostages have been traded.  Hopefully that is a sign there can be some negotiation, even though the cease fires just ended.

So the world is a powder keg and there is a possible super volcano ready to erupt in Iceland.  Yes, seriously.  So we have that going for us.

One thing I wanted to touch on is that I lost one of my childhood best friends this past year to a heart attack.  He was two years younger than myself, and in much better shape.  It really hammered home how fragile life is and how quickly things can change.  I hadn’t spoken to him in years, but we were inseparable during the summer months.  Playing baseball, basketball and golf while riding around on our mopeds… It was a shock to my system at a time where I was very low myself.  In fact, a couple week prior I had gone to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack, only to find out it was anxiety.

To recover from my episode to hear my old friend had died was fairly devastating, but it gave me a renewed sense of wanting to be healthier.

I finally got tests done at the doctor that showed I had been dealing with a stomach bacterial infection for the last couple years that was causing me a lot of issues.   I felt sick a good portion of the last two years and this was probably the culprit.   After finally getting the tests, we were able to attack it with antibiotics. In January I’ll get some additional tests to make sure it was fully eradicated. I’m already feeling a ton better, so I’m hopeful.

I’ve also closed my exercise rings on my Apple Watch every day this year. That is definitely having a positive impact as well.  Even on my sickest days I made sure to at least shuffle along on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  I’m feeling a lot better today than I have in a long time.  And that’s good, because I want to be around a long time.

In other news, we passed a milestone in September.   We marked 20 years of this blog. For the last 20 years, I have documented my life, shared technology, bitched about the state of the world, opined about music, gushed over gadgets and fell in love, and then out of of love, with social media.  This blog was always written for me, to document what was going on in my life and to share it with the world.   At times there were an unfathomable amount of people reading, and nowadays, maybe only a few. I hope I have enlightened, entertained, provoked or helped everyone reading this in some way.  No matter whether we were close, or we never met, I hope this place has given you something.

Thanks for sticking around, and I don’t just mean the blog.  I’m really glad you have.   Keep fucking going.

2022 Music Top Albums

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The Year of Angry, Defiant and Depressing Music

2022 was a rough year, and with it I listened to a lot of angry and rather depressing music.  That said, music has always been my emotional outlet, and these albums helped me “keep fucking going” in 2022.  Metalcore factored in heavily, with insanely good albums from I Prevail, Architects, Silverstein, Sleeping with Sirens and Motionless in White.  I still listened to some great pop punk with Sueco, Papa Roach, Stand Atlantic, Magnolia Park and State Champs.  Mix in some emo and whatever Jeris Johnson is and that rounded out the majority of my listening.

Avril Lavigne had a resurgence with a really fantastic pop punk album and Demi Lovato moved away from pop to arguably one of the best pop punk albums of the year as well.   Polyphia are a prog rock group who have some of the most intricate guitar work I’ve ever heard and they were so vibey for upbeat background music for working and writing.

Dermot Kennedy and Tyrone Wells had great adult alternative albums, Machine Gun Kelly had another punk album and I really liked about half the album.  Then Jack White blew me away with Fear of the Dawn which I can only describe as “sounds like Jack White” as he’s pretty much a genre unto himself.  Hell even 80’s glam metal band Skid Row got a new singer and put out an excellent album of rock (if still a bit dated.)

Music is my lifeline, and I now have my perfect listening environment in my home theater.  I’ve spent countless hours sitting in the Dolby Atmos sweet spot just letting the music wash over me.  Some of these albums had such good multi-channel mixes too.  I’m experiencing this music on a whole new level.  I’ve finally reached a childhood goal.  That was definitely a positive for the year.

Here’s to as much good music in 2023, and maybe a little more uplifting.  If you want to check out the best songs from my favorite new releases of the year, you can check it out here on Apple Music.

  • I Prevail – True Power
  • Architects – The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit
  • Sueco – It Was Fun While it Lasted
  • Sleeping With Sirens – Complete Collapse
  • Silverstein – Misery Made Me
  • Jack White – Fear of the Dawn
  • Papa Roach – Ego Trip
  • The Wonder Years – The Hum Goes On Forever
  • Jeris Johnson – I wan BLOOD/I want love
  • Polyphia – Remember That You Will Die
  • Magnolia Park – Heart Eater EP
  • State Champs – Kings of the New Age
  • Stand Atlantic – f.e.a.r.
  • Palaye Royale – Fever Dream
  • Motionless in White – Scoring The End of the World
  • Avril Lavigne – Love Sux

Honorable Mention: Demi Lovato, Dermot Kennedy, Electric Callboy, Tyrone Wells, Machine Gun Kelly

COVID Diaries Pt. 29

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The End?

The end of what you may ask?  Well, I guess I will say it is the end of this series at least.  No one in the States is paying ANY attention to COVID at all.  Other than the immunocompromised that is. 

Shortly after my last post, the CDC posted new guidelines that basically amounted to “Eh, we give up.”  So, people basically did.  You would be hard pressed to see many precautions any longer. Everything has basically eased back into what normal seems like.  Which means people are catching and passing around COVID all the time, but if you aren’t testing, you might not even know.  My mom had it for a second time during this period, and it was nothing more than a mild cold this time around. 

At least one positive is the release of the Omicron focused booster shots.  They are out now, which should hopefully help combat the most common variants that are still circulating.  COVID isn’t over, but I’m sure it will end up becoming more of a yearly flu situation.  As such, this morning I got my updated booster AND my flu shot.  So hopefully I’m well protected for the fall.

Let’s see, what else happened since June?  The war in the Ukraine is still raging on, Boris Johnson resigned and the Queen died in the UK, R. Kelly was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life, there was another mass shooting in Highland Park, IL, James Caan, Ivana Trump, Anne Heche and Oliva Newton John all died.  Mar-a-Lago got raided due to improper storage and handling of classified documents, a childhood friend committed suicide, the NFL season began and a neighbor destroyed a privacy wall of trees on over 300 feet of my property.   So yeah, it’s been a hectic couple of months, and most of the news kinda sucked.

On the good side, Biden got some legislation through that should help the economy and the middle class.  He also is forgiving some student load debt, so that’s huge for a lot of people as well.  Things are trending well going into the mid-terms.  We’ll see if it makes any difference.

I’ve also been trying to buy a car for the last several months, and it has been a nightmare.  I want a hybrid as my last two cars were also hybrids.  I like being less reliant on gas and having the emissions better for the environment as well.  The problem is, due to sky high gas prices, EVERYONE wants hybrids. I haven’t been able to see the model I want in person because they are all sold before they ever hit a dealer’s lot.  I’ve had my name on waiting lists at several places, and even went to buy one, until they showed me the bill with a 20 percent markup of the price due to inventory scarcity.  They also added another $1200 in “protective coating”.    They added $7200 to the cost of the car.  I, not so nicely, told them what they could do with their offer.

So, that is ongoing.  I’m finally supposed to have a vehicle coming in October.  I won’t believe it until I’m sitting behind the wheel though.  Fingers crossed.

Lastly, this is a special day for the blog, as it is our 19th anniversary of posting here.  Pretty wild that I’ve been writing down my thoughts on the interwebz for so long.  I want to at least hit the twenty-year mark before I hang this up though, so you’ll have to hear from me a tad bit longer.  Thanks for being a part of the ride.

COVID Diaries Pt. 28

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The End of Roe v. Wade

It’s been a couple months again, but I had to post today with the news that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.  The right to safe abortions will disappear in 13 states within a month and will leave many more shortly thereafter.  Never mind that this has been settled law for nearly five decades.  Never mind that all the recent conservative Justices that were pushed onto the Supreme Court said in interviews that it was settled precedent.  They just changed their minds, or outright lied during their interviews.   And now here we are.

Clarence Thomas also signaled that this could pave the way for removing access to contraception, as well as same-sex marriage.   And his wife Ginni tried to help overturn the election, and that’s just somehow fine.  Things are very bad now, and I fear that they will get worse.

Something else that DID get worse were mass shootings.   Many happened since we last spoke, and the two most prominent ones were a racist hate crime in a black community grocery store in Buffalo, and the school shooting that took the lives of 19 children and several teachers in second to fourth grade classrooms in Texas.   The police waited and didn’t storm the shooter either, preventing possible life saving medical attention to the wounded children.   So MANY good guys with guns were too damn afraid to storm ONE bad guy with an AR-15.  Kind of ruins their whole narrative, doesn’t it? 

In at least a slight, bare minimum glimmer of hope, today it looks like a very basic gun control bill was passed. It’s something, but it’s been so infuriating to see nothing done about this year after year, tragedy after tragedy, death after death.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is still going on, and people here don’t pay much attention, and it’s just so weird that there is that much pain and suffering going on and it’s not really spoken about.  People bitch about gas prices instead.

Yes, gas is near $6 a gallon which is the highest it’s ever been in my lifetime.   But we’re not getting blown up, or our land taken, or our people raped and murdered.  I’ll pay $6 and place the blame where it belongs, greedy oil companies that are making record profits, and Russia for fucking up the international oil supply with their bullshit war.

Oh, I’m still keeping these blog posts titled the COVID Diaries, because COVID *IS* still a thing.   We had a scare with exposure this past week, my nephew and niece contracted it, and it’s at high levels in many parts of the country including our own county.  During these past months, we surpassed ONE MILLION deaths due to COVID as well.  Just a staggering number.

The good thing is that symptoms still tend to be very mild in those that are vaccinated and vaccines were finally approved for young children under 6.  Now everyone can get vaccinated, and soon there will be new vaccines that give even better protection from the Omicron variants.   So at least there is some good news there, even though no one is talking about it or acts like it exists.

What else happened?   Well Naomi Judd committed suicide.  Ray Liotta died in his sleep.  The January 6thcommittee has had hearings that have released a ton of insanely damning evidence. Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence against the former regime, there are still people going to the rallies of the troglodyte that tried to overthrow the government.  So THAT is still a thing.  And lastly, the fed hiked interest rates to try to stop rampant inflation.

So not a lot of feel good in the headlines the last couple of months.   Keep hanging in there, keep fighting for what you believe in, and keep fucking going.

After today’s horrible Supreme Court ruling, just know that if any of you need to visit my state, and might need a supportive place to stay, just let me know.

COVID Diaries Pt. 27

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Apparently COVID is Over!

While I really wish for my title to be true, COVID is still causing issues.  China is locking down again which is affecting the supply chain, and cases are going up.  The good news is that hospitalizations are NOT going up, but we are still at the beginning of this blip, so I guess by the next time I write we’ll know more.

That said, in many places of the US, restrictions are gone.  No more mask mandates, no more distancing.  Massive festivals like Coachella went on as planned, and recently a federal judge ruled to end the mask mandate on public transportation like airplanes.

I can’t say that I’ve kept up all the measures either.  The wife and I recently went on a trip to Las Vegas for five days.  It was a party for one of my good friends who turned 70.  There was 30+ people in attendance.  It was after the major winter surge, and we’re vaccinated and boosted, so we decided that we would accept the risk. It was the first time on a plane since 2019.

Well, it was like the pandemic never existed in Vegas.

I’m sure it was pent up demand, but Vegas was busy, and you rarely saw a mask.  Crowds were shoulder to shoulder, restaurants were packed, and it was nice to be normal again.  It was nice, but it was so bizarre as well.  I’ve been a damn hermit for two years and rarely went anywhere other than work, so it was a shock to be around that many people again, but it felt good.

Even though it felt good, I just knew that a good percentage of those crowds were going to have COVID after that.  So, it’s mixed feelings.  I know we must start living our lives again, but I feel we’ve tried too early and each time it prolongs it a little more.   I’m just hoping that no strain turns bad, because it’s going to be extremely hard to shut anything down again.

Who knows, maybe this IS the end of COVID as a major threat. I can hope so, and hopefully it will just end up like a seasonal flu.   But I still think it will be a while before I can end this series. 

I will mention that while in Vegas, I got a stomach bug that kept me with intestinal distress and nausea the entire trip.  I barely ate anything and lost ten pounds.  If you know me, you know how much I love food and especially food in Vegas.  So that was a bummer.  What did I have?  No clue, but it lasted two weeks.  Did I get it from my first meal there?  Did I catch it immediately while not masked up?  I honestly couldn’t tell you, but it wasn’t pleasant.  We were still able to make the most of the trip, but I was pretty miserable for about ten days.  It would be good to forget that, but I figure it needs to be here for posterity.

Since the last time I wrote, a lot has happened, so I’ll lay it all out here. 

Gilbert Gottfried passed away.  My daughter also lost another friend to suicide.   Death has been busy these past years.

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars and was allowed to stay and then won best actor.  It was disgusting to say the least.  Smith has been barred from attending for 10 years, yet he’s still allowed to be nominated and win.   The whole situation just sucked.  I’m just a bigger Chris Rock fan than I’ve ever been.  He handled it about as well as you could.

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with Aphasia, a brain disorder that messes with cognition and speech, and it’s likely he’s had it for quite some time.

Ketanji Brown Jackson was the first black woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court despite stiff opposition from the right.

Washington Commanders quarterback Dewayne Haskins died after being struck by a truck on the side of a highway.

There have been several more mass shootings as we’ve grown accustomed to, including one on the New York subway.

Russia’s war with Ukraine is still ongoing, with Russian soldiers being accused of many atrocities, and Russia has deported half a million Ukrainians to Russia and are holding them in camps as well.  Ukraine has been defending itself well however, even sinking the flagship of the Russian navy.  The Donbas region is where all the fighting is now taking place.

And lastly, it’s being reported today that Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter.  He wants to take it private and become an absolutist free speech platform.  I’m not sure that will end well at all, but his $44 BILLION dollars are going to give it a try.

I’m sorry but any one person being able to buy an entire platform that the world uses to communicate is too much power for an individual.  The only thing that I hope comes out of this are other viable alternatives.  Time will tell.

Keep fucking going.

Covid Diaries Pt. 26

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Rest Easy My Friend

NOTE: I’m posting this after taking a week to complete it. I justJohn and Pepper hugging wanted to make sure it was posted on the day of her passing to commemorate the date.

On the morning of Friday, March 11th 2022, we said goodbye to our pet, companion and family member, Ms. Pepper Pawts.

We rescued Pepper in the summer of 2013.  The shelter didn’t know how old she was but guessed around two years old.  She was definitely older, probably more like four or five at the time based on her mannerisms, but she fit in to our family immediately.  She was a husky mix with something that made her ears droop a little, and it was adorable.

Pepper was such a calm, sweet dog.  She never barked at anyone or anything.  The only times she was ever vocal was one quick woof to ask to go out or in.  We would let her out on the deck and when she was ready, she would come to the door and let out one simple bark to let us know she wanted to come in. 

I miss her dearly.  I miss those barks, our walks, and our nighttime routine.

Every night, for many years, Pepper would get in bed with myself and my wife, and I would pet Pep for ten minutes before going to sleep.  After that, she would snuggle up between us and sleep the rest of the evening.  These last couple of years Pepper could no longer jump on the bed, so she would go over and put her front paws on it and ask for us to lift her up.   It was sweet, and I loved that she still wanted to do it.  We tried stairs but she was always scared of them, but she still allowed us to lift her up.

When the pandemic hit and everything locked down, Pepper and I started walking our property every day. We have about an acre, and the back half has a small grove of trees and then a field of natural grasses.  I mowed us a path so we could walk back there, and walk we did.

Nearly every single day Pepper and I would take at least one walk and sometimes as many as five.  She never let me slack off.  No matter how down or apathetic I was, she made sure we went for our walks.  Even if I wasn’t feeling it, she would come lay her head on my knee and look up at me with those eyes.  I had to go.

So, we would go, get our fresh air and get our joints moving.  It was my therapy in a world of lockdowns.  It helped me get through these last two years.  I owe a lot of my sanity to her because of that.  Sadly, on that Friday morning, we took our last walk together.

Pepper had not been in good health, and it was obvious that it was time.

We had a vet come to our home, and Pepper finally slept in peace, surrounded by us in her favorite spot in the living room.

The rest of the day was extremely hard for me.  Probably one of the lowest days I’ve had since the pandemic started.  I went to bed at 8PM.  No dog to say goodnight to.  I woke up at four in the morning, and was careful to move my legs not to kick Pepper, who was no longer there. I couldn’t sleep any longer, so I got dressed and got up.  As I grabbed my coffee, I instinctively went to fill her water bowl which was no longer needed.  I composed myself and went out to the man cave.

I tried to write this then, but I couldn’t even get through the first paragraph.

After sitting in the dark and drinking coffee in silence, I decided that I had to go for that morning walk.  I went in and grabbed my coat and went outside in the dark in below zero wind chills.  I walked our familiar path and paused at all the places she used to sniff around.  I walked back and stopped to watch the sun rise.  It was shining brighter than it had in a long time.  Pep would have liked that.

In the past couple of days, it’s gotten a little easier, but it will be a while before I don’t instinctively think of things I no longer have to do.  I don’t have to save a couple fries or a pizza crust for her, I don’t have to check to see if she needs to go for a walk, I don’t have to move clothes on the bed so she has a place to jump up.   Every time I catch myself it takes everything not to break down.

On the Thursday after she passed, we received her ashes, and I laid her to rest along the path we would always walk.  We did it at sundown, golden hour, which is a time we tried to walk every day.  It was a beautiful night, and our resident hawk was flying around.   It was peaceful, which is how I’ll always remember her.

As with everything, time heals all.  I’ll miss Pep, but I’m so happy for the time we spent together.  Rest in peace my friend.

Keep fucking going.

COVID Diaries Pt. 25

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Let’s hope it’s not an oncoming train

A few months have passed again.  The current news is that last week Russia invaded Ukraine.  The war is still ongoing, but the world united against Putin in ways I think a lot of us were shocked by.  The response has had crippling economic sanctions, but has even included things such as FIFA kicking Russia out of the World Cup, pretty much every tech company refusing to do business with Russia, and even Switzerland standing against them and freezing bank accounts.

Ukraine still has a long way to go to win this thing, but the entire world is on their side. 

During this crisis, I’ve come to realize how much Ukrainian software I use on a regular basis.   Mac staples like Clean My Max X, PDF Expert, the Spark email client, Grammarly and many more.  These people are still maintaining infrastructure while in the middle of bombardment.  It’s insane.  I hope all of them and the rest of the Ukrainian population can remain safe from Putin.

Outside of the current war, the Omicron variant spiked to its highest levels at the beginning of the year.  We surpassed 900,000 deaths in the US and over 1.5 million positive cases in one day, which are hard numbers to get your head around.  And one that could have been much lower if we didn’t have nutbags who were not masking or getting vaccinated in the name of “freedom.”

Because numbers have come way down after the latest spike, and there are no variants of concern right now, nearly everywhere has repealed guidelines.  No more mask mandate in Illinois or pretty much anywhere.  We’ve basically been told we can go back to normal.  Masks are still required on things like planes and such, but for the most part, everyone can go maskless when shopping or dining or whatever.

While I’m glad it’s happening, I do feel it’s a little premature.  There are still a lot of people who aren’t vaccinated who can get sick out there which could lead to another variant.   There are also still a lot of immunocompromised people too.  Since they are such high risk, everything going back to standard screws them more than anyone. 

For me, I’ll still wear a mask on a plane and may do so for the rest of my life.  The next time I go to a tech conference, I might be tempted to wear one as well.   Both of those activities would often get me sick.  A cold from the plane or “con crud” from the conference.  I may even keep it up for local shopping, but we’ll see.

Due to the newfound optimism in the US, the wife and I finally decided to book a trip.  Soon we will be enjoying Vegas once again.  It’s been too long.   We are both vaccinated and boosted and hopefully that is enough going forward.

I have been careful and paranoid and pretty much a hermit for two years.  It’s time to get back to some of the things we missed out on. 

This year I’ve started a daily journal.  Just jotting down what happened that day, what I did etc.  I’ve been enjoying it, but it makes me even less likely to post here.  We’ll see what happens going forward with the blog, but it might slow down even more.

But looking at the journal, there are some things that happened since the last post.  First, Betty White died right before her 100th birthday which is some cosmic bullshit.    The racist assholes that killed Ahmaud Arbery were convicted in Georgia and then convicted again by federal prosecutors for hate crimes as well.  Those men will be locked up for the rest of their lives as they should be.

Bob Saget died, so shortly after his friend Norm MacDonald.  Meat Loaf and Louie Anderson also died.  Q people started drinking their own piss and taking Viagra to treat COVID.   There were massive snowstorms that crippled the country several times.  Oh and Texas decided to outdo itself in shittiness by also passing an anti-trans bill and labeling parents supporting their children as child abuse.  In case I’ve ever been unclear, Fuck Texas and their asshole governor. 

So that’s the catch up.  Hopefully, at least on the COVID front, we are truly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel this time.

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