I went to a job fair today, one in the city adjacent to the one I live in. My expectations were I would go in, wander around talk to a few people, drop off a resume or two. The reality was close to that.
I’m talking politics here. Are we to the point, in the United States of America, where we have crossed too many lines into a plutocracy? We have a president who is using his executive powers to persecute his opponents over false narratives and the other two branches of government are not checking his activities. I add the major upward siphoning of wealth to the top 1-2% of those who already have more than they can spend in a lifetime, and, hey, that money isn’t coming from just our current pockets; its in the form of ‘deficit’ spending, which just means borrowing from the future. So our kids are going to be saddled with it, all so the wealthy can…what? It doesn’t end well, does it? As I write the other countries are starting to not buy our country’s securities. There may well come a day very soon when there is no more money left to be lent. What happens then? I’m super curious to know what is ahead. Like does the country collapse? Does it split? Or do we go to war? Which, as we all know, is a great way to get rid of debt…if you win.
Have you tried getting a job lately? It’s a tough row to hoe, believe me. There is no interaction with a ‘real’ person anymore. You jump online, upload or, if you have oodles of time before you get your rejection letter, input all the data manually into a form for the job you want and the submit button. A day or two later you get the ‘we are going another direction’ email and move on. I’ve been getting calls by AI bots on my phone, vetting me with questions. I get it, times are hard, HR has no time to go through ten thousand applicants to find the best one. At best they use the bots to get that number down to the top three, at worst, they don’t utilize any filtering at all; zombie jobs are a thing. See? I can bring about any subject back to the undead…
Today was a difficult day. I was at the memorial for a young friend, by young I mean, not even out of high school, though close. He had everything seemingly, going for him; Accolades from various organizations, well respected by everyone who knew him, admissions to at least three colleges. Most importantly, and tellingly, more friends that anyone else I know. The church service was filled to overflowing, literally every seat taken and people standing all over the place. I arrived twenty minutes early and luckily secured a seat, I’m afraid after my ‘hiking exertion’ on Thursday last I would not have been able to make it by leaning against a wall while standing. Glad I went on the hike, not too happy I missed my ‘turn off’ and went for a far longer hike than planned.
I do so love to game. My first electronic ‘gaming’ is probably familiar to most people; consoles. Nintendo was my preference, which blended into a game boy era, then computer games. Technically computers came first, but I was using them to program on before I got distracted by using them for games. Frankly, consoles back in the day were MUCH better at gaming than computers were. Alongside that I’ve been an avid board game player since I could pick up die. It all started with Monopoly, then Life, then Risk, a well trod path of each game leading to something more complex and challenging. In my teens it was Axis and Allies, the only game I still revisit from that era on a semi-regular basis. Then there came Dungeons and Dragons and my life was forever altered. I don’t have to be the nerdy kid; I can be a cleric wielding the power of Gods! Yeah, still a nerd. Oh, but no, not just that! I can be the creator of worlds! The Dungeon Master! LOL, yeah, I still play to this very day. Computer games have gone more by the wayside, I tend to pick up computer games if they are remakes of board games I like, but don’t feel like taking the time to set up. Seriously have you played Eldritch Horror? That game needs a computer version to save me the hour long set up time.
I’ve been thinking a lot about fear the last few years. I see it in the news, in relationships with people; it’s prevalent on a daily if not hourly basis. When I was growing up I was raised on it. Don’t be out after dark or someone will abduct you. Don’t go into that part of town, it’s dangerous and you’ll be mugged. Don’t travel to foreign countries, the people there are savages! That religion is full of suicidal fanatics. That vehicle is dangerous. A whole life built around not doing things due to the potential consequences. Of course, it only takes one bad thing to hit the media and everyone is talking about it. The victim? Oh, they should have known better than to ‘go there’ or ‘do that’. Never mind that a million people went there and did that without incident. Statistically we are in the safest time to be alive than every before. Not everywhere; war still scars our planet as those who have, think they need to have more. Religion still poisons the minds of people who seem to forget the very purpose of religion is peace and caring for your fellow man. Unless you’re Conan and worship Crom.
I’ve reset the website from the ground up, had the server guys wipe my domain of EVERYTHING and I’m working on a clean install of Wordpress using an Author theme and plugins. Wordpress is new to me and getting it all set up is going to take some time. I still have some placeholders in various locations and will get them down as soon as I can. Yeah, yeah, I should do this all locally and then move the completed site up, however I’ve noticed that I work more on ctales if I do it ‘live’. This isn’t a major production, it’s a personal, low-key book/blog website.