I put up lights around the front of the house in November. A little early for Christmas, I'm sure the neighbors all thought. Joke's on them; these lights are staying up all year. I also added the flickering orange bird-cage lights that we used to use for Halloween. Also permanent.

I also rearranged the furniture. Because why not. 

I have another day off on Friday. I wonder what I'll get into. 

Dang it, I think I pulled a hamstring. Not exercising, while walking the dogs. Running up and down hills in dress shoes was a risky move. I'll have to be more careful.

The other night, I was dreaming that something was creeping towards my side of the bed. I sleep-kicked a mighty roundhouse into the imaginary neck of my sleep-enemy. That oughta learn 'em.

Phew, National Novel Writing Month is over and I managed to write even less than I would in a normal month. It was tough, but I powered through it.

Thanksgiving was good. I got two excellent dinners, and plenty of leftover pie.

Not much else going on for me. Walking and playing video games, tending the bamboo, and trying to think of good Christmas presents.

Wild times!

Jake and Rachel's wedding was fantastic. Flagstaff gets real winters, unlike Phoenix, but it was still warm during the day. I got to wear my big grey coat (with attached hood!) when we went out after the reception.

Jake and Rachel had beautiful wedding vows. There was nary a dry eye in the house. 

Everyone had a great time, I think, and there were only a couple of minor wedding-drama incidents that happened after all the paperwork was complete so nothing to worry about, really. 

There's one more wedding to go, this Thursday, and then I think that's it for this wedding season. That one is in town so what could go wrong?

Oh hey, the YouTube music app which I've mostly hated since its latest update has a playlist called '00's Indie Scene. Was this indie music? I know most of these songs. I don't remember being in the indie scene. Is this app stretching the truth here? I'm pretty sure most of these songs were on the popular radio stations, or at least used in movie trailers. Maybe that's it. If your song was used in a non-blockbuster movie trailer or technology commercial, you're indie. Mystery solved, next!

And I, myself, have been wondering many things. 

While I was streaming, someone brought up cancel culture and I said it doesn't really exist, but I didn't elaborate on it or think much about it further. It's one of those moments where I say something, and I'm pretty sure there's a reason I hold that particular view, but I can't recall the reason. It makes me wary.

I think it's because I was thinking about how job applications ask you if you're a convicted felon and how that's been around ever since I've been applying for jobs. I think the main reason people see this thing they call cancel culture is because people have become "content creators" and they are the product, and the specific content you're creating doesn't really matter because in most cases, your value to the company is based on ad revenue and how you build their brand. 

There's some nuance, I suppose, in which platforms may not allow you to use their services to broadcast yourself, but in our current system, it's a cost-benefit analysis. If you're costing more than you bring in, so long!

It's interesting though, that people who decry cancel culture and I probably agree in the broad strokes that a system in which people's livelihood has become dependent on their perceived personally-held beliefs is a concern.

And that it doesn't matter if it's correct; if it's believed by the "voting bloc", that's the behavior you have to factor in, as a company.

This isn't a bug; it's a feature. So now it's something I have to consider when I broadcast my game play on Twitch. That and not ripping a big fart while my microphone is live. That's just not the kind of humor I'm interested in.

Sometimes, I feel a strange malaise. Usually right after I've helped someone who has a more serious medical issue that involves me having to perform a relatively mundane and/or bureaucratic task. 

Like I shouldn't be complaining when other people have it worse.

My life is relatively comfortable. A few aches and pains; hardly anything that rises to the surface of my thoughts. 

It's National Novel Writing Month, aka Nal-Vel-Ing-Onth. What a world of possibilities! Let me check my recent notes on possible stories. (It's a list of ideas for stories that I feel only I could tell.) Hmm...we've got one here about me running into another me (think teleporter-accident clone, so one person diverged at a certain point but neither is actually the original). It's a comedy. The comedy comes from both of us definitely believing the other should not get to exist, but we don't want any collateral damage so we still have to live our lives and get our stuff done without anyone else noticing what's going on.

The other story is Titanfall 2 fan fiction, basically the story campaign for a hypothetical Titanfall 3. 

Because I like robots that can be our friends. Also after years of playing the game, I'm not entirely sure which side is supposed to be the bad guys. Both factions seem pretty content to expend massive amounts of treasure on military campaigns in order to pay less taxes or something. I don't think I'll tackle too much there; we just need a plausible reason to fight and this one is depressingly more than plausible.

We'll see what happens. There's time, of course. I tend to be pretty scheduled out, time-wise. Working, walking, whining. Takes up almost my whole day. There's always the weekend, when I'm not working. Maybe. Maybe.