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Twas the day after Christmas, I noted with cheer,
It is one step closer to this, a new year!

I’m choosing happiness this year. It is in fact a choice. The Lady Talis was kind enough to remind me of the spirit of choice and happiness this past day, while subtly pointing out how dark this blog has become (Thanks, Trump!). I believe happiness is entwined with acceptance. I knew this once before. I knew this when I served as a rehab counselor to young people far from the proper path. I knew that we must accept the things we cannot change. That is as important as having the courage to shape the things we can.

What I can and cannot change is a long list of things that are often thought of this time of year. It is, after all, a new year and with that comes great proclamations of what we will do over the following 365 days (or posts if you read it as I do). My list is for another day. My thoughts for today are of son and rain and the outdoors and love and long walks and life lived. My thoughts swirl around like the smoke rising from my coffee, moving from moment to memory. I am a better person today than I was yesterday, and that trajectory is the most I can ask for ever.

Some Thoughts:

1. Happy Kwanzaa!!!
2. Happy Boxing Day!

I’m really bad at the game today. I guess I have been for a while. Correlation isn’t causation but I have been drowning myself in addictive but terrible (and highly AI assisted I think) fiction. I’m obsessing over this series and to an equal extent the furthering of my Minecraft Dark Tower. It’s become quite the passion project. However, I think I would’ve been better suited using obsidian.

Games and bad fiction; this is what my break became. It is destructive to the point of blogging now in bed at the end of a long and at times lovely Xmas day. I forgot to do it earlier. I also poorly managed my ‘me’ time during the day. This too is a recurring theme. Time to get back to work. Time to lock in and try to find a way to get back on track in my professional and writing life. I haven’t done too well with that or with the fitness side of things but I am trying to move forward with all of it. Problem is, I don’t have a legitimate plan. Sweating, I suppose, is the first step.

Twas the night before Christmas
On this an odd year
Not just the number, not just the fear.

The Trumpers are filling their warehouses without care
Won’t be long before ‘legals’ are found inside there.

Of course it is deportation I’m talking about
The thing that lead to this election rout.

Yet here on the eve of our richest holiday
There should be some kind things that I have to say.

I look and I look and I search with great fright
To find a single thing that could cause delight.

At long last I find it, from history past.
I remember how last time we dumped his fat ass.

He remembers too, It truly does appear.
For he’s coating everything in his gold smear.

I think that the Grinch could learn a thing or three
From our infamous President, Mr. Fat Goldy.

But here’s what I’ve learned from now times and nigh.
I’ve learned that all things must, eventually die.

Be it countries, or systems, or that thing called hope.
In the end we all find ourselves at the end of a rope.

And here in the US that’s settled quite deep.
Enough so that the country is run by a creep.

So pass shall this and he.
In time the gold one will vacate DC.

I end this strange poem with a nod to that day.
in 2028 we’ll sing hip hip hooray.

The Lady Talis and I are discussing where to spend the summer. It is times like these I feel happiness for two things: Kids who can housesit, and a life where we can actually get out and experience the wonders of this planet while we are healthy enough to do it. I know that window is closing in one way or another. We are closing in on the era of caring for our own parents and trying to figure out what (how) that means. I wish we started earlier. I wish she and I had a longer life together. I want more. I always want more. I’m greedy like that. Still, I am happy for what I have and intend to do the best I can with that time.

This includes traveling across this wondrous planet and writing great stories along the way. She has become fond of my garbage in, garbage out line without apparently realizing that I’ve been applying that to every aspect of our lives. I think we are better people when we have better experiences. Travel is an experiences that we need–I need–in order to produce better content for the world.

Which brings us to Turin. I don’t know much about the location besides the connection to a particular shroud. She’s done more research than I. It feels like an option. It feels like an opportunity. Why is it less expensive to spend three months in Turin than it is to spend three months in Washington State given similar accommodations? It feels like the better look is to get out. Heck, If we manage to find a place that has a lower monthly fee than our mortgage… You get the idea.

The Holiday is playing in the background as I write this and I am struck by how good the writing is for this film. I’m often struck by how good writing about writing tends to be. This is a reflection of the concept, write what you know. That’s one of those I think are worth listening to, unlike the classic those who can’t teach. Perhaps that one ought to be those who have, teach. Because the real teachers are the ones who have some deep and lasting connection to the medium. I, for example, write and teach and I feel confident in doing both. On the other hand I know teachers in my school who teach creative writing but don’t ever publish.

they aren’t the best teachers.

I’m not the best but I have a lot to offer in terms of practical experience. I think teaching is often about practice and about practical experience. These are the things I think I think. Here are a few more…

Some Thoughts:

1. Playoffs came down to one night and one game. The Niners ruined me.
2. 
   

Spoiler Alert: He’s not done making trans jokes.

He’s not done dropping knowledge either. I don’t intend to give any of it away, but after, the Lady Talis said, “he’s weaving a tapestry.” Indeed. the dude does this in layers and though at times he appears to be less than at the top of his game, by the end you’re seeing why the mic can drop. Throughout the brief yet powerful performance he delivered jokes that exposed the hypocrisy that lives on as a result of how we approach those we ‘like” vs. dislike. It hit home for me especially in light pf how this government operates and how Charlie Kirk’s death was treated. He addresses that too, and I gotta say, it was the most thoughtful and even approach to what that man meant to people that I’ve seen yet. He really nailed that one. He nailed others too, but you gotta watch to find out.

I ain’t giving away the jokes.

Some Thoughts:

1. Jake Paul… Yeah, no. I don’t agree with these guys calling him a brave competitor. One look at the guy and you realize his brand is crazy and he really has taken to believing a great deal of his hype and feeling that he is more than human in many ways. It is all a show to him. Why shouldn’t it be? The man is making hundreds of millions of dollars to polarize people.
2. Yeah, it’s working.

Football.

I’m supposed to be locked in on that concept right now, but I am really not. I know Alabama won last night…. Don’t care. I’m more interested in the Gary Sudbrink Calls than I am in anything having to do with the CFP. Heck, I’m far more interested in the outcome of the FCS ‘ship than I am the FBS. Why? It isn’t the money–not directly. It is the concept of who can get in and how. It is Notre Dame opting out of a bowl merely because they didn’t make the CFP and feel aggrieved (despite having a pick a choose schedule and no real conference opponents who know them). It is a Big 4 situation that is increasingly killing what College FBS Football is.

Here’s what is ultimately going to happen: The FBS is going to move to a 24 team playoffs that is superimposed over the existing bowl system in the same manner that the now 12 team system is superimposed. The one thing slowing down the process: Conference Championships. Yeah, its a hot take, but when you really think about how these conferences work and how late in the year the Championships occur, you start to see that it butts up against the bowl system in a way that in obtrusive. There is a lot of money involved, and once we can get that hammered out, the proved 24 team system will prevail.

Why? Because we already have faith in the Top 25 system. Most fans can see number 25 being left off (unless they argue for a play in with #26–which is how March Madness ultimately started to spiral). On the other hand, some don’t want to see that type of competition where ‘Cinderella’ can beat a top team. They don’t want to see James Madison win over ‘Bama or Georgia. They want to feel like their power teams are their power teams. The fact is, their power teams are power teams because of history (read: name recognition) and wealth. If any Billionaire decides to throw a hundred million at a team, that team will suddenly become the best in the nation–being able to pick and choose the best players, coaches, and staff. In two years that team would be unbeatable for the next decade.

Kinda makes me want to go play NCAA26 and find out.

Stepped away from a bit of family time to blog it out, because I know I will forget later. I’m certain that the mood of the eve would likely carry me away from such thoughts and towards my bed… or the crafting table. Still trying to stay away from politics, but the increasingly infantile actions of our president have me twisted. The Patriot Games? Really? Don’t even get me started on the Presidential Walk of Fame. I mean how small of a person did we elect? Seriously, we are in unprecedented partisan territory and even more unprecedented stupid territory. It would be comical if we, as a country, weren’t so damned thin-skinned and gunned up. It hasn’t gone well for anyone but the richest of us so far. I felt that today when I pulled up to what was supposed to be a sushi date and discovered the place (and all of the other stores in the chain) had been raided by ICE. The blasted through the front door, busting the glass, and took people into custody. They effectively shut down the chain.

These were nice people who were running a solid business that gave other people jobs. Instead of a meaningful conversation about the future of the USA, we get this:

That’s where we are at as a nation, folks. Here’s hoping all this crap goes away when he is gone.

I have to take one more pass at the novel over the next four days. Here’s hoping it is not a rough pass. Glancing at the download preview I am already seeing red on the first page, so there’s that. I am tired. I didn’t sleep well last night and here I am dealing with this drek. The Seahawks are playing. It is the first football I’ve watched since Sunday…. which makes sense but represents a decrease to be sure. My mentals have decreased to be sure. I’m not thinking all that well lately, and as such I think I want to lock in on…

Some Thoughts:

1. X-mas is on deck. I am looking forward to having everyone together, but I am also learning that the kids are not really all that interested in being here with us lately. Especially the middle kid. He seems to never want to be around. Maybe he’s at that age… maybe he just doesn’t like this side of the family?
2. Actually looking forward to spending a few days prepping for the spring classes. Here’s hoping they get to the number of students required to make.
3. New Seahawks Unis… Fire.
4. Sam Darnold is still Sam Darnold. I feel for the Jets. They’ve struggled to get a respectable QB since, well, Pennington. He’s one year younger than I am. His kid is playing good ball at Northern Arizona.
5. Salt and Sugar. So yummy… so dangerous.
6. Going to take the daughter and the Son-in-Law to all you can eat Japanese tomorrow. After, I’ll entertain the boy with FC 26. He loves that stuff. Tis the season, Yeah?

The transfer portal is an increasingly crazy place. It is a real mess in terms of sorting out who is going to land where and how. My own son is in the portal and hopes to be headed up to the FBS level. It isn’t about the bigger crowd or paycheck for this one. He wants to play against tougher talent so that he can see if he really is made of NFL stuff. I think he is. He thinks he is. We’ll find out over the next few years. He’s an 18 year old true sophomore with two seasons and 19 games under his belt. He’s been solid so far.

He’s also in the fantasy playoffs.

Not against me, mind you. He and I both easily won our first round matches in the family league to slide into round two against the top two squads. As the #3 seed I play the #2 seed. It is a rematch of a battle a few weeks back, but this time it appears that my TE, Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts, is doing his thing. Let’s hope that continues this week and through the next few. I don’t expect 45 points each week, but I’ll take 20+. The league leader in the one seed is a problem. A juggernaut, actually. The only chance he loses is if he plays the wrong guys. Even his bench is loaded, so little chance that happens. I’m looking forward to what a two-week championship competition vs him will look like.

The $$ league proved to be too tough for me this season. A three game late skid sealed my fate. I am officially 11th out of 12 in the league after being third three weeks ago. Rough times. Also, super competitive. I need to do better next season. I owe it to myself.