Justina Revolution

           Allie from Spurlock's Corporate had arrived for the promotion evaluation. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and no one was in the place save for two baristas behind the counter and the store manager. Allie was dressed in comfortable black slacks and a dark red polo shirt with the tiny little smiling harpy logo on the left breast. She was a slim woman of medium height with bright eyes and a just perfectly messy mane of hair. Smiling came easily to her and she had a sort of folksy American charm. It was hard to tell exactly where she came from. The smell of coffee permeated the shop. Spurlock's was the world's leading supplier of coffee.      Sara, a tall birdlike lady with green eyes and little wire rim spectacles chirped at her. “You must be Allie from corporate! It's just an absolute pleasure to meet you!” Allie smiled warmly and shook the taller woman's hand. Regulation cheerfulness. Just the way corporate liked em. I bet she even watched all the training

     I love folk music. I love true crime. Combine the two together and you get the murder ballad. This is an awesome subset of folk music that tells the story of a murder or other gruesome death. Is it grisly? Yes. Is it fun? Also yes.      I have always been a little ghoul who enjoyed dark and strange poetry. When I was a little kid I memorized and recited Poe's The Raven between times when I was resting in my little cardboard coffin. This is likely why mom sent me to Catholic school, but that is another story.      Murder ballads are how we try to make sense of horrible crimes by telling the story. When you can encapsulate the event into a story it creates some distance. Helps us to deal with an event that boggles the imagination. In many cases it commemorates the victim or centers on the perpetrator in order to warn us of the evil that can lurk in our daily lives. Stories are powerful because they allow us to assign meaning and context to an event. The telling of a tale puts i

      Media does not exist to inform us. It exists to excite us. It is there to stimulate our fears and terrors and distract us from relevant things that we might actually effect. Today's big news has been Elon Musk purchasing Twitter. A few weeks ago it was the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are always oddball culture war things going on and no end of horrific news to keep us agitated.      Anxious, agitated people do two things. They fight with those who are different to themselves and they buy things to alleviate anxiety. The more agitated we are the more likely we are to fight to maintain the status quo even if the status quo is hurting us. We all want change. We want things to be better and more equitable and we want to feel safe. And there is no shortage of folks willing to sell you plans to achieve all of these things. Make a donation, buy my course, subscribe to this channel/blog/service and watch as your life magically improves. The problem is that many o

    Remember growing up? All the poor choices, embarrassments, fears, and mistakes? Odds are you do. Sometimes as we lie awake at night we think of our younger selves and cringe. The mind conjures up things that embarrassed us decades ago and wonders why we were ever so stupid, silly, or whatever criticism you care to level at this younger version of you.      What if we stopped doing that? What if we looked at our younger versions with kindness, love, and forgiveness? Would you degrade another human being like this? So why do we do it to ourselves? There is a sort of idea that occurs to me from time to time. That perhaps the past isn't gone away so much as it strings out behind us like a string of moments going back forever into infinity. If such a thing were true then our present selves might be able to help our past selves by giving them all the things we wished we have in our minds.      I tried this today and it made me feel much better in the present. I am not sure why and wi

       Springtime in North Texas brings with it its share of storms. Big thunderheads can roil across the sky promising hail, tornadoes, high winds, lightning, and a general feeling of unease. If you live here long enough you get kinda used to it and begin to actually see the beauty in the vast and awesome power of nature. This very afternoon we are supposed to have some storms that will last long into the night until around 2 AM CST. I feel that odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that comes with thinking about the storms and what they might portend for me and mine.      A tornado is terrible but those don't bother me nearly so much as the massive hail that may come with a storm destroying vehicles and smashing property to pieces. Usually thank goodness the hail is small. Pea sized. Sometimes it can be the size of golf balls or softballs or even larger. Constant reminders that everyone in this world is subject to the whims of nature and you cannot escape from this.      Poverty d

      Early in the mornings I like to wake up before everyone else in my house does. I will make some coffee. Maybe have a small breakfast and then I will do my morning qigong. Qigong is a Chinese art. The name means: Energy Work, and it is one of my favorite things to do in the entire world. In many ways it is a lot like yoga and it builds strength, flexibility, peace of mind, and good health.      I got into qigong by way of martial arts. I practice Shaolin Kung Fu, Yang Style Tai Chi, and Baguazhang. These arts all contain qigong training for building strength, flexibility, and nei jin or internal power. I think I liked qigong better than yoga simply because it had a purpose that made sense to me. Getting stronger and more flexible? Yes please! It is a fun thing to do because it has helped me to be healthy and strong and recover from many injuries and illnesses over the years. It doesn't cure me so much as it stimulates healing which is a great boon in and of itself. I know lots

       I love minimalist RPG systems. They are my favorite way to do tabletop role playing. This one is the White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game and it is based upon the TSR White Box Dungeons & Dragons rules first published in 1974 and presented through the lens of Swords and Wizardry, an excellent retroclone in its own right. Charlie Mason presents a well written and edited rule book that shows off the early approach to tabletop gaming in a fun and accessible way.     If you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons and have only played 5e then this is a fun, low cost way to try out Old School games and see if you enjoy them or not. The book clocks in at 150 pages and is a fast read. The rules are very light and depend on the GM to make rulings that are sensible and fair. It is also a great base for building your own RPG material because it is easily hacked. You won't need to worry about breaking the game because the game itself is just a skeleton you can use as is or add meat to a

Amber and the other girls laughed at Sara Perkus. Sara was a tall, gawky girl with big eyes and messy hair. “You look like a fucking bag lady, Sara.” She hunched forward and walked faster. Ceciley chimed in: “Run lil bitch, get your skinny ass back to the homeless shelter!” “I bet your mom died of shame from looking at you.” Amber Quinn shouted. The other girls went silent and stared at her open mouthed. Sara felt the tears sting her eyes. She ran, leaving the girls far behind. The path she walked from school to home fell away beneath her pounding feet. When she got to the pine woods she ran off the path and fell sobbing into the pine needles. Her lungs burned. The spring air was warm. Being made fun of she could handle. She had endured some pretty harsh teasing over the years. But when Amber talked about Mama something inside her broke. She rolled on the ground shrieking in elemental agony. Images bombarded her mind. When Mama and she would bake cookies and knit