Just gonna play the hits.

Dude. What even is this anymore? Just dove into my original online extraveganza, as I tend to do when I'm feeling morose (typical at this time of the year) and the last part of a post from late November hit hard: "Right. Post-WTO scene is pretty dismal. I'm not up to the debate any longer. I will go out on a limb though and say that the wonder and anger that people are feeling can only be good. People in this country are very complacent when it comes to their civil rights, they talk about them, but few ever put themselves in a position to have them denied. Which is exactly what happened. Yep, it can happen to YOU. In "your" city. No fun. So for that, I'm glad. For the unending whining about "healing" and that sort of new agey stuff, that I'm not so glad. The chief of police has stepped down, and one can only hope the mayor will follow suit. Having been elected by the downtown business core who he failed to "protect" surely will get him removed. We'll see. Interestingly, Nelson Mandela was in town, but since he was the guest of the cellular mogul McGraw, he didn't make any public appearances (to my knowlege, which could be faulty) - I saw Mandela speak in DC shortly after his release from prison, and it was possibly the most satisfying experience I have ever had in relation to hearing someone speak.A dose of his power would do me good right about now. Where am I going with this? Dunno. And that as always is the question. Oh, lately I've been wondering whatever happened to old pen-pals of mine. And one in particular: d.s. hyden from Waynesboro, VA. I owe him a huge apology, and though of course I'll probably never get the chance, I really wish I could just tell him that...I acted on an impulse and should have thought the termination of our correspondance through. What goes around really, truly, does come around. And I wish I could tell him it did for me as well, if he even remembers the mean girl from California who came to DC and then abandoned the friendship. Man, he wrote the most amazing letters. does anyone still write letters?" Hard in that the more things change the more they stay the same. Look, the stupid country that I was born into still can't get over itself, and if anything has absolutely given over all aspects of civil rights unless it applies to their guns. It's amazing to me to read a passage that clearly indicates the WTO riots must have been top-of-mind, and yet, aside from a vague feeling of anger at pretend anarchists, I don't recall any of it, how any of it felt. Hell, I can barely remember how it felt in 2020 during the George Floyd riots. Pathetic, it's all so pathetic and as far as I can tell, the fault of social media. The internet was so much more fun (much like punk rock) back before all the idiots come parading in. This has become like a Bad Religion mosh pit for fuck's sake. Anyway. Then there is the Mandela reference - and again, a titular paragon of the human race, who I had the privilige of being in the same room as while he was alive...a person who inspired a hope in me that few beings have managed. I mean, there was a point, not long after he became President of South Africa where I literally would tell people that he was evidence that protest did work. Divestment worked. Finally something I did to affect change (that little ol' vote on the SLC at HSU, a time I barely remember and rarely talk about) actually worked. Because, and this is 30 years down the road...not a lot of other things do or did. At any rate, these last few graphs were part of a bigger post that led with decriptions of Xmas lights and cruises and all the things that were awesome about that special West Seattle Era, when Hopey and I were at the height of our powers. I often feel sorry for poor KC, cause she's stuck with fact, jaded Mopey, and that's unfortunate. Luckily, she's a lush like me, so doesn't really dream of epic mountian hikes or 3 hour drives east of the mountains. Finally, that last part of the post, where I reference another change that was about to manifest: finding old pals from the past. Not only did I reconnect with d, but for a while we spoke on the phone a few times (back when I had landed in Fresno post-breakup. I remember a very specific phone call with him on my tiny brick-like Nokia first cellphone outside my interview for the restaurant 5 when I was driving the cute little white Aspire) and then more via the FB and up to 2020 when he and I connected so he could interview me for his radio show. He has had a stroke, recovered, and has proven to be a major recurring character in my life. No one ever knows how things will unfold. Anyway man, I miss ya still, like I always have.