I'm going to take this afternoon to see if Depeche's later albums are as bad as I originally thought they were.

Waking up this morning to see the aftermath of last night's first monsoon storm of 2019. Seen worse. Few branches down, leaves and twigs everywhere. Moisture still heavy in the air, it feels very muggy.

Taking an internet hiatus for a couple weeks was refreshing.

Started exercising again. (Hat tip to my old mucker @jaseyhall for the nudge)

Watched Assassin's Creed. It was good. Watched The Predator. It was not good.

Bought a new TV.

Bailed on the Cult Of The Dead Cow book.

Started The Outsider by Stephen King.

My sister put my face through that creepy FaceApp aging thingy.

Related: my likeness prolly pwned by the Russians for the rest of my life. Or something.

Much to nod about here. Billy Bragg summing up my thoughts about Morrissey.

Worryingly, Morrissey's reaction to being challenged over his support of For Britain, his willingness to double down rather than apologise for any offence caused, suggests a commitment to a bigotry that tarnishes his persona as the champion of the outsider. Where once he offered solace to the victims of a cruel and unjust world, he now seems to have joined the bullies waiting outside the school gates.

As an activist, I'm appalled by this transformation, but as a Smiths fan, I'm heartbroken

I really like Twenty One Pilots and you will too. You have great music taste just like me. The Blurryface album on heavy rotation in my ears.

That feeling when you're really happy with the work done by the tree guy, but you look at his business card afterwards.

American born and bred

Which because of where we live is all a bit dog whistley for "…if you don't want brown people doing your yard work…".

Ugh.

Started reading the Cult of the Dead Cow book. An actual book with pages and stuff. We'll see how it goes.

spaceprobe.es is pretty cool.

Tobias Friedrich's split shots are wonderful. Half underwater, half overwater.

After years of me doing things myself around the house/garden, finally having to hire someone to trim trees. I mean I guess I could try to shimmy up to the top of the 50ft palm trees myself but I don't really want to die.

This morning I was catching up on Twitter things and was struck by a particular post by Moxie Marlinspike.

Whenever I talk with people into chemtrails, flat earth, or other conspiracies, I'm struck by how appealing a worldview with a "them" must be. If only we could stop "them!" As dark as those worldviews are, it is perhaps darker if there is no "them." That this world is just… us.

I remember the good old days when I didn't have allergies. Or as British people say, hay fever. There's something that blooms in the desert at this time of year that does not agree with me at all.

As the sun rises I see rain clouds moving in. All the windows in the house are open and the smell is in the air. The neighbor's dog is barking at the birds in the trees but I don't mind. A helicopter just flew overhead and I wonder what its story is, where did it come from, where is it going?