Principia Discordia

Place your bets.

Bold to assume 2020 isn't just going to be extended indefinitely.

Covid-20: Electric Mink Boogaloo

COVID to emerge from a mudbank like Johnny Rambo, gleefully lobbing RPGs from a composite bow at both Reds and POWs alike.

I don't know if shut up with the capitals expresses "worse enough that we think of 2020 as the good old days" but it looked like the closest option to that.

I don't want to /think/ about 2021.

I'm still trying to keep my ass off the streets for the rest of 2020.

I think we're turning a corner.

We've got a lot of ground to cover before shit's "good" again, but I am not all doom & gloom about the coming year.

I'm 50% Doom
25% Gloom

Quote from: Cain on November 18, 2020, 09:26:27 PM
Bold to assume 2020 isn't just going to be extended indefinitely.

This!

Once Trump fails to get states to just invalidate their elections he will use his access to nuclear weapons to force the world to keep the calendar at 23:59 December 31st indefinitely.

Biden can't become President of the United States if it's never January 20th.

The US will hopefully limp back towards something like normality next year, the UK and Brexit has to play out on this side, so there is still stuff in there to come

Quote from: Faust on November 24, 2020, 11:13:01 AM
The US will hopefully limp back towards something like normality next year, the UK and Brexit has to play out on this side, so there is still stuff in there to come

You say that, but just wait until CornPop (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/16/corn-pop-joe-biden-story-what-happened-is-it-real-swimming-pool-confrontation) hears Biden has been made President and comes after him.

I'm applying for a PhD program.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? OTHER THAN HAVING TO GO BACK TO FLORIDA, OF COURSE.

I know it's part of where you're from, but still... you're going BACK?



Wait.  I just remembered, you'll be leaving Norfolk.









I get it.

Quote from: LMNO on November 25, 2020, 12:50:20 PM
you'll be leaving Norfolk.

Ha.  Haha.  HAHAHA.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I get the feeling there's an implication that Norfolk is the result of a Tucson spore cloud that landed on the East coast.

Quote from: LMNO on November 25, 2020, 03:03:04 PM
I get the feeling there's an implication that Norfolk is the result of a Tucson spore cloud that landed on the East coast.

Same result, different causes.

Tucson is morally bankrupt, and has bad physics.  You can't leave.

Norfolk is a region of space bent so badly by improper trailer parks and murderous locals that the universe walled it off so as not to be embarrassed when the neighbors come round.  Like when you put that weird uncle in the attic so he doesn't bite people at Christmas.  You can't leave.

There are two types of people that live in Norfolk:

US military and NATO personnel.
"The locals."

I'm in a 10 year old house that's in an old school predominantly BIPOC area. So the food is amazing and the people are pleasant as fuck. They know we're all Navy in our circle and haven't a fucking clue where anything is, so they do their best to help out and make us laugh the best we can with the world going to shit. They're good southern folk.

When we leave the farms and the stretch between NS and the JSB, and head toward the rest of the city, things...aren't great anymore. Downtown is alright. It's old and historic, there's lots of things to see when Virginia isn't locked the fuck down. But the locals fucking hate the military. Which is hilarious, since their entire goddamn lives revolve around living in the biggest naval complex in the world, and NATO's US headquarters. They drive needlessly fast, and considering I lived in both New England and SoCal, me saying "needlessly fast" should say something, and will cut you off if you have out of state plates (which is half the fucking city.)

Virginia Beach is the state hotbed for COVID, and it shows when you go down there. It's where all the white people and Navy Airedales who need Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen to live. Yeah, it's "nice", as in, clean and gentrified, and everybody doesn't want to wear a mask because they're above such fucking nonsense. Considering we found a Chinese place with an authentic menu that gives me a nosebleed with "mild" here, we don't mind our little neighborhood and I don't see myself going down there much except to see the top of the OBX, or into the wildlife preserves once spring comes around.

I haven't been over the bridge to Hampton and the rest of the Peninsula yet. We have friends over there, some that work at Langley, which is the Air Force base they shoved in the middle of Navy bases to see what would happen. Williamsburg and Jamestown are up that way as well. You can barely see the Eastern Shores on the Delmarva, and you have to cross the 20mi Bridge Tunnel Man Bear Pig to get there, and that costs $13 one way.

The weather is nice. It's been quite cool. The leaves are gone, but there's a shit ton of flowers still, and banana trees, which confused the fuck out of me until I reminded myself that Hampton Roads is still sub-tropical. Lots and lots of camellia and rose bushes just loaded with color in the middle of November.

But no, this is where the Navy sends you to die unless they have a very specific job for you to do. Mr. Suu has a very specific billet he had to fill on a submarine that needs some TLC so to speak (bad morale, really bad to the point they usurped the entire command bad and changed his orders because they want his patience on this boat. THAT bad.) It's his last tour forever. He's dealing with it.

The reason I'm applying to a PhD program back in Florida is that they have a cool digital humanities program starting up, and they're looking for people who are interested, have a background in antiquities, and also don't mind working with Florida history as they build the institute. So locals with the chops are helpful. If I get in, I get a full ride, plus a decent stipend for 4 years, and a teaching load, which I cannot get online. Plus, my parents aren't getting younger, and my mom is  starting to lose it without working, and my dad traveling all the time. Her memory is starting to slip, and she's only 58. My brother and sister are there, but me being around to pick up some slack and keep her brain engaged by getting her into my school work, or going to museums and digs, which she loves, or even playing games or doing puzzles, could nip this in the bud until we can get her working again post-Pandemic.

Mr. Suu is not going to be around, this is going to be a deployment-heavy tour, and there's no need for me to stay in Hampton Roads unless I get a killer job, which is unlikely as all of the local museums and historical sites are closed and struggling, badly. I can volunteer, and I probably will until I leave, but I need cash money, especially since Trump fucked us out of taxes and they're all coming due in January just in time for Biden to become president. After he's done, he's looking at a school in Charleston that is right up his alley, so he will join me in Tampa to finish his gen-eds, and then we can move to that gem of a city. That is not sarcasm, btw, for those that haven't been. Charleston is gorgeous.

My best friend since 2nd grade is also not doing awesome. He's in Mississippi right now working at one of the state universities. He's doing well financially, but he's just not happy there, and it bubbled to a head last year when he realized that he was tumbling into alcoholism. Me being in Florida made it easier for us to actually see each other, and I went to help him deal with things following his grandmother's and father's deaths. Not COVID, just grief that he didn't face until the Pandemic, so I had to get him through a week and change of emotional labor he couldn't really deal with on his own. For those that follow me on FB, the shadowbox I made was for his long-gone grandfather. He's also the one that gave me a good fucking lecture when we were shitfaced in New Orleans last year about settling with my MA and not actually reaching my goals. So I decided that I need to stay in the Southeast for a bit to finish my studies and keep an eye on loved ones. This adulthood shit sucks. On the other side, Mr. Suu's mom is retired now. We need to get her out of her awful house and into a smaller apartment off of a hill in the Snowbelt, but she's apparently seeing someone and is doing okay. He was going to go up there this summer, but, obviously...

Our top choice was to return to San Diego, the second choice was back to New London. There wasn't a single New London billet available for months, and he was given Norfolk or Guam. :kingmeh: Honestly, we had a few bridges burned in New England while we've been gone, so if we never move back that far north again, I don't fucking care. Virginia is tolerable for now.

Voted better. Can't imagine how that's even possible but then I said that about 2019 too  :lulz:

Everyone gets a year older. New issues show up, some old ones go away, and a lot mutate. I can't predict the future more than that, but I can say that hopefully the US starts to un-fuck itself and your years turn out better than this one was.