clinging to the wreckage

Would you like to buy a book for $1.99 that captures the ramblings of loves long lost from my years spent living in Spain? if so, here it is:  Memoirs of the Damned: The Spanish Years  

  I have dined in hell… and it was wonderful. Alcohol, music, food, and beauty abound. This was the start of the second day of my self-proclaimed four days of debauchery that I referred to as the ‘Grind, Comedy, and Death in Dallas’ tour. I named it this due to the fact that I was watching two Grindcore bands in two nights, followed by a comedian on Friday night and a death metal band on Saturday.                     It all began on Wednesday, the 16 th of April. I was heading out to see the Grindcore gods, Carcass, from Liverpool, England, at the South Side Ballroom in Downtown Dallas, but I’d made it a mini vacation, so it was the first of three days off work to indulge in decadent debauchery. Thus, I took the DART train to the Southwest Medical District station and walked to The Grapevine Lounge/Bar. I was intrigued by the bar simply because someone from Washington DC had written a review ...

 During the pandemic our species was given an opportunity to evolve rapidly. We had a chance to assess all that had come before us and to change, dramatically, for the better. We were given the chance to eradicate commutes and uncomfortable lack of privacies. But then the doomers set in… ‘we had to suffer and so should you. I had to wake up at 4am, put a suit on, then walk 25 miles over a snowy mountain inhabited by dragons and vampires to get to the office at 8am.’ Yes, I am Generation X, I have suffered, too, and that is what makes me even more determined that younger generations should have flexibility and the best possible life. Give people a choice and ease their lives. Give them work/life balance. Retain and attract talent. Increase engagement across the board. Stop worrying about where work is done, focus on productivity and let’s work to build a better life for everyone. The Campion Trail, my backyard, Las Colinas, Texas, USA.

 Everything is mediocre and futile. The return to office madness, led by madmen and obeyed by the hopeless. The government’s endless persecution of immigrants and administrative workers… but, even worse, their pursuit of the destruction of science and education. The people on LinkedIn whose profiles read ‘founder of three companies’ (why would that be your headline?) and those on tiktok/youtube/etc claiming that they are always the hard working ones in a relationship but the relationship always fails due to the other person, just like they get fired from every job they ever have… but it is always the company’s fault. And then the companies who all seem to run with a tiny group of people trying to deliver while a massive group of people ask them when they will deliver and how and when… and all the people chasing don’t seem to be in contact with each other, so they all overlap and ask the same questions… but they never contribute to any solutions. ‘Is he there?’, he asks. But wh...

  What causes the disconnection between people? What is it that causes a colleague to praise the work and efforts of one but completely ignore another? Why does a team mate in a sports team congratulate a member of their team but say nothing to another who does equally well? I’d been contemplating this for a few days and then, today, my father told me a story about something that happened while he was bowling (lawn bowls). He hit the jack, pushed it back, and took his team from -2 points to +6 points… and none of the team said anything to him. No comment on the shot. He said to me ‘it makes one feel that one is not wanted.’ It made me sad to hear him say that, and it made me ponder, even deeper, why this occurs. My only thought is that is must be one of the following reasons:   -               People simply don’t like you and are not willing to comment -          ...

  At the moment, my life feels like that scene from The Empire Strikes Back in which Luke Skywalker is out exploring Planet Hoth on his Tauntaun and gets attacked by a Wampa. When he fails to return to the base, Han Solo is in a complete panic, realizing that Luke may freeze to death out in the cold. I am Han Solo. It is currently hovering around -10 Celsius with a ‘feels like’ much lower, and I keep staring out of the door looking for the feral cat that I feed and talk to every day. She has been around for years and has coped with a lot, but I fear for her in this temperature. She refuses to come inside or to lose her independence. So, the cat is out in the cold, my soccer team sucks, the president destroying my mental health, work is very high pressure at the moment, my friends are sick or sad or both, and there seems to be no reprieve.  

  What a terrifying time we live in, what a terrifying world. Not only are we led by greed, we actually voted for it. When I say ‘we’, I mean the majority. I have never been a part of the majority, so I don’t know what that feels like, but I see a lot of idiots looking very happy. Their focus? Not environment and climate. Not healthcare. Not peace and collaboration. They care about blocking rights for the LGBTQ community. They care about revenge on people who did their jobs in trying to protect us from election deniers. It’s a time when so many people are filled with jealousy, hatred, and insecurity. Parents look upon childless individuals with despair and envy. Boomers look at remote workers with utter hate and bitterness. Uneducated racists look at immigrants, and fear for their jobs… and they hate anything they don’t understand. All of them look at a changing society and long for a time long-gone to return… so they vote for the right wing, they fall for slogans like ‘make Americ...