Cup of coffee, 27 March 2026

 A chilly but sunny morning here, unfortunately it feels much colder with a brisk northwest wind. The weather is schizophrenic this time of year: 70 degrees one day, 30 degrees the next. I've got a few things on my mind, so have a cup of coffee and let's talk.

My Wall Drug coffee cup. I like the old "cafe" design. I got this on vacation in South Dakota a few years ago.

For the last few weeks I have been slowly weaning myself off social media. In light of recent world events, I found myself spending too much time on Facebook, Reddit, X, Threads, etc. and it was starting to kill my soul: A state of constant anxiety. Inability to sleep at night. A never-ending pallor of impending doom. 

I decided I cannot live like this. I am old enough to remember life before social media. And it was a much better place.

I deleted all but one app: Instagram (and that is strictly because my kids like to send me things like memes, reels, or whatever the hell you call it). I don't scroll Instagram. Instead, the only time I open it is when I have a new message.

While I want to stay informed of national and world events, I have found that social media is a breeding ground for misinformation. These platforms are contributing the the downfall of our society and it is burrowing an addictive, anxiety-ridden, toxic wormhole into our consciousness.

But what caused me to finally say enough was enough? The conflict in Iran was the last straw.

First, almost everything we see on social media these days is AI generated. And so many people believe everything they see without questioning or scrutinizing. Education is important, folks.

Second, any web site can call itself a "news source" and it can post any fiction under the sun. There's always a simpleton or a malcontent out there who will take a story at face value and repost on social media, especially if the content fits their agenda.

The cesspool known as Facebook is especially bad. That platform is full of gullible, uneducated, village idiots. "News stories" are shared as Gospel without verifying a single legitimate source ...then the name calling, arguments and threats start. Family vs. family. Friends vs. friends. Strangers vs. strangers. Day after day after day. 

Daily exposure to this can kill your joy for living really fast. 

Other platforms such as Threads, X, Reddit, etc. are filled with paranoid doomsdayers, who clearly have nothing to do but doom scroll all day while curled in a fetal position. Sadly, it doesn't take much to follow them down that morbid blackhole and I admit they nearly got their hooks in me before I finally woke up.

Third, every news source in the United States has an agenda; to understand this truth is to be ahead of the game. Today's "news" falls into two categories: it is either anti-Trump or Trump-sponsored propaganda. Both are designed to divide us and it has worked spectacularly well. 

A certain faction of our populous has been led to believe if you are anti-Trump you are anti-American. Not only is this an unpatriotic, un-American way of thinking (if you know American history, you know this to be true), it is groupthink at its finest, just as Orwell predicted some 77 years ago. 

What do I mean by this? Over the years, I've know many people who were anti-Obama, anti-Bush, anti-Clinton, anti-Reagan (yes, I am that old). Did I ever think those folks (who are good friends/family/co-workers) anti-American? Of course not. Just because your political beliefs do not align with the current president's agenda, it does not make you "an enemy of the state" (unfortunately, that's a quote). However, that is the current climate in our country. 

And this sentiment is as un-American as you can possibly get. Wait... how is that un-American?

The United States of America was founded on differences. It was founded on open debate and intellectual discourse. It was founded on argument, exchange of ideas and, ultimately, compromise. The Founding Fathers were not a bunch of "yes men." They were feisty dudes who yelled, pounded tables and bickered a blue streak, but they all had a common cause: love of country. That's been recently minimized from our collective consciousness, but it doesn't change the truth. 

And the first step to the truth is getting news without an agenda. 

I have found four excellent news options: Reuters, Associated Press, BBC and Al Jazeera (yes, Al Jazeera; this is a trusted, impartial, internationally award-winning news organization -- rednecks ain't gonna like the name, but once again, education is very important). These are the news sources I personally trust.

So what do I do now that I am not scrolling on social media? The site 1440  is incredibly refreshing (I am providing the link here just in case anyone else is seeking a "way out" of the perversion of social media). The 1440 site is free and is full of awesome stories for the intellectually curious. They also provide daily news updates (email) which are balanced from an assortment of agencies, along with daily interesting tidbits from around the world.

 I am going back to a more simple time. It is difficult to do these days, but I am determined to get there. 

Go outside. Start writing. Learn a new skill. Start reading. Find a hobby.

Think of how much of your life is wasted staring at a screen. This is just a temporary stop. Make the most of it.

 

The Land of Hype and Hyperbole

 If only it felt as nice as it looks outside. 

Blue skies, bright, blinding sunshine bouncing off the snow. But it is about 10 degrees with a nasty 30 mile per hour wind, making it feel like -2 degrees Fahrenheit. 

There was a significant snowstorm about 70 miles south of me this weekend. I was right on the border of the storm, stuck in forecast purgatory; literally, "1 inch to 13 inches of snow", but the unknown forced me to stay at my workplace Saturday night (I must be within 20 minutes of my work when I am on-call, and I had no idea what the weather was going to do; nor did Mr. Weatherman). 

Turns out we got perhaps three inches, maximum. 'Tis the "Land of Hype and Hyperbole," I like to call it.

Looking out my window on this chilly Monday, 16 March 2026

Turns out, not much happened workwise this weekend. But it was one of those things where I couldn't do much but wait for my pager to go off, so I made a huge dent in a new book I am reading, John Williams: A Composer's Life by Tim Greiving, which I am just loving.  

I knew nothing about Williams prior to opening this book, and what a life -- what a career!! Of course, he's known for his close association with Spielberg, but Williams was in the music/television/film business for twenty years prior to meeting Spielberg. 

Williams had already scored films such as The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Fiddler on the Roof and Valley of the Dolls as well as made-for-television movies such as Jane Eyre and the infamous (to football fans) Heidi, plus television series like Lost in Space (he wrote the theme song), Gilligan's Island and Wagon Train, just to name a few. If that wasn't enough he had also already won a Grammy and an Academy Award. At 43 years old, he was considered perhaps the best film composer in Hollywood. 

Then he met a 25 year-old film geek named Steven who was a Williams "fanboy" and desperately wanted to work with the music legend. I think it is very akin to compare their fortuitous union with that of Lennon and McCartney in pop music: the meeting of two geniuses from which the rest of the world was rewarded with a lifetime of entertainment.

One of the interesting bits that I have read is that Spielberg strongly recommended John Williams to his friend George Lucas, who was struggling with a "space opera." Lucas thought it would ultimately be "a film to be watched by 10 year-old boys on a Saturday afternoon." As partial payment for his work, Lucas offered Williams 1% of the film's box office earnings.

Star Wars has earned approximately $10 billion at the box office; 1% of $10 billion is $100 million. Not a bad day's work.

Remember,that's just ONE film. We won't even go into the remainder of the Star Wars series, Jaws, the Indiana Jones series, the Jurassic Park series, E.T. (The Extra Terrestrial), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler's List, Home Alone, the Harry Potter series... well, you get my drift. The man is simply the greatest movie composer of all time and no one else is even close. Period. (Oh, did I mention Superman?)

Anyway, what I meant to say before going off on this tangent is that I am enjoying this book very much.

So that's it for now. I will update again, soon. Meanwhile I will sit in my easy chair and sadly watch the world burn. I have a feeling the other shoe is going to drop soon, I am just not sure which shoe; I am hopeful of one and fearful of the other. 

I promised myself not to get political on this site, so I will stop there. 

(**Gemini, Google's AI platform, tells me that it was Alec Guiness who was offered a percentage of the box office receipts, not Williams. However, author Tim Greiving has done impeccable, detailed homework in this biography and I trust his years of research over a shitty one second AI search.)

Hella Kids

This morning I finished All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Everyone on the planet has heard of this classic, published 97 years ago, but I had never read it. It was an incredibly heavy book (emotionally heavy; the book itself is just 179 pages). 

The story is based on Remarque's own horrendous physical and psychological ordeal in the trenches of France during World War One. The reader is truly left with a sense of how horrific and utterly senseless war really is. It should be required reading for every world leader. 

But that assumes every world leader can read.

"The only good thing to come from war is camaraderie."

On a lighter note, my part of this big world woke up to cotton candy fog this morning. "Thick as pea soup" as my mother used to say, although I don't remember her ever making pea soup, In fact, I'm not sure what pea soup even looks like. I'm guessing it is thick and green, which is nothing like fog. 

A better descriptor would be "Thick as Campbell's mushroom soup." That's definitely better. Opaque and gray-ish. It resembles two-day old phlegm but it tastes great. Or should I say, M'm! M'm! Good!

But these murky mornings are welcome here. As we inch closer to spring, hour by hour, fog forms like the ghost of winter, slowly fading, melting, releasing its death grip. It actually feels satisfying to turn on the fog lights as one ventures out and about. 

Speaking of, I drove my son to jazz band this morning; he has jazz practice every morning at 7:30 AM. I give him credit, because jazz is meant to be played at midnight, when you finally find the pocket and the atmosphere of a smokey nightclub is just right; capturing that groove right after breakfast is impossible, but you do what you have to do. 

As I headed home, navigating the roundabouts, I approached a rusted out Dodge Durango from behind. I could see white lettering stenciled on the back window and being the curious type, I had to inch closer to see what it read:  

"HELLA KIDS IN THIS BITCH" in capital letters (a fancy, dancing script to give it a classy touch). 

I am too old to understand this vernacular, so I had to look it up. It turns out "hella" actually has its roots in 1970s and 1980s slang in the Bay Area of California. I'm not so sure about that because I grew up in the '70s and '80s, and I never heard of the word "hella" until No Doubt came out with a song called "Hella Good" around the turn of the 21st century. 

I presume "hella" is an adverb; roughly meaning "really" or "very." If so, the phrase "hella kids" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. "Hella kids in this bitch" obscures the meaning even more. The "bitch" part could mean the Durango itself, or perhaps it refers to the driver of the Durango, who could be pregnant. 

Regardless, the essence of the meaning, I am guessing, is a redneck/white ghetto interpretation of "Baby On Board."

Either way, I give Durango credit for spelling everything correctly, because the "t" is silent in "bitch," and it is frequently overlooked. 

Hella well done, Durango.

The Blind Assassin

 This is a quick post for book lovers, because only book lovers know the feeling I have right now: a feeling of contented exhaustion after finishing a great novel. 

As usual, I am late to the party. The Blind Assassin was published 26 years ago, but it was new to me, and I had no idea what to expected when I opened to page one; maybe something about a professional assassin? Maybe some secret agent man shit going on? 

Nope, not at all. Essentially this was a novel within a novel with three different, yet interwoven stories twisting around each other. 

I admit I had the thing figured out about 3/4 of the way through, or at least I thought I did, but then the last 125 pages had me second-guessing myself. Awesome storytelling.

Margaret Atwood turned 86 years old last November and she now has a brand new fan. Hey, it is better late than never!

It is hard to believe, but I am actually going to sit down and write a bit. I have my cup of tea by my side -- the cup is a big, black 20 ounce treasure from the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. It's a great place to visit if you're in the area -- especially if dinosaurs are your thing. The tea is "Organic Peachy Green" by Tazo. I am happy it is "organic," because an inorganic tea doesn't sound very palatable. The Tazo connoisseurs say this tea has a "hint of cucumber," but I'm not buying it. Still, it is pretty tasty.

No, I have not stopped drinking coffee; far from it, actually. Throughout the morning, I've had two pots of Sunrise Blend from New Hill Coffee Roasters. My friend, Kevin, is the owner/operator of New Hill and he roasts and blends fantastic coffee.

This date, February 28, is earmarked in my life and it might be why I was moved to write today. My father died on this day back in 1997. I held his hand when he slipped away. I've always been thankful I was with him when he took his last breath. I will never know if he knew I was there, but I am glad he wasn't alone. Twenty-nine years ago feels like yesterday, but at the same time it feels like a lifetime ago.

〰

So what have I been doing? Working, mostly. I usually have a day off during the week and then embrace these precious weekends. I've been watching lots of basketball lately; I always do in February and March. It isn't nearly as entertaining and interesting as football, but it is better than most things on television. 

I am also reading (almost done) a fantastic novel, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was a Christmas gift from my daughter who picked it up at a used book store (she knows I love those kinds of gifts). Atwood, of course, is most famous for The Handmaid's Tale, which presently sits atop my desk, part of my lengthy "To Read" list. If it is half as good as The Blind Assassin, I will be happy. She's an awesome writer.

Well, the days are getting longer. That's a positive. This time of year I am always looking for something positive, because this is an ugly time of year. The snow has become a flagrant gray-black, as if its very existence is meant to be offensive. The trees are barren skeletons. The few pock marks of bare ground are dreary and dead. The sky is concrete on most days. On good days, the temperatures rise above freezing for a short time, then the world becomes a skating rink at night. Rinse and repeat. Day after day. 

Oh, and there's dog shit everywhere.

I guess this is called "spring fever," right?

And, as any Minnesotan knows, winter isn't over. My dad used to say we always get a snowstorm right around the boys state basketball tournament. And you know what? He was right every time. I suspect the same will be true this year.

[editor's note: my last post waaay back in July 2025 was about the Amelia Earhart plane wreckage and the Purdue University expedition to Nikumaroro where the mysterious Taraia Object is located. I mentioned there was something very odd on the northwestern shore, which was nowhere close to the infamous satellite imagery that many researchers think is Earhart's plane. 

As it turns out, this is actually a shipwreck of the SS Norwich City, which foundered there in 1929. So, my eyes didn't deceive me; it really was something man-made, just not an airplane. Mystery solved.

By the way, this expedition, originally slated for November 2025, has been postponed until later in 2026.]