A Few Pics

Words for Today

I’ve just discovered The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. ‘the fuck is that?

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of new words for emotions. Its mission is to shine a light on the fundamental strangeness of being a human being—all the aches, demons, vibes, joys, and urges that are humming in the background of everyday life. 
   ~~~
This is not a book about sadness—at least, not in the modern sense of the word. The word sadness originally meant “fullness,” from the same Latin root, satis, that also gave us sated and satisfaction. Not so long ago, to be sad meant you were filled to the brim with some intensity of experience.
   ~~~
All words in this dictionary are new. Some were rescued from the trash heap and redefined, others were invented from whole cloth, but most were stitched together from fragments of a hundred different languages, both living and dead. These words were not necessarily intended to be used in conversation, but to exist for their own sake. To give some semblance of order to the wilderness inside your head, so you can settle it yourself on your own terms, without feeling too lost—safe in the knowledge that we’re all lost. (source) 

The author talks about how light bulbs of understanding and fresh self-awareness can pop on in our brains, especially when learning words for emotions in languages other than English.

Here are some cool words that are not from the book:

Hygge (pronounced hooga, from what I’ve read)
     noun/adjective
:  Esp. with reference to Danish culture: a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being; contentment from simple pleasures, such as warmth, food, friends, etc.  

This Danish word can be traced back to the Middle Ages and Old Norse, when it meant "to instill courage, give comfort, joy,” or to be "protected from the outside world.” Something along those lines anyway.

* Sundays, when we Valhallans gather to watch Star Trek and consume snackies, are a true moment of hygge.

Almeida Júnior – Saudade

Saudade (pronounced sow-DAH-də)
     noun
:  a melancholy nostalgia for something or someone – a feeling of incompleteness. This word is Portuguese and Galician.

Saudade ultimately derives from the Latin solitās, solitātis, meaning “solitude.” (source) 

* With the heat wave and all the ridiculously foul news, I’m experiencing a deep sense of saudade for winter and the thermal waters of Iceland.

Duende (pronounced doo-EN-deh) 
     noun
According to Merriam-Webster it means the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm BUT that definition comes off as ridiculously vanilla

Jules Evans, writing at the History of Emotions blog says:

Duende, as far as I understand it, means those moments in artistic activity when something else takes over, when something speaks through you. It’s similar to the Muse or the angel, but these things come from some lofty height, while duende rises up from the chthonic depths, from the body and the groin, from the darkness, from death itself. The word comes from duen de casa, ‘Lord of the house’, meaning a sort of daemon or local spirit

* Fer instance, George Harrison was a good, journeyman guitar player. Jimi Hendix? The man had serious duende. He was duende incarnate. 

Ubuntu (pronounced oo·boon·too)
     noun
:  a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity. Sometimes translated as "I am because we are" (also "I am because you are”)

* We need more understanding and care in America,we need ubuntu not cold, greedy, I’ve-got-mine-screw-you.

Schadenfreude
     noun
:  pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

* When he dies 90% of the world will experience orgasmic levels of Schadenfreude.

AND from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows:

Sonder
     noun
:  the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk. 

That's just exquisite. I believe I’m going to need to actually purchase a copy of Mr. Koenig’s dictionary. Amongst other things, it looks like a sure cure, an escape from the doomscrolling blues.

I read the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.
~ Steven Wright

Strength (real and imagined)

Tank Man, the unknown protester who stood in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square, emerged as a powerful symbol and inspiration. This scene, this image is about courage and defiance but also it's about being thoroughly goddamned tired of the crushing weight of cruelty, injustice, and an utterly rigged, bullshit society. 

The lead tank moves back and forth, trying to go around the man, but the man kept on blocking its path. The man then climbs up on the lead tank and appears to talk to one of the soldiers inside the tank.

The man is eventually led away by his arms by two men. It remains unclear if those men were police or security forces, or just bystanders who were concerned about the man. (source) 

Maybe less groundbreaking and cinematic but every bit as brave and inspirational, we have Camarillo Woman and Camarillo Man. We’re tired of the hate, lies, gaslighting, and brutality from Trump, his billionaire Heritage Foundation puppet masters, and his legion of delusional, violent trolls.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. 

FYI, this quote is most often attributed to Thomas Jefferson but there’s no record of him saying or writing this. 

In other heinousness, Stinky’s getting some heat from his normally loyal loons. Why? The Epstein Files and his refusal to release them. I can’t keep up with all the lies. Every day, hell – every few hours – there’s a new fairy tale. The files are on Bleach Bondi’s desk. They don’t and have never existed. The whole thing’s a nothing burger so just stop talking about it. They exist but were created by Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden to take Trump down. OH LOOK OVER HERE, I’m going to strip Rosie O’Donnell of her citizenship!

Action Comics Volume 1 #34 Superman 1941

Do MAGAts understand that their orange god is ALL over those files? 

Doubt it! Doubt it times eleventy-billion. 

I’m betting they view his refusal to release the files as him kowtowing to the mythical Democratic Deep State. I'm betting they suspect their hero of protecting the all powerful, weather controlling, liberal elites. Trump’s betraying them! They’re sure, if he would just open up those files, that there’s FINALLY proof of Pizzagate, etc. 

Reality slaps them in their moon faces but they’re determined to ignore it. I guess we all need to hold tight to the fantasies that get us through this hard and often brutal life but…MEIN GOTT, if Trump is your all powerful, gracious and giving Daddy figure fantasy, PLEASE invest in therapy (intensive inpatient to start) immediately!

Mr. Big Stuff

How desperately, stupidly incompetent and lacking in even the most anorexic shred of humanity is ICE? At the Camarillo raid they abducted a disabled veteran who is a US citizen. He wasn’t a protester. George Retes is/was a security guard at Glass House Farms.

“ICE (maybe) thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn't, he was trying to reverse his car," said his sister, Destinee Majana. "They broke his window, they pepper-sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor. They detained him.”

Retes' sister and wife have been trying to call anybody she can to find out where he was taken, but they say nobody can tell them where he is.

"We don't know what to do, we're just asking to let my brother go. He's a U.S. citizen. He didn't do anything wrong. He's a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car," Majana added. (source) 

As of right now, as I’m writing this, his family and the law firm (Carrillo Law Firm) they’ve retained, still do not know where this US citizen and disabled veteran is. 

AND farm worker Jaime Alanis has died of the injuries he sustained during ICE’s Big Swinging Dick show.

During the raid, Alanis, who had reportedly worked at Glass House Farms picking tomatoes for 10 years, called his family in Mexico to say he was hiding from authorities.

"The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital with broken hands, ribs and a broken neck,” said Juan Duran, Alanis’s brother-in-law, according to The Associated Press news agency."
   ~~~
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” the statement said.

United Farm Workers said in a statement that some US citizens who worked at the firm are not yet accounted for.  (source) 

Hope you don’t mind blood on your fresh tomatoes. I’ll bet it washes off though.

Goebbels 2.0 (AKA Creepy Little Stephen Miller) and his ghoulish crew of soulless, sadistic, scumbags are undoubtedly having ice cream orgasms that an undesirable, an Untermenschen, died as a result of their orders, at the hands of their renfieldian Gestapo.

A protest tactic I found online:

All the people running out ICE should buy Spider-Man masks and silly string. And…well you can guess the rest.

I like this idea a lot. For starters, kit out your Spider-Man masks with shatterproof safety goggles – these can block direct contact with tear gas and pepper spray (which are often the first weapons used against crowds). 

Please read up on how to protect yourself against the zombified goons set loose on us by our pedophile president and his billionaire puppet masters. Check out A Demonstrator’s Guide to Gas Masks and Goggles. SERIOUSLY! 

Miller, Homan, Lyons, Noem, and Prez Pedophile are salivating in anticipation of killing Americans who don’t agree with every turd that pops out of their ugly face holes.

Make that killing a lot harder to do AND have fun while you're resisting. Add some glitter to the sticky neon silly string. 

Then there’s Border Patrol.

Isaiah Anthony Hodgson (A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent), 29, faces four felony and three misdemeanor charges related to the incident, which happened Monday at Shoreline Village. (source) 

What’d the fucker do? Got drunk at a restaurant, followed a woman into the woman’s bathroom (NB: Isaiah’s NOT trans and NOT a drag queen. He's NOT an immigrant or any other MAGA villain du jour either), pulled his gun out (the woman escaped), got into a fight with a cop, and, of course, resisted arrest. Apparently, dude's also got a nasty habit of arresting American citizens and those documenting his little peccadillos.

Hodgson was charged with four felony counts three misdemeanor gun charges and released. RELEASED?! Does this guy not seem like a dangerous, mentally unstable menace? Why is he walking around free when people whose only “crime” is picking tomatoes while brown are disappeared and/or killed? 

Did you see? An Iranian Group placed a $40M bounty on Trump.

A senior Iranian official has suggested President Trump could be assassinated while he sunbathes at his estate in Florida. 

Javad Larijani, an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued the warning on Iranian state television in the wake of US intervention in Iran’s conflict with Israel.

“Trump has done something so that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago. As he lies there with his stomach to the sun, a small drone might hit him in the navel. It’s very simple,” he said with a laugh, according to the London-based media outlet Iran International. (source) 

Nice idea but I have less than no faith in this crew. Fer fuck’s sake, have they not seen Stinky? That grotesque pile of flesh does NOT sunbathe. Any color his skin might show comes out of an industrial sized can of manure colored house paint.

The people boasting and placing the bounty are just unserious blowhards, talking big to make themselves look tougher and taller in the mirror – just like our homegrown MAGAts.

FCK ICE

Dictator Donny’s Gestapo goons were out in force yesterday. Were they busting dangerous, violent, gangbanging, meth dealers? Fuck no! As uszh they were after farm workers and children.

Writing on the social media platform X, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, shared video of children fleeing from chemical agents fired by federal agents at protesters on Thursday during the immigration raid in Camarillo.

“Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields,” Newson commented on the images. “Trump calls me ‘Newscum’ – but he’s the real scum.” (source) 

WHY is this army of ICE assholes throwing tear gas at farm workers and children? Because scaring people makes great television!

The incident comes as federal immigration enforcement agents have ramped up arrests in Southern California, heading to car washes, farms and Home Depot parking lots to take people into custody while stoking widespread fear among immigrant communities. (source) 

Jesse Duquette

While ICE and the National Guard are so damn busy waging war on farm workers in the state of California, more than 700,000 people in Florida were the victims of human trafficking in 2024. 100,000 of those were children and, yes, this was sex trafficking. Given former House Florida Rep and Stinky’s’s first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, this really shouldn’t come as any big surprise. 

I guess ICE doesn’t give a good goddamn about immigrants when they’re being battered, snatched and abused by criminals other than themselves. 

I'm not so much shocked as utterly, thoroughly disgusted. 
~~~
This makes me smile:

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist who was detained by the Trump administration for months, have filed a claim for $20m in damages against the administration, alleging Khalil was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests. (source) 

Khalill, a legal permanent resident, was kept in prison for the crimes of being intelligent and disagreeing with the Stupid Administration while brown. He was locked up for speaking out about Palestinian rights – for exercising his First Amendment rights.

Of course I hope he wins his case. Of course I won’t be surprised when the fix goes in. Judges paid off and/or threatened?! Would President Mob Boss do such a dastardly deed?! Yeah, we don’t live in some scripted Hollywood movie version of America where justice actually exists. Black, brown and poor people never have. Middle class white people are just now joining the party.
~~~
Irredeemable, racist madman Stephen Miller has gone full metal Stansfield (from The Professional) only in a badly tailored suit and no hair. 

 Stephen Miller recently berated ICE officials in a private meeting, demanding that they hit supercharged new arrest quotas and steamrolling anyone who balked, reports The Atlantic. Yet in a surprise twist, the report also details that Miller’s demands for maximum arrests are driving morale at ICE into the crapper. Importantly, what’s irking ICE agents is precisely that the mission of arresting as many low-level offenders as possible is pulling them away from pursuing serious criminals. (source) 

So, they know what they’re doing is bullshit even if they’re oblivious to the fact that what they’re doing is vile, cruel, cold, and barbaric. Yet they keep doing it. Why?

Perhaps they were born without a shred of empathy? We could dissect them. We could study each cell under a microscope. Or maybe we could get all the great psychoanalytic minds of our time together to evaluate these assholes-for-hire and find out WHY they do it. Is kidnapping innocents for pay more fulfilling, more respectable than working construction or delivering freight? Did they not make the cut to become firemen, cops or school crossing guards and this was the only gig they could get? OR can they only get a stiffy when they're abusing, oppressing, and abducting innocents?

I wanna know – when your job is human trafficking children and innocent, hardworking people versus the bad dudes you were told you’d be snatching WHY aren’t you quitting? You’re the enemy now. You’re the bad guys.

Jesse Duquette

More Fun with NF2

I had a check in with the nurse practitioner who works with my neurologist, Doc Plotkin, specifically with regards to the chemo med I’m on. The pill is supposed to be inhibiting the growth of my myriad fucking tumors.

I’ve been having some new, increased stupid symptoms over the past couple of weeks which may be nothing (just a “blip” as Christina termed it) OR it may be something to be concerned about and acted on.

Joy. Just motherfucking joy.

New series of paintings up in the 
neuro/cancer doctor department 
that I frequent at MGH. I’m not 
thrilled about the new amateurish 
farmland themed work. The previous 
paintings were Rothko-esque (if Mark
 was, perhaps, microdosing a bit 
whilst at the easel). I liked those better.

I’ve got swelling and numbness in my left foot and ankle, going up into my calf which may be related to one of the tumors hanging out around the motor cortex section of my bean. The last time a meningioma got too cozy in that area, the connection between my brain and left leg was lost. I had to train my brain to communicate with my leg again. Yeah, that was no goddamn fun at all. I spent WAY too much time inpatient at Spaulding Rehab (during COVID no less) and in a wheelchair at home. 

What happens now? Over the next week I keep working out – doing my recumbent elliptical time and PT exercises and monitoring how my left foot, ankle, and calf are dealing with it. If the swelling and quasi-numb feeling continues or worsens, my September MRI gets moved up to now or real soon-ish.

What happens if, despite the chemo meds, the tumor has had a growth spurt? MORE brain surgery isn’t optimal for a bunch ‘o’ reasons but proton radiation might be on the table. I had that a few years back for the monster on my thoracic spine. The worst part about radiation was the daily trip from Valhalla to MGH and back. I only mention it but 93 sucks hordes of giant bantha wang.

I’m really not happy about all this. Why can’t I have regular, normal old people problems like:

• My ankle’s swollen because I tripped walking up the stairs. (I haven't but it's a good excuse, right?)
• My foot is a little numb because I’m breaking in a new pair of sneaks.
• My calf’s a bit sore because I did too much time on the elliptical yesterday.

I mean, these are nice, reasonable old people issues. I want some of this instead of having to always play Which-Tumor-is-Triggering-My-Body’s-Dysfunction-Today?

NOT my favorite game! 

Irregular Galaxy Doods

Remaking the Gate

Came across this pic on Threads yesterday. It’s a gate leading to St Michael’s church in the town of Abergele. It’s on the north coast of Wales, a hair over 50 miles south of Liverpool and 12 miles north of Llandudno, a lovely little beach town that I’ve actually spent a few days and nights wandering around.

This gate though – I firmly believe we need one of these at the entrance to our patch of Valhalla. Granted, it’d need to be scaled down a bit as we don’t occupy anywhere near as much land as St Michael’s (understatement alert).

Also, we'll need to make a coupla changes for our gate: 

1)   We're gonna lose that cross. Maybe we'll replace it with a representation of the Milky Way galaxy. Too amorphous you say? We need a more definitive symbol of sacrifice made for the primary benefit of humanity but in an easy to interpret form? Well, it’s our house but, from an overall design standpoint, I see your point. How’s ‘bout we replace the cross with a nice, strong, majestic oak tree?

Why an oak tree? Traditionally oaks symbolize strength, stability, and endurance. There’s the whole cycle of life – ya know, birth, eating a cookie, death, rebirth, and all that shit. Plus, because we’re mindful of our Celtic ancestry here and we're druid-inclusive, we want to give a solid nod to the Celtic “good god” Dagda. Dagda was keen on oaks. We are too.

2)   I’m assuming that the angel dude hanging out below the cross is Saint Michael. You know, he’s the really important Archangel – leader of the heavenly hosts, warrior against evil, and a protector of god's people (whoever they are – I suppose it depends on who you ask). Given the state of the world right now, Mike’s either a total slacker or just majorly burnt out. Maybe that chainsaw wielding con, Leon, and his plague of teenage terrorists got to old Saint Mike and pink slipped his army of Galahads? 

Who knows.

No matter the case, on Valhalla’s gate Saint Michael will be replaced with Lozen, a great Chiricahua Apache warrior woman. 

When she reached the age of her womanhood ceremony, she was courted by many men but let it be known that she would never marry. Instead, she undertook and succeeded at the hardship of a dikohe or a warrior in training. Afterward, the Council accepted her, and she became a warrior.

She also studied medicine and became a renowned medicine woman with extensive knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and minerals. By the time she was 20-years-old, she had also become an expert at stealing horses, which earned her the name of Lozen, which means “dextrous horse thief.” (source) 

Lozen was serious awesomeness.

Tremendous amounts of talent are being lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.
~ Shirley Chisholm

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.
~ Maya Angelou

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.
~ Georgia O’Keeffe

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
~ Katharine Hepburn 

Tension Tuesday

 So, Netanyahu nominated Trump for Nobel peace prize. A war criminal, a man who designed and ordered up the genocide of the Palestinian people nominated a serial rapist, 34 count convicted felon, known business cheat, racist, conman, and pedophile for the goddamn PEACE PRIZE. 

Is this Mad Magazine? The Onion? Saturday Night Night Live? No, it’s too dark and insane for any of those. This must be reality then.

I’m sure Stinky and Bibi enjoyed their self-congratulatory little circle jerk.

Meanwhile in LA, Stephen Goebbels Miller’s team of pathologically insecure and angry-for-no-reason assholes let loose at least 100 of their dogs of war to terrorize…wait for it…around 20 kids, aged 5 to 12, who were attending summer camp in MacArthur Park.

WHY were these fuckers sent to terrorize children? Mayor Karen Bass went down to the park as soon as she was told the fuckers were there. 

"To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos," Bass said at an early afternoon news conference. "It's a political agenda of provoking fear and terror.

"It looked like a city under siege. Under armed occupation.” (source) 

Seems it was just more of Stinky and his micro-schwanzed team’s attempt to play big swinging dick. We the People need to be brave, stand up, be creative and shut these motherfuckers down. How long will it be before more of the MAGAts wake the fuck up and realize they’ve been lied to and cheated? They’re still not living in mini-mansions or working easier, higher paying gigs and eggs and gas are still too expensive.

Enough. I spent a few hours cleaning out my phone yesterday so it’s picture time.

Karen Hallion

Jesse Duquette

Sadly, I didn't note the make or model of this beauty. Sorry!

Karen Hallion