The Mandalorian

 The best thing about 2020 is my son.

However, my son doesn't really have the international appeal of The Mandalorian which is really, really good.  A lot of 2020 is bad but The Mandalorian puts the ball at the back of the net every time.  If you haven't watched it I don't want to spoil it but there are some amazing scenarios in it.  If you love Star Wars you should watch it.  Now.

Sad story

 Randomly heard through Facebook that someone I used to know had died a few years ago.  The person was too young and had a difficult life.  

The person was really a friend of a friend.  I had asked myself, 'what happened to x?' and I looked on facebook and found an answer.  However, it isn't really an answer, only more questions that really are not for me to ask.

We all face difficulties in life and we all walk different roads.  I'm glad that I'm on my road and I gave my young son an extra cuddle this evening.  We have done some family stuff over the weekend and we'll do more during the week.  I'm a lucky man and I realise that not everyone is that lucky.

Mining youtube

I'm on holiday (whatever that means in COVID times) and the baby and my partner are in bed.  I've been listening to old nineties indie music on youtube and I've found a couple of curios.  A version of 'Dicso 2000' by Pulp with Nick Cave on vocals and beyond that, a pub rock version of the same.

The world is indeed a strange place.  

I was also watching some old Travis videos and Iw as struck by how young they all look.  They are all 4 or 5 years older than me but they looked like children in 1999, at the height of their success.  Odd.

It's late now and I better head to my bed.  I'll have stuff to do in the morning but the internet is a strange and interesting place at times.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Over the past few months I've worked my way through The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and it's been pleasant.  Over the past 20 years Butcher has created a well rounded Dresden-verse focusing on the life and times of Harry Dresden, professional wizard and private investigator based in Chicago.  The books have spawned a short lived TV series, lots of comics and a few role playing games.  A great franchise.

The books seem to work a bit like a role playing game with Dresden developing from book to book, levelling up and encountering new challenges that push him further and further.  In later books there is some focus on the various attempts that are made to corrupt Dresden by supernatural entities.

In difficult times Harry Dresden is a great distraction.  There are two more books being published later this year and I'm looking forward to reading them.

I had initially intended to be more enthusiastic in this post as I genuinely loved the books - just read them.

Life under lockdown

Because of my job I still have to go to work every  day.  I use public transport and for a while it was frightening.  It's probably a bit less frightening now as I've become numb to it, to a certain extent but there is still dread.  It's important not to become complacent.  This virus is bad and it can fuck you right up.

One person that I knew, our old neighbour, has died.  She was a great lady and it's sad.  Other than that a couple of my patients have been seriously unwell with it.  The virus has a multi-system effect, messing up coagulation, causing blood clots everywhere as well as a cytokine storm type effect as well as the lung problems.  It can fuck you up bad.

I've read a lot of dystopian fiction and we aren't quite there yet but we have witnessed a failure of Johnson-led UK Tory government.  The current projection is ov 50,000 excess deaths.  Many of these are in the elderly and disabled which will give the austerity driven Tory party their jollies. The virus is ripping through care homes, killing old people..  The pseudo-clown our English compatriots elected as Prime Minister was ignoble enough to catch the virus himself after shaking hands with everyone on a COVID ward.  What a fuck nugget.

The reason for his short stay in iTU has been a source of much speculation but Johnson has lost weight and he doesn't have the fortitude for method acting so I suspect the fucker was actually sick.  However, in the face of 50 thousand deaths that were potentially avoidable my sympathy for this devil is limited.

There is little that I can write that has not already been written about this shit show.  Brexit will proceed like a runaway locomotive and the UK will hit a wall and pretty soon we will be the 53rd state of the USA.  Eating chlorinated chicken, steroid filled steak and paying through the nose for health insurance while the disaster capitalists in the Tory party are laughing all the way to their offshore banks.

Newspapers saying that teachers should be heroes.  Why should a teacher risk death to teach maths to a bunch of disinterested secondary school kids?  Why should a care worker die due to a lack of PPE?

Alexander Boris Johnson fiddles with himself while the UK drowns in its own stupidity.

being a dad

I've been a dad for a couple of months now and it's amazing, better than anything else I can think of.  My son has an amazing smile and great eyes.  He mainly seems to poo, puke, eat and sleep but he giggles a bit too.

I'm looking forward to doing lots of father son things and making him watch star wars, read marvel comics and listen to punk rock.  He may or may not like these things, it will be up to him.

I wish my dad had met him and that his mothers dad had met him.  Sadly, life isn't always what you want.  He does have an uncle which is good too.

Fatherhood and pregnancy have kept me busy over the past few months so only getting a chance to update the blog now.  Will post more stuff when I get a chance.