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Here we are again

When I was a young lad, in my catholic school, I noticed that there were these strange blue and yellow signs posted around the gymnasium and cafeteria. Being naturally curious, I went home and asked my mother what exactly a “fallout shelter” was. My mother then dutifully explained their purpose, and why in the case of an actual nuclear attack they wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. It may have been a harsh lesson for an 8 year old boy, but it’s one that needed to be taught.  One should not cover up the horror of the possibility of nuclear annihilation.             It’s one of the things of growing up a child of the ‘70s and ‘80s, that the possibility of nuclear war hung around like an ever present stench. Until about 1989, the fear that any moment that the world could disappear in a a blinding flash of light was the subtext of almost the  first half of my life. Then the world appeared to get sane, and to wake from history as the song goes. But here we are again now, the stench
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Silver Diner

So they say you can’t go home again. The more and more I think about it, it’s true. Tonight, Christine, Morgaine, and I stopped at the Silver Diner in Rockville, and it was different. Man, the Silver Diner used to be a great place to go for greasy spoon fare. To be honest, the food was just ok, but it was hot, plentiful, and the service was fast. It was, a great place to gather with friends after a late movie, annoy the staff by playing the banana boat song on the juke box, and argue about the meaning of life.  In short, it was a diner.  That was however, back in 1994. Today, it’s more a diner themed restaurant, than actual diner. Don’t get me wrong the food has taken a step up in quality.  Our dinner was excellent, if overpriced. The thing is, it was too fancy for diner food. While they still had chicken fingers, burgers, and pancakes on their menu, the majority of their menu  were upscale items like the Lamb Merguez burger (which was very good), it’s no longer greasy spoon fare.
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I should be working but.....

I’ve been mulling over the Trump video all day, and I have to say I am disgusted, but not really surprised. If you paid attention to his comments with regards to Megyn Kelly at the beginning of the campaign, and his subsequent statements and actions told the world exactly what kind of person he was. ( I would have called him slime, but that’s an insult to slime-molds and other lichen that actually serve a useful purpose.) The real question in my mind is how someone like that came to be nominated in the first place.  While I think people are quite correct in calling out the racism and sexism of his supporters,.I feel they are attacking the symptoms, and not the disease itself, which is to my mind income inequality. Which is only going to get worse, especially with the advent of the automation revolution. Which if it comes to pass will automate entire career fields out of existence from truck drivers to copy editors. From what I have read about Trump’s supporters, a very large m
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An update

Well, I guess I need to brush this thing off and actually use it.  It’s good writing practice, which I need especially now. First I have some good news to share. I am officially a Grad Student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where I am seeking my Master of Arts in Historical studies.  My first semester started last week, and I am having a blast.  I already can tell how much more intense the work load is going to be as compared to Undergraduate studies.   First there are the readings from what I have seen I will be reading at least five to six hundred pages a week, not counting research. Then there is the writing by my conservative estimate I will be writing approximately 5 to six pages a week, and that is not including assigned research papers and presentations. Plus, I am only going part time! Here’s the thing though. I am looking forward to this work.  I see what’s being asked and why. It is not make work in the slightest, we are working not just with pri
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So I am going to Graduate School for my MA in history. As my focus is on late antiquity, early medieval, I will need to   work on brushing up my Latin, as well as taking Greek when I start Grad school as my interests tend toward the early church. One way I have been brushing up on my Latin is translating prayers from Latin to English. One of the things I have discovered while doing this, actually the common Roman Rite prayers are actually  quite beautiful in Latin. What follows below are a selection of prayers and their english translations: Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad infernos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Eccles
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March Storms

I really did not intend for this blog to become a mental health blog.   I guess the journey I am on is digging up so much, that I need to get what’s in my head out. This blog, I think, is perfect for that. It’s funny, living with depression, you can feel a down period coming on. It rolls in, at least for me, like a storm.   Not one of the flashy summer thunderstorms, that is full of fury then gone in an instant.   It’s more like a cold March rain. You know, when it’s to warm to be snow, but the combined cold and damp chill you to the bone, no matter how many layers of clothing you are wearing. Just generally ugly grey days that all you want to do is curl up under a blanket. That is where I am at right now. I just want to curl up under a blanket. Nothing seems worthwhile, and I am struggling to prioritize anything. Nothing really matters, not even me.   However, I know that, like all storms, this will pass and life will go on.   It’s funny, I thought once I had started o
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What to do?

I am using this blog as it was meant to be I suppose, to get my thoughts written down. One of the things I am questioning, is a pull back from social media, and the culture wars being fought on it.     The reason being, is that I am almost pathologically conflict averse, and the online fights send my anxiety levels through the roof. I already have anxiety and depression issues as it is, and I do not need anything to exacerbate them.             This aversion to conflict I have does not play well with current political and online discourse on social media. It appears to me that invective and insult rule the day over compromise and nuance. Yes, I know that there are still articles that discuss things in a rational manner, but the comment sections are cesspools. I know I should stay out of comment sections, but human nature being what it is I cannot help my self.   I go in, find that the section is a seething cauldron of rage, and walk back out.   All of this leaves me anxious and
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