-5/26/22 Mad World

A little bitty bug crawled up and bit me. That bug was a Procrastination bug. I waited to see what would happen and the next thing I knew ... much time had passed since my last blog. Yep, Procrastination bug. It bit me good and hard but here I am again. Done pulled the little bugger off and flipped him for a good loop with my middle finger. Damn Arthropoda munchers. Gotta call the exterminators before they take over my mind.

(Angelo shakes his head and one flies off head)

There, good to go. Let's do the damn deed.

PEOPLE! How the hell are you? Living life? Loving it? You'd better be. Gotta be good vibes coming outta ya. But if you want good vibes coming out, you gotta be putting good vibes in. Surround yourself with positive people. Just do it. Make it happen. Surround yourself with people who will lift you up and challenge you to be a better you. Your brain will love it and it will bleed over onto your choices and your life results. OK, soap box spewing's over, time to get down to bizzz'nazzz!

During my time AWOL, I got the pleasure of jumping back into my vampire story some. Yes! Loved every moment of it and plan to revisit him just as soon as I'm done with my gibberish here. The rain is falling outside and what better day to jump into the rear seats of you mental bus and see what you can stir up. Spent some time adding some new characters to Gahnsonne and worked on filling in some gaps and pulling the story line along, as it should be. You know, the curse of a story never being good enough so you take that creative hammer to it and start slinging until it is pounded into satisfactory submission. It's getting there. Can't wait to get to a comfortable spot to start cover artwork for it. I gots me some ideas already simmering on the stove. And I know my girl (artist, Nada Orlic) will do it justice. Getting antsy for it to come to fruition to be able to put it out there.

Let's derail the vibe of this blog train and see what happens, shall we? Total spontaneous switheroo moment ahead so pull the lever. (CLANK)

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I ducked down behind several wooden crates that were resting atop the front half of a burnt car. Not sure where the rear half was. You'd think it would at least be in eyesight but in a crazy world like this ... nothing is beyond the imagination anymore. Not since they took over. A drone whizzed by overhead but never saw me. Had it, I would be in trouble, for sure. No one is supposed to venture outside their allotted sections. It is considered a capital crime to do so. Once it was out of sight I scurried to the safety of our lodging, just in time before the next one patrolled.

I've asked my grandfather what life was like back in his time and he would always hold this long silent stare before going into details. I always noticed a droplet of sadness start to build up in the corner of his eye but never once mentioned it or acted like I had noticed. He seemed to be fighting his words enough and I never wanted to cause him to cross that line and break down. He was a proud and strong man. Doing so in front of the younger generation would devastate a man like him. He would tell me stories about days gone by when people were free. Free to say what they wanted. Free to move about around the country without needing to acquire permission or penalties for non compliance. 'Compliance,' a word that has been branded on the back of my brain my entire life. I would listen to his stories and try to imagine him, in his youth, as free as a bird. I imagined what life must have been like back then but my thoughts were only limited to the confines of what I was ever allowed to think. He tells me that I can only partially understand what he was describing because I have "never had a free enough mind to fully grasp it. You were robbed of that right the day you were born," he would often say. If it's better than what I do imagine, I can only dream of a day to come, such as his, because it sounds wonderful.

"What changed, Grandpa? Why did we lose our freedom? Why didn't anyone stand up and fight?"

"Because they took it away an inch at a time. No one saw it coming. Those who did were called lunatics and were silenced. Everyone else was afraid of receiving their same fate so they kept quiet. Little by little they took people's rights away. Got them to give them up, willingly, based on one little lie after another, until we reached ..."

Grandfather reached out with both of his hands to encompass the entirety of the earth.

"For the good of the people," he said. "Those who worked for us flipped the script and started to dole out our needs as if it were a gift. As if we should thank them for allowing us the basic needs for survival. They took and took and took until all that was left was for us to beg and beg and beg."

My grandfather looked at me as he attempted to hide his despair. He said, " I truly wish you could have know what it was like before they took our freedom away."

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Pulling the lever.

OK, so my soapbox moment asked for good vibes and then I drop something like this but the good news is that Gramps and the half burnt car world scenario is not in full bloom ... as of now. You still have time to watch them stolen inches and prevent it from ever happening. Stand strong and tall, my peeps. Your generations to come depends on you.

Wow, I might just contradict myself here (on the positive vibes) if I keep this coming but thought I'd share this short video with you. It kinda ties into the micro-story I just spontaneously punched out for you. Feast.

What did you think? Crazy when you look at it as a whole, right? We live in a different world than was present 30 years ago, peeps.

Now, to un-contradict myself ... or not. (based entirely on perception. Warning: Following video might exceed PG rating)

Now that you are thoroughly depressed at your mad world ....

Go do something about!

I love you all. Today's post was just a fly by the seat of my pants spontaneous work of wtf(?). I truly hope each and every one of you are in a place of happiness. (If so, spread it around. Someone needs some of it, so share)

If not, please reach out.

Now, go out in the world and be the change. Live, love, laugh, and feed that brain. You owe it to yourself.

Angelo

[all rights go to artists]