It is hot and gross today, so I have been locked into my AC vortex, surrounded by fans and dogs. This house has no shade, although I have a couple of maples that are very close to providing some. As such, it gets hot in here. My gardens will need to be watered, as it has been exceptionally dry, but other than that, I am avoiding going outside as much as possible and staying in the tin can. Not having a mortgage or large rent is worth the heat.

My wife and I need very little, and saving money by living here opens up future opportunities for us. Her business is doing extremely well, which means we are saving up for the next stage of its evolution. That evolution may involve a significant relocation, but I’ll cover that on its own later.

I was banned from Twitter/X in a wave of “inauthentic behavior” bans, which has been nice. I really needed to unplug from the platform. I just want to follow funny people, musicians, authors, and wrestling that I am too lazy to watch. People yelling and screaming at each other is just negative vibes. My only concern is now I won’t know when albums such as Vince Staples Crybaby (I am happy to plug Vince even if a single reader checks him out) get released. I think it may be his first project on an independent label, and it is visceral. The midnight release live show was incredible as well. I love seeing a creative force have freedom.

I am spending the Summer actually doing things, which is wild. I have a lot of things around the house I am plugging away at. I do spot work for my wife’s business when called upon, and I have some actual projects that are progressing nicely.

I have been really creative lately. I don’t know how, if I am being honest. I’m depressed, and I feel like I have permanent writer’s block. Therapy and medication, while very good tools in the box, only carry so much of your burden. At some point, self-work is required, at least for me. I guess part of having depression is learning to swim against the stream sometimes. That’s fine.

I finished my semester with all A’s and a B+ in Sociology of Gerontology. My GPA is almost a 3.8 and I have 13 credits left before I officially become the most educated generation of my family to this point. I’m proud of myself but I also feel like I have gotten away with something. I have been able to play pretend and I have almost completed my scheme type shit. I covered all of my required courses for my major as well, which means next semester I can basically take whatever I want. It’ll probably be history and literature classes. I am so over my sociology minor. The classes were really beneficial in helping to give me a concept of the larger World, but it tends to repeat itself. Urban sociology? Learn how people in cities get fucked over in a way that is unique to them. Social gerontology? Learn about how we treat old folks like shit. I could go on but you get the idea. I just want to read about Gawain, man.

I think this’ll be a long one, but fuck it. I haven’t put anything up in forever. You can continue reading or not. No hard feelings. It’s disjointed as well, but I am a wildman.

Anyway, I once wrote a paper on Gawain and the Green Knight where I referred to the Knight as a “dick” in the first sentence. I got an A after proving his dickishness over 2 pages or so. He really does just keep fucking with poor Gawain. When the second use of the word got a “careful, now” with a little arrow, I was proud to have pushed just far enough without crossing the line. That’s a skill in and of itself. Get a feel for the audience and see how uncomfortable you can make them while still having them appreciate what you are doing. Good stuff. This was actually during my one semester at Springfield College, so I can still take early British literature as I dropped out of that school before finishing the semester.

Even so, Professor Andrew Kozikowski brought so much energy to class with him that I loved every second of it. He was just some old dude but he never stopped moving. He played hockey weekly and lord knows what else and he would come to class full of infectious enthusiasm. If Springfield Technical Community College made me curious about literature, that half-semester with Professor K only confirmed that this was the path for me.

Also, Even though I wasn’t in the journalism department, I also had Aimee Crawford who worked at ESPN and won a Peabody as a professor so that was really interesting too. She’s very nice! (I just looked her up and evidently she is an endowed chair at another school. Congratulations Professor Crawford!)

Speaking of literature, I have been really deep diving into early American lit before bed lately. There will be a couple of deep dives coming. From creation myths to Jonathan Edwards! Get pumped!

That’s it for me, I guess.

Until next time,

JTC