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 All that remains: in afterlife as 'mainstream' blogger, with what little I know. 20k views |
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Obshchak Some torn to the ground ▼ Read here some old blog entries...  2018 Highlights ▼Brian K Compton   -- ![Merit Badge in Second Time Around Contest
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Congratulations on winning the Grand Overall Prize in [Link To Item #2164876] with your beautiful poem, [Link to Book Entry #933358]. This poem really moved me. Great writing!
Rachel *^*Heartv*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Second_Time_Around_Contest-2164963_14.gif) Short answer, mostly relatable. |
| See you next fall? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/convinced-fauci-says-there-will-be-coron... you had me at: "(a group of scientists and billionaires with a backdoor plane to advise president Trump) describe their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project..." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-secret-group-of-scientists-and-billionaire... |
My daughter and the girl in the plastic bubble are listening to vinyl tonight. Right now, playing song we sang to her at bedtime when she was little: Listening to the high parts now. I was the only one who dared sing that part. Life will be normal again. Making new and special memories. It’s the dawn of a new era. When these 14 days of captivity are up, I want to get a video of her climbing up the back stairs to the garage like a miner exiting a shaft trapped by a cave in. But that would be insensitive to those who’ve been through that very real life or death drama, except I don’t know them. And, they’ve never heard of me. So, the only people who could be offended are people who just take offense on behalf of those not available to witness. And yet, this is a real life drama. This does factor life and death. This is about sacrifice and a family kept apart. I will have my video. But, I’m seriously worried she’ll just run right upstairs to her Waterpik. (CURRENT PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE) Instead, I give you this:  Three days in partial captivity. Bring my wife and our mother home! We’re hungry. Serious, nothing to eat except cereal. |
| Put your acorns where your mouth is? Collect as much of those acorns as you can now before this forthcoming recession (more willing to call it depression now?) arrives... https://apple.news/Am1N1UWv1STqruHLssGERqw Before inflation affects grocery prices and other needs (fortunately oil war caused cheap gas), get your ducks in a row for more TP shortages and things we don't have the imagination to realize flying off store shelves. Expect inflation and price gouging. Expect more fledgling stores and companies to go under...Kmart, Sears types. Because Amazon is king, followed by Walmart, Costco and Target. https://apple.news/AejaFUKbjSrGnfe2OLmZyqw The more we get comfortable with online shopping and vactioning indoors, streaming live stuff from movies to games to each other, the more local communities are likely to suffer. Trump will have a hell of a time in coming months reacting to fickle Wall Street, if it doesn't do him in. Or...we come out of this stronger and more resilient than ever. https://money.com/fed-bazooka-your-budget/ What you got your money on...sorry, acorns? I'm not a professional doomsday prepper, but I have two cabins in the woods I can flee to. We can drop a thousand gallon fuel tank in ground and get an oil company over with a truck to fill it up with cheap crude. We got weapons and ammo and plenty of wildlife for survival. I don't think my kids are ready for a world without wifi...out of necessity rather than it not being available. They don't use it now to complete their homework, so forget them man. Let's eat a squirrel and leave a squirrel in the woods. TP reference. Still at top of food chain. Come on Wall Street. Don't screw this up for the rest of us who don't want our money tied up in bonds again or for eternity. |
| Okay, Wall Street closes higher again. I've got my broker on speed dial to get me out of the market if this thing nose dives again. Value of my portfolio is almost back to where I want it. The value of bonds is rising. Thankfully investors are more hopeful for our future amid this pandemic. I think that's because the worst of it may be over in major cities. Now mid to small size areas more remotely located are feeling the brunt, like here in Green Bay. Why am I posting this in newsfeed? I just started typing and now this thing is getting long. Financially, things are looking up for investors. It's getting people back to work and back into arenas to enjoy leisure that is going to take awhile. This is a rollercoaster ride for sure. I need to secure my investments and not lose another 30% of my portfolio value. So, i'll see how fickle market will be in days, weeks and months to come. You know, most trading is done by computers that are programmed to react to market conditions. I'm in some hedge funds that rely on this, and between my wife and I are over 70% reliant on stocks. I went to all bonds in 2008 and pretty much dove back into the market the day after Trump was elected. I pulled out most of my portfolio to fund an annuity one year ago. I can start drawing on that in seven years, if I chose.Three years away from no mortgage payment. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck, I hear. Unemployment checks are still not arriving. And the government stimulus lump sums got here, but the additional federal money for unemployment is still months away. Lots of information about this unusual time in history to take in and consider. Are they driving the market up unnecessarily to get investors a false security before another major sell off? Corporations still doing buy backs like pharmaceuticals who would rather own their own stock to control price rather than spend more money on research. Well Wall Street investors don't have all the control, because what drives economy is the consumers ability to spend. If there is no place to drive our cars to but grocers, and everyone is getting the virus at meat packing plants, and not enough money to spend, where will we be months from now? Even if we wind up with extra dough. You can't even bet on sports. I have a few stock tips. Just bet on Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Target to name a few, because they are set up well to deliver goods. Leisure on the internet is growing. Look at Zoom. They are creating playrooms now. Imagine, we all could be Zooming or playrooming all at once. Too much unknowable yet about that. But, but some industries are popping up out of this. Eating at home is getting easier. As is buying goods over internet. More people will order from home in the future, as people grow accustomed. Well, you could bet on the market with an online app and make a few bucks. I just do it because I'm bored. Just to show my financial advisor I can outinvest him. I might or I might not. Okay, i'm taking this to my blog. Edit later. |
| Well this is surreal. Wife exposed on late shift to Covid19 admitting patient today. A person she identified as a co-worker was the passenger in car that pulled up to emergency center. Jen is covering there, because no elective surgery for a trained tech. The woman was getting out, started passing out and threw up on ground, missing my wife. Jen didn't have an n95. Even if she had, it wouldn't correctly fit her face. She's tried in past. They were not prepared for this arrival. People are supposed to call ahead before being seen, or arrive by ambulance. Wife and a nurse were exposed, lacking proper garb for such an extreme case. She's home now. I worked into night to get her bunker ready. A shower curtain separates us on the lower house level. Jen gets a mattress on floor with dresser, small fridge, adjacent bathroom and access to garage. We figured 14 days for the girl in the plastic box-room. My daughter who needs mom most nights is being angsty, where I'm offering comfort. They are constantly thick as thieves. It will be an adjustment...for all. She can't get tested, even as hospital employee. You get sent home until your symptoms are bad. Let's pray that doesn't happen. 🙏 |
Pulled a few oldies from the mothballs, brushed off, polished a bit. Sometimes, perspective informs a writer growing to decide where this journey is leading by rediscovering the past. Is it so unknowable?
written in my last year of college, forced through so many English courses on my way to earning my degree. even then, I was nostalgic for the past, whether I could grasp moments of time escaping to hold onto, much like a good film that you wish would never end. today we have binge-watching episodically like morons, still unsated. when does it stop? when will we accept our own mortality? it's never going to be as good as some shining, pearl vision perfectly captured on film. live it raw and rough and appreciate we cannot ascend to high ideals...and write the damn novel! that's just me yelling at myself. yell at your own self instead making me do it. 
I added a footnote to this old poem when I stored it today to my own files. I'm preparing to trim the bushes and hedges in this web place. Too many static items from the past that have no place here now. The above poem was written in my early 20s. That much I can tell you. My mastery of the English language was better than the people I was hanging out with, before I went to college...finally. And, I got smarter. Not that anyone's looking in at my blog posts, or even commenting, but I won't overwhelm with links for the time being. I'm in a different place after this past year, showing me that we got to wind this thing down. I'm not a good fit for this community. |
| Let me just say, I'm learning Coronavirus is making a lot of people crazy. It's understandable to run with emotions over testing/reporting and health care concerns, as I wrote to someone dealing with an inadequate medical provider: "That's quite an ordeal. Glad you're both doing better. My wife screens people here in Green Bay for the virus. She's had her concerns about her own exposure to patients eventually testing positive. She's calmer now, too. You're a great mom. I think the medical community starting with World Health Organization down to leaders on every level are taking their lumps now and well into the future for not being prepared for this. Experts are saying stay calm. Flattening the curve is about not overwhelming the health care system, because they need to prioritize care now. Hopefully, you'll continue to get better. Your body's immune system is key. That hospital could inflict more damage than good going to those ventilators, if they have enough for critical patients. If you can self-manage, you'll have a better chance getting through this. They only want to take you, if you cannot sustain yourself. Results in areas like yours can take a week, because they don't have their own testing facilities. I'll pray for you and your community. Hopefully, the best medicine is just being at home. Keep yourself entertained. Three more weeks? We can do this. We can laugh, this is our trial run for the apocalypse. Laugh. Cry, too. It's all good for you. And, write more. It helps with critical thinking and keeping our wits about us, at times when our brain wants to go into these fight or flight modes. It's normal. Best Love..." All we can do is support one another, learn as we go as is the medical community. My wife introduced me to this guy. He might have a handle on how to cope and reflect on the situation we're in... https://www.facebook.com/ZDoggMD/videos/237602127604975/ |
| It's too early for I told you so. Let's get past this week... https://apple.news/AEeJso10-TYy0710gM1t1mQ When called upon, corporations all the way down to the littlest people are supporting our country...because it is great. |
| It's not uncommon for us to always say we'll get to it later… ...The novel. And during this pandemic that has affected the entire world, like our English speaking portion of it, it would behoove us to spend our extra time while in captivity crafting that elusive beast into existence. Should have struck while the iron was hot, although I don't think it would've done any good because I would've reached this moment… ...The virus invades our life in our sweet little cubby of a home, on a cul-de-sac in the suburb of a semi-rural town in northern Wisconsin. No, none of us that we know of have been infected by COVID-19. But, right now I am preparing a bunker for my wife who is on the front lines checking people in at the hospital who suspect their symptoms might lead to a positive diagnosis of the disease. Right now, she needs reassurances from me that I will be ready to step up for her at the helm of this family to make sure things go smoothly, should she be infected by this disease. We've had some candid conversations about it since she started taking shifts again last week at her hospital. She fulfills an obligation to cover her hours, since elective surgery doctors cannot operate right. It never got more real for her, until three days ago, when the hospital chaplain arrived suffering from obvious symptoms. She had to approach his car and talk to him and get him off to nurses and staff who could situate him. She watched the Chaplain's wife drive away, after the couple had briefly talked and hugged. When she got home that night, it hit her. My seldom emotional wife Was choked up by the sudden realization -- it might have been the last encounter for those two. Two days later, he went into the ICU unit. What does this mean now for us? Well, after talking to Jen about the chances she might actually get coronavirus, her outcome doesn't look good. She wants to make sure she doesn't pass this on to the rest of us. Fortunately, we have a medical professional in the house who knows how to scrub and keep clean and safe and to avoid cross-contamination. She's not confident her hospital can adequately provide her protection, minus a PAPR mask. Her current mask that looks like a beekeeper hood in inadequate. She feels there is an 80% chance she will contract this. I have to be ready to step up. I am in the process of setting up a room in our lower level that's connected to a bathroom. I have to clean it out entirely, sort out, box up, and move stuff to other locations of our home or garage. I have to make it comfortable with a bed and other amenities, because this poor woman (who is on the front lines helping people through this crisis) might have to reside in a 10x10 secluded space by our back entry to garage. She will depend on a dreamer, the most ignorant and foolish person in the world to take care of her and our family if she should go down. I'm actually capable of this task, because when presented with a situation like this, I respond. My back is not against the wall yet, so I'm dragging my feet and sitting here writing this opus...for good reason. I'm trying to process how this is all going to play out, if I have to roll into action. Obstacles. Both of my kids have been spending a lot of time in distraction with video games, social media -- distracting themselves with things on the Internet. Unfortunately, they have not been focusing on their homework for his college or her high school. And, there has been some fluctuating stress in this house about that, especially concern from my wife. And me, dopey dad, with aww shucks mentality, because no one ever listens when he instructs, has to step up and be a leader -- in a situation where I've been diminished in my household by people who don't want my opinion. I don't have a voice... until I hear someone say what does dad think and look up and realize I should've been listening. Well, I'm ready now -- a chance to prove I can be depended on, to see me in a different light. I am actually a strong-willed person with drive, once given keys to take this thing out of park. Problem is, got a cab full of backseat drivers. Now I can shush them, let me do this. So, once I get over that mental mountain, I have to deal with the reality that my wife could be sitting at home with a disease with potential five percent mortality rate. Obviously, if it becomes bad, she won't be living in her house. But, she also doesn't fall into the range or age of people dealing with a fatal situation. So, mortality rate is going to be around 1%. What about me? I told her that if I get COVID-19, I am prepared. I don't feel my life is significant that it should be preserved, so willing to be on front line for her through this. She asked, what about your family? And I said they can get by without me. I'm more of an obstacle. It's morbid, I know. And the chances that either one of us will be greatly affected by this virus is yet unknown, doesn't feel like a real thing (for me) just yet. But, we're preparing. My greatest obstacle is educating my children about this concern and how they can step up themselves and contribute to the process, instead of being lumps in their own beds until after noon every day, without ever accomplishing the simplest of tasks. If they could just pull their own weight, they could ease tension of their parents to better focus or handle impending events likely to unfold. That basement is calling. It needs my attention. |
Review of "The Question Box"  For "Could President Donald Trump become a king?"  Hi, This was fun. Too bad. You know, it lines up. But, we would find a reason to go to war with anyone who might try to apply pressure on us to pay. And while our country may have lost favor with countries since President Trump, we are the world's protector. We are the mafia, yes! We put military installations in countries worried about their own defenses, and that speaks louder than money. Patriotism is what keeps us strong. China can't break us, even if they made this virus to weaken us. There are signs they are using the World Health Organization to cover up their shame. Things may be worse over there than they seem. Just ask Japan about their petition to remove the leader of WHO for propaganda campaign and misinformation that led to this messy nightmare we're in. Our great debt to China has been known for years. They had the last four years, since Trump bullied them, to reply. You think in an election year, it's the right time. I think they're scared of us. We'll call any bluff. Don't get worked up over one person's opinion. A conspiracy theory that is the stuff of fiction by someone wanting your attention is omitting a lot of other information to spin their own theory. I'm just basing it off your synopsis here. We have the ability as a free nation to collect information from many sources. Freedom of press. Yes, wealth rules the world. But, this is like a giant board game of Risk. Military is our strength. When we lose that, I'd worry. Until then, fire up the Keurig and binge watch any content you like. We are the Kings and Queens in the end. I would advise not to spread doomsday principals without giving balance to what you opine, because you would be no better than the Youtuber who scared himself with his own fiction. My advise, sleep with the light on, if it helps. I want to see that video. Could you link? Got to run now, cash in my investments Monday. Darn. I really wanted to buy Nike, Apple and Google stock, too. Got 10k burning a hole in my pocket. Capitalism. Am I right? Go figure. So, socialism was never a consideration? B |
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