A Mark twain quote, I believe.
Not that there are any such rumours concerning myself to my knowledge but, OK… it has been several weeks now since I last posted here, so maybe there are some folk reading this who might be wondering about that. But no, I’m fine. Although my health has dipped somewhat over recent months, but I am at an age where that is to be expected. On top of those matters and their associated expense and time consumption, the thing which actually prevented me from writing was the lack of a keyboard. After some 7 years and at least 18,000 hours of online gaming plus an uncountable number of hours of writing, researching, and general computing, my top quality Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated Keyboard decided to call it a day with a number of crucial keys becoming increasingly unusable. Don’t worry, this is not a begging post as I have now replaced it with a G915 XLS Low Profile Gaming Keyboard – said to be the best current gaming keyboard of any. At the same time, my gaming laptop, which I use almost exclusively for one particular game, has become useless through loss of the ‘S’ key (crucial to movement in gaming) as a result of overuse. I can however stream that game through to my main PC with its big screen, and use my new keyboard as game input control – I hope. Haven’t tested that yet.
I consider my online activities – for as long as we have the privilege to use that technology – to be an essential component in keeping my mental health at a high level of capability and agility as I travel though my 80s and for as long as my body remains capable of sustaining life. Personal pleasure and satisfaction are behind almost everything I do these days and are high on my list of important life drivers. Online gaming plays a large part in that. As does my interest in world affairs.
All that aside, I am bursting to put out more posts, but this unanticipated break from writing has given me the time to reflect on the importance of most events occurring in the modern world. While in a normal setting, the flaccid flip-floppings of the Trumpian mind, now taking place almost, if not actually, on a daily basis, together with the regularly expected and equally vacuous outbursts of other on-stage world leaders, would merit the attention of onlookers and reporters, if only for shock value. But as things now stand, any shock impact of any such event or announcement has lost any value it might have enjoyed in times past – even if it is in any way believable in any current setting and even if there is sufficient audience capable of understanding or even caring about its potential effects on their own lives. Many such events of potentially global importance are simply forgotten or irrelevant by the next 24 hour news-cycle or within a week or perhaps even a month or so. Is it then worthwhile going to the effort to disseminate such short-lived news, other than to be accumulated as building blocks to aid any attempt to understand how some future scenario came about?
The short answer I think, is no. I will work my future writing bearing that basis in mind, although I still reserve the right to write about whatever takes my fancy at any time.
And so, with that new basis settling into some form of plan, I must (?) celebrate (?) my return to the keyboard with a mostly worthless song of monotonic screaming from the ‘counter culture’ genre, the content of which offers very little in common with its own title – which also just happens to coincide with my own choice for the title of this post. While it contains some valid and heart-searching lyrics, had they been rendered more gracefully and following some recognisable melody, the song’s only real saving grace is that it reminds me of another rumour (mostly true) about the US Patriot missile system. It contains the following statement and question…
Shots fired into the sky are now returning
Where the fuck will you hide?
…reminiscent of the flight of a Patriot missile which, having lost its target, returns to the ground frantically searching for some other thing to destroy with its remaining unspent energy. Such an objective-deprived weapon will often – whether guided by some obtuse logic or not – fall nearby to where it began its failed journey (killing the launch crew) or onto some civilian structure (killing innocents). Such falling debris is the true cause of most unintended civilian deaths from aerial conflict over Ukrainian held land in what is now a NATO-Russia war. Russian missiles in particular, and/or drones, other than in the remote chance of having been hit themselves, do not damage civilian infrastructure or kill civilians in Ukraine.
If you can listen to that song all the way through, ”you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din”.*
Not Something Else 
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