So, when ICE converges on Chicago, are they going to cast a wide net, or will they ignore the white European immigrants who are here illegally?
To be clear, I’m not advocating this sweep no matter who is targeted. But I strongly suspect that it’s going to be rather selective.
Between the inauguration and my team officially losing again to That Team, this time in the Sasaki sweepstakes, I have a lot of mental health work ahead of me this weekend.
Now that it appears my team has been dumped from the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, fake game podcasts may be the extent of my baseball world for a while.
Can’t help but think the late owner’s widow suing over the ownership situation really f’ed up the Padres’ chances of nabbing possibly a generational talent. Postmortem money battles are the worst.
Officially logged out of work till Tuesday. I had hoped to be logged out sooner, but shit happens. Glad to be done with that part of my life for a few days.
I’m addicted to changing my social media handle. Went from Dylan to dystopian within an hour. Sticking with dystopian through next week, though that’s been my vibe since late last year.
Based on my experience today slogging through my work day in a foggy stupor, I’m destined to be an early sleeper for as long as I have to continue working. I guess my night owl life is officially over until I retire or win the lottery. 😐
Will Leitch on R.E.M.: “There is something very Generation X about this most Generation X of bands refusing to take a payday just for the sake of reminiscence.” (Washington Post [gift link])
Going to bed at 2:30 a.m. is not helping my productivity any. But I still got plenty done this morning, so I’m rewarding myself with a 1976 radio broadcast of a Mets-Padres game in San Diego (via YouTube). It’s soothing to listen to Jerry Coleman calling a pitching matchup between Tom Seaver and Randy Jones.
Winding down a late night – my first late night spent with work stuff since last week. The 2009 World Baseball Classic final between Japan and South Korea keeps me company on YouTube. It relaxes me.
Twenty-five days till pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
Yeah. This.
Happiness is a dog that snores.
Always a good sign for me when the homilist quotes Thomas Merton. Highly unlikely in the trad parish I’m still marginally a part of.
Props to the guy on LaGrange Road wearing a beanie and driving his Miata with the top down in 30-degree weather #MidwestLiving
I hate that I missed this in McSweeney’s: “Is it Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism?”
I’ve had various personal sites and blogs with the Gratuitous Web Presence brand over the past 30 years. I may bring it back at some point, but I’m having so much fun with the Fluffbucket moniker that I’m renaming this place.
Why “Fluffbucket” in the first place? Chris coined the name for our Bichon/Shih tzu mix, Winslow, years ago. Winslow has left this world, but the name remains, and I opted a few months ago to scrub my name from any public-facing social media I have left. (I’ve deactivated Facebook and LinkedIn, and I’ve taken Instagram private; Threads and Bluesky remain public, as does Micro.blog, though I don’t consider that major social media.) I started playing with the Fluffbucket name on a lark, and it’s stuck.
I’ve riffed on beloved pet names before for my online identity; I’ve operated online ventures as The Weederman Group and Small Goofy Dog Productions. But this is different. Rather than use a name to develop a personal or business brand, I’m doing this strictly to (a) operate under the radar and take my name entirely out of the online space (though I’m stuck with the “garciabuxton” username here), and (b) entertain myself.
So, I’m Fluffbucketing for the forseeable future. It’s going to be a long and painful 1 to 4 years; I might as well have fun along the way.
After Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to dump fact-checkers and loosen restrictions on Meta user posts, I’m less enthused about remaining on Threads. I’ll stick around, but I’m back to being leery of the place. The Zuck is obeying in advance, and that’s kind of scary.
Meanwhile, the Fluffbucket Variations continue on Bluesky.
Quietly being judged in the comfort of my own home office.
Been making an actual effort to emerge from my months of sluggishness, at least at work and with my journaling and health. The effort is up and down. Baby steps.
(On the health front, I’m focusing on standing up, hydrating, and sleeping when the new Apple Watch tells me to. It’s not much, but it’s something.)
I actually told a colleague yesterday, “I really don’t want another lost year like 2024. That’s what a lot of it felt like.”
Onward. That may well be my word for 2025. Onward.
I just mowed down an entire bag of Doritos. I mean, a 9-ounce bag. So much for the health resolutions I wrote out this afternoon. 😐
Well, crap. This is the kind of thing I’m trying to overcome in 2025.
I spent way too much time during a dull meeting today riffing on name variations for my Bluesky handle. This replaced Fa-la-la-la Fluffbucket and Auld Lang Fluffbucket this afternoon. More to come.
In my happy place tonight, on J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday, with “The Two Towers.”
I just made peanut butter and strawberry preserve sandwiches using leftover pancakes. And they were good. Please clap.
I think I finally get it. This is overgeneralizing, I know, but here goes.
Bluesky informs me and makes me laugh. Threads makes me contemplate and feel.
Yes, they switch roles periodically. But there’s a complementary yin/yang thing going on for me. No need to pick one over the other. I like that.