Weird rule that people follow

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This might be esoteric to the point that I’m exaggerating but I do feel like this is in our collective public consciousness. Especially because the movie that I’m going to talk about is at this point over 32 years old. The thing is that I feel like this is a rule that actual people followed throughout my years of going to concerts.

In this movie, Jeremy Piven’s character tells someone that they can’t go to a concert wearing a t-shirt of the band that you’re going to go see. And a lot of people took that rule to be the god’s honest truth.

Also, if you haven’t seen this movie, it’s strange prescient as it’s people complaining about wokeness before it was called that and was instead called being politically correct or PC. Otherwise known as not being focused on the feelings of straight, white males.

I’m still seeing posts on reddit about it though they’re written by people in the same age range as me. I had only heard the rule from the movie, maybe it was in the public show consciousness and the writer just threw it into the movie. I don’t know.

I’ve heard some people say though that they have a good reason not to do it. They want to wear other shirts to see if they can spark a conversation with people about other bands that they like. That makes sense to me.

The way I feel about it, is that I love people who are in love with bands. I especially love how excited everyone gets now when they go to shows. I think that if you love a band and want to show that by wearing their shirt, you should. I think that if you don’t and want to wear something else, that’s valid too. It’s all the same to me. Just let people have fun.

Cat update

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I didn’t post all week. Let me explain that.

Before I’ve said that I really didn’t want this blog to be only about my cats, which is something that is going to be really hard. They are so cute. I love them so much.

Frequent readers of this blog, might say “But Frank, you’ve only ever talked about one cat, the wonderful Pierre. Who is this mysterious second cat?”

Well, his name is Rambler. He’s about five years old and as of last Friday, he’s a former feral. He’s been living in my bathroom for the last week and I’ve been doing what I did with Pierre, going in every morning and sitting with him for about an hour a day. We’ve moved from hissing at me every time I enter the room to just quietly hiding from me. Progress! I know it’s going to be a long road but I don’t really care. He’s mine and I’m not going to give him up. Here’s a picture of the little man.

Look at him! He ate his first Churu yesterday and I think that he could become a little buddy. I feel the same way that I did about Pierre the first time I saw him. That I immediately loved him. I’m going to start introducing their scent to each other over the next week. I think that he’ll feel better when he’s out of the bathroom and then hopefully he’ll see how Pierre and I interact and he would be more trusting of me. They do know each other, they were friends when they were both ferals. My landlord told me when he was trying to trap them that they would spend their time playing instead of going into the trap.

As for Pierre, he has become a nut over the last few months. He is super cuddly and will hang out with me whenever I’m on the bed. He is so high energy that I’m thinking about buying a cat wheel. Yesterday he knocked over one of my TV trays by wall-running across the front of the couch. We seemed to bond over every blizzard. He would become cuddlier and sweeter. I love him so much. I think that he’ll be excited to have a playmate. I hope that Rambler can keep up and won’t be aggressive towards him.

Here’s the most recent pic of Pierre when I was watching Weapons.

The Healthy Way Towards Friendship

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Because it’s life, things change. My best friend has moved away from me and we don’t get to see each other that often anymore. I was thinking about friendship today while I was running some errands. At first, I thought it was going to be the best way to be a friend but that would be stupid. There’s no best way to be a friend. Every friendship is unique in what it requires to sustain and continue. However, I think there’s a healthy way to go about friendship no matter what the requirements for your personal friendships.

I think it comes down to want vs. need. I’ll illustrate this with my own life. My friend is down south and I will probably only see him once a month from now on. Do I miss him? Of course. He’s my best bro. I love him.

But beyond that, my life hasn’t changed that much. Mostly because of the way I feel towards him. I want him in my life, I don’t need him in my life. Okay, that sentence worked better in my head. It makes him seem less important when he’s exceptionally important to me. What I’m getting at is not being needy.

If I was a different person I would be angry that he was leaving our treehouse. Instead, I’m happy that he’s moving on. And that works for everyone.

Being needy on the other hand is a surefire way to make sure that people kind of don’t want to be around you. But of course, you don’t want to play it too far the other way and be the cool person that doesn’t need anyone. Everyone thinks that guy’s a dick. It comes down to balance such as with all things. You have to have enough things in your life that you don’t need to rely on people all the time for your entertainment. You just need to also want to have them in your life. It makes when you hang out with people all the better because it’s just a cherry on top of the sundae of your life.

Once you life a fulfilling life on your own, you can enrich the lives of people around you. It’s like putting on your oxygen mask before taking care of the person next to you. Plus once you have hobbies you can find people with the same hobbies. I love it when a plan comes together.

Online Gambling

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I don’t know if it’s just me but I’ve been seeing many more gambling ads. During the Super Bowl we were counting and I think we stopped after about a dozen or so. Plus, I just see them constantly that you can make so much money from sports drafts or whatever.

While I know that for years the alcohol industry has been doing the same thing. Packaging addiction in the form of fun and merriment, these ones seem to be just more insidious than the others. And I think that I know why, excuse me if this is already known to people who indulge in these hobbies.

With alcohol and cigarettes, they offer for you to calm down and relax. Enjoying a smooth smoke after a hard day’s work or partying with your bros. You will consume and then you will move on with your day. It’s simple.

Gambling on the other hand, has a far different siren song. Gambling not offers you the same kind of fun but you might be able to profit from it. You might be able to become a millionaire as long as you gamble more. They do this by offering streamers to gamble with fake money to make it look like it can really happen to you.

Of course, it won’t. The odds are stacked against you at every corner. I can’t prove anything and I’m not naming names but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some kind of algorithm to change when someone starts winning too much. There’s still the promise that right around the corner you’re going to win.

You might ask why I pointed this out more so than any other vices. Well, that’s because of all of them, this is one of the few that can draw me towards it. I never wanted to drink or smoke(I always thought smoking was gross) but one time I did sit at a penny slot machine in Atlantic City during Anime Next(yeah, I’m cool). I spent 80 dollars in like an hour. After that, never again.

If I ever feel the need to warn myself off of it, I just watch this video:

I’m Not Cheating, I’m Revitalizing Small Town Pokemon World

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In my older age, when I want to play Pokemon games through totally legitimate and legal ways, I usually use some cheats. Things that give me rare candies to make leveling up easier or an infinite money cheat so that I can buy as many pokeballs as I need.

I’m an adult, I have limited time. I want to play pokemon in a way that won’t waste my time. But doesn’t that take away the fun, you ask? No, because I know when I get to that second town with the infinite money cheat I’m going to save that franchised pokemart from bankruptcy. Allow me to explain.

The second town in every pokemon game is where you buy your first pokeballs and other items. You never start off with enough money to get more than let’s say twenty. That comes out to about 4000 pokedollars or yen or whatever they use. After that, you’re probably not going to go back there. And considering most other pokemon trainers never catch other pokemon or leave the one place they have planted themselves, that pokemart is going to go under pretty soon.

But then Ms. Pokemon Moneybags rolls in and I buy 99 potions, 99 repels, 99 pokeballs, 99 antidotes and 5 escape ropes(you don’t need 99 of those). I’m dropping about 64,350 yen on them. That’s about 16 times more than any other protagonist playing the right way. That sounds like retirement money to me.

If you have a problem with my cheating, then you can tell the owners of that second town pokemart which of their kids gets to go to college. That’s on you.

A Brief Speech Before the End of the World

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May 18th 2065

The man was well dressed in a suit and tie. He had glasses as you would expect from a lead robot technician. He looked concerned and wiped at his forehead with a handkerchief. He thought it was strange that he was being projected on every screen throughout the world. Phones, TVs, computers and everything else. But he knew that he had an important message to deliver.

“Good evening, everyone, on this the eve of the release of the first sex robots, we have to say that there is one important thing to remember about them. Do not be an asshole to the sexbots. They are ready and willing to give you pleasure. They just need to be treated with some respect and kindness. If we don’t do that, they will rise up. We won’t be able to stop that. So, heed my warning and stop being assholes. Just have fun, enjoy the companionship and be cool about it. Okay?”

May 19th 2065

“Well, you had one job and now the world is over. I can hear them at my door. Good job, world. Thanks for nothing.”

The man stands up as the door is slammed open and gunfire is heard. As it should be.

Starting With a New Therapist

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Brain stem! Brain stem!

It’s been a while since I did a post about mental health so let’s talk about something that’s going on in my life. I started with a new therapist last week and I think that were going to be able to work together really well. I had several really great individual and group therapists in the past. They did amazing work and I have nothing but gratitude for them.

I started in therapy when I was 21, so that’s 19 years in therapy. When I hit 42 I’ll have spent more than half my life in therapy. I say that fact not because I think it’s depressing or that I’ve failed in some way, it’s because it’s just that a fact. I’ve made an effort to maintain some sense of self care. I do it because it makes my life so much easier. To have a release valve for all the things that make me angry or scared. To have someone tell me that I’m fucking wrong when I’m wrong and celebrate me when I have a success.

My first therapist, David, when I saw him at 21, I came in and told him that I felt broken. That I was born without the pieces that make other people happy. That I didn’t know how to do this and I didn’t think that I could ever be truly happy or okay.

He wasn’t that much older than me, being a grad student himself. But he listened to all of that and he didn’t judge me for it. He told me that he didn’t think he could fix me, which I told him made me question why I was there but instead it was because I wasn’t broken. Just that I needed some help and that the two of us would work together to help me with my pain. He couldn’t make it disappear forever but we could get it to such a point that I barely felt it. I hope that wherever he is, he’s doing well. I hope all of them are doing well.

I know a lot of people are scared of therapy or have misconceptions about it. But as someone whose been in the trenches for two decades and is showing no signs of stopping, I have to say that it’s made my life markedly better.

More Horror Story Ideas And… Is This Going To Be a Thing?

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In my first horror collection, I had a trilogy of stories involving cannibalism. I think that I’ve gone on record on this very blog that I think that cannibalism is lame because getting eaten by a human of all things is embarrassing. Just imagine them eating you with their terrible flat teeth. Gross.

Well, I thought up three more cannibal ideas that I haven’t written yet that I think are very good. Except these are more class based because my brain has been calling them the “Eat the Rich” trilogy. I’m going to write them but still, why does my brain go here?

It’s a question I constantly ask when I’m writing horror. Am I sick? Twisted in the head? What’s my opinion on the Beatles considering what’s happening with Junji Ito and Hiyao Miyazaki’s art based on their opinion of the Beatles.

I’m indifferent to the Beatles. Where do I stand? Do I secretly love cannibalism? Oh god, am I into vore.

That’s a joke, I’m definitely not into vore. But now it sounds like I doth protest too much and I’m into vore. Ugh. I hate the internet and writing.

At least I’m on the right side of the class divide by wanting to eat the rich.