My Social Circle is a Dot

I don't know how it happened - maybe it was quitting drinking or maybe it was political posts I made on Facebook before I deleted it - but I have virtually no real social life. I get out on occasion when I can (working swing shift has definitely made that harder than it used to be), but it's never with a consistent group of people. Like there's no one around I consider a close friend these days.

And I don't mean that in some spiteful way, I wish those people all the best in their lives. But there's no true confidant or someone I feel I could go to just to get some stuff off my chest. Instead there's just this stupid blog with the occasional anonymous reader. And those occasions are fewer and fewer these days as well. Which is probably for the better considering all the inane shit I write. Maybe all of this is for the better.

If people quit wanting to hang out with me because I've begun making a lot of things political, that's just how it is. I know it's annoying - but we're at a point in history where just trying to ignore it and hoping it all blows over shouldn't be an option. And I feel like too many people I know are taking that option. Or even worse, some people I once hung out with are likely cheering on the US's descent into fascism, and I think I'm better off being lonely rather than being around people who support that.

As for people that don't want to hang out with me now that I'm sober, I totally get that. I know when I was drinking, even if someone swore up and down being around drinkers didn't bother them, it still bothered me to have them around. I don't know why, sober people just seemed to just kill my drunk vibe just by being there. I'm not saying that's the case for the people I used to hang out with, but I would totally get it. 

Maybe it's something else entirely and/or a combination of lots of things. I got told at work a few weeks ago that I have "resting asshole face." I didn't know that was a thing, but it makes sense. I also seem to sweat more than I used to. I don't know what that's about and while historically I don't think I've ever been one of those people that stink when they sleep, maybe that's change. Maybe I'm now the stinky guy and I don't even know it.  

It's also depressing to think that my closest friend right now is a woman from active duty. Obviously, as a fan of traditions, I have a crush on her as well, but I'm doing alright in not even kidding myself there's a chance for anything romantic between us. Partly because I mostly know better, but also because she's active duty and her time here in Alaska is limited. Very limited at this point. So I just do my best to enjoy myself on the occasions we do hang out (which aren't really that often) and not think about it much when we don't. I wouldn't even call her a close friend, just my closest by default.

 I do still have Hamlet at least. He's not much for conversation, but he doesn't criticize my singing off key either, so that's a plus. And sometimes, when I'm getting ready for bed, he'll lay on the bed and warm it up so I don't crawl into bed onto cold sheets. I know he's not doing that on purpose, but it's still nice when it happens. And despite him obviously being a senior dog at this point, he still gets lots of compliments for being cute when I take him out. On the other hand, he's begun snoring more often and louder as he's gotten older and I don't know of any fixes for dogs snoring. 

I know I'm complaining of a problem of (at least partly) my own making. And certainly a problem that is up to me to fix. I guess I just didn't realize how hard it would be to feel a connection with people as I got older. I know lots of people talk about it, but it was always one of those things I thought I wouldn't have to deal with. Like I was somehow so special for intangible and unknowable reasons.  

Song of the Day 

Mid-Week Mundaneness

While I'd planned for myself a four day weekend, it inadvertently turned into a five day weekend for myself. Making today my first day back since last Thursday. And I can't remember a time I've felt so out of place just wearing the uniform. 

I mean, I normally feel a little less like my real self when I wear the thing. And I'm OK with that. I've decided the tradeoff between wearing the uniform and being able to live the lifestyle I currently do vs. feeling like I'm fully being true to who I am in how I present myself, to be worth it. Normally my biggest problem with wearing the uniform is not being allowed to have a beard. That and the colors really don't help to bring out my eyes. But today it was something else. Like I was trying to live a completely fraudulent life.

Don't get me wrong, I have no plans of quitting any time soon. For starters, I signed a contract to keep serving until at least April 2028 and I plan to honor that contract. Also, I'm in no position financially to quit right now. At best I could stretch my finances out for about three months before I start missing payments on something and I don't think that would be nearly enough time for me to find a comparable job. 

Anyways, the point is that it really threw me off my game at work today just by having that initial feeling of uneasiness when I put the uniform on. By the end of the day of course I felt mostly back to normal, but there's still this lingering "what the fuck was that?" feeling in back my mind. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing, at least for the foreseeable future - too much to be doing these days to have feelings like that distracting me. 

Song of the Day 

(Even When I Don't Have to Work on Monday) I Still Hate Sunday Evenings

 This has been a fun experiment, I guess - seeing how well I could stick to writing daily in a blog hardly seen. Been nearly three months now, which is pretty good for me. These kinds of experiments usually last me about two weeks. But there's hardly a reader and often even less of a point. Just because I'm writing doesn't really mean I'm creating anything. (And creation is my favorite part of writing). 

Like many of the things that can be found around the house, I'm feeling like this is just taking up space. And it certainly takes up time. Honestly, there was no reason to start doing this other than to see if I could keep with it. And in that sense, I'd say I have. But now that I know I can do something as asinine as this, why am I not putting that energy somewhere better suited?

That's not to say I should never write in this thing, but that this really should just be life updates and maybe the occasional random thought to expound upon.  

Song of the Day 

Someday I'll Do My Own Baking

 I know I'm probably in the minority for this as I'm a bit of a curmudgeon and not a lot of people like yelling at clouds, but this season of Great British Bake Off just isn't hitting for me. I know part of it is that Dame Prue Leith left the show and I felt her charisma was the perfect balance to the intimidation Paul Hollywood brings. That's not to say I absolutely despise Nigella, just that Nigella doesn't seem to counterbalance Paul. If anything I feel she kind of enhances his persona. 

There's also the fact that in a small way, watching GBBO brings back some sentimental memories of my ex. Not memories so powerful I feel like calling her up and seeing how things are, but sentimental enough that they get me reminiscing a little bit.

But I don't think either of those are the big reason I'm less and less eager to watch new episodes as soon as they release.

I feel like the show peaked a season or two ago and since then it's been trying to do "new" things that seem a little outlandish in an attempt to increase its popularity. It's not an uncommon thing for shows to do. And here's the part where I'm an old man - I don't want to see "new" things. I want them to stick to the folder that made the show great and popular in the first place. Don't get me wrong, new participants each season is part of the point. New hosts and judges is a little jarring for me, but I get that these people have lives and other things they want to do. But I don't want changes in the basic formula for the show. I don't want to see the participants bring in a family member to work with them. I don't want the viewers deciding the challenges. I just want the show that has the bakers competing as individuals with challenges set by the judges. 

Anyways, that's my rant. I'm definitely gonna finish this season still and I'll keep trying to get to the episodes as soon as I can (lest I catch a spoiler on Reddit). But this show is the only thing keeping me from cancelling Netflix at the moment and I'm not sure I'll be renewing the subscription come next season.  

Song of the Day 

Synopsis of Oct 09, 2026

Took today off from work today so I could go down to Bosco's and play Magic (commander). Once again, I was tempted to tell myself to just do it another time and stay home, but I managed to get out and go. Yay for ignoring hermit-like tendencies. And once again, I had a good time. Not as much fun as last time, but still a better time than I likely would have had staying home and playing video games.

Also managed to get some errands done before that. There's still more to do (isn't there always?), but I feel like I got a decent start for saving myself time later in the weekend.  

Now I'm home and I was hoping to write more about some thinking I did while at Bosco's, I decided to try and knock out some school reading first. Which has made my eyelids very heavy and my fingers very slow. So I'm calling it an early-ish night and maybe I'll do better tomorrow.  

Song of the Day 

My Predictions for Magic in 2027

 So a good amount (most?) of what's coming for Magic in 2027 has been announced. I think the Universes Beyond sets still haven't been announced, but we have the dates for when they're coming. The biggest announcement (in my opinion) so far has been to how boosters will be packed, with guaranteed foil slots in regular boosters going away, three cards being removed from all collector boosters, and the (re)introduction of "god" packs into both regular boosters and collectors. They also made sure to tell people there would not be a price increase with the booster changes. Which leads me to my first prediction...

Price increase. They've done as much shrinkflation as they can without risking significant consumer backlash. I think the first permanent increase we'll see will be with secret lairs, with the cost per an individual lair going up by $5 each (maybe $10 if Hasbro really wants to test the limits). Secret Lair easily offers the best profit margins of any product they print and a price increase there will go a big way in offsetting increased costs elsewhere while also being able to report to shareholders a higher profit (which is the most important part).

My second prediction also involves secret lair and that's that they'll offer more 24-hour window lairs. I know some people think all secret lairs should be done this way (and I don't disagree), but with printers already being at capacity, that's really not feasible. However, doing so once a quarter or so, for products like commander precons, should still be doable. 

Third will be an price increase to boosters, but I don't think that'll happen til towards the end of the year and likely won't take effect until 2028. In fact having the increase happen with the universes beyond boosters catching up to the booster changes makes perfect sense to make it happen. I imagine the change will equate to an increase of $0.50 per regular packs (assuming the booster box can be bought for MSRP) and $3 to $7 per collector pack at the MSRP level, but it'll still be a market in which MSRP is almost impossible to find for collector product and everyone wanting collector packs will still be paying super inflated (and not worth it) prices.

The one shrinkflation thing I could plausibly see happening, but I don't think it's likely, is the removal of basic lands from commander precons (except the secret lair ones). This however would require two sets of printings of the precons, one for game stores and one for box stores. The box store versions would still have the basic lands, but the LGS ones would instead give you an option of getting a (free) land pack from the store or just using your own lands at home - which most players have way too many of already. And that would be part of their reasoning, they know most players have a ton of extra lands laying around and this is a way they can keep from increasing costs for a little while longer. Again, I don't think this is likely, but my jaw also wouldn't hit the floor if they announced such a thing.

Anyways, the first three are my big predictions, which I'm usually wrong about. I'm not so confident in them I'd place a bet on them happening, but I am confident enough to post them on the internet in case I get the chance to later "I told you so!"

Song of the Day 

Maybe I Should Make My Future Home Office a Padded Room

I have this habit of thinking about things that are weeks (or months) away, but are very important things, and getting very anxious about them. But instead of doing anything about them, I just let myself be paralyzed by fear as to how I'm going to handle them. 

For instance, in my historiography class, the big semester project is a twelve page paper due at the end of the semester. But before the paper is turned in, we have to submit a proposal for our topic, and then a sources list, and then the rough draft. All these items are worth part of the grade. The proposal was due a week and a half ago and I still haven't turned it in. I didn't even notice it was due until like two days before when looking at the syllabus. Normally the instructor keeps us up to date one when things are due, but she's also been really sick lately so maybe it's slipped her mind as well. I have no idea, she hasn't said anything.  

The paper is supposed to be about some big historiogrpahical controversy or a notable historian. I'm hoping to do the former and dive into holocaust denial as I find it absolutely fascinating there's people that try to write history papers claiming the holocaust never happened. But this is beside the point. The point is I'm freaking out. 

Aside from being a bit behind on it already (though in no way so far behind I can't catch up), I have no idea where I'm going to get the time for reading all I need to read for it. As it is, I'm struggling to keep up with the assigned reading for our weekly discussion boards. This week it's 120 pages, which I know isn't that much. But I'm a slow reader. Mostly because I have to reread almost every other paragraph as it's nearly impossible for me to keep focus without my mind wandering off and suddenly I'm turning a page but can't remember what the last half of the page I'm on said.  

I don't know why I suck so much at this school stuff. I know I'm no genius, but I've met people with the same degree I'm going for that are just plain idiots. I feel like if they can do it, almost anyone should be able to. Also, I have no idea how a lot of them did it. I know these days a lot of people use AI and I'm sure I could if I bothered to learn it properly, but that feels like cheating. Particularly because I really do want to learn about a lot of the stuff I'm going over in class. But back to the point, I really don't know how people did it ten-plus years ago. I really suspect a lot of professors only skim papers and so much as you did the minimum requirements, you're good to go whether or not your paper made a good argument. And honestly, that makes sense to me, if I were a professor, that's exactly what I would do. 

Anyways, I need to go to bed so I can get up in a little bit and go to a math class I feel completely lost in, but I'm still keeping my head above water in. 

Song of the Day 

Might Just See the Sunrise Again

I currently work swing shift (3 pm  - 11 pm). My boss wants to move me back to day shift (7 am - 3 pm). In his opinion, Senior NCOs shouldn't be working off-shifts. And while I don't necessarily agree with him, I do understand where he's coming from. But I'm still very torn on whether or not I want to try and fight the move. Fortunately, my boss won't be back to work until Nov. 15, so I've got some time to come up with some good reasoning if I want to fight the move.

Working swings, I get shift differential pay, which comes out to nearly $600 a month. That's no small change. Granted, due to piss poor money management skills, I have no idea what I'm doing with that money, but I'm also sure I could take the loss and be relatively just fine. Honestly, while the shift differential is nice, it's not the main reason I want to stay on swings. 

I mainly want to stay on swings because that's the shift that works best for my natural sleep rhythm. If I had no time commitments in my life, I'm quite sure my natural sleep cycle would be like 2 am - 10 am. That's just where I feel comfortable and refreshed at and my current work shift almost fits that perfectly. 

The other reasons I want to stay swings are way less traffic to deal with (especially coming home from work), much more convenient for medical appointments without having to use up sick leave, and I feel like I get to see a bit more daylight during Alaska winters (which we're coming upon). Oh, also helps out for big Magic releases that happen in the middle of the day, but if I'm ever to start managing my money better, those releases are just gonna have to start being skipped anyways. 

All that said, I've been beginning to think maybe day shift wouldn't be a bad idea for me these days. Granted I would at least want to wait until the semester is over so I don't have to leave work in the middle of the day and then drive back - and I especially don't want to go to class in uniform. But I've definitely been missing out on a lot of social life being on swings so long. Or at least a chance at a social life. And I'm definitely lying to myself when I keep saying I can make swing shift work for a social life, I just need to re-find that groove I had ten years ago. I'm just not built like that anymore; if I'm on swings, I'm not going to bed right away when I get home and I'm not making the effort to get up any earlier than I have to. 

Wow, just writing this I kind of realize I need to go back to day shift. I'm sure I'll hate it at first, but I already hate my job overall, so what's a little more hate on top of that. I probably won't be able to bring Hamlet with me to work either (I bring my dog to work most days since there's not that many people around so there's less likely anyone will complain about it), but I'll find a way to make it up to him. 

Gonna miss that "extra" $600 a month though. Might just have to start selling feet pics online to make up for it. 

Song of the Day