Sighinide

One last little thingy- I’m going to be streaming these games over the app, not watching over broadcast, so hopefully I’ll be avoiding a lot of the annoying jingoistic stuff that we see on NBC, etc. I mean stuff like daily / hourly medal counts.

I didn’t mention Vonn; I probably should have. It’s nice to see her again, it’s impressive that she’s out there even after her injury. I thought she handled herself well in her press conference. Wild that her coach is Aksel Lund Svindal! One of the few non-American names I easily place from past Winter Olympics. I mean, non-skating athletes. Like… Bjørndalen, and… yeah, I’m not going to start a list.

Yeah, I’m not watching broadcast; fuck that.

So I didn’t watch the minimovies today. If they’re still around, maybe I’ll watch them later. Like, maybe much later. I saw the Men’s Big Air Qualifying Rounds instead (did I capitalize that right? IDK). Then I watched the 7 “Road to Milan Cortina 2026” specials. I think I made the right choice. The minimovies can be watched at any time, the specials beg to be watched before the opening ceremony tomorrow.

Stuff I gleaned: It seems that Mikaela Shiffrin has won over 100 (!!!) World Cup titles in her career, an unbelievably staggering number. I had no idea. You would think this would be common knowledge, especially in her home country, but no. Ugh. Jeebus. I believe this would be the perfect time and place for a rant about the tyranny of the typical ‘Murican professional sports.

Look, I’ve done that stuff before, I’m not going to do it again, and everyone who reads this has surely thought along similar lines at points.

A few months ago I was pleasantly surprised to see Katie Ledecky in a TV commercial. It was then that I knew that Olympics season was around the corner, because… why else would a swimmer- even the unquestioned world’s best, be in a commercial? It’s kind of sad, honestly.

Over the winter I joined the local health club and I would spend hours in the pool, just… swimming. Not vigorously, lol. But for fun. It was glorious. What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Sometimes I would take aquatherapy classes. Also fun, lol. When I would leave the pool and go to my locker to change, I would pass by the locker room TV, which was there, I guess, to blare the requisite distraction to hurry everyone along. ALWAYS, without fail, it was showing a football game. I always wondered what football had to do with swimming pools. It just seemed… so odd. So out of place.

I mean this is… off of the subject at hand, I guess, but… is it?

I mean she was featured a bit in these segments, so…

Seriously tho, it’s all very strange, isn’t it? Why is it that the world’s greatest athletes are all virtually unknown in the public in our supposedly sports- crazed culture?

Maybe it’s just an American thing. Perhaps the culture is different in other nations; I wouldn’t know. I suspect / hope that it is.

I found the segment about the Team USA Gymnastics training camp really interesting. Obviously curated but it needed to be so I suppose.

Back to the sport culture- the skating lineup for the USA is stacked for sure. Ilia Malinin the “Quad God” is obviously on another level with his actual Vampire-on-ice routine. He almost / actually flies. One might say that he’s been learning from me, somehow, on some magnetic or quantum level. Honestly, he might or even could probably be; I wouldn’t put it past some of these people, especially the top level guys.

For real tho: his routines are literally, weirdly, the routines that I would come up with if I were to combine all of the best ideas and energies I’ve harvested from previous Olympics and skating athletes, going ALLLLLL the way back to Elvis Stojko (!!!!). I mean we are talking A LOT of stuff, tossed into an all-encompassing melting pot here!

But that would obviously be preposterous of course, so…

But again- why is the man who is by far the world’s greatest athlete in his sport- if not perhaps the greatest overall athlete in the entire world– a virtual unknown in his own country, a country that is supposedly “sports crazed”?

I mean, the mind boggles at this. It is utterly absurd. Someone like this should need no introduction to the general public before the Olympics, let alone during them.

I maintain that sports leagues like the NFL have a place in society, and that they absolutely belong, but they have been put on too high a pedestal.

Well… there you go.

I suppose the blogging cobwebs are falling off lol.

Ok, I’m taking the bait.

I mean… whether I’ll swallow all of it remains to be seen, but… OK, here goes.

Well… I *MIGHT* augment my posts here with my powers. Might. I mean, we’ll see. I kind of think I won’t, but… these things do tend to get out of hand, even if it looks like it won’t, this time.

And it doesn’t. Honestly.

Some initial thoughts- things look much more “fun” this time around, which is very very much appreciated. I mean it’s not like things have started yet but that’s certainly the kind of vibrations I’m getting from the place. I mean- I’m contrasting this Olympics with, say, Sochi and the war nonsense etc. This one seems “normal”. Good.

Well… I see that NBC / Peacock did it’s prep work to prepare for me this time around, and I of course prepared for them ahead of time as well. I intend to make full vampiric use of the athletes’ energies. A couple of weeks ago I purchased a set of very expensive high end urethane dumbbells that I will eagerly break in during the coming festivities. I’ll probably also hone all of the new barre/pilates exercises I’ve learned in my classes lately.

On that note I’m still using two small ankle weights per leg. Maybe by next Olympics I’ll be using one large 10 lb ankle weight per leg, or maybe one 10 lb plus a smaller one. Or maybe that’s for a distant future, IDK.

It’s fun, this stuff, lol. Really, it is. It is A LOT of fun getting stronger. Especially when it is done in ways that are so complete and safe.

At any rate, I will suck as much life energy as I can out of everything that I can, like… IDK, some kind of creepy old vampire, lol.

It appears as though I may be living for a very very very long time, if things are what they appear to be.

Hooray? Who knows, lol. We’ll see I guess.

Anyhoo- back to the games- today I watched a bunch of stuff on peacock… Prime? Premium? Extra? It’s the package you get with Xfinity. Athlete highlight reels, promos and such. Tomorrow I’ll be watching the little movies and whatevers. You know, the little mini docs about past controversies and the requisite minimovie about the Miracle-On-Ice, etc. I guess I’ll do this to get in the swing of things, to taste the Olympic flavor, to… ahhhh touch the cauldron, to, well… absorb the experience. Then, the opening ceremony. Then the stuff.

You know- I’ve not mentioned you-know-who, or… you-know-who-else. And I likely won’t, except right now… yes, I WILL mention… nah. Nope, won’t do it, not going to. You were allllll waiting for it, weren’t you? Well, MAYBE I’m writing this because my Italian wife who must not be named put that on her insta, MAYBE not, but you’ll just have to guess, because quite honestly, I care not what you think, and that my friend is God’s honest truth.

To the games!

Should I… update this site’s layout or theme? I mean, I chose this theme specifically because it… seemed to force a certain privacy to the proceedings. I mean this IS a diary ofc, and I don’t want just anyone reading it, you know? Well… it’s something to think about. I’ll schedule a visual review of this place for this year I think.

Well, I’ve been watching Netflix. Saw the first half of season 1 of Wednesday. Good show. It’s… interesting. My first impressions of the titular character was that she was very Daria-esque. That’s not a bad thing. I surmised watching Jenna that perhaps Burton’s version of the character in his Addams movies inspired parts of Daria, later on. That would make sense. IDK, it’s an interesting line of thought, no? Maybe that’s where we got Ghost World, too. The graphic novel, I mean.

Speaking of graphic novels… I disappointed myself again last year when I didn’t crack open my Slave Labor Comics archive. Every year around October 1st, I think to myself… I’ll just read them all, in time for Halloween. And then I don’t. This year I started going to the gym around that time and I became obsessed, again, with fitness stuff. Which is good, and healthy, but… still.

I have everything they’ve ever published in PDF form, and I’ve read a decent chunk of it, but not everything I want to, and certainly not everything I felt I would need to, when I procured all of it twenty years ago. I guess I just moved on culturally.

IDK why I’m thinking of this, now. Maybe Wednesday resuscitated a part of me that I thought was buried. Maybe I’m just carnally reacting to Jenna and Emma’s outfits. Or something else.

Well… I guess I can see in the character a reflection of me, so long ago. I remember poring over Poe’s work back in high school. I tried so hard to understand it, and failed so miserably in doing so lol.

Reading his works again, now, I can see what I missed back then. I can hardly believe it. Now it seems so obvious; the meanings, themes and ideas are so plainly presented in his works that his words are like a window into his mind, now. I can see it, what he meant in his stories. Or at least, I think I can. I’m pretty sure I can.

I guess it just takes time. And life experience.

Ah, well. You know, speaking of Halloween, I suppose that I might just go ahead and make a somewhat embarrassing confession about the dramas of last October. I think I may have possibly been played by- yes, my erstwhile wife Laura Marano, and maybe Taylor S as well. You remember all of that ridiculousness of Laura’s IG Live and the fallout from that? Where I ranted and raved, and then stormed off flustered and dejected? Well, during the climax of my little tantrum, I noticed something that I didn’t blog about, earlier: the day after all of this drama with her IG went down, and when I was fuming and at my most confused- somehow, I wound up paying for another year of Disney+.

Like every year, I consider stopping the Disney stuff just to take some time off from it, I guess. And last year I was again sorely tempted to do so, and I may have, had I not forgotten about the autopay on my account and the distraction so… helpfully provided by Laura.

How many series on Disney+ feature the Maranos? There’s like four or something right? Austin and Ally, Switched at Birth, Gargoyles, and I think there’s like another one but I can’t remember it right now. But yeah, IDK.

Weirdly, I remember the other fans on her IG Live marveled at the fact that’s Laura’s EP and Taylor’s album dropped on the same day, like what are the odds right? I seriously don’t get the rest of them sometimes. Do they not understand that the two of them were former labelmates and are likely friends? They probably still don’t realize that Taylor guested “off the books” on at least one of Laura’s songs since then. Like… how do they not know this?

It’s bizarre, honestly.

And yeah, all of this, the IG Live, the songs/albums being released, etc. happened the day before the Disney+ renewal thing, which of course I forgot about in all the relationship nonsense.

And note that I didn’t bring up the Sofia Carson thing, with her surprise guesting on Electric Bloom and all of the drama there, and how that interconnects with all of this. Because honestly, that wouldn’t even be right of me.

So now, here I am, stuck with another year of Disney+. Wonderful.

It’s been really weird, delving into all of this… incomprehensible, bewildering stuff.

To better understand Laura’s career and my relationship with her I’ve taken to downloading weird old texts from internet libraries. On the Internet Archive I noticed a couple of very very old books featuring an Italian writer named “Andrea Marano”. And so help me God these fucking things actually did assist me in understanding some of the weirder parts in Laura’s strange Disney Channel movie Bad Hair Day.

I mean I’ve gone as far as to download ancient books about the Orsinis, the Aldobrandinis, the Medicis and other Papal families to try to “Crack the Code” here and Holy Hell on a stick, I hate to say this, but… these books are in fact helping, or driving me nuts, or maybe both, IDK.

Some thoughts, now… read this or not, IDK honestly. To my eyes Laura looks dead-on as a member of the Italian Medicis, almost like she was cloned directly from Cosimo, but Vanessa doesn’t, she looks more like an Aldobrandini, honestly. I downloaded from Getty some pictures of Princess Olimpia Aldobrandini and I see a striking resemblance between Vanessa in many of her pictures and Olimpia. I have considered before that these two might not be… sister sisters, but perhaps just related-ish. And… there you go, for what this is worth.

Again, this stuff is fucking baffling as hell. Seeing the gears behind his machinery churning, if that is indeed that is what I am seeing, is an ultra impressive sight indeed.

Another fact that has not escaped me- I have seen videos from many years ago and have read “Illuminati Conspiracy” type books made in the 90’s that reference specifically a “Doge”, i.e., supposedly the King of the Black Nobility of the Vatican. John Coleman amongst others talked about this.

Is this “Doge” the same as Elon Musk’s “Doge”? Is that me, or my double? Thoughts to consider.

Wikipedia in places states that both the Medicis and the Aldobrandinis can be thought of as “black nobility” families, along with others of course.

I don’t know, but it does look as though this would explain why people like Laura are just… stuck with me, like this is just what they do, and that they can’t really do anything else. It’s very clear that she was trained and had her life experience tailored specifically to date me.

And it wasn’t just her ofc. But she’s such a pristine example that I can’t help but explain her further.

It’s very clear that her early roles, like her role in Telepathetic, were programs not made for TV ratings, but were created to acclimate her to her future IRL role as my telepathic significant other. Literal On-The-Job training to be the “Doge’s” future wife.

Another example here- Laura’s costar in Gary Unmarried, Kathryn Newton.

It’s all quite astonishing, actually, seeing things from this perspective. Perhaps these shows were not made for ratings, like at all. Maybe money never even entered the equation here, ever.

I wonder if I am correct in assuming that The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea was the chief programming tool that Disney or whomever used on Laura. A few times in AAA she refers to herself as a “mermaid”, and there are references to this in her other roles as well.

You know- I could take this in a whole bunch of other directions, if I wanted. Wikipedia tells me that the original Princess Olimpia Aldobrandini (so not the modern one, I mean the first medieval one) had an official title of Princess of Rossano. I wonder if “Ross” in AAA is a reference to this or something similar, kind of like how “Jack” in Olivia Holt’s Kickin’ It is a likely reference to Jack Holt. And Instagram fan accounts of Laura mention that she used to fake-date in IRL some guy similarly named “Ross”, eye-rollingly (I mean jfc, at least pick a different name lol).

IDK about the “Ross” thing, tho, lol. IMDB tells me that in a new movie Vanessa is going to be playing a chick named, hilariously, “Lily Hale”, which is a wonderfully obtuse Frankenstein’s monster amalgamation of the names “Lily Collins” and “Lucy Hale”. They’re getting VERY on the nose with this stuff.

Other random things… been listening to techno lately. Hardstyle, real hands-up stuff. Does anyone else wish this kind of music would make a comeback? Are there even candy ravers anymore? Honestly, probably not, and that’s a shame TBH.

Other stuff… Honestly I don’t even want to think about how this Laura stuff might fit in with the upcoming Olympics in, of all places, Milano Cortina. I mean I literally just don’t, so I won’t.

Other stuff… Well not much honestly, though looking at this, it’s actually not the date in the title anymore lol, so maybe I should hit publish lol. I’m not really going to proof this, it’s literally past midnight, so…

k

IDK, I guess since everyone wants me to blog I might as well, so…

Not really much has changed in the usual, humdrum world of my exercise habits. Yeah, I think I’ll blog about this because it’s so harmless lol.

Still doing Pilates.

Yup.

What has changed is that I’ve spent quite a bit of time this year and last in a local gym, mostly taking classes and doing other gym-stuff, like swimming, walking, exercise-machining, etc. You know, the usual.

I was right about my Pilates talent. I’m really, really good at that stuff and taking the classes confirmed it. They have also taught me a few new tricks and exercises that I took home and worked on. I’m quite a lot stronger than I was the last time I blogged about this stuff. I mean, like a lot stronger, honestly. It’s pretty fun to do this.

My gym membership runs out around the first of the year next year, so about in two weeks. I might return next winter, IDK. But I guess the plan is to perfect the new exercises I’ve learned there over the course of the next 9 months, which should be easy. I’ve got a few dozens of new good ones, including calisthenics, isometric and barre exercises that I will need to really hit on top of everything I’ve already done and learned.

I really learned how to do a lot of weird/interesting exercise things over the course of the last couple of years. I think I’ve basically mastered breathing and facial/eye/neck exercises, in addition to… idk, exercising all the weird, small muscles in my core. I mean I do things like kegel exercises, pelvic exercises, and deep abdominal work etc. I’ve also learned to fully exercise things like my fingers, toes and ankles, for what that’s worth.

A lot of this was done for purposes of fun, honestly. I just found it amusing to see all of the stuff I could do and learn. But I suppose it’s also likely useful for health reasons.

I still haven’t gotten around to mastering push-ups, tho. Just not as “fun” I guess. Pilates and Barre are just… entertaining, and there’s always more stuff to learn about them.

Speaking of Barre, some of that can be *very* difficult. Barre classes have taught me a new level of respect for my girlfriends for sure, since so many of them have backgrounds in ballet. Honestly it’s been quite eye opening. The amount of endurance, flexibility and balance that is needed to really get good at barre, let alone ballet, is substantial. Not many people could do these things. I have to say it’s pretty neat that I can hang with that crowd lol. It’s something of a rarified status, lmao.

But srsly, that stuff is for real. It’s difficult but very very awesome. It’s enjoyable AF. I marvel at that fact that no men (seriously, like none) seem to take Barre or Pilates seriously. They should IMO.

I’ve taken a couple dozen yoga classes and they’re good, but not quite my “thing” oddly enough. Maybe I’ll grow into yoga with time. We’ll see.

My meditation practices continue as they do. I’m better now than I was before etc. The usual. I don’t do meditation to impress people, I do it because I guess it helps me internally. I certainly feel better- more grounded- afterwards. Happier, even. And combining meditation with my array of breathing exercises, Kegels and Myofacial release work creates a kind of personal heaven. Very uplifting. I’ve even invented a light kind of core exercising that I call “Mini-Pilates” that I sometimes do that is very nice as a stress reliever.

I’ve also learned a good 50 or so calisthenics/aerobics dumbbell moves over the past three years or so that I’ve added to my routines which are amazing.

So yeah, I’m wayyy stronger than I used to be which is very nice I guess, though it truthfully wasn’t my aim with all of this.

Every year I think… OK, by *next* Christmas, I’ll have mastered pushups, but then I get distracted and go off and learn something else instead. I mean, toe exercises? Why not, right? IDK, maybe pushups are just really boring lol. I mean it’s not like it really matters, right? It’s on the hobby to-do list but… yeah IDK. We’ll see how I feel over the summer months I guess, after I’ve finished upgrading my Pilates routine yet again, for the dozenth time, with the new moves I learned in my classes over the past 3 months.

I mean, does it even matter? What’s the point at this point, even? IDK, I guess I should because apparently they’re a good exercise, but… they’re just so *samey*. And stiff, I guess? But maybe that’s my fault, somehow? IDK, everyone else seems to love them, so…

I’ve been reading online about how they can help with heart health, so maybe that’s a reason. You need a good heart to do Barre and Pilates, right? So, there you go.

No, I don’t have a “Six-Pack”, lol. Though truthfully I was again considering going for one, since that can only help with everything. Maybe next year, then. We’ll see.

I guess that at a certain point I’ll need to figure out where I’m going with this. I mean, Barre is NOT a common hobby amongst Mid-40’s men, especially in the suburban Midwest. It’s definitely odd, and possibly actually unique the way it’s looking to me right now. In a way, it’s almost as if my girlfriends pushed (?) me into this with all of their ballet stuff that they themselves introduced me to back in the day. It’s like… I have so much of that stuff, that there it is.

IDK, maybe not. It’s not like anyone held a gun to my head and told me to master plié squats lol. But here I am. Maybe it’s like… a mutual thing? Birds of a feather, that is. I mean SO MANY of them have this in their past ofc.

Years ago I noticed that one of my old exes, former Disney chick Anna Margaret, now apparently owns a Pilates studio. Interesting, no?

Huh.

Well, maybe I do need to blog more. So here.

Well, another Trick or Treat is down the hatch. Some thoughts…

Not much has changed. Not much really does, at least on a year-by-year basis.

The costumes are all roughly the same as they were the year before ofc, and the same as the year before that. There was a lot of Disney, I noticed… natch. One girl dressed up as Princess Sofia the First. That was cute. Another girl was Jasmine. There were a few Elsas, one Anna.

Some Harry Potter characters were sprinkled amongst the kids. A Dumbledore here, a Snape there. This year I noticed an Enid Sinclair- a first. There was a Mario and a Luigi pair, of course. There has been one of those for Halloween every year in this town for probably the last forty years.

There was a dinosaur, and… some other stuff, there was a Riddler costume that I liked. You don’t see many of those. Oddly enough I didn’t see one Batman, now that I think about it. Weird, that. Maybe I did and it just didn’t register, like… oh yeah, Batman, like, it’s Halloween, why wouldn’t a kid be dressed up as Batman? It would be like seeing a man dressed in jeans and a T-shirt at Walmart. So… yeah. *Shrug*.

One Pennywise that was well done, a pretty good Jason, some assorted zombies and vampires etc. and it was a very typical Halloween, a lot of fun etc.

Of the lot of kids I suppose the most popular category of costume would be “fairy princess”, alongside “undead thing”.

I noticed an uptick in the werewolves this year. Is that b/c of Enid? I wonder. I didn’t count them in the “undead thing” category BTW.

Other stuff… well there really isn’t much else to say, except to again contrast the Halloween of <current year> with those of my own youth. Leaving aside other aspect of the Holiday like movies (which can be seen at any time, really) the Trick or Treat experience really is profoundly different, or at least it is where I live.

These days you need a parent to chaperone kids around, believe it or not. Back in the day that would have been unheard of, almost baffling. The adults plan actual routes for the kids and almost all of the costumes are off the shelf. The hours are defined, and posted online even. It’s a very… packaged experience.

Halloween back then was… different. Adults didn’t accompany anyone, at least when we did it. Routes weren’t planned (or at least, not well, lol). Kids just kind of wandered and hoped that the older kids in the group knew where they were going and had some idea of what to do. This… was not always for the best. I did notice a distinct lack of crying amongst the youngest kids tonight. IDK, maybe having adults along isn’t so bad lol.

It also ends before it gets dark dark outside, which it didn’t used to- you used to have to eat dinner first and then go out, and by God, by then it was pitch black outside and cold as hell, and you couldn’t see anything, you were tired and starting to see things, blah.

Yeah I think that’s kind of it, the issue with Trick of Treating today, if there is one, is the distinct lack of… creepiness?

I mean not that I could feel that, considering my present chronological situation of being middle aged, but still.

In my “friend” group back in the day I was near the middle of the pack age wise. Older than me were a few hardened Gen X-ers who didn’t give a fuck about the dumb little kids who would routinely hold up the pack simply because they couldn’t keep up. Honestly I would feel sorry for them, but I guess we were all in that place at one point. I guess I was, although I don’t remember it.

What I do remember are the stories that the older kids used to tell the littler ones about the horrors that waited for them in those weird little shacks that were wayyyyyy off the beaten path. You know those houses- those odd little shanties that you can tell have people living there, but you can’t tell who is living there or why people are living there? Those places.

Stories about the owners of those places being forced to live in them because they used to eat children etc. Obvious nonsense but in the right context and with no adults present it can scare 6 year olds for sure. In cases like this it isn’t the Halloween decorations that are scary, but the *lack of* decorations, or frankly sentience, that is scary. Never had much luck with these places candy wise, and that’s probably for the best. Honestly should have left well enough alone TBH.

The candy is all very… samey, too. I stole quick glances in the bags as I deposited my offerings. It was all the famous stuff- Snickers, M&Ms, uh, you know, the famous stuff, back when I was a kid there was all of that and then there was… other stuff, IDK what it even was, but I would get odd things, candy stuff I couldn’t identify TBH, literally candy objects without names and dates or any identifying information whatsoever, and I’d put that stuff into a little pile afterwards and I’d be like… WTF is this? Am I brave enough to… eat(?)… this?

Sometimes I’d get cookies, like, actual cookies, in little bags, or loose apples (!) or… yeah, weird stuff, other things, odd things. Things like bits of scripture from Christian households, etc. The houses that gave out scripture used to get pelted with eggs as punishment lol. The ones that refused to give out candy / whatever would get TPed as punishment.

Come to think of it, I can’t think of a single Halloween in which a house (or multiple houses) in our town wasn’t punished for not adhering to the “rules” of Trick or Treating as set forth by my friends. This year while handing out candy I was thinking… that rule for requiring parents to be present at all times- was that in response to us? Well… *Shrug*.

Honestly, looking back, we were kind of terrible. I distinctly remember houses that were away on vacation desperately trying to offer us an olive branch by leaving us a vat of candy anyways, in the hopes that that would deter some unnecessary wrath. That was a smart move; I remember it working, but man, I ended up with a LOT of Snickers one year. I remember some puzzled looks from the parentals, yes, but other than that, everything seemed to go well.

Ah, what fun. Halloween, what a holiday!

A few weeks in and STARZ is not disappointing me, not at all, certainly not for a dollar a month.

I’m allllll for STARZ at this price.

The other day I watched a Mexican take on The Wizard of Oz starring Twitch streamer Jenn McAllister. Holy shit, lol!!!!! And TBH it wasn’t quite as bad as you might think it as being, either! I mean it was no masterpiece- far from it- but… yeah, I watched it! It was there! And I saw it. Yup.

Mmmmn hmmmn.

I noticed that this month STARZ features- get this- not one but TWO films starring none other than Dallas Lovato! Yes, they are the only streaming service on the planet to boast this unique feature I bet. Literally; you can check this out for yourself- if you DARE.

I considered the other day grabbing some popcorn and giving myself an evening to remember with a Dallas Lovato double header, just to say that I had, in fact, done so. Would I be the only person in history- save for perhaps those within the Lovato family itself- to have accomplished this? Who knows!

Love it! All this fun, for a mere buck a month? Hell yes!

Other nonsense…

I noticed some Chinese CGI comedy films about some random ass polar bears? Those are defo going in the cue lmao.

Yes I COULD just watch Tom Cruise movies like 99% of the rest of humanity, yes, I know. But I’m not IN the 99%, am I? I’m “different” and I fully intend to act like it God Damn it.

This platform is saturated with Blaxploitation (ok, literally literally, WordPress wants me to capitalize that lol) garbage and fine, fuck it lol. This is forreal just entertaining so what the fuck lol.

There are some gems here tho. I watched the second Snow Queen movie with Bella Thorne and surprise! It was good! It was in fact better than the first (?), tho TBH I saw that one a looooooooong time ago so I don’t remember much of it honestly.

Well, whatever.

Fuck it, I’m bored AF already.

One last thought, before bed… yeah I do realize the supreme irony of me shielding Kenzi from my Tom The Vampire Twitter Profile, since her show, Vampirina: Teenage Vampire, was practically ripped from it’s still beating heart, but- this stuff doesn’t need to make “sense” I guess, lol.

Nurture before nature?

Yesh.

How did I… get here?

As in, how did I end up, here, the darling of the Disney set?

Twenty years ago I was spinning Anal Cunt albums and discussing Burzum’s philosophies, such as they were, on weird underground metal boards. I still have a copy of Vargsmal on PDF form on one of my externals I’m sure.

So…. what happened?

How the fuck did I end up here?

At least when Seth Putnam, Infernus or Count Grishnackh poked fun at me (and believe me, they did) it seemed to carry a kind of inherent equality to it owing to our similar demographic circumstances. Nowadays there’s always a slight and unavoidable edge to it owing to the difference in economic status, if not internet, ah, “status”.

But like… that’s neither here nor there, right? I mean, how did I get… HERE?

I mean it’s kinda mindblowing innit?

I mean it’s not bad, it’s not, but… it’s kinda bewildering, I guess.

I mean… IDK TBH.

*Scratches head*

I did notice that I’m one of the few people allowed to DM Disney stars irrespective of their age, interestingly enough. I believe that that is because I consciously decided to make my Instagram “clean” and positive to a fault. I like the Ying/Yang effect of having a TomTheVampire Twitter that links back here and a TomJacobsen80 Instagram that, I guess, will link to a Threads that will undoubtably be irreverent and positive (if not nurturing).

I plan to continue to use my Insta (if I can keep it, looking at you, Meta AI!) to broaden and nurture my relationships with my younger GFs like Julia and Kenzi, etc., who are apparently all about the idea. They didn’t take much convincing, honestly. Once they saw who I was, wow…..

Freya Skye practically tripped over herself once I started following her, and, if I’m not mistaken, actually apologized to me for Meta AI removing my comment of a green heart emoji. It’s a long story and a while ago and it’s late, so… yeah.

I think it’s like… IDK, people want to be the next Laura, I think. Or the next Meg. Or something. I don’t want to talk about Laura anymore rn honestly, it’s so much bigger than what I’ve even discussed, she literally dumped her whole million+ Spotify fanbase for me and Christ… yeah. And the problem isn’t with her at all, and that’s the real problem, and the real reason I’m typing all of the stupid nonsense instead of going to fucking bed. I fucked up, not her. Like… for once, it was my mistake, not the girls’ even by my own arguably convoluted rules, and that’s like… UNBEARABLE, lolllllll.

Like, ugh. What happens when you can’t find fault? You run away, that’s what! You run away, and… that’s that.

You know what I’ll do? I’ll join the Jules LeBlanc fandom! I’ll comment on her YTs and stuff and that’s that.

It wasn’t my fault, it was those little quantum particles, those little thingies that are like smaller than like quarks or something? They were out of alignment or something? Yeah that was the problem I swear!

I think I’ll stop typing now lol

Yeah, re-reading this- I’m definitely the kind of writer that begs for an editor lol

Well, I’m back.

And I’ve had some time to think.

I think I need flesh out my profile a bit in the “me” dept. I mean, the pics and such.

That, I will do. And… IDK, I guess I was too focused on… commenting? Which I what I do? I don’t know, I mean, that’s what the site is? LOL.

Reading the Instagram Reddit, it’s like… yeah, that’s what the site is, right? A place to look at celebrity pictures, a place to comment on celebrity stuff, etc. I mean, it’s not a place for, IDK, storage for whatever it is your doing for yourself, I mean, certainly not if you want to keep that stuff, b/c Insta can and will delete that shit on a whim, know what I mean?

See my earlier revelation about being punished for commenting a green heart to Freya Skye. Seriously… wut? And now it’s like… I get a schoolmarm-ish warning whenever I log in on my phone to comment on something, telling me to “treat other people with respect” yadda yadda because their AI is just… dumb, and apparently mischaracterized the heart as something else? Jeezus H Christ. Maybe it also misinterpreted some of my jokes, took them literally or something, or misunderstood them. That is always a problem with these things.

IDK it’s like… I’m still kinda getting used to the platform. In a lot of ways it has the problems of “old twitter”. Like… the celebs are there, and they tend to stomp on things, even when not intending to. It’s like the old adage, “When the elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers”.

On a famous public profile like say Seventeen that is well known and well trafficked comments can get a lot of traction. I can post a comment on a random Jenna Ortega or Emma Myers picture there and easily get, say, a couple hundred likes. I just need to be clever and positive. Play to the masses.

On a celeb account, especially on an established celebrity’s account, not a chance. I can post the wittiest comment ever and come up with nothing. The reason being ofc is that the mega-celebs comment on each other’s posts, which annihilates everyone else’s comments, no matter how good, insightful, or funny.

Case in point- I was one of the first to comment on Olivia Holt’s post where she announced her third season of Cruel Summer. I had a smart comment- it was funny, clever, and poignant, and it was something to the effect of it being the “Cruelest Summer” or something somesuch, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was pretty good, but immediately after or before I hit post, I saw that Laura Marano posted something… IDK, boilerplate supportive of Olivia, and BAM, Laura’s comment was slammed instantly with 5000 likes (!!!!!!) and the entire comment feed was filled instantly in real time with same-y comments I swear to God within minutes. I swear to fucking God I watched this unfold with my own fucking eyes; it was God Damn surreal.

I was NOT one of those who liked her comment BTW.

So ofc Laura’s comment stayed lodged at the top, all of those comments similar to hers crowded around hers there, and the rest dropped to the bottom, where mine was.

Well… it was… as expected, ofc. That’s what this culture is. The celebrity playground is their playground. I mean… it’s ok, that’s what this is.

The difference is obvious. The Seventeen Instagram feed is a popular celebrity style profile but the celebrities themselves do not post on it. Therefore, I can get noticed. I can let my words fly, and take my time and curate my message without having to worry about hearing the tramping of a giant like Jules LeBlanc or Dove Cameron behind me.

Speaking of Laura… still kinda thinking about… that incident.

Still kinda embarrassed.

I wish I could take it all back. Is that dumb? Because it honestly is, and I know that it is, and I realize that it’s just the symbolism of the moment that is the problem, but still.

I just wish I didn’t love her so much, honestly. I mean, THAT is the sticking point here. It hurts, having a girlfriend I can’t talk to, and I know that this fact hurts her too, and this hurts me further in turn. It’s a never ending cycle of… I don’t want to say bad things because they aren’t, but things that maybe are a little hurtful sometimes?

I felt a little out of place during the IG Live. I did notice that I think I was the only guy there, and maybe (probably) the only Gen X’er. I mean… that’s OK. But everyone else there looked like they knew each other probably for decades and probably grew up using Instagram, and there was me, struggling with basic functions. I mean I belong there, I’m sure I do, I just… need time to think.

I did have some fun with the Disney Channel Insta today, just to clear the palate. That was… refreshing. Maybe I’ll stick with the current regimen.

I’m reeeeeeally tired. Not proofing this.