Best summary of what we're dealing with that I've seen so far.

I truly wish we had better candidates but the electoral system we have now--&, I suspect, any possible version of representative democracy--filters out anyone of basic decency & sound mind long before (s)he would ever get into the White House. On the rare occasion when such a person does win the throne, he soon learns that if he wants to stay in power & get anything done, he had better play the game. Thus, the corruption is not only not removed but becomes more entrenched, the class gap stays &/or widens, & these days, the various factions of the country cohere further into themselves & increase their hatred of the opposing politi-tribes. After all this, I'm supposed to believe in our electoral system as the best possible form of government...

...but I digress.

Aside from the above, there ain't much news in my corner of the world unless you count some 12,000 acres in California burning...but that isn't news. CA burns up every year due to its absurd rules (no forest maintenance allowed anywhere, because removing dead trees & underbrush apparently equals clear-cutting in terms of mortal sin).

Gonna put the land deal in motion this week if everything goes as it should. Will do more art when I can, as always.

The ShadeUncut account is dead. I shut it down a few minutes ago. No sense in trying to maintain two accounts here when I have enough to do as it is. Whatever "adult" stuff I post in the future, I can always make a folder for it.

Haven't been here lately because life has been busy...got a major decision coming up soon. I will try to post here but it won't be anywhere near regular, you can bet on that. In a nutshell: I've had it up to here with apartment life & need a place of my own, but I can't afford an ordinary house. So I've been looking at other options & will pick whichever one is best.

Gonna make the big move this year, I think. It will take a lot of time & effort. I probably won't draw or paint too often for a while.

My theme song is

June 8th Edit: Tonight I'm doing stuff like this:

As of April 18th, 2347 hrs.

It's been mostly wiggling between $2,370-ish & $2,410 for a few days now... Not bad at all, considering the price per oz. was nowhere near that at the end of 2019. Gold has gained a hair over 85% in value since then. I do wish its recent rise was for better reasons, though. (The current Middle East conflict & faltering stock market indexes because everyone is jittery have a lot to do with it.)

gold price per oz., as of 11:06 this evening

It's gone up just over 8% in the last 30 days. Nice.

The title is self-explanatory. The appointments to see various specialists are becoming a bit more frequent, & will be for a while though not all year. Chronic illness & getting older completely suck.

Aside from that, I've been scribbling again...a sample follows. Not much more to report at this time.

I like to keep track...though not always closely. If you are exposed to a given market, you want to know what's going on within it. So as of earlier today:

Gold has gone up a hair over 4% in a month's time while platinum hasn't moved at all...I do wonder why. One possible reason is a %age of investors are nervous about the markets--stocks & ETFs can't keep up like this indefinitely, especially with the economic conditions we're in--& so are putting money into gold as a safe haven...a proven strategy. There's always a bit of randomness in the signals as well.

A few minutes ago, after a websearch I sent an email to my old art instructor, from my university days.

I don't know if he will read it because I don't know if he's even alive or mentally competent...his work goes from the 1960's to 2020. The latter year was the last time he updated his website, so who knows? Maybe he doesn't give a shit by now. But I sent the email anyway.

I got my B.A. just before 9-11. So damn much has changed in modern society in that time...not all the changes were good or desirable. A chronic condition I didn't see coming completely shifted my life around & not for the better. But in all that time I never stopped being an artist.

And I never forgot about my instructor.

He was one of the two best ones I encountered when I was inside my alma mater.

Ai-yi-yi-yiieeee!