Wow Wikileaks… Just… Wow…

I probably shouldn’t be surprised, and I’m sure many will say that to me, but…

I’m surprised.

I’ve already covered this, technically, but…

Again, I’m a big fan of whistleblowers. I am actually sick of the secrets of people in power, and if there’s shit to leak, especially from a government, it should be leaked, because we deserve to know… especially when that government is elected by the people of the country it governs.

One would think that whistleblowing would be a bi-partisan affair. I recall whistleblowing under both Bush II and President Obama, and just assumed it would continue under Trump. But even while that may be the case, it obviously won’t be happening with Wikileaks, which has clearly outlived its usefulness…

[Read more…]

Hazel Scott; a Piano Prodigy (4 Videos Embedded in Post)

(It’s almost 8:00am. I finally managed to get tired enough around 4:45am to go to bed, only to wake up a couple hours later coughing due to an itchy throat caused by post-nasal drip. I’ve been like this for at least three weeks now… 🙁 )

There are 4 videos embedded here; 1 from Twitter and 3 from YouTube. Beware in case they autoplay.

So… I realize I missed this past Monday’s Great Guitar Solo, and I haven’t brought the Astronomy Picture of the Week series back. Hopefully I’ll be fixing that this coming Monday and Wednesday, respectively. In the meantime, I have another music post for y’all, this time highlighting the supremely talented Hazel Scott.

How I stumbled on her is actually really funny. I’m a huge fan of this podcast called The Read. So naturally, I follow the hosts, Kid Fury and Crissle, on Twitter. After the debacle that was Mariah Carey’s NYE performance, I was very very curious to see what they had to say. Sadly, they didn’t say anything. However, I did find a pretty funny tweet that Kid Fury had retweeted…

[Read more…]

No One Will Miss 2016

So… I originally had this idea to do a 2016 retrospective timeline, highlighting the tiny bit of good and the ridiculously huge amount of bad. But there was so much that this would have had to have been a multi-post series, and I don’t feel like doing that. Then I thought that I would just highlight the major events in politics and deaths, and devote some time to the US’s racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, murderous police force. But even that turns out to be more of a daunting task then I’m willing to take on.

So, instead, I’m going to share some thoughts, some links, a book for you to read, and a video that many of you probably already saw, but I want to share again, anyways. Sadly, I’m afraid I won’t be able to end this post with hope. While I am a cynic first and foremost, I’ve always worked hard to balance that out with optimism, always deliberately assuming that a human being I meet for the first time is fundamentally good (before they inevitably prove me wrong). I hate being a downer, and I really hate bringing other people down with me.

[Read more…]