I still have no idea what happened, because I don't recall any slip, trip, or fall precipitating it, but my right ankle began to hurt on the evening of July 2nd. The morning of the 3rd, I woke up to the

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress composed of delegates from the 13 British colonies on the Atlantic coast voted to pass a resolution to declare independence. A committee led by Thomas Jefferson had

Time for a break from serious posts & deep thoughts. It's game night! I am not the most proficient Magic: The Gathering player. I do not have an encylopedic knowledge of cards, combo pieces, and keywords.

We have news today of the agreement to end the US/Iran war and its 14 points. Will it actually stick? Hard to say. I will be harshly critical of the US here, but the Iranian government is no paragon of

Today, a big wildfire flared up east of Spokane in the vicinity of the Millwood and Spokane Valley suburbs. A heatwave and windy weather combined with a drier-than-usual winter have left us with hazardous

First things first: I am not an Elon Musk fanboy, simp, or cheerleader. I have a lot of doubts and concerns about him, his businesses, and his influence. However, any criticism of his critics is invariably

Thoughts on alcohol, prohibition, liberty, alcoholism, drug abuse, legislative efforts, and real solutions

First off, the title is metaphorical, not literal, so cool it. That's one of the ways a black deck usually plays: my life total is just another resource to be spent. If my opponents bleed out before I

Long ago, when trading card games were brand-new, people didn't sleeve their cards. They played them naked, completely unaware that their cardboard game pieces might one day buy a freakin' house. As time

I recently started another playthrough of Fallout 4, and realized this game from 2015 parallels some concerns we have seen emerge in recent years over generative artificial intelligence. This also reminds

The other day, as the Mother Thing was preparing to run some errands, she told me she found a bat on the ground beside her car. This was the middle of the afternoon, so not the time one would expect our

Local author and noted outdoorsman Patrick F. McManus (R.I.P.) wrote a humorous essay about the phenomenon he describes as a sequence. ...[O]n the farm, you simply don't go out and do a piece of work.

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. This holiday is supposedly a somber occasion where the graves of war dead are decorated and their sacrifices are appreciated. Instead, it seems to be mainly

I play a collectible card game—nay, the original collectible card game1—Magic: The Gathering. Some of its cards call for a player to create a token, a game piece which is not itself one of the cards from

Yesterday, many states held primary elections where candidates within political parties competed for whose name would appear on the ballot this coming November. One of the states holding such elections

I've been reading articles and watching documentaries about archaeology, and when I was a librarian, I also looked into creating a time capsule. This all sparked the question behind today's post: what

It seemed like everything went awry. Improvise, adapt, and overcome!

My political ideas are well outside the mainstream of typical American Democrat and Republican platforms. However, in the interest of compromise, I would like to present an idea which will be unsatisfactory

I am older than Facebook. I remember when Netflix mailed DVDs. I am older than Google, which once promised not to be evil. I am older than the World Wide Web itself. I remember the DOS prompt, and A and