A little “to serve man” doodle to honor Richard Keil and The Twilight zone
Need to work on the noggin bulge, I think. The beard totally makes the look.
Had a really good chat with an old pal from LJ after the loss of another. Some very wise and insightful things said, and it is appreciated. Thanks, Beej.
One quote was in my previous post, this one also stands out –
So anyway.. I told you that long sob story to make the point that in my experience, making an exercise of and documenting the simple everyday moments of joy (which have since come to be called “glimmers”) really does make a difference. I know you are an avid journaler, so you already have a foundation for that. Maybe a slightly different approach to make it stand out a little.
That’s a excellent idea, and one that can be utilized right away.
Some good stuff from today, in the form of Pearl making me smile:
Pearl got up on the table (a no-no), and grabbed a bit of disposable cutlery, to skin and gut it. I took it from her before she could hurt herself, but I weirdly love her predatory instincts.
She was snoring in her pink poofy bed shortly after.
If you have known me for 25 years, from LiveJournal or anywhere really, and I still want to talk to you, know that you are beyond awesome; if you still want to talk to me, that is even better.
Thank you for being here. It’s a hard world right now, and I think that you are improving it.
As for me, I feel like I have more rough edges now than I did as a young man. I think it’s supposed to be the other way around. I don’t want to be a grumpy old dude.
I was talking to a longtime friend and they said something pretty solid, and kind to me that I think bears saving, and looking back to later on
I learned a lot from you from very early on. I struggled with managing my feelings especially around rejection and belonging. You were a great example for me in terms of being less reactive and less reliant on the opinions of others. Even now when I’m deciding how to react to or feel about someone treating me badly, you come to mind as I process it. I go back to the good example I’ve had and the lessons I’ve learned and you were a huge part of some of the maturity I gained back then.
I think cruel men often soften as they age, but it’s normal and probably a good thing for very kind men to develop some sharp edges over time. Kindness is an action, and sometimes a difficult one, so it costs something every time. It is worth it, but some people take advantage either directly or by not taking responsibility for who they are – and that will wear you down. The world needs more kindness but you can’t let it destroy you. There have to be boundaries.
Boundaries are vital. I want to be kind, but I absolutely need boundaries, too. I can certainly still learn from myself to be less reactive, too. Opinions of others still don’t mean a lot, unless I care about people that hold them.
It is hard not to want to lash out against the cruel, and there are so many cruel people out there these days. I think it is better in the long run though to temper that enthusiasm with a plan to either correct that cruelty or remove the strength from it. If they can’t be fixed, remove oxygen, and stuff them out, without propagating the noise they bring if at all possible. Organization and forethought, while not as immediately gratifying, can lead to real change and not amplify my own rage.
As for LJ, there are some lovely folks who have been phenomenal for over a quarter of a century.
Those who leap immediately to my forgetful mind in no particular order, and I am sure there are others that are momentarily sitting in the Swiss cheese part of my brain:
Blackhellkat ( she is so amazing, I married her)
Appelard – visiting later this year, maybe?
Tarpo
Billijean
Ldy
Mootpoint
Lilmizcareall
Rosin_dubh
VickyCAhoy
Javaelemental
(I had to wrack my brain to remember some of the original usernames)
Folks that i have lost track of, mostly due to facebook going away but would love to see again-
It is bizarre to go back and read my old online journal posts (originally livejournal, transferred over to my own site back when lj went under russian ownership).
Recent events had me going back to 2001, over 25 years ago. I was a much nicer dude back then. I miss that guy.
Maybe he and I can have a little talk sometime soon. His writing was better too… i could stand to relearn some old habits.
Just got word that they let her pass. She was in the ICU with multiple organ failure.
I am sorry for her family and for the world. It’s going to be a little less weird and fun without her physically in it.
Thank you for making it a better place overall for so many years, buddy. You will continue to make things a bit strange and wonderful through the people you met along the way, and it will always be appreciated.
I just found out that a dear lj friend from back in the day that I havent spoken to in an age is in the hospital, and I hope she is doing better very soon.
Miss you, kiddo.
Update, Sept 8, 1:30pm:
She was not feeling well, short of breath, went to the hospital, was full of clots and had to be transferred out.
Just got word that they let her pass. She was in the ICU on ECMO with multiple organ failure.
I am sorry for her family and for the world. It’s going to be a little less weird and fun without her physically in it.
Thank you for making it a better place overall for so many years, buddy. You will continue to make things weird and wonderful through the people you met along the way, and it will always be appreciated.
AtlasOS is creating a “kinder” Windows experience. Reducing bloatware and optimizing performance for enthusiasts, gamers, and privacy-conscious individuals.
Oh this is nice! Why did I wait?batocera.orgLinux emulator that fits on a bootable USB drive, very compatible with controllers and etc ive thrown at it
“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.” – Arthur Conan Doyle.
Large corporations function like massive, biological neural networks that ingest data and generate outputs, but they run on human time and bureaucracy instead of silicon chips.
Corporations are like slow AI, which makes me dislike both even more than before.
angel skunk dashes through with a whisker sniff and orangina spider built a little web that is hard to see during the day
The Veil Over the Star City: Salem and Hanging Rock in Old Gods of Appalachia
In the alternate-history cosmic horror podcast Old Gods of Appalachia, real-world geography isn’t just a backdrop. It is a blueprint for the supernatural. Created by Steve Shell and Cam Collins, the anthology weaves the scarred topography of the Appalachian mountains into a narrative where Gilded Age corporate extraction is literally a blood pact with primeval horrors under the earth. While the neighboring railroad boomtown of Roanoke, Virginia serves as a primary hub of administrative malice, the historical city of Salem and the liminal pass of Hanging Rock mark the boundaries where mortal ambition collapses into ancient, untamed dark.
To trace the tragic path of Nadine Rigg and the shadows of the Locke family dynasty, one must look directly north of Salem’s town center, where the limestone cliffs of Hanging Rock, Virginia form a physical and spiritual gateway to the Inner Dark.
The Borderlands: Salem, Virginia
Historically, the city of Salem stood as an independent enclave, resisting annexation by its larger, industrial neighbor. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it witnessed the relentless expansion of the rail industry. In the lore of Old Gods, this expansion is driven by the tyrannical Locke Railroad Company. Salem represents a fragile threshold. It is a place caught between the structured, suffocating control of corporate ledgers and the vast, unyielding forests that cloak the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It is on this precise borderland that Nadine Rigg finds herself running for her life. As the daughter of Benji Rigg—a man who became fabulously wealthy by selling his land to the Lockes only to lose his mind to the phantom whistles of the tracks—Nadine inherits a legacy of blood and silver. When she flees her family’s ruined estate with a cache of her mother Inez’s jewelry, she is carrying a piece of the deep mountains: a clairvoyant “Thinking Ring” carved from ancient antler.
Salem is where the urban armor of the Gilded Age fails. It is where human property lines cease to matter, and where the things living in the woods wait to balance the scales.
The Fissure of History: Hanging Rock
Directly north of Salem lies the unincorporated community of Hanging Rock, named for a massive, looming geological formation. Today, travelers cross the intersection of Virginia State Routes 311 and 419 under the shadow of these cliffs. However, the area’s real-world history is steeped in sudden, violent conflict.
In June 1864, retreating Union forces under General David Hunter clashed with Confederate forces in a chaotic, pitched engagement known as the Battle of Hanging Rock. Though regarded as a minor historic footnote, the skirmish left the soil marked by blood, iron, and artillery.
For Old Gods of Appalachia, a landscape soaked in historical trauma is a place where the veil between worlds grows thin. The jagged karst topography of Roanoke County—honeycombed with deep subterranean voids and hidden caverns—reaches a point of sharp, dramatic exposure at Hanging Rock. In the podcast’s narrative, these stone marker zones and deep hollow gaps signify that a traveler has stepped onto land claimed by forces far older than humanity.
Walking the Lore: The Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail
To immerse oneself in the exact atmosphere captured in the series, one can hike the Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail off Dutch Oven Road. This 1.7-mile trail winds along the old cinder rail beds of Mason Creek and Kessler Mill Road.
The Canopy: As you walk the trail, the Appalachian forest canopy closes in tightly, drowning out the distant hum of modern interstate traffic.
The Atmosphere: It is an isolated, heavy environment. The quiet is frequently described by hikers as absolute—the kind of stillness where you can hear the leaves crunching behind you even when the wind is completely dead.
The Dark Convergence: It is precisely this landscape that sets the stage for The Holiest Days of Bone and Shadow storyline. Along these trails, the paths of Nadine Rigg, the dark entities of the woods, and the insidious, monochromatic agents known as the Grey Ladies converge.
When the lore of Old Gods stretches out to these liminal boundaries, the historic markers and stone monuments nestled in the brush of Hanging Rock cease to be mere historical points. They become wardens keeping watch over a porous, swiss-cheese geological foundation.
Ultimately, the story written in the soil of Salem and Hanging Rock matches the frequency of the show perfectly. The real-world history of sudden Civil War ambushes, industrial exploitation, and dark, snaking cavern systems offers a tangible blueprint for the cosmic horror that Steve and Cam masterfully bring to light.
Visual reference map outlining the thin veil zones along Mason Creek and the ancient limestone tracks where the alternate timelines of Locke Rail slice into Virginia’s wilderness.
“It’s the army of the apocalypse. War is only the beginning. Pestilence and famine will rule the land. Two-thirds of the people will die…the third that remain will be food for the creatures that come after.”
Today is the 105th anniversary of bombs being dropped on miners and their communities during the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Back in late August 1921, the hills of Logan County, West Virginia, turned into a full scale warzone. Ten thousand striking coal miners, all wearing red bandanas around their necks, marched out to try to unionize the southern coalfields. They were just looking for basic dignity, but standing in their way was a heavily armed army funded entirely by the coal companies. What followed wasn’t just some minor labor dispute, it was a brutal five day battle. It remains one of the only times in American history where the civilian population was subjected to an actual aerial bombing on American soil.
As the miners were advancing up Blair Mountain, Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin took to the air. His whole anti-union defense force was being openly bankrolled by the coal operators, and they chartered private civilian biplanes to use as makeshift bombers. Deputies sat in the cockpits and dropped homemade pipe bombs and surplus commercial explosives packed with shrapnel directly onto the miners’ trenches. While those crude munitions caused a lot more terror and confusion than actual mass casualties, it was still a terrifying escalation for a domestic labor struggle.
Things got so intense that President Warren G. Harding had to step in to suppress what the federal government viewed as a total insurrection. The U.S. Army deployed an entire squadron of military aircraft from Langley Field under Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The planes patrolled the skies to conduct reconnaissance and make a massive show of federal power. Historical accounts show that both the private planes and the military forces introduced tear gas and gas canisters into the mix to flush the miners out of the heavy mountain foliage.
The arrival of the army and the planes completely broke the momentum of the battle. Many of those striking miners were actually World War I veterans who had just come back from Europe. They were totally willing to trade shots with corrupt company guards and local deputies, but they flat out refused to fire on the flag or the uniforms of the United States military. By September 4, 1921, the miners started laying down their weapons and heading home. The whole thing is a pretty stark reminder of exactly how far coal operators and local governments would go to crush labor rights. Those bombs dropped on the West Virginia hills didn’t just target the guys hiding out on the ridges, they completely reshaped the trajectory of the American labor movement for generations.
