Quick Survival Post

I haven’t been posting a lot lately. Why?

Short version-

• I Am Alive! The new job has been eating a lot of my energy, especially with the commute (and if you think a commute can’t be tiring when you’re just sitting there, it can).
• Writing Has Been Slow! I’ve missed the cut-off dates for at least one writing anthology short story contest because I’ve been busy due to learning how to do my new job. “Writing” for The Winter Solist has been mostly organizing what I’ve gotten done previously into a single Word file and getting it “organized” for publishing. And other stories have been mostly note taking, little writing snippets, and figuring out exactly what sort of chaos I can create if I decided to write up a post-singularity space opera idea.
  (Any game idea would require me to find a RPG game engine that doesn’t insult my intelligence and is reasonably licensable. I don’t have the time to roll my own and I want to play with all the usual post-singularity tropes out there.)
• Life Has Been Confusing! If there is anything that the Crow Flu has ruined me for, it’s dealing with crowds and large groups of people in any form. Five years ago, a Sunday afternoon in the Big City (TM) would be reasonably fun. But now, between the feral homeless and crowds and people just being terrible to be around…
  It’s not fun anymore to do a lot of the things that I like.
  Worse, I don’t know what I really like to do anymore, other than sit on my porch and yell at rude kids to get off my lawn.
  I don’t think I’m that old…
• I’m Tired Of Where I Am-But Where Do I Go? Look, I love the West Coast for the most part.
  
  I like the climate. Rarely too hot, rarely too cold. It’s wet, but we don’t usually get snow (but, if this is a repeat of the 1970s, ice age might be coming and we could get snow. We had record rainfall here, and they’re saying we’ll probably have more rain going into April).
  I like the places that don’t have the feral homeless and the trustees of modern chemistry roaming around at random and still have interesting places to shop and explore.
  I like many of the people, as long as you don’t talk politics. (People are brain dead around here, and pointing out how brain-fried they are gets you in trouble. Absolutely no training in formal logic these days, I tell you.)
  
  But…
  
  We’re having security issues. Even in relatively semi-urban areas. Bad enough that we’ve just had a neighborhood watch organized (and we call the Sherrif’s department around here. Local PD is…not impressive to say the least). There has been one catalytic converter theft in about a half-mile radius. And there’s been regular RV towing and trash-hauling of the debris of the homeless.
  The politics here are not good. In general, the politics are not good anywhere on the West Coast. I can’t trust anything outside of a city government with more power than crayons, construction paper, and scissors with the rounded ends.
  The people are getting frustrating and ugly, in both general and specific means.
  
  But…where do I go?
  
  Just about any state that I could live with in terms of politics and security have employment issues. Especially if I’m going there without a good, easy in and references (and a rabbi, can’t forget about that). I’m not at an age where I find living four to a two-bedroom apartment enjoyable (with exceptions…but I don’t think I would survive most harem anime hijinks).
  Or weather issues (I’ve had people suggest Texas. Too Goddamned hot…when it isn’t too wet or your next-door neighbor is having a delivery of lumber to build an ark…)
  And my family would be convinced that I’ve just jumped off the edge and I”m about to join a militia when I find a place to live. (I wouldn’t-bad ankles. Can’t run very far with a full kit.)
  I also need to be near the ocean. I have times where nothing else recharges me like the ocean and I need the ocean.
  So if I can find this magical land…I will nail the door shut behind me once I get all my books inside because I don’t want to have any Karens following me.

Hopefully more interesting news in a little while…