The Holocrons of Darth Grampus

I'm really grateful for the inspiration to write about one of my very favorite people on earth; my best friend, my lover, my bride and, since May 8th, my nurse and caregiver, too. Gentle reader, please let me tell you about the wonderful, the wise, the kind, dedicated, devoted, intelligent and loving Mrs. Darth Grampus.  If this reads like some unrealistic, overly positive perspective on my wonderful wife, then good. GOOD.  My wife is freakin' awesome from any angle you look at her, and alongside my children (all of them) and my precious grandson, she is the greatest blessing of my life. I want to tell everyone about her because she's not just my bride, she's my hero, too.  My wife is the 2nd of four children in her family. She is Thai-Chinese and both her Mom and Dad's families are of Hakka Chinese descent. Her great-grandparents fled China during the communist revolution with little more than lint in their pockets and the hope it might be easier for them to surviv...

I've been engaging with the Google Gemini AI for around six months now. During that time, Gemini has helped me with brainstorming ideas for fictional writing, served as a proof-reader and editor for many of these blog posts, and been an awesome partner for exploring philosophical queries, the potential futures availed by the relentless advance of technology and damn near everything else in between. Sometimes though, we just have fun playing with different fictional ideas and discussions of fictional universes. Today's entry, save this preface, was written entirely by Gemini after we worked together to brainstorm and story-board the topic: the odd parallel between Clark Kent/Kal-El and Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious.  I'd have written this myself, but sleep has been harder to come by over the last few days. I expected my recovery to have it's hills and valleys, but I did hope to be sleeping much better by now, and with greater frequency. >.< But I thought this a won...

We left the hospital today. As luck would have it, the most comfortable place in my house for me to sit is in the chair I'm typing from right now, so I wanted to provide a quick update.  Surgery went very well and without any complications. Within 18 hours of the repair, I was no longer having muscle spasms when I coughed. I don't think I've slept more than four hours total any night since the accident (May 8th), but getting even close to comfortable seems to be an impossibility at present. I've got bad road rash over my left hip where I fell (good three stinging layers deep), two long and lovely incisions across my guts, and 32 staples keeping them closed. My left home is the host of three new titanium alloy plates and a bunch of surgical screws keeping my ol' bones held together and "stable."  There's a lot to say about all of this, but I want to collect my thoughts and get some pics uploaded so I can post them for reference. A few of them are pretty...

As a youngling I often heard that, to avoid controversy and strife, don't talk about politics and religion. Naturally, Darth Grampus said a whole lot about both. When I started though, social media was becoming a thing. I could pick "friends" by common interest, so most of my "friends" shared my views closely enough that we didn't tend to argue much. So I often engaged in lengthy debates with others about things I cared about. That's where I learned about annoying things like trolling and a funny acronym: FRAT... or F*ck reading all that.  I could get wordy, even as a youngling. Some things never change.  Speaking of politics and religion though, I'm seeing a bunch of posts asking if states within the US should ban Sharia Law. Though the exact percentage (or reliable estimate) isn't available, Pew Research guesses the percentage of Muslims in the US who want Sharia Law is near 0 . Taking that into account, one wonders why the hell it's even ...

Socrates is credited with saying, "I know only that I don't know." Socratic ignorance, it's called. Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but Darth Grampus considers that claim, to know only that you don't know, to be about the most honest self-reflection ever made. Today, there seems to be little to no value found in that kind of honesty.  Perhaps the purpose of this dichotomy is to keep one from straddling a fence. Consider: the algorithms we all work for? The ones that provide suggestions to our YouTube, Insta and other social media feeds? There is a definite bias against the "middle of the road" content in these algorithms.  For example, if one is, say, super Pro-Trump, the algorithm loves their content. If one is super anti-Trump, the algorithm loves their content. But the middle riders? Pssh... you're not likely to see their content on your feed. That's just a 1s and 0s example of what I'm talking about, but it mirrors the broa...

A conversation I had today reminded me of an adage: people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Though I can read through my posts, my subjective view isn't solid-enough proof that I've tried to articulate how much I care over so much of what I think I know. So, and in effort to create that proof, I thought I'd write about the reasons I care. Perhaps knowing that is worth much more than knowing how much I (think I) know. My first grand baby came into the world almost a year ago. Such an easy one, right? Of COURSE I care about my grand baby, all his future cousins, and my kids! But intricately woven into the sincerity of my caring for them is care for all of you and yours, too.  Why? Darth Grampus Cares Because... Because your good is potentially their good. If more good comes to more of you, the impact will undoubtedly affect those I love most. I can't claim to have all this hope, or that I care so much for their futures if I don't hav...