Brain insists on old memories. First house I was in.

 Need to sign in for work in an hour and a half. Of course, instead of sleeping since ... eh, 1 AM (granted, I fell asleep earlier and woke up at midnight,) my brain decided to play "what's your oldest set of memories?

Well, here's the first house I remember. It's on 11th street in Oak Creek, I think.  Near Carollton. 

It's changed a little since then. I don't remember considering that door you see as the "front" door. There's a detached garage on the other side of the house we always went in and out of. The stuff I remember? Is fragmented. It's been nearly half a century, after all - we moved out of there... I think the year I began kindergarten. 

Across the street on the right was my friend Paul's house. Green, single story - and gone now. I remember being there, think they had a pool. I remember yelling across the street to him when I was grounded and couldn't come over. *smirks.* I know he had a sister. I sort of remember ... kind of hiding in a closet to change to a swimsuit? *shrug* I was young. 

Down the street is Carollton Elementary. Only thing I really remember - since I never went there - was drawing on one of the rounded kiddy-corner (caddy corner, whatever people want to call it) round bits of the sidewalk with chalk with some of my friends. 

I remember my dad building the deck (on the other door, by the kitchen.) I remember sitting in the unfinished deck eating... what was that cereal, had a little alien on it. Had to look, it was called Quisp. 

I don't know why this cereal box sticks out to me so much, it just does. Probably the goofy alien guy. 

I remember there being a pool (long since gone) between the house and garage. I remember watching out the kitchen door as my dad and brother - probably Craig - were tying down the cover during a storm they were expecting tornadoes during. 

Same kitchen had a round table. Stairs going downstairs, with a little metal railing so you couldn't just fall into the stairwell. Pepper, our dog (want to say wire haired terrier) had his food dishes there. Apparenly I ate out of them a time or two. 

I don't really remember my bedroom or the living room. I do remember it had a low wood table we had for a while - I'd slide under and write stuff underneath later - but it had the TV on it. I remember watching Gilligan's Island on it in color. I *vaguely* remember a bunk bed in the bedroom. I must've shared it with Craig. 

Downstairs, I remember masks on the wall one halloween. I remember a slot car track being set up. Vaguely remember dad ... probably building a wall. I remember watching the Mickey Mouse club and Howdy Doody in black and white, and G Force (dont' ever remember it being called battle of the planets) and Speed Racer in color. I want to say I remember a bed down there, but I don't remember if it was a bed or a couch pulled out so someone could sleep on it. 

The house had a peach tree in back, long since gone. My dad also had put up a trellis and was trying to grow grapes behind the garage. I sort of remember them, but I do remember the bees. Not being afriad  of them, I thought they were cool. 

The road where the picture's taken from is a dead end with a little turnabout. I remember being thrown from a car when the door opened on that. I don't know if it was the same time I hit my head when my oldest brother was ... I believe they said taking me to church, but I'm not sure tha's right, as I had a - I think mickey mouse T-shirt that got fairly bloody from the cut in my forehead (and apparently freaked my brother out.) 

Twenty years.

9/11/2001. 

 I was married, then. My wife starting to have serious issues due to her MS, and I'd moved back to WI because there were flat out no jobs in Coos Bay, Oregon and in WI I could at least find *something,* plus have family near. We figured we could probably get better care, too. 

I was living in Johnson's Creek, an "apartment" that was actually a storefront. Working 3rd shift stocking at Walmart. I'd gotten home not long before.

My life seems to be defined, at times, by video games. I seem to recall being in Diablo II after work, unwinding, and chatting, when someone said a plane had "kamikazied" into one of the towers. We actually talked about that a little, the history-minded bit of me saying it was a tacky term to use for what had to be an accident. Probably a light plane or something. Then I went to turn on the TV and got to watch the second plane hit, live. I'd seen enough footage before, with the smoking hole, to know it wasn't just a replay. 

I don't remember much from that morning - I do remember going back into work for whatever reason, to tell someone or something. I didn't know how to react. Of course, that was being played there, too. Of course it was. 

I did eventually get to sleep. Not sure how long. Woke up to news of things like flights everywhere being grounded. We were at war with something called the Taliban and al-Queda not long after, which felt right. Never imagined we'd be *there* for twenty years. That people would die there that hadn't even been conceived yet. 

We hadn't been hit like that. Not like Pearl Harbor - a surprise, but one done to a military base by an enemy military. We don't like surprise attacks. We'd had terrorists hit, too... but they were home grown, Timothy Mcveighs, not from some dusty country halfway around the world. 

I'd say we were united, but ... well, some more than others. Unsurprisingly, anyone who "looked Muslem" was at risk from angry bigots. First time I'd paid much attention to finding out what a Sikh was, really, after they (non-muslem, by the way) started getting attacked as well. People who had been in and loved this country for ages became targets for some. 

And we've made a mess of things since, as well. But that's a rant for elsetime.

Riots in the Capitol. Really...

 I cannot fucking believe this. 

I expected the only circus for President-Elect Biden's nomination to be the handful of asshole Republican senators "protesting." Instead, we have a bunch of fucking pro-trump MAGA-heads *breaking into* the capitol. 

Trump does nothing but put out a tweet saying "stay peaceful." Biden? Comes out and sounds like a president. Sadly he doesn't have the authority yet to do anything. 

I'm angry. I'm infuriated not just that this bunch of idiots *did* this, think they have the fucking RIGHT, but that Trump's supported them and incited them. Trump aides are saying he doesn't want to do anything. No shit, is this surprising you at all? They're doing this *for him.* That's all this asshole has ever fucking CARED about. He should NEVER have been put in office. 

And Mitch Fucking McConnell. "Oh, preserve the process." Asshole, you and your caucus ENABLED and PROTECTED him. Not only should the rioters go to jail - fuck, you have the cages you put separated kids in, shove the lot of them there - but so should Trump, and so should most of the fucking Republican caucus. 

Let me drag the asshole down the street with the Trump flag down there, too. 

Trump should never have been put in power. Trump shoudl never have been allowed to stay in office. He should be *gone,* should have been with his impeachment, but the republicans put party and power over country. 

They chanted "lock her up" about Hillary. Lock *all* these motherfuckers up. 

Edit: And we go from President-Elect Biden's speech where he ... sounds like a president SHOULD, to Trump's "I know you're hurt, the election was stolen, we all know it, the other side knows it, but you have to go home now." 

PUT THAT ASSHOLE IN PRISON. Fucking remove him bodily from office NOW. I don't care if it's only two weeks until the inauguration. REMOVE THAT ASSHOLE BEFORE HE DOES MORE DAMAGE.

Challenger

 So, about to watch the Netflix series on the Challenger disaster. Not that this is going to be of huge historical interest or anything, but I thought, before watching it, I'd put down what I recalled then. 

I was in middle school - Oak Creek, at the time, had several primary (K-6,) then one junior high where I was (they're up to two now, sheesh - this one covered 7th and 8th grades)  then the high school (9-12.) 

Challenger blew up in the morning. I don't even remember my schedule - why would I? That was decades ago and I was a kid. I do remember coming into lunch and one of my friends saying "the shuttle blew up."

I just didn't believe him, thinking it was some stupid joke. Ate lunch, bought a mickey mouse ice cream.. thing (I have no idea why I remember *that,*) finished the day, came home. 

On the TV... yep, footage of the shuttle blowing up. I just remember going to my room, then, kind of in shock and, yes, crying. That was just... major. Especially to someone who loved aircraft and space like I did, it was just - for my tween-brain, hard to grasp. (Yeah, January 1986? 13.) 

I pretty much had to deal with it on my own. I don't recall it being talked about at school, despite this being the first flight with a teacher, a civilian, on the shuttle. And we didn't talk about it at home. I don't think it ever occurred to my parents that this was a shock to me. My dad was up, my mom would have been at work. Just didn't have that sort of ... thing at home.

(Don't get me wrong. Loving household, but this would have been "huh, that's a shame" without really thinking about it affecting the space nut in the house. Not sure I"d have talked about it much, anyway - this was pretty much an era of "A guy showing feelings? Pfft. Grow up, toughen up.")

Once I got past - or through, or tamped down, or whatever - the emotional shock, there was the waiting. Just - mostly "well, at least it had to be quick." Then the... part tech-curious, part just *curious* "what happened?" and watching with interest as everything was gathered, inspected and the like. And of course the morbid speculation that no, they didn't die right away, thinking of what it had to be like having the shuttle explode around you and falling, or tumbling in the cockpit, or getting slammed around while knowing you'd hit the ground...

Is it just me going "you know, the usual teens being morbidly fascinated" with that? 

City of Heroes musings

Yeah, I know. It's been a while again. I don't have that exciting of a life. :) And this is mostly me rambling for my own sake.

Everyone's dealing with Covid lockdowns - at least until mid month.  (Or unless you're in a state with a governor that doesn't believe in... I don't know. Health.) So people are doing indoorsy things, unless you're deciding going to the beach in Florida and getting sick sounds fun. Sorry, these people and those being goaded into protesting just *irk* me with stupidity...

Anyway. So one of the things I'm doing is... playing City of Heroes. I played it when it was live, from issue 3 in 2005 to shutdown in 2012. I played on the SCORE servers while things were being worked out in secret. And i am now playing on Homecoming.

Early shot of Therra

While not my first character, my first 50 was an electric/electric blaster named Therra Arcson. I remember almost deleting her early on because I'd accidentally managed to killsteal from someone. I'm glad I didn't - the way to 50 with her involved my first supergroup and good friends (and RP, with occasional awkwardness) - Shadow of the Storm, on Pinnacle, co-leading (sort of) with Adam Green, player of Agent Snow.

Oy, did we ever get some long, convoluted stories going with multiple iterations of those characters. Therra was thought lost in an enemy base collapse, captured, interrogated, turned into a Peacebringer to escape - while Snow's nanites tried taking over and didn't want to recognize her at first, later clearing them involved "quantum" energy which made him basically deadly to her... rough relationship, but Snow did eventually get a new (male, again!) body and they had their happily ever after.

Snow and Kamre, the other two musketeers... 

Snow didn't play on live for some time before the shutdown, so..

Therra artwork

Still. The differences ... get me thinking. The game was harder back in issue 3. The game was new. It was missing a lot - like content between 38 and 40, if you happened to be in a blaster, the AT known as "debt collectors" (you gain "XP Debt" whenever you die) and "floor inspectors." I think it took a few hundred hours to get her to 50, but I finally did, with Snow. And we continued RPing the characters - she was a live character, not a bunch of numbers.

Now? Played her as a new archetype called a "Sentinel." Still electric/electric, but this time describing the blast powerset and an armor set.

I don't have an agent snow this time. Sure, in my mind she's paired with another alt, to have some sort of a life, though she knows "something" is missing. But... not quite the same. She was just on random pick up groups here and there. And with all the changes since 2005... she made it in 58 hours.  I did have some supergroup (SG, other MMOs call them "guilds" and the like) mates from another SG help out for a bit, teaming from ... about 45 1/2 to 45 3/4, but it just wasn't the same.

Granted, I usually have one, maybe two, RP "mains" who get the attention - in this case, it's a little Brute called Ishku (took her name from mishearing someone say "is coo'" and it kind of became hers,) with Cat as my secondary, trying to figure out... what to do with her, as her erstwhile partner, well... isn't in the same place. And the feeling is there, more, with her.

Mm. Is it an issue? I don't know. Maybe it's just a thing.

Happy 50, Therra...

Homecoming Therra hits 50