I swear this is a Northeast suburb thing - the area is so progressive that garbage people will get really good at masking the worst of their opinions and then the mask will slip at a random get-together and it's like a jump scare and then you gotta stop talking to them ever again.

I do also laugh that right before I bought this I saw a cottage near where I used to live in Galway for sale for $50k USD and joke that I wish I'd bought that instead, but that's too deep a dive into the life unlived.

(I won't pay this house off for another 17 years unless I get that big development deal for the Indestructibles I dream of, but I don't think any financial windfall would justify giving up a mortgage that doesn't risk my partner not being able to stay in the house if I die early.)

Has someone truly lived unless they have a ridiculous black and white acting headshot from their early 20s?

And I thought I was cynical THEN.

(I know I'm in a bad mood when my archaic Boston accent comes out in text with a "nah dude/yah kid")

I'm supposed to lead a talk for writers about protecting their work with AI in January and I literally can't even write the pitch paragraph because some New Awful Nightmare Shit happens every day with it.