Mixed Metaphors

So, it is officially the weekend. I’ve got about 9 hours before the cutoff on my RP’ing group, and I decided it was about time to try and put some more thoughts on LCD for y’all. Because I loves you. All of you. Come on, ‘If we cannot go over the mountain, we can always go under it!’

First… Blah. Blahblahblah. I’m getting super tired of being here, and I am absolutely ready to get on the plane right now. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. So, I remain patient. (or at least as patient as I can be.) I’m going to see about having my wisdom teeth pulled next week, and then I’ll get my shoulder looked at before I go home. I’m absorbing all the stress from the people around me… it’s not cool. I really have nothing to stress about, but since everyone else’s sphincter is tighter than the new guy in Cell Block D, I’m wound pretty tight too. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to just chilling when I get home. I’ve got plans to go camping in May, and I’m working on planning a trip to somewhere in the Rockies when I go visit my buddy Joe in Seattle. (And you too, Brigid!) But that first week at home… I’m going to sit in front of the TV and kill all kinds of Monsters. ALL KINDS. So Many Monsters! Yeah… I might be losing it. Oh! And also, setting up some space at my grandpa’s to go shooting with my brand new .45! Whoo! I’m also planning to get a rifle of some sort… most likely a .223, which is essential the same round as the M16, but I’m not sure what type I’m going to get.

Hmmm… Deeper into the depths we go. I’d really like to start a book study of Wild at Heart with the guys, Y’all will have to tell me if you’re interested. It’s been on my heart for a while now, and I’d really like to share the book’s journey with you guys.

And now we stare into the depths of Khazad-Dum itself… We have made it past the sweet flaky crust and descended into the salty, gooey center.

I am Human. I will fail. This is something I’m learning through a particularly painful set of circumstances. I won’t get into the gristle of the details, but suffice to say this. I have this mental picture of who I think I should be. The ideal man, the sinless persona I strive for daily. And I fail daily. Not just ‘missed the basket’ failure, but the spectacular type of failure that lights the sky and goes down in history books. And through this painful process, I maintain my hope, regardless of the disenchantment, the despair, the knowledge that the ideal I seek is not even within my reach, not possible by a human being. But I keep trying, trying to make myself better, stronger, more resilient. But most days it feels like one step forward, two steps back. And that is where I find myself now. And just when I am fit to give up, I remember the mantra from my time in Basic- Drive on, drive on. And so I do. I put my head down, and I keep going.

When the World Died.

I wrote this today, just off the cuff, had an idea and I ran with it. It's kinda choppy, but that's what I wanted. Let me know what you think!

I was there when the world died. We knew it was coming. We had years to prepare, to ready our defenses, to offer gifts of peace. And we did. Oh, did we ever. They took their time, and our factories went into overdrive. Fighter jets, ICBMs, detection satellites, research and development, they all moved to the top of everyone’s budget. The job shortage and economic recession of my homeland disappeared almost overnight. Special teams of diplomats and politicians were put together and dispatched on journeys that would take months, offering the hand of peace to those from beyond the sky. Those who could afford it bought or built shelters that offered no protection in the end.  After they completed their spacegate, they began strip mining every planet in the system. We watched for a year as Pluto shrank into nothing. Next went Neptune. They didn’t seem to have much use for Saturn or Jupiter, but they made sure to catch all the moons on their march toward our Sun. My father was a scientist of some importance, and he managed to secure Board for our family on one of the lifeboats. A joint effort between Northrop Grumman and LeTourneau Industries, they were enormous steel Arks, constructed in high orbit above the Earth. Twelve were completed by the time they reached Earth. Our envoys of peace failed. We don’t know how, we don’t know why. Only that they did. I worked as a welder on the third Ark from the time I was fourteen. We called it Moses, in hopes that it would carry us to a new home, far from these implacable, faceless foes. Aeronautics and Space Travel were not the only industries to take flight, as it were, however. We managed to shoot down and capture a number of their survey craft, and we adapted their knowledge into our own as quickly as we unraveled it. We created AI, adapted mining tools to create energy based weapons and shield technology; but it was for nothing. We could not save our home. They were simply too many. I remember the Mass Driver Riots- thousands gathered at the bases of the mass drivers, giant cannons used to propel materials into space for the Arks. They had not managed to win a berth through the Lottery, and were attempting to force their way onto the Arks. My country managed to quell the Riots with minimal force, but the networks were quick to broadcast images of other nation’s soldiers firing into the crowds, silencing all. We took what and who we could, but in the end, there was no way to save everyone or everything. Moses was still within range to get the signals when the first ships landed, we saw the footage of the resistance, but in the end, everything went silent. Noah and Midgard, two of the other Arks, were destroyed because they waited too long- What once was hope became a coffin. It has been thirty-nine years since we left the edge of our solar system, since I last saw the light of Sol. We have been flying through space, living our lives, and every member of this crew dreams of the day we will find a new planet to colonize. Some lives have ended, and some have begun. This is the legacy of the human race- We Survive.