NEWSFLASH!

A Meditation on Ethical Navigation  

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The first half of my life was difficult, but through my trouble times I’ve learned a few things that have helped me navigate. Right now my mind is clear, and I’d like to articulate these so that I can read them and reread them in later times of trouble. I’ve decided to share these snippets of personal wisdom encase they can be helpful to other people. 

1)  In the world, when things trouble you, and all you can do is face it, be like the cliffside that the raging sea breaks itself against, let the waves crash and shatter themselves back into the sea

2) Be strict with yourself, but tolerant with others. 

3) Question everything. 

4) When you are making a big decision, ask yourself, is this something I want or something that someone else wants; was this my decision or am i being unwittingly coerced by tradition?

5) Life happens wherever you are - embrace the present. Stop getting lost in yesterday, focus on the present. 

5b) if you can’t bring yourself to embrace the present, focus on the near future - think about tomorrow. Not where you want to be in a year. 

6) Be a better student, and consider teaching what you’ve learned. We can all learn from one another. 

7) Greed for the sake of itself is abhorrent, but the pursuit of a survival fund - enough to survive; enough to break free. That is permissible and you deserve to survive. Everybody does. 

8) Life is like a vast garden, with all kinds of different plants - some flowers, some veggies, maybe some herbs and spices. Weeds can pop up, seeds may not germinate, critters could eat them. Each hobby, each connection, each belief; every aspect of your life can be conceptualized as this garden. What you nurture is given an opportunity to grow and what you neglect is unaddressed.

9) It is important to draw wisdom from many places. If you take it from only one place it becomes rigid and stale, like a cultural echo chamber. 

10) it is important to understand WHEN to apply WHICH piece of wisdom, blindly following cliches appropo of context can lead to increased suffering for all parties. 

11) Lead with your values, everything else comes after. 

12) We are all descendants of one being, LUCA, and from it we’ve all inherited something from it - a will to live, propagate, and enjoy our shared Earth. Humans are just one body type among our many cousins, and whether we choose to do something with that information, we must all recognize that these beings are our brothers and sisters - no different than the folks that popped outta your mother’s coochie. Be kind to animals. Be kind to plants and to bugs and to fungi. 

13) Don’t become a serf. You own your own land and a vehicle, peacefish. Don’t let the weight of expectation from others corrupt you into ruining your life a second time. Do not become bound to one place through a mortgage that locks you in one place, do not allow your things to own you. 

14) All you need is Love. Embody it. Embrace it. Nothing else matters, not really. 

15) Life is fragile and you only get one of them. Any one of us can go at any time - heart attacks, aneurysms, random acts of violence, a moment of weakness. You could leave life at any time and so could any of your loved ones - let that determine what you say, do, and think; live for life and for love 

16) one day you’re born, you spend a moment or two here, then it’s all over - gone in a flash. How will you use your moment? 

Earlier today, I got a call about a contest I entered.
Ever since I was a kid, my local mall has had an annual car giveaway for as long as I can remember. Everytime that I go, I fill out a ticket and put my name in the raffle bucket.

Earlier, I stepped away from my PC for all of 20 minutes and missed the call through google voice. They didn't say I won, but someone involved with the mall and raffle called my phone and even gave me an unfortunately undiscernable call back number.

Not having a phone sucks and feeling opportunities slip by sucks, even when they're rooted in dumb luck. 

For those who don't know, Fender is one of, if not THE, biggest guitar manufacturer in human history. In the 1950s, Leo Fender innovated a handful of instruments that changed the landscape of popular music for generations to come - The Telecaster, The Precision Bass, the Stratocaster, and the Jazz Bass.  Without these four instruments, entire genres of music would be unrecognizable or non-existent. Early on, builders and musicians began upgrading their Fender guitars and basses - with each modder improving the designs or adding something new to the mix. From the 5-Way Toggle to the SuperStrats and all their fancy bells + whistles, players have been improving on the original designs for generations, which is something that players can only wish to say about Fender themselves. After a series of legal decisions, many of Fender's body shapes entered the public domain and dozens of companies were building improved versions of these instruments while Fender retained intellectual property rights to things like their logo, headstock designs, and proprietary technologies. This has stood the test of time in case after case after case. 

A while back, there was a court case in Europe between Fender and a chinese company that was producing counterfit Stratocasters, which seemingly marketed as genuine Fender products. The chinese producer didn't even show up to court so Fender won the case by default. Shortly thereafter, Fender began issuing cease and desist letters to all sorts of guitar manufacturers across the globe under some pretty shaky ground as nothing has changed in terms of the law around guitar copyright.

I think they have no leg to stand on, but I'm no lawyer. We'll see.

The City of Southgate, Michigan has made the decision to cancel 2026's PRIDE Festivities at the local library, citing a desire to remain apolitical thereby inhibiting both protected speech and the freedom of assembly. The city claimed that there was a budget related concern.

Thankfully, the librarian decided to host the event, even if Dan Marsh was being a total phobe. I could write a book about my terrible experiences in this godforsaken city. 

RIPPED DIRECTLY FROM THE ACLU WEBSITE - NOT MY CONTENT, THIS IS JUST IMPORTANT 

Today, I decided  I wanted to listen to some Deep Purple and work on my website, specifically I wanted to listen to the early Morse -era stuff - Purpendicular, Abandon, Bananas,  and maybe Rapture of the Deep. I listened to Purpendicular on Spotify. I went to pull up Abandon and it unfortunately just wasn't there. I figured, whatever, I'll skip to Bananas. No Bananas on Spotify either. So, I decide screw it, let me look them up on YouTube and see if either album is there and fortunately both of them are, but they're bootlegs so the folks in Purple aren't seeing a dime if you choose to listen to the albums this way which is a huge issue in and of itself but beyond that due to the dubious legal nature of the uploads its entirely possible both of them could just get wiped from YouTube at any moment. At that point, we would have to start buying CDs. Are either of these albums still widely available?

So, I've checked a few places for Abandon and frankly it seems like its  not in print at this point and the same seems to be true for Bananas as well. There are a few copies for sale on eBay and Amazon - all used. The prices for Abandon are mostly reasonable, although one seller on amazon is trying to sell the CD for $30 which may be worth it to the right buyer, but people should be able to access the music they like both affordably and legally. Bananas, on the other hand, is not so reasonably priced. A used CD on Amazon is going for $129.00 which is ridiculous. 

I've had similar issues with other music in the past. Prior to Black Sabbath's recent rerelease of the Tony Martin era material, there was a similar problem with legally acquiring Headless Cross, Tyr, and Cross Puruposes, . For whatever reason, those albums had also been out of print for at least 15 years before they got properly reprinted. 

We're talking about two of the largest heavy rock bands of the 1970s, with both of them being highly influential on subsequent rock and metal. Even though these albums weren't made with their classic lineups, they're all phenomenal records and display each band's creative evolution. If you're a fan of either band, go check out Born Again by Black Sabbath. It's the classic sabbath lineup, except instead of Ozzy on vocals it's got Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, kinda wild tbh. It's just odd to me that such big bands can have such huge gaps of what they keep in print. 

What happens to music that isn't popular or profitable as it ages? Hell, what the hell is going to happen to ALL of our media as it ages. What happens with movies as they age? How many movies were released on VHS and never rereleased on DVD or through streaming services? How many video games are out of print and inaccessible? How do we preserve our media for the next generation? How do we access and preserve the media we love when it goes out of print without defaulting to piracy? 

I suppose every blog needs a first entry and this will be mine. I come into this subject deeply biased as an american citizen, but my heart aches for the men, women, and children that have been killed, displaced, or whose lives have been otherwise forever changed in these attacks - and in the international warfare that followed.

This is the situation going on in the middle east at this point, to the best of my knowledge - as supported by two British Broadcasting Company articles I read yesterday, which I will link at the bottom of my post. Actually, where are you supposed to put the sources in a blog? Anywhich way we're rolling with it.  

A few days ago The United States President Donald Trump unilaterally launched a joint bombing operation with The Israeli Defense Force targeting Iran without congressional approval, allegedly in relation to the development of nuclear weapons within the nation. Within the first 24 to 48 hours, Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khomeini was killed. The bombing continues.

Roughly a hundred children and teachers were killed in one of these strikes in southern Iran according to officials in the country.

These attacks have cascaded into full-blown international warfare in the region. Iran has launched a widespread counterstrike against US and Israeli allies with targets in Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus as well as strikes on ships passing through the straight of Hormuz. Hezbollah has also joined the fight as well, launching some of its own missles into Israel.  Hotels in Dubai were hit, which assuredly will impact the city's tourism - especially in regards to western visitors.

There has been a 10% increase in the cost of oil globally since the conflict began and those of us in The United States will likely see a larger increase in oil prices as the market adjusts.

Trump has stated that the conflict is expected to last four weeks, but only time will tell if there is any truth in that statement.  Up to this point, I've been relaying facts and now I'd like to move more into the realm of personal opinon - and I'd like to make that very transparent. 

Under no circumstance should the President of The United State have the ability to unilaterally decide to make war on another nation without a formal declaration of war issued by congress. The separation of powers as outlined in the constitution have been and must continue to be a revered component of American democracy. There must be consequences for this bloodbath - both against The Trump Administration and against The Israeli Defense Force. Nobody is above the law in the United States, Trump must be impeached and tried in a criminal court for high crimes against the United States and its constitution for these abhorrent acts of wanton violence.

6/14/26 - It's been a long four weeks.

7/3/26 - These four weeks just keep getting longer and longer, America is debating a bill to enact a corporate merger between the US Military and The Israeli Defense Force. Fuck this country and the reprehensible violence that it spews.