Why Dawntrail Is The Biggest Time Sink Ever

Final Fantasy XIV's Dawntrail has been the biggest disappointment to me. We're almost a year end and the Main Story Questline (MSQ) just pissed me off.  The story is absolute garbage with a main character everyone despises and personally wants to be the main boss just so she can be killed and STFU.

So after the most MEH story yet written in FFXIV, I patiently waited for the patches. I leveled all of my jobs to 100 and waited for the promised new limited job, the new story, out of morbid curiosity to see if it got any better (Spoiler Alert, not until 7.25). The promised Cosmic Exploration is like The Diadem , Golden Saucer, and Skybuilder got pregnant after drunken hate fucking and had Cosmic Exploration which is an abomination of of crafting and gathering and needs 5000 hours just to get all your level 1 gear. Meanwhile we have been promised no new gear for carting or gathering with EVERYTHING  hinging on this "short bus special" area crap. It was cute. I hate everything about it.

Then we got Occult Crescent. Imagine FATEs, Bozja and Eureka birthed a retarded child then showed pictures to all of their friends asking how amazing their idiot child was, and they can't get anyone to agree.

The ONLY reason my Free Company (FC) is going in there is for the treasure chests to get cool stuff, minions and mounts. That is IT.

Creative Studio 3, Yoshi P, please hear my prayer. Get back on the ball. I forgave you for Endwalker. I may walk with this crap.

On the H1-B Visa Progam and Raising Your Kids

ON THE H1-B VISA PROGRAM

As far as twenty years ago I would never have foreseen myself writing this. It was about the time I had about six friends who worked for Disney in tech and they had all been “redundant to service” laid off and forced to train their replacements from India who spoke almost no English. Several of us in a tech forum suggested that they train them “just enough” but not teach them trouble shooting or how to really fix anything.

It’s telling that they were all working for a pittance compared to what my friends had been making for years, if not decades. I suggested they keep in mind the axiom; you get what you pay for, at the front of their minds. Disney were not hiring the best. No, they were hiring the dregs who couldn’t even work at call centers running Windows scams. Many of my friends went on to work at Social Media companies. It’s telling that most of them no longer do so. Only one remains and the site she works for is hardly used by the social media mad Millennials and Gen Z folk.

This is the hard fact all of us must accept. We coddled two entire generations into complete uselessness. There is a reason employers won’t hire anyone from an Ivy League school or is in those two generational groups. They don’t want to work.

Why? Because we as parents and teachers told them they didn’t need to, then proceeded to do everything for them. And now we sit back, mouths agape because our precious little snowflakes can’t get and keep jobs. It’s all the fault of those mean employers not seeing how delicate and gifted our darlings are, right?

I was born in the first year of GenX. I was expected to graduate high school, get out of my parents’ house, go to college, get married and have kids. If I managed to have a career, so much the better. I did as was expected and spent most of my time raising my kids uneducating them. They started school during the whole “self-esteem” bullshit. Yes, you are important, but not the MOST important to anyone outside yourself. You see, our educational system taught our children to be self-absorbed whiners and we let them. Well, you let them. I fought it every step of the way up to and including being at their schools volunteering in their library and being active in the PTA.

But our children are going to be rebellious and do the opposite of anything we tell them. My boys went into the Marines, went to war, and came back people we no longer knew. They both had problems back in society. They worked but, hard, but not in anything you would consider as anything more than a filler job. Then they both got into jobs where they were expected to learn and grow and boy, did they. They both work hard, in the same field no less, and I could not be prouder of how they take care of their families. I don’t see that as what I did, I merely gave them a good foundation to build their own lives.

Neither of my daughters went to college and they both have careers, not jobs. My eldest has a family, and a husband. I know, gasp and swoon. Her children delight me so much.  My youngest daughter, well she got married right out of high school, had kids, then abandoned it all for a party lifestyle without kids or anything that could keep her from taking off to the next exciting place people on social media are going. Three out of four ain’t bad. Statistically, I beat the odds of having great kids.

As parents, we all want to smooth the way for our kids. What we don’t realize is that we actually render them incapable of solving problems or even making their own choices. Allow me to illustrate.

When my best friend’s daughter was ready to go off to college several hours away, she had to accompany her to the orientation process. During this process, they culled the students from parents and the students were then taken to a hall where they could signed up for the freshman classes. My friend’s daughter watched as one girl, presented with making her own choices, completely broke down, unable to cope and she and her mother were escorted away from the others. Since she never saw the girl on campus during the first term, we all supposed the girl went to a community college so that mommy could go to class with her.

You think I joke. I do not. You can take your mommy to boot camp. No freakin’ lie.

My boys sat rolling their eyes as my husband explained that they had not experienced “The Real Crucible”, blah blah blah. In my husband’s day it was 72 hours of pure hell.  When my boys went through it, Hell lasted 72 hours, but some of the actions changed to be less challenging. Now it’s a 54 hours of brushing the hair on your My Little Pony while watching training films.

We always think we went through much worse than our precious little snowflakes could ever know. I’m not entirely sure how I survived not experiencing Woodstock and “free love” but I managed and have lived a successful life full of love and adventure.

I say all of that to say this; we now need H1-B visa holders more than ever, because we’ve coddled our children into puling little whiners who freak out when confronted with 8 hours a day of work and just want to be You Tube influencers.

We will bring in foreign workers, with strong work ethics, the most important thing of them all. My kids works hard, but among their peers, they are as rare as hen’s teeth. Kids today don’t want to work hard or otherwise. Foreigners who come over, knowing that staying here is based on their worthiness to their employer will be more motivated to do their jobs without whining or demanding thirty days a year of mental health days.

They were able to go to school and learn a skill whereas most millennials and GenZ, if they stuck it out past freshman year, wound up with useless liberal arts degrees that aren’t recognized by any Fortune 500 employer in this nation. I’ve been watching head hunter and employer recruiting videos, reading articles and such and without exception, every single one of them admit Millennials are as useless as teats on a boar hog and GenZ is just about the same. Entitled is their favorite descriptor of those two generations.

Why? These are the Participation Trophy and Day Care Generations. They were just given things if they were the ones screaming the loudest just to shut them up, not because they had earned or deserved it.

We only have ourselves to blame. Even though my children are the exception of their generations, I blame myself for not being more judgmental of my peers and their parenting styles. I should have spoken out more… nah, who am I kidding? No one listens to me, so I kept to myself and raised my kids and hoped they turned out right. They did, so I’m accepting it.

STOP! Stop It Now!

 

I was just watching a video on the making of the story of Helm Hammerhand. Who is Helm Hammerhand? He was one the the King of Rohan. His story is in a short appendices mention written by JRR Tolkein.

He had two sons and a daughter, who remained unnamed until some clueless bitch named her Hera (a very unrohirrim name) and made her a girl boss.

Phoebe Gittins, a creditless gimp, decided she wanted to make this barely mentioned, not at all named female, a resistance leader because of course she did. This is what you do when you have no intellect or imagination of your own and fanfic your way to mediocrity.

The daughter was the impetus for the war because Freca, the fat youth wanting her, couldn't handle her father, the King of Rohan saying no. She played no other part. SHE WAS A PLOT DEVICE.

Hollywood, please stop this. Absolutely nobody, but your self-induced stupid inhabitants believes a one hundred pound girl could take on a fully armored warrior and win. Wanna know a secret? Not even in Japan where they have ninjas are there stories like this.

Stop doing this. Stop taking the works of your intellectual betters and ruining them because you cannot create anything different, anything your own. Everything you produce is just a second-hand reproduction of what someone else has already done. You're has-beens that never were.

Knowing Your Role

 As you all know, I like to game and I love MMOs, especially. In Final Fantasy XIV, I started out as a healer... Conjurer turns into White Mage at level 30 and I've loved and hated the role so much in the years I've been playing it. I picked up Astrologian and Scholar along the road and love so much about all of my healers. I can't play Sage because frankly, my understanding of Greek and Square Enix's understanding are on alternate ends of what words mean. Frankly, I have a very low opinion of the job because you start at level 70. Every job should be learned from the floor up. 

You'd understand this if you're ever locked into a low level roulette dungeon with someone who simply can't work with what they never learned to cast. I'm relearning Astro because they are about to overturn it. While I took a break they broke the job and frankly, made it unplayable for me. I loved my Astro.

I've worked at getting all of my jobs to 90 and getting their armor and Manderville weapons since Dawntrail begins, for me, June 28th. I wanted to be ready to play as I've heard the mobs are much harder in this expansion, so... be be prepared. My crafters are all ready to make new stuff. I'm stoked.

For the past few weeks I've been complaining about people not knowing what they're doing in dungeons, not knowing how to play their class, and frankly, just not doing anything constructive and then noping out when called on their shit.

I thought it was just me until I saw several YouTubers complaining about the same thing. several had noted that they are being called into dungeons that are already in progress because the healer noped out. Myself, I've seen them just disappear after the first pull while leveling up my DPS folk. In one case, a level 70 dungeon, we went through three healers and begged the last one not to leave.

We were doing nothing out of the ordinary, just trying to get through and get our daily chores done so we could get on with whatever else in game we were doing.

At first I put it down to Square Enix having recently added their games to the XBox platform and seeing all the new sprouts and trying to talk them through how to do things and play their job and how to do dungeons in the game. Then I saw yellow flowers, people who have come back and reminding them of some recent changes they may not know about. It was easy to shrug and say, "Well, they just announced the expansion and released the trailer and benchmark, things are always a bit crazy before release."

And then today I'd had enough. I was un a dungeon, working on my Summoner, and trying to get her next Manderville relic weapon and tomestones for credendum. Need to be 650 by next Friday, ya know.

Summoners have heals, that suck, but can help heal oneself to keep you on your feet until the healer can top you off. We also have rez. We're really loved, along with Red Mages, because we can battle rez in the event the healers go down. It speaks to my healer side while I'm blasting away at a monster.

Today, in a level 90 dungeon, I had a WHM, or White mage, who demanded I heal the tank.

In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary... Come again?

They weren't healing, they weren't working their lilies, they were just DPSing (Damage Per Second for the folks who don't game), then screaming at me for not keeping everyone healed.

White Mages can earn mana free, instacast heals, single target and group when they do DPS. They have a nice huge bell that can heal the platform and do a lot of damage to a monster. They have domes they can place over the players that can heal them over time. There is no healer in any game who is going to turn their nose up at a free heal for anybody.

Was this bitch doing any of that? Fuck no. She was our Glare Bitch.

The next daily I went into the tank was complaining about the same thing. I will still playing my Summoner so we were joking around about it. But then I got to thinking and I'd heard several of other people talking about it and how bad the healers were now.

Nothing in game had changed, just the players.

I also remembered that some idiot on YouTube, don't remember his name because he was complete weaksauce and frankly, I think is a secret power bottom. Just the way he acts and talks. Either that or he's on The Spectrum. He claims to have caused a Healer Strike in game because he ran a group, sans healer in the Dawn Trail press tour and claims you no longer need healers.

Well, as a healer, who admittedly doesn't attend The Meetings, I've yet to hear anything about it.

Then I was finishing up my dailies and got thrown into the last trial of the Main Scenario before you're sent off to save the universe, not just the world, and I had two White Mages in our group and I thought, Excellent! We'll all stay full health!

After the second wipe the Main Tank stopped everything and chewed them both out after I had had to rez BOTH healers back into the game for the 3rd time. I died a lot in the encounter, with the exception of one time, because I was rezzing the healers.

the MT was majorly pissed because they weren't healing, weren't putting down their awesome Bells or putting the Asylum done over us for heals. They weren't healing at all. The only heals I had received were my own 400 pt heal for myself. I went through a ton of healing potions because they weren't healing. They didn't even know how to do a Limit Break to rez all the dead and restore everyone to full health with no rez sickness.

I just wanted to get through the encounter and get out. But, I did speak my mind. I told them as a WHM main, they made me ashamed, being too stupid to even do the free lily heals. This was me venting spleen as well as giving them both a bad rep on the servers in our data center in front of everyone there. I wanted to get out of there, put back on my WHM clothes and cry for my healer who just wants to keep everyone, not just the tank, alive. I get through if they get through. It's symbiosis at its best.

I can earn the tomestones I need on any job I can play, so I may just white mage it, even though I wanted a break from healing for a bit. My Summoner is fun and I was enjoying it until this week. I'm a back up rezzer. I can heal, but you really should not be depending on me. If you don't know that, perhaps you should be playing Reaper.

The Pussification of Two Generation of Kids

 

Recently, my daughter-in-law and I were talking about parks and playgrounds lacking... things to play on. Gone are the Merry-go-Round, the Jungle Gym, and most importantly, the Monkey Bars.

I know. You're sitting there with that is that chick insane? look on your face right now. But trust me. I gave this all of about five seconds of thought.

You can think Dave Matthews for this epiphany. I've been on a kick this weekend and was listening to his Proudest Monkey song off his Crash album. It's always been one of my favorite tracks to listen to because of the rhythm guitar and the declinations of tone and structure. If you don't know it, it's extremely relaxing... until you listen to the lyrics. Really listen to them. I'd know the chorus forever, but this time, for whatever reason I dove into the lyrics and realized what a depressing song it is. Almost as depressing as his Pay For What You Get from his Under the Table and Dreaming CD.

Anyhoodles, as I sat at my desk contemplating country vs city life, I realized that, as a society we have become so risk averse that we are actually afraid of actually enjoying or getting benefit from anything. In fact, we started with our kids first.

When my kids went to the park and on their school playgrounds, they had those three pieces of equipment, including seesaws. Think about that for a moment. 

I don't know about you guys, but some of the merriest moments in my childhood, and the childhoods of my children were on old park swings, slides and monkey bars. I can almost see why we got rid of the old metal slides. Hot as hell, but then the hot ass plastic ones aren't much better, are they?

Now, look at your average Millennial and Zoomer. Ain't no upper body strength there to threaten you is there? The fat little blubber balls can barely stand up much less lift a game controller. Am I right? I mean, they're either deathly thin from not being able to eat anything so that mommy could post about how put upon she was by the food allergies that all wound up being made up except for the nut allergies, which we can all blame on the CDCs along with COVAIDS. 

I'm sure that, as a parent, that makes you feel so much better for not allowing kids to go outside and, wait for it, just be kids.

When my kids were growing up, my house was where everyone came to play out in our backyard, climb in trees, swing, sand box, basketball goal and tons of games to play in the rec room (made out of our old garage).

We also had video game consoles and a computer. I watched over them, baked snacks and proctored their homework before they got to play. I was, in fact, parenting them because their own parents were uninterested in the job. Some were busy with big families like my own. Some were busy with both parents working to keep them in our definitely blue collar, refinery row housing development that was quickly becoming a barrio. Some were fatherless, a couple were motherless. My home was a safe place for them to hang after school. I was mean and scared the socks of any bully chasing them after school.

You know how I know it was good? My kids ALWAYS talk about that when they're all together. 

I was there for tae kwon do. Yes, I actually sent my children out to fight other children in their dojang. They played baseball, football, basketball, and still would go to play at the local park with their friends. They ran around screaming, eating snow cones and JUST BEING KIDS.

I was part of the PTA and I volunteered at their elementary schools. I did that because I didn't get to do it in the beginning, so I embraced being a stay at home mom when I got the chance. No, I didn't get it, I took the damned thing for my own.

I don't remember parents of my generation because such fucking pussies, but it's where it began. We were going to be so much better than our Boomer parents, weren't we. And we were almost there. It was the ones that came after my kids that frankly make me want to slap a bitch.

I'll tell you a story to illustrate. When my youngest daughter was playing softball in elementary school, I made cupcakes for her birthday because she had a game that evening. One of her little friends took one and her mother ripped it out of her hands and threw it at the trashcan telling her she couldn't have all that sugar.

Yeah, you know that cunt had my sights on her face. All the little girls talked about that little girl and how mean her mom was. And it wasn't just them, the other parents talked about it. I was coach that year and kept a very close on her. Her home life had to be hell is all I can, but since I never saw any signs of physical injury, there was precious little I could do. I just fucked up things in other ways. Because I'm a bitch. You can think it and know that it's a universal truth.

I noted that the elementary school my daughters went to took out their playground equipment and I no longer saw the kids outside playing. I saw it at the Intermediate schools and the Middle School... sometimes. You know you're going to see it during football season at the High School. How else can you boost your parents' egos?

These items disappeared from our local parks when they were all remodeled and updated. Because someone might fall and hurt themselves. Gods forbid you learn a lesson as a child, right?

Hardest Morning of My Life

 

I woke up at four this morning with Apollo dry heaving and having a lot of difficulty breathing. He'd been off his feed, but he was a Husky. We just had to find out what he had decided he would eat now. Right? Right?

We got Apollo nine years ago. He was adopted from our local Humane Society shelter and he was so sick He was eating like a maniac and still losing weight. After a month he was finally diagnosed with Sarcoptic Mange. However, he had heartworms and we had to treat the mange first so it was three months of smelly Sulphur baths every five days.

We got through that, he gained weight and finally began to accept his place in a new pack. At first it was him, Sam, Zeus and Schaub, my son's Beagle. He was the last of them.

I have often said that Apollo, because he was a wild dog when captured, was never going to be the typical family dog. He'd been running around a local park for nearly five years when his illness finally allowed him to be caught and ultimately treated.

He sailed through everything like a Boss, but it left him with extreme anxiety of going to the vet. I would wait for some pet thing with vaccinations offered just so I could get him his shots. We were a couple of years overdue for Rabies.

This morning I woke up to him dry heaving. His heavy breathing started last night. He was getting more anxious as his breathing got worse. We made the decision to take him to the ER vet when he wouldn't even drink water.

They were going to do an exam while we went over paperwork, but we had only had a chance to look at the paper when they called us back and said there was nothing they could do. The vet had found the mass in his chest. 

We both cried like babies. My husband said goodbye and went to settle the bill and make the cremation arrangements while I stayed with him and begged him to let to go and play with Sam, Schaub and Zeus. Run through the trees chasing rabbits ad squirrels, go be with his pack.

He was never the dog that would stay by your side, head on your knee as you sat doing anything, like Sam and Zeus had been. But, he loved us in his own neurotic way. Whenever I left the house he would become almost manic. I can't tell you how many times I'd be at the store or an appointment and have a neighbor call to tell my my mutt was running up and down the street looking for me.

I'd get home and he would be waiting by the garage door for me. whining and nosing me as we made our way inside. When he finally got too old to hop the fence and we put up coyote rollers, he would stress pee and poop everywhere to show his displeasure at being left alone with the cats. He was always happy to see us.

The fact that he preferred sleeping next to my desk or bed was a telling fact.

In the past few years he became close to my husband. He really doesn't like men, and I think that may come from having lived in a park where most males would have felt compelled to catch the beautiful white dog. To the end he had a problem with small children, not wanting them to touch him. He was never mean, but he would nip if they pulled, as if teaching one of his own pups the boundaries.

He loved us. We love him still. We love all of our boon companions. We were so lucky to get him. So lucky we got to have him in our lives.

We made the decision, years back, we would have no more animals than the ones we currently had. Back then it was Zeus, Apollo, and our three demon cats. We're not down to just the cats.

We're gathering up all of the blankets, beds, toys, dishes, etc. Everywhere we move a new blob of Apollo Hair flies up at us. We just dusted and vacuumed. You'd never be able to tell. I'll be honest, a day will come when I will miss that as well. 

It was when I was picking up the water bowls off the floor of the kitchen that it really caught me how much has now changed. No more leaning over to put something in the microwave because the dog's bowl is in the way. No more constant Swiffering of the floor because of muddy puppy feet. No more groaning because he'd peed on his bed in protest of me walking outside to get the mail.

We never realize how much we're going to miss someone we loved with all of our hearts and complained about constantly until they're no longer there. It's wrenching.

Goodbye, Apollo. You will be missed. Thank you for letting us love you.

Me Me Me Is Not Just A Warm Up

 Eric D July, on Critical Drinker's podcast recently opined that all of these screechers are basically just boring and they take over and hijack things in an attempt to get notice. Because notice is the social currency they have been conditioned to crave.

But I dug deeper. Because it's what I do. I must have been born with a shovel in my hand. Perhaps I should be more appreciative of my egg donor, but, on second thought, no.

They take over and hijack things to try to make you accept them.

They have no interest in comic books or gaming. They have no ability to accept good story telling. Name one Marxist who could tell a good story. I'll wait.

For me, my notice of this was brought forth in gaming. This was in the years I wasn't even gaming at all. I'd stopped playing WoW and my poor Steam account was begging me to play Borderlands2. "Come on, Sev. Doncha wanna see and hear Claptrap again?" God help me, I did, but I was too busy writing books.

Then, while I was cruising around the Breitbart News site, I happened upon an article by Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulis. It was about gaming journos accepting sexual and monetary favors for good reviews for video games. No lie. Just ask Zoey Quinn about it. In between murdering men she lures into her honey trap. She was sleeping with no less than seven men, plus her own boyfriend, for good reviews for her crappy depression game.

Then in steps Anita Sarkesian and she's all about the grift. She has spent the past ten years trying to reclaim her fifteen minutes to try to get more money out of an industry that never needed or wanted her in it. She doesn't even game! But, she needed to crowd fund tens of thousands of dollars for a Discord server. Let that sink in for a moment. I have a Discord server. People I game with have Discord servers. Teenagers have Discord Servers. It ain't hard or expensive, Anita. Shoulda looked that one up, Cupcake.

Neither one of those chicks are gamers. They wanted to invade an industry to make people they wanted to like them accept them into their group. That didn't happen. They were exposed for the lying harpies they are.

Take the movie industry. They flocked to Disney and Netflix and have ruined them in their made desire to be loved and accepted by people who are actually repulsed by them. No sane person, in the whole history or man, thinks Cleopatra was black. Why? Because we were taught history by people who didn't use Howard Zinn history books.

Millennials have a self-destructive need for altruism, which is possibly the most selfish thing I've ever seen. Most importantly, they do it against their own self-interest. Because they've been taught they should be martyrs. No, that they MUST be martyrs on the altar of Wokism. 

Gen Z are different, and yet not. They appear to be able to peek behind the curtain and see the crap for what it is, but still want to fit in among their peers. I have hope for Gen Z and hold none for Millennials.

For decades, as I watched my kids and their cohort grow up, I said we would have to throw away, almost completely, one generation. I wasn't sure until 2008 it would be Millennials, but then it became horribly obvious it would be. I'm still watching Gen Z.

They have been taught, through the "Self-Esteem" syllabus, that they are greatest, the bestest EVAR because... Just because. They didn't have to do anything to earn it and then they started handing out Participation Trophies because they were able to show up.

When they began growing into their little minds they expected everything to be like Little League. They expected straight As for merely showing up at school. No effort needed, you're breathing, brother, here's your accolades. Doubt me? How many schools around you have graduation ceremonies from Kindergarten or have eliminated valedictorians?

They went to college being told and believing that mere attendance would get them a degree. Knowledge? Just parrot back what Marxist teacher says and you'll get there. They were hired into jobs by Marxist psych majors who needed to pay off college loans to come in and parrot Marxist ideologies and work to tear down the systems that paid their way. They didn't have to actually work, they just needed to make sure their inserted their crap politics into everything and they would be loved and lauded throughout the world.

Then the venture capital ran out. Suddenly, the journos and influencers were no longer protected from scrutiny and lo and behold the babies began to cry. This wasn't how it was supposed to be! They had been told that if they towed the party line (my use is more accurate than the usual use of the word toed in this instance) they would be loved by all, accepted by all no matter how they debased themselves publicly. No amount of cope will get your original reproductive organs or sex organs back. Hasta la vista sexual pleasure.

Whack off and carve out your genitals. Do it in full public view! You don't need a psych eval to see if you truly need it, this is all for The Cause. The Cause is never fully understood, but asking for an explanation gets you kicked off the plantation and no one wants that, right?

Self-Immolate for The Cause. Accept utter and complete degradation of your body and your mind for The Cause.

You'll be famous.

Celestial Sisters Gifts AKA My New Mothership

 

This morning I made my way into Celestial Sisters Gifts and I was delighted. Our helpful clerk was Adam and he was helpful and very informed. I was impressed.

I don't make my way through our town down the main drag anymore. Traffic is too much and full of stupid drivers who think the middle turning lane is their own personal lane of transport.

I wanted to go in mainly to get white sage smudge sticks for the house... it IS spring. But... you know me... I wanted to see what stones they had. My love of mystic crystals in a joke in the family, but I have them squirreled away everywhere in my house. I'm horribly bad about charging them when they are depleted. I'm making a concerted effort to do better this year and it's somewhat of a success.

They had everything for someone interested in the mystic arts could possibly want. I was impressed by their assortment of rune stones and tarot cards, as well as their books. You could work up from avid beginner to jaded expert with their books.

They had a really good stock of components you would need for any tincture or decoction you might want to make. They had mortars and pestles, incense, and candles. They had vials and bottles for potions, well, tinctures and decoctions... potions is such an antiquated but cherished word.

Adam was opening as we drove up minutes before 10, when they open, and welcomed us in. He made some tea for my husband who has the man flu (allergies). He doesn't really get all of this, but he's interested and indulges me.

They have so much in the shop and they do readings, although I didn't check into how they book those, but I will put the address and a link to their FB page so all of you can look and see.

Yes, I bought a huge coffee mug. I was compelled.

If you're in the area, go in and take a look. Buy a jasper or amethyst.

Celestial Sisters Gifts

102 Jim Dr. 

Hewitt, TX 76643

(254) 300-4051

Evolution of Writing

 

This morning, while I was tidying up my desk in preparation of getting to work on the body of my new manuscript, I opened a drawer and found two reams of printer paper, and two toner cartridges for my laser printer that sits on a shelf, languishing with disuse.

You see, in the past, from the very beginning of my writing, I would print out each draft, mark it up with a red pen, then sit back at my desk and make corrections. It was a very long process and uncomfortable. I stopped printing things out year before last. My editors, the intrepid and eagle-eyed Stephanie and Mariko, now get digital copies where they can mark things up in the file and send back to me and I quickly make changed by reading the notes and not the whole thing all over again.

By the time my book is thrown up on the shelves of e-book retailers everywhere, I've read my book about 5-6 times all the way through. I know loads of people who don't read books twice. 

It made me stop and think about how greatly my process has changed across the board when it comes to writing and all of the collateral issues.

I have a file on a terabyte archive drive that holds nothing but story ideas. I back it up weekly. I am buying still another to store things like pictures, videos and such. I don't hoard files, but I do have a ton of programs cluttering up crap on my main operating drive. 

Last year I put out exactly one book, and it was one I'd been working on the previous year and was more or less ready to go. It was the last of my Paladin stories for a while. 

And then for a year there was nothing. I was busy being bored, playing PC games and then last fall I became ill and required surgery. Things looked really well for about two weeks and then the rug was pulled out from under me and things got worse. I got a virus and secondary bacterial infection that was not treated properly and made things ever worse.

Really worse.

One afternoon, while watching two of my grandchildren, I woke up on the floor of my kitchen with no idea how I got there. The kids, thank God, were blissfully unaware. I couldn't get up to open the garage door or the front door. I called my daughter-in-law, who works for the local constabulary, and evidently asked her to come get the kids, telling her to open to garage door with the opener in my husband's truck.

I woke up, again, on my couch with a mask over my face and people barking questions at me. My daughter-in-law thought my blood sugar had gone low. Nobody was listening to me explain. Finally, a woman EMT came in and calmly asked me questions and I told her of my problems. They tried to sit me up and again, I was passing out. Someone got my sensor reader for my glucose monitor (my cybernetic implant) and discovered, yes, her blood sugar is perfect. Let's roll!

The first thing they did, before I even got into a room was take my blood and very quickly they discovered what I'd been telling them, I'm bleeding out, you idiots. As you can probably tell, I do not have a good opinion of the medical personnel in my area. Coming from the Houston Medical Center as I do, my small town medical professionals are seen as splinters from the bottom of the barrel. 

I received two units of blood, told to take iron and another medication. I had surgery scheduled for two weeks down the road, I should be fine! Wrong. My surgeon won't touch me until my blood volume is my own and richly fortified with iron bonded to my hemoglobin. I will have it in the summer when I can easily take the time to recover with no lifting children and constantly scooping up toys to be put back into place.

During the time immediately following that, I quit playing games as I just could not sit at my desk long enough to log in much less play at all. I lay in my bed and chatting with friend in texts and discord. With everything on my PC in my office, I was watching TV and re-reading books and discovering new ones.

I began ideating. I began making notes and then outlines and re-reading the books that mattered in my Shifter series and I decided to end a story arc that started at the very first Cat Shifter book. I managed to get two outlines for the last two books in the arc, the beginnings of a new series are, and then an idea to close out an open plot from before. I made sure I made notes on everything. My poor oxygen starved brain was working overtime.

It was hard to bring together a plot line that spanned eleven books. I was entering into Nalini Singh territory and it was terrifying. I love her books, and plot and series arcs. 

I had started the last book in the arc, and then got hit with the idea for another one. I quickly wrote that one in like a week. While that one was with Stephanie and Mariko, I was finishing up the last in the arc, which I fully fleshed out while editing the previous book.

It was murder to write because it was an end, and secondly, it not a happy ending. We like happy endings, we accept happy for now endings. This one ends on a happy note, but it's clouded by the reality that Pran was correct, it was Zero Sum (title of the first book in the Shifter series) because no matter what choice he made everyone would lose by his decision, there were no winners. So, after stopping and starting and taking forever to write the last chapter, I took a tone of slim hope. I think we all needed it. 

I'm happy to be now doing all of the editing on my tablet. No more printing forever, putting it in a binder and then sitting there marking things up, no more sitting at my desk for house rewriting and fixing run on sentences. Now, I can easily sit in my recliner and not be sore and have swollen legs from sitting far too long.

I'm feeling so much better than I did just a month ago. I still tire very quickly, but everyday I'm making strides. I feel like that is our purpose. We strive, we get through, we carry on, we improve.

I hope you all think that I have improved since the first Demonworld book (please God, yes) those books were horrible. I leave them up as a lesson to myself. I've learned so much since then. 

Most of all, thanks to everyone who buys and reads my books. You don't have to, but you do and it really makes me strive to be better, to write books worthy of your money. You could easily spend it elsewhere, but you chose to grab one of my books. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Here We Go Again aka WHY?

 

So, Patch 6.3 came out this week. I jumped in with both feet, so excited to see where the story is going now that SPOILER ALERT we're done with the Ascians.

I was happily gamboling about Garlemald and the brakes were stamped upon by Yoshi P once again MAKING ME PLAY A CLASS I DONT WANT TO PLAY AT ALL by making me play as Zero, the new Mystery Box in the game.

Yeah, I would like to get to know her and braid her hair and talk about boys during a slumber party with Y'shtola and everything, but, and I have to stress this, I HAVE NO DESIRE WHATSOEVER to play a Reaper. Ever. Period. Full stop.

The only semi-melee characters I play are ranged and built on the same platform, DNC and MCH. I love Dancer and Machinist so much. I know the lore of the Reaper and yeah, it's rich but... I don't want to play one. Same as I have no desire to play Blue Mage or Red Mage for that matter. I don't want to play Summoner or Sage either.

Koji, tell Yoshi P, PLEEZE, some of us have no desire to do the up close kill. I don't like to be a tank, so I don't play one. I'm not the one to lead a dungeon or poke a monster in the ass like a Dragoon. <Insert JoCat ESTINIEN! scream here>

So, once again, I am stuck in the Main Scenario quests and cannot progress because Yoshi P is forcing me to play a Job I don't like, don't want to play and don't care enough about to learn to even get through the freakin instance.

DON'T KNOW. DON'T CARE.

Please, Koji, tell him to stop this shit.

Please, dear God, for the love of Science, just stop.

Congratulations Final Fantasy XIV! Be Very Proud

 

Last night in some game award thing (totally don't do award shows) Final Fantasy XIV won the Best Community award. Watch this video to see Yoshi's acceptance. 

Kudos. They deserve it. I've held, since my first hour in Eorzea, that the game had the nicest people playing any game I'd ever witnessed. Most players (because there's always some motherfucker trying to ice skate uphill according to Blade) have been very helpful, even at the top levels.

You know my complaints about their job/role system. To me, they are still seriously wrong, but, I have hopes that someday soon, Sages will have to start at level one and really learn how to heal.

Yoshi appears to be a very humble man who lives in his head. A lot. If you're familiar with any sort of non-verbal communication you can spot it a mile away just by looking at his eyes while he talks. 

FFXIV is the ONLY game I've witnessed that has regular info dumps for their players, and they also EXPLAIN why they do certain things. They know that face rolling retards aren't the only ones playing. Yes, Wizards of EQ, we could have used that back in the day.

Their Lodestone site has a wealth of information and they really do encourage you to explore their world by pointing in the general direction and pointing out that you only really know information if you find it yourself. You can be told, but you never really know that you know it. I really like that, despite my current grumbling about crafting.

I've run into so many people who just started their Eorzean adventure who want to be led by the hand through the game. The better to blame your decisions on the influence on someone else that is so popular in today's society. 

By design, the game forces you to do things on your own (job quests) and in others they force you to play with others (duties). There is something for everyone. You can have the best gear and still be a casual player. You can be the top Machinist in top tier raiding content and still look like you need a hair cut and a sandwich. It runs the gamut.

I am incredibly lucky in that, in the Free Company (guild) I belong to, we have several Mentors. Asra and Valtiel especially are two of the most helpful people I've run into in the game. They will stop what they are doing to help you through a problem (and get you killed when they drag you to a zone 40 levels above your own) then listen to you bitch, whine and moan when you just aren't seeing what they see. They are climbing the Savage Ladder and they will still help anyone who asks.

I like the mentor system in the game, even though a few assholes slip through because they want that crown and sword like a journalist with their Twatter blue check, but they've been few and far between.

Congrats to everyone on the FFSIV team! You all have created something quite special in this universe.

Yikes!

 

Yesterday I was leveling my MCH in FFXIV and did my last Roulette, an Alliance Raid. The RNG (which ain't so random or I wouldn't be in Dead Ends for all of my 90s every single day) chose The Dark World. It's a fun raid and to me, at least, very easy.

I was disastrously wrong, but it helped me to tease out my ponderings on the problem with FFXIV and trust me, that ain't no typo. The game is nearly perfect with the exception of nobody knowing their goddamn role in the game.

The biggest problem with MMO gamers is that they want to solo everything. People don't play MMOs to play with other people. Have you BEEN in an XBox lobby? They play to get uber shit and then show it off while standing around whatever socialization place is currently the rage in that game to have everyone oooh and aaaah over them. THAT is why they play. Or to be the top of some idiot list some moron posted trying to make themselves look like god while they touch themselves. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you.

In an FFXIV Alliance Raid, you have three groups of eight people, One tank, two healers, and five DPS. Last night, I was DPS. We had two white mages as our healers. OMFG, with a warrior tank it was like hitting the trifecta at the track, amiright? 

And then we began. It quickly became very apparent that, with the exception of the tank and myself, nobody knew WTF they were doing and weren't reading group or raid chat to find out. We had two white mages to heal our eight man party but they were too busy using their one damage spell (sorry fuckers, Aero ain't doing shit) that they let the tank and then three DPS died, then they both died. I just kept shooting at shit.

The raid leader stopped everything and chewed our healers out. They never said a word, but they were healing after that. Know your fucking role moron. You're a healer so heal. You wanna blast shit, then suffer through being a thaumaturge, bleed MP out of your eyes for no return, then become a black mage. Get your shit outta my way.

At level sixty, you should not have to be told what your role in a group is. Ever. If you do it proves you're the type of fucking retard who hangs around the Limsa aetheryte in some stupid glamor praying for the ooohs and aaaahs to validate your pathetic existence. God you're stupid.

I know a mentor in the game. Cool. collected, and knows their shit. When grouped, I tend to follow them so I know where to stand. They're mentors for a reason. They play every class, have been in all of the dungeons and raids and they are ready to help anyone who asks for it. I love them. (No, they don't have pronouns to the best of my knowledge, I am using language as it is intended to be used because I know language. Go dye your hair blue.)

Anyhoodles, and I'm sure you're not getting that I'm still mad about this, but I am. Ask yourself why I would be mad. It's a game, man. Shake it off.

I play games to clear my mind, work through problems and ideas for my writing. Discord helps me a lot. You folks in discord have no idea how you've helped. Especially you, El. Little idea generators.

I am not a mentor for a reason... several reasons. I don't like to tank, and I don't like holding hands. I won't kiss either. This is not a relationship.

If you are level sixty in a game with ninety levels and you don't know WTF you're supposed to be doing with your toon in a raid or dungeon, then dude, it's a you problem. 

Yesterday, before the stupid raid thing, I had a roulette (daily in every other game) in Stone Vigil Hard, which I am not getting every single freakin' day for some reason, along with Dead Ends. The tank, a Dark Knight, is watching the cut scene before entering the dungeon and so I know, "new Tank". My husband was doing this with his own DK for a couple of weeks, leveling them up. Then I notice the WHM who is our healer (four man dungeon) is also watching the cut scene and my stomach drops, but I'm hopeful they know their fucking role by level fifty. God I was wrong.

The tank was careful and shy, you could tell they were brand spanking new. No confidence at all. The healer kept running ahead, agroing everything and getting killed. Fuck, we couldn't get the tank to approach the mobs, but the healer was willing to kill us all.

The other DPS dropped out after the second wipe on our way to the first boss. We got a new one, so I started giving out hints as to what we should do. Until we got to the first boss and it was clear I was going to have to give instructions. I was kind, you know, the instructions any impatient tank is going to give when it's obvious they're the only one who knows Midgardsomr. What to do at what stage, where to stand and for the love of GAWD, keep the GD tank healed.

It worked and we got out. I didn't get one single commendation, but I gave one to the tank because they'd done it with someone else leading them (which is totally not the job of the DPS, trust me on this). I have to thank my mentor pal, because I used their gentle nudges in the right direction tactic to help us get through. Encouraged the tank to take smaller groupings, bullied the healer into actually healing, and blasting groups of mobs with machine gun tactics. I think the other DPS we picked up was a Dragoon. God, I love dragoons. As Corvwen says, "Just stand behind it and poke it in the ass". 

Her Titan Carbuncle stands in my face while I'm shooting and I'm shooting IT in the ass. Stupid giant pets.

So, here is my challenge to you, Gentle Reader, get out there and play. Research your job/class. Know the role you fill in any grouping and play that. Learn when you can color outside the lines and when you can't. As a healer, I'm always overjoyed to get a Warrior or Gunbreaker. It means I will get to cast (usually an AOE) and do a little damage to get us through quicker, but also to exercise those fingers pressing one and two on my keyboard instead of trying to remember which bar is CTRL and which is ALT. I kid. I always know. Except for that one time I hit Peleton instead of Devilment. Complete accident anybody could have made. It was the Fifth Circle and you appreciated it, so STFU. You made it to your cube in time.

Have fun with the game. I know! What freakin' idiot would do that. Having fun playing a game? Madness. But fun isn't fun when it's at the expense, literally, of someone else.

The past few weekends a few of us have gotten together and done Mount Runs. We make sure everyone in the party has the mount before we move one. I think one day it took nearly all day as the mount just was not dropping, but we had fun doing it... together. Since we were doing it unsynched for the low level stuff, we could plow through pretty quickly and... try out things that were unsafe regularly. It was fun and educational and we all got new mounts. Thanks Ymir. Love ya, but I won't cuddle. Lines I will not cross.

Go play!

Playing the Game and Respecting Other Classes/Jobs

 

As anyone in my FFXIV Free Company can tell you, I don't like being told how to play my toon. You don't pay my sub is a saying because it's true.

I've been playing my WHM since day one when I created my Conjurer. Conjurer turns into White Mage (WHM) at level 30. That's my job. I've spent the most time on her, done all of the MSQ through 6.1 with her (the rest was on my DNC because of her gear score). I play two classes of healer, White Mage and Astrologian.

As you can probably guess, I love healing. I've done it through many games. I dual boxed a caster and healer in EQ and WoW, Severine Wolfe and Stumpy Jeaux, and Severine and Muirneen, respectively. Not only am I damned good healer, I play a caster at the same damned time.

So, forgive me, if even eight months into the game, I don't particularly like a stupid, mitigationless tank telling me how to keep your sorry wall to wall pulling ass healed, complaining I'm spamming Medica II and never using Benediction.

WTF retard? Benediction is on a 180s timer on my GCD and I used it twice before you got us all killed.

I'm sure if I had concentrated solely on healing you, chewing through my very considerable mana pool, you would have bitched I wasn't doing any DPS.

Both of my healers are well geared and still working on it, trying to hit 600 and they are close. I stick piety on everything I can so I can regen mana faster as well as heal better. Compare and contrast.

White Mage Severine

Her base piety is 1296, and not all materia slots are filled yet. Just got new gear and haven't taken the time to get that sorted. I only use Piety and Quicktongue... more mana faster and faster spell execution. The sign of a competent healer.

My magic potency is 2440 as is my Healing Magic Potency. I really need to work on that. I'd like for it to be better. Which is why I'm grinding dungeons for better gear. Aglaia was kind to my Dancer. So I'm at one piece a week in Abyssos now.

Compare and Contrast Astrologian Severine

Because she doesn't have the WHM pants, and she seriously needs to update materia, her Piety is 1061 but look at her Attack and and Healing Magic Potency. Not far below the much better geared WHM at 2417. She heals far better in Full Parties and Raids than does her WHM better.  I rarely have to hit Lucid Dreaming with her unless I've had to be rezzed back.

Both of my healers regen MP like crazy and I love them for it. It's rare I have to pop a potion.

I will honestly say, while FFXIV is one the best communities I've yet seen in an MMO, it has it's share of assholes. They're always tanks, entitled and have never sullied their hands with any class other than tank. Hulk Smash, and it doesn't matter which sex they are. I've experienced it with both, mangina and shenis.

They don't know how to heal, never actually even tried it, just see the name of the spell floating down their screen telling them they are being healed. They have no idea that it's not the off tank or the DPS that are just under their name when/if they died or forget to keep agro. No, the healer's name is second on the list always. Hell, until the last patch, 6.2, we got agro for casting a heal over time (HOT) regen to help while they got control.

I have to say, I have been incredibly spoiled by the tanks in my Free Company (FC). Our leader and top tank are on the top tiers of Warriors in the game. I love them. They are teaching me where to put myself. Basically, unless it's a tank buster, I am joined at their hip to get through mechanics. Even for a tank buster, I'm close by and ready with a Benediction or Essential Dignity and whatever else everyone else needs.

On my WHM I get manafree heals and group heals. I also get the awesome Temperence which comes with an awesome graphic. White, electric wings? Sing me up! Plus, Liturgy of the Bell, our Lily System thing that supposed to do something I never see actually happen. 

On my AST, I get all sorts of group and raid heals, and Earthly Star... when it wants to work, independent of which ever card I draw or when I draw... It's not based on what I've cast for however long to build up lilies like the WHM and Earthly Star is now on a 60s timer. So is the awesome Collective Unconscious... best HOT dome in the game IMHO. Ever better than the WHM Asylum, with a smaller radius.

Get under my dome or you will remain unhealed!

I didn't even try to tell the gormless twit Dark Knight trying to tell me what I should be casting and when. I don't know his class, and fully willing to admit it outright. So I merely recommended we do smaller pulls at this juncture in a particular dungeon since he obviously didn't understand the small bit of mitigation he had pulling ten or twelve very heavy hitting MOBs. Then my partner from my FC agreed and said we were in no hurry.

We were summarily kicked from the instance by the pouty, angry toddler playing way above his understanding of the game. The real kicker? The dude is a MENTOR.

Drink that in.

If I'm having a hard time healing in a dungeon, my FC tanks will either slow down or ask me what the problem is. They want to get through it without a heavy repair bill just like anyone else. I've never felt the need to give them a verbal atomic wedgie or force me to call them an idiot when they don't get a clue from my initial suggestion. We talk it out, laugh and move along.

I know that there are times Kyrian has probably been screaming at his screen... "WHY ARE YOU PLANTED?" Because I'm yelling it at myself. My husband, on the other end of the house is yelling it at me. But, he's always suggested what I should do, shown me how to do it. I'm slow, but I am improving. 

Also, FFXIV is the first MMO where I've healed where I'm also expected to do damage while the shit for brains tank is over-pulling.  My husband is just learning to tank. He announces he's a new tank in every instance and he goes slowly, and methodically, because unlike me, he doesn't do a ton of roulettes or help a lot of others out when he's on call because he can't commit the time. Recently, he's opened up a ton more dungeons on all levels and he's learning on his Ninja, trying to get through the MSQ. When I can. I heal for him. Everyone in our FC is great about grouping up to help people trying to get through content and most importantly, to teach.

Our FC co-leader, Mei, plays a WHM and AST and I pick her brain whenever I get the chance. She's a busy woman, so I try to keep from bugging her. We're both trying to gear up for what's coming in 6.3. She has been great in answering my questions about drawing cards and getting god damned Blood Lily to bloom so I can set down my Liturgy of the Bell.

If I don't know, I ask. If what I've been doing has been working, I presume that IT'S WORKING WELL.

I don't tell my husband how to play his Dark Knight, his Gunbreaker or his Paladin. He just tells me to move in a dungeon. He has tried to play casters and just doesn't like it. We all have our druthers, don't we? I don't tell any DPS class how to play it. I may wonder something, but I ask them later or a person in my FC who plays that class what was going on, so I understand it better.

I also love how people will tell my DNC who to dance with. If I know one of the DPS I'll dance with them... if I don't I flip a coin in a full group or raid. In a light party, I don't have too much of a choice. With that said, I have been asked, in some RAIDS, by a tank, to dance with them.

Dancing with another person in your group doesn't mean you're waltzing around the platform. No, it links my buffs and heals with them so they can do a little more, and it boosts me as well. Devilment and Tilana are so very nice with a partner. The Batman Bandaid of Curing Waltz... sometimes it gets you through.

I've yet to have anyone tell me which of my weaponskills I should use, when or how. Ever. I've merely been asked to partner with someone and I was good with it. It's why I fled to my DNC for 6.2 because I was tired of having people who had no idea how to heal tell me HOW TO HEAL. 

Do I tell you which weapon to use? I may suggest tank stance (only one time and I just called out to my husband) or when to provoke, do I? Even when I'm getting gnawed on because I cast regen? No. I don't play a tank. I don't know what you have, what you can do and frankly, I'm too busy paying attention to health bars to see which skills you're using or how much damage you're doing. I sure as hell notice when you're using your mitigation skills.

If you are a learning tank, I have no problem with you taking it slow. I don't go into a dungeon unless I have the time. And here is the thing, I'm learning the dungeon and mechanics right along with you. Suddenly, I'm looking at it from new eyes and learning new things. 

Imagine that.

Don't Bitch If You're the Problem

Final Fantasy XIV is not the first MMO to try to balance groups and such. They are just the first ones who made it a condition of doing what you need to do and learn to work with other classes. It's one of the best ideas I've yet seen in the instancing system in any game. That's when everyone is level and gear synched, making all things equal. You can do them unsynched, but you don't get the kudos and goodies that you do when you play by Square Enix's rules.

Surprisingly, I have no problem with that on any level.

Typically, you're going to be in a four man "Light Party". You have a tank (damage dealer, damage taker), a healer (keeps the tank and everyone else alive), and two DPS (damager per second). They are the ones who keep up a steady input of damage on the MOB (mobile object) or MOBs without taking agro away from the tank and hopefully not requiring a ton of attention from the healer in a big fight. Tank and healer are always the top two on the MOB Hate list. Tank because they're hitting the monster and Healer because they're keeping the Tank alive. DPS are supposed to slip and slide in and out of that list to keep things equal.

Here's the thing and I noticed this right out of the bucket when I was of a level to do instances, or Duties. Being a healer, I never waited for a group. If my husband was on his ninja or whatever they are called at low levels, we got in almost before we hit the join button. DPS screams about waiting for duties, but here's something that tells me they don't play tanks or healers, most of the times we're held up because DPS don't check in and join the Duty and you have to cycle in and out until you can get a full group together. Without fail, it's DPS holding up the whole train.

They bitch about wait times. Then they don't bother to join up when we have enough DPS to get things going.

In a Full Party it's One Tank, Two Healers, and four DPS. In a Raid it's two Tanks, two Healers and four DPS. In an Alliance Raid it's three Full parties and you're designated by the letter of your group, A, B, or C.

You will spend more time waiting for picky DPS to join up than you will finding a Tank or Healer.

But they bitch and whine. They bitch and whine when it's their fault.

I have one high level DPS at this moment. I may level up another if I find a fun class. My Dancer is awesome and in a Full Party the other night, I out damaged the tank AND out healed the healers. Because I was dancing with the tank and it was beautiful. I've had to wait for duties with her, but not for very long. I have more fun with my dancer than I ever have with my two healers.

My husband plays a Ninja and he has fun with it. We both have Red Mages, but at this point in the game, we're just trying to get through the Main Scenario Quests so we can relax into the game and just worry about working up to Savage and Bat Shit Insane Dungeons.

I can't tell you how many times I've sat around just cycling through players as we try to get enough DPS to fucking check in. It's ALWAYS DPS. The slot that fills up fastest? Healers. Always.

So, if you're playing FFXIV, please just pay attention.

The Myth That Women WANT to Work Outside the Home

 

I wrote an article this past winter about Traditional Wives. That one heralds the emotions behind our decision for me to stay home. This post is about the political reasons. 

Because I'm a bitch. I've yet to be called a cunt by anyone whose opinion is give a damn about, so take that into account as you read.

In the 70s, Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan marched about shouting for women's freedom from the drudgery of being a housewife. Millions of women went into the workforce and politicians in state and federal legislatures fapped to all of the new tax dollars they could spend. They fapped hard and often. It was orgasmic to them. Trust me on this. there is a reason they deride traditional women. Less tax dollars means less money to give to people for votes or use of the US dollar.

In the mid-80s, when I began spawning demons, there was a great myth of the Super Mom, who could work 60 hours a week and still take care of her home, children and husband. She put her kids in the middle, and then whined about having to take time to get them to doctor's appointments, sick days, and stuff like that. They complained about taking care of their kids.

As a result, most marriages failed utterly and completely because she was so busy taking care of her, she forgot her helpmate, her husband. Don't even begin to try to tell me that I'm wrong about this. I lived it. I watched marriages break apart left and right and my own did as well. They all had different reasons, and no one had clean hands completely, but it showed a trend that continued until now.

Every single woman I've worked with, even the degreed professionals, have decried their ability earn their income and still take care of the kids and watch them grow. Day Care and babysitters were doing that. As a result we wound up with Millennials and Gen Z. It's what has been called, in the psychological world as the Day Care Syndrome. They would have to cry and scream for attention from uncaring "care takers" and figured this was the way in life. Parents felt guilty for leaving their children to be raised by perfect strangers they didn't discipline them and voila! Antifa and BLM retards.

They were taught in government indoctrination centers, AKA public schools, that only white people were bad, white men in particular, and therefore your worth in society was based on a stock of oppression and victimhood. It's why everyone is a victim. They believe being a victim gives them virtue.

No. It just makes you a pathetic victim. I've had a ton of shit happen to me. I am no one's victim. Have I been victimized? Yeah. Is that the ONLY thing about me that is any good? No. I've overcome that shit and forgotten most of it. Why? Because I've got a life to live and it's way too short to think about that shit all fucking day long.

There are two women, in particular, who come to mind when I think about professional women. They are both doctors that I've worked for. They both had nannies, were divorced, remarried and knew, to the moment, what their kids were doing. The Nanny or au pair were doing all the work, but they were proud they knew their schedules. They really had no idea whatsoever, what their kids were truly doing. Anyone who talked to the care takers knew. I cannot imagine missing my child's crawling, first solid foods, first steps. I can, really, because I have with all but my last child. It's why I care for my grandkids. I heard horror stories from my kids about babysitters and day care centers.

Politicians want women to work so they can collect the income taxes to give to their cronies. When you do the math, and I've done it over and over, when you take in all of the costs of working, against what you bring home in salary, you really CAN'T afford to work.

When we began saving up and working on our credit score to buy a house, we retrenched like a freakin' starving lordling in Regency London. They kids still laugh about constantly eating Hamburger Helper and Top Ramen. When we had all four at home I was working. When the boys went off to the Marines, I went back to work. We budgeted and lived on our household budget spreadsheet. We tracked bills, always looking for ways to cut back on utilities. We rented a house, and the thought of owing money to a bank for our mortgage froze me in my tracks. I'm too Scottish for that shit.

My husband took all of this on. He just showed me houses and it took two years for us to agree on one. We bought one across the street from his parents' house. He was not thrilled, I was. I loved his parents. He did all of the money stuff and I bought insurance. Yeah, big help there. Because on the day before signing, the insurance agent tried to double the premium. My husband called me at work. I called our own insurance company about homeowners and we got a better deal, because we already had car insurance with them. This was before the huge bundling push. We got even better rates then. We use the quarterly offers we get in the mail to go over our premium price.

I went to the signing and signed where I needed to and we were officially home owners. You know what's funny? Even though we were paying more than we had in rent, we had more money than ever before. More disposable income to fix things in a house that had sat empty for years while the owners dithered on selling it.

We based the payment of the mortgage each month on my salary alone. I was making good money. Even when I changed jobs working less hours for less money, and still got tons of overtime and commissions, we had no problem. It was a horrible place to work. After our youngest got married and moved out, I quit and began writing books that were trapped in my head. We were still able to afford everything we wanted and needed. Even with less income. 

How? Our taxes went down considerably without my income. I wasn't driving as often. No clothes going to the cleaners, no eating out for lunch. So many things stack up when you work outside your home. You have to buy work clothes, they have to be laundered, cleaned, whatever. Time is your most precious commodity, and you never, ever have any.

My laundry stays caught up. I rarely have more than four loads a week, and usually just three. My grocery bill is high right now and our gas costs are low, thank God, because we rarely drive to do more than go to the grocery store. We still budget like we're flat broke, but we are making it. Even though we're stuck with eating lots of chicken as the price of beef is astronomical. I wanted to get two pounds of ground beef to make Nasi Goreng and the cost was more than buying a steak. No lie.

If women pulled out of the workforce, if they chose to, yes, your family would have to retrench. It's not a dirty word. You'll have to eat things that are not top shelf, stop eating out so much, and stay at home more often. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Hollywood fan shaming, our entertainment budget is limited to a Prime Membership and two Final Fantasy XIV account. No other streaming because we don't watch TV and there is nothing out there I even look forward to seeing. I might think about a Daily Wire membership because they are making good movies.

You CAN do it, you just don't want to. You want to stay home and not pay a price for it. You pay, but in the end, your reward is beyond description. Trust me, when you have grandkids, you see and so do your kids.