Still thinking, take cover

The brain has been working overtime, which doesn’t do much for being able to sleep. Even after I managed to fall asleep the brain kept running on problem solving, which lead to some strange dreams this morning. About all I remember was a kind of Escherian/Sisyphean staircase where no matter how far I climbed I kept walking through the starting line over and over again instead of the finish, solving whatever problem I was working on just gave me another one to solve. I would carry something up these stairs and the top was the bottom again.

Mrs. the Poet just walked in and demanded I explain why MEN go nuts and shoot up the place. I honestly would like to know that as well so that a means of identifying mass shooters before they start loading spare magazines with hundreds of rounds can be found. Or we can just remove the weapons used in these killings, semiautomatic rifles with removable magazines. Now how that happens given the current ideological orientation of the government? I have no idea.

Veering off onto another tangent, Mrs. the Poet and I were inspired by a commercial to discuss spicy food and somehow we got on the subject of food so spicy that the eater’s hair would spontaneously combust. The commercial was for a local chain called Whataburger who sent us a coupon for a free chorizo flavored burger. Mrs. the Poet is not a big fan of chorizo, but I am and she likes what Whataburger calls the Monterrey Melt, which fulfills the prerequisites for the free burger. I was kidding that she should get the spicy chicken, then I invented an “Ultra Spicy” chicken sandwich and then we ended up with somebody’s hair on fire. You know, just another day at the ranch.

OK I think I will be making lentil stew tomorrow, but it will be an experiment as I’m not sure of how much of anything I need to put in my slow cooker. Well, I know what it would take to feed me and Mrs. the Poet, what I don’t know is how much liquid to use or time to cook it, so I’m just going to wing it.

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I was having a nice day playing games with my friends, then I checked Twitter

The RPG group took a break from Shadowrun to play board games today. We tried a game called “Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate” which was kind of fun. I won, so of course I would think it was fun. It was one of those games that plays completely different every time you play because the game map gets randomized during play, and because things change radically with different numbers of players. I endorse this game as it was easy to learn and fun to play with lots of twists and turns.

So on my way home I pulled my phone up to check the news on Twitter. And we have another mass shooting in the US with victims from the last one still waiting autopsy (not the Vegas shooting, there have been more since then). This one was in my state. There were 25 dead when I first read about it but the body count has risen to 27 the last I looked as wounded victims succumbed to their wounds, or people decided to jack up the number of dead for whatever reason. One thing agreed upon is there were more than 50 wounded in the shooting, which translates to more than 75 total victims. And what is the common thread with these mass shootings? Semiautomatic weapons with removable magazines, that’s the only way to send hundreds of bullets downrange to a gathering of people in a few seconds, and sending hundreds of bullets downrange is the only way you’re going to get more than 50 wounded in a few seconds. Even if you assume that most of the bullets fired hit someone that still translates to at least 2 magazine changes, probably 3 or more. Update just now as I was typing that they updated the count to 27 dead and 24 survivors wounded so a total of 51 victims which means all of one magazine and most of another even if this shooter managed to hit with every trigger pull.

And this is so ugh.