ROLEY

Author: Kris Roley

  • Thursday, September 7th, 2023

    I would like to take the word ‘normal’ and throw it into the sun.

    Maybe it’s not so much the word as the concept when it comes to people.

    Maybe it’s not so much the word as the person or people who decide what normal is.

    Listen. Forget the old cliches. Normal isn’t safe, it isn’t boring.

    Normal is like the limit. It does not exist.

    There are people in this world who want you to believe it does because if something isn’t normal, you make it the Other. You can be against it. You can hate it.

    If normal doesn’t exist, then it’s just us. Humans Being.

    I would like to take the word ‘normal’ and throw it into the sun.

  • Wednesday, September 6th, 2023

    No one gives a fuck about you until you step out of line.

    They don’t give a fuck about you then either, they just want to see you in trouble for stepping out of line

    So, if they didn’t give a fuck about you then, and they don’t give a fuck about you now, why should you give a fuck at all?

  • I-64 Trip Norfolk to WIlliamsburg and Back

    A Labor Day trip up to Williamsburg, because apparently a proper celebration of Labor Day involves an outlet mall.

    Hey, I don’t make the rules.

  • Tuesday, September 5th, 2023

    Listen.

    You don’t have to have an opinion about everything.

    You don’t have to go along to get along.

    You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.

    All you have to do is figure out who you are.

    All you have to do is figure out what you do.

    All you have to do is not be a dick.

    Do that.

  • Monday. September 4th, 2023

    Labor Day isn’t *actually* the end of Summer, but it feels like it is. It’s one of those markers on the calendar that seems like the end of something and the beginning of another. Here in Virginia Beach, the Tuesday after Labor Day was the first day of the school year when I was a kid, I guess that’s why it feels that way to me.

    It always felt like a good time to reset or reinvent. It still does, especially after the last few years.

    Pardon me…

  • In Praise of the Bad Guys

    In 1979, I was nine years old, and I had this goal to stay up past the 11 o/clock news, past Saturday Night Live, and watch the local horror movie, a guy named Dr. Madblood.  This is a goal I never reached, but what did happen changed my life and gave my Dad one of the larger headaches he ever had to put up with.   I got jarred awake by the TV set by a man screaming at the camera.   Dressed in a suit, sunglasses on, screaming at the camera.  There was some stuff about kiss stealing and jet flying, but then he let loose with the thing we all know that man for.   WHOOOO!   The we cut to a heavy synth beat that I’d heard before on the radio, and went to commercial.  

    That was the longest commercial break of my life.   What I had just found at the early hour of 2am Sunday Morning was Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, and that was my introduction to professional wrestling.  I’ve been a fan ever since.  I never had the luxury of believing it was ever real, that was made abundantly clear to me by the Chief because he couldn’t believe his son was a fan of that garbage.  To be fair, in my defense, I wasn’t THAT stupid to believe that bouncing someone’s head off the concrete floor wouldn’t hurt someone, and frankly, some wrestlers were better than others at making things look real.  The same can be said for folks behind the camera.   Of course, back then, none of that mattered.  What did matter—what has ALWAYS mattered—was the characters.  Some good, some absolutely horrible.   

    Of course, the first person I ever laid eyes on was Ric Flair.  After a while, I wasn’t so interested in him anymore.  There were other interesting characters like Sweet Ebony Diamond, Sgt Slaughter, Blackjack Mulligan, but no one ever grabbed me like that first great bad guy.  Piper.  Piper hooked on the bad guys for life.  I’ve never liked the good guys.  Bad guys were WAY more interesting.  Piper.  Savage.  Snake.  Goldust.  Austin.   Foley.  Taker.  Punk.  

    And then we come to the news from the past couple days.   Terry Funk, of course, although I never saw him wrestle but once in a dumpster match with Foley at a WrestleMania against the New Age Outlaws, but I want to talk about Windham Rotunda, the wrestler known as Bray Wyatt. The first time I laid eyes on Bray it wasn’t as the Husky Harris character from his early days, but as the head of the Wyatt Family, this Apocalyptic charismatic cult leader.  There was a theater to what he was doing that I was instantly taken by.   Also, and this is not something that you could credit a lot of performers with, there was a method to his madness.  If you listened to him, he let you know WHY his character was doing what he was doing.  He was a true storyteller, in the same sense that you understood why a Marvel villain like Magneto was doing what he was doing.  I need y’all to not take that for granted.  In an age where a lot of what you see on wrestling TV is the equivalent of a strip and bang, or spot monkeys doing flippy shit, Windham Rotunda gave you a fully fleshed out character with motivation, reason, and movement.  And why not?  He grew up in the business.   His father was Mike Rotunda, his grandfather was Blackjack Mulligan, Barry Windham—one of the Four Horsemen-was his Uncle.  He had a front row seat to some of the most memorable people and events in the history of the business, and he must have just soaked that right up.  

    The people that were closest to him have long said that he was a never ending font of creativity.  A stream of consciousness that threw out story upon story upon story, and I believe that.   I can also relate to that.   I guess that might be a reason why this particular death has hit different for me, but it’s also a reminder that like so many creative geniuses that left us so early, he burned so very brightly that it seemed almost inevitable that it would only burn half as long.   One of his last bits of merchandise, from a vignette marking his return after being laid off during the pandemic told us to revel in what you are.   That hit me so powerfully, that it’s how I choose to remember him.   I’ve wanted to get a 2nd tattoo for a long time, I think that’s what it’s going to be. 

  • Sunday, August 27th, 2023

    Revel in what you are.

    Thank you Windham for sharing Bray with us.

  • Photo: Pungo Ferry Bridge at Sunset

    Kim and I take the long drive down to Knotts Island every so often to get out of the house, as one does when you work from home. Beautiful Sunset yesterday, I decided to take a slight detour to the Pungo Ferry Boat Landing and see if there was anything worth capturing.

    Turns out there was.

  • Photo: Oreo Is 24/7 Shade

    I’ve never known a cat to have RBF until this one came along. This cat is all shade.

  • Friday, August 11th, 2023

    A not long but unique list of first world problems:

    I have 4 Audible credits and am at a complete loss about what to use them on.

    I have a list of projects around the house that I need to get done. I have no idea where to start.

    I have a list of creative projects in my Apple Notes. I have yet to start any of them because I don’t know the order in which I want to do them.

    I would love to take a test to see if it’s possible that I am an undiagnosed autistic and /or a person with ADHD. That would explain a LOT. Finding the time to do that, on the other hand…

    You know, but other than THAT, it’s just great being me. Possibly.

  • Thursday, August 10th, 2023

    I don’t know if this is the only place where it occurs, but the corporate world is one of the few places where a convoluted backwards process is replaced with another convoluted backwards process in an effort to ‘improve’ things.

  • Wednesday, August 9th, 2023

    I watched a two-hour YouTube video of a guy and his dad traveling Route 66 from Santa Monica and heading East. Different than other ones I’ve seen because he stops at many major attractions along the way. A lot of very unique places. Bottle Tree Ranch is pretty neat all by itself. Running Route 66 is a bucket list of mine.

    The longer I sat through this, the more I question why in the fuck I haven’t done this yet.

    Oh. Money. Right.

  • Photo: Oreo is getting sick of your games

    Human, this is clearly mine. Stop the BS.

  • Monday, August 7th, 2023

    The most recent episode of the Podcast (week ending 8/6/2023) really got some traction on TikTok, of all places. I seem to getting more engagement and views there than anywhere else, even the Podcast feed. Moreover, the total engagement over the original post and the video replies I made to the comment section, was between 1200 and 1300 views. That’s amazing, and I’m super happy about it. I will be continuing this format for the foreseeable future. I found a winning formula.

    That only took decades…

  • Getting In Trump’s Ear

    In October of 1973, Spiro Agnew pleaded No Contest to tax evasion and escaped prosecution over many more counts as long as he agreed to probation, a fine, and that he resign from the Vice Presidency.  One might think he ‘got away with it’.

    On August 8th, 1974, my parents were racing across Arizona, heading towards my dad’s new duty station in San Diego, they pulled into a motel, ran into the lobby, and pleaded with the desk person to just give us a key, we’ll settle up in a few minutes, Nixon’s about to resign.  Nixon, of course, had to admit that he knew about the Watergate break-ins soon after they happened, and tried to cover it up.  I don’t think anyone knows if a deal got made for his resignation, but on September 8th, 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon.  He escaped prosecution and impeachment.  One might think he ‘got away with it’. 

    In both those cases, someone got in Agnew’s and Nixon’s ears and said something to the effect of, you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.   If you don’t want to go to prison, I suggest you exit stage right, fucking now.   Agnew and Nixon, to their ONLY credit, realized that it was time to go, and did so in order to not put the country into a crisis we hadn’t seen before.   Everyone involved was concerned about the effect these events would have had on our country, security, and safety, and everyone involved acted to put the country first when it counted.   I tell you all of this to ask a simple question.  

    Do you believe that someone hasn’t gotten in Trump’s ear and tried to tell him the same thing?  Someone has.  I feel very sure about this because there are still people that have the interest of the country, our security, and our safety at heart.  There are still people that care enough not to plunge the country into a crisis. Someone has surely told Trump if he doesn’t want to go to prison, there’s a way out of this, and herein lies the difference.   In Trump, there is no desire to put the country first and avoid a crisis.   If you read or listen to him, you might come to the conclusion that he doesn’t think much of this country at all.   Nation in Decline!  American Carnage!  I mean, it’s not exactly Shining City on the Hill, is it?  

    Here’s the thing:  If we’re going to talk dystopia, I can’t think of anything more dystopian than a person who is running for President getting convicted of Federal Crimes, and insisting “Nothing to see here folks, all completely normal.”   How does this work, exactly?   Where do you put a President convicted of Federal Crimes?  Not Leavenworth, that’s for damn sure.  Is he gonna be Charles Foster Kane isolated in Xanadu for the rest of his life?  Is Rosebud actually the name of his junk?  I thought we might have a picnic tomorrow, Melania.   And then, what if he actually wins AFTER he’s convicted?   I know, I know, OWN THE LIBS.  No, we need to stop and think about this.  The sitting President of the United States, a convicted felon, serving a sentence for Federal Crimes defines Constitutional Crisis any way you look at it.  

    Trump wants to be president to try to get out of the nightmare that awaits him.   His cult wants him to be President to own the libs.    Neither of these are workable situations for the country.   Surely you can see this.   

    The way out is through, I suppose—strap in, kids.  

  • Thursday, August 3rd, 2023

    If you do a search for any particular news event worth remembering in the past 60 years or so, chances are you can find it on YouTube. Specifically, live news coverage. As a fan of that kind of thing, I have found myself down quite a rabbit hole. A personal favorite is the 1968 Democratic Convention on CBS. Yes, all the bad news you can think of is there as well. I don’t want to bring any specific bad news, but you do you, boo boo.

    I mention this as a public service. You may want to search for some coverage in the coming days.

    Like this, for example.

    Or this.

    Who can say, really?

  • Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023

    So, let’s be clear on what most of us in the real world knew to be true.

    He knew he lost, he was told several times he lost.

    He knew what he was saying was a lie, and he continued to lie.

    He intended to cause chaos and violence, and he caused chaos and violence.

    He’s as guilty as sin. And yet…

    If sees the inside of a courtroom for a trial, much less the inside of a jail cell, I’ll be surprised.

    God help us if he gets re-elected.

    READ THE INDICTMENT

  • Photo: Chic’s Beach Storm

    Recent trip to Chic’s Beach as a front was coming through. Tried a lower angle on this shot to get your eyes to follow down the beach a bit. There are more than a few stories about this place that I could tell, and at least one them involve hoping the folks at 3556 On The Bay where ‘every place is a penthouse’ (If I remember the circa 1985 marketing of the place when it opened) couldn’t see me in the later hours of the night / wee hours of the morning.

    That’s all you get, use your imagination.

    iPhone 12, can’t remember if I used the Moment app on this or not.

  • Tuesday, August 1st, 2023

    There is no Culture War. It’s fiction.

    However, it’s a fiction that is going to define the next two years of our lives because of the loud minority that created the fiction, and the media that perpetuates it.

    There is no Culture War. It’s fiction.

    Real people in the real world know that no one gives a shit about your Holiday Starbucks Cup, or whether or not you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, no one cares what Sally and Joe next door are doing, or what Sally and Joe and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are doing. No one cares about whether Little Priscilla needs to get an abortion for whatever reason. No one cares if Jim is Jeannie on the weekends down at Don’t Tell Mama’s, or if Jim really wants to be Jeannie full-time. No one cares if Little Priscilla would like to be known as Dylan and uses some other pronouns than she/her. Do you know why no one cares?

    Because there’s no Culture War. It’s fiction.

    Remember that when you hear someone screaming about all this stuff that no one in the real world cares about.

  • Monday, July 31st, 2023

    Last night was the first night in a while I was able to sleep most of the night uninterrupted. For a start, the weather broke and it got down to the high 60’s overnight. I’m not sure what the other part was. It could be that I did a podcast episode yesterday and felt good about completing something. I took a cold shower before bed, which may have helped under the circumstances. Also, because I occupied myself for most of the evening I didn’t eat or drink anything caffeinated close to bedtime. Might be a combination of all three, I don’t know. But since I’d like to sleep more than 4 hours at a time, I’m going to troubleshoot it and see what what the item or combination that’s keeping me awake.

  • Saturday, July 29th, 2023

    I don’t know who needs to hear this, but the issue with ancient people in elected positions doesn’t start with those ancient people.

    It starts with the folks and the money that keep electing them.

  • Friday, July 28th, 2023

    Never underestimate the odds of two–or even three–separate appliances in your home going Tango Uniform simultaneously.

    The corollary to that is never to underestimate the ability to find someone who has had at least one occurrence of those appliance issues to have posted a fix for your problem on YouTube.

  • Thursday, July 27th, 2023

    If you have been looking for yet another reason why cable news needs to go the way of the dodo, you need look no further than today’s breathless hovering over the DC Courthouse. CNN and MSNBC (Sorry, there isn’t enough money in circulation to get me to watch the third one) spent hours breathlessly wondering if today was going to be the day we got a third indictment. Chris Jansing of MSNBC noted at the end of her hour on MSNBC that sources inside the Courthouse said an indictment was not likely today or tomorrow. You would think that would be the end of it, but they were right back at it in the next hour as if they hadn’t debunked any possibility of it 5 minutes earlier. Gotta keep those eyeballs any way you can, I suppose. Seriously, kill off cable news. It’s idiocy, making idiots.

    On the other hand, turn on CNN or MSNBC at 3am if you’re unlucky enough to be awake at that hour. There’s no talking head that wants to be opining at that hour of morning, so what you get is an anchor reporting the news, and the packages they’ve prepared. You know…news. Like the CNN of old, before Reagan got shot, or before the Gulf War or 9/11, when they realized continuous disaster coverage attracts eyeballs and gets people through the next ad break. Cynical? Of course it is, but then you must realize that cable news is not a public service, it’s an attempt at ratings and profits like everything else on TV is. Rachel Maddow isn’t competing with Hannity, she’s competing with WWE RAW and Monday Night Football. Read that sentence again and again until it sinks in.

    I don’t know when news became a profit center, and maybe I’m an idealist for thinking that profits should not be the prime motivator for journalism, but here we are.

  • Wednesday, July 26th, 2023

    Today I was reminded of my yearly subscription to my refrigerator. Every June or July the compressor switch blows and the part to replace it is around one hundred dollars. Since 2010, when I bought the first iteration of this fridge, I replaced the switch and associated parts that make the fan go fanny and the frost go frosty more times than I care to count. I’ve long since reached the part where we never buy another Frigidaire anything ever again. The thing is, I’ve yet to cross that threshold where 100 bucks for my yearly fridge membership has pissed me off to the point where I spend 1500-2500 for a new fridge. You might ask why I would buy something that costs that much, and my only answer for you is that I married the Redhead so you don’t have to, so let’s just say Yes Dear and leave it at that, okay? It’s a nice fridge, whenever I decide to buy it.

    Sinead O’Connor died today. I hope wherever she is, she’s found some peace. She had a hard life of addiction and mental illness, and we collectively rejected her for telling what turned out to be a truth we didn’t want to accept. We owe her a big fucking apology, and it seems to me the only way we can do that now is to listen to her music. I assume that any royalties she would make now would go to her children, so go buy or stream her music. Everybody knows THAT song, but I urge you to go deeper. The Lion and the Cobra is a great album that deserves your time, as is I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which contains THAT song. She had a magnificent voice, one that deserves your admiration.

  • Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

    Today is the first day of my 53rd Year.   Today is the day I stop taking any more bullshit from anyone, including myself.   I’m asking a lot of myself here.  One year of consistency.  That’s the mantra for this year.   Consistency now, or never.    

    I must acknowledge why I’m having trouble, address it, and get moving.  

    Let’s see if we can just manage this small blog posting first. We’ll call it my personal journal. Why not, that’s what a blog was in the beginning, wasn’t it? Hell, I think I know at least one person still on LiveJournal doing things, or at least one that isn’t a very tardy novelist.

    When is the Winds of Winter coming out, by the way?

    The point of all of this is simple: I’ve spent six months feeling pitiful and I’d like to not do that anymore, please. That should start with writing at least one thing a day, even if it’s just one sentence.

    So let’s see if we can just do that.