A sad goodbye

     Yesterday, after many years of watching it devolve and become more and more painful, I quit Twitter for good.  I had spent years connecting with voice actors of Fire Emblem and Persona, and will miss doing so, but I had been posting from Faithful America petitions asking for social justice and was beginning to be mocked as the trending topics turned pro-Trump, pro-Nazi and pro-LGBTQ+ genocide.  I began spending less time there and found myself the target of comments the website wouldn't reveal to me, meaning they were likely too extreme for its lack of rules.  Musk, or MuX as I call him over his rebranding of the site, removed subscriptions on his birthday, making it hard to see what Tara Platt, Abby Trott and Miley Cyrus were saying.

    MuX is, without question, a Nazi.  He made charges on the blue checks solely to help fund Trump's campaign, believes Jews are lizard-men from below the Earth's surface, believes the only racism is against white people by minorities and has a trans daughter he deadnames and bought the website solely to punish.  In my darker anxiety days, I believe his blue checks are the mark of the beast on the forehead and right hand spoken of in Revelation and soon, Trump will ensure no one will participate in the economy without one, which costs $11 a month.  The only ones willing to give him that money are the already rich like musicians, those clinging to their identity like Critical Role and Fire Emblem's Joe Zieja or, of course, fanatical right-wing extremists with genocidal desires.  It is sickening to watch these people openly discuss the removal of Jews, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community and that African-Americans deserve to be second-class citizens.  And the richest of them all, MuX, talks with them as one of them, because he is one.

    It is through this website I found Tara's calm and Abby's silly side, as well as sweethearts Xanthe Huynh and Jeannie Tirado and Trekkie baseball fan Dorothy Fahn.  My last post before my angry goodbye was to Dorothy, Abby and Tara, Funko Pops of Konan, Nezuko and Temari together, remembering Mercedes, Annette and Edelgard.  I might've ticked Abby off by bringing up Annette so much, she is mainly focused on Nezuko now and didn't celebrate Three Houses' 5th anniversary, but if that's the case, I look forward to starting anew at a convention down the line.  I just feel rotten because I thought me sharing Faithful America and what was important to me would stop the stereotype and make things better.  But I can't deal with the genocidal hate on the website, and all I want is for the voice actors to make their BlueSky accounts active so I can see them without the tension of some radical troll trying to gore my innards or some bot giving me a false like.

Some guitar lists

     At my last baseball game trip, my Dad and I talked a little about guitars and he mentioned he prefers Telecasters to Stratocasters (though he once mentioned he liked the whammy bar of Stratocasters when I mentioned its use by Ritchie Blackmore to cause high-pitched noise from the instrument).  On a whim, I looked up "Best Telecaster Performances" because I wanted more than just George Harrison at the rooftop concert.  I came up with 10 I personally enjoy from my own experience.

 

10 of my favorite Telecaster Uses:

1.)    Dig A Pony-The Beatles (solo)

2.)    Good Times, Bad Times-Led Zeppelin

3.)    Good Hearted Woman-Waylon Jennings

4.)    Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny Cash

5.)    Ten Years Gone (Live at the Kingdome 1977, possibly also studio recording and Corey Taylor Studio recording)-Led Zeppelin

6.)    Communication Breakdown-Led Zeppelin

7.)    How Many More Times-Led Zeppelin

8.)    Don’t Let Me Down (rooftop performance)-The Beatles

9.)    Achy Breaky Heart 25 (Live)-Billy Ray Cyrus

10.) Stand Still (Live)-Billy Ray Cyrus

 

 I then decided to do the same for Les Pauls, since they'd been my favorite since I found out Eric Clapton used one for the solo in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by The Beatles.  This list would probably be different another day when the video about their favorites was less fresh in my mind and if I knew more about spotting the instrument's sound in my favorite songs (I think it played the solo in "The Climb," but I'm not sure).

10 of my favorite Gibson Les Paul uses:

1.)    Crazy Train-Ozzy Osbourne

2.)    While My Guitar Gently Weeps-The Beatles

3.)    Whole Lotta Love-Led Zeppelin

4.)    Sweet Child O’ Mine-Guns N Roses

5.)    All Right Now-Free

6.)    Since I’ve Been Loving You (Live, possibly also studio version)-Led Zeppelin

7.)    Black Dog-Led Zeppelin

8.)    Saturday Night Special-Lynyrd Skynyrd

9.)    Call Me The Breeze-Lynyrd Skynyrd

10.) Is This Love-Whitesnake

So much tension, yet some hope

     I wish I could escape politics so much easier, but even baseball and entertainment remind me of it from time to time.  Twitter is lining Trump's pockets and has become so much a Westboro Baptist Church chat room it has finally become unlivable, I just keep thinking how the MLB will operate after the country splits, and I see the country splitting regardless of outcome; Democrats win, Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Tennessee and Florida drop an "N" bomb and say "f*gs" and secede the union, Republicans win, Western Washington, Western Oregon, Western California, New York state, Philadelphia and Atlanta secede the union to protect African-Americans, Latin Americans and LGBTQ+ people.  And SAG is on another strike, this time against video game makers, thankfully, Nintendo outright said "We will never use generative AI," so they are good to the voice actors.  But it fills me with suspicion of Atlus and Vanillaware, making me wonder if it's okay to play Unicorn Overlord, and I know the companies behind Genshin Impact are targets of the strike, so I can't take pictures or share videos of Furina.

    I have mostly been trying to relax through music, but I seem to hit a limit earlier than I used to.  I guess I'm hungering for new, good music, but most people's interesting upcoming music is still yet to be released.  I am glad the Mariners acquired Randy Arozarena and Yimi Garcia, I've seen Yimi in both games against the Blue Jays in 2022 and 2023.  Sadly, my brain is offense-oriented, so I don't remember how good he was, but I can tell you he gave up no runs in either outing.  Also, Randy Arozarena hit 82 home runs in T-Mobile Park's Home Run Derby in 2023.  I am seriously looking forward to the Phillies at the Mariners on Friday, especially with their recent trades and roster changes.  Recruiting Byleth in Three Hopes reduced some stress, but a lot remains.  I don't know how to let it out or put it down aside from doing this.

5 years of Fire Emblem; Three Houses

 

There you stand, next to your wife

And all is right with the world

Fires rage, fear is out of control

I don’t see a peaceful way out

I don’t see one nation surviving,

Regardless if you think it’s under God or not

But I see you two together

After the hard work,

The chastising, the insults, real and imagined,

The pain of my past that wouldn’t

Let me listen to “Iron Man” or

“Stairway to Heaven” without telling me

I was dabbling with the devil

I kept a huge chunk of my life hidden

As best I could

I didn’t talk about Miley Cyrus

Or Judas Priest, or Queen, or Elton John

That’s why I shout it so now

That’s why, even in the roughest times

I see the two of you, together,

After hard work,

And everything’s okay.