________  ________  ________
   2019-04-14                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   Writing this  at  4am, have  been  up for  /        _/         /         /
about half an  hour, anxiety off the charts.  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
Life stress,  wedding stress,  money stress,    /        \/        \/    /   \
health stress, age stress, weight stress.      /        _/         /_       _/
                                              /-        /        _/         /
   I  feel  like my  cognitive  capacity  is  \________/\________/\___/____/
diminishing lately, I keep reading back over
stuff I've  written  and  finding  stupid mistakes in  grammar  and  language.
Missing   words,  repeating  words  or  making  the  same  point  twice.  It's
frustrating to see and frustrating to fix.

   Likewise  I'm   feeling  somewhat  alienated  by  the   Gopher  and  PUBNIX
communities, through no fault  of  theirs.  It's just been predominately tech-
talk in those circles lately and I  just find  it  hard  to care  about any of
that. Again, no  fault of the people in these communities and I participate in
them knowing full  well what the they're  about, I just have generally my fill
of  what distro  or software you're running/what language you're learning/what
software  you're submitting  pull  requests to/etc pretty quickly  and have to
step away.

   I need to find a new middle-ground, the level of hostility in surface-level
social spaces  has  driven even neutral  people into private Messenger groups,
Discord  and other deep web spaces but I ended up in a space I *kinda* fit but
only if I shave off my corners.

   I think that's maybe why I have a soft spot for ~town, though it's a PUBNIX
space it has a loose  emphasis on art  that I can appreciate. Their IRC though
is not a real good  fit  for  me, the  few  times I've  loitered in there  the
discussion  has been very  social-media-lite '10s politics du jour which, even
on my best day I don't have much of a stomach for.

   Even one of our private groups turned out that way, it  got so  bad  that I
had to leave. People I've known 20+ years  succumbing  to an endless cycle  of
scandal and social-political outrage, like  a gross peanut gallery clinging to
whatever stupid shit was being sold to them by media, social or otherwise.

   Probably I need to just admit defeat and withdraw completely. No space left
online for the baudpunk generation.

   Fuck it, at  least  I've got  drugs, music  and live  train cams on YouTube
yeah? Haha.

   This past Saturday we went to see some bands.

   Diploid  I've seen once before, I think I may have written  about them here
but  I'm  not sure. I wasn't  impressed  by  them then and I'm not really now.
They're  ok, don't get  me  wrong, but not for me. I heard their new album got
some real traction so I was  curious to see  what they'd be like live  now but
didn't come away a fan.

   NO HAVEN I'd already been a fan of for a little while off the back of their
debut  album, it  was pretty  good,  but  earlier this year they put out their
sophomore  album Deep Ends of Shallow Lives[1]  and  it is  amazing,  I highly
recommend it if you like sludge or crust.

   They didn't disappoint live, really amazing. Heavy.

   Third  band  was Sydney's Lo!  and  I  don't really have much to say that I
haven't already said in  these files;  they're amazing live.  They played some
new songs and that  was wild, I dunno  if  they were  a  bit heavier  and more
intense or if it was just a  case of them getting hype  about having new stuff
and throwing themselves into it. I would welcome a new Lo! album this year.

   Headliner was Cult  Leader  and  they  were fantastic.  Their  2018 album A
Patient Man[2]  has been on  my radar for a little  while but I hadn't circled
back to give it a proper listen. I did so in the weeks before the show and was
really  impressed, it  swings  between  heavy crust and sombre,  contemplative
rock. I explained to Dani that,  though I  really enjoyed the album,  it still
felt like it kind of barrier between it and me but seeing  them live dissolved
that. It's a fascinating, exhausting album and seeing Cult Leader live  really
cemented it as a favorite.


[1] https://nohaven.bandcamp.com/album/deep-ends-of-shallow-lives
[2] https://cultleadermusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-patient-man



EOF