All posts by Jocelyn the Plaid

In old movies, sometimes humanity came together to meet the alien threat. We have never needed an alien threat more desperately. Or zombies. Or even wookies or vampire accountants. We need to take our minds off each other. Because we cannot keep sniping at each other like this. We might start by agreeing that any… Read More

My dog Lady has an excuse for being ignorant of what is going on around her. Despite having 17 identifiable breeds in her DNA, my mutt struggles to recognize the command “speak” — forget inconvenient commands like “come,” which mostly works at home unless she sights a squirrel, and seldom works at the dog park… Read More

Prelude: My spouse and I planned to move from AT&T to Consumer Cellular last September. We backed out of our plan, though, and returned to AT&T after less than a week, in return for new phones and some other perks. I should emphasize that we never had a problem with Consumer Cellular. For nearly half… Read More

What is that italicized “Z” or the off-center popsicle inside the anonymous purple block? Zedge, the “Z” app says. I look up Zedge. It’s a wallpaper app. But I create my own wallpaper, using personal pics. Yummly tells me it has a new privacy policy — pages and pages of a new privacy policy, written… Read More

Whole Foods saves my conI don’t know Friday’s secret —The room that hides food (There was no con suite at the science fiction convention due to contract issues. Con suites usually provide quick food and snacks, but corkage fees shut that down, leaving us glad to move on. New hotel please! I cannot recommend the… Read More

Stop start in the darkThanksgiving plane clusterfuckCargo road again Desperate peopleStruggling to reach far exitsAll crawl to O’Hare. J Turner Put that phone down, kid!Brains misused are brains you lose.Fried by fiery screens. J Turner

Reader, are you always struggling to complete your lists? Or your more informal day’s plans? If the list/plans regularly end in loose, even tattered, ends, I’d like to make a suggestion. Stick the list in the recycling and/or simplify the plan. As they say nowadays: Just chuck it in the fuck-it bucket. †

In September of 2021, I weighed 123.8 pounds, and I guess I cared because I wrote that down. In July of 2024, I weigh 123 odd pounds as well. I got that weight-recording thing from my mom. She repeatedly told the story of her Aunt Ethel, who was apparently so obese that she got stuck… Read More

Believe. Believe a life written in moments, Moments remembered  and moments lost in time, Becomes more than memories, More than lost knowledge. Flexing and fluxxing, flowing into New Years and new years, One after another, As art equals life and life art — While beliefs struggle for and against Lifelong learning. Who I am is… Read More

A POEM BY WENDELL BERRY  To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. The next total solar eclipse falls on August 12, 2026. This… Read More