I posted announcements on Facebook and Instagram that I’m deleting those accounts.

I’ve wanted to delete those accounts since the first Trump election. I thought it was enough to just post less. But recent policy changes make it a moral issue I can’t ignore.

To be clear, this isn’t about the fact checker thing, though I do think that’s shitty, too. Regardless of whether it’s community notes or fact checkers, I don’t believe anything from the Meta platforms. No one should.

This is about the other policy change.

I’m (probably) not part of the LGBTQ+ community, but I will not shop or do business with places with policies that negatively target them.

My action isn’t going to change anything. It’s not going to send a message. It’ll probably hurt me more than Meta.

It’s not really about Meta at this point, though. It’s about what I’m willing to live with. I quit going to that chicken sandwich place because I found their policies unpalatable. I’m quitting Meta for the same reason.

I make this statement publicly not for praise, but because I hope others do the same.

In the long run, I think I’m going to be happier with fewer social media connections. Social media is like artificial sugar. It can be sweet, and it can fool you for a little while into thinking you’re getting what you need, but it’s fake and potentially cancerous.

If you’re still maintaining a presence on Facebook and Instagram, I encourage you to do some self examination and determine if it’s what you really can live with. Would you go to a restaurant that you knew maintained policies that were actively harmful to a minority?

I hope I didn’t give the impression that I was going to write a blog post every day. I’m going to write more frequent blog posts, but I’m not going to force myself to write one every day. I don’t want them to be forced, and I want them to have slightly more substance.

The plan this morning was to get up, drive my car to Folsom and back, hole up in a Starbucks, and start the next chapter of The Psychic Out of Time. My car needed the drive in order to charge the battery, and since I’m planning on going into the office next week, I need my car functional. Also, Melissa likes it when I drive her around. She’s enjoyed long rides since before we were married.

Unfortunately, the car didn’t start. In fact, my clicker wouldn’t unlock the doors. And, I rediscovered that someone jammed something in the keyhole, so I couldn’t use my key to unlock the door. I couldn’t get inside, so I couldn’t pop the trunk and get access to the battery. Quite the conundrum.

If I were Mel Walker, it wouldn’t have been a problem. He knows his way around cars. He would have known exactly what to do to get the hood open. He knows how to get doors open when you don’t have the key. But I’m not Mel Walker, even if I write him in first person.

Fortunately, there’s enough Mel Walker in me that I was able to solve the problem with a little bit of instruction. I searched online and found a video showing someone opening a similar car as mine. With their model of Mustang, they could go through the grill with a stick to pop the release. With mine, I needed to slide on my back through mud beneath the front bumper, and then trigger the release with a screwdriver.

One quick trip to the auto parts store later, and Melissa and I are sitting in a Starbucks after all. My car is functional with a new battery, and I have a new skill in my back pocket if I ever need to give Mel something to further prove aptitude as a novice mechanic.

This morning, I woke up a little earlier than usual, with The Psychic Out of Time on my mind. When I sat down to write Thursday, I was only going to poke around at the story for thirty minutes or so. I didn’t have a lot of confidence going into the writing session. I wrote for 90 minutes, and I finished the end of chapter one, which had been troubling me for a while.

The only reason I stopped writing was because I wasn’t sure how to start chapter 2. I know what is supposed to be in it, but that’s not the same as knowing how to continue. This morning, I woke up with an answer in mind. So I can keep going.

I’m genuinely happy with how this story is going so far. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to finish, and there’s still some stuff in the middle and towards the end which are foggy to me, but my confidence in producing a good sequel novel is high right now.

Soon, I’m going to write a post about the importance of audience.

There’s some interesting things I want to talk about, but before I do, I feel like I need to spend at least a little bit of time catching up.

I want to make my life better. I hope I made that clear yesterday. It’s not a New Year’s Resolution thing, but I am using the new year as motivation for making positive changes. Maybe it is a New Year’s Resolution thing, but I’m going to insist it isn’t because New Year’s Resolutions statistically fail, whereas making small lifestyle adjustments is how you make lasting change.

Here is a list that is The State of Brian, which will give us a starting point. Before you can change something, you have to know what it is first.

• The scales say I’m 227lbs. Last year, I started off around this weight and lost around 20lbs. Things got crazy, I quit caring about my health or what I look like, and I gained all the weight back.
• My hair is longer than ever. I don’t hate it.
• I haven’t written anything new in a couple months.
• I withdrew from everyone.
• I’ve been playing a lot of video games.
• Doomscrolling. So much doomscrolling.
• I take naps, now. I’ve never been a napper, but now I seem to nap every day.
• I’m not sleeping that well at night. I don’t think it’s because I’m napping, but I do think I’m napping because I’m not sleeping well.

Here are the changes I’m trying to make.

• Melissa and I are both doing a low-carb diet. This is how I lost a ton of weight when I was in my thirties, and again in my mid-forties. It mostly involves means I eat less bread and pasta and certain starches. I can eat pretty much whatever for breakfast, then it’s low carb, simple foods for lunch and dinner.
• I dusted off my Meta Quest 2 and got on the exercise bike this evening. My legs are jelly and I’m drenched with sweat, but it wasn’t bad. This is probably an every-other-day activity until I’m in better shape.
• I weight myself today. I had not been on the scale since May or June last year. I plan on weighing every week.
• When I got to my desk this morning, I made a list of activities to accomplish before bed time. I used to do this all the time, and I’m more productive and more active when I make a list like this. The list today included: blog post, exercise, write for 30 minutes, read for 30 minutes, and one of my work tasks I’ve been putting off.
• I received a Sodastream for Christmas, so I’m making my own bubbly water and dabbling with various flavors left over from when I was making my own Soylent. Ultimately, this is getting me to drink more water.

Am I addressing all of the things I want to change? No, not yet. But I’m setting modest goals and taking actions within my means to address most of the things. If I stick with the diet and exercise, my weight will go down again. When I weigh less, I might sleep easier at night, and not need to nap as much during the day. When I’m less tired, I may have a greater outlook and spend time with friends again.

I don’t think the doomscrolling is going to go away, though, because we still live in the worst timeline. But hey. Maybe getting healthier, writing, and putting more positivity back into the world is how we win.

I spent a lot of time in December thinking, “Man, I really should talk about LosCon, and what a good time I had there!”

And then I thought, “We’re heading towards New Year’s! I really should talk about One For the Road since the story is a New Year’s story!”

But seasonal depression is a bitch. It hits me every year, even when I know it’s coming and I try to prepare for it. And, when I’m feeling down, I withdraw. It’s a kindness to the people around me, and a kindness to myself. The thoughts and feelings I express when I’m depressed are the views of the demon that live in my head, the one that lies to me all the time, the one that wants to tear everything down and start again.

It’s January 1st, though. I have the day off. It’s the beginning of a New Year, which means that I woke up feeling a little bit more hopeful than usual. The cruel voices are a little quieter on days like today. The optimistic voices have a little bit more strength.

That sounds schizophrenic. I’m not. It’s the whole, “There are two wolves inside you” thing, only I’ve gone and fed ALL the animals contained within. They’re all me. It’s just that I am not always the best version of myself.

This isn’t a flimsy New Year’s resolution. These are statements of who I want to be:

• I want to write more this year, because when I write, I’m happier and closer to my best self.
• I want to connect with people more this year, because when I reach out and be the kind of friend I want to be, I feel less lonely, and I’m better armed against becoming my worst self.
• I want to watch what I eat again and live a healthier lifestyle, because when I look in the mirror, I want to recognize the person looking back at me.

No resolutions today. No Yule Boasting, either. Last year, I set out to write a blog post every day. I started a story that I wanted to write publicly, to show my process. I had a lot of ambition and no follow through.

The reality is that my work life got harder, politics got stupider, and things I loved were torn apart by people I disagree with. I may have climbed out of bed with a bit more spring in my step this morning, but the world is still on fire and there is a lot to be concerned about.

I can’t change the world, but I can change my behavior and my actions. And when I need to slip back into my grumpy ways for a while, I can have the grace to forgive myself and wait until I’m ready to be me again.

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s collectively do our best to make this one better than the last.

The Situation

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was assassinated. Some pictures of the killer were released. Gun casings found at the scene had the words “deny”, “defend”, and “depose” written on them. UnitedHealthcare is evil. Large parts of The Internet are celebrating the murder of Brian Thompson, either with memes or with tales about the evil of managed healthcare and insurance companies.

Regarding Managed Healthcare and Insurance Companies

I am not going to defend health or life insurance. It’s one of the great evils. Indefensible.

They make profit by denying care to people that need it. It’s a middleman system that makes healthcare more expensive without adding benefits to either the patients or the caregivers. It’s an industry worth many billions of dollars that preys on people when they’re at their most vulnerable. It causes unnecessary death and suffering.

I have worked for a company as a software developer, writing tools for managed healthcare. I have worked for a company, writing software for life insurance. These were dark times for me. I am not a fan of managed health care, health insurance, or life insurance. Anything I say after this section is not in defense of that industry.

Brian Thompson was Probably Just a Guy

Unlike some other rich and terrible CEOs, I never heard of Brian Thompson before he was murdered. I know that UnitedHealthcare is evil, but I don’t know how much of that is because of Brian Thompson specifically. Did he make some pivotal decisions to turn the industry into what it is today? Maybe, but I doubt it.

He was probably just a guy.

Please be patient with me while I try to explain.

I have talked about my faith in humanity and how it has been damaged lately. The election is part of it. Reality television is another.

If you watch enough Survivor, or pretty much any other reality TV show where regular people are put into a situation where there is a cash prize at the end, these regular people will do terrible things to each other for the prize. The money is worth more than the humanity.

Let’s use our imaginations and test our morality.

Imagine you’re in one of these game shows. In your first challenge, you’re brought to a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, there are some people, safe and dry for now, but the tide is coming and they may not be safe in a few hours. At the top of the cliff, there is a bag of money. You have the choice: take the bag of money, or let down a little bit of rope. You cannot do both. There are other contestants given the same choice. Some of you will need to let down the rope to save the people at the bottom. Do you take the cash, or let down the rope?

You don’t know the people at the bottom of the cliff. You’re never going to meet these people. How much cash needs to be in the bag for you to take it and jeopardize the lives below?

Take the money, or help a stranger. How much is a stranger’s life worth to you?

The Money is the Problem

The right thing to do is let down the rope. We can know this because if the choices were do nothing or let down some rope, it is easier to see people choosing to help a stranger. When it costs nothing to do the right thing, most people will do it.

The reality is that there are people hoarding all the wealth at the expense of workers, and we want justice. Musk paid people to vote for Trump. Amazon has not made the world a better place, and Bezos won’t pay his workers a fair wage. CEO wages, on average, have grown beyond reason, while the workers underneath are struggling. Where is the justice?

Someone stepped out of the shadows, shot, and killed a CEO that was in charge of one of the evil corporations. I understand why people want to celebrate, but I think murdering people is the wrong answer because really, Brian Thompson isn’t much different than any of the people that chose money over helping people. He was just a guy like so many people around us that would make the wrong choice if put in the same position.

What is the Answer, Then?

If you want to get back at the people hoarding all the money, make their money worthless. Do not accept it.

If someone like Brian Thompson tries to come to your restaurant and buy your food, don’t seat them.

If Jeff Bezos offers to buy your book, don’t sell it to him.

If Elon Musk wants to buy fuel from you for one of his portable flame throwers, deny him the service.

Is what I am suggesting practical? No. But it’s the right answer. Money is the problem, so take money out of the equation.

To do it, you have to be willing to let down the rope instead of taking the bag of cash. You have to value human life more than money.

And the only reason this plan won’t work is because the person next to you will take the villain’s money, because the money is still more valuable to them than any principled stand. The person next to you, your coworker, maybe your friend, has the same principles as Brian Thompson. If someone were to assassinate your coworker, would you celebrate the same way people have celebrated the murder of Brian Thompson?

I rest my case.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Normally, Melissa and I would be at home, overeating on a day like this. I would have prepared a ham with a fantastic glaze, a sweet potato puff that is basically heaven in a glass pan, and there would have been some other sides that are pretty good but not nearly as good as the things I just mentioned. Maybe there’d be some stuffing, I don’t know.

Tonight, we had a couple of greasy cheeseburgers from the bistro near the lobby of the Hilton at LAX. They were honestly pretty good. Probably because it was the first real food we’ve had all day.

We woke at 5AM this morning so we could catch our 6:30AM train. Melissa never traveled by train before, and this was going to be a real treat.

The train was nice, but we were a little bit unlucky. We had to share our table with someone who wasn’t quite all there. He didn’t follow social queues, he mumbled a lot, and he wanted to talk about Tennessee, God, Hell, and giraffes. He said some very provocative things, either because he was crazy, or because he was trying to get a reaction from me.

With the train full and bringing in more passengers with every stop, Melissa and I didn’t have an opportunity to change seats. I was a captive audience, and I listened to this weird guy with as much understanding and compassion as I could. He really did try to get some kind of negative reaction out of me, and I did not take any of the bait.

I wanted to write and focus on other things. Our weird travel companion foiled me on that front.

At Bakersfield, the end of the line, we transferred to a bus. By 3PM, we were checking into the hotel. Not a bad travel day. Better than flying, for sure.

Now that we’re here, checked in, and have the lay of the land, let’s talk about my Loscon schedule. My schedule list will include my thoughts on the panels and the ways in which I can contribute. If you want the abbreviated details, you can click this link and click my name.

Name	When	Where	About
Autograph Session	Friday, 5PM	Dealer’s Room	I love doing these! I have reasonable expectations for how this will go, though. We won’t have very many of my books on stock until Sunday, so there won’t be much for me to do. But I’ll enjoy doing it, just the same.
Not Lazarus Long? Things You Need to do Before Dying	Friday, 8PM	La Jolla A	The description of his panel is pretty sobering. What do you need to do to make sure your loved ones are taken care of when you’re gone? I was excited to see this panel because I’ve read tons of Heinlein, and Lazarus Long was one of my favorite characters. What I actually have to offer on this panel is that I’ve worked in Life Insurance, and I’ve survived the loss of parents.
Urban Fantasy: Magic in the Modern World	Saturday, 10AM	Los Angeles C	I’m excited for this one. Given that I write urban fantasy, I can talk about this and the various considerations and thoughts that go into blending fantasy with a contemporary setting.
Villains in SF and Fantasy: Crafting Compelling Antagonists	Saturday, 2:30PM	Los Angeles C	I have lots of thoughts about villains and antagonists. The reality is that none of the antagonists in the stories I’ve released are particularly exemplary. This is the first panel I’ll be moderating this weekend.
Stephen King’s On Writing, 20 Years Later	Sunday, 1PM	Los Angeles B	On Writing has helped and inspired writers for over 20 years. I’m one of them. During this panel, we’ll talk about the advice, how it holds up, and maybe what is missing. I suggested this panel, I’m moderating it, and it’s the one I’ve been preparing for it for days.
The Greatest Writing Advice I’ve Ever Received	Sunday, 4PM	La Jolla B	This one should be relatively light and fun. Since it’s towards the end of the convention, I’m not sure how seriously people will take it. Again, I’m moderating, and I hope it is well attended and received.

When I’m not in panels, I’ll most likely be in the dealer’s room. Unfortunately, most of my books won’t be here until Sunday, which is a tremendous bummer. I have some copies of The Repossessed Ghost and hardbacks of One for the Road, but none of The Psychic on the Jury.

So far, I like what I see of this event. If you’re in Los Angeles this weekend, consider coming to visit me at the Hilton near LAX.

I keep getting asked how I’m holding up. I keep giving honest non-answers like, “As good as can be expected” or “I’m hanging in there.”

I’m not good. I’m not fine. I’m upset, sad, disappointed, hopeless, uninspired, tired, and pessimistic. But I don’t think anyone wants to hear that. Not from me.

I’m not gay or trans. I’m straight, white, male, and financially stable. I’m not an immigrant. I’m not a professional working for the government. I live in California. I am, in a word, safe.

I project enough arrogance that Trump would probably like me if he met me in person. I look like the kind of person he likes, and I’d stare him down just like the kind of people he aspires to be.

If I kept my mouth shut and didn’t write anything political here, if I chose to stay in my lane, I could probably cruise on to my death bed without any conflict. That’s a pretty wild choice, isn’t it? How luxurious it is to be in my position. How lucky I am to have all of these properties and privileges I never asked for, and that I’m not proud of because I didn’t earn them.

I will not be choosing silence or meekness. If you are one of the very large targeted demographics, I will defend you. I will continue to criticize those in power, even if that makes me “an enemy within.” I will live my life with integrity and kindness and as much love as I can muster, and I will not stand by as people are bullied.

I am still not a Democrat. I went back through my old posts. Here’s some stuff I wrote in July:

I will still vote for the Democratic candidate. I’ll do my part. But the Dems have fucked us.

They’ve thrown away the incumbency.

They’ve set up a situation where they have 100 days to come behind a single candidate, hopefully without bloodying each other and allowing Trump to cruise unscathed.

They’ve set up a situation where the focus will be on the electability of the Democratic candidate, rather than highlighting how the Republican wanna-be despot is unelectable.

They’ve set up a situation where they are not highlighting their own plan for the future, which would be a great contrast to Project 2025.

They’re most likely going to get behind Kamala Harris, which means that the American voters will have to overcome racism and sexism. This, during a time where social media is commonly joking/complaining/spreading memes about DEI hires.

Democrats, why did you have to make it so much harder than it needed to be?

If Trump is re-elected, this is why.

Right after I wrote that, the Democrats — the people in my sphere — appeared to be energized for Harris. I thought, “Well… maybe we’re going to be okay, after all.”

Some people didn’t vote for Harris because she “didn’t provide a plan.” Trump’s plans, Project 2025 plus tariffs, is a shit plan, but it is a plan. Harris talked about some of the things she wanted to do, but that’s not the same thing as a plan. And if she did put out a plan, enough people didn’t see it that it didn’t matter.

Some people didn’t vote for Harris because she didn’t come out strongly enough against Israel.

Some people didn’t vote for Harris because they saw her as being selected, rather than going through the primary. “Why should I vote for someone I didn’t get to choose?”

And, unfortunately, there are a lot of people that didn’t vote for her because of her gender and the color of her skin.

For the first time in his life, Trump won the popular vote. A felon. A rapist. A twice impeached, former president with an absolutely terrible record. Someone that told us to inject bleach. Someone that promoted an insurrection when he lost in 2020.

In a time when we have existential crisis in the form of climate change, we elected the guy that tried to pull us out of the Paris Agreement. The guy that hates windmills.

This election, I learned something. Maybe I relearned something. You can’t win a race based on the faults of the other guy. You have to win on the merits of your own words, record, and intentions.

Let me tell you what I would run on, if I were to run for President.

I would introduce legislation which overturned Citizens United. Corporations are not people. We need to pull that money from our political system. We need to keep Big Business away from all three branches of our government.

I would introduce legislation which applies reasonable term limits to members of Congress.

I would work with Congress to apply some sort of term limit on the Supreme Court. Lifetime appointments without any guard rails has proven to be unacceptable.

I would introduce legislation to actually limit money that sitting members of Congress receive. Part of this would be establishing an independent funding for election spending. Once a candidate reaches a certain threshold, they can no longer accept funds from anyone else to pay for their campaign. Once elected, their estate goes into a trust, just as the President’s estate is supposed to be put in trust, and the only paycheck they’re allowed to take is the one from Uncle Sam.

No one working in any of the three branches of government should be allowed to trade stocks.

It will be hard to push through, but I will remove the electoral college. Every person’s vote should count, whether they live in the city or they live on a farm. No one should be disenfranchised. This will also help eliminate some of the problems we have with gerrymandering.

It will be hard to push through, but I will push for a change in our voting. Rather than first-past-the-post, we’ll use a weighted system. This will make third party candidates viable. My intention is to destroy our so-called two-party system.

I need to shut up about this, now.

This is all purely fantasy. It’s something I can think about as a distraction from the reality we’re living in. We have elected a monster and doomed our country and our planet. We may not have another fair election again. And even though I’m certain I know what’s wrong with our system — it’s the money — I’m never running for office.

So how am I doing?

Shitty.

But I’ll survive, and I will write, and I vow to defend those that the elected felon and all his cronies mean to target.

If we can summon the courage to do what is right, act with integrity, and protect each other, we will be fine. Maybe the 74 million people that voted for Trump will see the error in their decision and stand with us.

I still want to have faith in humanity. Please don’t let me down.

When I got home, the house was quiet and dark. I found Melissa on our bed, looking as sad as I’ve seen her in a long time.

It was around 7:30PM, and she had been following the election news. This year is different for her. This is the first year she has been motivated enough to read up on all the items on the ballot and vote. Voting for Harris to avoid another Trump disaster is paramount to both of us.

It’s 8:40PM, and the electoral map does not look good. I glanced at BlueSky and the mood there is also not good. Some folks are desperately trying to keep hope alive, because this is what the electoral map looked like 4 years ago. It took days for the blue shift to settle in.

Rural, less populated counties are — for some stupid reason — more inclined to vote for Trump, and those smaller areas report sooner. It takes longer to count the urban votes and the places where people actually live. Some states are getting called for Trump that haven’t actually tallied the votes of their cites. It’s stupid, demoralizing, and depressing.

It’s probably also important to remember that the news organizations that are declaring for Trump at this stage are the same people that have been carrying water for Trump for weeks.

I still think Harris has a shot. But even if the blue wave fully materializes and delivers us a Harris presidency, we still have millions and millions of people that voted for a racist, rapist, fascist, felon in physical and mental decline.

We still have millions of people that wanted to choose Trump because they think he loves America. They apparently never listened to him, because every other word out of his mouth disparages our great nation. Even his motto implies that we’re somehow less than we are. Trump doesn’t love America. He only loves himself.

We still have millions of people that wanted to choose Trump because they think he promotes Christianity. The guy that sold Bibles made in China to pay for his court fees, which were incurred at least partly from his extramarital affair with a porn star. Trump is an anti-Christ. He doesn’t love God. He only loves himself.

We still have millions of people that wanted to choose Trump because they thought he’d be good for the economy. The guy that couldn’t make a casino profitable. How many failed businesses have Trump’s name on them? Under Trump, the economy tanked, and unemployment was up to just under 15%. Trump has never been good for the economy. The only person Trump wants to enrich is himself.

Harris could still win. She ran a great campaign. Her plans make sense, unlike Trump’s insane tariff plan.

The man stood in front of crowds and talked about how he would be a dictator if elected, and millions of people showed up on election day and tried to put him back in office. These people have no memory.

On top of that, at this point in the evening, the senate races aren’t looking great. I was really hoping Cruz would get sent packing, but that weaselly scumbag will remain in office. Texas, you disappoint me again.

I’m going to go to bed early tonight, I think. This whole year has been exhausting. I’m so sick of seeing that asshole’s face, and hearing his whiny voice. Trump exists mostly to make me doubt the existence of justice in this world.

Maybe I’ll drink a bit before going to bed. Just to be sure.

Good morning, friends and frenemies! It’s time for me to talk about this show that has had me buzzing for days. I’m at a Shut up and Write, and ostensibly, I should be working on The Psychic Out of Time, but I don’t have my glasses, OneDrive is taking forever to sync, and I feel a little bit distracted because I really, really want to talk about Agatha All Along.

If you haven’t watched it yet, let me say two things.

1. It’s very good. You should watch it. Watch WandaVision first to get context, then watch Agatha All Along. It really is better to go into it without spoiliers.
2. Stop reading this and go watch the show.

Spoilers beyond this point. You have been warned.

When they first started promoting the show, they did it with all the actors coming out on stage, singing the Ballad of the Witches Road. When I first saw this, I thought, “Well, that’s weird. Is this supposed to be a musical?” But it all makes sense in retrospect. The song is the throughline of the show. All of the threads are woven out of that song. It is the inciting incident that we get to witness in the epilogue.

Let’s pull on some of these threads and see where they take us.

We start the story with Agatha still under the spell Wanda used to trap her in Westview. Agatha imagines herself as a hard-boiled detective trying to solve a strange murder, but it’s all layers of metaphor symbolizing Agatha’s struggle to be reborn from her past life. The dead body looks like Wanda, but the toe tag tells us that it’s really The Darkhold, which weighed Agatha down as much as Wanda’s spell. The Darkhold is destroyed, Wanda’s spell is broken, and Agatha emerges from all of it, stripped down and free to start over.

But, this isn’t a redemption story, and Agatha is still a monster. We may sympathize with her, but she hasn’t changed. The only think that’s changed is her circumstances. She still chooses to do what she has always done, which is trick witches into giving her their power so that she can survive.

Let’s talk about some relationships and parallels in this story.

Agatha and Teen is obvious and sweet. Teen reminds her of the son she lost. In that way, Teen occasionally inspires Agatha to be a better version of herself, right up to the end where she finally takes the kiss of death, dying so that Teen can live.

Agatha and Lilia is a bit less obvious. They both see Death. Agatha has a tumultuous relationship with Death, and spends much of her life fleeing her, steeling power so that she can survive, and hating Death for taking her son. Lilia’s power forces her to see death, so she spends much of her life fleeing her power so that she no longer is tormented by the things that she sees. In the end, Lilia realizes that she loves herself, her power, being a witch, and she chooses to fall and embrace death. They both embraced death, for different reasons, and it’s beautiful in both cases.

Agatha and Jen are both witches that have lost their power and in both cases, Agatha is the one responsible. Jen lost her power because Agatha was paid to bind her, and didn’t even think about it. Agatha lost her power because she tangled with The Scarlet Witch. They are both restored, but Agatha lays down on the ground and becomes one with it, turning to soil and flowers, while Jen emerges from the dirt into the light, free to take flight and lift off into the sky.

Agatha and Alice are essentially opposites, and we have to include Alice’s mother Lorna to see the complete picture. Agatha is the witch that lost her child in spite her best efforts. Alice is the child of a witch that survived because of her mother’s best efforts. Agatha and her son made up the song as a kind of game, and when Nicholas Scratch died, Agatha used the song as a kind of weapon to take the powers of other witches. Lorna Wu adapted the same song and sang it to her fans, which she thought of as her coven, so the song itself became a kind of shield always there to protect Alice. In both cases, it’s a mother’s love. Agatha’s love twisted by grief into something dark, and Lorna’s love uplifted in hope to provide a light for her daughter.

That brings us back to Teen, Billy Kaplan, reincarnated son of Wanda Maximoff, because a mother’s love persisted.

I think I could go on, but that’s probably enough. I love this show. I’m looking forward to watching it again.

It’s good, clever writing, executed on a tight budget and punching way above its weight class. Consider the scene where Billy Maximoff takes over the body of Billy Kaplan. There aren’t any huge special effects in this scene. There is the sound of a slowing heartbeat, a subtle push-in with the camera, and then Billy shouts for his brother. It’s a flawless execution which tells the story as efficiently as possible. It’s perfect.

I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. Let me know if there’s some nuance that really speaks to you that I may have missed.

The sun has been down for a little while and a few trick-or-treaters have blessed our doorstep. We still give away full size candy bars, but we don’t give cans of soda anymore. It seems like getting a can of soda during Halloween was something cool that happened when I was young, but now it’s just this heavy thing that takes up a bunch of room in the bag. I think kids have more access to soda than we did when I was a kid, so it’s not special anymore.

They love CapriSun, though, so I’ve been offering those with the candy bars. Every visitor has taken one with glee. So, the Buhl house is still the house to visit in our neighborhood on Halloween.

I want to say something heartfelt tonight while I’m waiting for kids to come knock on our door. I want to say something real.

Politics have been on my mind. I look at the polls and the news and I see this ridiculously imbalanced race that is somehow down to a coin flip. I don’t know how it can be this close.

I don’t want to talk about politics, to be honest. I don’t want to talk about Harris or Trump or project 2025 or the Supreme Court or any of those things that bother me so much. I don’t think you want me to talk about those things. You either disagree with me fundamentally, in which case I’m wasting your time, or you and I are already on the same page, in which case, I’m wasting your time.

This is not a place that is going to change hearts and minds. This is a place where I talk about my writer’s journey, which includes my experiences through this life. Sometimes this will include politics and my opinions on elections, but it doesn’t have to tonight.

Instead, maybe I’ll talk a little bit about something that is closely related to politics. I’m going to talk about faith.

I want to love people. I want to love humanity, and believe that we are capable of incredible beauty and grace and love, and I want to celebrate our ingenuity and compassion and art. I want to love people. Some people might say I’m describing the message of Christ, to love as He loved, unconditionally, but I’m not going to mix up what I’m talking about with Christianity right now. We may be called to love as Christ loved, to be willing to put down our lives for people that probably don’t deserve it, but I’m not there yet.

I want to believe that most people are like me. They’re just going through their lives, trying to do the best they can. I want to believe that they will help people in need. They need love and forgiveness and grace, just like I do.

This is a core part of who I am. My faith is that people are mostly good. I try to be kind, and though I fail sometimes, I keep trying. For my faith to be real, I cannot be particularly special in that regard.

So why am I talking about this? What does this have to do with anything?

We’re living through unprecedented times, when we are measured and tested, and as I look around me, it’s hard for me to maintain my faith in humanity.

The other day, we went to Mel’s for brunch, and as we were waiting for food, I saw some sort of political commercial playing on television that was clearly anti-trans bullshit. Just two or three minutes of unnecessary hate on the screen, on a sports channel. No one else seemed to notice it. I couldn’t look away.

I don’t claim to be a trans ally, but I acknowledge their humanity and their right to live as they want to live. They do not need to be made a public enemy. They’re not doing anything wrong. They’re just people. But there is an entire political campaign using them as some sort of bogeyman in order to drum up their hateful base.

Do you spend much time on social media? Have you thrown out your sense of self-preservation and wandered through YouTube comments? In every corner of the Internet, the most vile, hateful messages can be found. Some may be the work of bots, but the truth is that there are a lot of people out there with enough time on their hands and malice in their hearts that they’re willing to take time out of their day to post nastiness, where everyone can see it.

Again, why am I dwelling on this? There will always be terrible people. Right?

I can’t get over how many people seem to be so different from me in their fundamental alignment. It damages my core belief, that most people are good, decent folks, just doing the best they can.

I’m not saying that anyone that disagrees with me is a terrible person. We can have differences in taste and still be friends. We can have different approaches in life, and we don’t have to be friends, but I’ll still respect your humanity. It’s issues of morality where I start to get upset.

All people should have rights over their own body, regardless of their gender or sexuality. Women’s right to choose is fundamental. Women have died already because of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe. It has not made the world better for children. It has not reduced infant mortality, or improved the lives of any babies out there at all.

We are all born from immigrants. Immigrants are not evil. They’re people. But there is an entire political movement that thinks mass deporting of immigrants — legal or otherwise — is a Good Thing. If you are on that side of the political isle, I implore you: Put away the racism, honor your heritage, and leave the immigrants alone. Let them work. Let them live. Quit sacrificing their livelihood for political capital.

The Earth is not flat. Vaccines are not dangerous. Science is a process for learning, not a rival of faith. Racism is stupid. Homophobia is stupid. Transphobia is stupid. Misogyny is stupid. Ableism is stupid.

Nothing I’ve said feels difficult or controversial. At the heart of what I’m saying, it’s The Golden Rule. It is “do unto others as you would have them do to you.” It is also Love They Neighbor. When I look around the Internet, it seems like what I think of as The Golden Rule, bad actors call “wokeness.”

Maybe I should clarify that last point a little, since it may seem like an overstatement. Most of the time I see something being criticized for being “woke,” it’s in regards to a character in a movie or book being gay or a person of color. “The MCU was great before they started pushing all that woke shit down our throat.” What they are saying is that the presence of people that look different than they do is offensive, or part of some kind of agenda. The reality is that the world is full of people that shouldn’t have to hide, and their presence in stories is a more accurate representation of the world we live in.

I’m getting preachy, so maybe I should close this out. It’s already too long.

It won’t be much longer before I’ll turn off the light out front and put away the rest of the candy. We didn’t get a ton of trick-or-treaters this year. I feel fortunate that I can give away candy and make some kids happy every year.

Happy Halloween, everyone. And for those of you getting ready to write a whole bunch in November, good luck!