Just some thoughts...

I think Friday's are going to be my consistent posting day on this, gives me a week to gather, process and consolidate things I want to share. If my first post set any expectation, it's that this thing is going to be entirely about my life struggles, but fortunately that's not an expectation I'm hoping to meet. Instead, here's what's been on my mind recently.

The Gulf is HOT

Literally, the Gulf of Mexico has been experiencing a marine heatwave that began all the way back in February/March of this year, and is a large reason why we ended up with monstrosities like Helene and Milton. That article is paywalled, so here's the relevant quote:

Hurricanes require a lengthy recipe list to materialize, but scientists agree that one ingredient has been pushing these storms to new limits recently: ocean heat. Waters in the Gulf of Mexico started to break all-time temperature highs this summer, but recent weeks have seen an extra jolt of warmth — what scientists describe as a “marine heat wave” that provided additional fuel to the storms. After a lull earlier this summer, atmospheric conditions have also been more favorable for hurricane development recently.

That being said, I don't believe this season has been quite what anyone has anticipated. 13 named storms, 9 hurricanes with 4 of them reaching major hurricane classification when compared to NOAA's prediction shows that while the total number of storms is lower than anticipated, it can be argued that the intensity has been on track, especially when considering that the lull in tropical development in July was partly due to the Saharan air layer covering the open Atlantic. And we still have a little under a month of hurricane season left, with it not officially ending until November 1st, so there is still ample opportunity for that named storm count to go up.

I think people are going to see the damage from Milton and not appreciate that a layer of dry air that had been chasing it since shortly after it formed managed to get into the core and help the wind sheer drop down it's intensity pretty sharply. Milton hit sub-900mb, and that was the result of it's 3rd greatest 24 hour rapid-intensification on record. If that sheer didn't drop as far south as it did, or if that dry air didn't catch up, the devastation would've been a lot worse than it was. That's not to take away from anyone who was affected by Milton, but for me it is a reminder as to what the new normal will become because of the climate change people want to deny: more intense tropical storms causing more damage to the coastal regions. And that's something that I believe people that want to live in these costal regions need to really take into consideration.

Something Big is Coming

Now, I've not been one to ever really keep up with the entertainment industry. My favorite musicians and actors and artists and what have you I'll do research on to better learn about their life and where they came from, but keeping up to date with their every move and scandal has never been my thing. However, I got stupidly hyper fixated on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef this summer, and I wanted to share about it. For those of you that don't know, Kendrick Lamar and Drake are both rap artists that are widely considered to be the best in the game alongside J. Cole, who bowed out of the beef shortly after it began, therefore taking his name out of consideration. Drake is Toronto born and for the last decade has built an image of being an "American gangster" which for some reason propelled him from being one chart topper away from tying Michael Jackson's record. Kendrick is from Compton, CA and is the only rap artist to have received a Pulitzer prize (for his album DAMN.), his song Alright became a protest anthem, and he is very highly regarded by the hip hop community and by the previous generations of rappers. Since the 2010s these two have been throwing subliminal shots at each other, and it all finally came to a head, where Drake made the unfortunate mistake of mentioning Kendrick's spouse and children right out the gate which resulted in Kendrick basically decimating this man's character and career trajectory. Ask anyone what song the felt they heard the most this summer and there's a really decent chance they'll say Not Like Us, considered to be a victory lap by Kendrick after winning the beef by taking advantage of and solidifying Drake's public perception of being dirty via accusing the man of being a pedophile, among other things.

Kendrick became a part of my rotation a few years back, while I may not necessarily relate to the explicit experiences, I do relate to the emotions being conveyed and his penmanship is remarkable. Drake I've never really listened to but I've known of him ever since he got big with his track Forever, and I remember reading about incidents involving him as they popped up (like taking Millie Bobbie Brown on a yacht unsupervised when she was a minor, or bringing a girl on stage and kissing her before asking her age and then basically saying he wished she wasn't a minor and pointing out her bust size in response to her saying she was 17, etc,) and while neither rapper has provided explicit evidence for their serious allegations the amount of information out there that corroborates Kendrick's accusations is staggering. It is a deep rabbit hole, but it is definitely connected to what Diddy is being accused of, which appears to be tied to other entertainment industries (y'all didn't forget about the Nickelodeon scandal earlier this year did you?) and is something Kat Williams foreshadowed at the beginning of this year. Not to mention how the Grange family suddenly controls 2/3rds of the major record labels ties into this, with Lucian Grange being referenced in quite a few songs with various implications. I believe that we are beginning to see an orchestrated attempt at purging those industries of what most people with common sense have been assuming has been occurring behind the scene: sex trafficking, physical and sexual assault, forced prostitution, illicit drug and weapon trafficking, extortion, money laundering, etc. And I'm all here for it.

Sometimes I Amuse Myself

This whole personal identity crisis has been a trip, don't get me wrong, but I've also hit the point where I'm beginning to find some of my unmasked behaviors amusing. For example, I pace a lot (just one of many forms of stimming I have), usually when my mind's on overdrive churning through thoughts. I also talk to myself, it helps me keep focus on the train of thought I want to be focused on. Both are something I've done since I was a kid, but I didn't really know why I was compelled to when really deep in thought, and now with the recognition that it stems from the 'tism I've had moments where I become self-aware of what I'm doing and can't help but just laugh at myself. That's a good sign, yeah?

Until next time!