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The Artemis II Mission Is Complete. Now What?

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  Image: NASA I don’t think I even realized I was holding my breath until I exhaled loudly, tears involuntarily forming in my eyes, when we finally heard Reid Wiseman’s voice acknowledging Mission Control following the communication blackout during reentry. Within minutes thereafter, the Orion spacecraft Integrity deployed its main parachutes and splashed down perfectly in the Pacific Ocean to bring the Artemis II mission to the Moon to a close. It was indeed a cathartic moment for those of us Gen-Xers who’d in many ways unknowingly harbored Challenger trauma all these long years. The mission brought not only Gen-X, but millions of others, senses of peace, joy, happiness, and hope for the future we’d not felt in some time. Now that our “emotional support astronauts” Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen have returned home, we’re faced with a new question: What now?   Well, if you’re a space nerd like me and on the Threads social media platform, t...
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What Does The 'Artemis II' Mission Mean To Gen-X? Everything.

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  Image: NASA Pick a cliché about Gen-X; it doesn’t matter which. Drinking from the hose. Staying out until the lights came on. Being a “latchkey” kid. Late-night television ads literally asking our parents if they knew where we were. In the words of Han Solo, “it’s true. All of it.” We grew up living a life of independence. Our growth, though, was also shrouded in trauma. Born into the tail-end of the Vietnam Conflict, we lived through and witnessed more tragedy than most generations, not the least of which occurred on January 28, 1986. On that day, an entire generation of children witnessed in real-time, on boxy televisions wheeled into classrooms on metal carts, the disaster of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. We developed, honed, and mastered the coping mechanisms of sarcasm and cynicism as a result. And that is why the extraordinary events of the last week have triggered a long-suppressed PTSD many of us perhaps didn’t even know we were harboring.   By "events...
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Holiday Heckling: The Return

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on? *silence*   I SAID IS THIS THING ON???   (OMG Yes! Stop shouting! Give us a second to answer, jeez! Wait… oh no.) Oh yes, my dear parenthetical heckler, oh yes, indeed. Sadly I’d gotten away from these pages except for random one-offs, but a close, dear friend, one who’s been writing some poetry of late, has inspired me to start writing again. At first I thought perhaps I’d reengage my poetic side. Then I remembered that writing posts like this was far more therapeutic, and far less expensive, than actual therapy. Plus, you people are generally also far less judgmental than an actual therapist… mostly because you’re all just as crazy as I am; I just say the quiet parts out loud. (HEY! I… okay, that’s fair.) Good. Now that we’ve established that, I’m going to take a page out of Steve Burns’ book when he returned to social media with a heartfelt message to his Blue’s Clues fans and say… Hi. How are you? Are you doing okay? No? ...
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Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking With JJ Goodman

Okay, admittedly this post will be a major departure from anything I've written here previously. It is also the first piece I've written in two years as a demanding day job,  major health scare, and the craziness of having two children under the age of six have all taken greater priority than my musings here on these pages. Thankfully, my health issues have passed, but the day job and kids are a crazy as ever. I'm finding, though, that I do still need to find time to  write, as it is and remains my truest release for the pressure that fills my brain on a daily basis. So.... We're going to thy something new. I'm sure I've shared my love for the NFL's Buffalo Bills here from time to time. I've worn the Bills' red, white, and blue since I could hold a football: I was at the "Miracle Comeback" playoff game against Houston. I've endured 2-12 seasons, cried over four Super Bowls, and am now absolutely reveling in the team's resurgence wit...
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Hatred, Ignorance, and "Morality:" Can We Please Make it Stop?

  There are a lot of things I simply don't understand. Complex mathematics. The appeal of the Power Rangers in adults. Why people actually enjoy running. But, while I don't understand them, I'm not going around bashing mathematicians, Power Rangers fans, and runners. I'm very proud to say I count some in each category among my nearest and dearest. If there is one thing I will never truly comprehend, however, it's the extreme levels of hatred, ignorance, and intolerance so pervasive today…. Sadly, though not unsurprisingly, it more than often comes from those claiming to be "religious." And I struggle to understand why.   There are states in our country, supposedly "the land of the free," that are currently banning education based on our actual history. They criminalize parents who support the LGBTQ children as "abusers." They refuse to allow their schools to even acknowledge homosexuality as if refusing to say the word "gay...
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