Isn't Your Blood Pressure High Enough?

It's been a hell of a week. Black Sails, Disco Inferno has been out for exactly that long, which is fantastic! But something else has been happening too - social media has been an absolute hellscape.

I love you all, I really do - I just liked all of you a lot better before primary season.

If the political ranting and fighting weren't enough to make my day at "the office" (stealing that one from Joe Clifford) hell, we've got human garbage like Brock Turner running around blaming rape on alcohol and "promiscuity" and judges acting like that's totally fucking acceptable.

We've got people raving over what they perceive as bad parenting (whether it's about supervision at the zoo, or, as I recently read, a mother who didn't realize the water from the garden hose was hot enough to burn her child).

We've got teeth gnashing, name calling, and shouting...

It's rough out there. I was heartened to see a lot of people in the writing communities I associate with jumping on the fun little Facebook "compliment challenge" where everybody is just NICE to each other - a great refresher between all the other bullshit. I'm a big fan of positivity in writing communities, I think the rising tide really does raise all ships, and this gig is tough enough without shunning all your friends over what they post on Facebook.

If you know me at all, you know I'm not shy about ranting and raving when I think it's called for - and I definitely won't tell anyone not to stand up for what they believe in (even if some of you are driving me fucking insane right now), but please allow me to share with you this video of a dog doing ballet so we can all lower our blood pressure for a few minutes:

There, isn't that better?

Now go write a story.