The Ramblings of the Titanium Don

An Open Letter to the Squirrels in My Brain

You can eff the eff off already. Dear Squirrels in my brain, First, yes, I know you might actually be brain weasels. Whatever. A rodent is a rodent (vermin are vermin). In either case, you sit there in my head, chittering and chattering away, spewing bullshit at me. And I do not appreciate it. There are four distinct areas of my life right now that I’m working to improve. My health, my fencing, my writing career, and my self-esteem. This

You Will F*ck it Up

Then you’ll f*ck it up again. But you choose to learn from it or not. In my 20s and 30s, I had no idea who I wanted to be. Because of that, I had a tough time staying in any given job or relationship. There are a few interesting patterns you can see when you look at my life. For example, I’ve never lived in the same home for more than 10 years. Same general neighborhood, sure. But never the

You Can’t Do Anything For Them

A harsh reality and an open door at the same time. Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was such a thing as political discourse in the United States. While there have long been two dominant parties, they still offered up individuals who ranged within their sides. Over the past few decades, they’ve become way more partisan and contentious. What’s more, people who should have zero place in the mix are elected officials (despite utter cluelessness regarding process,

Why Fake it Till You Make it?

Because now is the only time you can act upon. I’ve been writing fiction most of my life. My first work, a 50-page illustrated sci-fi story, was completed when I was 9 years old. I tried my hand at multiple other creative outlets over the years, but always found writing creeping back into my life. After self-publishing a couple of my novels in fits and spurts, I took the plunge for real in 2020. That year, I put 6 books

Unconditional Love Comes with No Conditions

Love in all forms is bigger and more empowering than you think. The number of false narratives in the world on the subject of love are many. Much of this comes from the idea that love can cause pain and suffering. Not true. Love, in and of itself, can never cause pain or suffering. By itself, love is the ultimate creator, source of wellbeing, empowerment, and any and every good thing you can think of. All by itself, attached to

Just Be You

Believe it or not, you are utterly worth being. Allow me to state some uncomfortable facts. Many people dislike themselves. Some even go so far as to hate themselves. I know this struggle. I’ve disliked myself on and off for most of my adult life. A lot of this was due to outside messages and influences. I was shown all sorts of examples of how I was imperfect, not enough, insufficient, lacking, and doing it wrong. This could be applied

I’m Not Responsible for How You Feel

It’s nearly impossible not to come across as callous for this. I work hard not to be an asshole. This isn’t so much about me, as far as I’m concerned, as it is about being kind, compassionate, and empathetic. The world needs more kindness, compassion, and empathy; and giving them all comes with zero cost. This is what matters most. That said, sometimes my words and actions cause hurt. I never set off with the intent of doing this, but

Everything is Energy You Can Connect With

The limits on energy are only what you assign them. I frequently write about energy. I believe that everything, at its core, is energy. It’s the point of origin for all. You and I begin and end as energy, neither created nor destroyed, frequently transmuted. From the tiniest subatomic particle to the largest star in the galaxy, all are sourced from energy. Hence, all are source energy. What is source energy? It is pure energy in the ethers, surrounding us,

Why Am I Feeling This Way?

An exercise in self-analysis. As I write this, I’m preparing for my annual vacation to southwestern Pennsylvania. I have attended an enormous medieval reenactment event every year since 1996 (save 2 years due to the COVID pandemic). This draws 10,000 people or more, and we spend up to 2 weeks hanging out with friends, enjoying classes on all sorts of medieval topics, eating, and partaking in various forms of combat. I have been doing medieval rapier combat (fencing) with the

Do You Control Your Anger or Does Your Anger Control You?

This is more of a choice than most people recognize. Emotions come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. They can be so small that they seem nearly invisible or so large that they seem unstoppable and overwhelming. Despite the idea that Star Trek’s Vulcans are emotionless, the truth is that they train tenaciously to tightly control their emotions. One of the most dangerous traits of toxic positivity is the denial of negative emotions. Toxic positivity puts on