The brand new video game is rentable to play on your TV and within it nothing is super easy but nothing is super hard either

The rain came down in buckets but the buckets had holes in them

Years ago I was involved in a trip across several states with a group of friends to see another mutual friend and attend a party or maybe series of parties near his home several states away residence. The trip there was fine and I bet we made some inside jokes. I don’t recall all the details.

At one point we arrived at what I’m remembering as a series of parties at someones house and immediately upon entering I saw a lady of my approximate age who was wearing a winter hat (we were indoors, I don’t think it was winter) with the name/logo of a band we liked. By “we” here I think I mean mainly just me and presumably her. I’m not totally clear on where you all stand on this band.

So as the evening unfolded and the party guests were mingling I said something like “oh, you must like that band” to the girl with the winter hat of the band on. She confirmed that she did, and then we probably made small talk about the band and the periphery of bands you might also like in the event you were wearing a winter hat of a band inside a house in the not winter and talking to some guy you just met about these bands.

The party and evening unfolded uneventfully. At one point I think we probably made fun of a guy for doing a thing. As the party was wrapping up — or I guess at least as we were leaving the party? maybe it wasn’t wrapping up! — and I was about to walk out of the party with my friends I happened to see the girl with the winter hat again. I pulled her aside and I gave her a good stern look straight in the eyes and I said “hey, keep going to shows”. The implication here being that without my endorsement and guidance and instruction to continue going to shows (presumably shows of the band on her winter hat and associated acts) she might have forgotten to do it herself. She said something like “yeah, sounds good” and then I left the party.

As far as I know I’ve never seen this person again since this one night. Keep in mind here that she lived several states away and we only happened to have a small overlap of friends groups, if that. I have no idea what her name is and it’s possible that I never did. Looking back on this moment, I suspect that she didn’t actually need my advice there vis-a-vis continuing to go to shows or not. Like, she was probably going to continue doing that (or not!) without regard for the specific guidance of an out of state person she’d just met who noticed her hat. The advice I gave was totally unsolicited, and probably not needed.

I guess there’s some small small chance that in the back of her mind she’d been considering retiring from “going to shows” and my encouragement nudged her back onto the shows bandwagon and she went to some shows and maybe at a show she attended after getting that advice she met someone who turned out to be the love of her life. Maybe they spend all their anniversaries reminiscing about that time she was wearing a winter hat and that the one guy gave her that advice, setting up their entire meeting circumstances and thus their entire relationship.

A flock of birds which don’t typically travel in flocks

According to WebMD the definition of “Sexual Predator” is “[…] a person who seeks out sexual contact with another person in a predatory or abusive manner”. The definition goes on to clarify that the elements of abuse, domination, control, power, etc - are key elements of meeting the criteria for this full term. It’s unpleasant to read and think about, but it’s a real thing in our society. We are in a modern era of personal liberation and free actions (most of the time, for most people) in regard to the sexual part, but we’re sticking to our guns around the predator part being a problem. It is both frowned upon, legislated against, and penalized.

Separately, in the 1987 sci-fi film “Predator” an alien with thermal vision comes to earth and winds up hunting an elite team of soldiers, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers and in subsequent films, lots of other guys. They run around the jungle and the Predator thermal visions them and they all try to kill each other, sometimes succeeding.

I wonder if in the home planet of the Predator everyone is really comfortable and cool with predation and preying on stuff … but being sexual is frowned upon?! Like it’s a bizarro world of our world. Maybe the Predator aliens reproduce asexually via mitosis or something like that, and it’s never necessary — to the point of being considered rude — to attempt to sex someone … but it’s TOTALLY COOL to thermally hunt and try to alien laser everyone all the time?

Like maybe when you, as a Predator, thermal laser another Predator, that Predator splits into a dozen chunks and these chunks spawn into new tiny Predators, and it’s joyous for everyone … but when you try to do a sexual thing with another Predator it’s actually sort of a faux pas of sorts and you stop being invited to the cool dinner parties and things like that.

You could imagine a mentally unstable Predator living on the Predator planet who has gone over the line one too many times and when they move into a new neighborhood after being released from Predator-planet prison they have to go door to door and be like “Hi, I just moved in. I’m legally required to inform you that I’m a sexual predator”. From that point on their neighbors would all avoid them … because of the sexual part, not because of the predator part.

You see we’re taking the one thing and then we’re flipping it. Flipping the script. Flipping the tables. Turning the tide. You get it.