I made a game. I'd love for you to play it.
geriatricmayhem.itch.io/punks-undead

Who here misses the genre of the day? Did anyone notice when it went away? Would you be willing to be a free subscriber to Rambling & Gamboling to see it again, with a deeper (5-15 minute read) exploration of the genre? I enjoyed doing it, and I kinda want to motivate myself to get back on the horse

Cover of Time Magazine all in red, photo from the Charlie Kirk event where he was killed.

Screenshot of all the 2025 Time Magazine covers.

Time Magazine's cover this week is "Enough. The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Epidemic of American Political Violence."

They did not do a similar cover when 2 Democratic politicians were murdered earlier this year.

Why does this seem to be so consistent?

I'm sorry, but whatever else it may be, "Guy who says school shootings is acceptable cost to have guns" getting shot in a school IS funny, and it's goofy to make like it ain't.

Today my spouse said to me, "your hair looks like you play trombone." In an attempt to clarify, they insisted, "but just your hair though. The rest of your body is giving like, 'I pick up rocks.'" So it's safe to say I won't be sleeping tonight while I try to detangle all that.

Today's genre is Funk! Here's five tracks to get your algorithm groovin’.

Rick James- Super Freak

Commodores- Brick House

Stevie Wonder- Superstition

CHIC- Le Freak

Bruno Mars- Uptown Funk

Today's genre is Han Chinese Traditional! Here's five tracks to have your algorithm sipping tieguanyin:

Hong Ting- Flowers on the Brocade

Jian Xiao-Qing- Leaves of Autumn

ShuishanYu- Moon Over the Mountain Pass

Liu Fang- Lotus Emerging On the Surface of Water

Zhao Liangshan- Mourning Over Ying

Today's genre is Chamber Pop! Here's five tracks to give your algorithm flashbacks of drunkenly crying over him in 2006:

Stars- Your Ex-Lover is Dead

Beirut- Nantes

Devandra Banhart- Mi Negrita

Sigur Rós- Svefn-g-englar

DeVotchKa- How It Ends

Today's genre is French Jazz! Here's five tracks to make your algorithm look at you through cigarette smoke with distain:

Pink Martini- Sympathique

Jill Barber- Petite Fleur

Madeleine Peyroux- La Vie En Rose

Brigitte Bardot- La Madrague

Serge Gainsbourg- Baudelaire

Today's genre got fired. Here's six tracks for your algorithm to listen to while saying goodbye:

Willie Nelson- On the Road Again

Roy Rogers- Happy Trails

Vera Lynn- We'll Meet Again

Willie Nelson- I'll Be Seeing You

Green Day- Good Riddance

Hilary Summers- So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Today's genre is Crust Punk! Here's five tracks to give your algorithm a hatred of the government, a drug problem, and a distinct odor:
Crass- Big a Little A
Doom- Police Bastard
Subhumans- No
Reagan Youth- No Class
Aus Rotten- No Justice, No Peace

Today's genre is Hapa Haole! Here's five tracks to make your algorithm feel discomfort about the commodification of Polynesian cultures:

Ehukai- Molokai Slide

John Keawe- Hwai'i Island ..is My Home

Hapa- Ku'u Home O Kahau'u

Jack Johnson- Better Together

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole- You Don't Know Me

RIP to a legend. Today's genre is Classic Metal! Here's five tracks to get your algorithm headbanging:

Black Sabbath- Warsaw Pigs

Motörhead- Ace of Spades

Iron Maiden- The Trooper

Metallica- Master of Puppets

Dio- Holy Diver

SPECIAL SIXTH TRACK: Ozzy Osbourne- Crazy Train

Today's genre is Progressive Rock! Here's five tracks to sit your algorithm down in a beanbag chair and contemplate a blackligh velvet painting:

TOOL- Schism

Rush- Tom Sawyer

Genesis- The Cinema Show

Frank Zappa- Uncle Remus

King Crimson- 21st Century Schizoid Man

Today's genre is Lilith Fair! Here's five tracks for your algorithm to drunkenly scream-sing at karaoke:
Alanis Morrissette- You Oughta Know
4 Non Blondes- What's Up?
Sinéad O'Connor- Nothing Compares 2 U
Meredith Brooks- Bitch
Jewel- Who Will Save Your Soul

A very large roly-poly light brown bunny rabbit wearing a tiny SF Giants ballcap is cuddled by a man wearing a Giants jersey.

please meet Alex the Great, a therapy bunny who works at the San Fran airport and now Giants games to help people who are overwhelmed

LOOK AT HIS TINY BALLCAP. LOOK AT IT.

Camille Saint-Saens- Danse Macabre, Op.40, R.171

Franz Liszt- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C Sharp Minor, S.244

Frederic Chopin- Waltz in D Flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1

Johannes Brahms- Ein deutches Requiem

Georges Bizet- Carmen

Today's genre is a study of the Romantic Period! Here's five tracks to make your algorithm feel feelings in spite of its Victorian sensibilities:

Today's genre is Jump Blues! Here's five tracks to make your algorithm jump:

Roy Milton- Big Fat Mama

Bull Moose Jackson- Nosey Joe

Big Joe Turner- Shake, Rattle & Roll

Buddy Johnson- Shufflin & Rollin’

Floyd Dixon- Hey, Bartender

After a long convalescence, I'm back, and the genre of the day is OrgCore! Here's five tracks to put blue collar in your punk:

Off With Their Heads- Nightlife

Jawbreaker- Do You Still Hate Me?

The Gaslight Anthem- American Slang

Hot Water Music- Wayfarer

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb- Poison Ivy

The Kobold (part 1) Being the first part of a newly completed rough draft

It's finally going up! I really hope everyone enjoys the adventure of my magical cowboy.
open.substack.com/pub/sethtrib...

1,375 words today, but I slept in, and the dishes remain unwashed, so I feel like a lazy lump. I really gotta get better about managing my definition of what counts as “worthwhile endeavor.”

The Kobold (Teaser) The first 1,235 words

Alright, it's taking longer than originally estimated, so here's a teaser:
open.substack.com/pub/sethtrib...

Mansfield, heh heh, what do you think they were growing, huh?

I SAID WHAT DO-

On my first reading, I thought, "Who tf is AL?"
For a moment, I lived in a world without artificial intelligence, and I want to go back.

Writing prompt:

I have personally catalogued almost two thousand planets with indigenous language-capable species to the galactic registry. In ninety-eight percent of cases, those species have named their home planet some near variation of “the thing we stand on.”

Mine A short spook

It's my first foray into horror! Kinda. It is very much a rough draft. I wrote it in a frenzy over the course of three hours last night, so please forgive stylistic errors and the like. Though I welcome notes concerning pacing, plot structure, and concept clarity.
open.substack.com/pub/sethtrib...

Hells Librarians🔥 #LibrarySky #ReadToLive

In an attempt to be more mindful of how I use language, I've started keeping track of how much I curse during the day. I'm averaging 112 instances of profanity per day, but I think with a little effort I can get up to 150.