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The latest reading in the Trollope North America book has brought me to read about Cairo, Illinois, and as I have done many times before in the process of reading this book, I have taken the time to look up the history and surroundings (Google Street View) of the area today. I can't say that I recall ever reading about the amount of racial conflict that has basically completely killed the entire town. People say the same thing about Detroit, and the decline of that city is indeed exceptional by any metric, but that city still has about 700000 inhabitants while Cairo has 2000 residents left. I came across this message board thread: http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39039 , and soon found the same areas on Street View in basically the same state. Further reading of links to other threads there and the wiki page about the city led me to find this picture of a 1909 lynching, which was horrifying: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WillJamesMob.gif . A lynching, as a public event, that was attended by masses, that was illuminated like a Broadway play, that was photographed. Despite knowing that these kind of things happened, it's simply surreal to see new proof of it.

With today being a day off and my wife having tomorrow off from her job, I spent more time on GTA5 today than normal, so I have limited time for writing today. I'll likely have more allotted for tomorrow should I decide to start it earlier in the day, which I have contemplated doing before and should do.

Partial Draft.

19030303 21:08:06

LA-N-0800

"What's the matter with you? What's gotten up your ass today?"
"Oh, it's about Grace, actually." Carbondale leaned his head backwards with the mug tipped directly over his head so that he could get the last drop to fall into his mouth. He released a dramatic sigh of satisfied air after consuming the spirits. "I found out today that she's been lying to me, been lying to me for months. Months! Everything's all changed for her now after Racine. She may get herself lost and away sooner than I had ever dreamed."
"You gotta realize, man, that's a teenage thing. That's not because of something you did specifically to her. That's all teenagers. That's what they do. Try not to let it hurt so much. What'd she even lie about?" Venedy said this with first hand knowledge of his own daughter pilfering quantities of alcohol and cigarettes from their house on the weekends.
"But see, that's the thing, this is kind of an affront to me, to our family. Because what she was coverin up was going to see a fencing trainer so that she could learn how to use a sword. That's honestly insulting to me, and to our family. When's she ever gonna have a chance to use a sword if she needed to use one? If she's in a place where she would justify it, I doubt she'd have the will to honestly injure a man with the weapon. The girl gets affected when she so much as happens to see my wife preparing a chicken or turkey for dinner. And now she thinks she'll ever use a sword against another man! No, see, the only reason she's doing this is to show to me that she thinks that I can't protect her. That I failed her. That's what's ultimately behind it, if she were to ever speak the truth about it."
"I suppose so. What do you intend to do then, bar her from continuing her lessons? Or some kind of punish-"
"No, no, I won't do that so much because even I know that fencing lessons aren't a bad thing to have by themself. That's not the problem so much, as useless as I think it'd be for her. The problem is she hid it from me, and I think my suspicion as to why she hid it is correct. That's the problem. No, all I intend to do is confront her about it, and let her know that I'm aware. But what I'll make clear is that if she thinks that I am incapable of supporting and protecting her, then she can get the fuck out of my house and fend for herself."

Today's song session was dull. On the Tube was more of a surprising bad play than Albida was, but it's still disappointing to have dips of 8% or more lately. Still, I guess one good highlight is that I finally got a new record on Final Countdown, and thus have one more entry from March of 2012 off of the books.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double play. "@" denotes Random chart modifier. All songs are of highest difficulty type unless specified.
First line, by column; song title, EX score percentage and letter grade rank, EX score value and pass/fail, judgment readout (just great, great, good, bad poor), highest combo reached, note count of chart under Extra Mode, original note count of chart, percentage increase of Extra Mode notes over original note count, timestamp.
Second line, by column; pass count / play count, EX score percentage difference from record, EX score value difference from record, judgment readout difference from record (if current play is new record), highest combo reached difference from record (if current play is new record), timestamp of old record (if current play is new record).

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+nc 	date
feeling of love @	57.88 B		1468.F	543.382.227.35.156	0109	1268			2013-09-25T02:30:35:770Z
0/13			04.92-		0125-

on the tube @		55.67 B		1500.F	548.404.256.53.208	0449	1347			2013-09-25T02:33:13:138Z
0/9			08.42-		0227-

far in the distance @	39.53 D		1821.F	671.479.494.198.824	0040	2303			2013-09-25T02:37:01:969Z
0/6			03.01-		0139-

the story begins @	41.51 D		1644.F	579.486.491.179.640	0106	1980			2013-09-25T02:41:30:266Z
0/4			05.73-		0227-

eraser engine DD @	38.17 D		1460.F	493.474.455.171.730	0036	1912			2013-09-25T02:44:49:922Z
0/7			02.37-		0091-

faerie @		44.57 C		2973.F	1017.939.796.160.737	0127	3335	2510	032.86	2013-09-25T02:50:14:625Z
0/4			03.20+		0213+	88+37+143-6+60+		0001-				2012-05-20T01:36:16:785Z

silvia drive @		65.36 B		1808.F	675.458.185.19.96	0350	1383	1364	001.39	2013-09-25T02:53:53:721Z
0/5			00.11+		0003+	20+37-6+9+19+		0206+				2013-09-21T01:21:08:238Z

red rocket rising @	58.92 B		1663.F	601.461.217.46.214	0150	1411			2013-09-25T02:57:32:809Z
0/5			01.73-		0049-

small clone @		72.99 A		0908.P	350.208.52.3.15		0130	0622			2013-09-25T03:01:42:418Z
7/7			02.81-		0035-

albida @		39.43 D		1601.F	581.439.479.241.900	0083	2030			2013-09-25T03:06:48:690Z
0/8			07.85-		0319-

earth like planet @	43.51 D		1685.F	585.515.466.156.508	0113	1936			2013-09-25T03:10:41:624Z
0/6			02.42-		0094-

tablets @		72.62 A		1011.P	386.239.49.5.29		0119	0696			2013-09-25T03:15:11:986Z
6/6			03.08-		0043-

oceanbird 		36.65 D		2022.F	669.684.760.264.890	0127	2758			2013-09-25T03:26:49:161Z
0/3			00.38-		0021-

final countdown @	76.07 A		1275.P	502.271.54.1.20		0222	0838	0838	0	2013-09-25T03:32:27:553Z
6/6			00.33+		0004+	10+16-1+1+7+		0051-				2012-03-21T04:30:59:895Z

ancient blaze @		48.80 C		2118.F	772.574.411.138.561	0103	2170			2013-09-25T03:37:18:937Z
0/3			05.02-		0218-