Obsidian

Today is the day for the faculty of effort, for with it we thoroughly attain many kinds of wisdom.

This morning, all my hopes and optimism for 2021 were dashed.  The average number of new covid cases in Georgia, which yesterday dropped to 752, bounced right back up to over 1,021 cases per day.  Just when it looked like we were turning a corner, the caseloads rebounded to the same plateau level they've been at since late October.

Then, out in the Atlantic, a storm-force area of low pressure has appeared several hundred miles east-northeast of Bermuda. There's a 50-50 chance that this system might become a subtropical storm before it reaches much cooler waters Friday morning. Regardless of its status, it's not likely to make landfall on North America, but the Atlantic is not yet as calm and, well, pacific as it seemed yesterday.

Speaking of pacific, I listened to the new album, Obsidian, by Icelandic musician Jonsi (Sigur Ros) today.  Very, peaceful and beautiful - ambient waves of orchestral bliss to transport you to an Edenic other-world. There are seemingly no hooks to the compositions and as soon as the album was over, I couldn't recall a single melody.

I've reached Level 62 in Fallout 76 after some 191 hours of gameplay.  I seem to be approaching the "end game" in most of the storylines and quests, and am probably closer to wrapping this thing up than I realize, although the possibilities for continued, open-world exploration and game play seem endless.