You may or may not have noticed but we have not been posting for the last two weeks here at Stage Select Start, which has been for a couple of reasons and all happened around the same time.
Back on Monday, June 1st, Conklederp gave birth to our (our meaning Conklederp and Jaconian) child who I will, until they come up with their own online handle, refer to as Goblino (and 100% no this is not a reference to crotch goblins which I did not know was a thing until a few months back, long after we started using the name Goblino). So the last two weeks have been spent learning how to take care of this lil' guy, following his cues, sleeping when we have been able to (somewhere between the 8 - 12 feedings and changing per day), and just learning what it means to be a parent in June 2020.
And a few days before Goblino's birth George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on Monday May 25th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And then there was the incident in Central Park New York on that same Monday May 25th where Amy Cooper called the NYPD because Christian Cooper (unrelated) had filmed her and her off-leash dog in a wildlife protected area where dogs are required to be on-leash at all times, saying that "there's an African-American man threatening my life." (The NYTimes article was posted on May 27th). 73 days before George Floyd was murdered and Christian Cooper was threatened, on Friday, March 13th Breonna Taylor was murdered by police in Louisville, Kentucky when she was shot eight times during an apparent drug raid involving two suspects who were already in custody. 18 days before that on February 23rd near Brunswick, Georgia, Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and murdered by two white men in a pickup truck, and who were not arrested until a video surfaced on May 5th showing the events that happened. 535 days before, on September 6th, 2018, Botham Jean was murdered in his apartment when an off-duty Dallas police officer entered the wrong apartment thinking that it was hers and killed him. And in the last week, three black men have been found lynched in public spaces (two in CA, one in NY), all of them deemed suicide by officials.
When the protests over George Floyd's death started in Oregon on Saturday, May 30th, I was already unsure about posting an article on Monday, with a life as usual approach. I did not want to come across as tone-deaf to what was happening nationwide and I did not initially have a plan. Then Conklederp and I had Goblino a few days later so being a father took precedent over finishing up and posting on Monday, June 1st, Wednesday, June 3rd, Friday, June 5th, Monday, June 8th, Wednesday, June 10th, Friday, June 12th, or Monday, June 15th. I genuinely did not know how I was going to proceed in the coming days/weeks, which is a privileged position to be in. I count myself fortunate in so many ways, recognizing the privilege in all of the ways that I do have. First and foremost right now, that the company I work for afforded me two weeks paid paternity leave, something that I thought might be sufficient, but now know that I could have had another two months off to spend helping out Conklederp with Goblino and just getting to further develop our dynamic, and being able to figure out a manageable sleep cycle that would work well with my working from home schedule. Also privileged because I have a job during the pandemic that is not considered essential for the continuation of society at large, but I am still able to be employed full time and being able to work from home on company equipment. I am also a cis-gendered white male so I was able to watch Star Wars as a four-year-old and identify with any of the characters I wanted to. That is privilege and I recognize that I have it as much as I do.
And if the last two weeks look to be any type of indicator, I feel like my posts will be fewer than they had been in May; considering that I am posting my Monthly Update half-way through the month. I still do have things to say about games as well as social issues that have no direct bearing on our usual content. For that type of information, I will direct you to both our Twitter account and our Instagram account where I do frequently post stories to information that I have found helpful and/or retweeting for the same purpose.
Thank you for sticking with us and feel free to reach out for anything. We're here, and we're listening.
~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
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