One More Week in NJ

Since I am heading out of New Jersey back to New England again i thought I would take a look back on all of the stuff that happened and things I accomplished in the year I have been living in New Jersey:

• Lost my partner/best friend and my father within a month period.  Did my best to be strong for family and my dad's friends.
• Reconnected with many amazing NJ/NYC/DC friends and comrades.
• Paid off all my student loans!
• Bought a car
• Spent quality time with family including my brother and his amazing partner.
• worked at a warehouse here for over a year and really learned a lot.
• Really upped my game in soccer and scored goals playing against former professional players from Colombia.
• Substantially improved my Spanish and Mexican slang.
• Read a ton of books... both political and fiction. 
• Did a ton of writing and thinking and believe that I have a much better conception of my politics.  Gave a talk on this at a bookfair in Scranton and was very happy with the results
• witnessed some badass black lives matters demos.
• Saw a bunch of sick shows with bands such as Electric Wizard and Pallbearer.
• Greatly improved my mental and physical health from where I was a year ago.
• Ate soooo many pupusas and pizzas.

Mistborn: The Only Slave Rebellion I Wasn't Enthusiastic About

Mistborn is a book about a slave uprising led by some former slaves with Jedi powers and written by a Mormon. Parts of the book are excellent and I found myself cringing in others..particularly at the awful politics of the lead character. 

Despite descriptions of utter class oppression in addition to massacres committed by the godhead,  there seems to be constant reminders that "not all the nobility are bad.  As a result (spoiler alert)


...the rebels decide to preserve the nobility and create a monarchy to prevent the "economy from collapsing and the slaves from committing wanton acts of reprisals against the nobles.  As I said, a Mormon wrote it.

In addition,  besides the main character, there is barely a female character in the story...which is more excusable in Tolkien than a modern story.