J.B. Sommerset

"The view from our House" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset This week's quote is more for me than it is for you, unless you too are running on fumes and the belief you have in yourself.  I have a tendency to get too many irons in the fire at the same time. The problem with a having to split the focus is that it's very hard to finish all the "stuffs" a person needs to do. Lately is seems that all of the projects I have been juggling are important, too important to put off. I am reminded of the little engine that could. Except I am also low on gas, and have bad wheel bearings.  This homesteading thing requires a lot of energy. So I decided to send the drone up above the trees and look out at the horizon. Beautiful! I took a photo of it for all of you.  It's a good reminder of why I work so hard at so many things. I am lucky to be able to live where I do, despite all the hardships. This week's quote if from the rough rider himself- Teddy Roosevelt. I hope it mean...

"Tiny little friend" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Well, I guess I can't call it the quote of the week if I don't update on the regular- like weekly would be ideal for calling it "the quote of the week". But, what the hell, I'm going to do my best and call it that anyway. So, I am now back on the wagon, despite the shit-show that is my country right now. Here's todays quote, it's not mine, but it fits the times.  "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth..."  H.L. Mencken Cheers!

Resilient A.F. J.B. Sommerset (C) 2025     It's been a long time sense I posted anything. I had been busy trying to find ways to enact change, prepare for the worst, and stave off a tidal wave of embarrassment, anger, and some depression. I decided that it would be good to return, and post more. I hate to say it, but a lot of my writing moving forward might have a political flavor, for that I apologize in advance.      I do not say this light hearted, I do not say it because it has not been said before, or because I am prone to "hysteria" as that vapid ugly bald-ass incel  Steven Miller would say. What I write about today I write out of extreme concern, not just the people in the U.S., the good people who denounce what is happening, but I write this out of concern the whole world. We aren't the only players on this board, we never have been, and we share this pale blue dot with a host of diversity, all forms of it. Handing the keys to the U.S. over to thes...

"A January Morning" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Well, well, well... Look what the cat dragged in, it's 2025. We all knew this was coming, and now it's here. Another year come and and gone, and I am not so sure that's a good thing. 2024 had it's problems, but they were our problems, and 2024 didn't let us fix those problems before everything turned. We went through so much together, so many experiences, and now we have to move on to something new. Let's be clear here, when talking about 2024, we all said the same thing to her: "It's not you, it's me. I am changing and I need my space" (or something along those lines). But secretly we had our eye on 2025, at least the fickle among us did. Now 2025 is here, I find myself having regrets. Did I give 2024 enough of a chance? Was I the one that quit us? Was our relationship doomed to fail? It's too late now. Lets see what the new year brings. I took a little time off after the election to re...

"The End of the Horizon", J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Hello again! And welcome back. This week has been physically challenging for me, I finished a retaining wall, and it was just me doing it. So my back kind of hurts, but I have this stone wall out front now, and that's kind of cool. With all that struggle, I still fill accomplished because every time I look out that window, I am going to see that wall. Hooray! I can't say that for most of the jobs I have worked through out my life. That's why this week the quote is about crap jobs we all worked at one time or another. Here you go, served up cold, just the way we like it. "The most grievous injury a person can suffer on the job is the loss of the self, the soul, and forgetting purpose." J.B. Sommerset  Cheers!

"The Way Down" (c) J.B. Sommerset 2024 Posts have slowed as the weather gets cooler. In the words of Jon Snow, "Winter is coming". Which means that I have been preparing for the colder months. We get lots of snow up here- around 7 feet and the temperatures frequently drop down below zero (Fahrenheit). Last year we hit -19 in January and it stayed that way for a couple weeks. This year, who knows? So I have been chopping wood and doing the maintenance on the craw space, the shop, and the snow plow. This year we had a nice stove installed. There are a lot of power outages up here, and it's nice to have a way to keep the pipes from freezing. We are going to run out of wood any time soon. We live in the middle of the forest. Our driveway is 2 miles long and every year trees fall across it and become firewood. This year everything will be ready when the snow falls, or at the very least most of the way there.  So, stay tuned, there will be more news and stories.  

"The Little Blue Flower" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 I am not sure if I have posted this one before, but this is an election year and all kinds of talking-head lip-service is occupying our time. So things get a bit jumbled. This one is about bureaucracy. I hate bureaucracy more than most things. Most of it is unnecessary, and what isn't gets buried by the rest. So, here it is, your quote of the week: "Bureaucracy is an always will be the hammer the privileged use to keep the poor and impoverished subservient to their agendas..."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Little Yellow Flower", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Folks, I am not one for drama, but sometimes people just start things because they can't live without the rush of endorphins that accompanies rumor spreading, bickering, gossiping, complaining, etc. I, in fact can't stand this kind of behavior. Some events recently led me to coin a new quote. So here it is, this is my reply to people who complain that they don't like the way people see them when they behave in certain ways: "You can't show up to the party with a big 'Shit-stirring stick' and expect that people think you are a baker..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

                                                      "Moe Mushrooms", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Living way up here in the mountains I have to admit a few things. One of the hardest and most obnoxious is that nature does some hard lessons on all of us mountain folk- and also that there is nothing we can do to change that. For instance, forest fires, I dread July and August every year now, because everything is on fire for two to three months. But, and this is a hard understand, there isn't much I can do about it. So this weeks quote is an admission to it: "Mankind's power over nature is and always will be an illusion as far as nature is concerned. There is no amount of action that will stop the rain from falling, and no amount of begging that will save us from the flood. In essence, we are and always will be at it's merci. We have no power to cha...

                                                    "Mountain Moon", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 It's been a long couple of weeks, summer is winding down and there are a lot of projects that I need to get caught up on before the snow flies. Like all the wood choppin' and the stacking of at least a couple of cords. So, needless to say, I am very sore, and there is so much more to do. This week my "quote of the week" will reflect that. So here it is, short, simple, and almost like it was said by another old timer standing in his underwear on the front porch: "It will quit hurting when the pain goes away..." J.B. Sommerset. Cheers!

Well, we made it. Here we are in 2024, I waited a couple of days to make sure it was legit. Apparently it is, we have passed through another segment of time to the next micro-epoch of the 2020's. With how weird it has gotten since 2016, its anyone's guess what's next. I mean, it's been escalating in weirdness for a while now. One of my favorite authors is Kurt Vonnegut, I have read his catalogue of strange stories and oddities, the man's entire collection of works. Some of the most interesting and down right bazaar stories. But I have to say, not even he could have prepared me for how strange the future actually is.  So, here comes 2024, strap in and open your mind, things are about to get stranger, especially because it's an election year here in the good old U-S-of-A, and that means "double-play" for the circus monkeys and spin doctors. The stories we might encounter could just break us. All you creators out there might find your self lacking next t...

It seems that Halloween put me off a little. It's understandable, don't judge me. Anyway, I am back with the quote of the week.  Here's a little gem from the archives. This one is written down in what I call "The Big Red Book". Of course, the title of said book reads: "The Bees in My Brain", writers will understand that. "Be fruitful and multiply? We all grew up hearing that, but we also grew up seeing that a couple should never have so many kids that they can't feed and water them, let alone love them. This world does not need the trauma-fruit religion creates. Thankfully, the fruit was barren, and those seeds did not continue to grow from us."  J.B. Sommerset- Doomsday Dogma & the Jesus Twinkle Cheers!

Here's one for all the people out there who would rather see the world as it is, than view it through all the filters that remove the ugly imperfections and blemishes. Here's to those people who would rather be troglodytes than pull their phone out to snapshot their food, or scroll through their Facebook feed at a funeral, the people who want the real connections to the monetized ones. This one is for you... "No wonder the world is dying of loneliness and a broken heart. Every time it tries to have an intimate moment with someone, they pull out their phone and try and exploit that sacred moment for 'likes', 'views', and 'subscriptions'..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Here's this week's quote of the week, it comes from my observation of the people that I know, specifically two people I know, this is how they lived, thankfully they didn't die this way, instead they separated. It was a train wreck for all those around them, and thankfully half of it is over. "In a house with two narcissists and one mirror, there will be murder..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

I wanted to share a little piece of the next chapter of the book of Sommerset. I have mentioned that I am moving back to the woods, I have also said that I am currently trying to finish building a house- it's pretty easy to put the clues together and figure out what is going on. I am building a home in the country. No, I don't mean big pickup trucks, cattle, and 40 acres of pasture with barns and fields. No, what I mean is remote, on a mountainside, and surrounded by forest.  This will be my forest stronghold where I will work on my art, my writing, and my web presence via satellite technologies (As much as I do not like some of this world's billionaires, I must succumb to some of the products they create- this time there was no way around it). So expect me to keep posting and updating. I will have a studio there, for both videography and sound. Hopefully, the youtube channel will gain some traction and I can post more and more of my art. Also maybe so collaborations, we wi...

Wow, it's been too long my friends! On the upside, my house is almost done! Yeah, moving back to the woods. In the meantime, and to keep all of you read-a-holics occupied, here is the bi-weekly audio book... er books. Its a collection of short stories and literature from one of my favorite authors Phillip K. Dick . One of the most prolific and underrated science fiction writers ever. Hope you enjoy this one, you salivating read-a-vors.  Cheers!

I had to go to Iceland so the posts stopped flowing. It was super nice, to be honest I was overwhelmed with the country's national beauty and wonder- still am as a matter of fact. I am catching my breath after the trip. It was a much-needed breather from the ordinary day-to-day routine.  When life gets too mediocre a person needs to assess where they're at. If where they are at, doesn't match where they want to be, then the routine needs to be shaken up. In other words; sometimes you just have to drop everything and go. This was one of those times. That, and it's always been on my bucket list to visit Iceland. After the fact, I realize it's an item I am so glad I listed.  Soon I will get back into the groove and start delivering you those sweet, sweet, content updates. Plus, of course, the bi-weekly audiobooks, artwork, and maybe a travel log from my trip.  Cheers!

Just a quick update since I have been so sporadic about updating the "NEWS" page. It's been few and far between the updates. The last one was almost 4 months apart from the previous post, which tells me I don't need a news page and that all news and updates will be posted here on the feed to make things simpler.  So some news for the site. First off, I am still considering changing platforms and making a special gallery page for the art I post. The current one is too simplistic and outdated.  Secondly, I plan to add a new section on the site for ongoing works where I will post the before editing and the after editing for some of my current content, meaning that I might post a paragraph in rough, rewrite, and final with the mark up for anyone out there looking to see how I do it.  Lastly, I plan to find new platforms for my stores and consolidate them into one place. I like the services I have used, but I noticed that the end products were not the quality I wanted them...

This time I thought I would pick something that everyone knows, but few have actually read. Much like " Oz " by Frank Baum , people know the story because of movies and media, but the story is deeper than they can capture. " Alice in Wonderland " by Lewis Carroll is another story most people know about but few have read. I thought I would dig up the audiobook and post it here. The last time I posted the works of Lewis Carroll, I posted "Alice in Wonderland", this time I will post the next one: "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there". Enjoy! Cheers, and keep on creating!

(photocredit  pradiptafelix  from reshot.com) With all that is happening in the world, (and all that isn't) I find myself time-starved. I am working on a few more projects than I would have liked- some of which I want to work on and some of which are in the realms of 'adulting'. Those things are what must get done despite how much I want to play. The good news is I got over a few humps this last month. If I listen hard enough I can hear two things; the faint cheering of a crowd somewhere, and the sound of the world's smallest violin playing. I am not sure which I deserve more. So, here are a couple of announcements for the upcoming months: Firstly, there is more art coming, and more youtube videos of said art being created. As soon as I can unpack my mic, some of it will have commentary and maybe some short stories, something I have wanted to do for a long time but never got around to.  Second, I am still working on my novels and will be posting some excerpts from them....