Star Trek IV: The One With the Whales

A go to for sick days in bed for years.

I know it’s older, but here’s how they fought in the analog age.

This was my dilemma. I’m one person with a couple of dogs, I don’t need much interior, but I wanted land to cultivate both as a hobby and for the reward. I settled on a mid-century single wide on a decent lot, and bonus, it had mature trees. I can’t walk to downtown, but I can walk to the grocery store and bike to a bus stop to get to downtown. I do have to Lyft home because our buses quit early, but I’m often intoxicated so that’s safer anyway. The real perk of this is that the neighborhood is older, and while there’s some derelict places who don’t care (junk cars, weeds, dilapidation), it’s nice because no one fucking cares. It’s a mix of people like me turning their smaller, older homes into little bungalows and cottages, backyard chickens and gardens, plus some random peacocks that roam. We trade seeds, put bins of free veggies alongside the road, nod and chitchat. A lot of the US does have the space to create living environments like this, but it’s marketed the idea the house has to take up the whole lot and that landscaping other than perfectly manicured, wrong climate, water-sucking grass is a sin. I do wish our bus system was better, and side roads that encouraged walking/biking were better, but how we live in the communities we have shouldn’t be just dense but walkable or mega-subdivision it takes half an hour to drive out of. We can find ways to balance land use and social desires.

Once a Catholic always a Catholic. Walking away doesn’t absolve your guilt in participating in belief system that has been one of the most violent forces in history. Why’d you even participate in the first place? Aside of proclaiming your disdain for the institution anonymously online, what are you doing in real life to stop the spread and influence of your religion? Are you targeting Catholics in your community? Destroyed any houses of worship or places where they gather. How do I even know you’re a non-practicing Catholic, maybe you look like one…

This is what the stupidity of antisemitism looks like. It ignores any subtleties or nuance in the life of an individual and heaps the blame for the actions of some on all, regardless of whether that someone even endorses it or has the capacity to prevent it. Think Joe Jew in Nebraska has any power to stop the Israeli government even if he finds their goals abhorrent? He’s as powerless to stop them as you are.

You’re upset that some in Israel are harming those who can’t defend themselves, including children. Hate crimes don’t require the victim to actually be whatever the perpetrator thinks they are. You endorse blanket antisemitism and you’ll end up with neo-Nazis shooting up places Jews (or people they think are Jews) are located and unprotected, probably get some kids while they’re at it. Turning your rage against anyone that reminds you of who you’re actually upset with is just redirecting your anger to the most convenient target.

So swift she’s got time to get back to the bar before last call and try again.

Me: Puts on my finest clothes.

Doctor: “Take those off and put on this paper smock that exposes your ass. Also, all the surfaces and my instruments are cold.”

We’re really all over with Spinosaurus.

Man, I’m mid-40s and not particularly thrilled by the concept this could only be mid-journey. I’m down to stick around so long as I can contribute something to my community, not in the capitalist sense but the social sense. At the point my existence is a drain on resources and I’m living just because I can… fuck that.

Political divide is things like budget, use of public lands, roads & infrastructure. We’re split on morality, ethics, bigotry, and child rape. A good number of us don’t even bother talking to family members anymore, why would I waste my time trying to converse with the dude who lives up the street from me that has a t-shirt of Donnie surrounded by bikini clad girls and “Chillin’ like a felon”?

Trump is the poster child of chauvinism, bigotry, bravado, greed, deceit, swindle, and zero self-control. His ability to get away with it has emboldened his supports to embrace their worst inclinations and treat their neighbors like Trump does. Granted, they are not Trump, so the average thief, wife beater, or kid diddler still gets arrested, but a lot have figured out they can be blatantly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or a plain old dick in public and love that there’s no consequences anymore.

I have no interest in winning over people who have no shame, no remorse, and no empathy. Some will come crawling over when the suffering trickles down and finally affects them, but without any self-reflection or moral awakening, they’ll go right back to their old ways as soon as the burden is lifted. Fuck ‘em.

Lost your job to AI? Good news, shoveling horse shit off the streets is once again in high demand.

The Trump admin:

When I was a baby punk I was an insecure try-hard and got dogged on for it by the older punks. I was bequeathed a nickname that while not a total insult, was not the best and sort of an inside joke about my desperation to be “punk”. A lot of those older punks left the scene in their early 20s, but I kept on and discovered that people I didn’t know knew me by that name even if they didn’t know it was originally an insult. It’s still with me 30 years later, simultaneously cringe because it’s so, so “nehhh, PUNK ROCK!” sounding, but at the same time, punk as fuck and kinda badass. Overall it’s been a positive experience, but knowing its origin helps keep my ego in check when I lean too hard into “punker than thou”.

Middle aged American from the mountain west. The people often suck but the scenery is beautiful. I live sorta alone, no other humans but two dogs, two cats, one fish, and four chickens. I work with dogs for a living, training/daycare/boarding/rescue, and I love my career. I live within my means and try and pay the support I’ve had from others forward. Travelled a lot in my youth (the rest of the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe) and enjoyed it even if I’m a bit more of a homebody these days. I have a lot of grievances with the current regime, the people who empowered them, and the capitalist assholes who fund them, but I do admit it’s been a boon for the punk scene. I haven’t seen this many shows a month since the early 00s.

Found the skunk.

At the end of the day everything about how we engage with, understand, and define the universe is based off human systems because that’s just how we do. We’re intelligent enough to recognize beyond ourselves and deduce the nature of why things happen and then use our words to describe it. A granitic continent doesn’t know its granite and a basaltic oceanic plate doesn’t know it’s basalt, it operates as it’s properties demand, like they have for billions of years before humans and will for millions of years after we’re gone.

The products of these natural cycles do lend to how humanity has organized itself for thousands of years. River valleys helped establish agriculture and the birth of “civilization”, and mountain ranges, deserts, great rivers, and oceans made for natural boundaries once populations grew to the size they started defining “them and us”.

So I do agree that continents (and natural features in general) shape how we think of the people who live there, and some places have thousands of years of history where those features were the boundaries of their nation. But the physical structure we call a continent exists with or without humans calling it a continent, nations do not. Continents influence human affairs and cultural/national identity at home and abroad, but again, that’s heaping our humanness on what is otherwise a slab of granite that is doing its thing.

I’d point out too, Earth’s plates are constantly shifting, but for the entire existence of humans they’ve only moved a few to a few dozen kilometers. Their importance to our social organizing is partly due to their seemingly static nature. But in 200-300 million years we’ll possibly be all jammed back together Pangea-style. Though I highly doubt humans will be around to see that.

My two big ones that get money and my time are a couple of local dog rescues and prison re-entry group that helps the recently paroled. I also give to the local non-religious food bank, our independent radio station, an LGBTQ and AIDs awareness group, a wolf protection group, and a keep our river/trails clean org. I donate my secondhand items to a thrift shop that raises money for low cost spay/neuter services.

Continents are a geological construct, with continents tending to be granitic, and oceanic plates typically being basalt. Dividing continents with geopolitical boundaries is a social construct.

And unless it comes from the Gascony region of France it isn’t even gasoline, just sparkling petrol.