And given all that went on earlier this week, I suppose I should be thankful that things are now calm.
Listening to this.
Words are really failing me, really, but I think things could continue to stay calm.
Forgive, and move on. I understand that that’s difficult, but it’s what needs to be done.
I’m writing, because that’s what I do.
I’ve been urged to participate in these themes of the week.
so, yeah, I’ll try to do that.
Maybe the compulsion to write in the summer will be gone.
We shall see.
Theme of the Week 85 – If you could relive just one event in your life, what would it be?
This is really tough. I was thinking about maybe some of the things that I did in late-2009, probably the trip to DC with my soon-to-be wife to watch the soon-to-be Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints beat the Redskins.
In the snow.
But I’m probably combining that trip with other trips we took together.
I remember one year going to see the National Christmas Tree. We shivered and shivered, walked around in the snow, had a nice dinner at our favorite French place, etc..
But would I want to relive it?
I don’t know.
I’ve never been much about the one-shining-moment schtick. But it speaks to another question I often have trouble.
On the flip side, there’s also not a single monment I can think of where I totally screwed up.
Have a made missteps? Absolutely.
Why shouldn’t I dwell on those the way this prompt is asking me to dewell on moments of victory?
…
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Three days more of work, then no work until next year.
Maybe.
I, because I am who I am, will monitor things, and be there as long as there’s still mutual desire.
But I’m finished, and I really can’t bring myself to care about much of anything. I did get this from someone who’s actually been reading what I was writing.
But I’m finished with this year, really. Kind of appropriate background music.
What can I do, more, to get away from the craziness? I don’t know, and I’m not really thinking clearly.
I started to lay things out specifically, but I’m not sure there’s a real reason to do that.
Though, if everything goes well, it’ll be a late ending on Wednesday, and I can just step away.
News.
Last night, during our weekly pandemic get-together, there was a lot of discussion about what’s going on with the whole SolarWinds thing.
This was in my go-to online news feed when I’m writing.
The news source gets the conclusion wrong, I think, but I shouldn’t expect more, really. This shit is confusing, and you’ve got competing groups who don’t want to change what they do once they’ve become accustomed to operating in one way.
That goes to politics, too, I guess. The article is irresponsible, but it makes the fifty-something editor feel warm inside.
Or the big “confederate flag” that was flying along 95 before the Commonwealth took it for roadway expansion.
Mmm. Yeah.
So, I wanted to talk about this.
I waded into the cesspool that is Facebook, and saw that it’d been posted in one of the groups I follow.
My comment?
“Less promisingly, the bill would impose a 5 percent federal tax on cannabis products, rising to 6 percent after two years, 7 percent after three years, and 8 percent after four years.” Glad they got that part in there. Much like what’s happening with many states, the recent push doesn’t actually dismantle the apparatuses assembled in the past century to fight drugs, but just redeploys it to _collect taxes_. The SWAT raids will get worse. I see you’re running a grow operation, there, but the Commissioner of Revenue says you[ve never paid a cent in taxes. We’re going to take all of those plants, along with everything else you’ve got.
The hispter Democrats’ argument is that “decriminalization” fixes the bad parts of the “war on drugs.”
No. No, it doesn’t when you’re doing it to raise tax revenue.
Did you miss the bit about the Stamp Act in school?
No prompt today, just a recap of what I’ve done, and what I hope to see for the rest of the year.
Since I’ve been up today, I ordered my new computer. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but it looks like it’ll do for the next few years.
This thing isn’t whining yet this morning, which is nice. I think the new one will be quiet, too.
So. On writing. I don’t know. Obviously a lot of what I’ve ended up writing about is the 600-pound gorilla in the room, COVID-19.
I’m worried about Lockeian fundamental human rights. I’m convinced there’s a large portion of the population in the US who don’t believe in those rights anymore.
I don’t know what to do about that, and I’m much more limited in my options to combat it.
The other day, Friday, maybe? I ended up watching a bit of MTV Classic. Bust A Move was on. “Everything you have is yours, and not stolen.”
But if you get a government agent to steal it, it’s okay, right? No.
For “Cyber Monday,” I did order my new desktop. I hope it will be better than this wheezing thing. While it’s not exactly what I thought I wanted, but can it be worse than what I’m dealing with now?
And, not long after I finished writing that, I ended up buying something else. So much for fiscal responsibility.
But, yeah, I’m finished. Eleventh year in the books.
I hope everyone has a nice Christmas.
I will try not to be so sporadic, but I do need to get rid of the daily writing spells.
Maybe I won’t write this summer. We’ll see.
I think there’s something useful, perhaps, in my underreported news items. Walt Hickey sort of does a version of this over at numlock.news, but I think I could do something different.
Could I do a very short podcast on a single story….? Hmmm…..
Sputtering towards the end of the month, both me and my writing.
I think I’ve slept more in the past two days than I have in the past decade.
It’s different.
Listening to Robbie and Gene Epstein as a Sunday Morning wake-up.
I watched some of Rob’s stand-up Friday night, and enjoyed it. I might have been a little more gentle, but this is his set, not mine.
Would I pay money to consume it? Probably. It’s largely enjoyable to me, and I want to see him succeed.
My only real point of emphasis? High-droxy-chlor-o-quin
My body seems to be responding positively, and I should email one of my doctors about that.’
This is another somewhat-truncated week. I get my infusion on Friday, finally, thankfully. With the extra rest, however, I’m not nearly as fatigued as I’d normally be.
Hair growth is happening. The beard isn’t going badly. The hair up top is a bit of a pain to deal with, but I’m going to deal with it.
It’ll be a bit strange to have an ID that has me with long hair on my face, and head.
Oh well.
My initial hedging on it, is passed.
I do wish I could get a haircut at Georgetown while I was in the is-he-going-to-die-after-his-infusion period.
Prompt…
Have you ever unintentionally poisoned someone against another person because you hated them?
No. Doing that is exactly the opposite to how I live. I play Sir Robin.
Still, there’s a difference. One of the reasons I’m getting counseling, is that I know bad things could happen, and I really don’t care.
All I ask is that if you’re going to harm me, please leave a record of it.
If you’re going to harm me, own it.
That, too, reflects back on how I live my life. Have I ever done anything I regret? Certainly. Have I done anything that causes terrible embarrassment? No. Nothing. Now that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do some things differently, wouldn’t place confidence in some individuals, but I think nearly everything I’ve done was justifiable.
Okay. News.
Front page of Bing was this, which is a video clip.
The woke crowd will say he’s a set-up. Whatever. I do believe in life, liberty, and property. If that makes me a bad person, so be it. Kill me for it, just do it when the cameras are rolling. You can’t hide everything forever.
But on a somewhat-related note, and in line with what I’ve been barking about the last few days, all of this is killing mom-and-pop shops.
The fruits of someone else’s labor are not yours to give, but they’re also not yours to take.
Even if you know better than me.
Saturday morning. Not as much sleeping as the past two days, but I think I’m getting more on schedule.
Going to address the prompt early today because the news section really is what I want to deal with today.
So. Prompt.
Is there someone you were close to at one point in time, that you can no longer stand to be around?
Absolutely. Her. Him. Her. No ill-will towards him. Well, I still talk to her sometimes. Him, too. *shrug*
I don’t have a lot of friends. I never have. Few people get close to me, understand how I work. Some of that is me, but things fall away.
Some of that is a function of my nomadic upbringing. Some of it is a function of how I behave.
The amount of ill-will i bear towards those with whom I really don’t have contact varies.
By and large, I’m civil.
Significantly limiting time spent in the cesspool that is Facebook goes a long way to ensuring that.
I use the mute function liberally. That’s kind of eliminated my original concept of just unfriending them there.
This is related to the news section today.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced of two things:
I admit that I’m listening to this right now.
What I’ve been looking for is solid evidence that the sorts of measures recommended by lockdown proponents that the lockdowns actually work.
Okay. It’s an island with relatively few residents. Let’s look at Australia.
The numbers there are increasing, too, despite it being late spring.
Science doesn’t know how to control this. Government, especially ones “following the science” don’t have answers, either.
So you’re left with a choice of doing something that probably won’t work, or doing nothing.
Politicians are accepting whichever option justifies more authoritarianism.
Listening to this in the background. This morning really did require an effort to write, not to just mess around.
Thanksgiving was decent. Seeing both teams serve up fortyburgers was, um, satisfying.
The nighttime AFC game was delayed because of a COVID-19 outbreak on the Ravens.
Dangerous prediction! Probably all of those infected will be okay next week.
I know, I know, that’s not Chuck Todd dangerous, but I clearly don’t believe in the constantly-shifting War On ScienceTM.
Casting any aspersions on the blessed is risky.
Oh well.
Christmas gifts, plans
Happy to see that there’s a way you can put together one of the Big Tech merchant’s wish lists, then buy things somewhere else.
So I’ve largely done that.
I don’t know for whom else I should buy gifts.
At this point, I can count on one hand the number of people outside my family who’ve kept up with me since the rolling that started in 2013.
I don’t even have the energy to get upset about it. Maybe I should.
News
Oh, a CIA officer got killed in one of the bright spots of the Obama/Biden foreign wars. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Two more days, and another year finished.
I shouldn’t say I’m excited to relax, should I?
But I am.
Thanksgiving.
Even with the Steelers’ game cancelled, there’s still games in Detroit and Dallas.
I actually saw an interesting story on this.
The AFC game for tonight was cancelled, so it’s very old-school today. One intra-conference game in Dallas, one cross-conference game in Detroit.
I do like the old-timey NFL franchises still seeking Super Bowl success — Lions, Cardinals, Browns.
So. Thanksgiving. What am I thankful for?
News
I mentioned this above. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, it’s pretty clear that this is a basic thing that humans do. Yes, there may be a few who can do it in solitude, but most people want feedback and interaction.
Cutting that off, something that is explicitly protected in the Constitution, isn’t going to work.
There will be violence. As it should be.
But today is going to be football, food, and calling family for Jitsi meets, etc.
Back tomorrow.
