I have not earned an income from work since September 2019. I moved out to "Go-Fuckyourself-Stan" since I was unable to emigrate to Ireland after selling and giving away most of my stuff that held no personal value other than an anchor holding me to a city I no longer felt was my home. This process involved selling about 30K worth of astronomy gear. The new homestead is 80 acres, well 160. I had to buy the second lot and hire an atourney to get an easement and access road built. With the pandemic and the shit show that is labour in the rural parts of the USA, the road will get graded and graveled sometime in 2030. My hope is all these cunts buying land up here will realize that living in the reddest of the red states home to naught but protestant traitors will make then leave in a few years. I'm just glad that I was able to get all my living stuff done before the world went to full shit in Q4 2020. The one thing I do have here is damn near perfect skies. Last year, not counting the land purchase and moving a single wide mobile home to the land, I lived on less than 30K including taxes and fees , gas, food etc. I took a look at finances, and thanks to some amazing timing I nearly doubled my net worth due to the pandemic dip and recovery rally. So it is time to relearn to love a hobby again. I made a call and got hold of a guy I have done business with to the tune of over six figures including referrals over the last 20 or so years. He asked what I have been up to, and told him. I told him I burned all my online presence, that the old job was treating me worse than shite, that I removed myself from astronomy education and noped out to the mountains. My guy then spent an hour calling me every name in the book, insulting everything about me, and telling me that he is so disappointed that I bailed out he will never sell me anything again. He then hung up on me. There are maybe six people on this earth that can talk to me in such a manner... and have me sit and listen, none of whom are family. A few days later he calls back, calmer and gives me conditions that I need to meet to stay a customer. He explained how the pandemic cratered the astronomy hobby and there is literally no gear worth owning for sale right now. But he was willing to shove me to the front of the line if I did a few things for him. The one demand that almost ended a multi-decade friendship was my guy demanding I get back online again. I asked why. He went silent for a good few minutes then gave me an answer I will not put in public. He made a convincing argument. So here I am, back on the sewer of human failure that is the internet. The internet was a mistake, not one that I think the human race can recover from fast enough to fix our larger institutional issues. When the shit really hits the fan, the French revolution is going to look like a minor disagreement followed by a night of drinking at the pub. I do not have internet at the homestead, I barely have phone service. I explained this, we had a good talk, and so here I am again. At least now that the solar is up I can type stuff on a laptop for the trips into town to see the doctor or brave a Costco. Not watching the fall of western civilization in real time one garbage twitter thread at a time has really helped my mental and physical well being. I've lost enough weight and can almost breathe again due to no allergies to the point that they now think they can drug me correctly and fix my health issues. I'll post once in a while when I can make it to town with time to spare to sit in the library or a coffee shop and get connected. Maybe. I also realized that 2021 is the 10 year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. I should sit down and write my angry fucking hate-rant on my experience there. I'm not-unconvinced that the US system of representative democracy died with insane panicked over-response by the people in power, but I hope I am wrong. Everyone complaining about police over-responses and use of force that did not raise your voice ten years ago? eat shit.
Last week I said I was looking forward to the first triathlon of the season, and that it was going to kick my ass. It actually didn't! I had a great day. My main goals were swim under 2:00/100 yd, bike over 20 MPH, and run under 8:00/mile. And I hit them all! Next up is an Olympic distance June 26. That's a much hillier bike course, so that'll be "fun." Sunday morning's weather was great. Warm but not humid. The humidity picked up since then, and it's nearly unbearable. After the event Sunday I sat at home blissed out on serotonin all afternoon. It felt great to be back at in person events surrounded by a bunch of like-minded people. It's insanely hot, and the lakes are probably the warmest I've seen in my three years of swimming. Not the warmest for early June, the warmest period.
COVID AIN'T GONE YET So my wife has a colleague. Known her for... fifteen years? Trained under her backintheday, filled in for a couple years when her practice exploded, threw a couple employees her way, their network was built by me. Things have been congenial and polite through COVID 'cuz (A) they're Republican (B) they're anti-vax. So we don't hang out like we used to. Colleague has a 80-year-old mom who lives with them. And about a month ago they decided fukkit let's vaycay so they ran off to Hawaii for ten days, leaving our posse to cover half their practice. Came back not feelin' great. They decided to shine it on. So we've got one person coming into the office with active, confirmed COVID and another person who would if only she weren't so goddamn sick and we're trying to keep this from becoming a public health problem and counseling their one about-to-bail-now employee as to how to not end up in dire peril with the health department. None of this was direct, mind you, all of it was back-channel, our hands are scrupulously clean. Ain't nobody died, errbody on the mend, and when we asked "hey wanna go halvesies on a crate of medical supplies" the answer was monosyllabic. They ain't talkin' to us. Not because of anything we did, but because their worldview was wrong, our worldview was right, and now we're the bad guys. Got another friend. She's delivered every grandkid for her ex-boss from back when she was an EMT. Which is a tradition that meant that rather than sticking to her own back yard 80 miles away, she decided to come deliver 20 miles north of us... in our support structure, where we know the EMTs, we know the hospitals, yadda yadda. Home birth, which is always less of a controlled experiment, and the mom was acting woozy and weird. Things stretched out to the point where it wasn't happenin' so it's time to transport to the hospitals we use. At which point they show up, mom has a temp of 104, crash to emergency c-section, baby hits the NICU, grandma gets kicked out of the suite, and both mom'n'dad pop a rapid COVID positive. But not before they've tromped through half the goddamn hospital. Greetings from Big Brother! as healthcare providers we can look your ass up in the vaccine database. Which means we know that while this couple said they were vaccinated to the friend? They also said they'd NEVER get vaccinated to the grandma and as it turns out, dad was vaccinated, mom wasn't. 'cuz, you know, lying to your healthcare provider is small potatoes compared to I dunno sub rosa supporting treason. We'd been talking about going back to home births but we just had this catastrophe where another mom was so stoned out of her gourd that labor pain transmogrified into "my hip hurts" so they sat there smoking spliffs until we had to come crash their house because they weren't gonna make it. That combined with this "Patriots will happily lie to liberal traitors to get what they want" mentality is noping us the fuck out of that. Right now? 97% of COVID cases are among the unvaccinated. If you're in the hospital? With COVID? There's a 99.7% chance you didn't get two shots. So yeah we're rolling back protections but that's not because COVID is gone. It's because if you get COVID now it's because you fuckin' earned it and if you earned it, the hospitals now have the bandwidth to deal with your irresponsible, lying ass. The conversation between the friend and the dad (mom just got off Oxygen yesterday, is still in the ICU) was framed around "well we meant to get vaccinated we just... forgot." Which, okay, if that's what you need to maintain your friendship across the gap of "thanks for driving a hundred miles to leave a flaming bag of poo on the doorstep of one of your friends" more power to you. We'll just not mention the Big Gulp's worth of nyquil and other shit you shouldn't be taking in labor that y'all were using to mask your symptoms 'cuz at the end of the day they aren't our patients (except they are now because we have pediatricians so fuck us I guess). But fuckin' hell man my kid don't have a vaccine yet and neither do her friends, and the variants coasting around these days are mean. So also fuck off.
Hell yeah Covid's not done. We're almost out of the woods, with 67% for the population with one dose (i know it might not seem like much to you Americans, but still) and about 90-50 cases per day in my city of Montreal. Ya know - end of the tunnel kinda deal. Still careful about masks and distancing, but loosening it up within the bubbles. And then my dummy 23 year-old general director of our plastic non-profit calls me at the makerspace (and not my boss because he probably felt stupid, since it's the second time) to say he just tested positive for covid. He had no symptoms, but his coworker gottit so he got tested too. The first time we got a covid scare with him was a false alert, but this time was real and we had to pull out data of who was present at the makerspace when he was, and inform everyone and urge them to get tested if they interacted. My bet is that he fucking shared a joint with his coworker. Damn stoners - i've seen them all Covid-long being: eh, too late now, might as well smoke up.... That dude is such a nice, genuine pure soul. Charismatic, smart, loveable. But also such a naive dummy. Tries to do the right thing, over-promises, under-delivers, tries so hard. I don't know if it's age, inexperience, personality - I love him but the trainwreck of his life is painful to watch, when you want to be supportive but also just scream "get your shit together" from the sidelines.
The thing to keep in mind about America is we have bifurcated into "those who want and got the vaccine" and "those who will never get the vaccine." It's quite something to see someone walking around outside with a chin diaper - it's clearly not about them defying the law because the law says they can take it off. It's about them wanting to protect their health but having no real understanding as to how germ theory works. But I mean
I mean, what do you (society...not...you.) even do about about this? I haven't seen much improvement in the two distinct realities being observed by people after Biden was inaugurated, or as more developments around COVID have occurred. It feels hopeless.
I disagree. I'm coming around to the notion that Trump was an inoculation against totalitarianism, a weakened populist to awaken the antibodies of democracy. I think Trumpism falls firmly into the "that which does not kill you makes you stronger" category, but only for those aligned against Trumpism. The Republicans have been drifting towards fascism since Barry Goldwater. When they finally made the leap, they chose a venal, incompetent plutocrat whose primary characteristics are narcissism and vindictiveness. The real dangers to democracy - the Mitch McConnells of the world - definitely made hay while the sun shone but they did so knowing they were enabling a loyalty thief. And now they're stuck railing against Dr. Seuss and critical race theory while the Biden administration builds back the IRS and settles in to deposit monthly child subsidies into the bank accounts of every needy American family. I don't know if you've noticed, but most of the complaints from the Left are that the Biden administration isn't fulfilling its campaign promises fast enough. Meanwhile the complaints from the Right are... off-topic at best. The big fight right now is how fast to give away money, followed by how responsible the Republicans should be held for attempting to overthrow the country. The populist-in-charge, on the other hand, has shuttered his blog because it got fewer hits than chewy.com. The news media has generally determined that Donald Trump is not newsworthy. Q hasn't dropped in six months (and has been unmasked as a slacker kid from Mukilteo). And the Republican congressional constituency is, on average, slightly crazier and less effective as legislators than Lyndon LaRouche. goobster likes to pretend that there are nice, civil Republicans out there just aching to return to a non-conspiratorial Romney-flavored rightwingerhood as if the Democrats haven't been Conservative Lite for the past 40 years but I'm here to tell ya - when your party has decided Liz Cheney is guilty of thoughtcrime you're fucking done. Yeah they're making a run at eating democracy alive but when your choices are "politician" and "rabid fuckbat" the ideology can only take you so far. I don't think we're out of the woods? I think 2022 is going to be nailbitingly awful even though it shouldn't be? Shit, I'll go as far as predicting that Joe Manchin and Kristen Synema are itching to become that false oasis in the desert Goob still believes in, six months after the Beer Hall Putsch. But Oswald Mosely died in obscurity. The Trumpists made their move, it was beyond the pale, and the FBI are rounding them up one-by-one. You can build a conspiracy around charismatic political prisoners with drive, insight and cunning. You can't build a conspiracy around the Q-Anon Shaman.
Hey now ... my "centrist Republican" thing is just trying to figure out how to remain civil to my Mom on a daily basis. I have to believe there are more people like her out there, or else I'll just eviscerate her with the litany of shit her party and beliefs have buried our republic under, and we'll never speak again. And I still need her help on doing the finishing touches on my garden design! Maybe once we are done with that we will have The Reckoning.
I started in on a new painting. It's of some copper mining related ruins in the UP of MI. Just putting in the shadows and base layers atm. Last week we were at the cottage, and got everything done with the sauna except for the stove and chimney, which I'll install in July. It's being manufactured by a metal-working guy up there. The stove will look like this: All of that breezeway wood is reclaimed wood from a local scrapyard. I got this much for $150: Better ROI than $DOGE, I think. I am going to be building with it for a while. I am making a bench atm. The cedar OTOH, holy fuck. I've got a lot of shit going on. I usually do, but I have a lot of shit going on for me. I need to put some things down before I pick anything else up. Not a complaint.
Finally got around to the photos from last weeks adventures. Too bad the weather looks pretty crappy this weekend, but it could be a good trail running weekend. Hoping to set-up a mentor relationship with a colleague who is leaving the company. Somebody who has been involved in advanced manufacturing and future state work in our company for a long time, and is now leaving to do similar work elsewhere. Wondering how I can try to follow that career path, the new process/equipment/product development steps in-between R&D and end-consumer have always been my favorite and most interesting work. Would like to continue involvement in that.
Putting a spin on kb's advice on academic politics and pecking order, I began to largely ignore my research group's yammering and harassment, opting to give them token four hours of my time a week and concentrate efforts on the thesis instead. I spent today's conference call more focused on my CK2 lineage (procuring both Caroling and Attilla bloodlines ain't easy when you're a Slavic Pagan) than whatever overgrown Kohn variational theorem spinoff they put forward this time and feel better for it. Nobody can expect me to constantly bring results anyway, especially since it doesn't seem like anyone bothers to read them. But hey, after all, I'm just a student, and this argument certainly goes both ways. Much to my surprise and, oddly, joy, I got permission to pick general electives from lists usually reserved for undergrads and took two classes on rhetorics and essay writing. God knows I'll get more out of improving those skills than attending diplomatic protocol or other polsci-derived courses. Gonna stick with classical languages, too, though I don't think I want to continue them in a formal setting. Especially since there are at least two good, populous and friendly discord groups dedicated to studying them. I'm really proud of all the work I did on the house. From the roof to the basement, through the garden and unkempt trees. It's finally finished. My research interest keeps drifting. I feel like I got into the condensed matter physics because of all the exposure, not entirely because it's the most interesting, best-fitting topic. On the one hand, I'd love to give general relativity a real shot. On the other hand, escaping academia through graduation is a priority right now, and switching disciplines would impede that. Also, there's a really fun thread brewing, come on in!
I think you should show us some pictures of the house if you're comfortable with it. I also think you and am_Unition should hurry up and push fusion power generation past break-even. This ol' planet could use the help. Apropos your string theory budgetary scorn, I wanna see am_u's fusion budget graph with the LHC on it.
"Divina" made in Germany. I don't know its history beyond it being on grandfather's photos and getting a thorough service/restoration in, 2002 or maybe 2003. Not my study, dunno if anything in this place anyone ever consered mine all things considered, but I'll pass the suggestion to my brother. I gotta buy a better camera than this, though.
kleinbl00 - I know copy-fu. If you don't want it to stay, I'll delete it. kleinbl00[67172718]:I've probably mentioned Sayre's Law a dozen times on here: "Academic politics is the most bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low." What you're dealing with is a group of people who are overqualified for their jobs by definition, who feel themselves underappreciated by everyone around them, and whose only ego recourse is to stomp on someone beneath them in the org chart. What you have to recognize is that many people play this game avidly and spend much of their time egging others into playing with them. If you refuse to get your emotions involved you're no fun to play with. Recognize that everyone hassling you right now has Peter Principled themselves to their ultimate station in life, while you still have unbounded potential. Thus, their most satisfying life move is to impede your progress. Being mad at them, ultimately, is as effective as being mad at a pot hole in the road. The best thing you can do is drive around them and keep your eyes on the horizon. Cool! Cryptography always sounded cool, but I don't have a head for number theory beyond Project Euler. ;) I'm finishing second year on theoretical physics. Probably best advice I can give is to pace yourself and disregard any people-related advice or insight I'd ever offer.I'm in my first year as a Ph.D student (CS, cryptography)
So my boyfriend got gout - which is kinda early for his age. But he's got a good attitude about it, plugging "oh my gout" in every conversation. Had a brilliant day at work today, felt good. I've been stuck in necessary admin migration type tasks for a bit - that I don't mind doing but are a thankless job. Running around forcing busy people that volunteer their time for the projet to move stupid google drive folders around is no fun for anyone. Today we got to address a budding conflict, talk to the person bringing up the concern and established a game plan. Also spent the day re-arranging some furniture in the lobby, talking shit with members, printing funny labels on the p-touch, doing a new members tour... just some nice human moments. I don't know if it's the Covid starving me from human interactions, but it was just a nice day, barely any computer-work but that felt very productive. Getting this job has always been tainted with many insecurity and doubts, but today (after 3 fucking months) has probably been one of my favorites, that makes me thing it wasn't all for nothing and that there are cool things coming ahead.
I like that you are starting to enjoy the job. I feel like it is an important thing for people to do at some point in their lives; work a 9-5 job, in an office, with people. There's a lot you learn about people and yourself when you work in that type of environment. It won't be your last job, but the lessons you take away from it will help you forever. Sorry about your boyfriend's gout. Hopefully it can be managed with some simple cardio and dietary changes. Fingers crossed!
The learning opportunities have been abundant already for sure - that's part of the reason I took on this project in the first place. Because i was just stuck in a rut, doing everything myself in weird random side-hustles. (like driving around the USA doing architecture photos for 5 months with no previous photo experience, which was great and hubski pushed me over the edge in accepting that gig). I didn't want to be a sucker climbing that corporate ladder in the washing machine that is entry-level marketing agency jobs that would have been my future out of school. The place I work now is fucking awesome because it's not actually 9-5. It's 30h - whenever i feel like it, as long as i spend 2/3 of it on site. So i can finish my work week in 3-4 days. Or work a full 7 days in tiny 4 instalments. Actual tasks might be a little menial and boring at times, but also free to my interpretation of best practices. No-one micro-manages, or even questions shit. I just do my days, slowing making moves of boring IT migrations but also pulling out aluminum shards out of member's eyes when it's needed. And get rewarded by mid-day glenmorangie whiskey drinks as gratitude. It's not a real "office" since i'm the only actual employee except by boss, that was my good friend before. It's been an adjustment for our relation for sure, but this baseline trust we have of each other of best intentions has been good. I feel less pressure to "appear" professional vs actually getting things done. I know as long as i do my best he has my back. And he'll call me out for the BS before if becomes a big problem. Just a good place in general - at least that's my feeling this week. Getting the job has been an ordeal and it took me a while to feel at home and comfortable there.
The Arizona audit is simple a way for Republican operatives to gather a list of all voter names and affiliations. A private company. With zero oversight. Now has all of this data and can target individuals with abandon. Why does nobody talk about the fact that private voting data is being collected (and stored) by partisan operatives?