It's November, dude. I'm back on my feet, mostly. It'll probably take me the next month to regain comfort in walking, but that's to be expected. Opiate withdrawal was present, even with doctor's help and skipping doses towards the end, but nothing to write home about. Almost exactly like what I read about: four flu-like days with random bouts of unspecified pains and stomach problems. It's prolly a good thing I flushed the remaining pills, too. It's good to be back, even approximately. You'd think I'd catch up on reading, but it didn't pan out. Went from "reading easily a page a minute" to "needed nine days to re-read Neuromancer," so thank god for audiobooks and text to speech synthesis.
Woo-hoo! I got into the mountaineering program I was super excited for and am now taking an unpaid week off to spend a week ice climbing in Canmore, Alberta with a cohort and meeting, learning from, and gaining experiencing from a host of professional guides and pro/semi-pro climbers. Took yesterday off in the midst of this crazy beautiful weather we've been having to go back to some splitter granite nearby. Hadn't been there since early September and was thinking it wouldn't happen again until April-ish, so such a nice bonus. Here's a pic of the snow-y 22.5 mile trail I did this past weekend...
Our Union got a tasty offer from the employer after 2x strikes, and 2x rejected offers. For me? 8k permanent increase over the next 2 years, on top of the regular pay increases. I voted for it, it's shy of what we wanted, but a damn sight better than the 2% we were initially offered. I suspect given the genuine financial issues being faced, this is the best we will get. Peas are sprouting up! Spuds are growing! Carrots are.. Lagging behind, but they're growing! I need to rustle up some conduit pipe, and bird netting, so I can make hooped covers for my raised beds. The cats are still pooping on the safety net, and if I don't get out there and scrape it off, it dries and falls under. My partner was diagnosed yesterday with ADHD - after a bit of a battle to get seen, it's done. She feels very much validated in it now, after plenty of self-loathing. She's seeing it as context for her behaviour, and is reading up on everything she can to better handle everything. Next up is trying medication, but she's philosophical about whether it'll help. Willing to try it! The main part was confirming that she isn't just super lazy, she has genuine issues with executive function. My brother told her when he'd been diagnosed, and she'd been wondering about herself "It's not your fault, but it is your responsibility" and she seems committed to not letting it define things for her.
I think it’s illustrative that the NYT headline today and their entire opinion page save for one Ukraine thing is Trump, while the Journal didn’t have Trump as their top story, and their opinion page features a single article declaring Stop the Steal to be the biggest Election Day loser. Liberals should think about that carefully. But they won’t because none reads the WSJ.
I think the Murdochs are pragmatists who have recognized that the brand of conservatism they've created is immolating itself. That's fine for Fox News, cable news won't outlive the boomers anyway. For opinion pages where your buddies show up to appear legit? You need the beard of an actual news organization. I think the Sulzbergers are gladhanding socialites who don't want to disappoint their friends, and New Yorkers have been frenemies with the Trumps since before Spy. I think liberals don't read. Nobody does. They sample articles like college kids sneaking nuts from the bulk foods section of the grocery store. So why even pay for the articles if all you're going to do is drag on them on social media? The people who subscribe to the New York Times do so out of cultural allegiance: "I am an open-minded thought leader, you can tell because I read the Bret Stephens columns even though I often disagree with him." I subscribe to the WSJ because they pay investigative journalists to tear apart capitalism for some reason. It's fuckin' weird. Jho Low? taken out by the WSJ. Elizabeth Holmes? Taken out by the WSJ. Compare and contrast the WSJ and NYT coverage of FTX: It's "blood will run" vs "look at this nice Democratic boy who got in a l'il trouble, good thing he's still napping." God's honest truth? I fucking hate New York City. Always have. Visited there at the age of 12 to see the Natural History Museum and all I wanted was a nuclear weapon. Would I have traded my life to reduce NYC to a radioactive bay? Goddamn right. NYC is chummy elitism parading as culture, inequality parading as color. And every literary organ rooted in that place produces 99% bullshit.