kaizen
what's
been floating my boat lately:
"How fortunate for governments
that the people they administer don't think."
-Hitler-
"Only two things are
infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the
former."
-Albert Einstein-
ARCHIVES HERE
3/20/23 (22:39)
Not a great day.
Last week we took 4 days off to go to the Grand Canyon. I've been there
5 times now and it's a great place. Not my favorite park, but I think it's
the best sight to see in the NPS. The grandeur of the canyon is amazing
and it has the best single viewing experience in the NPS system. Yellowstone
is my favorite park (been there 3 times), but Grand Canyon is more of a
must see.
Meryl's aunt has been battling cancer for a while now. She's a pretty amazing
lady who used to do a ton of outdoorsy stuff (lots of rock climbing and
hiking and white water rafting), but doesn't do as much as she'd probably
like these days. But she did some of Half Dome with us (she broke it up
into two days) and she did all of this one with us. In a big way, I think
she's the reason her family is doing these hikes together so that's the
motivation for taking time off and making time to do something I normally
wouldn't. It was just the 5 of us (Meryl and her aunt, brother, dad, and
me). GC down and up has been on my list for a little while so that was
another reason to take the trip.
I have to admit that I underestimated the hike a bit. After doing Half
Dome and several other 10+ mile hikes I thought it wouldn't be so bad.
But there were a few new challenges with this hike. First of all, the NPS
system doesn't recommend doing his hike in a day, but I think that's mostly
because of the heat (which didn't apply to us in March). But also part
of it is that it's a reverse hike in that you do the downhill first and
then end with the climb after 7 miles of descent. In our case we also had
to battle about 1.5 miles of snow/ice on the top section of the descent
and then another 2 miles of snow on the ascent (the last 2 miles of the
hike). We took a path that went down South Kaibab trail to Bright Angel
campground (about 7 miles) and then took the Bright Angel trail to the
top of a different trail head than we left from (another 10-ish miles).
Actually, Meryl and I went up the long way and the other 3 went back up
the way we went down. Meryl and I also went to the ranger station and campground
a bit so we ended up doing about 18.5 miles and they ended up doing about
14.5.
After the descent, which I usually don't have a problem with so I went
pretty quickly, my left knee started hurting. It didn't get better as the
hike went along. Since we stopped a lot along the way down to wait for
family and take pictures, we didn't have a lot of daylight left for the
trek up hill. Meryl and I also stupidly left our headlamps at the air bnb
so we kinda screwed ourselves into having to move quickly on the way up.
The first couple miles of Bright Angel are quite flat and it was then that
I realized the longer route wasn't actually going to be any less steep.
I had read that it was an easier trail than Kaibab, but I guess that's
because it's more shaded, not because the climb is any less difficult.
My knee was really killing me on the way up, but there wasn't much I could
do about it. Meryl brought hiking poles so she let me use one or two of
them along the way and that helped. Other than that, I just had to deal
with it. It was a pretty unpleasant 5 hours of climbing from the bottom
to the top. We stopped twice on the way up for a total of 15 minutes, but
climbed the rest without stopping or slowing much. The snow at the top
of Bright Angel was definitely worse than Kaibab and it really made things
more difficult. We were definitely counting down the steps the last couple
miles. It's about 3,000' in elevation gain in 4 miles. The lowest elevation
is about 3700' and the highest is about 6800'.
I'm no expert hiker, but this was the most brutal hike I've done. I think
the descent being first really fucked with me. I thought it would be easier
than it was. I never have knee problems on steep descents, but I did here
and it was in the first 40% of the hike - which didn't help things for
trying to get out of the canyon.
The other thing I probably didn't do well is enough prep for this long
hike. In the last month I only went on two hikes for a total of less than
16 miles. I probably should have doubled that training for this hike.
Next marquee hikes on the horizon are (hopefully): Clouds Rest (12.5 mi,
3200'). Cactus to Clouds (21 mi, 10,800'). We have a bunch of other hikes
that are in the area and supposed to be real nice, but those two are the
big name hikes I'm looking forward to. I'm hoping the girls can do Clouds
Rest with us. They've done at least one 12 mile hike before. Cactus to
Clouds is one of the toughest day hikes in the world according to Backpacker
Magazine and hiker lore. For whatever reason, doing that appeals to me.
A year ago I would have thought it was just dumb to do something like that,
but I like it now and I'm not sure why.
We're pretty lucky in CA to have so many great hikes and trails. It's amazing
that we have such great natural resources and such shitty people/leaders.
Part of the reason I guess I like hiking is that it's a distraction free
time. I don't have to worry as much about work. I get to talk with Meryl
or the kids and have relaxed conversations. Nature also orients you properly
in the world. Especially a place like the Grand Canyon, which tells you
exactly how much you matter in the world. The canyon took 6 million years
to form and the rocks at the bottom are 1.8 billion years old. How much
can you matter when you're looking at that? How seriously can you take
anything you worry about while being amongst that.
One of the more depressing things about going to national parks is a stat
I heard once (not sure of the exact numbers, but...), about 90% of park
visitors don't go more than .25 miles from their car. It's pathetic. On
the one hand, at least they are going to a national park and making some
kind of effort. On the other hand, they've gone all this way and then they
can't be bothered to get out of eyesight of their vehicle. When you hike
these longer trails you see very few people along the way (maybe 30? over
17 miles) and then you see another 30 in the last .5 miles. And the closer
you get to the end the dumber and less kind the people get. The first few
hours of the hike we were being rained on and it was 40 degrees and we're
trying not to slip on the ice and we're all basically just doing what we
have to do to. Then we get close to the top at the very end of the hike
and it's no longer raining and it's probably 50 degrees and yet teenagers
are complaining to their parents about the temperature and not wanting
to walk anymore. Meryl and I were blown away.
This year is going to be slooow. Definitely depressed today thinking about
possibly needing to layoff or curtail hours. Trying to do everything I
can to keep the guys busy while keeping the business profitable enough
to at least tread water. If we get out of this year with all the guys and
don't dip into savings much then I'll consider it a success. Last year
we put a lot in savings and also bought our new house (if the city ever
approves our plans). This year my expectations are drastically reduced.
The Fed giveth and the Fed taketh away. That's about the most generous
way I can interpret these events.
Merritt said the other day that when you are 13 through your 20s you are
not wise at all. A very wise observation.
Federal outlays (spending) have tripled in the last 20 years. I mean, wtf.
Just look at Bush's first proposed budget compared to Biden's latest. It's
ridiculous.
Let's say you have a teenager who sucks at riding his bike. He can barely
get to the end of the block, is constantly falling over, losing his bike,
etc. Then he wants a car and you give it to him for some reason. He can't
drive for shit either. Hits an old lady crossing the street, has dents
all over the car, never changes the oil. But for some reason you decide
to give the kid a big rig, and then a helicopter, and then a plane, and
then a rocket ship. This is basically what we're doing with the government.
It
can't enforce child labor laws. It can't audit billionaire hedge funds.
It
can't regulate failing banks. It
can't regulate trains. It can't even win wars it starts anymore. Yeah,
let's give that same government more responsibility and power. Let's start
another program. Let's expand its purview. Let's have another department.
How well are the recently added departments doing? Homeland Security (2002)
is the most recent. I'd say it's a mixed bag with a lot of secondary issues
that it created (like lack of privacy).
Veteran Affairs (1989). All I ever hear about the VA is how many problems
there are. I used to go to camp near a VA hospital. It was basically just
a hang out for homeless people. Nothing good seems to be happening there.
Total shit show.
Department of Education (1979). Do I even need to comment on this one.
If you charted US education relative to other OECD nations it would probably
be a line straight down starting in 1979. We're not sniffing the top 10
anymore and we used to be at, or near, the top.
Just fire these people and start over. Shutter the departments if they're
not performing. Accountability over everything at this point. Crack skulls
or we're done for.
We're done for.
Friend Jon is leaving the country for New Zealand.
Also found out this week my aunt is leaving the country for Amsterdam.
The ship is sinking.
Sorry for another depressing post.
3/13/23
Sometimes
you just have to fight shit out. Maybe it's more of a guy thing. And
that's coming from a guy who has never been in a fight in his life. But
an old-fashioned fist fight is sometimes the best thing to set the hierarchy
straight and get respect from someone who isn't willing to give it.
3/7/23 (21:08)
Meryl's best friend from elementary school is a teacher who lives in Oakland.
Today the catalytic converter was stolen off her car. This shit is just
getting ridiculous. Oh, wait, I should have mentioned that this is the
3rd time in 5 months. Great city we have here.
No movement (or even response) from the multiple people who were on the
email chain regarding the homeless encampment in front of the warehouse.
Inmates are running the asylum.
Business really slow now. Almost as bad as its been since COVID. We have
a couple things lined up, but not much. And money is low (though we are
owed a lot, including the money from the guy who refuses to pay us $40k).
Started putting out feelers and following up on jobs. The toughest thing
is having 5 guys who rely on me and not wanting to cut their hours or anything.
I think this year will be about 60% of last year.
Will try to focus on customer service and quality this year. May need to
take some jobs at a loss just to keep everyone busy.
It wouldn't be so bad if we were able to get to work on the new house.
Unfortunately it (plan set) hasn't even been submitted to the city yet
(hopefully this week). Engineer took forever. Zoning took a while. Once
the city (Alameda, not Oakland) gets it they will drag their feet and make
comments and that dance will take anywhere from 2 weeks (yeah right) to
3+ months, depending upon how much bullshit they come up with and how many
days off they take.
City of Oakland (RIP) was hacked a few weeks back (possibly more depending
on who you ask). They didn't pay the ransom so now a bunch of personal
information was leaked. What a shit show. Can't keep schools open. Can't
run a police department (still under federal oversight). Can't keep own
employees data safe. Can't get voicemails (because of the hack). Can't
keep sports teams (Warriors left, Raiders left, A's want to leave). At
what point does the State step in and just take over? Shoulda happened
already.
3/1/23 (20:34)
it's a long one. hopefully you read it all.
Official
Oakland encampment management policy. Pretty good for a laugh, especially
considering they don't execute their own plan. I wonder how many hours
were spent coming up with this and debating it for them to just not enforce
it in a meaningful way.
In the policy document they have the usual whereas clauses that layout
the conditions of the policy. Then they have the exhibit section and the
first part of that is the Introduction. After that they get into the meat
of laying out the purpose and means of the policy. So what's the first
thing they address? Equity. I've gotten past the point of feeling bad about
pointing this kind of thing out. Equity is a nice enough idea - though
I prefer Equality (yes, I know that saying that is an official microaggresion
- like actually listed in a book, I'm not just making this up). But to
put Equity above public safety seems a bridge too far.
Looked it up because things at our warehouse are not any better despite
many calls and emails, etc. to the city about cleaning the area up. I called
them today and they told me that their computer system is down so they
can't put any new requests in. I said it didn't matter anyway and that
I was just calling to see what to do to get something done in the real
world (as opposed to creating a new virtual request that gets ignored).
He said he understood my frustration. We got to talking a bit and he said
that they can actually only shut down a certain number of encampments per
month - by law. "So let me get this straight - you can only solve a certain
number of murders a month so anything beyond that just doesn't get addressed?"
"Uh, yeah there's only so many they're allowed to shut down each month."
So I started asking if was a state law or city law or what. He said he
didn't know. I asked "so if the quota for the month is already met and
there's an encampment in front of the mayor's house or the chief of police
then they...oh wait, we don't have a chief of police...but if there's an
encampment in front of the mayor's house then they can't shut that down
after they've met the monthly limit?" To which he replied in the affirmative.
I'm just living in a dystopic movie at this point. And it's not a very
good movie.
I had another conversation with another middle (wo)man who exists in the
useless crevices of bureaucracy about the issue. She was, of course, very
sad to hear about what we were dealing with and really wanted to help.
She said that abandoned vehicles are not as difficult to get rid of, but
when it becomes an encampment then it's a lot harder. I asked her if I
could just say I live in my car to avoid getting tickets throughout the
city from now on. She laughed and said unfortunately not. But why not?
The reason, of course, is that the law only applies to those who are law-abiding.
If you pay your taxes and try to do the right thing then you are subject
to its control. If you don't give a fuck and just take the license plates
off then you can park on the sidewalk. Maybe the law doesn't say that,
but the reality of things does.
So, if this continues, I'll get closer and closer to hitching these vehicles
up to my dump truck and dragging them somewhere else.
Other option is private security. Another example of G not doing its job
so private enterprise needs to step into the void. Pathetic.
Here's what I wrote to the city, designed to hit their talking points as
outlined in their own policy document (the things they supposedly want
to prioritize)...
"The encampment and abandoned vehicles:
Are within 50' of a retail business.
Within 150' of a childcare facility.
Impede ADA required access on the street.
Impede egress from my property
Are within 50' of a residence.
Are disproportionately affecting BIPOC communities who live in the
neighborhood.
There is an elderly lady who had to walk into the street with her walker
because the car pictured was blocking the sidewalk last week.
Today I hear about an aggressive dog at our entrance as well.
They store tires on site.
They are closer than within 6' of each other
They routinely start fires outside as reported by a nearby resident
and business owner
Sometimes they park over the PG&E gas valve access point on the
sidewalk which is a major hazard if there needed to be an emergency shut
off.
There is pervasive criminal activity in the area as previously reported
- several instances of graffiti and stolen property (at the very least).
I have heard from other neighbors who are afraid to say anything because
of immigration status or fear of retribution that they are increasingly
concerned about the growing encampment and dumping. What will it take to
get this situation remedied before things get worse for those in the neighborhood?"
Told the city that I'm moving my business to Alameda because Oakland sucks
(paraphrasing there). Need to jump through some hoops to close the business
account in Oakland, but I'll be doing that.
People say, especially when you have kids, to savor the moment because
you'll blink and they'll be all grown up and you'll wish you had enjoyed
it more. I remember trying very hard to do this when both the girls were
babies. I soaked up time with them as much as I could. I can't say that
it paid off at all. It doesn't pay dividends today. I just wish that I
could go back to those moments sometimes. But that same is true for good
times I had with them last week. I think the "savor the moment" advice
is just a way of acknowledging (and being sad about) the fact that time
marches on. I wish I could pause and rewind, but no one can. I can regret
not enjoying the time more, but what does that even mean? Certainly there
is something there - don't split your attention between your kids and work,
for example. But savoring the moment doesn't make the moment last any longer.
And, years later, it doesn't make you feel any better. Or maybe I'm missing
something.
Stand by Your Man is kind of a controversial song and Tammy Wynette got
a fair amount of shit about it over the years. I guess the idea is that
standing by your man is anti-feminist because a woman shouldn't put up
with men?
Here are the lyrics. I don't find any of this controversial. But maybe
that makes me a monster. You tell me.
Sometimes it's hard to be a woman (seems pro woman/feminist)
Giving all your love to just one man (maybe monogamy is problematic?)
You'll have bad times (life)
And he'll have good times (life)
Doin' things that you don't understand (real talk)
But if you love him you'll forgive him (maybe you shouldn't forgive
people you love? which part is problematic? loving a man or forgiving one?)
Even though he's hard to understand (other people are often hard to
understand. still not seeing a problem here)
And if you love him, oh be proud of him (this seems about as innocuous
as it gets)
'Cause after all he's just a man (this seems slightly anti-man, if
anything)
Stand by your man (problem?)
Give him two arms to cling to (maybe this is bad because it assumes
a woman is just a physical play thing for men? seems a stretch. maybe it's
ableist assuming people have two arms?)
And something warm to come to (see above)
When nights are cold and lonely (maybe it's problematic because it
reinforces gender roles of the woman as comforter?)
Stand by your man (see above)
And show the world you love him (problem?)
Keep giving all the love you can (this seems harmless)
Stand by your man
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
Okay, I've gone over it one line at a time and I don't see much there.
There's one line that seems to indicate that men are less than women (After
all he's JUST a man). Other than that it seems like she loves a guy and
even though he does things she doesn't really understand, she wants to
be there to love and support him (and only him). I'm really having trouble
understanding the problem.
The state of the union speech was a good one. I guess we're just going
towards the Parliamentary style where there's a call and response that's
going to happen more. I actually didn't have much of a problem with it.
I like that Justin Trudeau has to answer to Pierre Poilievre. I like seeing
the back and forth. That said, maybe the SOTU address isn't the place for
that and I would lean towards respecting the tradition of silence. I've
been tough on Biden and his cognitive issues, but I felt like he mostly
did pretty well on the spot here. He botched Tyre Nichols' name and there
were other stumbles, but he wasn't in full drool cup Joe mode. He had one
line about transgender kids that I didn't agree with, but it mostly seemed
like some middle of the road stuff.
A pet peeve of mine is how liberals will call tax cuts spending. It's not
a pet peeve because I hate liberals or love tax cuts (neither is true),
but many of my pet peeves surround the rejection of reality. A tax cut
isn't spending. It's allowing a person or business to keep more of their
money. It may affect the bottom line like spending, but it is not spending.
The geniuses at the NYT and elsewhere are smart enough to figure out how
math works and they know the definition of words so I can only conclude
that they keep this up for political purposes.
I bring this up because the NYT Daily podcast on 1/23/23 had an episode
about the debt (because of the debt ceiling bullshit the Republicans are
putting us through again). They looked at how the debt grew under different
presidents, but they neglected to mention the role Congress plays. Congress
holds the purse strings so why shouldn't a Republican Congress get credit
for low deficits while Clinton was president? Probably because it's not
politically advantageous. I would have respected the reporting had they
broken it down both ways. They also had an entire episode on debt and never
did they put into context what spending looks like. So, they mention military
spending (12 times according to the transcript), but they don't mention
the level of spending that social security or medicare or medicaid is.
If you knew nothing about federal outlays (most Americans) then you would
come away thinking that military spending is the biggest part of our Federal
outlays. In reality it isn't. They didn't talk about how much it costs
to service the debt, either. So I'll do it here for you since you can't
rely on the NYT to educate you anymore apparently. This
is from Treasury.gov.
By agency:
$1.64 T Department of Health and Human Services
$1.28 T Social Security Administration
$1.16 T Department of the Treasury
$727 B Department of Defense--Military Programs
$639 B Department of Education
By category:
$1.22 T Social Security
$914 B Health
$865 B Income Security
$767 B National Defense
$755 B Medicare
Horrible podcast.
Home Depot does self checkout as many places do. What's always funny to
me is watching two employees as they look at two customers checking themselves
out to make sure the the customers aren't stealing or needing help. They
will often have a 1:1 ratio in the worst HD locations. So what's the point?
If you have one employee watching 3 customers I can see an argument for
it, but that's not the ratio at the two locations I go to most frequently.
Just so idiotic.
They're
rewriting Roald Dahl books now. Making them less mean. Seriously, you
can't make this shit up. Writing that someone is fat isn't acceptable apparently
(among other things). And yet the people who think this also self identify
as fat and call it a fat acceptance movement. To
wit. More.
NAAFA.
These people are more fucking nut jobs. When does this shit end? Put another
way...FUCK
YOU, YOU FAT-HEADED ROALD DAHL-CENSORING FUCKERS
The chief justice who wrote the decision on Plessy v. Ferguson went to
Harvard. The thief Sam Bankman-Fried went to Stanford. The architect of
the Vietnam war went to Harvard. The list is endless. How many nut jobs,
social engineers, warmongers, eugenicists, etc. do these places need to
churn out for us to take them off a pedestal?
Wonder
how many people know about the planned murder of justice Kavanaugh.
Seems like a story that went under the radar because the guy was caught/turned
himself in. Still odd that it didn't get much play. It wasn't just a spur
of the moment thing...he traveled 3,000 miles and brought weapons. If security
hadn't been there what would have happened? We're a couple nut jobs getting
lucky away from seeing how deep this hole gets.
How's that short war in Ukraine going? Media was sure it was going to be
a few weeks or months. How often do the experts need to be wrong before
they're strung up and fucking killed? I'm tired of this shit. Let's cut
to the chase and just kill everyone who's wrong more than twice. Maybe
that'll teach people to hedge their bets and be careful with what they
say.
It's actually funny how this cycle repeats itself. During WWI everyone
said the troops would be home by Christmas. A few years later millions
dead and a few hundred yards gained/lost in the battle lines. Real great
decision making. Fuck all those morons.
Do people who think in pictures remember their early life farther back?
Kimberle Crenshaw is the super genius who came up with the idea of intersectionality.
Basically that you have to consider more than just gender or race (or ability
status or whatever else is en vogue these days) in isolation when examining
the disadvantage of a person. Eventually an even bigger super genius will
figure out that there are so many ways a person can be identified (autism
status, gender, race, age, relative fatness, bad daddy issues, etc.) that
all intersect to create an "individual" and that you actually have to examine
each "individual" on their own. Basically it's intersectionality all the
way down until you finally realize that people just need to be judged on
their own, rather than as each separate identity they happen to inhabit,
which may or may not even be recognized depending upon the wokeness of
society at the time. Eventually we'll recognize not only neuro-divergent
and gender-fluid identities, but also hair color status, freckle density
identity, etc. One can only hope.
Cancer survivor cuts off her breasts and everyone says she's a hero and
no less of a woman even though she doesn't have boobs.
Trans man can't live with breasts because they make him feel like a woman.
Hm.
According to NYT podcast the abortion rate has gone up from 17% to 20%,
meaning 20% of pregnancies now end in an abortion. This is much higher
than I would have thought. But the interesting note is that it's gone up
since the "abortion ban decision."
Black patients get less opiods and antibiotics. The only theory I've heard
from the NPR crowd on this is that it's because of anti-black racism. Blacks
are seen as less deserving of care. Less trusted in their experience of
pain. Another interpretation without actual data, could be that white people
complain more or are more likely to sue so there's more defensive medicine
or are seen as physically weaker and thus needing more medicine. Unless
they report this shit with some data from doctors who are justifying their
decisions, it's just random speculation and I think my nonsense speculation
is as good as theirs. Further, what does it say about your shitty profession
that there would be an appreciable difference in treatments to similar
symptoms? Clean that shit up.
Earlier this year there was a heat wave and the county decided to shut
down the parks. They don't trust people to use their own judgment about
how hot it is. How is it possible to have such a nanny state? If I were
trying to take the best possible care of every person in a given place,
it wouldn't ever occur to me to shut down parks because it's too hot. I'd
think of other things that I (in reality) don't believe should happen like:
free fans for everyone, free visits to the movie theater or mall or other
air conditioned spaces for all, free ice, advise people to stay inside,
advise people to check on fragile loved ones and neighbors, information
on how to make a homemade swamp cooler, tell the fire department to open
fire hydrants in strategic locations. That's 30 seconds of brain storming.
I'm just an idiot contractor trying to prove a point and I came up with
half a dozen better ideas than chaining parks closed like some idiot fascists.
They closed the parks in the entire state during COVID. The thinking was
that they wanted to encourage everyone to stay home and that being out
in parks hiking or playing was going to lead to spreading.
How many times have I seen people wearing things they don't actually believe.
Shirts like "mindset over everything" or "the future is female." But these
are (likely) the same people who complain about the patriarchy or systemic
oppression. If we live in a patriarchy in the present how is the future
ever going to be female? If mindset over everything is what you believe
then why would systemic oppression be a thing? Just change your mindset
to get over it. You can only believe one of the things, so choose one.
I
love Chloe Valdary.
I was at the bank the other day waiting in line and I watched an employee
wander around changing out signs. They had a sign up that said you should
apply for their cash back credit card. "Earn 3% cash back on every coffee"
She spent like 3 minutes changing out that sign to one that read "Earn
3% cash back on every Poke bowl." I mean we really have to be at peak stupidity
here. This lady probably has a college degree and she's getting paid to
change out this dumb fucking signs with no meaningful difference. I swear
to god I wouldn't mind a nuke just dropping on this fucking place. What
the fuck are we doing here?
Does anyone understand what we're given? Our species has defied all laws
of entropy. We're here standing up against the winds of chaos and time,
floating on a blue ball in the middle of a fucking infinite nothingness
and we're spending our time changing out this sign, scratching our collective
head thinking about how the sign looks while our fellow humans have pieces
of their bodies rotting while asking for money on the corner? This is how
we're going to treat this fucking blessing of life? What a fucking tragedy.
Yeah, I saw a guy the other day with an open sore (not the first, second
or third time I've seen such a thing) on his leg about the size of a fist.
Probably infected as fuck. Probably will end up losing his leg in the future.
I called it in and the supposedly sent the fire department. Total waste
of human potential. 50 years ago that guy's mom gave birth to him and (probably)
loved him more than anything in that moment. Today he's begging for money
on the side of the road probably looking for his next fix.
And there are people who wear D.A.R.E. t-shirts ironically because it's
funny how much the man doesn't want us to drugs. Maybe we should take drugs
as seriously as we take racism.
I have zero faith that we can keep a hold of any technology we create.
We've got a tiger by the tail, best case scenario. Actually, the Church,
was probably once a good check on this phenomenon. The Church was once
as powerful as G and was probably threatened by "black magic" and science
and told all sorts of stories to try to slow technological progress down.
Maybe not because the Church saw around the curve and thought this was
the best thing for society...probably more likely because those things
were a threat to its own power. Nevertheless it seems like that was one
of the few checks we've had on technological progress getting out of control.
You'll have a Unabomber type every once in a while who has zero effect.
You'll have some conservatives telling stories about Pandora's Box and
no one really cares much. But it's really just a steady march towards more
technology and all that that brings. Nukes. Social Media. AI. To what extent
are we better off?
There's an idea espoused by lots of philosophers and religions and cultural
texts about time as a flat circle. Reincarnation. Reliving the same life
over and over. Different variations on the theme that we redo the same
thing over and over and repeat the cycle. Graham
Hancock proffers a version of this in a way as well. An ancient buried
society and we're redoing what's already been done. I have definitely had
the feeling that society has a cycle from 1. nothing to 2. something to
3. something great to 4. too much of a good thing to 5. things fall apart.
I haven't thought at all about the stages or anything, but it's basically
like the quote "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." Ray Dalio
has his own civilization cycle mapped out and it's essentially the same
story of starting off small, doing well and prospering, taking things for
granted, going into debt and losing your edge, collapse.
We have the opportunity to learn from the past and live the next civilizational
life better than the last and I don't see the progress I'd like to see.
Maybe it's all been done before and god hit the reset because the whole
thing fell apart. The Matrix touches on this as well. If time is a flat
circle then it means we're just repeating the same shit over and over.
I'd like to think that we get to roll the dice anew each time and maybe
some day we'll make the right moves.
Listened to "I Am A Rock" with Zoe the other day while driving home alone
with her. She didn't think all that much about the song at first. Then
I told her to listen to the lyrics a bit and think about it. and we talked
about its meaning. She cried and I cried with her. Great song. Hopefully
this shit world doesn't ruin her.
How do you make home both a respite from the cruelty and stupidity of the
world, but also a training ground for it? They seem to be in opposition.
I want my kids to be able to laugh off someone who calls them shitty things.
I want them to be able to stand up for themselves when cornered. I want
them to not be shocked by things that happen in the world. I want them
to be able to fend for themselves. But I can't be the one to directly put
them through these trials. The school of hard knocks teaches all these
lessons most quickly, but it sucks. There doesn't seem to be any way around
it - experience teaches better than anything, but you don't want them to
have to experience every shitty thing in order to learn every lesson. Some
people learn their lessons by watching others. I learned from my parents
that getting into drugs wasn't going to be a good life. My sister (who
didn't witness as much as I did [fortunately/unfortunately]) didn't learn
the same lesson and she went down that path and has experienced its pain.
The other day we were trying to decide what activity to do (I forget the
specifics) and it was clear that Zoe was going along to get along, and
wasn't really telling us what she thought. She sorta grunted her approval
with the plan even though she didn't mean it. I told her that she needed
to communicate her actual feelings more clearly than with grunts. I roughly
said: "There will come a time when you'll need to be very clear about what
you do or don't want and you'll need to have the ability to stand up for
yourself in that moment so now's the time to practice." You just hope they
remember these lessons with your words instead of some other way.
NYT podcast on conservatives who are trying to ban books on race and gender
identity a while back. Thing that was funny is that they never really got
into what the issue was with any of the books. They didn't read any of
the supposedly bad passages from the books that the conservative parents
were up in arms about. They talk about the existence of controversial passages,
but they never quoted any of them. So, does that mean that they didn't
have enough time? Or maybe they weren't acceptable for the podcast? I guess
we'll never know. Stellar reporting.
"You can't have it all" says someone with exasperation. Yeah, who the hell
ever thought you could? Was there a promise I missed somewhere where someone
said you can have it all if you follow the rules or if you try hard or
act nice or whatever? I didn't get that memo. Don't be surprised or upset
when you can't have it all because no one can. It's called life. Sack up.
Is it wrong to assume people are straight? Is that a microaggresion? I
mean that's literally the one way human life continues so I don't think
it's much of a stretch to assume such a thing. Would it be wrong to assume
that my kids are going to have boyfriends? Or do I have to say "someday
when you have a boyfriend I'm going to tell him about such and such embarrassing
story. Or girlfriend or non-binary friend. Whatever you choose because
it's totally up to you and I wouldn't want to assume and of course there's
no judgment and you can do whatever you want." Not sure anymore.
"Demisexuality is a sexual orientation. People who identify as demisexual
only feel sexual attraction to someone after they've formed a strong emotional
bond with them." Hmm.
12:42a.
Copyright
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& 2021 by me.
everything
on here is my opinion, so don't sue me.