Commentary on people, places, things, the news, current events, etc.
This is getting ridiculous. Can we find a cause to virtue signal about that benefits the United States and its citizens in a more direct way? Can we let Europe take care of Europe for a while and instead take care of the United States before our country falls apart we need Europeans to buy virtual pets in online games to help support us?
Video recommendation!
This is a really interesting video about one of the poorest parts of the United States. It’s well done and the people are portrayed as people, rather than as stereotypes.
I was most interested by the connection that these people have to each other, to the area, and to their histories. Growing up in a military family and later being in the military, I moved around a lot and never got too attached to any one place. In retrospect, I wonder how many people that I met while in the military came from places like this, and I wonder what kind of impact that has on identity and outlook.
…but also a little concerned. Though I’ve never had much trouble adapting to survive, the idea of surviving instead of living is pretty dark, but I guess it’s accurate given what I’ve lived through.
From the Cold War to Columbine to Y2K to 9/11 to a Great Depression to a 20 year war (that I took part in) to a global pandemic to an illegal migration crisis, it’s been one thing after another. It’d be great to have a decade of peace and prosperity where American money is reinvested into the United States itself.
There has to be an element of rose tinted glasses here, but things seemed simpler when I was a kid and a teenager. More disconnected, but more hopeful.
My wife saw this poem posted on a subway train in New York City a few years ago. It resonated with both of us because we could relate. There was a time when we didn’t have much and when payday hit, we went out and enjoyed ourselves. Then, we followed a strict budget for the rest of the month.
Thinking about those times makes me feel more grateful for the things and experiences that we’ve accumulated over the years, and that we eat well every day.
This was the 5th of July at about 5:15 AM. The Verrazano Bridge is partially obscured by a haze of smoke that I thought was from Canada, but turned out to be from fireworks. It was kind of a Bronx firecrackers or gunshots moment.
The humidity and low wind took the AQI up to about 300 that night, but thankfully it cleared up by the end of the day. I want some normalcy. Except for traffic. It’d be great if that’d stay low like it has been all week.
I went ahead and deleted my Twitter account tonight. I haven’t been using it much at all for the last few months, and even before Elon took over the platform, I realized that it wasn’t adding any positive value to my life anymore. Every time I opened it, I became enraged within minutes. The platform is designed to illicit an emotional response to keep you clicking and keep you engaged, but it went wrong somewhere and started feeding into the most negative things possible.
I’ve known for years that I wanted to be done with Twitter. I started deleting posts older than a certain number of months, because the platform was regularly weaponized against people when social mores changed. Then, in March of 2021 I created a Mastodon account to start weaning myself off the outrage algorithm, and this weekend I realized that I just didn’t feel like opening the app or website anymore, so it was time for it to go.
It’s weird. I opened that account in 2009, when I was living in Singapore, and it’s been with me ever since. Now, like MySpace and Friendster, I’m letting it fall by the wayside. Thanks for the fun, but I’m done.
It rained all weekend long, from Friday night to Sunday night. I can’t remember the last time it rained this hard here. It reminded me of downpours in Georgia from when I lived there as a kid. The sound was comforting, even if the rain ruined our plans for the weekend.
My wife has a small folding bicycle with little wheels and it just seemed really fun to ride it. It felt like I was on a kid’s bicycle. It’s pretty sturdy though, and a folding bicycle is easier to get around the city, whether by train or in the back of the car.
This is my first time uploading video to WordPress. Usually, I would use YouTube for video, but it feels like the right time to start moving content back to my own site instead of posting almost everything elsewhere for some company’s profit and benefit.
