Happy Gravity Reversal Day, everybody!
Since 40-60 million casualties are projected worldwide, I considered canceling my doctor's appointment and reading a book. But it's just my luck I'd be one of the people who actually survives this heinous gravity abnormality, and then I'd end up getting charged for a doctor's appointment that I didn't show up for. And so I hopped in the car and off I went.
The sun was looking very, very angry this morning, thanks to the wildfire smoke returning with a vengeance...
Speaking of angry, my eyeball isn't in the best shape. Some of my blood vessels in there are encased and not filled with blood like they should be (which you can see when my surgeon zoomed in on the right-hand side here...
And so I get to come back in December to have some dye injected so he can get a better picture of what's going on with the vessels in there. Sounds like fun!
The good news is that my optic nerve looks to be in great shape and the laser surgeries to contain my retina falling apart seem to have done the job...
And then... after all that fun... I went to get my 11th COVID shot! Which is to say I've had one COVID shot plus ten boosters, I suppose. My doctor suggested that somebody with my lung problems should get doped up every six months, so I follow the advice of my doctor and scientists who actually study this stuff so I don't end up on a ventilator or something equally terrible. LIKE DEAD! Though if you ask all the wacky conspiracy nuts, I'll be dying from the COVID vaccinations any minute now. Something I've been hearing since my very first vaccination years ago. And yet here I am.
And... oh... would you look at that.
Gravity didn't reverse itself after all!
Yet another thing that scientists said wouldn't happen. But we live in the stupidest timeline where people actually believe the stupid shit they read on the internet, which is why I've been seeing an escalation of idiotic crap like this...
What amazes me is that no matter how many times we hear about the end of the world or anti-science idiocy like gravity reversing or CERN ripping open a hole in space-time or whatever... people continue to believe the dumbasses who just move on to even more asinine predictions when their current prediction fails. There's people lining up to believe some of the stupidest shit imaginable for reasons I can't even begin to guess.
Maybe conspiracies are so much fun to believe that it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong?
Which would explain a lot.
The smoke has been clearing quite a lot, making the air quality bad instead of outright toxic. This is not expected to last, however, and the forecast says that the doom smoke will return this evening. Thought I have no clue how they actually forecast any of this. Probably something to do with wind conditions, I'd imagine.
I am attempting to enjoy the respite from constant headache, itchy lungs, watery eyes, and a running nose while I can but, in all honesty, the problem never goes away completely. It's just a matter of degrees. This morning, for example, my headache was still there... it just wasn't so bad that I felt like slamming my head into a wall.
At least not because of wildfire smoke.
There's still plenty of other reasons to slam my head into a wall.
And so... digital price tags have finally arrived in my region of Redneckistan.
Needless to say, I positively hate them. Mostly because the idea of "dynamic pricing" is shit. Stores raising prices at certain times of the day or to test the maximum people will pay or whatever else shitty things are coming out of it are needlessly consumer-hostile.
But the bigger reason? THEY ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO READ!
They are dim, low-contrast, and have a weird look to small type which makes them hard to see. Given that my eyes are not the best, my only option to actually read the fucking things when they are not at direct eye-level is to take a photo with my iPhone and zoom in to read them that way...
Assuming I can get past the fucking glare. I had to take THREE PHOTOS before I could get an angle where a photo could even help...
There are some laughs to be had, however. Take for instance these tomatoes that were on sale for 00¢ off regular price...
More than a couple signs were malfunctioning, making an already hard-to-read price even harder for visually-challenged people like me. Or anybody, really...
This is at Safeway, which used to truly be my most favorite place to shop. But then they started making it so you can only get discounts if you sign up for marketing. Then they made it so that some discounts were only available if you clipped a digital coupon. Then they made it so you got points but never really know exactly how to apply them. Then they made it so you only got the best savings if you bought them on subscribe-and-save. It's just been a slow decent into madness. And half the time something goes wrong... my coupons don't register so I get charged extra. Or a discount on the shelf doesn't register at the register. Or whatever. It's all such frickin' bullshit. JUST GIVE ME THE BEST PRICE WITHOUT HAVING TO JUMP THROUGH ALL THESE STUPID FUCKING HOOPS!
And, of course, like all grocery stores now-a-days, you are chained to their stupid app. Which also never works right. I wanted some diced potatoes, but the location in the store was obscured. So I clicked on the location icon and it brings up six pages of crap to scroll through, BUT NO FUCKING LOCATION!
Does anybody who develops these apps actually test them? Or use them... AT ALL?!?
I swear, most of the time I get to the point that I never want to shop at Safeway again. But switching to another store is kinda senseless because they're all getting to be the same.
I don't mean to sound like a whiny luddite, but how the fuck did we get here?
Sorry I've been absent for... ummm... two weeks?
In case you haven't been keeping up with the news, the fires here in Eastern Washington State have been seriously scary. Spokane, in particular, has been catching fire. The city had evacuations of around 65,000 people at one point. 900 structures burned down.
Spokane is three hours to the East of me. But there are fires to the North as well. The combination of which has filled the skies in my region with smoke...
And, as you may know, I have severe smoke allergies.
In order for my lungs to endure it, I am taking medication which tears up my stomach. So I try not to take it except when needed to be able to work. The rest of the time my eyes water, my nose runs, and my lungs... itch. And that's the worst part. Itching from the inside and not being able to do anything about it.
And so...
I hunker down at home with my air purifiers and try to do nothing so I don't have to be medicated.
Including blogging.
But then today things were a little better. No idea if it's going to stay that way for a while.
I plan on enjoying it while it lasts.
I wrote this entry which I have written twice previously then deleted. Then I decided to sit on it over the weekend.
At which point I just said "fuck it" so I can move on.
I apologize in advance. After this, I will have my regular post about cats tomorrow, happy things I found on the internet on Sunday, and a week all about games! But in the meanwhile... sorry.
Monday morning I woke up and couldn't see the surrounding hillsides. It's wildfire season and the smoke was terrible. I walked outside to empty the trash and the haze immediately caused my eyes to water, my nose to run, and my lungs to itch. I have bad smoke allergies, which meant I had miserable times ahead of me.
But my misery wasn't what caused me to have a total fucking meltdown.
Last week Thursday, U.S. Representative John James of the great state of Michigan posted this...
I thought this was the height of ignorance, and was compelled to comment...
"When my state of Washington catches fire and smoke is blowing into Canada, they send help... not cruel and nonsensical threats. What a terrible neighbor you are."
I didn't unload on the asshole, I just chastised him for having such a bad take on the tragic situation happening to our neighbors to the north. He doesn't represent me or my state, so that's all I had to say on the matter.
But then...
THEN...
The next day the president of the United States of America decided to chime in...
"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable! I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it. The cost is incalculable! Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
And I lost it.
This fucking piece of shit does represent me. He represents all Americans.
I then spent the weekend fuming over the fact that people are dying. Animals are dying. Homes are being lost. Livelihoods are being destroyed. And our Idiot in Chief decided the best course of action was to publicly post a predictably stupid, needlessly cruel, and sublimely ignorant statement like this. As if Canada is having a great time at our expense or something.
So I hammered out a rant to post in the morning, then set it aside to review it and post that night. Except I couldn't. I then spent the rest of the week biting my tongue thinking that eventually my anger would subside. Except it didn't.
And here we are.
Last Summer the fires in my area were particularly bad. The company I work for decided to donate some foodstuffs to help out the firefighters risking their lives. Myself and a colleague drove to one of the firefighter camps to unload a truck, at which time I noticed that there was a Canadian flag off in the distance. Turns out that our neighbors to the North saw how bad things were and wanted to help. Their politicians and Prime Minister didn't start unloading tweets threatening tariffs or accusing us of mismanaging our forests or whatever stupid shit our politicians and our president dropped out of their festering asses.
But it gets so much worse.
Five days before the orange piece of shit vomited up his bullshit, Canadian helicopter pilot Nicholas Dale died fighting a fire. IN COLORADO. Which is part of the United States, if you were unaware.
A Canadian lost their life helping us fight our fires less than a week before Trump unloads on his country.
Disgusting.
There's not a day that goes by that I'm not wishing for the repugnant ass in The White House to take a fucking seat and shut the fuck up.
But this past week I wished for it more than usual.
Day four of not being able to stop looking back in anger. I need a drink.
The phrase "taking notice thrice" most commonly refers to a foundational mindfulness technique rooted in Buddhist practice, where an individual mentally repeats an emotion or state three times to detach from it.
And right now I am mentally repeating "rage, rage, rage" in an attempt to detach from it so I can try to get past the all-consuming anger which has been overwhelming me for days.
It's not working.
Yeah, I'm still so enraged that I can barely form rational thought.
I am about as mad as I've ever been.
I've written, re-written, and deleted a post about it too many times to count and I'm exhausted.
I suppose I'll see how it goes tomorrow. Maybe I'll have calmed down by then and think of a better approach that won't be a scorch-the-earth approach.
But I doubt it.
As a serious insomniac for decades, I am not used to being so exhausted that I can't keep my eyes open. I'm pretty sure it's my brain trying to adapt to my vision catastrophe going on in my right eye. I'm constantly having floating black spots that my brain has to filter out as not being bugs or flies... and blurry spots in motion where my brain is having to fill in the blanks... and hazy spots on the edges my brain is trying to see through. Not ideal. But don't you worry about the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts...now...
• Licenses for Luddites! Just a reminder that the Washington State government is regressive as fuck when it comes to digital driver's licenses... but is very quick to tout us as a bastion of technology around election time. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell blow through tax dollars like Kleenex for everything else... why not help us keep up with (checks notes) West Virginia and Arkansas on stuff like this. It's fucking embarrassing, and we're tired of having to carry a license around when our phones are already with us. We're nearly half-way through the states who have them. Will Washington get in before #25 hits? Let's take a look at where we're at, shall we?
Spoiler Alert: Not. Fucking. Likely. If they haven't pulled the trigger by now, they've likely got zero plans. They've got Big Pharma checks to cash, and that takes priority over everything.
• Politics in America! Tell me this isn't how politics work here...
You can't. Because this is exactly how politics work here. No bill is passed "clean" any more... there's always some horrific bullshit tacked onto it.
• Narrative! Nobody takes the minutes to verify crap like this before sharing it with the world, and nobody who follows them cares if it's true or not... they believe it because they want to believe it.
Yes. Mamdani went to the ruins of the church... AND DEMOLISHED IT WITH HIS OWN TWO HANDS!! That's how much he hates Christians! Jesus Christ. Do these assholes EVER research this bullshit they shovel? There are people who read this crap AND BELIEVE IT!! And they vote. But not in New York... a place THEY HAVE LIKELY NEVER EVEN BEEN.
• Cake! "No one’s gotten a cake for me before. I bought my own cake in the middle of the night and blew out my own candles alone." (Here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...
@copic_pereira Last year, I could only get Connor a cake but his reaction was priceless ❤️ We had just started sharing our lives here and we had planned a small party at our place for our close friends. During the party, we went Live on here, and you guys noticed that I had vanished for a good while. That’s when Connor found me in the bathroom in excruciating pain, trying to not ruin his party. Turns out I had gallstones, and I spent almost a week in the hospital. So, we never got to properly celebrate his birthday and we changed that this year. Thank you so much for all of you that follows us!!! It was only possible because of you ❤️❤️❤️ #fyp #birthday #mlm #marriedlife #couplegoals ♬ Married Life (From "Up") - Sergy el Som
It hurts my heart that there are people so cruel that they would want a fellow human be alone for the rest of their life because of who they love. This man found his person and his community. He's hurting nobody by existing. Let him pursue his happiness, celebrate his birthday with people who care about him, and live in peace. For God's sake... just be kind.
• "You didn't mention the donkey!" Given the abhorrent state of the world today, I often find myself scouring YouTube for something funny to distract me. And few things are as hilariously distracting as Would I Lie To You...
If you want more, there's a channel right here.
• Witchcraft! I love videos which explain science in a way you can understand it without having a science background. This one had me captivated from the start...
Wild stuff. And very cool.
Since it's been a full two hours since my last nap, I guess it's time.
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