Sometimes I think I want a cat. And then I see this and think, Nah, I’m good.
Year: 2024
FRO
Same. I care about being able to say what I want and about being correct. Every other concern and person can fuck right off.
Officiousness
Fuck no. I would not go into an office for 10x my current salary. For that, I might consider once a month. Maybe. (Still probably not with a horrible commute.)
It’s so incredibly unproductive to be in an office. I will never, ever go back to the days of being constantly interrupted with trivial bullshit and then spending 5-10 hours at home every night getting my real work done. That was miserable and I did not realize how terrible it was until I was not doing it any longer.
Being in an office means nothing gets done by nearly anyone. Never again.
Slim Slow
“Slim doesn’t always mean healthy” and such claptrap is functionally equivalent to a lie, though it’s semi-true just often enough that it’s not quite a complete fabrication.
The truth of course is that being slim means someone is far more likely to be healthy and stay that way. Where the Fat Acceptance and related self-harm movements allow their nonsense to slide in is that some (a few) slim people are in fact unhealthy. Those such as anorexics, cancer patients and people with genetic defects can be svelte but on the edge of death.
This allows in the faulty logic that slim == bad. Which of course is heavily promoted by the obesity-benefting food industry in the US.
Fat Acceptance really did a number on us (with food industry financial and propaganda assistance).
Linguini
RIPE says we’re in Germany – so FireFox and Chrome says Guten Tag.
Sites and browsers seem to have no idea to get this right. Even though I am using English as my OS language and browser language, I guess because I’ve searched for enough junk in Spanish and French that Google shows me results in those languages even though I’d prefer English unless I specify otherwise.
And that’s despite not being logged into Google and blocking most things. So it means Google is using my IP to track me enough to toss French and Spanish results my way semi-randomly (I’m not usually behind VPN as it’s too slow for me).
Just give me results in English, please, unless I request something different.
Aires
Even though the winter here in California is mild, it still sucks and I’ll be glad when it’s over. Winter is terrible and if it were practical, I’d live in Buenos Aires half the year and California the other half.
I do not trust people who prefer winter.
Indust
It’s kind of hard to have a viable industrial economy with electricity that expensive. But the UK and Germany (et al.) did that to themselves.
Sign of the Beast
Sounds very fucking awesome. I need to get some more vaxes if this is all true. Sign me up.
Low Go
Damn, Noah, you didn’t have to go that low. But he’s right — though I don’t think Russia has much interest in conquering France. They will stop at Germany. And anyway, France has nukes and there is no doubt in my mind that France will nuke the shit out of Moscow if Russia sends any troops across that border. Putin is certainly aware of that too.
France in general should still be concerned with what happens to the rest of Europe, including Ukraine, than it is. What Russia is likely to do in the future will not be good for Macron’s country at all, even if there is no outright invasion.
The Bitter Aftertaste of “Technical Sweetness.”
In 1999, the end was coming for newspapers. But few were looking for the signs.
Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Taiwan Targeted, Scenarios Swirling.
Instead of a christmas bonus thus year, i got to train my replacement in India. And another (next) Trump voter was minted.
Housing Bubble & Bust #1 and #2 as Seen through Employment in Mortgage Lending.
For a new generation of kids, sports and gambling now go hand in glove. Not great.
This or That
Everyone is going to miss Pax Americana when it’s gone. The ones who aren’t killed in this or that genocide, that is.
Center
Mangione mostly held center-right views. Rare these days as a political type but them’s the facts. Not that a single person alive seems to care about what is and is not a fact anymore.
Mad Libs
How ‘the mother of all bubbles’ will pop.
A lot of people in Europe are Big Mad that they’ve shot their economies in the foot, the face, and the ass while so far the US largely has not. It’s both sad and hilarious to watch. It’s sad because we’ll be fighting Russia for them in 2030 because they will be unable to do so, and hilarious because they’re so aggrieved by something they themselves largely caused and continue to inflict on themselves.
All that said, I don’t disagree in the main. I think that the US can’t keep dominating so much as it does now. Trump might put an end to this or might not, but it’s not a question — the US simply cannot be the entire world’s economic engine in perpetuity. And should not.
What I’m laughing about is that so many Europeans are angry about how the US didn’t make the mistakes their bloc made and hold us at fault for their failures. Like, you’re the ones who fucked up, broes and broettes. We had nothing to do with it. Own it or shut up.
But I Do Not Live In a Garbage Bin
I’m very grumpy. It’s not personal. It’s just how I am. I try to curb it, but it’s gonna come out if you hang around me long enough.
I address it by saying, “I’m very grumpy. I try to not let it get too bad, but it’ll happen.” Being extremely high on disagreeableness will do that to you.